Double bill focuses on trials and tribulations of amateur theatre

They will be performed at The Steyning Centre, BN44 3XZ on Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, November 30, with tickets available on ticketsource, from the Steyning Bookshop (cash only) and on the door

In The Last Bread Pudding by Nick Warburton, a seemingly ordinary drama committee meeting takes a hilarious turn as the meeting unfolds. Eccentric characters soon display disguised rivalries and hidden tensions.

Last Tango in Little Grimley by David Tristram – which here becomes Last Tango in Upper Bramber – brings us into the world of an amateur dramatic society on the brink of collapse with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as the mismatched cast rehearse their most daring production yet.

Separate casts present the two plays with Natasza Beresford-Theurer in The Last Bread Pudding as Jan.

Tash said: “The two plays have been paired before and they've been paired together successfully. They run along similar veins. They are two relatively short one-act comedies. They are around 45 minutes each with a nice interval in the middle and it is a proper British sense of humour in both. They are both laugh-out loud comedies and that's what we are aiming for. And it's very tongue in cheek because we are amdram and they are about amdram.

“The Last Bread Pudding is a play about a proposal for a play. It's about a company of actors meeting to consider what their next production should be with one of the members trying to get her own script considered. I play that person. Jan is confident and she is not confident. She doesn't know who she is but she has written a play and she thinks it's the best play ever.

“The whole concept of the play is her trying to get them to do this play and them talking about how they might interpret it with Jan either agreeing or disagreeing. I don't think that she is that likeable! She is just eager to get noticed. We can forgive her a bit but she just wants to get herself heard – there are strong characters on the committee.”

As for the other play, David Tristram, author of Last Tango in Little Grimley, encourages groups to substitute their own location in the title, and Steyning have been delighted to do so, performing it Steyning and combining Upper Beeding and Bramber in the title.

“It is set in a village hall at a meeting of a drama group. They have four members left. They have no audiences and they can't sell tickets and they are planning a last-ditch effort.

“It is a bit of a parody of amdram with personality clashes and power struggles and everything that you might expect with amateur divas. It rings true to an extent. It's about how you get ticket sales which is difficult and how you've got to work hard. It is about the realities of how things happen and it's about the trials and tribulations of amateur theatre.

“But we do it because it is an absolute joy! I love the excitement and the preparation and the build-up and it's also just putting yourselves into another character. And it's nice to be able to do something in the community.

“As a company we do well. We're well supported by the local community. Our tickets are on sale online but Steyning Bookshop is a great supporter of ours and they are selling tickets for us so really the support that we get is great. It's really nice to be doing something for the community and it is also great fun to rehearse.”

Performances: Saturday, November 29 and 2.30pm and 7.30pm and Sunday, November 30 at 7.30pm.