Stepping into the warm and witty world of Terry Pratchett in Horsham

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Wyrd Sisters is packed full of Pratchett’s trademark chaos, satire and wit, adapted by his closest writing partner Stephen Briggs.

For Gayle, it’s the perfect way to make her HAODS debut.

Granny Weatherwax (sharp), Nanny Ogg (cheeky) and Magrat Garlick (innocent) are three witches trying to get by in a kingdom riven by Shakespearean tragedy. An evil Duke and his scheming wife have murdered the king and taken over. Gayle will be our Nanny Ogg.

“I am very new to HAODS. Running was my life until three and a half years ago and I got Covid a second time. I'm still recovering now. For a couple years I couldn't do anything at all but then I saw an advert for the Dorking Dramatic and Operatic Society. I live in Dorking. And then two days later a friend of mine from high school found a leaflet from the little plays that we used to do at school! I just took that to be a sign that I had to get involved! I did and it was great.

“And then my daughter started at Collyer's in Horsham, and a certain social media forum used the algorithms that it uses to manage to work out that I was interested in Horsham and also in amdram, and so they started sending me things about HAODS. I saw that they were doing Little Shop of Horrors which I love but I was a bit too late for that, but then I saw that they were doing this and I absolutely love Terry Pratchett.

“I adored him as a youngster and I still do though I don't read it quite so much. But at the time I was in that weird transition between school and university which was actually the last time I did any drama before last year. And I was working on an exhibition about whales in 1993 and it was very poorly attended. The organisers said to me and this other girl that we could bring books along and she brought along a Terry Pratchett. She lent me a copy and I was just wowed. It was this whole other universe. And you could tell that Terry had created this whole world with warmth and humour. And that he loved his characters. There was Shakespeare in there and economic theory and ethics theory and all sorts of things and I just loved it. I wasn't a massive fantasy geek but I really, really responded to the warmth and to the humour. And then I read every book I could of his at that point. So when I saw that they were doing it, it immediately caught my attention.

“It's in the fantasy genre but for me it really is more of a comedy. It's fun writing. You've got the three witches which are loosely based on Macbeth. I am playing the one who's an old battleaxe but she's not really. She is a bawdy old lady with a great sense of humour and I would say that she is really the beating heart of the coven.”

A huge part of the attraction is the music which Andrew Donovan has written especially for this production: “It gave me goosebumps the first time I came on stage and walked on to that music. Each scene is brilliantly mapped to the musical score.”

Tickets available at www.haods.co.uk/wyrd-sisters for £15 (£8 for school students).

Barns Green Village Hall, Wednesday-Friday, May 28-30 at 7.30pm, Saturday, May 31 at 2pm and 7pm.