Funtington Players celebrate 75 years

The Funtington Fringe takes place on July 26 and 27 at 7.30pm at West Ashling Village Hall – a thank you from the Players to the community for providing them with a home over the years and also a fundraiser for a new hall.

Tickets are available through https://www.funtingtonplayers.org.uk/news-events.

Barbara MacWhirter, who has been with the Funtington Players since the mid-1990s, said: “Our anniversary is a big thing for us. The company got going before the war a little bit and after the war they did a few little pantomimes but it was only really in 1949 that the name the Funtington Players first appeared and really that's when it started. And it's just gone from strength to strength with the pattern of three-act plays and one-act plays. Back in the day the tickets were between one and six and three and six which is only 17 and a half pence but must have been quite a bit in the day!

“There was a short break when the hall had to be repaired in the 1960s and obviously there was a short break when we had Covid but it was all soon back up and running and the anniversary is a lovely thing for us. I started with the company in the mid-90s and it has always been a very friendly company and we have got some very good backstage people that are vital to what we do. And we have our own little hall which is not a thing of beauty but it is our home. But sadly it is really creaking these days and we're trying to raise money to build a new hall somewhere. We are doing this production to thank the people of Funtington for hosting us for 75 years but also to try to raise money for a new venue and just to build up a fund so it might happen.

“We are calling the event a miscellany.

"It is all sorts of sketches and we have a little mini-musical that was written specially for us by Greg Mosse and John Gleadall. It is called Memories of East Ashling and Round About. All the pieces in it are based on true stories locally. We did a lot of research and Greg was brought up in East Ashling and knows a lot about it. Is also based on the memories of two brothers, the Fowkes brothers. It's their memories of that time growing up here in the 1950s but we do also go back to 1850 when the younger brother of the Duke of Richmond lived at West Stoke House which is part of the Funtington parish. We have based an item on the relationship between the Lennox sisters and their brother but we go right through. We're dodging about, and we have a couple that are set during wartime.”

The anniversary finds the company in a good place with good number for their various productions at different times of the year.

“We are doing pretty well membership-wise. We had a production with 15 in the cast in the spring and we are doing Sisterly Feelings in the autumn which has got a cast of about nine and in this one we will have a cast of about 15.

"We've got a good membership and we're still attracting younger people.”