PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS
TOURED IN OCTOBER 2023
Based on the true story of the worst-matched royal couple in
history: a soap-opera of secret wives; scheming mistresses;
spying courtiers and scandal galore. A marriage motivated, not
by love, but by the Prince Regent’s colossal debts caused by
scything his way through society ladies, as well as maids,
cooks, prostitutes, and actresses. So pressing was his financial
need, he was prepared to forget he already had a wife when he
married his cousin! On his wedding night he was so drunk he
slept with his head in the fireplace. However, he had
underestimated Caroline’s willingness to fight back, and a royal
battle ensued.
The Fall and Rise
Of Gordon Grimshaw
by Sandy Truman
Gordon and Marion are downsizing from Bagshot to Finchurch-on-Sea. Gordon has
been forced to leave his job, his beloved bowls club and all their comfortable
oversized furniture in order to embrace long walks by the sea and constant
But he hasn’t reckoned on their bizarre new neighbours; kamikaze seagulls; brushes ,with the long arm of the law; half-
marathons and getting reeled into amateur dramatics!
Out of this chaos, and the ruins of his old life, comes new beginnings, new opportunities and new friends - maybe even a
new career!
This award winning play by Dermot Canavan, directed by Mike Truman, is about the lives of two sisters in a northern
town, contrasting the hilarious events in their youth with the challenges of later life. An uplifting and inspiring story told
against a backdrop of the music and dance of the 60's
This, as yet, unpublished play is fundamentally a memoir. Sisters Niamh and Grace haven’t spoken in a while, but now
Niamh is dying and wants to talk more than ever. She has given her sister a box of old photos and the two sit and
reminisce. Together they dip back and forth from present day to childhood, from the harshness and violence of their
upbringing to the exhilarating escape of the emerging Northern Soul scene.
Playhouse Creatures
by April de Angelis
This juicy historical drama lby April de Angelis, directed by Mike Truman, ooks at a period during Charles II’s reign when,
for the first time in England, women are allowed to perform on the stage. An overnight sensation; these pioneering ladies
take London by storm.
Nell Gwyn, street urchin and orange seller, joins an acting troupe of feisty females where a shapely leg and comic timing
prove the most important assets in treading the boards. A rollicking story full of earthy comedy and feminine heartbreak
proving, even in 1663, that ‘there was no business like show business’.
The script reflects the bawdy humour of the seventeenth century and explores the struggles and victories of the first-ever
actresses.
Who Gets the Cat?
By Sandy Truman
Laurence, happily married to Samantha, starts to notice that he’s getting one grey hair too many and is beginning to
pant when he climbs the stairs.
His solution is to rejuvenate himself through the charms of a younger woman, but now there are four in the marriage
- and one of them is the murderous moggy Biggles!
As Laurence copes with all the problems his new life throws up, including endless hours at the gym getting a six-
pack, Samantha is left to grapple with his betrayal and her own renewal.
‘Who Gets the Cat?’ explores, with humour, the problems facing those in the third age, and the impact on family and
friends.
By Sandy Truman
Gabriel
by Moira Buffini
Set around a largely forgotten moment in British history - the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World
War II.
A naked young man washes up on a Guernsey beach. Unnervingly handsome and fluent in both German and English,
he has no recollection of who he is - patriot or Nazi…innocent or madman.
Gabriel explores the heart of memory, identity and imagination, as well as the lies people tell themselves and each other
to make the darkness light again.
In August 2012, Bryteye Productions were proud to present this exceptional and powerful play which was awarded both
the U.K.’s prestigious London Weekend Television ‘Plays on Stage Award’ and the ‘Meyer Whitworth Award’ when it was
first performed at the Soho Theatre on 1st May 1997.
“People have forgotten that a play needs to tell a story; at last, one that does just that!”
Blackbird
by David Harrower
Ray and Una have met before; she was twelve, he was forty. Their relationship had controversial and profound
consequences: he went to prison; she suffered heartbreak and public derision. Fifteen years later Una has found Ray
again and wants answers.
Director Matt Haynes has created a fresh interpretation of this complex study of the human condition in which fury,
passion, lust and raw pain erupt in an intense exploration of forbidden boundaries. After years of emotional destruction,
loss and endless soul searching, is it love that survives society’s rules or something darker, sinister and more predatory?
This gripping drama, which positively explodes with unresolved and profound issues, brings a taboo subject into the
public eye and sends your moral compass spinning!
The play was performed at the Marlborough Theatre, Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival.
In The Pink
by Anne Feloy
and Caroline Maxwell
This scintillating new comedy ‘In the Pink’, by Leaping Hare Productions, is inspired by the life and times of iconic queen
of romance Barbara Cartland.
The play is an innovative amalgamation of fact and fiction, interwoven with Mrs Cartland's latest manuscript in which the
characters spring to life. It is 1981, the year of the infamous royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
Barbara Cartland, [Lady Diana's step-grandmother], is at home in her opulent mansion avidly awaiting confirmation of
her wedding invitation. The invitation is not forthcoming and the reason for this becomes clear as the play unfolds in a
heady mixture of high-drama and high-tea.
Bryeye Productions worked with with Ann Feloy and Caroline Maxwell of Leaping Hare Productions on their exciting new
play 'Barbara Cartland - In The Pink' which was performed to great acclaim in June 2015 at the Connaught Theatre,
Worthing.