Review of Bette & Joan I’ve just had the pleasure of catching the new Saddleworth Player’s performance, Bette and Joan, at the Millgate Art Centre in Delph. It is directed by Melvyn Bates and stars Rachel Harrison and Tracey Rontree as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford respectfully. The action of the play takes place in Hollywood during 1962, at the height of the Hollywood actresses renown feud. It takes place in the background of the […]
Opening Night Review of Silver Lining
Carol Davies is directing Saddleworth Players latest show Silver Lining by Sandy Toksvig… here are her thoughts… When I first read Sandi Toksvig’s ‘Silver Lining’ I was in no doubt that Saddleworth Players should do it. I laughed through my first reading of it and I laughed two years later through the cast read through. Putting it on stage though was an entirely different matter. Shakespeare wrote about ‘the two hour’s traffic of our stage’ […]
Saddleworth Players are implementing some changes to the way we organise ourselves. The problem: COVID closed down all the theatres and when we re-emerged in the recovery season we found that many people who previously were involved didn’t return. For some it was an opportunity to take stock and retire, for others, the lockdowns provided new hobbies and focus and the theatre has slipped in importance. This current Season we’ve attempted to carry on as […]
The play is set in a ski lodge in France where Daniel Corban has just reported that his newly wedded wife has been missing for 10 days to the police. The Chief Inspector seems unhelpful but promises he will investigate for him. Seconds later the new local priest, Father Maximin, exclaims he’s found his wife and brings her to the chalet. However, Daniel claims he’s never set eyes on this woman before. As the story […]
Tributes have been paid to a man described as a rock by the Saddleworth arts community. Since Kenneth Arthur Deighton MBE, aged 92, died the community have been mourning his loss. He was a founder committee member and director of the Saddleworth Festival of the Arts from 1957 until the festival finished in 2019. A man who always preferred non-stage roles, Mr Deighton was a former President of Saddleworth Musical Society, former president of Saddleworth Players and later […]
How Saddleworth Players saved Delph Village as we know it now
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford: two of the deadliest arch-rivals of all time. Born in the same year (though Davis swore ‘Crawford is 5 years older than me if she is a day’, the two fought bitterly throughout their Long and brilliant Hollywood careers. The women worked together only once, in the classic thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in which their violent hatred of each other as rival sisters was no act. In this […]
Saddleworth Players at Millgate Arts Centre annual advent calendar 2022 we hope you enjoy opening the doors on the advent calendar bringing back memories from past shows Let’s get this party started Saddleworth Players Youth Theatre… put the kettle on for a brew We’re making a list . We’re checking it twice working off the mince pies We three kings of orient are all I want for Christmas is… It’s Christmas jumper day…. Fred and […]
by Ian Perks I’ve been asked to write my recollections of theatre life at Saddleworth Players as I am one of vanishingly few members who played at the Mechanics Institute which is now the car park. In 1970 I had been kicking around the local amateur theatre scene for 12 years (I started young). Mostly I played in small societies who staged their productions in church halls. The plays on offer were Lancashire comedies, thrillers […]