Lights & Bushels Theatre Company

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR BOOKED!

 

Booked! is a brand new comedy written by Barry Syder. The play is set in 1937 in Withering-on-the Vyne, a fictional Sussex seaside town which is hosting possibly the first ever literary festival. The organiser, Helen Constable, has invited an odd assortment of well-known literary figures from London to come and speak, and to her surprise they all seem to have accepted! However, the event has also grabbed the attention of certain others who are determined to put a stop to it!

 Performance Dates: 

Saturday 15th June 2024

Friday 21st June 2024

Saturday 22nd June 2024

 

Times: 8.00pm (bar open from 7.30pm)

Venue: Rusper Village Hall, near Horsham.

Tickets: £16

 

My Second Best Bed on the Rock!

 

We're delighted that Theatre Makers have chosen to perform My Second Best Bed by Barry Syder at the Gibraltar International Drama Festival in March (11th to 16th). We wish them all the best with the performance!

Our Christmas 2022 Show:

The Thinning Veil 

9th & 16th December at The Tythe Barn, Pondtail Road, Horsham

 Thank you to everyone who came to The Thinning Veil. We hope you enjoyed it. And apologies to those who couldn't get tickets. We were amazed how quickly both performances sold out! 

Our latest premiere:

Dissolving the Pearl 

by Kathryn Attwood.

23rd to 25th June 2022, The Capitol Studio, Horsham

 

Well we had a ball travelling back to the mid eighteenth century to bring back to life Kitty Fisher, Joshua and Fanny Reynolds, Dr Johnson, Maria Gunning, Commodore Keppel, Lord Atherton, and Hester Piozzi (and giving life to a few fictional characters too - Tom, Ann and... what was that maid's name?). We also had some fabulous feedback from our lovely audiences:

"Congratulations! What a brilliant play! Fascinating subject and wonderfully acted. I could honestly see it being performed at Chichester or the West End!"

"Congratulations Lights and Bushels - you've done it again! Masters of your own genre!"

"Excellent play - a throughly enjoyable evening."

"What a treat! Enjoyed every second and found myself giggling throughout the witty exchanges. Fun from start to finish!"

"Fantastic production - congratulations to all the cast!"

Nomads Theatre Company's production of My Second Best Bed

 

Nomads Theatre Company, based near Guildford produced "My Second Best Bed" by Barry Syder in a double bill with Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound".

A group of us (including members of the original MSBB cast) attended and had a very enjoyable evening.

 

Click here to read the review.

 Photo by Rhian Boast

A WOMAN'S LIFE  by Barry Syder

 

 We have had some fabulous feedback regarding our production of A Woman's Life. Here are a few examples:

 

"It was phenomenal."

"Myself and friends so enjoyed your performances last night… riveted in attention… such quality!!! Thank you all so very much for your talents, energy and time! Superb!"

"Lights & Bushels performance of 'A Woman's Life' was amazing! Well done everyone!" 

"Every aspect was a triumph ... first class cast creating astonishing performances in a beautifully written and well paced play. Congratulations to everyone involved."

"A brilliant evening’s entertainment last night. Great production, great acting and brilliantly written."

"I just wanted to get in touch to say what a fabulous play you created, I went to see it last night and was blown away.  Honestly I think this is one of the best performances I’ve seen.  The cast were brilliant, they are always great with Lights & Bushels, but somehow this was at another level."  

"Congratulations for an amazing play which we saw last night! We were blown away by the dramatisation and the acting was just so good. It felt like being at a professional play. It was a great experience and such an interesting story and an eye opener on the mind of Guy de Maupassant - how liberal, compassionate and enlightened. A great choice - plucked from obscurity into stardom in Horsham. Fabulous. Well done!!!"  

SHELLEYTHON 

Lights & Bushels took part in the Shelleython in Horsham Park on the weekend of 31st July & 1st August 2021. This continuous live reading of all of Percy Bysshe's poems was a fundraiser for the Shelley Memorial Project - a community project set up to create a lasting memorial to Horsham's most famous citizen. The weather was great for most of the day - until the last hour (see third image below).

If you would like to support the project with a donation please click here

THE WATSONS GETS CANADIAN PREMIERE!

 Theatre Bacchus, based in Lincoln, Ontario, will be performing an audio production of The Watsons by Kathryn Attwood on 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th & 14th August 2021. It is possible to listen to a performance online (although you'll need to go to bed very late or get up very early because of the time difference!).

Further information can be found here.

UPDATE:

After the opening night's performance, Kathryn and Barry took part in a Zoom chat with members of cast and audience. It was a great experience for us to not only hear The Watsons produced by another company, but also to get the perspectives of the actors on the play. Well worth staying up until 4.30am! 

Congratulations to director Lana Borsellino and Theatre Bacchus for an excellent production!

MY SECOND BEST BED SUCCESS IN IRELAND

My Second Best Bed by Barry Syder, originally produced by Lights and Bushels, has gone on to further success - this time in Ireland. Belfast-based Rosemary Theatre Group entered the play in three drama festivals in November - winning the Newtownabbey One Act Drama Festival. The play then went forward to the Northern Ireland One Act Play Festival final in Strabane on 18th January. We are delighted to announce that once again Rosemary Drama Group were the winners (also Lindsay Wallace, who played Susanna, won best actress). They will now take My Second Best Bed forward to the national finals in June against the winners of the English, Welsh and Scottish competitions.

UPDATE:

Sadly, the current crisis around Coronavirus has lead to the cancellation of the The British Final of One Act Plays (so near, yet so far!) and of Nomads' plans to produce My Second Best Bed in the summer.

My Second Best Bed is published by Stagescripts Ltd. As a one-act play running at approximately 40 minutes it is ideal for drama festivals etc. For further information please click here.

MAD SHELLEY

The feedback  to our September production has been fabulous! Read the NODA review here. Carole Parsons contacted us to say: "Saw Mad Shelley on Thursday evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had no idea what to expect, but was so impressed by such an interesting story of local history.  So well written and told by a great cast - especially Tom who played Shelley so brilliantly. The characters were totally believable and I learned more in a couple of hours than I ever did at school! Well done to all the cast and the writer. I was left wanting to know more about Shelley's life with Mary, so there has to be a sequel!"

 

Mad Shelley was Highly Commended in the Best New Show category at the NODA Regional Awards.

 

Many people commented on the music used in Mad Shelley. All the tracks were by cellist and composer Julia Kent (see https://www.juliakent.com )

The tracks we used were: Last Day in July, Arlanda, Fontanarossa, Schiphol, Templehof, Dear Mr Twombly, Elmas, The Toll, A Spire, Frost and Furrow.

MY SECOND BEST BED

Congratulations to Sevenoaks Shakespeare Society for a fabulous performance of My Second Best Bed at the Southern Counties Drama Festival. Three of the original cast plus writer Barry went up to Oxted in February to show our support. Well done John Tristram Turnbull, director, and the very talented cast!

UPDATE: The production received nominations for Best Adult Actor - Iain Drennan (Curate Dunstan), Best Stage Presentation and ICB Festival Winners Award.

 

The production won the following awards:

Best Adult Production

Best Adult Actress - Natalie Smith (Susanna Hall)

(click here to read the review)

 

 

That seemed to go rather well...! 

What a fabulous week we had in Scarborough! (well, Wisborough Green actually). Many thanks to our audiences who turned up in droves and gave us some great feedback. Here is a selection of comments received:

 

Just a note to say how much we enjoyed 'A Trip to Scarborough’ - really well-adapted, very clearly presented and beautifully acted - a triumph from start to finish!  A wonderful, hilarious romp!

Totally brilliant! A wonderful show!

Amazing show - loved it! Well done everyone - can’t wait for the next one!

Great show with some really excellent performances!

Fantastic comedy! Wonderful performances, beautiful costumes, Well done to Barry and the cast for a superb production.

We had a great evening out. Highly entertaining!

Great show, so funny and fabulous performances! 

Well done all - really enjoyable. Very funny!

If you have a free evening and want to laugh until you ache, then I would urge you to book tickets for A Trip To Scarborough. Another brilliant adaptation by Barry Syder! And Sam Taylor as Lord Foppington was particularly hilarious! Well, what are you waiting for? Book your tickets now!

Absolutely loved it!!!!

It was wonderful! We loved it!

Bloody brilliant show last night! Loved every minute of it and could watch it all over again! My face ached from two hours of constant laughing and smiling. When's the next one?

MY SECOND BEST BED PUBLISHED BY STAGESCRIPTS

We are delighted to announce that My Second Best Bed has been published by Stagescripts Ltd and is now available to other companies. As a one-act play running at approximately 40 minutes it is ideal for drama festivals etc. For further information please click here.

(Update: four recent performances in Canada!)

THE WATSONS GAINS AWARD AND IS PUBLISHED

 We are delighted to announce that The Watsons was awarded Runner Up - Best New Show Award by NODA South East Region at the recent AGM in Whitstable.

 

We are also proud to announce that the script has been published by Stagescripts Ltd and is now available for other companies to produce. For further information please click here.

LADY SUSAN GETS NEW ZEALAND PREMIERE!

The Dolphin Theatre in Auckland (yes, New Zealand!!) have bought a licence to do 17 performances of Kathryn's Lady Susan in November/December 2017! (see here). 

THE WATSONS

Many thanks to everyone who came to see The Watsons. We were lucky with the weather - apart from Thursday when we had to go up five minutes late because of an unexpected shower!  Click here to read the reviews!

MY SECOND BEST BED AT SOUTHERN COUNTIES DRAMA FESTIVAL

Well we didn't win anything this time but we had some praise and constructive feedback from the adjudicator and Kathryn was nominated for best actress. We also got a very positive review which you can read here.

 

LADY SUSAN WINS AWARD!

Lights & Bushels are delighted to report that we won the NODA Councillor's Award for Drama for our production of Lady Susan at the South East regional awards ceremony on 10th July 2016.