Stage society's Christmas treat

Published at 16:42, Friday, 27 November 2009

A LOOK at Christmas through the ages, in times of poverty, war and great celebration; that’s the subject of the next production by Hexham Amateur Stage Society.

Christmas Times has been written by long-standing society member Janet Beakes and comes to the Queen’s Hall theatre on December 2.
Janet joined the society in 1988 and joined the chorus for their production of The Mikado and has since played several principal parts.
She recently played Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn in the HASS production of Music Man and earlier played Dolly Tate in Annie Get Your Gun in 2002 and Evangeline Harcourt in Anything Goes in 1998.
But within the society it was Janet’s offstage performances that she was best known for.
Cast and crew were often entertained by her sketches and bits that she would write and perform for the aftershow parties.
She said: “I have always written bits and pieces for fun but I’ve never done anything for public performance.”
In fact Janet’s earlier attempts at writing had been fated with bad luck, she explained: “I was a teacher out in Zambia for a while and I wrote a panto for the staff to perform but on the night we were due to do it a huge storm came in and cut everything off so we never got to perform it; I was left with a room full of daft costumes that went unused.”
But she didn’t let the experience stop her writing for the theatre and when HASS performed The Mikado again recently it was Janet who was asked to re-write the show for a modern audience.
This year the sub-committee asked Janet to write their Christmas production, she said: “We had booked a Christmas slot but we knew we didn’t just want to do a straight concert because two and half hours of carols would be quite cloying.
“Lots of ideas were put forward and we chose to put something together about the way Christmas has been celebrated over the decades, which gace us lotf extra directions to go in.”
The production has required hours of research on Janet’s part, looking at the way in which traditions have changed through the course of history.
Janet said: “I had a few favourite Christmas stories like those from Thomas Hardy and Dickens, which I could use for inspiration.
“But during the war years there was not much for people to celebrate, so we thought about looking at Christmas in the trenches.”
Janet went to the Imperial War Museum to research letters that soldiers had written home to their sweethearts and families.
But in her quest for more inspiration she asked the cast and one member, Julie Robson, came up with a pile of letters from one of her own family members.
Janet said: “The letters are very touching and I used as much as I could from Julie’s letters in that scene in the show.”
And for another touch of realism, the costume being provided for the society’s world war one scene is an original outfit from the Somme.
Director Aline Watson said: “We have hired costumes from Alan Graham in Consett and the uniform was his grandfather’s so it is a privilege for us to be able to use it.”
Other sketches during the show include wassailing, the Dickensian era, a Victorian parlour scene and music hall, the 1940s and the 1960s.
And 100 children from the local schools have also been invited to take part, singing carols, performing the role of wartime evacuees and singing a rendition of Howard Blake’s Walking In The Air.
Hexham Middle School will perform on the Wednesday evening and Saturday matinee, Hexham East First School on Thursday evening and the Sele First School on Friday and Saturday evening.
Aline added: “It has been very strange learning carols during the summer but the show has really come together together now and there are some fun scenes combined with some very moving ones.
“The show follows the finest of HASS’s traditions with big chorus numbers, lots of harmony, group work and solos.”
Tickets for the show are available at the Queen’s Hall box office on 01434 652477.