Paperless Play Readings
The Burgess Hill Theatre Club is introducing some new initiatives to help grow and broaden our members' knowledge of and passion for plays.
Here at BHTC our play readings are very informal and relaxed. Please feel free to bring snacks and drinks. We’ll gather around some tables in the theatre. There will be some paper scripts available as well as digital copies,
Throughout the evening (normally between scenes) we will re-assign characters so anyone who wants to has an opportunity to read. There is no obligation to read and you are welcome to simply sit back and listen. The evening will close with a general discussion of the play where you are encouraged to share your thoughts on the script we have read.
If anyone has suggestions or requests for future play readings, please do let me know.
2025
The History Boys by Alan Bennett
Date: 14th Mar at 7.30pm
An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and a place at university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher who thinks he’s a fool.
In Alan Bennett’s play, staff-room rivalry and the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how you teach it; about education and its purpose.
Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht (28m, 2f):
Date: Tuesday 15th April 2025, 7.30pm
A grimly humorous “parable play”; in blank verse, in which Hitler’s rise to power is illustrated in the story of a small-time gangster’s take-over of the greengrocery trade in Chicago. A brief six-line Epilogue points out how nearly Hitler ruled the world.
Dad’s Army by David Croft & Jimmy Perry (9m, 3w, 10any):
Date: Wednesday 14th May 2025, 7.30pm
The classic BBC TV comedy series of the Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea who battle daily against the Germans and local ARP Warden Hodges, comes to the stage complete with all the well-loved characters: “stupid boy”; Pike, “Don’t panic, don’t panic” Jonesey, “Doomed, we’re all doomed”; Fraser, “May I be excused, sir” Godfrey, and all under the command of the redoubtable Captain Mainwaring and his effacing deputy Sergeant Wilson.
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, adapted by Dave Simpson (5m, 5f, 5b, 5g):
Date: Friday 27th June 2025, 7.30pm
Set in and around a country railway station at the turn of the 20th century, the plight of the railway children grappling with their new environment is imaginatively brought to life for a modern audience while losing nothing of the original spirit of humour, tension, adventure and the final triumph of good over evil.
The 39 Steps by John Buchan, adapted by Patrick Barlow (1m, 1f, 2any):
Date: Tuesday 15th July 2025, 7.30pm
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of four), an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance!
Please note: the plays are not vetted in advance. Some may contain strong language or scenes of an adult nature.
Free for members. Non-members are welcome and encouraged to give a small donation to the Club.
Venue
Burgess Hill Theatre
98 Church Walk
Burgess Hill
RH15 9AS
