Original Theatre
Arts Dream Selsey is known for its professional theatrical performances
Below, some of our most notable Theatrical Productions
2024
Theatrical Performances
Spooky Fun
in the
Hidden Garden
Coming up this October we have a very special performance
for children aged 5-10yrs* in the Hidden Garden.
We've invited some of our spookily zany chums to show you what they get up to around Halloween. Witches and Wizards, some not so scary ghosts. The Hidden Garden's resident Scarecrows will try to keep things in order!
TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON:
CHILDREN £5
ACCOMPANYING ADULT - FREE!
*Please note that children must be accompanied by and looked after by an adult. Depending on numbers and as we have limited space in the performance area, we will limit the number of adults attending with children.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
BY CHARLES DICKENS
DECEMBER
10th, 15th, 16th & 17th
This wonderful traditional Christmas tale is coming to Sidlesham and Selsey. Adapted and Performed by award winning actor & director David Flint.
Prepare to laugh, tremble in fear and be moved as we follow Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation from hopeless cynicism to festive frivolity.
Playing over 20 characters, David brings this beloved Dickens Christmas classic to life.
2024 Contd.
Five Plays
For Spring
Following our successful productions of three radio plays in Summer 2023, Arts Dream Selsey was delighted to team up once again with award winning playwright Gillian Plowman https://www.gillian-plowman.co.uk
to bring five more radio plays to the stage for Selsey. With themes of love, loss and in some cases downright criminality. Gillian brought her usual light humorous touch to these pieces to delight her audiences. Eight of our favourite actors brought these plays to life over six dates, with original music written and performed by Sylvia Rota.
The Party - February 2024
Two strangers find themselves thrown together during a brutally interrupted journey. Irritation turns to understanding as they begin to share their hopes and dreams and confessions of past failures, in an effort to pass the time and forget their injuries until rescue arrives. Will this unlikely meeting blossom into something more or will fate intervene to end it before it’s begun?
Featured: Christine Beare, David Flint, Mary Field, Cai Martlew, Alex McDevitt, Chris Nairne, Elizabeth Pow
Two Summers - February 2024
Two love stories, set forty years apart. In the tropical heat of Singapore in 1932, a Colonel’s wife dares to cross boundaries and engage with a young sergeant. Feelings bubble beneath the surface until duty steps in to put an end to this reckless relationship. Forty years later an older couple relive the past as they await the news they dread.
Featured: Mary Field, David Flint, Cai Martlew, Alex McDevitt, Chris Nairne, Elizabeth Pow
Crooked Wood - March 2024
Miss Barwick lives in a very old house on very expensive land, surrounded by many very old and very valuable items. Luckily for the unscrupulous property developers Miss Barwick is a dear old thing, who seems to be losing her marbles. What could be simpler than getting Miss Barwick out of her house so the deal can go through and Golden Future developments can add to their fortune? In this black comedy Miss Barwick has one or two tricks of her own.
Featured: Mary Field, David Flint, Chris Nairne, Gillian Plowman, Elizabeth Pow
The Window Cleaner - April 2024
When Jill, a window cleaner, encounters a young man in the apartment she’s working on, she realises immediately he’s up to no good. In an effort to avoid becoming trapped in the apartment, Jill engages him in conversation and persuades him to tell her about the road that has led to his criminal career. Jill has a few secrets of her own to share, but there is one more surprise for both of them that might end up getting them both in big, big trouble.
Featuring: Cai Martlew, Christine Beare
The Allotment - April 2024
Four friends work together on an allotment on a lovely spring day. They share carrots and hats and a mutual dislike for Tuesdays. Marcie and Norah make plans to attend Lara’s Shakespearian performance with their respective families while they wait for Bella to return from her trip to pick up a new rotavator. Bella returns without the rotavator but with disturbing news of the new man, Mr Barnes, who seems determined to tease the unpalatable truth out of them. Marcie, Norah and Lara will not be so easily taken in, or will they?
Featuring: Mary Field, Alex McDevitt, Chris Nairne, Gillian Plowman, Elizabeth Pow
2023
Three Plays For Summer
Following on from the success of One Last Adventure written and performed in the style of a radio play in 2021, we decided to reprise this genre of performance and asked Gillian Plowman to write some more works.
These were performed under the banner of Three Plays for summer and used Gillian’s key signature of exploring human relationships in difficult circumstances through pathos and humour. Original music written and performed by Sylvia Rota
Philip and Rowena - May 2023
Philip and Rowena meet in the hospice and form an immediate alliance, making plans to wine and dine and travel through Europe together. Through the power of visualisation, they enjoy themselves dancing the can can in Paris, shopping the leather market and promenading at the opera in Florence. It is never too late to fall in love.
The Busters - June 2023
George and Duncan have been persuaded to go to The Busters well-being and weight loss class where they meet and band together to brave the odds! The evening takes a dramatic turn as secrets, revelations and conflicts bubble to the surface, and new horizons appear for both men.
A Sea Change - July 2023
Marie and Peter are on holiday with their friends in a two-hundred-year old cottage in Cornwall. Marie hears strange disturbing voices in a language she doesn’t understand. A violent storm springs up with tragic consequences. Is it the same storm that wrecked so many Cornish fishing boats a long, long time ago?
2021
2018
2017
2016
2014
2021 – July - Charlie Chaplin The Return
Our first show as Covid lockdown restrictions began to be lifted for theatre, was a return of the magnificent Charlie Chaplin first performed back in 2015. This time we staged it for restricted audiences at St Peter’s Hall. Our audiences were enthralled and moved in equal measure:
"Selsey is lucky to have the talent and courage to put on a musical show about Charlie Chaplin
"Spellbinding! So intimate. So emotional. So enjoyable"
"It lifted us out of lockdown melancholy"
"Great story - learnt a lot about Chaplin"
"We cried - it was just such a special evening - our first evening out since Covid began. A big thank you to the cast for a wonderful performance ..."
"Amazing acting. Selsey is lucky that professional actors want to come here to our little town ... "
2021 – October – One Last Adventure
A note from the Author Gillian Plowman.
My friend and neighbour Jimmy Birchall was a bomber pilot in WWII. He asked me to write his wartime story – of the bombing raids, of being shot down, of his internment in Stalag Luft III and of the Long March. It became a very limited edition book, one, which he proudly gave to his son in Canada, and a second which he lent to someone and never got back. Jimmy gave me permission to use his story and his words as a basis for One Last Adventure. He died in the early weeks of lockdown and was alone at his funeral apart from the priest. This play is a tribute to my old friend
Written in response to the restrictions imposed by Covid, Gillian Plowman created a radio play which allowed our actors to rehearse and perform while complying with social distancing rules, in front of a masked audience.
One Last Adventure tells the story of Johnnie 96 and Rose 95 who, in the lock down of 2020 take us back to the start of their relationship and the horrors of World War II. They share their memories and experiences and prepare for one last adventure.
2018 – May - Tonight at the Pavilion
– Touching Tomorrow and Beata Beatrix
Two plays written by Gillian Plowman and performed in the round, at the Pavilion Theatre in Selsey
Touching Tomorrow tells the story of Dorcas who lives happily with her intellectually stilted brother Vincent. When Dorcas invites a homeless stranger to stay things take an interesting turn, with Gillian’s clever mix of pathos and humour.
Beata Beatrix - A shy, middle aged woman on a guided tour of an art gallery makes the decision to help a crying man, stunning the tour guide and a group of American tourists. Haunting secrets are uncovered by this simple act of kindness.
2018 – October - Journey’s End by R C Sherrif
Sherrif started to write Journey’s End whilst on holiday in Selsey in August 1927, Sherrif was present at the 1933 production in Selsey Pavilion.
Arts Dream Selsey brought the play back to life in October 2018 at Selsey Pavilion in collaboration with “History in the Making” who provided authentic sets, artefacts and costumes for the show.
Journey’s End is set over the course of four days leading up to the German attack on British Trenches in 1918 and charts the tension and claustrophobia as new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh discovers that Captain Stanhope, his former childhood friend and hero, has changed almost beyond recognition.
Some of the many fantastic comments we received from our audiences:
“Such a powerfully emotional play and such an incredibly talented cast. Members of the audience brought to tears by the tremendous atmosphere created by the portrayal of men too frightened to be scared. I don't think anybody would doubt this is a true representation of how life in the trenches was in WW1. Grab any ticket you can get this is an incredible play.”
‘What an historic moment for Selsey, I think Sherriff would have been proud’
‘Who’d have thought that this same play was done on this same stage 85 years ago. The only place in the country where something so unique could have happened ‘
2017 – August - Tonight at the Pavilion
– The Ox and The Ass and Spindrift
Two plays written by Gillian Plowman
The Ox and The Ass – Jeremy Forr-Favell, from a privileged background has embraced a life of crime, recently released from prison and in pain from a fall, he is given houseroom by his maths teacher son, Henry. He will let him stay as long as he goes straight!
Spindrift – Beth hopes two quiet months by the sea will help her recover from turmoil in her life, but three or is that four locals just won’t leave her alone.
“Loved The Ox and the Ass – went for an interval drink in the wonderful Chaplins’ and loved the transformation of the stage, on our return, into the atmospheric Spindrift.“
“Great to see these lovely stories acted out on the Pavilion stage”
“Amazing actors!”
“Great writing.”
2016 – May - Tonight at the Pavilion
– Laurel and Hardy
Written by Gillian Plowman
Steve and Phil are struggling actors hoping their new Laurel and Hardy show will be their big break. Rehearsing in their flat with Steve’s long term girlfriend doubling up as their wives, floosies, lights, sound and everything else they need, the relationship between these three becomes strained and uncomfortable secrets are revealed.
Some audience comments:
“What an amazing atmosphere was created in the old Pavilion with your production of Laurel and Hardy. A beautiful experience”
“the real 'icing on the cake' was your magnificent play that you researched, wrote and produced. How you achieved so wonderful a show I could never thought possible.”
“I have never seen such a perfect all round performance as I witnessed at The Pavilion last Friday. The story-line was, of course, excellent but so was the acting, singing and set. Surely a strong contender for a West End showing?”
2016 – October – Charlie In London
Arts Dream Selsey staged “Tonight in the Pavilion – Charlie Chaplin”, an original piece by Gillian Plowman in 2015, co-created with Chris Butler and Pamela Howard. We were delighted when Cinema Museum founder Martin Humphries and producer and author Tobias Steed came to see the production and invited us to take our show to London for three weekends in October 2016.
The museum is housed in the same building that was once the Victorian workhouse where Chaplin was sent at the age of five. We renamed the show Tonight at the Museum – Charlie Chaplin! and off we went. The show attracted some well-known faces from the world of entertainment Simon Callow, Carl Davis and Jean Boht as well as Chaplin experts such as Kate Guyonvarch from the Chaplin Office, Paris and Chaplin biographer David Robinson.
Tonight…Charlie Chaplin has since been published by Samuel French Ltd
Some of our Reviews:
“I heartily recommend the play” - Kate Guyonvarch, Chaplin Office, Paris
“Heartbreaking” - Jean Boht
"What an absolutely fantastic show in an incredible location.”
"I saw four shows this week, including two at The National, but tell you what? This was the most fun. I just love fringe when it is well done, and this was excellent.”
2014 – August - The End of the Journey
The End of the Journey was a promenade theatre piece based on WW1, written by Gillian Plowman, directed by Pamela Howard
The End of the Journey was a promenade theatre piece based on WW1, written by Gillian Plowman, directed by Pamela Howard and performed by Arts Dream Selsey at The Selsey Pavilion, using local community talent and professional actors. The play made use of the connection between Selsey and R C Sherrif, who wrote Journey’s End partly at his Mother’s house in the town. Sherriff took a keen interest in a late 1933 amateur production of his play, a hugely successful and influential West End hit of 1929, in this very theatre now in the process of being renovated.
Review from Richard D North:
http://richarddnorth.com/2014/08/selseys-fine-homage-to-journeys-end/
