Theatre – November 2023

This group has now joined Tea & Chat on the first Thursday of the month.  In October a group of us went to the Shaftesbury for the last night of The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Set in the 1930s in a small island off the Irish west coast it tells the story of a young 17 year old man named Cripple Billy. It is a dark comedy touching not only on the stigma of a disability, but also the poverty and desperation of life in a small community. His parents having died when he was a baby surrounded by rumours of an accident or suicide, he is bought up by two well-meaning but overbearing “foster aunts” who run the local sweet shop. Cripple Billy is determined to shake off the stigma of having a disability and yearns to be called Billy without the added Cripple. This alongside his lifelong love for a young Irish girl called Slippy Helen forces Billy to look ahead and what he sees is a bleak future.

Slippy Helen, her brother and Cripple Billy hatch a plan to persuade Bartley’s the only boat owner to row them over to a neighbouring island where it is rumoured a famous Hollywood Producer is looking for cast members for an upcoming movie. Cripple Billy is eager to escape the boredom, poverty and gossip of his hometown.

Fast forward to Billy who supposedly is doing well in Hollywood returns home and owns up that he wasn’t picked by the Hollywood Producer and had spent the past few years living in poverty and overwhelmed by homesickness returns home.  Even though he has not scored a starring role in any movie, Billy is welcomed home as a hero and the islanders even agree to drop the discriminatory epithet “Cripple”.

A most enjoyable well-acted, entertaining but thought provoking production that we all thoroughly enjoyed

Elsewhere some members went to see the 1941 classic film noir The Maltese Falcon at the Shaftesbury, one of the film club’s chosen films. There is no need to be a member, the cost is £5 at the door.

Next month some of us are going to Pavilions at Teignmouth to see Cecil Beaton’s Diaries. And Panto season is not far away!

Kate McCarthy, Convenor