Terri Sorenson – Theatre Workshop Coulsdon

Grimm Tales (2001)

A collection of traditional European folk tales are here given a new lease of life, stripping away much of the saccharine coating so many have accumulated through adaptation for children’s books, TV and film. Yes, we’re looking at you, Disney.

We’ve chosen nine tales all told, each with it’s own director and unique music composition, from one of three talented musicians, Pete Bird, Dominic Russell and Mark Taylor. See the programme for full details. The nine stories are;

Ashputtel

The Golden Goose

The Lady and the Lion

A Riddling Tale

The Hare and the Hedgehogs

Hansel and Gretel

Little Red Cap

Rumplestiltskin

The Magic Table

We like to finish our open air shows with a song, where we can. For this production, we’ve chosen ‘Who’s The Fool Now?’, an old song, first published in 1580 but most certainly far older than that. It doesn’t come from a Grimm tale, but it is a song about tall tales, and it’s also a drinking song, which given we’re sitting in a pub beer garden seems very appropriate. Join in the chorus if you fancy.

The Canterbury Tales (2011)

It is the 14th Century, and in the bustling courtyard of The Tabard Inn, Southwark, men and women from all walks of life gather for a pilgrimage to the cathedral at Canterbury. Friars and priests, pardoners and summoners, millers and good wives. In order to entertain these good folk, the host of the inn asks that each traveller tells a story as they make their way across Kent. And so they, and we, begin our journey.

In this joyous adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic work by Richard Lloyd, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon present six of the best and most colourful tales, creating an exuberant and and often hilarious portrait of ordinary folk preoccupied with petty jealousies, mundane squabbles and simple pleasures. Bold and often bawdy, these tales bring home vividly just how little the English people have really changed over the last six hundred years!

The stories presented are The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Friar’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale and The Reeves Tale, neatly wrapped in an engaging background as host and landlord Harry Bailey attempts to maintain order amongst his boisterous and often wayward charges.

Chaucer (1343 – 1400) is widely considered to be the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, and was the first poet to be buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey. While he achieved fame during his lifetime as an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer, Chaucer also maintained an active career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, diplomat and courtier. His many works include ‘The Book of the Duchess’, ‘The House of Fame’, ‘The Legend of Good Women’ and ‘Troilus and Criseyde’, but it is ‘The Canterbury Tales’, in which he uses the tales to paint an ironic and critical picture of English society, for which he will always be remembered.

Much Ado About Nothing (2015)

The path of true love proves to be anything but smooth for not one but two sets of star-crossed lovers in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, one of Shakespeare’s most romantic, yet comedic tales. For young Claudio and his lady Hero, their happiness is threatened by the Machiavellian scheming of the plain-dealing villain, Don John. For self-professed lifelong batchelor Benedict and the independently minded and sharp-tongued Beatrice, the biggest obstacles are…themselves!

By turns funny, touching, heart-breaking and hilarious, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ is the perfect way to spend an English Summer evening.

Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the Italian town of Messina. He shares his villa with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his clever but cynical niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio. As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome his good friend, Don Pedro, home from war. Don Pedro, a prince, is accompanied by two friends and fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a joker who delights in teasing his colleagues. With them too comes Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, a sullen, spiteful individual who resents others’ happiness.

After the soldiers arrive, Claudio swiftly falls in love with Hero, while Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of words that they have carried on with each other for years. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be married. But to pass the days before the wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to trick Beatrice and Benedick, who are obviously meant for each other, into falling in love.

However, Don John intends to spoil everything. He plots with his followers Borachio and Conrade to ruin Hero’s reputation. And taken in by the treacherous scheme, an enraged Claudio humiliates Hero at the wedding by accusing her of lechery and abandoning her at the altar. Horrified, Hero’s family pretend that she has died of shock and grief and hide her away. Fortunately, a passing watch patrol overhear Borachio drunkenly bragging about his misdeeds to Conrade. Dogberry and Verges, the bumbling heads of the local watch, eventually arrest them and drag them in front of the local magistrate, Leonato. The truth of Don John’s plot is thus revealed, and Claudio and Don Pedro, who believe Hero is dead, are grief stricken.

Leonato tells Claudio that, as a penance for his misjudgement, he must marry his brother Antonio’s daughter — a girl who, he says, looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, solemnly prepared to do his duty and marry the mysterious, masked woman he finds there. But when the masked woman reveals herself to be Hero, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy and all is forgiven.

Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some verbal sparring, she agrees. The joyful lovers then celebrate with a double wedding as Don John, who had attempted to escape, is dragged back to face his half-brother’s justice.

The Adventures of Jason and the Argonauts

The legends of Ancient Greece have continued to weave their magic through our imaginations for over two thousand years. The capricious Gods and Goddesses of Mount Olympus playing with the fates of ordinary mortals for both good and ill. But from the ranks of those mortals came the fabled heroes, those who rose to the challenges and won out despite all. Odysseus taking on the mighty one-eyed giant Cyclops. Theseus defeating the monstrous Minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete. Jason and his Argonauts travelling far and risking everything in search of the Golden Fleece.

This last provides the basis for our winter production. But don’t worry, you won’t need a degree in the classics to work out what’s going on. This is a very loose interpretation of the myths handed down over the centuries. Jason and Medea are two mixed-up kids, an orphan and a runaway, who suddenly find themselves tasked with overthrowing the evil tyrant King Pelias. With a certain amount of divine intervention, Jason becomes the captain of the mighty ‘Argo’, a ship capable of crossing the uncharted seas, with a crew of oddball heroes including the world’s strongest (and possibly clumsiest) man, a wonderful woman warrior, a resting rock star, the least identical twins ever and a seriously streetwise cat. Now he must set off and find the Golden Fleece. If only he knew what it was. And then there are the challenges. The man-eating Harpies of Lemnos, the terrible Clashing Rocks, the fire-breathing Great Bull of Colchis, the evil Dragon Snake and Talos, the bronze giant. (Who might just be a really cool sock puppet.) Not to mention The Sirens…

Medea, Jason and his misfit Argonauts are here this December to have fun. This will be no ordinary adventure tale, but one with songs and laughter, and we’ll be encouraging you to join in, whether you’re five or sixty five. Ever fancied rowing the Argo? You’ll get your chance. Become part of the undead army of skeleton warriors? Oh yes.

The award-winning author of ‘Jason and the Argonauts’, Phil Willmott, is mainly famous around these parts for his creation of the hilariously stiff upper-lipped ‘Dick Barton – Special Agent’ spoofs that were so much a part of the sadly demised Warehouse Theatre in Croydon. But he’s written, adapted and directed numerous productions, many derived from classical sources, and we’re more than pleased to link up with him again.

Sherlock Holmes and the Sons of Anubis

From the depths of ancient Egypt an ancient evil is rising, claiming the lives of those who have ransacked its history.

Is this a curse? An occult threat from which there is no defence? Or is there another side to this mystery, something more earthly yet just as deadly? What did Lord Caerphilly’s expedition to the Valley of the Kings disturb, and most importantly, how can it be stopped?

Richard Lloyd’s second exploration into the world of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation follows on from the success of ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Vampyres of London’, in which the legendary detective faced the iconic prince of darkness, Dracula. This time, as before, real and fictional characters of the period are combined in one fiendish mystery.

Holmes and his trusted companion Dr John Watson travel the streets of Victorian London, from the hallowed British Museum to the seedy brothels of London’s West End in search of the answer to a mystery that if unsolved, may see an empire fall. Which of its denizens may hold the vital clues? Lady Mountjoy, a woman whose most fervent desire is to see the treasures of the tombs returned? Agrippina Bligh, an unscrupulous Madam in a dark trade with darker secrets? The mysterious Egyptian Afzad Azul, who may as easily be allied with demons as angels?

Time is running out…

A Christmas Carol (2023)

The Past Is Forfeit. The Future In Peril. The Present In The Balance. All That Matters Is Now.

It’s Christmas Eve! A time for joyful anticipation, celebration and goodwill to all!

Perhaps not all. To the poor and the hungry in Victorian London, Christmas Day is just another day to struggle through. And for Ebenezer Scrooge it’s a day lost, with business left undone and money misspent. Happy Christmas? Bah, Humbug! But tonight, at midnight, Scrooge will be forced to confront the choices he has made, the opportunities he’s missed and the bleak future that lies ahead, unless he can change…

Although Charles Dickens wrote many classic stories, from Oliver Twist to Great Expectations, there is surely no tale of his more famous, or heart-warming, than ‘A Christmas Carol’. Written in 1843, Dickens paints his protagonist in dreary colours. Ebeneezer Scrooge is a mean-spirited, grasping and bitter individual, shorn of all the things that make a life worth living by choice. Though wealthy, his existence is impoverished, begrudging spending his hard earned coin on anything that might provide a crumb of comfort, either to himself or those around him. He treats his employee with disdain, his nephew as a fool. But on one Christmas Eve, he is forced to look hard at what he has done with his life, and what his actions have meant for others. Three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, show Ebeneezer where he has come from, where he is now, and the cold, unloved end of his days on the path he is destined to take. Will he change his ways? Can he change?

A time-honoured story of redemption, with love, laughter, song and a warmth to melt even the meanest misers’ heart, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon is proud to present ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon is also pleased to be able to partner with the Purley Food Hub for this production. Dickens was very much a social reformer and the plight of families and children with little food, especially at Christmas, was a source of concern reflected in his writings and emphasised in this version of his story. A Purley Food Hub collection point for voluntary food donations will be set up at the Coulson Community Centre for the duration of the run of the show, from December 9 through to December 17.

Come along, enjoy the show and perhaps make Christmas a little better for someone else too.

The Tempest

Torn from the sky!

Returning to its homeland from a royal wedding in distant Tunis, the ‘Napoli Rex’, flagship of the King of Naples’ airfleet, is pulled from the sky by a violent and unnatural storm.

The survivors find themselves scattered across a barren island populated with magical creatures and spirits, fearing for their very lives. And behind this seeming disaster is Prospero, an exiled sorcerer seeking vengeance…

Shakespeare’s final play is his crowning glory, a tale of magic, love, humour and redemption.

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon have placed ‘The Tempest’ in a steampunk-flavoured Victorian age, where the might of an industrial revolution with its airships, guns and steam-power is confronted with forces beyond its wildest imagining…

Years ago, Prospero forsook his duties as the Duke of Milan to study the arcane arts. With his attention elsewhere, he was unprepared for the coup that saw him dragged from his position and sent out to die alongside his baby daughter, Miranda. By merest chance they survived, crash-landing on a remote and barren island in the Mediterranean, and with the help of two servants, the sprite Ariel and the twisted creature that is Caliban, Prospero lived on and plotted revenge. Now chance again plays into his hands, as those he would mete out vengeance to have been driven to the island by a tempest, their airship torn from the skies and the passengers and crew thrown down. However, he has reckoned without Miranda (now grown to womanhood) and her response to these strange new visitors, one of whom she falls in love with…

Shakespeare’s last play is here transported to a neo-Victorian setting, played out in the traverse among the broken spars and debris of his downed airship, the ‘Milano’. Prospero’s sorcery here vies with magic lanterns and steam-powered pistols in a unique take on the bard’s farewell to the stage.

Grimm Tales (2022)

Dare you go down to the woods today?

Theatre Workshop Coulsdon has adapted ten of the most famous tales from the Brothers Grimm into a single play. By turns magical, terrifying comic and profound, our ‘Grimm Tales’ is a festive theatrical treat for all the family (well, almost), delving as deep as the dwarves into a rich dark seam of lost European folklore.

The tales we’ve included, from ‘Hansel and Gretel’ to ‘Little Red Cap’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Rumpelstiltskin’, are stripped back to their origins, freed from layers of Victorian prudery and Disney schmaltz, revealing the simple, undiluted truths of these ancient stories. Often funny, sometimes brutal, occasionally touching – they’re familiar yet strange, like something you’ve always known, but are only now seeing them for the first time.

Some of them include some old-fashioned fairy tale revenge, mayhem and a modest amount of gore. In other words, just the kind of things that generations of kids have grown up loving! That said, it’s probably not really suitable for toddlers and the very young. Or those of a particularly nervous disposition.

So join us on a journey to the dark heart of the forest. It all starts with ‘Once upon a time…’

About the Brothers Grimm

The root of all theatre is storytelling. Our performance of ‘Grimm Tales’ is based on some of the best-known stories of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm – those avid collectors of folk tales from across the German-speaking lands of central Europe.

The brothers grew up in the late Eighteenth Century – the flowering of the period of European Romanticism. The German romantics sought Der Volkseele or ‘folk-psyche’, and returned to the folksongs, ballads, and folk tales of earlier centuries to find it. The simplicity and truth of these folk traditions, despised by the highbrow thinkers of the Enlightenment, suddenly acquired a new value. They pointed to a rich, oral, pan-Germanic cultural legacy.

This quest for a distinctive German identity was given huge impetus in the early Nineteenth Century, when the patchwork of German states, great and small, had been laid waste by Napoleon, and all things German had been crushed under the ascendancy of all things French. For the Grimms, collecting old stories from across the German-speaking lands, became a mission to reinvent a distinctive German culture. Der Volkseele would reinvigorate and bind together the disparate peoples and states of the German nation – culturally, if not politically. In this, the work of the Brothers Grimm foreshadowed German unification, which followed in 1870.

The brothers travelled all over Europe to collect their tales, from the Baltics to Bohemia, Switzerland to Schleswig-Holstein, hoovering up every scrap and morsel of part-remembered fable, coaxed from nobleman and peasant alike. They transcribed these contributions as faithfully as possible, binding in authentic bits of nonsense, dialect words, old sayings, arcane rhymes and doggerel, just as they had been told to them.

In their devoted search for origins, the brothers invented the modern science of folklorism. By the 1850s they’d published seven editions of their two volumes of collected tales. By the end of the Nineteenth century, their 200 or so tales had been translated so widely that they were renowned around the world. Today, they remain the most popular and famous collection of folk stories in the Western world.

1918 – When The Guns Fell Silent

A dramatic exploration of the final year of the Great War and its aftermath.

100 Years ago the Great War entered its final few months. Victory was close. But for who? And at what cost? The world would never be the same again. The social landscape of Britain altered forever.

Using songs, readings, poetry and drama, even humour, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon explores this final year of tears and revolution, and looks beyond to see the impact that this bloody clash of empires made on the century that followed.

And exhibition on the First World War and the fallen soldiers of Coulsdon, curated by local researchers, will accompany the production.

What are you about to see? It’s a good question. It’s not a play, but there is drama. It’s definitely not a comedy, although there is humour. It’s not a lecture either, though we do hope you go away with a better understanding of the events of a century ago. When it was proposed last December, one of the biggest drivers was that this would our last opportunity to explore the Great War and still be relevant to the centenary. We’d run ‘Oh, What A Lovely War’ some years back, and we could have just reprised that, but we didn’t want to cover old ground. And we didn’t just want to look at the war in general. This is the 100th anniversary of 1918, and so we wanted to focus as far as we could on that specific year.

Throughout January, February and yes, even March, we wrote dramas and narratives looking at subjects that the events of 1918 brought to the fore. Topics that interested and excited us. And we hope will interest and excite you too. Over the next couple of hours you will see them, interspersed with the poems of Sassoon, Houseman and others, along with songs either of the time or looking back at it, and a number of the ‘Forgotten Voices’ of soldiers who fought during the War. And yes, an episode from ‘Oh, What A Lovely War’. We follow a rough chronology, from January 1918 through until the modern day, hopefully showing that even now, the echoes of the war to end all wars continue to affect us.

We haven’t managed to cover everything. There’s nothing here, for instance, about the exploits of the fledgling RAF, the first London Blitz or the Spanish Flu epidemic. What we do have is, I think, an attempt to show that the soldiers of both sides were very much the same, in their hopes, expectations and experiences.

It was a war that saw over 19 million deaths, military and civilian, and over 23 million other casualties, ultimately all for no real purpose. Maybe, even 100 years on, it’s not too late to learn the lesson of the futility of war. But as George Ellison, the last British soldier to be killed in the war, and a character you will see in our performance says, ‘if we haven’t learned from this, we’ll never bloody learn…’

The Producers

The Producers was Mel Brooks’ first ever movie back in 1968. Starring Zero Mostel as Max and Gene Wilder as Leo, it became both a cult and a commercial success, and Brooks even picked up an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. An improbable hit as a movie, it was an even less likely one as a Broadway musical, which Brooks did in 2001. A byword for tongue-in-cheek bad taste, it became the most successful Broadway show of all time, winning a record breaking 12 Tony awards and running for more than 2,500 performances over six years. And then art imitated art, as a movie of the musical based on a movie came out in 2005, starring Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman.

Born into a German Jewish family who fled the Nazis in the 1930’s, Mel Brooks was uniquely qualified to poke merciless fun at the Third Reich. Frankly, it’s impossible to believe that anyone without his background could have got away with it. Then again, the whole premise of a couple of Jewish con-men staging a sure-fire Broadway flop based on a camp musical about Adolf Hitler is so absurd, it would be difficult for anyone to take genuine offence. Besides, Brooks has many targets for his satire in The Producers – not least the whole shallow pretentious ‘bubble’ of Broadway itself. (Which is rather ironic, as it turns out, given the huge success of the show.)

The Producers is an extraordinary musical. Set in New York in 1959, the one-time ‘King of Broadway’, Max Bialystock, sees his latest show ‘Funny Boy’ close after just one night. Down and out, dependent on playing the aging lothario to wealthy but very elderly spinsters and widows, Max is thrown a lifeline back to success and the high life in the unlikely form of timorous accountant, Leo Bloom. Bloom discovers that a flop show can make more money than a hit, and so the two set out to lie, cheat and schmooze their way to a million bucks by staging a sure-fire Broadway flop – the worst taste musical ever written: ‘Springtime For Hitler’. The rest is showbiz history. Bursting with laugh-out-loud jokes and outrageously funny musical numbers, The Producers is pure, unadulterated joy.

Now it’s fair to say that Theatre Workshop Coulsdon are not, first and foremost, a musical group. But we do like projects that are a bit unexpected. So we’ve rescued ‘The Producers’ from the cold dead clutches of of the light-operatic am-dram circuit, and given it the down-and-dirty TWC makeover it deserves. We aren’t dancers, we aren’t singers. We don’t have the required 37-piece orchestra. But we do have a bunch of talented musicians and chutzpah to spare, and what could be more in keeping with the spirit of Mel Brooks than that? We hope you enjoy the show!