Stage

The play will continue to run for a further nine performances, until Saturday September 21. Upon seeing the original production of Flare Path in 1942, Winston Churchill announced that the play was a masterpiece of understatement, focusing, as it does, on the unspoken sacrifices made by individuals in times of national crisis.

Set in the autumn of 1941 in a Lincolnshire hotel where RAF pilots and their crews relax before and after raids over Germany, Rattigan uses a personal dilemma as his means of investigating the group dynamic.

The centre of the story is a love triangle, with Hollywood actor Peter Kyle attempting to win back the love of his old flame, actress Patricia Warren.

The dilemma is that Warren has recently married Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham, an amiable burgeoning war hero still on active duty.

The heart of this play, arguably, lies in the character of Doris, the British barmaid who has married a Polish Flying Officer, a role that requires humour, vulnerability but ultimately a strong sense of character. Flare Path was the first major production in the West End to celebrate the Rattigan centenary.

Lee Russell plays Peter Kyle with Patricia Warren played by Rhiannon Cawthorne, with Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham played by James Underwood. Other roles are taken by Howard Clements, Tony Clegg, Hugh Lambert, Mai Haver, Becky Kordowicz, Jessica Foster and Rachel Wallbank. The show is directed by Steve Mason, assisted by Hannah Williams. The excellent set was designed by David Keighley.

The next Stagefright Comedy Club is just two weeks away on Friday, September 27. The line-up for this night is very impressive, with the headline act being Lost Voice Guy. Lee Ridley (aka Lost Voice Guy) was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and is the first stand-up comedian in the world to use a communication aid. Fresh and unique, he is proving to be both hilarious and thought-provoking. He has appeared on CNN and BBC Breakfast and was nominated for best new show at this year’s Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival. Phil Pagett is described by Mock The Week’s Gary Delaney as “one of the country’s best new gag writers”; Nicola James is described by the BBC as “a sardonic treat”; Kahn Johnson is “an engrossingly likeable character on stage… telling tales that completely rope you in” and the compere is Anthony J Brown, a regular on Phoenix Nights and a contributor to Radio 2’s The Arthur Smith Lectures. Tickets are £12.

The very next evening, on Saturday, September 28, we are delighted to welcome Michael Lunts for our first social night of the new season. Michael is a superb musical entertainer with a huge following nationwide. He will be presenting Tickling the Ivories – a Hundred Years of Comedy Song, featuring Gilbert and Sullivan, Noel Coward, Cole Porter and many more exponents of comedy song. The show takes place in the Wharfeside theatre and also includes a welcoming drink upon arrival and a finger buffet during the interval. Tickets are only £10 – a true bargain and not to be missed by lovers of light music at its very best.

After the Ilkley Literature Festival, with the Playhouse as a significant venue for many of the events, we welcome much-loved cricket commentator and raconteur Henry Blofeld to the Wharfeside Theatre on October 26 – tickets are £15 and continuing to sell very well. He will certainly have stories to tell about this summer’s Ashes series and thoughts about the forthcoming Australian tour, as well as a host of entertaining anecdotes throughout the course of the evening.

We urgently need new volunteers to join us at the Playhouse to assist in a variety of ways. In particular, help behind the bar, serving coffee, performing front of house duties or assisting backstage, or with sound and lighting, would be hugely beneficial to us. Without such help, the Playhouse will begin to struggle to provide all the events and performances for which it has earned such an enviable reputation over the past 80 years and more. New volunteers are asked to contact walter@ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk for further information.

To book Playhouse events call 01943 609539, from 9.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. For further information and to book online, visit ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk.