By Neil Black
Reporting from the heart of the JQ
As the nights draw in and summer slinks away, like pensioners embarking on a winter cruise, it’s time for the third of the Blue Orange Theatres spooky autumn treats. 2021 brought The Wicked Lady, 2022 The Orphanage with this year’s offering, The Witching Hour.
The play, as the title implies. covers the subject of witchcraft and is set in the both the past and present. Eleanor May Blackburn, playing the accused witch, did a compelling job of showing the hopelessness, once accused of convincing her community, of her innocence. While not covered by the play it made me think how social media now plays a similar role of judging people but opening it up to a much larger audience, the global village.
The Blue Orange Theatre is a wonderful local community theatre and during these tough economic times offers fantastic value, including an affordable theatre bar. However, don’t misinterpret these as amateur gung-ho productions, they are high end professionally produced.
This little theatre, just 110 seats, does a terrific job of staging a small cast play, in the case of The Witching Hour, just four members.
playing five roles, backed up by sound and lighting adding atmosphere and suspense. The sound system consists of 22 speakers which add a depth to the performances which bigger, less intimate, theatres can only dream of.
Don’t worry If horror is not your bag there are plenty of other productions, coming shortly, including Sleeping Beauty, a Christmas Carol and for those of a more adventurous nature a strictly adult pantomime- Blow White…
