Abingdon Drama Club celebrate their 80th anniversary in 2024. Daily Info sits down with the group to discover their exciting plans for their big year.
Daily Info: What does Abingdon Drama Club have planned for their 80th anniversary?
Abingdon Drama Club: In 2024, ADC will celebrate all things British in our productions. British writers and storytelling, our humour, our eccentricity and our fighting spirit. The year is bookended by adaptations of literary classics Peter Pan and A Christmas Carol. In the spring we have a modern theatre classic with Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, which explores the hidden lives of characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the summer we have the hilarious and heartwarming true story of the Calendar Girls.
DI: ADC resides in the Unicorn Theatre. The venue has a rich history, doesn’t it?
ADC: For 70 years ADC have been performing at the Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon. The theatre is named the Unicorn because it was opened in the coronation year of Elizabeth II (1953) and a Unicorn appears on the royal coat of arms. Alan Kitching and his wife Frances were the driving forces behind the project, with designs by Christopher Kempster, art master from Radley College. Boys from the college did most of the building work. Over the years ADC have performed a huge variety of shows on the tiny Jacobean-style stage, from pantomimes, to modern drama, to Shakespeare.
DI: How can be people get involved?
ADC: Anyone interested in drama can take part in the performances onstage or backstage, participate in play readings, or attend theatre workshops.
Contact us at www.abingdon-drama-club.com
DI: With 80 years of productions, what are some of your favourite plays the club have staged?
ADC: ADC have staged a wonderfully eclectic mixture of shows, from pantomimes, which are always a challenge on such a small stage, to modern classics such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Accrington Pals, Brief Encounter, The Cripple of Inishmaan and Breaking the Code.
DI: How would you sum up Abingdon Drama Club in three words?
ADC: In three words - fabulous, funny, family.
Check out all of Abingdon Drama Club's 2024 plans on their website.