The star, glittering with an ever-so-slightly fading brilliance at the centre of this world is matinee idol Gary Essendine. He is especially beset by two women who both in their different ways are determined to resort to any trick in order to gain his amorous favours. Then there is his secretary who makes valiant but often unsuccessful efforts to organise his waking hours, and his estranged wife who calmly and cooly manipulates his life in order to save him from himself.

Add to this richly dramatic mixture, an engaging but distinctly un-Jeeves like louche valet, and a gloomy Swedish Spiritualist housekeeper, and Coward has provided us with the perfect recipe for a satisfying, fizzy and enchantingly funny evening.

Frayn's fascinating and passionate play attempts to reconstruct that meeting and to explore the enormous moral dilemma confronting two men, brilliant men but also ordinary family men on opposite sides of the war, who are contemplating the fact that their researches have helped spawn a weapon of unimaginable destruction.

Book by Richard Morris & Dick Scanlan
New Music by Jeanine Tesori
New Lyrics by Dick Scanlan

An amateur production by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited.

Millie has a plan to find and marry the richest man she can find. But not all things work out as she would like as she has to cope with work, real love and all her female friends disappearing! An action packed comedy set in the 1920's, full of classic songs and dances

Christmas !! What do the exclamation marks mean for you?

Alan Ayckbourn, that master of mayhem, explores the chaos that is all too often Christmas in this riotous comedy.

Yes, you will recognise all the characters on the stage. Yes, you will recognise a version of each calamity as it inexorably unfolds. Yes, you will laugh, sometimes almost uncontrollably. But the play is a mirror, and remember, by the time you see it, another Christmas will be upon you.

Ho ! Ho! Ho?

Young James, orphaned when his parents are run down by a rampaging rhinoceros, is left with his aunts, who treat him rather horribly. He rebels and you can follow his remarkable adventures as he travels right across the Atlantic to find happiness in an amazing, wacky and fantastic home with his new friends, Centipede, Earthworm, Grasshopper, Ladybird and Spider.

Delightful entertainment for the whole family.

Matinee and evening performances on different days, before and after Christmas - see booking form for details

Curtain up at 7:30pm

Leon Rosselson in concert, to launch his new CD 'A Proper State'

Alan Bennett's moving and funny dramatisation of his encounter with Miss Mary Shepherd, an elderly and malodorous eccentric living in an ancient van near his Camden Town home.

Assuming her stay to be temporary (she announced she would 'shortly be moving on to St Albans? possibly') he let her park in his garden ? where she stayed for the next fifteen years! An interlude that was to change the life of one of Britain's favourite playwrights.

A one man magic show with VAT (Very Amusing Tricks)

Laughter and astonishment go hand in hand as Ian hilariously tells how he made the transition from accountant to magical comedian (from ledger to legerdemain!), climaxing in his award winning act that has taken him all over the world.

Experience for yourself the excitement and exhilaration of seeing magic live, with the added ingredient of a modern day, humorous and sophisticated format that treats everybody, whatever their age, as intelligent adults. This is a laugh out loud show, full of magical unexpected twists and turns.

Starts at 7:30pm

A comic opera set in Lima in Peru.

It is the Viceroy's birthday, everybody is celebrating. Piquillo and Périchole, two itinerant street singers, so poor they can't afford to get married, are entertaining the crowds. The lecherous viceroy is taken by Périchole's beauty and wants her to move into his palace as a 'lady in waiting'?. But protocol says she has to be married. Unaware, the inebriated Piquillo is dragged in off the street as the groom, and ends up, superfluous, in prison? However, a happy ending is in store for the lovers.

Offenbach's score is rich in Spanish and French (if not Peruvian) suggestions.... Boleros, seguedillas, fandangos, waltzes, marches.... one of his most magical creations.

Matinees at 2pm, evening performances at 7:30pm

The Shakespeare Schools Festival and The Abbey Theatre are pleased to present again this celebration of Shakespeare

? a new one act play. There will be two performances in the Studio, on Thursday 27th and Saturday 29th March, at 8pm.

The play will represent the Company of Ten at the Cambridge and Welwyn Drama Festivals. It is directed by Nicki Davey, with a cast of Rosemarie Partridge and Keith Davey.

Arrivals runs for approximately 45 minutes. It concerns people who have been subjected to torture and, within that context, there is reference to sexual violence, which some might find disturbing, or even offensive.

Evenings, 8pm; Saturday matinee 3pm

Inspired by the stories of Rudyard Kipling, Just So follows the curious Elephant's Child in his quest to save the land from the giant crab, Pau Amma. Assisted on the way by the Eldest Magician and the reluctant, and often sarcastic, Kolokolo Bird, the Elephant's Child seeks to help everyone he meets, not always successfully! Discover how Zebra gets her stripes, how Leopard gets his spots and finally how the Elephant's Child gets his trunk! Will Pau Amma be defeated? Why not come along and see for yourselves?

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited on behalf of Music Theatre International of New York and Cameron Mackintosh Limited.

SOLD OUT

Jane, a penniless orphan, is left in the care of her vicious and unsympathetic Aunt Reed. Her defiant spirit is roused by her harsh treatment, and a passionate outburst leads to her consignment to a grim boarding school. Her determination enables her to become a teacher. Eventually she moves away to become a governess to the ward of the rich brooding owner of Thornfield Hall.

Mr Rochester, dark and sardonic, is fascinated by Jane's sharp wit and independence, and they fall in love. Violent events and dark secrets stand in the way of their union but the eventual resolution is as beautiful as it is unexpected.

Polly Teale's dramatisation has liberated Jane Eyre in a way that Charlotte Brontë could not. Her most inspired idea is to make ?the mad woman in the attic' into an alter ego for Jane's passionate but repressed nature. This fast-paced vivid and exciting adaptation conjures up the fiery heart of the novel whilst retaining the strange and unforgettable atmosphere evoked by the power of the rare Brontë imagination .

The potent mixture of raw emotion and sexuality in Tennessee Williams' lyrical dialogue has proved compelling viewing since it was first staged in 1947.

An evening of new North American plays

In Erin & Elizabeth writer/performer Kelsey Kilburn explores the beauty and significance of childhood friendship. We follow two young girls as they meet at summer camp and form an unbreakable bond which spans their adolescence. We join the narrator as she struggles with the separation that ultimately befalls them.

Erin & Elizabeth is a moving tale of loss and memory; and above all a portrait of what true friendship can be.

Upon its US Premiere in 2000, Nocturne, by the acclaimed American writer Adam Rapp, was described, among other things, as 'unnerving', 'lushly poetic', and 'tragically eloquent'. It begins with the simple fact: 'Fifteen years ago I killed my sister'. The protagonist, a lonely writer hiding in his book-laden New York apartment, recounts the accident that led him to such isolation. Nocturne charts the pain, loss, and reality of a man trapped in grief, and is being performed by Ian Jordan

An exhilarating musical comedy following the story of Marvin and his not so conventional family! Marvin has left his wife and son for another man, the enigmatic Whizzer. Trina, Marvin's wife has run off with Marvin's Psychiatrist! Jason, Marvin's son, is worried that he'll grow up to be just like his father! Add the traumatic appearance of AIDS and the Lesbians from next door and you have a musical like no other! Performed by a hugely talented company, whose previous shows include Sondheim's Assassins, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and With A Song In My Heart at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

All profits donated to the National AIDS Trust

The heroine of the piece, Constance Middleton, is the upper-crust (and constant) wife of John, a Harley Street surgeon. He is the talk of the town, or at least the talk of her family and friends, including her mother, Mrs Culver (a witty, insightful and thoroughly delightful old lady) and Constance's unmarried and interfering sister, Martha. Both are concerned about the philandering John's extra-marital affair with Constance's best friend, Marie Louise. As ever, it seems that it is always the wife who is the last to know.

The truth eventually comes out in gloriously comic scene that involves Marie Louise's cuckolded and apoplectic husband, Mortimer. And, waiting on the side-lines, Bernard, an old beau of Constance's from her maiden years! The surprises still surprise, as they have been doing since 1927, and Maugham adds one extra twist to the plot that adds shock and outrageous charm. A recipe from a master playwright that never fails.

CANCELLED. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, Futures Theatre Company have been forced to shorten their tour of this production, and the performances at the Abbey Theatre have been cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience.

A powerful and inspiring play about domestic violence from the perspective of the child. Suitable for over 13's.

1pm Schools matinee and 7.0pm on 23 June only