“Curtain Up” is the Pilton Players’ spring production in 2010. It will include three one-act plays – amusing, chilling and just plain silly!

This evening of entertainment will take place in the Function Room of Pilton Village Hall at

7.30pm on Friday, April 23^rd and Saturday, April 24^th.

We shall be performing on the new stage funded by grants from Pilton Show, Pilton Hall Trustees and Pilton Players themselves.

In the two intervals the audience can buy drinks from the Working Men’s Club Bar and, hopefully, purchase yet another strip of raffle tickets!

Tickets at £6 for adults and £5 for Senior Citizens will be available from Thursday, April 1^st at Pilton Stores, Pilton Post Office and from Sandra Howe on 01749 890 239.

We shall look forward to seeing you there!

We are always looking for new players but if you do not wish to act, why not help with scenery and backstage?

This is a vital role and is always very much appreciated. However, be warned, we have been known to persuade people to tread the boards if only for a walk-on part!!

PILTON PLAYERS CHRISTMAS REVIEW

Once again Pilton Players pulled out all the stops in their production, ‘The Magic of Christmas.’ This year it was set in the Parish Church, not the easiest venue for a production but as always the Players overcame all obstacles and it was wonderful to see the church used in this way and to see it so full.

The first section consisted of Christmas poems and readings- some which brought a smile and some more serious, such as a passage from ‘Cider with Rosie,’ re-told with such feeling by John Boucher, which took us back to Christmas past.  Alison Ward and Sheila Steward, made us laugh and remember the school plays with their readings by Joyce Grenfell and Willy Russell; and one of the new members of Pilton Players, Kate Gundry gave a very different version of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas.’ It will never be perceived in the same way again!

Potty Pantomime, a short play by John Crocker kept everyone on their toes with its wit and the clever way in which it linked some of the main characters from a variety of pantomimes. Sometimes it seemed a little too slick but the quality of the acting carried it through.

‘The Coming of the Kings’ by Ted Hughes was perhaps the most powerful and thought provoking play of the evening. It re-told the story of Christmas in a new way. The innkeeper and his wife, played by Mark Berry and Pauline Hobbs, made the audience laugh with their domestic quarrels but this in no way detracted from the message of Christmas; of the coming of Christ and the meaning of Christmas, which many of us miss as we get swept along with the nitty-gritty day to day business of living.

The Players not only provided an excellent evening of entertainment but they left everyone who went with a message to take away.  It is up to us now to remember that message in the busy days ahead. Thank you Pilton Players for reminding us of what is important.

By Hilary Austin