What’s On

In March 2019, Amelia Marriette was going to launch her book Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature in Malvern, her hometown. But due to Covid-19, the event had to be postponed. So, we are delighted to announce that Amelia will be here visiting the UK from Austria.
Amelia will also be talking about her next book – based on the diaries and watercolours of her father, Leonard Eason, which cover his time in Austria from 1946-1948.
- Price:
- Free Admission
- Show Times:
- Sunday 28th August at 1.30pm

Performed by the award winning Natura Contemporary Theatre Company, The Gardening Times, tells the story of how a North Gloucestershire garden was created by the Lady of the House, the Head Gardener, the Under Gardener and He-Who-Cuts-The-Grass.
Humorous and engaging, The Gardening Times, is written by sisters, Angela and Caroline Summerfield (Jane Austen and The Cheltonians – Best Stage Drama 2021 Writer’s Guild nominee), as an uplifting response to our present times. Starring the award winning actress, Ellie Darvill.
WRITTEN BY: ANGELA AND CAROLINE SUMMERFIELD
DIRECTED BY: CAROLINE SUMMERFIELD
PRODUCED BY: NATURA CONTEMPORARY THEATRE COMPANY
From the original radio series, broadcasted on BHBN. The inspiration for The Gardening Times came from the parkland garden which Angela and Caroline created for their family home in the Cotswolds.
The Gardening Times is beautifully written and well produced with high quality sound effects and sympathetic music. The voice acting from Ellie Darvill is exceptional, so wonderfully descriptive with a great sense of comedic timing. – (David Horton, BHBN Radio Vice -Chairman & Producer of the Morning Show)

Performed by the award winning Natura Contemporary Theatre Company, The Gardening Times, tells the story of how a North Gloucestershire garden was created by the Lady of the House, the Head Gardener, the Under Gardener and He-Who-Cuts-The-Grass.
Humorous and engaging, The Gardening Times, is written by sisters, Angela and Caroline Summerfield (Jane Austen and The Cheltonians – Best Stage Drama 2021 Writer’s Guild nominee), as an uplifting response to our present times. Starring the award winning actress, Ellie Darvill.
WRITTEN BY: ANGELA AND CAROLINE SUMMERFIELD
DIRECTED BY: CAROLINE SUMMERFIELD
PRODUCED BY: NATURA CONTEMPORARY THEATRE COMPANY
From the original radio series, broadcasted on BHBN. The inspiration for The Gardening Times came from the parkland garden which Angela and Caroline created for their family home in the Cotswolds.
The Gardening Times is beautifully written and well produced with high quality sound effects and sympathetic music. The voice acting from Ellie Darvill is exceptional, so wonderfully descriptive with a great sense of comedic timing. – (David Horton, BHBN Radio Vice -Chairman & Producer of the Morning Show)

Betrayal, Discrimination, Sexual Exploitation, Domestic Violence and Press Intrusion in the Victorian Music Hall. Don’t seem such “good old days” now, do they…?
Nelly Power, star of the “halls” struck an early blow for women’s rights by owning her own properties and divorcing her husband. She blazed the trail for the other male impersonators who followed her and was a major headliner at all the major theatres. Until her most famous song was stolen by the young Marie Lloyd.
In the centenary year of Marie Lloyd’s death, this is the story of how the “Queen of the Music Hall” came to fame, told from Nelly’s perspective. It’s a bit “Ripper Street” and a bit “Eastenders”. With songs.

Betrayal, Discrimination, Sexual Exploitation, Domestic Violence and Press Intrusion in the Victorian Music Hall. Don’t seem such “good old days” now, do they…?
Nelly Power, star of the “halls” struck an early blow for women’s rights by owning her own properties and divorcing her husband. She blazed the trail for the other male impersonators who followed her and was a major headliner at all the major theatres. Until her most famous song was stolen by the young Marie Lloyd.
In the centenary year of Marie Lloyd’s death, this is the story of how the “Queen of the Music Hall” came to fame, told from Nelly’s perspective. It’s a bit “Ripper Street” and a bit “Eastenders”. With songs.

Starring Liz Grand and directed by Chris Jaeger
When Shakespeare died he famously left his wife Anne only one thing; the Second Best Bed. It has long been debated if this was the ultimate insult or a private joke between a loving couple.
It is the night of Shakespeare’s funeral. The wake has finished and the mourners have all gone home leaving Anne Hathaway to remember her life with the most talented playwright the world has ever seen”. Or was he?
Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays is one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. If anyone were to know the truth it would most certainly be his widow. Wouldn’t it?
onarole.co.uk
Also available to book:

Starring Liz Grand and directed by Chris Jaeger
When Shakespeare died he famously left his wife Anne only one thing; the Second Best Bed. It has long been debated if this was the ultimate insult or a private joke between a loving couple.
It is the night of Shakespeare’s funeral. The wake has finished and the mourners have all gone home leaving Anne Hathaway to remember her life with the most talented playwright the world has ever seen”. Or was he?
Who wrote Shakespeare’s plays is one of the most intriguing mysteries of all time. If anyone were to know the truth it would most certainly be his widow. Wouldn’t it?
onarole.co.uk
Also available to book:

Starring Liz Grand as Clementine Churchill
Written by Kit Hunter
Sir Winston Churchill was recently voted No.1 in the top 100 Britons of all time by a nationwide poll of over a million voters. The epitome of strength, stubbornness and the British bulldog, his inspirational leadership helped win the Second World War, and his parliamentary career ensure that he was responsible for many of the momentous decisions which helped shape this ‘sceptred isle’. He was an MP for 62 years.
They say that behind every great man, there is a great woman. Was this true in Churchill’s case? What of Clementine, his wife for 56 years? Did he bully her like he did so many other people? Was he as grumpy and irascible
home as he often was in the House of Commons? Given his strength and conviction, did Clem have any influence on him at all? Or was she ‘the little lady at home’?
All these questions will be answered, and many more, in Liz Grand’s superb, moving, sensitive and informative portrayal of Clementine Churchill. This was one of the great love affairs of all time, no better illustrated than Winston saying, “my most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”
Liz Grand has toured previous one-woman shows ‘The Second Best Bed’ and ‘Where Is Mrs Christie?’ which have delighted audiences.
Also available to book:

Starring Liz Grand as Clementine Churchill
Written by Kit Hunter
Sir Winston Churchill was recently voted No.1 in the top 100 Britons of all time by a nationwide poll of over a million voters. The epitome of strength, stubbornness and the British bulldog, his inspirational leadership helped win the Second World War, and his parliamentary career ensure that he was responsible for many of the momentous decisions which helped shape this ‘sceptred isle’. He was an MP for 62 years.
They say that behind every great man, there is a great woman. Was this true in Churchill’s case? What of Clementine, his wife for 56 years? Did he bully her like he did so many other people? Was he as grumpy and irascible
home as he often was in the House of Commons? Given his strength and conviction, did Clem have any influence on him at all? Or was she ‘the little lady at home’?
All these questions will be answered, and many more, in Liz Grand’s superb, moving, sensitive and informative portrayal of Clementine Churchill. This was one of the great love affairs of all time, no better illustrated than Winston saying, “my most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”
Liz Grand has toured previous one-woman shows ‘The Second Best Bed’ and ‘Where Is Mrs Christie?’ which have delighted audiences.
Also available to book:

The Mystery of Agatha Christie’s Eleven Lost Days
Starring Liz Grand as Agatha Christie
by Chris Jaeger
Agatha Christie was one of the greatest thriller writers of all time and certainly the most prolific. In 1926, she was at the centre of a mystery as perplexing as any of her fiction, a series of events which sparked one of the biggest and most extensive police hunts in history. Her crashed car was discovered in Surrey and the famous author was missing, presumed dead by many, for eleven days. However, she was eventually found at a luxury hotel in Harrogate. She claimed then, and for the rest of the life, that she was suffering from amnesia and remembered nothing. Neither the press nor the police believed her.
Did Agatha Christie lie, and if so why? Did she suffer from amnesia? Was it a publicity stunt? Or was there a darker secret involved in this disappearance which was to affect her for the rest of her life? The answer to all these questions will, as in all good thrillers, be revealed!
Also available to book: