2020s Productions | Nailsea Little Theatre

Past Productions 2025 to Date

Use the arrows next to the pictures on this page

to scroll through them, or click to enlarge

Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter

23rd February - 1st March 2025

This was Jon de Barham's debut as a Director for NLT, who also performed in the play and helped to build the set. He was assisted by Isobel Williams. It was a very powerful and moving production, received to great acclaim by our audiences.

We see the cast of seven seven-year-olds in real time on a summer afternoon during the Second World War playing in the Forest of Dean. This play, on the face of it simple and amusing with adult actors presenting children, has a very much deeper and darker message to offer, that of how human frailties and thought can be passed down from generation to generation. The children play, fight, fantasise and swagger, their aggressions, fears, hostilities and rivalries a microcosm of adult interaction.

The play was Stage Managed by Helen Woodcock, again with a fantastic set designed and built by Barrie Walker and his team. Dave Sims created the excellent special effects.

The cast comprised:

Willie - Steve Allan, Peter - Darren Burrett, John - Robery Gray, Raymond - Terry Emm, Angela - Julie Lawrence-Allan, Audrey - Katy Moody, Donald - John de Barham.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson

Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th June 2025

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, the inspiration behind today’s modern style of policing, gets a gloriously funny makeover in this ‘wonderfully barking spoof’ [Telegraph].

When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate, with a look of terror still etched on his face, and the paw prints of a gigantic hound beside his body, the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Dr Watson are employed to unravel the mysteries surrounding his death and investigate the ancient curse of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Be assured, as an audience you have nothing to fear…unless, of course, your name is Baskerville.

The play was directed by Phil Kingsley-Jones and Stage Managed by Helen Woodcock. Barrie Walker and his team designed and built the ingenious, ever changing set and Dave Sims orchestrated over 200 sound and lighting cues.

The cast comprised:

Sherlock Holmes - Steve Harrison, Watson - Becky Kingsley-Jones, Sir Charles and Sir Henry Baskerville - Charlie Delahunty, Motimer / Yokel 1 / Mrs Barrymore - Jan Winters, Cabbie / Guard on train / Cecile - Victoria Andrews, Yokel 2 / Stapleton - Ginny Watts, Slasher Sheldon / Barrymore - Katy Moody.

The Charitable Sisterhood of the

Second Trinity Victory Church

a Comedy by Bo Wilson

Sunday 2nd to Saturday 8th November 2025

The roads are flooded, the bridges are washed out, and less generous souls are staying indoors, but it takes more than a little rain to keep the ladies of the Charitable Sisterhood from fulfilling their sworn mission. When these ladies meet to organise a relief effort for homeless Guatemalans, they are greeted with a small mountain of community donations - but one woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure and that pile of stuff is hiding a thing or two…..

We join our five angels of mercy as they do their best to help the victims of global disaster, spiritual deprivation and most of all one another. A hilarious and heartwarming play. The Richmond Times-Dispatch said, “These charitable sisters are like the women of Steel Magnolias with a few unexpected twists”

Sandra Goodall not only directed the play but also took over one of the major roles at relatively short notice. Helen Woodcock. was Stage Manager.

Barrie Walker and his team designed and built the set, clever as ever. For the first time Darren Burrett and John de Barham took over the Lighting and Sound from Dave Sims, but not before Dave had advised and trained them how to do it.

The cast comprised:

Tina Yates - Isobel Williams, Lorraine Jensen - Laura Hill, Bea Littleton - Sandra Goodall, Janet Murchison - Julie Lawrence-Alan, Riley Reynolds - SophyLelliot, Radio Announcer voiceover - John de Barham, Deputy Sheriff voiceover - Darren Burrett.

Hansard by Simon Woods A Script-in-Hand Performance

Friday 21st November 2025

A new venture at the Little Theatre of script-in-hand performances attracted a packed house – and raised cash for charity, too. Almost 50 club members and guests were treated to a powerful night of drama in a rehearsed reading of Simon Woods’ ‘Hansard’. Set in the 1980s height of Margaret Thatcher’s years in power, the play tells the intimate story of a desperately unhappy marriage against a background of caustic political sparring.

The audience reeled with laughter at Woods’ elegant attacks on the orthodoxies of both Left and Right before being moved near to tears by the emotional climax to his story of MP Robin Hesketh (played by John de Barham) and his wife, Diana (Ginny Watts). Dave Sims provided light, sound and other effects for the production which was directed by Steve Harrison.

Entry to the show was free but the audience was asked to make donations to Nailsea’s Memory Café, which helps dementia sufferers and their carers. It responded magnificently, giving almost £165. The Club made this up to £250 by donating most of the profits on the bar for the evening and coupled with a further £250 from the proceeds of the recent Harry Brown's visiting production, the Cub was able to donate a total of £500 to the Memory Café.

‘Hansard’ is planned to be the first in a series of three rehearsed readings during the Little Theatre’s 2025/26 season.
The next two are currently scheduled for 20 March and 5 June 2026 (play choices to be confirmed later).

The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan

Sunday 15th to Saturday 21st February 2026

This play explores female agency through Hester Collyer, with her emotional and existential struggle at its heart. Her journey offers a compelling lens through which we witness a woman asserting control over her life in a society that offers her few real choices. Hester defies the rigid expectations of post-war British society by leaving her respectable marriage to Sir William Collyer. In choosing passion over propriety and emotional truth over social conformity, she makes a radical act of self-determination that challenges the era’s prescribed roles for women.Unfolding over a single day, Hester confronts the collapse of her relationship with Freddie Page, an ex-RAF pilot. The intensity that once sustained her now threatens to consume her. Caught between the “devil and the deep blue sea” — between the security of a loveless marriage and the instability of a failing affair — Hester must decide whether to continue living, and if so, how to find meaning in a world that seems to offer her no place.

The play was directed by Vicki Hyde, Stage Manager was Ginny Watts and Dave Sims looked after the lighting and sound. The Set was constucted by John de Barham, John O'Hara, Dave Sims and David Webber.

The cast comprised:

Hester Collyer - Isobel Williams, Mrs Elton - Becky Kingsley-Jones, Philip Wech - Martin Baker, Ann Welch - Ashley Bryant, Mr Miller - John de Barham, Freddie Page - Darren Burrett, Jackie Jackson - Phil Kingsley-Jones.

A Bunch of Amateurs

by Nick Newman and Ian Hislop

Sunday 17th to Saturday 23rd May 2026

Fading Hollywood star Jefferson Steel comes to England to play King Lear in a Royal Shakespeare Company production at Stratford. It is only when he arrives that he finds his agent has actually booked him to appear with the Stratford Players, a small amateur group based in Stratford St. John in Suffolk. As the play unfolds we see how Dorothy, the Director and moving force behind the company, and its other members, cope, or don't, with this misunderstanding to great comedic effect. They are also joined by Jefferson's teenage daughter, who has been neglected by her father and now wants to make him pay for it.

The play was directed by Connie Walker, Produced and Stage Managed by Tony Sutcliffe, Dave Sims looked after the lighting and Josh Lelliot-Pasley was on sound. The Set was constucted by John O'Hara, Dave Sims and David Webber.

This show sold out for the whole week before the first performance, the Sunday Matinee being the first to fill up.

The cast comprised:

Jefferson Steel - Phil Kingsley-Jones, Dorothy Nettle - Becky Kingsley-Jones, Jessica Steel - Sophy Lelliot-Pasley, Nigel Dewbury - Steve Harrison, Mary Plunkett - Ginny Watts, Dennis Dobbins - Terry Emm, Lauren Bell - Abi Armstrong.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
adapted by John de Barham
Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th November 2026

Most of us, whatever our age or background, are familiar with the avarice (and belated conversion) of Ebenezer Scrooge, be it through Alastair Sim, Albert Finney or The Muppets….and soon to be Johnny Depp! Here at Nailsea Little Theatre we felt it was time for us to offer this festive classic, adapted from Dickens’ novella of December 1843 – a time in Victorian Britain where the card, the carols, mistletoe and the Christmas tree were reviving in popularity and pudding, turkey and punch were the fare for the big day.

Dickens’ visit to the Ragged School for poor and illiterate street children, along with his own experience as a 12-year-old working in a shoe blacking factory, prompted his compassionate inclusion of the plight of children in his novels. But let’s not get too maudlin. A review in The Illustrated London News described the story thus: “impressive eloquence…its unfeigned lightness of heart – its playful and sparkling humour with ourselves, with each other, and the season and the author.”

The play was adapted and directed by John de Barham and Stage Managed by Stuart Corfield. Sam Rowe and his team looked after the lighting and sound with assistance from Dave Sims. The Set was constructed and painted by John de Barham, David Webber and John O'Hara. For the first time Pauline Tillet was in charge of the excellent period costumes, making many of them herself.

This show again sold out for the whole week well in advance of the first performance.

Bob Beale starred as Ebenezer Scrooge, ably supported by a large cast with many of them playing multiple roles. They comprised: Victoria Andrews, Abi Armstrong, Darren Burrett, Stuart Corfield, Terry Emm, Steve Harrison, Rosemarie Hill, Amy Holland, Klaus Isom, Josh Lelliot-Pasley, Sophy Lelliot-Pasley, Ginny Watts and Isobel Williams.