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21-22 July 1939
Rummaging through the Chelsfield Players archives unearths a show that was performed barely weeks before the outbreak of World War 2. Hassan is a tale of medieval Baghdad, shot through the lens of the Arabian Nights and celebrating an exotic view of the Middle East considered quaint today but alluring at the time. This production appears nowhere in the official archives, but it definitely happened as the photos and reviews prove. Again the producer (i.e. director) was Eric Hart. In the summer of 1939, the Chelsfield Village Hall Dramatic Society produced their first open-air production, very likely on the cricket pitch near where the village hall would one day stand (the reviewer names the venue as “Woodlands”, which we can’t identify for certain). Furthermore, it appears to be the amateur premiere of a play written 25 years before with a cast of 20 or more plus a small orchestra in only the Society’s fourth performance, demonstrating that the idea of amateur theatre had properly grabbed the local imagination in a very short time. The reviewer described the show as “a real triumph” and “a fine show”, with the hope of “many more to follow”. He got his wish: there have been more than 200 so far. |
