The Chelsfield Players
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  • Archive
    • 2020- >
      • The Absence Of War
      • Funny Money
      • A Frightful Evening
      • The Ghost Train
      • Jekyll & Hyde
      • Ladies Down Under
      • The Last Quiz Night On Earth
      • A Legal Murder
      • Silver Lining
      • Steaming
      • Underground
      • The Western Approaches
    • 2010-19 >
      • 1 Flat 3 Stories
      • Abandonment
      • Animal Farm
      • Carrington VC
      • A Christmas Carol
      • The Country Wife
      • Crown Matrimonial
      • Easy Virtue
      • Fawlty Towers 2013
      • Fawlty Towers 2015
      • Feed the Beast
      • FlatSpin
      • Hello, Is There Any Body There?
      • The Hollow
      • Ladies Day
      • A Lady Mislaid
      • La Musica & Perfect Partners
      • Love In A Mist
      • Maskerade
      • Misfits
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • Nobody's Perfect
      • NSFW
      • The Railway Children
      • Salt
      • Sauce For The Goose
      • Six Characters In Search Of An Author
      • This Happy Breed
      • The Thrill of Love
      • Visiting Hour
      • A Wedding Story
      • Wind in the Willows Chelsfield
      • Wind in the Willows Edinburgh
    • 2000-09 >
      • Arsenic and Old Lace
      • Black Comedy
      • Cemetery Club
      • A Chorus Of Disapproval
      • Daisy Pulls It Off
      • Dangerous Corner
      • Fear and Fancy
      • Garden
      • A Ghost On Tiptoe
      • Hobsons Choice
      • House
      • The Importance of Being Earnest
      • Intimate Exchanges
      • Lady Windermeres Fan
      • Loot
      • Lucky Sods
      • Mars & Venus
      • The Merry Wives Of Windsor
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
      • Murder In Company
      • My Three Angels
      • New Directions
      • Over My Dead Body
      • Our Country’s Good
      • Out Of Focus
      • Party Piece
      • Proscenophobia
      • Ring Round The Moon
      • The Rivals
      • Steel Magnolias
      • Stepping Out
      • Strictly Murder
    • 1990-99 >
      • Bedroom Farce
      • Blithe Spirit
      • California Suite
      • Deadly Nightcap
      • Dial M For Murder
      • Dick Turpin
      • Gosforths Fete
      • Hay Fever
      • An Inspector Calls
      • The Late Edwina Black
      • Lord Arthur Saviles Crime
      • Miranda
      • Move Over Mrs Markham
      • Not Now, Darling
      • Pleasures And Perils
      • Round And Round The Garden
      • Seasons Greetings
      • Some Confusions
      • Something To Hide
      • Tartuffe
      • Time And Time Again 1993
      • Time And Time Again 1999
      • Time, Murderer, Please
      • Tons Of Money
      • The Weekend
      • When One Door Closes
      • The Woman In White
    • 1980-89 >
      • Anastasia
      • The Barretts Of Wimpole Street
      • The Brontes
      • Busybody
      • Caught Napping
      • A Friend Indeed
      • Full Treatment
      • Gaslight
      • Mother Goose
      • Murder In Company
      • Nightmare
      • Outside Edge
      • Pink String And Sealing Wax
      • Pygmalion
      • Rape Of The Belt
      • Relative Values
      • Return To Victoria
      • Separate Tables
      • Shut Your Eyes and Think of England
      • Suddenly at Home
      • A Tomb With A View
      • Treasure Hunt
      • When We Are Married
    • 1970-79 >
      • The Aspern Papers
      • Brush With A Body
      • The Chiltern Hundreds
      • The Circle
      • Dandy Dick
      • Dear Charles
      • Fish Out Of Water
      • The House Of Bernada Alba
      • The House On The Cliff
      • An Ideal Husband
      • Ladies In Retirement
      • A Letter From The General
      • The Matchmaker
      • The Rivals
      • The Royal Pardon
      • The Schoolmistress
      • Shadow In The Sun
      • Someone Waiting
      • Spiders Web
      • They Came To A City
      • Wanted: One Body
    • 1960-69 >
      • 1066 And All That
      • Aladdin
      • Antigone and The Critic
      • As You Like It
      • Billy Liar
      • The Bread Winner
      • Breath Of Spring
      • Charleys Aunt
      • A Christmas Carol
      • Cinderella 1965
      • Dick Whittington
      • Flowering Cherry
      • Frost At Midnight
      • Hay Fever
      • The Hollow
      • The House By The Lake
      • Macbeth
      • Man Alive
      • The Merchant Of Venice
      • Midsummer Mink
      • A Midsummer Nights Dream
      • Pantomime 1960
      • The Pen of My Aunt, The Women Have Their Way
      • The Pleasure Garden
      • Pygmalion
      • Rookery Nook
      • The Taming Of The Shrew
      • Tobias and the Angel
      • Twelfth Night
      • Waters Of The Moon
      • The Young Elizabeth
    • 1950-59 >
      • After October
      • The Browning Version, Elegant Edward
      • By Candlelight
      • Count Your Blessings
      • Eden End
      • Grand National Night
      • The Happy Prisoner
      • The Holly And The Ivy
      • The Late Christopher Bean
      • Libel
      • Martine
      • Our Town
      • The Queen and the Rebels
      • Thunder Rock
      • Young Wives Tale
    • 1936-49 >
      • Early 1940s plays
      • 20th Century Lullaby
      • And So To Bed
      • Berkeley Square
      • Cinderella
      • The Corn Is Green
      • Dangerous Corner
      • Distinguished Gathering
      • Duet For Two Hands
      • Elegant Edward (1940s)
      • The Ghost Train
      • Hassan
      • The Importance Of Being Earnest
      • Love From A Stranger
      • The Middle Watch
      • New 66 And All That
      • Night Must Fall
      • Noah
      • Pinocchio
      • The Rivals
      • Roberts Wife
      • This Happy Breed
    • Our History
  • Join Us
    • JimSlips
    • Links >
      • Newsletter
    • Get In Touch
  • Home
  • Productions
    • Future Productions
    • Popular Playwrights
  • Archive
    • 2020- >
      • The Absence Of War
      • Funny Money
      • A Frightful Evening
      • The Ghost Train
      • Jekyll & Hyde
      • Ladies Down Under
      • The Last Quiz Night On Earth
      • A Legal Murder
      • Silver Lining
      • Steaming
      • Underground
      • The Western Approaches
    • 2010-19 >
      • 1 Flat 3 Stories
      • Abandonment
      • Animal Farm
      • Carrington VC
      • A Christmas Carol
      • The Country Wife
      • Crown Matrimonial
      • Easy Virtue
      • Fawlty Towers 2013
      • Fawlty Towers 2015
      • Feed the Beast
      • FlatSpin
      • Hello, Is There Any Body There?
      • The Hollow
      • Ladies Day
      • A Lady Mislaid
      • La Musica & Perfect Partners
      • Love In A Mist
      • Maskerade
      • Misfits
      • Much Ado About Nothing
      • Nobody's Perfect
      • NSFW
      • The Railway Children
      • Salt
      • Sauce For The Goose
      • Six Characters In Search Of An Author
      • This Happy Breed
      • The Thrill of Love
      • Visiting Hour
      • A Wedding Story
      • Wind in the Willows Chelsfield
      • Wind in the Willows Edinburgh
    • 2000-09 >
      • Arsenic and Old Lace
      • Black Comedy
      • Cemetery Club
      • A Chorus Of Disapproval
      • Daisy Pulls It Off
      • Dangerous Corner
      • Fear and Fancy
      • Garden
      • A Ghost On Tiptoe
      • Hobsons Choice
      • House
      • The Importance of Being Earnest
      • Intimate Exchanges
      • Lady Windermeres Fan
      • Loot
      • Lucky Sods
      • Mars & Venus
      • The Merry Wives Of Windsor
      • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
      • Murder In Company
      • My Three Angels
      • New Directions
      • Over My Dead Body
      • Our Country’s Good
      • Out Of Focus
      • Party Piece
      • Proscenophobia
      • Ring Round The Moon
      • The Rivals
      • Steel Magnolias
      • Stepping Out
      • Strictly Murder
    • 1990-99 >
      • Bedroom Farce
      • Blithe Spirit
      • California Suite
      • Deadly Nightcap
      • Dial M For Murder
      • Dick Turpin
      • Gosforths Fete
      • Hay Fever
      • An Inspector Calls
      • The Late Edwina Black
      • Lord Arthur Saviles Crime
      • Miranda
      • Move Over Mrs Markham
      • Not Now, Darling
      • Pleasures And Perils
      • Round And Round The Garden
      • Seasons Greetings
      • Some Confusions
      • Something To Hide
      • Tartuffe
      • Time And Time Again 1993
      • Time And Time Again 1999
      • Time, Murderer, Please
      • Tons Of Money
      • The Weekend
      • When One Door Closes
      • The Woman In White
    • 1980-89 >
      • Anastasia
      • The Barretts Of Wimpole Street
      • The Brontes
      • Busybody
      • Caught Napping
      • A Friend Indeed
      • Full Treatment
      • Gaslight
      • Mother Goose
      • Murder In Company
      • Nightmare
      • Outside Edge
      • Pink String And Sealing Wax
      • Pygmalion
      • Rape Of The Belt
      • Relative Values
      • Return To Victoria
      • Separate Tables
      • Shut Your Eyes and Think of England
      • Suddenly at Home
      • A Tomb With A View
      • Treasure Hunt
      • When We Are Married
    • 1970-79 >
      • The Aspern Papers
      • Brush With A Body
      • The Chiltern Hundreds
      • The Circle
      • Dandy Dick
      • Dear Charles
      • Fish Out Of Water
      • The House Of Bernada Alba
      • The House On The Cliff
      • An Ideal Husband
      • Ladies In Retirement
      • A Letter From The General
      • The Matchmaker
      • The Rivals
      • The Royal Pardon
      • The Schoolmistress
      • Shadow In The Sun
      • Someone Waiting
      • Spiders Web
      • They Came To A City
      • Wanted: One Body
    • 1960-69 >
      • 1066 And All That
      • Aladdin
      • Antigone and The Critic
      • As You Like It
      • Billy Liar
      • The Bread Winner
      • Breath Of Spring
      • Charleys Aunt
      • A Christmas Carol
      • Cinderella 1965
      • Dick Whittington
      • Flowering Cherry
      • Frost At Midnight
      • Hay Fever
      • The Hollow
      • The House By The Lake
      • Macbeth
      • Man Alive
      • The Merchant Of Venice
      • Midsummer Mink
      • A Midsummer Nights Dream
      • Pantomime 1960
      • The Pen of My Aunt, The Women Have Their Way
      • The Pleasure Garden
      • Pygmalion
      • Rookery Nook
      • The Taming Of The Shrew
      • Tobias and the Angel
      • Twelfth Night
      • Waters Of The Moon
      • The Young Elizabeth
    • 1950-59 >
      • After October
      • The Browning Version, Elegant Edward
      • By Candlelight
      • Count Your Blessings
      • Eden End
      • Grand National Night
      • The Happy Prisoner
      • The Holly And The Ivy
      • The Late Christopher Bean
      • Libel
      • Martine
      • Our Town
      • The Queen and the Rebels
      • Thunder Rock
      • Young Wives Tale
    • 1936-49 >
      • Early 1940s plays
      • 20th Century Lullaby
      • And So To Bed
      • Berkeley Square
      • Cinderella
      • The Corn Is Green
      • Dangerous Corner
      • Distinguished Gathering
      • Duet For Two Hands
      • Elegant Edward (1940s)
      • The Ghost Train
      • Hassan
      • The Importance Of Being Earnest
      • Love From A Stranger
      • The Middle Watch
      • New 66 And All That
      • Night Must Fall
      • Noah
      • Pinocchio
      • The Rivals
      • Roberts Wife
      • This Happy Breed
    • Our History
  • Join Us
    • JimSlips
    • Links >
      • Newsletter
    • Get In Touch

Popular Playwrights

Doing it again
This page lists the plays and playwrights that Chelsfield Players have produced most often over the years.

Most amateur societies have their favourite playwrights, and a glance at any society’s archive will list many of the same authors as Chelsfield’s: Shakespeare and classic writers such as Coward, Priestley, Wilde, Rattigan and Sheridan, alongside newer, mostly comic authors such as Ayckbourn, Harris and Cooney. Every society with a long enough history will have produced plays by most if not all of these playwrights.

Some actors and directors turn their noses up at the latter, and it is true that their output is often a little too comfortable and dated for high-minded tastes, reflecting as they do the petty struggles of the 1980s middle classes rather than providing searing insights into the human condition. But their plays are well crafted and audiences love them. Furthermore, they are very forgiving: even when a society has limited budgets and sometimes talent, a competent Ayckbourn production with no artistic flourishes and few intellectual challenges will still provide a fun evening’s entertainment, whereas a bad Lorca would be a disaster (although we have friends who say that even a brilliantly produced Lorca is a grim waste of an evening).

Throughout most of its history, Chelsfield has sought to balance art and entertainment. We hope that our artistic excursions have been entertaining and that our entertainments have had that artistic flourish. So, if we amused you with Lady Windermere’s Fan in summer 2009 (classic Wilde), you might have trusted us to challenge you that same autumn with Our Country’s Good (Australian convicts performing a play), followed by Hello Is There Any Body There? (a silly murder mystery spoof) and then A Wedding Story (lesbian romance and dementia).

Ayckbourn’s numbers are amplified by shows where we performed two or three of his one-act plays in an evening, resulting in 14 Ayckbourns being produced between his debut in 1990 and 2007, after which he had a well-earned rest. The same applies to John Cleese and Connie Booth, in that the first Fawlty Towers production comprised three episodes from the TV series and the second, destined for Edinburgh with its tighter time constraints, comprised two. Some might say that the total should therefore be two instead of five. We don’t because we paid the performing rights for five episodes, so there. Shakespeare is still playing catch-up because he was ignored by the Society for its first 24 years.

Note: We suspect that several plays performed in the decade after World War 2 were stage revivals of wartime productions performed in members’ houses. This would add one to some playwrights’ statistics, but the only such revival we can identify for sure is Elegant Edward.
Most performed plays
The Rivals (1949, 1976, 2003)
Elegant Edward (1939-45, 1955)
Cinderella (1947, 1965)

The Importance Of Being Earnest (1947, 2004)
This Happy Breed (1947, 2015)
Dangerous Corner (1948, 2002)
​The Ghost Train (1949, 2024)
Hay Fever (1960, 1991)

Pygmalion (1961, 1986)
​A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1961, 2006)
A Christmas Carol (1962, 2010) ​
The Hollow (1967, 2019)
​​Murder In Company (1985, 2003)
Time and Time Again (1993, 1999)
Mother Figure (1995, 2019)
Between Mouthfuls (1995, 2019)
Most performed playwrights
​
Alan Ayckbourn 14*

William Shakespeare 9
​Noël Coward  ​7
John Cleese & Connie Booth 5*
Emlyn Williams 4
John Chapman 3

Maurice McLoughlin 3
Amanda Whittington 3
Campbell & Dorothy Christie 2
Peter Coke 2
Constance Cox 2
Charles Dickens 2
Francis Durbridge 2
Charles Raymond Dyer 2
William Douglas Home 2
Kenneth Horne 2
Ronald Jeans 2
Somerset Maugham 2
Ian McCutcheon 2
André Obey 2
Arthur Wing Pinero 2
​Arnold Ridley 2
Norman Robbins 2
George Bernard Shaw 2*
Sandy Taylor 2
Edgar Wallace 2
Thornton Wilder 2
* includes shorter plays with more than one play per production but excludes excerpts performed in revue-style productions

Email

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