Shakespeare in Salterton

A Budleigh garden owned by an amateur dramatics enthusiast, a troupe of well known local actors, and a much-loved Shakespeare play.  What more would you want for a Saturday summer evening’s entertainment?

Well, a bit of dry weather of course! That arrived just in time after a day of driving rain.  

West Country theatre group Prior Commitment staged an outdoor performance of the popular comedy Twelfth Night in the garden of Cramalt Lodge, home of Fairlynch Museum President Joy Gawne.  

Directed by Steve Andrews, the production featured well-known local actors including Mike Terry and James Cotter, pictured above, as well as performers from further afield.

Joy Gawne, a co-founder of the Museum and known for her love of theatre, was delighted that the garden was being used as a backdrop. “We used to have dressing-up entertainments at WI summer meetings, but this is the first time that Cramalt Lodge has been used for Shakespeare,” she told me.

Some Budleigh theatre-goers may remember her performances from the past, notably a production based on scenes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. The show was staged in the Public Hall in January 1957, with music specially written and arranged by no less a person than the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s mother, a former pupil of the composer Gustav Holst. Budleigh author and artist Joyce Dennys and Joy Gawne played respectively the White Queen and the Red Queen in a partnership which delighted audiences.

Joy would welcome future Shakespeare productions at Cramalt Lodge. There is a balcony, she says, so why not Romeo and Juliet?

For further performances of ‘Twelth Night’ see the above poster.