Budleigh Past and Present

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 ...

[Like Budleigh Salterton, our sister-town of Brewster has its own theater, pictured here... Hang on a sec! I typed in the American word out of deference, then saw to my astonishment that the Cape Rep Theatre sign follows the English spelling. I wonder why. Perhaps someone over there can tell me. Anyway does it really matter? The main thing is that the Brewster community knows how to look after its old buildings and doesn't just knock them down because they're derelict, or because a developer/realtor could squeeze in half a dozen five-bedroom executive dwellings with double garages and teeny gardens.] Photo credit: The 200-year-old Cape Rep building along Old King’s Highway in Brewster by Barry Donohue There’s a sign along Route 6A in Brewster announcing the 25th anniversary of Cape Rep Theatre. You can’t miss it. Set back a few feet from that sign, however, are an 18th century house and barn that aren’t half as pretty. At least not yet. The 200-year-old abandoned wreck has gree...