Headgate Theatre Productions’ first play of 2025 will be ‘The Killing of Sister George’, a comedy by Frank Marcus.
Directed by Mike Poole, production week is w/c 23rd February. Open auditions will take place on Sunday 21st July at 4pm and Friday 26th July at 7pm at The Headgate.
Rehearsals: Tuesdays and Fridays from the 25th November at 7.30pm. There will be a break over Christmas from 16th December – 3rd January 2025. Some additional dates to be agreed once cast is known.
Performances: Wednesday 26th February to Saturday 1st March with Saturday matinee.
People in the public eye often have their private lives scrutinised, and “the public” may confuse actors with the roles they play.
Famously adapted into a film, this 1960’s cult classic is a black comedy, with surprising moments of tenderness. Sister George is a fictional character in a popular radio serial (not unlike the Archers) where she portrays a cheerful district nurse, who cycles around the countryside singing hymns and doing good. In reality, June Buckridge has very little in common with her radio personae. In real life she is a gin-guzzling, cigar-chomping, slightly sadistic, masculine woman, the antithesis of the sweet character she plays.
June has played the part for some 2,000 performances – but the BBC decide that her character is to be killed off. Not because she was hated, but because she was loved, and it would boost the ratings!
June lives with Alice “Childie” McNaught, a younger dim-witted woman who she often verbally and sometimes physically abuses. When June discovers her character is scheduled to be killed, she becomes increasingly impossible to work and live with.
Mercy Croft, an executive at the radio station, intercedes in June’s professional and personal life supposedly to help, but she actually has an agenda of her own.
Madam Xenia is a clairvoyant whose rather quirky predictions have a habit of coming true. A friend of both June and Alice, she lives in the adjacent flat.
Although it is implied that June and Childie are lesbians – and possibly also Mercy – this is not as explicit in the play as it is portrayed in the film – although it is important that the strength and depth of the relationship (which has endured for a number of years) is evident.
Casting notes
June Buckridge (Sister George) – playing age 40+
Alice (known as Childie) – playing age 20-30
Mrs Mercy Croft (BBC executive) – playing 40+
Madam Xenia (a medium) – playing age 30+
For further information, please contact Mike Poole on mike@poolesofbergholt.com