“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings…”

Christmas Eve, 1946, Bedford Falls. Down-on-his-luck banker George Bailey feels life has passed him by, and he's at the end of his rope.

But when George's guardian angel pays him a visit, he's amazed to discover what life in his beloved town would be like without him. Maybe it's a wonderful life, after all?

Cait interviews the cast, Matt Hoisch, Nicole Pavlou, Rob Wallis and Ben Wheeler of the new production of It's A Wonderful Life, at Putney Arts Theatre, based on the critically acclaimed Frank Capra movie, reimagining a joyful story of love, hope and community.

Directed by Lois Savill and Kate Lawrence, adapted by Mary Elliott Nelson.

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor and sound design: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recorded at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

Cait interviews cast members for the new production of the Tom Stoppard move blockbuster, Shakespeare in Love, adapted for the stage.

Young Will Shakespeare has writer's block... the deadline for his new play is fast approaching but he's in desperate need of inspiration. That is, until he finds his muse – the courtly Viola de Lesseps. This beautiful young woman is Will’s greatest admirer and will stop at nothing (including breaking the law) to appear in his next play, disguising herself as boy-player Thomas Kemp. Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms and inspires him to write his greatest masterpiece.

The story is, at heart, a romantic comedy but it is also about the glorious world of show-business - nothing much changes in theatre and that London's Bankside in 1593 was much like commercial theatre today. Money men assert their power, scripts get rewritten, egos have to be massaged, rivalries develop and last-minute crises intervene. Yet, by the magic that is theatre - somehow Shakespeare manages to turn the distinctly unpromising Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter into the masterpiece that is Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare in Love
Based on the Screenplay by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard, adapted for the stage by Lee Hall
Directed by Jodi Rilot & Barney Hart Dyke
12-16 November, 7.45pm
16 November, 3pm

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor, sound design and interview: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recorded at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

An emergency episode in the absence of Cait, the cast of Death and the Maiden (by Ariel Dorfman, directed by the inestimable Kim Dyas) drop in for a chat, late evening, during a break in rehearsals.
Cast: Paulina Escobar (Sharon Czudak), Gerardo Escobar (Aidan Kershaw) and Roberto Miranda as Paul Dineen.
Set in a country that is transitioning to democracy. Death and the Maiden explores how - and if - a nation can start to heal its wounds after years of living in a dictatorship regime.
Gerardo and Paulina are married and have finally started to relax after years of living in fear. When a stranger visits their home at Gerardo's invitation, Paulina thinks that she recognises his voice as one of her torturers – "the Doctor". Determined to administer justice for herself, she takes matters into her own hands and makes sure he pays for his former sins. But, is this stranger really "the Doctor", or simply an innocent citizen?
A classic of 20th-century theatre, Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden ran for a year in the West End, was a hit on Broadway and was filmed by Roman Polanski starring Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver.
"A play for today, for the age of revenge, when dictatorships crumble right and left and the victims, the living dead, emerge from the shadows and present their accounts..." – Sunday Times
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman
15-19 October, 7.45pm. Matinee, 19 October, 3pm
The Studio, Putney Arts Theatre
Cast: Paulina Escobar (Sharon Czudak), Gerardo Escobar (Aidan Kershaw) and Roberto Miranda (Paul Dineen).
Crew: Kim Dyas (Director), Veronika Wilson (co-Director), Paul Tierney (Stage Manager), Rich Evans (Set and Lighting Design) Caroline D'Arcy (Production Manager), Loetitia Delais (Sound and Light operator), Nick Wells (Music and Sound Design).

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor, sound design and interview: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recorded at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

New episode for Flare Path a new production of the Rattigan play, directed by Ian Higham at the Putney Arts Theatre. Cait interviews three of the star perfomers, Emma Bugg (Patricia), Theo Leonard (Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham) and Guy Robarts (Peter Kyle).

24-28 September, 7.45pm
Matinee 28 September, 3pm
Ticket link

Written in 1941 and first staged in London in 1942 Flare Path is based around Rattigan’s own experience as a tail gunner in RAF Coastal Command.

Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command Airbase in Lincolnshire during the Second World War the play focuses on a love triangle between an actress (the wife of a Wellington Bomber pilot) and a Hollywood actor. The action plays out against a night time bombing raid on Germany, while the women wait together to hear about the fate of the crew.

Flare Path is a deeply moving, funny and compelling portrait of the bravery and stoicism of RAF Bomber crews and their wives during World War Two. This story and setting provides the perfect showcase for Rattigan’s unique ability to portray the struggle to keep powerful emotions hidden from view while presenting a ‘proper’ respectable face to the world, even in the hardest of situations.

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor and sound design: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recording at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

Artistic Directors Barney and Cait sit down to talk about the incredible range of new productions coming up, including Flare Path, Death and the Maiden, Shakespeare in Love, It's A Wonderful Life, Alligator and Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

Tickets for all shows will soon be available on putneyartstheatre.org.uk

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor and sound design: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Recording at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

10 plays in 8 days, The Putney Theatre Box Set Summer Festival brings the energy of the Edinburgh Fringe to your doorstep. Cait interviews Festival Director Ian Higham about everything you'd like to know.

For tickets and full information, take a look at https://www.putneyartstheatre.org.uk/event-5741694

Performances: 27 July – 2 August main stage

A Hundred Words for Snow by Tatty Hennessy
Directed by Cait Hart Dyke
Cast: Isabella Walsh-Whitfield

Bobby & Amy by Emily Jenkins
Directed by Geoff Saunders
Cast: Zach Matcham & Ellen O'Farrell

Borders by Henry Naylor
Directed by Paul Dineen
Cast: Sarah Assaf & Nathan Chatelier

Comment is Free by James Fritz
Directed by Jeff Graves
Cast: Elly Meacham, Ian Felce & Sarah Perkins

Edgar & Annabel by Sam Holcroft
Directed by Graham Kellas
Cast: Hannah McCorry, Govind Hodgson, Carol Hudson, Andy Hall
& Alice Jade

Growth by Luke Norris
Directed by Perry Savill
Cast: Robert Wallis, Will Hunter & Lyndall Brown

How to Date a Feminist by Samantha Ellis
Directed by Frances Bodiam
Cast: Alexa Adam & Owen T Jones

How to Spot an Alien by Georgia Christou
Directed by Lois Savill
Cast: Emily Fellows, Ian Wainwright & David Miller

How We Begin by Elisabeth Lewerenz
Directed by Loetitia Delais
Cast: Alice Wilson & Jessica Allen

Not Talking by Mike Bartlett
Directed by Jim Dixon
Cast: Roger Blitz, Clare Wall David, Harry Pavlou & Sophie Anderson

Artistic Directors: Barney and Cait Hart Dyke.
Podcast Editor and Sound Designer: Nick Wells.
Music is 'At the Tropicana' by Chalalatas, license courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
Elements Recorded at the Putney Arts Theatre.

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

Recorded in our busy theatre (four directors and their casts in all parts of the building), Cait interviews Angel Witney (Lady Melksham, Past), Emily Dixon(Miss Williams, Past) and Reid Edmond (Amyas Crale) from the stunning new production.

Agatha Christie's Go Back for Murder is a stunning drama from the Queen of Crime. After a wrongly convicted woman dies in prison, it is up to her daughter to recreate the scene of the crime and exonerate her memory. When Carla Crale receives a letter from beyond the grave, she believes her mother was wrongly convicted of her father’s murder. In a passionate attempt to clear her name, she persuades those present on the day of her father’s death to return to the scene of the crime and ‘go back’ 16 years to recount their version of events.

Directed by Zoe Thomas-Webb
Production dates: 18-22 June 2024
(Saturday matinee, 22 June)
Putney Arts Theatre

Cast:
Cara Bullimore: Clara Crale (Present)
Reid Edmond: Amyas Crale
Isla Mackenzie: Caroline Crale
Jack Willard: Justin
Adriana Abara: Angela Warren (Present)
Anna Angela Warren (Past)
Angel Witney: Lady Melksham (Past)
Josie Murphy: Lady Melksham (Present)
Charles Golding: Philip Blake (Present)
Alberto Lais: Philip Blake (Past)
Julia Blyth: Miss Williams (Present)
Emily Dixon: Miss Williams (Past)
Jerome Joseph Kennedy:Meredith Blake (Present)
Oscar Whitaker:Meredith Blake (Past)
Murray Deans:Jeff
Enid Gayle: Turnball
Dotty: Clara Crale (Past)

Crew
Zoe Webb-Thomas:Director
Edith Webb: Costume Designer
Katie Bonham:Producer
Aiste Mizgeryte: Assistant Director
Kate Halstead:Set Designer
Rich Evans:Lighting Designer

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk

Cast preview with Debra Bond ( Laura) and Des Healy (Danny). Interviewed by Cait they discuss the themes and drama of David Eldridges powerful play Beginning, directed by Ben Clare.
Laura's thrown a housewarming party at her new flat. Danny is the last man standing. It's meant to be isn't it? Or is it? They're both single. They both really like each other. But can they take the leap?
A brilliantly observed, funny, poignant play about being fortyish and single and being open to falling in love again. Award winning writer David Eldridge's play include Under the Blue Sky, In Basildon and Festen.
"It's the tentative (anti) romance for 21st century London life and it , quite simply, magnificent... never less than utterly refreshing." Evening Standard
A Putney Theatre Company production, 14-18 May 2024, in the Studio.
Some tickets still available here

The Putney Theatre Company at The South West End!
See us online – putneytheatrecompany.org.uk