Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived… It may only be April but local drama group CADS are already practising this mnemonic in preparation for their contribution to this year’s Royston Arts Festival. They will be holding auditions this month for a one-act play to be performed at the Festival in September.
The intriguingly titled Six Dead Queens… and an Inflatable Henry, is a tale of three Catherines, two Annes and one Jane – the ill-fated wives of Henry VIII – reunited in the present day for a sort of ghostly girly sleepover. It’s boisterous, farcical, slightly bawdy and immensely entertaining and weaves together history, comedy, satire, slapstick and song in truly surreal fashion. David Atkins will be directing the pla..
Work on the play begins on Thursday 23 April with a read-through in the Drama Studio at King James Academy, Senior Site, from 7-9PM. This is open to anyone and everyone, and is intended to be a fun introduction to the piece, whether or not you intend to get involved. Auditions will be held the following Thursday, 30 April, also at KJAR from 7-9PM. It (almost) goes without saying that there are only six parts, all female, though there could be some flexibility about ages.
Six Dead Queens will be staged as a double bill at this year’s Royston Arts Festival, which runs from 18th to 27th September. The other half of the bill will be the current CADS one-act play Strangers on a Film by Stephen Wyatt, adapted by local author Roy Maddox. This imagines a series of encounters between film director Alfred Hitchcock and thriller writer Raymond Chandler in 1950 when Hitch was looking for someone to write a screenplay for his next film.
The two plays will be performed together on Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th September at King James Academy, Senior Site.
