Lindfield Dramatic Club aims to thrill

By Rex Cooper

Fans of TV detective shows will recognise the name of Brian Clemens as the man who created The Avengers and who wrote classic series including Dangerman, The Professionals, The Persuaders and Bergerac…

His plays are less well known but no less exciting, and it is his Spain-based thriller Inside Job that Lindfield Dramatic Club brings to the King Edward Hall for their autumn production this month.

Inside Job is a three-hander set in an isolated villa about a mile from Marbella, full of plots, counter plots, bluffs and double bluffs. None of the three characters is what he or she seems on the surface and Clemens cleverly and intricately weaves a web of deceit, deception and dissimulation to the end.

Director Rex Cooper explained: “For the past decade or so we have largely relied on comedy – broad, satire, farce and, last year with Oscar Wilde, trivial – to attract and entertain our audiences. This play will take the smiles off their faces and have them chewing their fingernails.”

Inside Job can be seen at the King Edward Hall, Lindfield, on Thursday 25th October, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th, starting at 8pm. Tickets, priced £10, are available from Tufnells Home, 59 High Street, Lindfield, from 1st October.

Important play at King Edward Hall, Lindfield

By Rex Cooper

Importance of Being Earnest at King Edward Hall

Lindfield Dramatic Club is turning to one of the best known and best-loved plays in the English language for its autumn production this year – Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

With a strong cast that includes new, young members alongside established performers, the club is continuing along the route that has been its forte over the past decade, but moves away from the broader comedy that has generally been on offer.

Wilde’s comedy of manners about love and marriage amongst the upper classes has been a hit with audiences and critics for more than a hundred years and LDC is returning to the play after a 19-year gap.

Director Rex Cooper said: “Pretty well every theatregoer can quote the best known funny lines from the play but it is full of humour from start to finish and audiences have to concentrate in case they miss something.

“We look forward to our regulars coming along and supporting us and, given that it is almost two decades since we last presented this classic, we can, hopefully, attract some new, younger audience members – especially as the play is now part of the UK’s National Curriculum.”

The Importance of Being Earnest can be seen at the King Edward Hall on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 26th-28th October. Tickets (£8) are available at Tufnells Home, 59 High Street, Lindfield. Tel: 01444 483483.