Author: Andrew Taylor

The grounds of East Court were filled with townsfolk enjoying the recreation of an Edwardian Garden Party on a sunny Sunday in August. The East Grinstead Concert Band played throughout the day and many people joined in the spirit of the occasion by dressing up in the appropriate 1914 outfits. Traditional entertainment of other varieties was also available with archery, croquet and Punch and Judy as well as cream teas. The day commemorated what would have been the last day of peace before the outbreak of the First World War and reflected the great social changes to come with the emergence of the suffragettes and the Votes for Women movement.

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The free event was organised by the Town Council together with representatives of various voluntary groups and the sponsorship of Elaine McGloin Solicitors, The East Grinstead War Memorial Company and Mid Sussex District Council.

THE East Grinstead Concert Band – which also plays under the banner of the Bluebell Railway Band – is relaunching its website today at www.egcb.co.uk

The easy navigable design includes much more information about the band’s upcoming engagements, with pictures and video clips.

The website also has information for anyone interested in joining the band (new members are always welcome), booking them for a function, sponsoring them or making a financial donation to their funds.

The EGCB will be celebrating their 40th birthday this year with a trip to Ypres in October, to mark the centennial of the start of WWI.

They will play a series of concerts in Bruges and Ypres, culminating with a performance of the Last Post Ceremony at the world-famous Menin Gate.

The Last Post has been played there every night since the end of the War to remember the hundreds of thousands of men who marched out of the town to the Front and didn’t come back.

Photos: copyright East Grinstead Online

Talbot House – A Home From Home

Friday 1 August at 7:30pm

During the Great War, Talbot House in Poperinge, Belgium, a few short miles behind the front line, became a haven for thousands of allied troops – a ‘home from home’ where they enjoyed some home comforts and remembered the men that they really were.

Run by a diminutive chaplain named Tubby Clayton the house became known by its army signaller’s code of Toc H and ultimately would be the inspiration for the Association with that name.

This play, written by Peter Gill, and aimed at a family audience, recreates the humour, music and wonderful atmosphere of this inspirational house.

Tickets: £12. Concessions: £10.

Ariel Drama Academies presents Alice in Wonderland

Saturday 9 August at 2:00pm and 6:00pm

Alice: “Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin; but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever say in my life!”

Tickets: £10.

Wow

Monday 11^th August at 2:30pm

Performed by Dr Bondini and Jezo, who are among the country’s foremost highly skilled and experienced magicians, this retro-modern show is a prodigious treat of the traditional and the contemporary. Dr Bondini is a master of spellbinding storytelling and illusion, whilst Jezo can’t fail to keep any audience enthralled with his quick jokes, quick tricks, quick wit and friendly boyish charm.

They blended their polar styles for the first time earlier this year and the PMB team have created a show jam-packed with big illusions, big surprises and big laughter.

Chequer Mead Silver Screen – Summer Nights: Sing-a-long Grease

Saturday 16 August at 7:30pm

Be part of the sing along screening of the classic film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be a T-Bird or a Pink Lady but never quite felt cool enough to pull it off?

Well, now’s your chance to don those pink jackets, grease up those quiffs and let your inhibitions go for an evening.

There’s also a free drink before the show for everyone who arrives in fancy dress!

Tickets: £5  Concessions: £4:  Family ticket: £15.

AFA Events present The Sooty Show

Wednesday 20^th August at 11am & 2:30pm

Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Busy – It’s The Sooty Show! Sooty heads into town in a fabulous new show to delight the whole family. Joining the nation’s favourite bear will be Sweep, Soo and Sooty’s TV Partner Richard Cadell  – who will be attempting to keep Sooty from getting up to mischief!

It’s Sooty’s Birthday party and things aren’t going to plan. Sooty and Sweep get messy baking the cake and will Soo ever decide which dress to wear?

Special party guests include legendary Sooty favourites Butch the bulldog and Ramsbottom the snake.

There’s also a chance to meet Richard and Sooty after the show.

 “A real treat for the children and a dose of nostalgia for the parents” – The Stage

“Richard Cadell is as close to a Corbett as you will ever get- Sooty is on the right hands! ” Matthew Corbett

For more Sooty fun visit www.thesootyshow.com or watch Sooty every weekday on Citv.

Tickets: £12. Concessions: £10.  Family Ticket: £38.

Bullfrog Summer School present Beauty and the Beast

Saturday 23 August at 2pm and 6pm

Tale as old as time, true as it can be… Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr is coming to Chequer Mead as this year’s Summer Workshop, produced by Bullfrog Productions. Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature film, this beloved fairy tale has won the hearts of audiences worldwide. Suitable for all the family, don’t miss this charming show.

Tickets: £12. Concessions: £10.

Sid’s Deep Sea Discovery

Thursday 28 August at 2:30pm

A colourful set creates the scene for a voyage of discovery in a bubbly underwater world – with CBeebies Sid Sloane starring as the intrepid explorer Deep Sea Sid.

Encounter some weird, wonderful and fascinating sea creatures with fun songs, music, strange sounds and audience participation.

Tickets: £12. Concessions: £8.

CINESTOCK is back for August with the chance to see Iconic Open Air Movie Nights in East Grinstead

This summer there are two nights happening on August 16 (Saturday) and August the 24 (Bank holiday Sunday).

The concept is simple – take an iconic movie, take the great outdoors and combine the two for the makings of a great evening.

Bring a picnic, rugs and picnic chairs, sun loungers, inflatable chairs, and enjoy a movie sitting under the stars.

Onsite you will find:

• Licensed Bar
• Hot Dogs
• Fresh Popcorn
• Milk Shake Wagon
• Hot Doughnuts
• Candy Floss
• Hot Drinks – Tea/ Coffee/ Hot chocolate
• Toilets
• Free Parking
• Disabled Access

Bullfrog Music is arranging the event to raise money for the Peanut Ward (children’s ward) of the Queen Victoria Hospital.

Movies
Saturday 16 August – GOONIES
Sunday 24 August – Indiana Jones & The raiders of the lost ark.

Time:
6pm – 11pm
6:30pm – 8:15pm – Live music (both nights)
8:20pm – film starts

Venue:
Sackville School –
Lewes Rd, East Grinstead, West Sussex RH19 3TY

Tickets:
ADVANCED TICKETS:
Adult price (16yrs+) – £8.
Children’s price (5yrs – 15yrs old) – £6.

ON THE DOOR TICKETS:
Adult price – £10
Child price – £7.50
(under 5s – FREE)

Tickets can be purchased on-line or from Bullfrog Music in East Grinstead (cash payment only).

Advance ticket sales will end at 17:00 hours on the day of each screening.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This event will be going ahead even if raining
We also cannot allow any glass on the fields, so please do not bring glass bottles with you, we will be able to decant these at the venue.

Free parking is offered, at owners risk.

It is the responsibility of parents to ensure they check the suitability of the film for their children, we go by the film classification awarded to the film by the BBFC.

The cross party town council surgery will take place on 9 August (second Saturday) between 10.30 – 12.00—do go along and speak to your councillors. It normally takes place on the first Saturday of every month in front of Market Square, but will be the second Saturday in August—just look for the Town Council gazebo.

THE Filipino British Nurses Extra Care Team founded by Cllr Danny Favor will be celebrating their first anniversary with a fundraiser at Our Lady and St Peter’s church on 9th August.

The Extra Care team is a voluntary service which offers free health checks to community groups within the town, and advice on weight and healthy eating. Money raised at the event, which starts at 6.30pm, will be split between the church renovation fund and the support of Filipino street children.

Danny is a former president of the Filipino British Association of East Grinstead, which has more than 300 members who work both to promote their own culture and heritage, and to foster friendship and relationships within the town community.

As part of their outreach, nurses and other health care professionals within the association carried out voluntary health checks locally which eventually became the foundation for Filipino British Nurses Extra Care East East Grinstead Ltd.

The team now regularly offers its services free to members of the town community, particularly adults in the 34 – 75 age group.

To find out more email: extracare.df@googlemail.com

Website: www.extracareeastgrinstead.com

Oh! What a lovely War was brought to Chequer Mead last night in an impressive and deeply moving production by the Company of Friends.

Originally developed by Joan Littlewood at the Theatre Workshop in 1963, it was inspired by a piece about WWI written by Charles Chilton in which facts and statistics about the Great War were interspersed with reminiscences and songs of the period.

Littlewood used this format to produce a show that was a searing and sardonic reflection the realities of a war in which ten million died, 21 million were wounded and seven million were simply recorded as ‘missing’ – many of them soldiers sucked down into the Flanders mud.

It is a quintessentially ensemble piece with a cast who each serve a dozen roles as the War Game is played out on stage.

Michael Spencer presided engagingly over the proceedings, starting out with an avuncular air as the excitement of incipient war seized the populace.

But he ended – grey, sad and embittered – as the cast assembled beneath a shower of falling poppy petals to count the dreadful cost of the carnage.

The searing impact of the show comes in its juxtaposition of jaunty – dare one say mindless? – patriotic songs, and the terrible reality of trench warfare, the piles of stinking corpses and the cries of men dying in agony.

And it creates a growing sense of tragedy as the casualty figures roll across the top of the stage, detailing the thousands of lives lost in actions, followed by the bleak words Gain Nil, as the sides remained stubbornly entrenched often only yards apart.

The average life of a machine gunner in action was just four minutes – the time it takes to boil an egg.

‘It is more terrible than can ever be imagined.’

‘8,236 men lost in three hours. German loss Nil’

‘Somme. 1,332,000 men dead. Gail Nil.

‘Between five and fifty thousand lives being sacrificed in a day…’

And the awful revelation that while men died in mud and agony, 21 thousand Americans who became millionaires on the back of the war, feared the ‘Peace Scares’ which might bring an early end to their profiteering.

The show also delivers a searing judgement on military leaders including Field Marshal Haig, reported as commenting ‘Our casualties are only some 60,000 – and the wounded are very cheery indeed.’

A British soldier’s chance of being killed, captured or wounded on the Western Front was fifty per cent.

And in 1927 there were still 65,000 men in British hospitals suffering from shell shock.

But four years after a war which had involved 80 countries worldwide the slaughter was unsustainable.

Nothing was resolved, and everyone just went home.

Directed by Lesley Lowy who was in the touring cast of the original production, this was an unmissable and thought-provoking evening which left many of the audience in tears.

Oh! What a Lovely war is on tonight and tomorrow night at Chequer Mead.