Author: Andrew Taylor

Due to the charity concert in aid of the disaster victims in the Philippines on Monday 9^th December, the next meeting of the Charities Committee has  been moved to TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER at 7pm at Chequer Mead.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this move.

JUST a month after their highly acclaimed schools edition of Les Miserables sold out Chequer Mead, Ariel were back in action with Musicality 5.

This time they produced a vibrant showcase of beautifully chosen songs from some of the world’s favourite musicals delivered by their immensely talented adult choir – although calling a company so rich with solo talents who also dance and act merely ‘a choir’ is perhaps slightly underselling themselves.

This was Ariel’s fifth Musicality and once again they delivered with unflagging verve, energy and enthusiasm.

Hit after hit was performed in an enjoyably unstoppable torrent, with clever lighting making the most of a well-judged programme which ranged from comedy to heartbreak.

And the audience loved it, whooping their congratulations, rising to their feet and laughing out loud at some outrageous comic moments.

It was marvelous, life-enhancing stuff, and if one had to sum it up in one word, that word would be ‘terrific’.

But even in a production which was uniformly first class, there were some stand-out moments.

First of these was an excerpt from Fiddler on the Roof by Matt Roberts with his endearing rendition of If I were a Rich Man…

Pocket rocket Karen Brown put in a sassy and spirited performance of Bend and Snap from Legally Blonde, which was in lovely contrast to her second solo which wrung pathos and regret from Sister Act’s The Life I Never Had.

[AFG_gallery id=’18’]

For me the stand-out song of the night was Confrontation from Jekyll and Hyde in which Simon Fellingham put in a powerful performance as the tortured Dr Jekyll trying to free himself from his evil alter ego.

Simon, also a talented guitarist, has a sweet timbre to his voice, and this was shocking stuff, faultlessly played and cleverly staged as he descended further and further into his personal hell.

By way of complete contrast I Believe from The Book of Mormon saw Chris Brown have his audience crying with laughter at his naively shiny-faced Mormon missionary wrestling with doubt and a couple of very reluctant non-believers.

Chris was also terrific as a cynical Che Guevera singing And The Money Came Rolling In from Evita.

It was good to see younger members of the company – fresh from their recent triumph in Les Miserables – back with rather more light-hearted numbers, Ticket to Loserville, Jarrod Hopson’s very funny and painful Being a Geek from 13 The Musical, and The Nicest Kids in Town from Hairspray.

A really lovely three-parter from Jacob Fearney, Chris Brown and Matt Roberts singing Belle from Notre Dame de Paris, was quickly followed by Matt Godfrey and a deliciously naughty Rowena Alloush in A little Bit of Priest, a duet from Sweeney Todd which was as funny as it was stomach-churning.

Papa Can You Hear Me? from Yentl was a beautifully-delivered heart-breaker from Erin Sheerham. And Jacob Fearney – a stand-out dancer – also gave a fine performance of It’s Hard to Speak My Heart as the factory owner accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old from Parade.

While Marisha Jenkins soared thrillingly through the poignant Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, from Phantom of the Opera.

A great show, from an infectiously enthusiastic choir who deserve all the plaudits which will undoubtedly come their way.

Geraldine Durrant

* The show also raised money for Juma, a talented young student from Muhaka in Kenya. Juma’s secondary school fees are being paid for by Ariel, and with their help he eventually hopes to qualify for medical school.

* Photos credit to Stephen Candy

TOWN Mayor Margaret Belsey has met the East Grinstead Music and Arts Festival Committee to present a cheque on behalf of the Town Council’s Community Grant awards.

The Mayor made the presentation to the committee chairman Christine Mainstone.

The grant will go towards the cost of adjudicators for the 2014 Festival. The Festival is held every year at Chequer Mead, and attracts large numbers of performers from all over the South East.

The Music and Arts Festival has been established for 45 years in East Grinstead.

The 46th Festival in 2014 will on 26 April and run until 18 May at Chequer Mead.

* Photo shows Chairman Christine Mainstone (left) receiving the grant from Town Mayor Margaret Belsey (right) in front of the EGMAF committee members.

THE Rev Canon Clive Everett-Allen, the vicar of St Swithun’s, led the town’s Remembrance Day service and wreath-laying ceremony at the High Street war memorial on Sunday.

The High Street was packed with onlookers who paid their respects to the dead of two World Wars, as well as representatives from the Royal British Legion, Army, Air Force and Navy cadets, scouts and the emergency services.

Town Mayor Margaret Belsey returned on Monday (pictured below) – at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month – to lay a final wreath marking the exact moment of truce when the guns finally fell quiet in 1918.

[AFG_gallery id=’17’]

TOWN Mayor Margaret Belsey has presented a cheque for £125 to the Grenestede Talking News, a voluntary community group based at the Old Court House which records news stories on to tapes and CDs for local blind and partially-sighted residents.

Notice of Vacancy in Office of Councillor – Town North Ward

THE Christmas lights which have brightened the town over the past three decades are something the town has become very proud of – not least because they are organised and maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers, and paid for by fundraisers and local traders.

But with the committee members getting older and storage facilities no longer available at the parish halls, the committee has agreed that the Town Council could gradually take over the lights in a three year rolling programme.

“The East Grinstead Christmas Lights were the very first in Sussex thanks to the vision of the volunteer committee, and they have brought an enormous amount of pleasure to townspeople and visitors for 30 years,” said Town Clerk Julie Holden, who paid particular tribute to the work of chairman Melvin Phillips.

[AFG_gallery id=’19’]

“But with their future increasingly uncertain, we have been working with the Lights committee on a joint venture which will see responsibility gradually handed over to the Town Council over the next three Christmasses – starting this year with the stretch of High Street between Middle Row and the Cook Shop.”

With lights provided by a commercial company who will erect, demount and store them, the move will also save money in the longer term.

“Thanks to the many volunteers who have worked so hard over the years, the lights have been a much-loved part of Christmas in East Grinstead for a generation,” said Julie, “and the Council is delighted to ensure they continue for many years to come.”

* Photos courtesy of Andrew Taylor

THE ACE Theatre Company served up another winner with its production of Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table at Chequer Mead last week.

The Queen of Crime has been packing theatres for decades and this enjoyable brainteaser was the perfect example of why her period whodunnits still hold their own.

Cards is typical Christie teaser in which a society host, the mysterious Shaitana, is found dead in the drawing room amongst his handful of guests, all of whom had both the motive – potential blackmail – and the means – a devilish-looking dagger – to have done away with him in full view of their fellow invitees.

As luck would have it one of the other guests at the fatal soirée is Superintendent Battle, one of the Yard’s finest, and a man not too proud to pick the brains of visiting crime novelist Mrs Oliver as he tries to unravel this seemingly impossible conundrum.

From the moment David Morgan arrived onstage as the Superintendent we felt we were in safe hands – here was a man in charge, and if anyone could get to the bottom of it, then Battle was our man with a commanding performance, a twinkle in his eye for the foibles of mankind, and the air of a chap born to wear spats.

There was an endearing performance too from Chrissie White as Mrs Oliver, and her nicely judged insights into the psyches of her fellow guests kept the audience guessing right up to the end as to whether she was really as pleasant as she appeared, or if she too concealed a murderous secret.

Dorothy Maynard, as Mrs Lorrimer, a woman whose past appeared to have caught up with her at last, gave a lovely performance, not least when she battled wits a deux with the Superintendent in a bid to appease her past and save the ingénue Miss Meredith from the hangman’s noose.

Kate Gledhill played Miss Meredith with such convincing gaucheness that her eventual attempt to murder her posh friend – the delightfully plummy Alicia Lane as Miss Dawes – was one of the more shocking moments of the plot.
So it was lucky that broad-shouldered Sam Banks, as the handsome and reckless Major Despard, was on hand to save the day – although I am sure there were female members of the audience who would have appreciated a post-river-rescue wet t-shirt scene in order to fully appreciate his chest.

But in a gripping plot which convincingly threw suspicion on each of the dinner guests in turn, it eventually transpired that it was Dr Roberts, ably played by Steve Gray, wot dunnit – although since it couldn’t be proved that he had murdered his host, he would just have to be hanged for doing away with Mrs Lorrimer instead – a welcome, if typical, Christie twist to a very satisfying puzzle.

Rock Vetriano made a successful debut as Shaitana, and was as convincing dead as he had been alive – not easy when you have to stay slumped in your armchair for half a scene. Lee Challis brought a lightness of touch to his own first time on stage with ACE playing police side kick Sergeant O’Connor, and it was good to see the return of regulars Kathy Lunn as the maid Doris, Lynne Fallowell as receptionist Miss Burgess, and Colin White in his brief but pivotal role as Constable Stevens.

On a night of storms and rain outside, it was good to be in the warm, in the dark, and a witness a murder most horrid…

Geraldine Durrant