EXPLORE DRAMA
News & Events
THE PERFECT MURDER - Photos see 2026
Director Gill Lambourn
EXPLORE DRAMA WITH US
For latest information about the new plays written for AWD7
ENTERTAINING ANGELS by Richard Everett
November 24th - 28th 2026
Director Barbara MacWhirter
West Ashling & Funtington District Hall, PO18 8DN at 7.30pm
Set in an English vicarage garden, Entertaining Angels follows Grace, a recently widowed clergy wife who is finally allowing herself to speak her mind after years of dutiful restraint. Her sharp wit and long‑suppressed frustrations often land on her long-suffering daughter Jo, a therapist, who sees more than Grace would like.
Grace’s world is further unsettled by the return of her free‑spirited missionary sister Ruth. As old family patterns resurface and unexpected truths begin to press in, Grace is forced to re‑examine the life she built, the marriage she believed in, and the faith she’s trying to hold onto.
The play blends humour with emotional honesty, asking whether divine order exists at all or whether life is simply a messy, human attempt at meaning. It’s a warm, witty, and quietly provocative piece about grief, freedom, and the complicated grace we extend to ourselves and others.
Cast
Grace Debbie Martin
Ruth Jenny Dean
Bardy Mark Weeks
Jo Phillippa Riddoch
Sarah Louise Kenny
PLAYREADING
Friday June 12th
DONKEY'S YEARS by Michael Frayn
Summary
This zany, hilarious farce was a London hit and won the West End Theatre Best Comedy Award of the year. At a reunion dinner at a "lesser college" of an "older university" are a number of graduates now in their early forties and mostly in responsible, influential positions. All starts smoothly with conventional greetings and old boy reminiscences. A slightly discordant note is struck by Snell, a man of such insignificance that everyone has forgotten him, and continues to forget him from one moment to the next. As the night goes on, the college port causes behavior surprising in those in positions of political, academic or spiritual authority. Into the resulting bear garden stumbles Lady Driver, the Master's wife who is short sightedly searching for the lost love of her youth. The insignificant Snell sees in her the chance to make up for all the opportunities of undergraduate life he missed before.
The Church Rooms,
St Mary's Church, Church Lane, Funtington at 7.30pm
PLAYREADING
Friday July 17th
Amy's View
by DAVID HARE
Summary
After sold out performances at the National Theatre prompted a transfer to the West End, Judi Dench came to Broadway to star in this heady and original drama of love and death. In 1979 Esme Allen is a well known British actress caught in a changing West End climate that is trying for performers. A visit from her young daughter with a new boyfriend sets in motion a series of events which only find their shape sixteen years later.
The Church Rooms,
St Mary's Church, Church Lane, Funtington at 7.30pm
SOLD OUT
