The Catch
by
Nick Darke
Touring 15th October to 14th November 2021
Such has been the reaction to our tour of Landmarks (see below for 4 star Theatre Hub review) that, Covid permitting, plan a tour this autumn of another Nick Darke play called The Catch. It is a comedy set in Padstow in which two fishermen, suffering the effects of the new quota system, are wondering how to supplement their income and decide to go in for a little extra-curricular smuggling. The dodgy local character with whom they are dealing is playing a double game with them, and also with the daughter of one of the fishermen.
Although the play is a comedy, topically post-Brexit it raises interesting issues about concerns and challenges faced by fishermen who feel that they have again been let down despite all the pre-Brexit talk of protecting them. It also raises issues about sustainability in the environment. Jane, Nick Darke’s widow, is fully supportive of this revival. She filmed a performance of our ‘Landmarks’ production which is to be fed into a documentary she is making about Nick’s life and work and which it is hoped will be screened on television sometime before our tour of ‘The Catch’, which will be good pre-publicity.
Notwithstanding that Nick wrote plays for the RSC, National Theatre, Royal Court, Kneehigh and other companies, not many among our audiences had heard of him; but our feedback after Landmarks in Autumn 2019 heard a chorus of “more Nick Darke, please!”
Given the ‘fishy’ nature of the play, several venues plan to serve a fish and chip supper before, during the interval, or at the end of the show. This will be indicated against the venues below as details are finalised.
Provisional schedule
Al performances will commence at 7.30pm unless otherwise stated
and will last about two hours including an interval
(but longer if a fish ‘n chips supper is to be served)
Thursday 14th October
Bishop Wilton Village Hall
contact details tbc
Friday 15th October
Monk Fryston and Hillam Community Centre LS25 5QA
£9.50 For reservations
until 30th September ring 01977 682334
from 1st October ring 01977 232327
Saturday 16th October
Bridlington Spotlight Theatre YO15 3DZ
£?? For reservations ring 01262 678258
or book online at spotlighttheatrebrid.co.uk
Sunday 24th October
2.30pm matinee
Swanland Village Hall HU14 3QR
£10.00 For reservations ring 01482 862752
or email otherlivesproductions@yahoo.co.uk
Sunday 24th October
Cherry Burton Village Hall
contact details tbc
Tuesday 19th October
Whixley Village Hall
contact details tbc
Wednesday 20th October
Etton Village Hall HU17 7PE
£10.00 For reservations ring 01482 862752 September
or email otherlivesproductions@yahoo.co.uk
Thursday 21st October
8.00pm
fish and chips supper served from a van from 7.00pm
Sutton on the Forest, Grey Village Hall
£10 For reservations ring 01347 811428
Friday 22nd October
Bishop Burton Village Hall
£10 For reservations ring 01482 862752 or email otherlivesproductions@yahoo.co.uk
Saturday 23rd October
Old Malton War Memorial Hall
contact details tbc
Sunday 24th October
matinee – time tbc
The Heron Theatre, Beetham
details tbc
Tuesday 26th to Saturday 30th October
Beverley East Riding Theatre HU17 9BE
£14/13/£12 For reservations ring 01482 874050
Sunday 31st October
Withernsea Meridian Centre HU19 2HH
£6.50 For reservations ring 01482 862752 after 25th September
or email otherlivesproductions@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday 2nd November
tbc
Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th November
theatre@41, York
contact details tbc
Friday 5th November
Saturday 6th November
Sand Hutton & Claxton Village Hall YO41 1LL
£?? For reservations ring 01904 468376
Sunday 7th November
matinee
Thirganby Village Hall
£10 For reservations ring 01751 417756
Sunday 7th November
Hutton-le-Hole Village Hall
£10 For reservations ring 01751 417756
Tuesday 9th November
EPPiC Theatre, Ecclesfield
tbc
Wednesday 10th November
LockingtonVillageHall
contact details tbc
Thursday 11th November
East Gilling Village Hall
contact detaiils tbc
Friday 12th November
Potto Village Hall DL6 3HQ
£?? For reservations ring 01642 700609
Saturday 13th November
Appleton-le-Moors Village Hall YO62 6TE
£?? For reservations ring 01751 417078
Sunday 14th November
North Dalton Old Chapel YO25 9XA
£?? including supper For reservations ring 01377 217625
Markington War Memorial Institute
tbc
Green Hammerton Village Hall
tbc
and, together with Landmarks, touring Cornwall and Devon in 2022
Landmarks
by
Nick Darke
It is 1935. In the countryside the tractor is taking over from the horse. The balance of nature is being upset. A stranger appears. A ghost? An angel? Or… a Boggart? Whoever he is, don’t put him in the village stocks.
A gentle and entertaining comedy.
Nick Darke was a Cornishman who cared passionately about the environment. He was also a lobster fisherman, broadcaster, film-maker and chairman of his local parish council. His plays are often set in the past but project themes which are relevant today. As well as on radio and television, his work has been performed by Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Court, National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite his distinguished career he claimed that his greatest achievement, along with his wife Jane – who has given her full support to this production – was in persuading North Cornwall Council not mechanically to rake the beaches and thus avoid damaging the natural eco-structure.
Richard Avery, who directs, worked with Nick Darke and was in the cast of Landmarks when it was staged at the Chester Gateway Theatre in 1979.
“Splendid performance… Excellent… A significant production… A wonderful evening… One of the best things I have seen… A truly memorabe evening… Poignant, touching, funny… Superb acting… Terrific play… The affecting ending takes one by surprise… All round top notch performances… Engaging for all ages… I have worked in a theatre for 18 years and have, therefore, seen many productions over the years. There is something special about Landmarks“
“Neil King’s craggily traditional Wilf misses none of the drollery of the script and chimes perfectly with Gordon Meredith’s more fanciful Totty, given to extravagant narratives of the glory of industry.
As Roxanne Waite’s stroppy teenager, Alice in Act 1 is a delight; the soberer Alice of Act 2 is more grown up, less funny, but convincingly sincere.
Neighbour Mrs. Mayse, always returning from China or setting off up the Nile with her cats, is the funnier for Jane Hollington’s down-to-earth delivery and Richard Avery’s stranger is amiably neutral – we can make up our own minds.”
**** 4 star review from Theatre review Hub – see https://www.thereviewshub.com/landmarks-east-riding-theatre-beverley/
Cast
Wilf Neil King
Alice Wilf’s daughter Roxanne Waite
Totty Wilf’s brother-in-law Gordon Meredith
Mrs Mayse An eccentric Jane Hollington
Father A boggart Richard Avery
Director Richard Avery
Stage Manager/Technician Connor McConnell
Sound Ray Williams
Music Robin Horspool
*******
Also planned for 2022
Where you Anything Before, Private Godfrey?
A play by Nick Ridley about the life of his father, Arnold, who played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army
Provisional dates
Touring May and June 2022
Week beginning 6th June 2022
Beverley East Riding Theatre HU17 9BE
£?? For reservations ring 01482 874050
During lockdown we have been developing the script with Nic Ridley
Provisional casting involves Jessica Duffield, Evie Gutteridge and Neil King
Richard Avery will direct
*******
Fallen Leaves
30th October to 11th November 2018
Our production marked the armistice at the end of the First World War. It included popular songs/music hall of the time, the war poets, letters from the trenches and sketches, culminating in a moving finale. The final performance was at the East Riding Theatre, Beverley, on the 11th day of the 11th month.
Audience comments so far: “Stunning” “I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house at the end” “A masterpiece of writing by Gordon Meredith” “Wonderful singing” “Faultless” “Absolutely terrific play impeccably delivered impeccably by the cast” “Thought-provoking and poignant, yet brought a smile” “Amazing – so important that we never forget” “Thank you for a lovely evening” “The horror of war, along with humour and real life stories” “I wish I could see it again” “So much research must have gone into the writing” “A fitting tribute” “Very moving” “Beautiful” “Tremendous and moving performance””Excellent”
*******
During July 2018 we toured with
Bottom’s Dream
The first half of the evening surprised and delighted audiences with views of Shakespeare drawn from his sonnets, the American humorous writer James Thurber and other sources. The second half was a rollicking presentation of the comic antics of Bottom and his merry band of brothers as they clashed, hilariously, with the unseen, unheard power of the Fairy Kingdom. The show, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Clive Kneller, received its world premiere somewhere in the middle of nowhere north of the Azores on the Queen Mary 2 and was, as one that occasion, again directed by Clive.
‘The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen!’
*******
During the first half of 2017 we mounted platform performances of Dylan Thomas’s
Under Milk Wood
at the East Riding Theatre

All performances were sold out, but we plan revivals there and/or a tour of East Riding villages.
Watch this space
*******
In Spring 2015 and Autumn 2016
we toured with Patrick Garland’s
Brief Lives
a highly amusing one-man show which follows a day in the life of
John Aubrey
the seventeenth century diarist
See audience reaction at http://otherlives.org.uk/brief-lives-comments-reviews)
“Everything is here – wit, farce, tragedy, pathos – often bawdy, frequently uproariously funny. A truly delightful entertainment.”The Guardian
Old John Aubrey takes his audience by the hand and, with a twinkle in his eye, leads you through a day late in his life, launching into wicked tales. He regales you with tales of his contemporaries – Oliver Cromwell, Charles II, Nell Gwyn – and stories gleaned as a child from folk who knew the likes of Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh. By turns he is a stand-up comic, a philosopher, a lodger in a garret room suffering crying babies and other noisy co-tenants. Once he starts speaking to you he is like the Ancient Mariner – you cannot choose but hear.
Funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain
and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council
*****
In February 2016 Other Lives Productions presented a short tour entitled
WINTER WARMERS
A fireside entertainment of tales to chase away the last of Winter
Readings and semi-dramatisations,
including a guest appearance from the past
Featuring Richard Avery
(formerly of the Royal Shakespeare Company)
and
Neil King
(John Aubrey in Brief Lives)
Funded by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council
*****
In September and October 2016 Other Lives actors Richard Avery, Neil King and Gordon Meredith appeared in the East Riding Theatre’s production of Hamlet
*****
If you would like news of our forthcoming shows, do email us on otherlivesproductions@yahoo.co.uk and we’ll place you on our e-circulation list