By Brian Bennett
Morpeth St George’s Community Players hoping new matinee performance will be a success
Morpeth St George’s Community Players tread the boards later this month when they unleash their spring offering ‘Quartet’ by Ronald Harwood.
However, in a milestone rejig, the committee behind the group have decided to axe what for years has been a traditional Saturday night finale performance in favour of a matinee on the same day.
Sue Rutherford, chair of the group, said: “Since Covid, things have changed with audiences and we are not alone. A lot of other groups have experienced the same thing and you have to adapt a little bit.
“We noticed of late that numbers for Saturday night audiences were dropping and for our last production – ‘Chase me up Farndale Avenue Si vous plait’ – our Saturday night attendance was particularly poorly attended.
“It was a chance remark I got from a friend who suggested would it be better if we did just a matinee performance on the Saturday, so I brought it up at our next committee meeting and we agreed that it was worth giving it a go.
“We will reassess it, but at the moment it will be for a trial of probably two years which means over four productions as we do two a year and the performance will start at 2pm.”
Sue added: “With the matinee it means that once the play is finished, we can tidy up and have a get-together and it frees the hall up on the Sunday for the church members.”
Tickets for the play, which runs from Thursday, March 27 to Saturday, March 29, are available at the Chantry Tourist Information Centre, online at www.ticketsource.co.uk or alternatively pay on the door.
St George's Community Players 