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Play review: Morpeth St George’s Community Players perform ‘Quartet’ by Ronald Harwood
By Brian Bennett – Published 31st Mar 2025

Spanning several decades, Morpeth St George’s Community Players have produced many a comedy on the stage at the Church Hall.

However last week, their spring production ‘Quartet’ by Ronald Harwood, which was wonderfully directed by Sharon Saint Lamont and her assistant Maggie Meigh, must rank as being one of their best ever.

The play – described as beautiful, delightful, funny and touching – centres around four former opera singers who are in a retirement home for ex-musicians and was neither a farce nor a tame offering.

Instead, Harwood reaches out and tries to put into context how life can be challenging and very different in retirement years; “why do we have to grow old” is one prominent line.

From left, Wilfred Owen (played by Karl Bovenizer), Jean Horton (played by Bridget Rowbottom) and Cecily Robson (played by Janet Robinson), Reginald Paget (played by Alan Bullock) pictured during the Quartet performance.

The four leading characters in this show, Janet Robinson (as Cissy), Alan Bullock (as Reggie), Bridget Rowbottom (as Jean) and debutant Karl Bovenizer (as Wilf) – all superb in their respective roles – take the script by the scruff of the neck, leave no stone unturned and leave a packed audience torn between laughter and moments of poignancy.

The final scene, where the quartet ‘sing’ a piece of music from ‘Rigoletto’ at a gala concert to celebrate the birthday of Guiseppe Verdi, brought the curtain down on what was a great production.

Lena Walsh, Dave Coghill and Pam Cassells had cameo roles, whilst credit should also go to Robin Heron and Ian Shaw – who assembled a realistic stage set.

Quartet was performed on Thursday, March 27, Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29.

With just days to go before curtain up, the cast and crew are in full dress and technical rehearsal, for their production of Quartet.

Tickets are still available, have you got yours?

Buy your tickets now and join us for a beautiful and delightful play that is both funny and touching. It is full of wicked and saucy humour, about growing old and about art. It is a play of hope and confidence for people who in their retirement fear they may no longer have as much to offer. It is a play that loudly affirms, that us older people still have a zest for life and still have the same desires, needs and worries as we did when we were young, if not more!

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on?q=Morpeth
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

Buy your tickets now and join us for a beautiful and delightful play that is both funny and touching. It is full of wicked and saucy humour, about growing old and about art. It is a play of hope and confidence for people who in their retirement fear they may no longer have as much to offer. It is a play that loudly affirms, that us older people still have a zest for life and still have the same desires, needs and worries as we did when we were young, if not more!

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 Click HERE To Buy Your Tickets
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth  (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

By Brian Bennett of the Morpeth Herald.

Sharon Saint Lamont says she is more prepared to take on the role of director this time round when the Morpeth St George’s Community Players take to the stage next week in the Church Hall with their Spring offering ‘Quartet’ by Ronald Harwood.

The play – described as beautiful, delightful, funny and touching – is being produced on Thursday March 27 and Friday March 28 with curtain up at 7.30pm whilst the launch of what will be the group’s first-ever Saturday matinee performance on March 29 will start at 2pm

This will be the second time Sharon has agreed to take on the job as director after debuting two years ago with ‘Enchanted April’ and she said: “It is hard work being director, but I learned an awful lot from the first time and I’m a bit more prepared.

However, I receive marvellous support from a lot of people around me, and I can’t thank them enough. For ‘Quartet’ the cast of four – Janet Robinson, Alan Bullock, Karl Bovenizer and Bridget Rowbottom – are fabulous and they are also enthusiastic. All have major roles, and I am a bit of a stickler for cast learning their lines because you owe it to your audience who deserve nothing but the best.”

She continued: “There is some colourful language in this play which has caused a bit of an obstacle but it’s a play about four ex professional opera singers who end up in this nice residential home. Two of them have mental health issues and don’t have filters so a couple of words come out. However, I think it’s important to include them (the words) because what we are seeing is not the person they were, but the person they have become. I appreciate that we are in a church and we need to respect that, so I’ve tried to temper the language.”

Karl Bovenizer makes his first appearance and there are cameo roles for Dave Coghill and Lena Walsh: “Karl joined us and was our prompt at the last production,” added Sharon, “He has acting experience and we’ve had quite a few sessions talking about character development so that the cast don’t sound superficial.

We have tried to dig below the surface and think about what the characters are and Karl and the rest of the cast have been great.

Tickets for the play, which runs from Thursday, March 27 to Saturday, March 29, are available at the Chantry Tourist Information Centre, online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on?q=morpeth or alternatively pay on the door.

📅 Evening Performance Thursday 27th & Friday 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Saturday 29th March 2pm
🎟 https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on?q=morpeth
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth  (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

Buy your tickets now and join us for a beautiful and delightful play that is both funny and touching. It is full of wicked and saucy humour, about growing old and about art. It is a play of hope and confidence for people who in their retirement fear they may no longer have as much to offer. It is a play that loudly affirms, that us older people still have a zest for life and still have the same desires, needs and worries as we did when we were young, if not more!

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 Click HERE To Buy Your Tickets
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth  (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

By Brian Bennett

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/arts-and-culture/theatre-and-stage/morpeth-st-georges-community-players-hoping-new-matinee-performance-will-be-a-success-5016366

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.

Buy your tickets now and join us for a beautiful and delightful play that is both funny and touching. It is full of wicked and saucy humour, about growing old and about art. It is a play of hope and confidence for people who in their retirement fear they may no longer have as much to offer. It is a play that loudly affirms, that us older people still have a zest for life and still have the same desires, needs and worries as we did when we were young, if not more!

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 Click HERE To Buy Your Tickets
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth  (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

Buy your tickets now and join us for a beautiful and delightful play that is both funny and touching. It is full of wicked and saucy humour, about growing old and about art. It is a play of hope and confidence for people who in their retirement fear they may no longer have as much to offer. It is a play that loudly affirms, that us older people still have a zest for life and still have the same desires, needs and worries as we did when we were young, if not more!

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 Click HERE To Buy Your Tickets
ℹ St George’s Church Morpeth  (The Church on the bridge)
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk

A play by Ronald Harwood, directed by Sharon Lamont that is saucy, funny and touching, full of humour, celebrating growing old positively and almost disgracefully.

📅 Evening Performance Thur 27th & Fri 28th March 7:30pm
📅 Matinee Performance Sat 29th March 2pm
🎟 Click HERE To Buy Your Tickets
🎭 http://www.stgeorgesplayersmorpeth.co.uk