World premier Calendar Girls revealed
The cast of the ‘world premier’ amateur performance of the smash-hit play Calendar Girls by Tim Firth has been revealed in Grassington, the community in the Yorkshire Dales which is home to the original ‘girls’ who first made international news with their fundraising nude calendar in 1999.
Left to right: Jane Ellison-Bates, Jennifer Scott, Zarina Belk, Andrea Clay, Samantha Harrison, Paula Vickers. Image by Heidi Marfitt
Grassington Players have a long history entertaining audiences in the Dales since they were founded in 1923 and have close links with the ‘real’ Calendar Girls. The original Miss January, Beryl Bamforth (now aged 78) has been a stalwart actress and director of Grassington Players since 1970. John Baker, whose battle with leukemia inspired his wife Angela and her friends to produce the original ‘Alternative WI Calendar’, was House Manager and Treasurer of Grassington Players for many years and Angela has performed with the company along with fellow Calendar Girl Lynda Logan.
The production opens in Grassington on 31st August, a day before any other amateur group in the country is granted license to perform the play. The cast taking on the challenge are now in rehearsal; many of them seasoned players of the company.
Having performed in 35 years on the amateur stage in London, Surrey and Bristol, Mark Bamforth – son of the aforementioned ‘real’ Miss January – plays the dying man, John Clarke, while his partner, Jane Ellison-Bates plays alongside him in the role of the courageous widow, Annie Clarke. A member of the Players for 21 years, she starts rehearsals straight from directing the Players spring production, The Cracked Pot.
Paula Vickers returned to Grassington having trained and performed for eight years in the professional theatre in Cardiff; she takes on the lead role of Chris Harper whose enthusiasm drives the girls through their bitter-sweet adventure. Paula has tackled most things on stage, including nudity in a production at the Edinburgh Fringe 25 years ago and although “not that lithe young thing any longer” she’s gamely taken on the challenge again.
Playing her husband, Rod Harper, is Les Kerkham. Always a masterful force of nature on the Players stage, Les has played more than 60 roles for Grassington Players in the forty years he has been a member.
Zarina Belk began performing with the local children’s theatre in the 1970s. As well as playing on stage, has has undertaken many key roles for Grassington Players over the years; secretary, chairman, house manager, stage manager, sound, lights and publicity, and is the current treasurer. Having stripped on stage in ‘Allo, Allo’, she now takes the part of the reluctant Ruth to do so again, albeit without the German uniform.
Jennifer Scott joined the Players from across the Lancashire border where she performed with Nelson Civic Players, Colne Operatic Society and Colne Dramatic Society. In 1995, Jennifer was awarded a NODA nomination for best actress in a supporting role as Letitia Peabody Primrose in ‘On the 20th Century’ (Colne Operatic Society) and won the Maureen Hopkins Award (Pendle) for the same role. She takes on the cynical matriarchal school ma’am, Jessie.
Samantha Harrison plays the glamorous golfer Celia. A local girl, Samantha went to Arts Educational School of Performing Arts at the age of 10 and her professional debut was in “Don Quixote” at the London Coliseum with Rudolph Nureyev and the Zurich Ballet Company. She went on to dance all over the world before ‘retiring’ back to the Dales to start a family. She is a well-seasoned member of Grassington Pantoloons.
Andrea Clay plays the vicars-daughter-and-single-mum Cora. She not only has lines to learn but piano-playing skills to brush up for the production too. Andrea has played in many Players shows over the years and has encouraged her children to tread the boards alongside her in the Christmas Dickensian shows and in Grassington Pantoloons.
Staying sensibly clothed, former President Sue Wainwright and Chairman Sue Clement join the cast as Lady Cravenshire and the misunderstood Marie, leader of the Knapeley WI, with accomplished youngster Lizzie Merrifield playing the beauty therapist. The Players oldest member, Joan Whitaker, takes on the cameo role of Brenda Hulse, the visiting speaker extolling the virtues of broccoli.
Two new faces join the company from Skipton as David Nicholson and David Newall take on the roles of photographer and film director, both with several years of experience on the stage.
Quite apart from the emotional bond with the real Calendar Girls whose story the play depicts, the Grassington cast are also reminded of fellow Players they have lost to cancer and two members who are even now struggling to fight the disease.
Director Ed Williams explains “The play strikes a real chord with all the cast and it is our aim to make our production a real tribute and celebration of the magnificent work that our friends the real Calendar Girls have done in raising over £3 million pounds to help Leukaemia Research find a way to beat, in Tim Firth’s words, the “shitty, cheating, sly, conniving, silent disease that cancer is”.
The production is sponsored by the new interiors and lifestyle destination, The Courtyard, (on the A65 near Settle) which is attracting its own rave reviews for the stunning Brasserie and distinctive retailers on offer.
Tickets are available from Grassington Hub on 01756 752222.