AGM (Annual General Meeting) 2025 - Date for your diary
Dear Members:
there will be a Club AGM
on 25 November from 7:30pm
at Shenfield Parish Hall, CM15 8LB (main room).
For more information, including agenda and reports please see the AGM 2025 section of our website.
Autumn 2025 Production - 'Variation on a Theme' by Terence Rattigan
The Autumn 2025 show was on 23-25 October. Director June Fitzgerald and the club whisked you to a villa in south France for Terence Rattigan’s emotionally charged story of desire and disillusionment, ‘Variation on a Theme’.
NEW! We will update this article over the coming weeks with a review of the show and more photos, including the official ones.
NEW! Click here for the official National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) review
Click here for a PDF version of the programme
Click here for links to social media video reels of the cast and their favourite lines
Click here for a few photos from rehearsals.
Click here for a few photos of us building the set at the barn
Click here to find out more about our cast.
Please see below the flyer artwork for our show - kindly designed for us again by the talented Paul Sparrowham - thank you Paul!
Inspired by La Dame aux Camelias, and set amidst the glamorous and exotic society of the 1950s French Riviera, Variation on a Theme revolves around the tempestuous love affair between Rose, a beautiful and worldly socialite, and Ron, a young ballet dancer with a keen eye for social advancement.
Rose is persuaded by Ron’s choreographer and mentor, Sam, to sacrifice her personal happiness for the sake of her young lover’s success and career. But as Rose’s health deteriorates, and Ron is faced with the loveless reality of their separation, they finally face up to their need to be needed. A forgotten classic by “one of the supreme dramatists of the 20th century” (Michael Billington, Guardian), Terence Rattigan’s Variation on a Theme was revived in February 2014 at the Finborough Theatre. The production, its first in more than fifty years, starred twice Olivier Award nominated Rachael Stirling. The play’s original 1958 premiere was directed by John Gielgud and starred Margaret Leighton and Jeremy Brett.
OLD NEWS:
Click here for the ticket booking form which is now live!
Click here for directions to the location of our play
The date for the audition has been announced. Click here for more information.
Copy of the script
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Spring 2026 Production - 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'
'Kind Hearts and Coronets' is a black comedy play adapted by Derek Webb from the original novel by Roy Horniman. The novel was turned into a popular Ealing Comedy film starring Alec Guinness in 1949. This film, incidentally, came 6th in the BFI list of ‘Best British Films Of The 20th Century’.
The Marlborough are happy to welcome Lindsey Crutchett, a longstanding and excellent acting member of the Marlborough, to her first directing role for the club. She last graced the Memorial Hall stage for us in 2025's production of 'The Ladykillers' as the undefeatable Mrs Wilberforce.
The show dates are 9-11 April 2026 at our usual theatre home of Brentwood School Memorial Hall. Keep an eye on this article for more news about this production over the next few months. Scroll down for a play synopsis.
Play synopsis:
Archie Gascoyne Williams is a man on a mission. He comes from a long, illustrious (and very wealthy) family: that of the Gascoynes, through his mother. But she was disowned by the family because she married beneath her rank by marrying a travelling salesman in ladies underwear. Nevertheless, as Archie discovers, by the laws of heredity, he is in line to inherit the title of Earl Gascoyne, and thus the family fortunes, should the intervening Gascoynes die.
He decides to set about working his way up the family tree until he inherits that Gascoyne fortune by the simple expedient of murdering those members of the family that are in his way. And, besides having his eyes set on the Gascoyne title, he also has his eye on Sibella –the extrovert, sexy sister of Archie’s best friend Grahame Hallward, as well as Edith Gascoyne, and a nursery maid. Life’s never simple, is it?
For more information on the characters and audition / reherasal details, please click here.
WW2 evening 2025 - a look back at our summer production
Thank you to everyone who came along to, or appeared in, our special bonus event in summer 2025
"An 80th Anniversary Tribute to the end of World War II"
- part of the Brentwood Arts Festival.
Here is a look back at what the evening entailed - click on the links to access each article:
The official photos of the evening, taken by PAUL SPARROWHAM
The official PDF of the programme
The final running order of the evening, with links to material performed where available