The
Epsom Methodist Drama Group are delighted to announce ....
Next production, something
completely different:
T.S.Eliot's
"Murder in the Cathedral" in November.
more see News page
Tickets £10 (£8
concessions) from Dovecote Bookshop (tel. 01372 817707) or cast members.
If you cannot get to EMC on Sat 21st Nov, there will also be
performances in Leatherhead Parish Church on Thurs. and Fri. 19th and
20th Nov. also at 8 p.m. Tickets for Leatherhead performances from
Barton's Bookshop, 2 Bridge Street, Leatherhead (tel. 01372 362988) or
cast members.
T.S. Eliot’s
“MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL” was written for the Canterbury
Festival in 1935. Its central event is the assassination of
Archbishop Thomas a Becket in 1170, but in several ways it is a
play for all time.
Its structure draws on classical Greek
drama and also on English medieval morality plays, its language uses
medieval everyday experience and also refers to the historical events of
the relationship between Thomas and Henry II .The power struggle between
Church and State is shown in its medieval setting, but also in its 1930s
context. Thomas examines his former close friendship with Henry, then
his political authority, followed by his potential opposition to the
King, and finally he probes his own motives in seeking or accepting
martyrdom.
While
such considerations are specific to Thomas, they have resonances for all
of us, through Eliot’s genius for encapsulating important ideas in
simple language. Do we “do the right deed for the wrong reason”? Does
the past sometimes distract us “so that the mind may not be whole in the
present”? Since “humankind cannot bear very much reality” can we be
excused for preferring to live in the safety of “partly living.....in
our humble and tarnished frame of existence”?
But this play is not a dry,
intellectual study. The Chorus of Women of Canterbury express a great
range of emotions, in hauntingly powerful language; there is fear,
celebration, conflict, violence – and a murder is committed.
Our
normal meetings are on Mondays, 7.30 - 9.30 in the Church Hall.
We really
could do with your help.
If you
can't come but would like to discuss possibilities,
Please
contact Chris Watts
or
read the last production report.......here
