Painswick Beacon, January 2000

PaDS: The Next Thousand Years

Reader, you find me in a serious, even contemplative mood. In part, this is explained by the Millennial nature of what we’re going through. It is also, in truth, partly in response to being introduced the other day as “That fellow with the relentless sense of humour!” But it is also the result of a recent dramatic experience, which left me nonplussed and challenged my usually flippant view of the world.

It all started in the first quarter of the last century - 1923 to be exact - when a Miss Lucy Hyett started the Painswick Players with a production of As you like it in the grounds of Painswick House. For the next 38 years, this truly formidable lady produced - single-handedly - some 31 plays either at Painswick House or the Institute. The only real break was for the War years. She died in harness early in 1962, just after staging the 1961 Christmas production, The Holly and the Ivy, in the Institute, where there is a commemorative plaque. Since it was felt that no single person could ever replace her, the group re-formed as the Country Players and began a different but equally successful tradition which, with a change of name to PaDS in the 1980s continues to this day. At some point along this trail, a legend or myth grew up that the spirit of Lucy Hyett lives on in the Institute and that she appears in the form of a butterfly before productions of which she approves.

I treated it all with total scepticism until the evening before we opened with Absurd Person Singular. It was about 11.30 pm and we had just finished the final technical rehearsal. Technical rehearsals tend to be nerve-wracking affairs whose only point is to prove conclusively all the things that possibly can go wrong, go wrong. The mood was, therefore, subdued as I stood on stage and went through a final de-briefing with the cast and the technical crew. Quite suddenly, a red admiral butterfly appeared and fluttered around the stage, alighting on various parts of the set as if to check that everything was in order. It continued to circle for a few minutes and then settled on my head! The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end…

I’m not sure what all this means. Did Lucy bring Absurd Person Singular luck? Certainly it seems to have been a success. However, for me as we enter a new century, it has prompted a deeper response: the fundamental importance of continuity and not losing those links with the past. Perhaps we could start by re-naming the Hall in the Painswick Centre, ‘The Lucy Hyett Memorial Theatre’. Perhaps PaDS should become the Lucy Hyett Players. What do you think?

Back to the future. As trailed last month, Gill Cox will be directing the classic J B Priestley mystery An Inspector Calls for the PaDS May production. Auditions are set for Tuesday 18^th and Thursday 20^th January at 8.00 pm in the Green Room at the Painswick Centre. Rehearsals start on 29^th February. We really are keen to attract new members: if you are at all tempted, why not throw caution to winds and come along? Give Gill a call (on 814367) and she’ll let you have a copy of the play to mull over. Let’s keep the spirit of Lucy Hyett alive in the Third Millennium.

Happy New Century!

Jack Burgess,

Painswick Dramatic Society