Puppet Show for the Homeward Bound Festival
Sunday 3rd October
The Rottingdean Smuggler’s Puppet Play
St. Margaret’s Church Marquee.
Performed by Touched Theatre with puppet theatre created by Sugg & Davidson.
As part of the Homeward Bound Festival ‘The Rottingdean Smuggler’s Play’ was performed to a packed family audience inside St Margaret’s Church marquee last Sunday 3rd October.
In fact, it proved so popular that the scheduled three performances were extended to four!
A total of eighty adults and twenty children and joined by Rev Anthony, enjoyed this humorous musical tale of local smuggling, boisterously performed by Touched Theatre puppeteers Darren East and Twiddle Crumblepatch. With a storyline that rhymed ‘Rottingdean’ with ‘trodding-green’ and ‘Prince Regent the cavorting Queen’!
A mixed bag of Autumn sunshine and driving rain, only added to the atmosphere.
At the end of the afternoon, script writer Beccy Smith exclaimed how marvellous it was to be able to perform live theatre again after 18months of Covid disruption.
The puppet theatre, created by Philip Alexander Sugg and Amanda Rosenstein Davidson consists of rod puppets characters including Dunk the butcher/smuggler by night, pursued by the revenue men and calmed by the Rev Hooker. With numerous scene changes that feature The Black Horse pub, the windmill and village High St as well as some lively sea scapes as the Smugglers raid Rottingdean beach.
First performed for Smuggler’s Night in The Grange Gallery in December 2014, it went on to be performed in Brighton Fishing Museum and featured in ‘The Art of Puppetry’ 6month residency in Hove Museum and Art Gallery in 2017.n
The production team would like to thank Rottingdean Heritage for funding and Rev. Anthony for permission to use St Margaret’s Church.
“Tales and Tour” with the Petworth Society
Members were treated to an excellent evening at a reduced rate at Petworth House which is owned by the National Trust. It started with 3 interesting talks given by enthusiastic volunteers about life below stairs, the 2nd Earl of Egremont who was an enthusiastic collector of much of the art in Petworth House, and the sensational life story of one of its inhabitants Lady Bette Percy who had had 3 husbands by the time she was 15!
This was followed by an after hours tour of parts of the house with the speakers who pointed out items of particular interest. We then returned to the Battery House (not usually open to the public) for a glass of wine and an opportunity to ask questions.
