Current CADS production

Strangers on a Film

by Stephen Wyatt

Our current venture is something of a world exclusive! Local author Roy Maddox recently adapted a short radio play called Strangers on a Film by novelist and script writer Stephen Wyatt, which we've entered into several local drama festivals; the process was due to start with the Sawston Festival in March where it would have received its first ever live public performance, but recent circumstances have meant that the Festival is now no longer happening. We were also hoping to perform at the 86th Welwyn Drama Festival in May but have just heard that this, too, has had to be cancelled. We continue to plan for performances later in the year (see below) and will update this page as soon as we have any firm details

The play, based on real events, imagines a series of encounters in 1950 between film director Alfred Hitchcock and thriller writer Raymond Chandler. Hitchcock was, at the time, looking for someone to write a screenplay for his next film, which was to be an adaptation of the novel Strangers on a Train, the debut novel by Patricia Highsmith. An admirer of Chandler's work, Hitch approached him to work on the screenplay, though relations between the two men turned out to be far from harmonious - Chandler, being an author, wanted the script to be true to the book, whereas Hitchcock simply wanted to make a visually exciting movie and didn't much care for the niceties of the plot; indeed, he changed much of what was in the original story to suit his vision of what would make a good thriller.

Strangers on a Film somewhat ambitiously charts the increasingly acrimonious relationship between the two men, told through a mixture of individual meetings and direct addresses to the audience, and illustrated with projected film, animation and still images. It's basically a two-hander though it also uses a chorus of non-speaking "extras" to play some minor roles and to act out a couple of scenes from the proposed movie.,

Martin Maynard plays Hitchcock, and Michael Young Chandler, with the ensemble of extras consisting of Jo Buggey, Matthew Harrison, Pauline Rowe, Lisa Sargeant, Becky Seakins and Joe Symonds. The play's world premiere (!) will, we hope, now take place at the Cambridge Drama Festival in September at the ADC. The organisers of that festival say that, at the moment, they are planning for this still to go ahead, but obviously the situation may well change between now and then.

Subsequent to this, we'll be hoping to perform again at the 2020 Royston Arts Festival in a special double bill with the intriguingly titled Six Dead Queens... and an Inflatable Henry - more information on precise dates for all these shows as and when we have them...

IMPORTANT

If you are involved in a CADS production that also involves children (defined as anyone under the age of 18), it is important that you read - and confirm to us that you have read - our Child Protection Policy document and the set of procedures that accompany it. The policy is summarised here and that page also includes a link to the full procedural document - please take time to read both and then click on the link on that page to show that you have done so. Thank you.

You can find additional information and updates on our Facebook Event page...