Grandma's Party

was held on
19th-22nd October 2005 at Hatherlow.

It was written by Bob Vass who lives fairly locally and
is a cousin of David Parkinson! The play was
directed by the author, who wrote . . .

"Set in the present time, the story is about a family preparing a surprise 75th birthday party for their very extrovert Grandma. She lives with the family. As the story develops a number of 'sub plots' come out (calling them 'sub plots' sounds very arty but I can't think how else to describe them). An example of this is the boy friend of Philippa (the daughter of the family) has a phobia about mice and it just so happens that the teenage son has a mouse that has escaped from its cage. Anyway, by the end of the first act, Jean, the mother in the house, has stormed out after having had a bust-up with Jack the father ..."

Cast

Suzanne Dearden (Jean)

Sue Stagg (Kimberley)

Laura Ellis (Phillipa)

John Dearden (Jack)

Martin Vernon (Derek)

Lesley Ellis (Grandma)

William Dearden (William)

David Parkinson (Mr Boyson)

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About Bob Vass

Bob Vass was born in Cheshire and, apart from a 5 year spell in the Royal Navy has lived all his life here. He is married with 2 grown up children. He is a Detective Inspector in Cheshire Police and is in charge of the Public Protection Unit which investigates child protection, domestic violence and sex offenders.

He wrote 'Grandma's Party' 5 years ago and it was first performed by the Wistaston Players, a group from Crewe. The group is similar to the Woodley Players. Bob had appeared with this group on a large number of occasions and it was after performing in a comedy by a well known playwright that he decided to see if he could do any better. " What I wanted was a simple comedy that everyone could enjoy. I aimed to have at least one laugh on every page."

He promises that there is no swearing or violence and it is the sort of play that everyone in the family will appreciate. Bob sees it as a great honour that the Woodley Players were willing to perform it.

The future? Bob does intend to write further plays and he has a number of ideas in mind so watch this space!

To view the programme (Acrobat .pdf file) click here

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