The Lighthorne Festival of One Act Plays

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  • 2025 Running Order

    Running Order for the Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays

    June 4 – 7  2025.

     

    WEDNESDAY JUNE 4 AT 7.15 PM.

    Branching Out Drama Society, The Wychwoods, Oxon.

    “Close To Croydon” by Gillian Plowman.

    Director Mandyrae Jessey.

    Approximate running time 35 minutes.

    ***********

    Phoenix Players, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire.

    “Home” by Baz Stilinski.

    Director: Baz Stilinski

    Approximate running time 20 mins

    ***********

    Rugby Theatre, Rugby, Warwickshire.

    “Bubbles” by Michael Lynch.

    Director: Debbie Hibberd.

    Approximate running time 30 mins

     

    THURSDAY JUNE 5 AT 7.15 PM.

    Lynden Players, Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire.

    “FROG” by Ken Lusted.

    Director Jo Bailey

    Approximate running time 30 minutes.

    **************

    Monkee Dubonnet, South Warwickshire.

    “Say Yes” by Steve Farr.

    Director   Steve Farr

    Approximate running time 25 minutes.

    **************

    AXperimental, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire.

    “Moving On” by Sarah Campbell

    Director Dwayne K Dawson

    Approximate running time 35 minutes

     

    FRIDAY JUNE 6 AT 7.15 PM

    Banbury Cross Players, Banbury, Oxon.

    “Goodbye Charles” by Benjamin Davis.

    Director Phil Wintle.

    Approximate running time 40 minutes.

    ***************

    Second Thoughts, Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire.

    “All by myself” by Robert Scott.

    Director Lynda Jepson.

    Approximate running time 25mins

    **********

    Kineton Amateur Dramatic Society, Warwickshire.

    “Pigeon Syndrome” by Benjamin Keyser.

    Director Benjamin Keyser.

    Approximate running time 35 minutes

     

    SATURDAY JUNE 7 AT 7.15 PM

    Didcot Phoenix Drama Group, Oxon.

    “Calling All The Dreamers” by Adelina Inganno

    Director Karen Carey

    Approximate Running Time 45 minutes.

    Contains strong language.

    *******************

    Dandy Productions, Stratford upon Avon.

    “The Hairy Biker” by Angela Dandy.

    Director Joanna Knight

    Approximate running time 30 minutes

    ***************

    Criterion Theatre, Coventry, West Midlands.

    “Through a Stained Glass Darkly” by Anne-marie Greene.

    Director Peter Gillam

    Approximate running time 35 minutes.

  • Lighthorne Festival 2023

    We are delighted to have received so many excellent entrants to the festival this year which will take place from 7-10 June 2023 and will be our Ten year Anniversary Festival.

    The Festival Committee are pleased to announce the running order for the 2023 Festival as below.  Season Tickets will be available to purchase from 2 May 2023 and individual evening tickets from 9 May 2023.  Check back soon for further information!

    LIGHTHORNE FESTIVAL OF ONE ACT PLAYS
    WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE – SATURDAY 10 JUNE 2023

    Wednesday 7 June 7:30pm

    Lynden Players, Middleton Cheney How the Vote was Won

    After 40 years of campaigning for the right to vote, the women of Britain try a different approach. In this comedy, first performed in 1909, the women go on strike, and as distant relations gather at the small home of Horace Cole, he starts to change his mind.

    New Kinver Players, Staffordshire Bookends

    Ron and Bill haven’t met up for three weeks: Bill has been in Scarborough, reliving his honeymoon and Ron, having escaped from his old people’s home, has been living it up on the ferry to Amsterdam.

    Second Thoughts, Stratford The Wind of Change

    When Toad announces her new appointment to her friends, they are utterly incredulous. Incredulity turns to admiration. Admiration fast turns to anger. Will Toad be the hero of the hour or the villain of the piece?  A light-hearted comedy with a critical underlying message

    Thursday 8 June 7:30pm

    Beezer Productions, Stratford   A Long Time Dead

    Dolores wants love badly. Very badly. Will Frank oblige? Will dancing lead to romance? Find out in this uproarious comedy.

    Criterion Theatre, Coventry  Small Hours

    It’s 3 o’clock in the morning, a young mum spends the night in a flat while her baby sleeps fitfully in the next room. Her husband is away and she cannot sleep. Small Hours is an intimate dissection of the claustrophobic world of a new mother struggling to cope on her own.

    Please note that this play includes content around post-natal depression which may be distressing or triggering.

    Didcot Phoenix Drama Group  Virtual Reality

    Two men waiting for equipment to do an unspecified job. The one in charge insists on doing a dry run inventory of the contents of the expected crates. The purely hypothetical assumes a wacky, sinister autonomy that transports them to a frozen wilderness.

    Friday 9 June 7:30pm

    Phoenix Players Stratford   Intelligence

    The year is 2035 and the UK population is reaching alarming levels. Behind closed doors, the Prime Minister and his “faithful” Aides are hatching a plan which will make it’s mark in history…

    Banbury Cross Players   Getting Dark

    For six year old  Karen, her world is gradually getting dark. Colours that meant so much to her are ebbing away and she needs constant artificial light to see.

    Her parents are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with their daughter’s deteriorating condition, so they make a life changing decision!

    Rugby Theatre    Root of all Evil

    Gladys is 85 and her memory is not as good as it was. She gets very confused. Her family don’t help, especially when they can get access to her bank account. Who to trust? Can anyone help?

    Saturday evening 7:30pm

    Waterbeach Theatre Company, Cambridgeshire  One Night in Toledo

                 On the terrace of a hotel in Spain, two women meet, having been invited to a mutual friend’s forthcoming wedding. As they chat they discover ties, both past and present, and an uncomfortable history begins to emerge. But in such a chance encounter, when confusion is easy, is it right to step in when danger beckons?

    Box House Theatre Company, Southampton    Twisted Tales

    A group of thespians stumble upon an ominous book filled with grisly and gory tales. Will the thespians be bound to act as the book’s puppets, destined for a life of performing but never truly free?

  • Lighthorne Duo Take Top National Prizes

    Lighthorne Duo Take Top National Prizes

    July 2022
    This year’s Lighthorne winners and runners-up have taken the two top places in the National Drama Festival – but reversed the points scored, and positions.
    The Thursday Night Project won the Lighthorne Festival in June by just one mark with 91 points for “Every Brilliant Thing” by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe, directed by Richard Brimblecombe.
    The Criterion Theatre, Coventry, came second with “The Gift”( Act II) by Janice Okoh, directed by Christine Ingall.

    The cast of the Criterion production of “The Gift” Act II – (left to fight) Max McLaren, Nyasha Daley, Ben Lord and Anne-marie Greene – on stage giving their prize-winning performance at the National Drama Festival at the Albany Theatre, Coventry.

    However, a month later, at the British Championships at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, it was the Criterion which took top spot with 91 points and Thursday Night Project who came second with 90.
    Adjudicator Jan Palmer Sayer, GoDA, who happened to oversee both competitions, said the difference was just a fractional improvement in on-stage reactions from the Criterion cast on the night.
    It is believed to be the first time in the near 60-year-history of the National Drama Festival (formerly  the British All-Winners) that one affiliated Festival has supplied both the Winners and Runners-up in the same year.
    Thursday Night Project qualified for the national contest by winning Lighthorne. The Criterion automatically qualified by a achieving a score of 90 or better.
    The two plays also picked up a raft of other trophies in Coventry. Criterion cast member Anne-Marie Greene, playing Harriet, took the award for Best Comedy Moment for her excruciating on-stage demonstration of “dancing like a black woman”. She was also nominated for best actor.
    The adjudicator said:”This was such a bold piece of theatre, challenging as it does our attitudes and understanding about the experience of being black and living in Britain. We have wriggled a lot, laughed a lot, enjoyed and admired this quartet of accomplished performers. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Stupendous stuff.”
    Mary Taylor, of Thursday Night Project, from Esher, Surrey, picked up the Best Actor award for her moving portrayal of Louise, the young and later adult child of a suicidal depressive.
    The adjudicator said:”This was an extraordinary experience.  There are few pieces that are so completely reliant on the sustained performance of a single actor, but this is one of them. I rarely use this term, but this was, genuinely, a tour-de-force.”
    The eighth Lighthorne Festival of One-Act Plays is set to take place in Lighthorne Village Hall between Tuesday June 6 and Saturday June 10, 2023. Founding adjudicator Mike Kaiser will return to take charge in what will be the Lighthorne Festival’s tenth anniversary year.

    The National Drama Festival –  https://ndfa.co.uk   – is also due to return for its third year at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, in July 2023.

    A full list of this year’s Albany winners and nominations is on the National Drama Festival Association’s website.