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In the Community


Madhatters News, Winter 2011-12

 The Madhatters don't just put on plays: we organise lots of social events too.
To find out more or to join please contact Martin 020 8450 8505 or Cathy 020 8452 5239.
 
Coming up

 We are now working on a festival of Irish dance and drama for March. All welcome.

We are also planning an evening of songs and comedy sketches at St Mungo’s for residents and with residents. Date tbc.

See our Next production for information about our next play.

In the community

We put on an evening of carols and mince pies at St Mungo's in December. We also arranged an evening of comedy and music for residents and with residents in August. See our Recent productions for information about how this went.

We all joined in the Fun Day in Gladstone Park in June. We had a stall publicising our group, conveniently next to the drama stage, so we could watch performances of Alice in Wonderland and Mark Twain in Dollis Hill.

(Left: 2010 - Mark Twain - Right: 2009 - Gladstone!) 

More about Gladstone

2009 was a big year for anniversaries: 250 years since the birth of Robbie Burns, 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 200 years since the birth of William Ewart Gladstone, four times prime minister of Great Britain, finally stepping down at the grand old age of 85, in 1894.

Gladstone’s anniversary has a special significance for people in Brent as the Grand Old Man (GOM) spent so much of his later life staying in Dollis Hill House, the home of his friend and foreign secretary the Earl of Aberdeen. The grounds of this house are named Gladstone Park in his honour; the local phone code, 452, is of course GLA; and Hawarden Hill, the flats opposite, are named after his family home near Chester, Hawarden Hall.

Gladstone Park is 70 acres of playground, grass and trees, with the stables of Dollis Hill House now the Stables Arts Centre. At weekends, Gladstone and his beloved wife Catherine regularly drove out to the rural retreat of Dollis Hill House, to get away from the stress and strains of Downing Street. Here Gladstone picked strawberries and rose buds from the walled garden. He slept under the trees in a hammock and bathed in the pond. He served sandwiches and tea to the haymakers and sang hymns with Catherine. On Sunday mornings they drove to St Mary’s Church in Willesden and thousands of people turned out to cheer him. Sometimes the crowds were so large that the couple went instead to St Andrew’s Church in Kingsbury.

Brent Arts Council wished to celebrate Gladstone’s 200th birthday, especially as we are based at the Stables at the top of Gladstone Park, the former grounds of Dollis Hill House. The play was about Gladstone’s life and times in Gladstone Park. This production was the only play in the country celebrating Gladstone’s 200th anniversary. It was the latest Brent Arts Council summer play in Gladstone Park – we staged Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2006, Peer Gynt in 2007 and Treasure Island in 2008 – all free and well attended, despite the odd summer shower. We were very fortunate in having a generous grant from the Awards for All Lottery Fund for this project. This meant that we could afford Victorian costumes, a professional director and professional actors, working with local actors young and old. The play was written especially for us by Amy Bonsall and Michael Redston, who wrote last year’s very popular Treasure Island.
 
       

The Madhatters Theatre Club is a registered charity (Registered charity No. 1095317)
and is affliated to the Brent Arts Council
© 2012 Madhatters Theatre Club

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