The Gambia Blog

The Taunton Thespians

We have a guest post for you today – from Rene Kilner from the Taunton Thespians. They are putting on a play ‘Daisy Pulls It Off’ for the people of Somerset, but are also going to take the play on the road – to The Gambia! We wish them all the luck in the world. Read on for more on this intriguing project…

When we (Taunton Thespians) planned our autumn  production Denise Deegans comedy ‘Daisy Pulls It Off’  we could not have foretold our run would include Alliance Francaise in The Gambia!  Yet, having completed her run at The Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton, Daisy and her friends will be packing their bags, boarding a Gambia Experience flight and taking to the stage as part of the inaugural Festival of Arts & Theatre in The Gambia!

Award winning comedy ‘Daisy Pulls It Off’ takes us back to those halcyon days when the world was a more innocent place. This is the time of Biggles and Bulldog Drummond.  At the exclusive Grangewood School for Young Ladies, however, times are a changing and Grangewood takes in a scholarship girl from an elementary school! Shocking! Daisy Meredith is that girl and we must wait to see how she fits in.

As a Taunton based amateur theatre group we have been performing for delight of Somerset audiences since 1927. A thriving society we seek to innovate and develop the arts in our area. In 2000 for example, someone came up with the idea of taking a production to different outdoor venues in the county and, stoical in the face of British weather, our Summer Tour  is now a feature of  the Somerset’s summer calendar.

With a Summer Tour that sees us take a full length play around 10 venues in 2 weeks, it was felt that if we can pop up all over Somerset then The Gambia would be well within our scope! We are so very proud to have been chosen to perform for audiences a little further afield than our usual Somerset venues.

The festival is the brain child of a West Country businessman who first visited The Gambia on holiday. This ambitious plan aims to give the people of The Gambia access to the joy and inspiration of Theatre and the Arts that we in the West take so much for granted. What band of performers could resist such a challenge? A challenge that has been met thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of everyone involved in the production.  Thanks to UK sponsors of the event, The Gambia Experience, our production of ‘Daisy’  will literally  ‘take off!’.