The Bard Heads by Jules Hobbs
The Dust Behind the Door & The Third Witch From The Left
Saturday 19th November 2022 – 7.30pm
The Old School rooms – Upper, Chew Magna
Bard Heads takes an updated look at some well-loved characters from Shakespeare’s most popular plays and imagines what might have happened next.
Written and performed by Jules Hobbs, each 50 minute one woman show is full of laughter, tears and quite a few surprises. You will not need to know the parent play or even like Shakespeare to have a good night out!
First Half
The Dust Behind the Door
A midsummer’s dream for Hermia? More like a mid-life crisis.
The Dust Behind The Door takes a wry look at the tangled web involving various characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Hermia shares intimacies and secrets 25 years on from that night in the woods.
Over a cuppa in Hermia’s kitchen we soon discover that her life is not a bed of roses, although seemingly happily married to Lysander, Hermia is chief carer for her elderly father who spends his days watching fairies in the garden.
Best friend Helena has hit the Ouzo having not found the contentment she sought with husband Demetrius, while Hermia herself begins to question her own marriage to kind and solid Lysander following Demetrius’ shock declaration of undying love for her.
Offering the audience a wonderful familiarity Jules is simply captivating as she shares the intimate details of Hermia’s daily trials and tribulations laying bare the latest Athens’ gossip along with Hermia’s own confused thoughts and feelings. How should she respond to Demetrius’ unexpected declaration? What can she do to wean Helena off her addiction to alcohol? Is her father really seeing fairies in the garden every day? How can she spice up her marriage during a mid life crisis? Finally, where did that robin come from?
Second half
The Third Witch From The Left
Meg was born in Avebury 431 years ago, currently an astrologer and popular cookery writer, Meg is wracked with guilt over her part in the horrors and bloodbath in Macbeth.
Meg is a rare being among witches having been born with a conscience she lives under an unwanted curse which prevents her from dying. In a desperate attempt to assuage her deeply entrenched guilt Meg has joined a therapy group where she slowly unburdens herself.
As Meg begins her tale of woe it becomes clear that she was an innocent bystander in proceedings after being packed off on witchy work experience by her mother. An innocent girl of 16 sent away from her beloved Avebury, Meg dutifully followed the teachings and directions of the Scottish coven she found herself in and was shocked to the core at the outcome of that night on the bleak moorland.
Meg’s only surviving friend in her long life is her beloved cat Malcolm; blessed with top hunting skills he regularly supplies Meg with the ingredients for her recipes. I’m not convinced that Meg would stand a chance on Bake Off – presenting delicacies containing toads, mice and the odd small bird isn’t likely to set the judges’ taste buds salivating.
A guilt ridden, exhausted witch who travels back through time to ‘fill her needs’ by enjoying liaisons with the rich and famous, Meg has us on her side from the start. We, the audience, are her therapy group – we do not judge, but listen enthralled to Meg’s plight as we reach the conclusion to her woes.
The Third Witch From The Left is inventive and very funny, with beautiful moments of poignancy, as an added bonus it carries a cracking soundtrack.
Sat, 19 November 2022 – 19.30
The Old School room
South Parade
Chew Magna
BS40 8SH
Age 12+/adult
We are not charging for tickets, but are asking for donations on the door. Please give generously, so we can continue to bring fabulous quality theatre to the Chew Valley.