Seventy years ago Greta Huggins the founder of Bijou Theatre Club, stood in the stables of the then Gerston Hotel in the centre of Paignton and said to her friends ‘let’s make a theatre’… and so the Bijou Theatre Club was born.
It was a small 50-seat theatre only open to members. They produced four plays a year for which they charged members 10 shillings; how things have changed!
Bijou’s, Wendy Caplan says: ‘We still do four plays a year and Greta would be thrilled that we are celebrating our 70th Anniversary of the Bijou Theatre Club this year.’
Their spring play is When We Are Married which feels like and appropriate choice in the year of Bijou’s 70th Anniversary. The play had it’s own 90th anniversary in 2024.
The plot revolves around three Yorkshire couples trying to celebrate their joint 25th wedding anniversaries. However, nothing goes quite to plan and it appears that something happened 25 years ago and they may actually never have been married! This comes as a shock to the three husbands who are all ‘Big men at t’chapel.
The play’s Director, James Mackenzie-Thorpe, says: ‘Whether everything turns out for the best you’ll have to come and see it to find out but everything is made more complex by the comings and goings of work-shy cooks, hard-drinking newspaper men for ‘Yorkshire Argus and unwanted faces from the past.’
James continues: ‘When We Are Married has always held a place in my heart. It is probably my earliest theatrical memory. My father played the drunken photographer, Henry Ormonroyd in Dartmouth about 40 years ago. He was also the first person cast in this production, albeit in a different role.’
Bijou look forward to you joining them for their Bijou celebration at the Palace Theatre Paignton from 30th April to 3rd May.
