The Wilmslow Festival of One Act Plays took place last week and saw a huge variety of plays from all over Cheshire and Manchester being performed at the Wilmslow Guild over four nights.
"The festival is a competitive festival for plays no longer than forty five minutes," said Publicity Officer Bill Beton. "We were overwhelmed with entries this year. We had thirteen plays in total, from eleven different groups, including the Wilmslow Guild Players.
"Some groups travelled from as far away as Nantwich, Prestwich and Heswall to compete in the festival."
The festival is affectionately referred to as 'The Friendly Festival' by some of the participating societies, many of whom have been entering the festival for years. Over the years it has seen some famous feet tread the boards, such as Doris Speed of Coronation Street fame; Alan Garner, the local children's author, and Albert Finney who is now an established international star of stage and screen.
The plays were judged by an independent adjudicator, Hilary Egan, who gave a verbal adjudication at the end of each night. Awards were made on the Saturday night for Best Production (junior and senior) and Best Individual Performance (junior, youth and senior). There were also two discretionary awards, The Adjudicator's Award and the Syd Mence Cup for a Piece of Theatre Magic.
Cheadle Hulme Amateur Dramatics Society walked away with both senior awards this year for their gripping drama Something Unspoken by Tennessee Williams which is a play about the dark secret between a rich spinster and her secretary who have shared the same house for fifteen years without ever facing reality.
Mossley A.O.D.S. were also highly successful in the junior section, taking both the best junior production and best junior individual performance awards.
Photo: Tracy Burns (right) and Kathryn Way as Cornelia Scott and Grace Lancaster in rehearsals for Something Unspoken by CHADS.
