Bishopstoke Players’ next show, ‘Hercules: the Panto’, promises to deliver all those elements that are so enduring about pantomime – heroes and villains, silly jokes, songs, a highly unlikely narrative and, of course a happy ending!

The evil Hades is planning to take over the cosmos! But there’s one person in his way. Or should we say half-person, half-god? It’s our hero, Hercules!

Hercules, the son of Zeus, embarks on a series of heroic tasks to prove his strength and valour. With the help (or otherwise!) of his Earth-bound family, and the support of his friends, he sets out in his quest to prove himself a true hero and regain his right to live amongst the gods.

Scripted by award-winning playwrights, Joshua Clarke and Lewis Clarke, the show is packed with spectacle, humour and pace, and all that classic panto fun.

Directed by Beth Bowers and featuring a terrific cast, performances are in Durley Memorial Hall, Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th January at 7.30 (doors open 7pm), with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.

Tickets are £12 (£8 under-18s), available here (no booking fee); email boxoffice@bishopstokeplayers.uk, or phone 07871 006551.

As we are proud to have done every year since 1947, proceeds from the show will be donated to the charity, Action for Children.

‘Frankenstein’ director, Kevin, presents a cheque for £3,050 to Sam, from Action for Children, as our donation from 2024’s productions.  Since we were founded in 1947 we are proud to have donated over £80,000 to Action for Children.

A massive thank you to everybody who has made this possible by supporting us and watching our shows.

We love taking part in one-act drama festivals across the region, and in 2023 were delighted to again receive recognition for our work.

In March, Cameron Caws won the Best Adult Actor award at the Totton Drama Festival for his role in ‘No Easy Road’ by Peter Yates, while director Beth Bowers received the Adjudicator’s Award at the Maidenhead Drama Festival for the same play.

While in October, at the Woking Drama Festival, Lizzie Sellars won The Desmond Holt Memorial Cup for Best Youth Actress for her roles in ‘Tremulous’, by Le Wilhelm, and ‘For the Taking’, by Peter Yates, while ‘Tremulous’ won the Adjudicator’s Award, “for keeping hope going”, reflecting the content of that play.

Congratulations to all involved!!!

JOIN US!

If you are interested in getting up on that stage and showing us what you can do; taking part in one of our drama festival plays or our full-length productions, please do get in touch!

We’re proud of our heritage and are collecting copies of all our old programmes since we were founded in 1947.  We’re almost there but are missing only 3 programmes, all from the 1950s.  We’d love to complete the set so if you know of any of these programmes from Bishopstoke YLU Players or Bishopstoke Young Leaguers Union (our old names) – maybe found lurking during a house clearance? – please do get in touch as we’d love to make a copy of them:

• 1953 ‘Family Drama’
• 1955 ‘Happy Days’
• 1957 ‘Half Holiday’

All the programmes we do have, along with a myriad of photos, posters and more, can be found in our Past Productions gallery.  Please do have a browse!

Bishopstoke Players are proud to have donated the proceeds from our plays annually to the charity Action for Children (formerly known as the National Children’s Home) since we were founded in 1947. Why not take a look at their work and maybe see if you can support them as well?