The theatre

This report suggests that the people of Bourne did not take kindly to theatrical performances and there is other evidence from the same source that travelling companies found the town far from being a congenial venue. On Friday 17th March 1882, the Stamford Mercury reported: "It is not often that a respectable dramatic company ventures to try its fortune in Bourne but next week, Miss Fanny Pitt and her corps, who come with a good reputation from Stamford, will test the taste of our townspeople for the drama."

However, the company stayed for a week and the reception was far better than expected because the newspaper subsequently reported on Friday 24th and 31st March:

Miss Fanny Pitt's Comedy Drama Company have been performing at the Corn Exchange this week. On Monday, the comedy of The Serious Family was given. On Tuesday, the celebrated drama East Lynne was very effectively produced, the acting of Miss Pitt as Lady Isabel Carlyle being particularly affecting and the whole of the characters being taken in a very creditable manner. On Wednesday evening, Lytton's play of The Lady of Lyons was performed. There was a good attendance each evening and the representations appeared to give general satisfaction. There were further performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings: the play of The Woman from the People was admirably represented. On Friday, The Serious Family was repeated by special request and was exceedingly well received; the performance that evening concluding with the musical comedy Perfection, in which songs were given by Miss Pitt and which elicited frequent and hearty applause. On Saturday, The Ticket of Leave Man was put upon the stage in a manner which conclusively proved the talent of the various performers.

A theatre opened in Bourne at the beginning of the 19th century and was situated on the edge of the old cattle market site just off Abbey Road. A local newspaper advertisement of 1806 gives details of the forthcoming programme at The Theatre, Bourne, where there were usually performances on four nights a week, beginning at 6.30 p m and the admission prices were 3s. 0d. for a box, 2s. 0d for the pit and 1s. 0d. for the gallery [£1 being worth 20s. in those days of pre-decimal currency]. The theatre required a licence granted by Act of Parliament to stage public entertainment and the Stamford Mercury reported that at the Kesteven Sessions held at the Town Hall, Bourne, on 13th January 1829, "a licence was granted to Joseph Smedley, comedian, to open his theatre at Bourne as usual".

The plays performed were mainly popular tragedies, comedies or farces although one item in the 1806 advertisement announced "The celebrated Musical Entertainment (never acted here) called Paul and Virginia" and after giving details of the various scenes, the notice promised "the whole to conclude with a storm at sea, shipwreck, etc etc."

The theatre continued in use throughout the century but by 1905, the building had been taken over by Lea and Green Ltd, manufacturers of aerated mineral waters, and was known as The Old Theatre. The premises were subsequently used by W M Friend, agricultural engineers and machinery agents followed by the building merchants F W Davies and were finally demolished in 1989 to make way for the new market place and Corn Exchange development.

The closure of the theatre at the turn of the century however, did not end professional theatrical performances in Bourne. After the First World War of 1914-18, a travelling company came twice a year and performed in a building behind the Six Bells public house at No 35 North Street (now used for three shops, Hoppers the Jewellers, Concept and Scissors), and their productions included a dramatisation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Edwardian melodrama Maria Martin and the Murder in the Red Barn. The prices for admission were 3d., and 6d, £1 being worth 240 pennies.

The programme from the first amateur operatic production in 1913 when the company presented the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta HMS Pinafore at the Corn Exchange in Bourne, still a popular venue for amateur productions. Among the gentlemen of the chorus was William Harold Redshaw, eldest son of the photographer William Redshaw, who was then aged 43, and is pictured right. A later production is pictured below showing the cast of the Yeoman of the Guard, also by Gilbert and Sullivan, which was presented by the Bourne Amateur Operatic Society on 25th-27th January 1921 and below that the finale of the 1932 production of The Balkan Princess.

There was also a lively interest in the musical theatre and the Bourne Amateur Operatic Society performed from 1913 until 1936, presenting a series of shows at the Corn Exchange that became the highlight of the year for the town. In 1914, their production was Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance when the cast included Mr Wallis, the local sergeant of police, Miss Hartshorn, a teacher at the Abbey Road Primary School and Mr Nichols, a baker in South Street. The production in 1931 was The Street Singer when the Stamford Mercury reported on the popularity of the company: "For years now it has been an accepted fact that the Bourne Amateur Operatic Society give one of the best entertainments of the year. Its members are nothing if not versatile and when the curtain rang down at the close of Tuesday's show, everyone was agreed that the players had lived up to their reputation."

This success was repeated the following year when, in November 1932, they presented The Balkan Princess with a similarly varied cast of townspeople. Among the active members of the society was the motor racing pioneer Raymond Mays who lived in Eastgate and was a passionate devotee of the theatre, appearing in several local productions, and Basil Boothroyd, a young bank clerk in Bourne who was to become a distinguished writer and broadcaster and assistant editor of the humorous magazine Punch.

The town currently has two amateur groups presenting annual shows, the Bourne Players and the Bourne Footlights, both companies using the Corn Exchange. The Bourne Players have the longer pedigree, having been formed in 1937, and their plays during the early years included One Wild Oat and Quiet Weekend and a more ambitious production was staged during the war years in November 1943 when they presented the three-act Laburnum Grove by J B Priestley. The company continued after the war but with more vigour and with Mr Ernest Pattison, who had been the original founder, as the sole producer from 1947 until 1975. During this period the company was successful in winning awards with one-act plays at the Kesteven Drama festival and other competitions at Scunthorpe and Skegness. 

The first full-length play to be presented  was When We Are Married by J B Priestley in 1959 and from then on, productions continued each year, sometimes twice, until the present day.

Mr Pattison, who was the driving force behind the company for almost 30 years, did not hold auditions but was an astute spotter of talent with the knack of placing the right people in the appropriate parts, often when they had little or no acting experience and the results were usually extremely successful. Rehearsals were held in a variety of places, a room at the town hall, the Bourne Institute in West Road, the Bourne Laundry or in the homes of the various players while performances were dignified occasions with lady and gentlemen ushers wearing evening dress and interval teas served either by members of the Women's Institute or the Red Cross.

Prior to the annual performance, usually around Easter time, the cast would use the open spaces of the cattle market behind the Corn Exchange to clean and colour wash their flats or backdrops that had been in storage for the past year in readiness for the opening night while furniture and other props needed for the play would be borrowed from local shops or even from Tom Jones, the antiques dealer in North Road, who was always willing to help. The stage footlights in the early days were specially made for the Bourne Players by Ray Marsh and later, overhead and spot lights were hired from the Lincolnshire County Drama Department and collected from either Sleaford or Grantham prior to each production. Eventually, the company purchased its own overhead lighting that was installed permanently in the Corn Exchange.

There was always a dress rehearsal on Monday evenings and performances started on Tuesday when senior citizens were given free seats but the highlight of the week was the attendance of the civic party, the chairman and members of the Bourne Urban District Council, usually on the final Saturday night.

Productions continued once and sometimes twice a year and although Mr Pattison retired in 1975, the company agreed to carry on with a new committee and constitution and continues to the present day, usually in the Corn Exchange although shows have also been staged in the Darby and Joan Hall and the Robert Manning Technical College. Over the years, three couples have met and married within the society, one member went into the ministry, two couples emigrated to Australia and others have moved to live elsewhere but the group continues to give pleasure to the people of Bourne every year. In October 2002, the company celebrated their 65th anniversary with an hilarious female production of Neil Simon's hit play The Odd Couple, directed by Margaret Porter, the company's longest serving member with more than 25 years' experience. 

In 2004, Bourne Players received an award for the Best Drama Production from the National Operatic and Dramatic Association for their production of Straight and Narrow by Jimmy Chinn which was performed at the Corn Exchange, Bourne. The production then went on to win Best Back Stage Crew and Best Actor at the Skegness Festival. Then, in 2007, the company won a second award from NODA for the Best Drama Production 2006 for its production of Ghost Writer by David Tristam which was again performed at the Corn Exchange.

A second amateur company, Bourne Footlights, was formed in 1991 when their first presentation was a play called Living Together by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Maureen Berkes which was staged for three nights in February and March that year. The company is still going strong 24 years later with a comedy called Sandcastles by Bob Larbey and directed by Martin Tyrrell which is due to be staged in November 2015.

Advertising banner in South Street for the 65th anniversary production
 by Bourne Players

REVISED AUGUST 2015

See also

Ida Pick

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