Countdown to Traitor at the Beeches

By writer and director Kathy Reid

This is my second visit to Beeches Manor Residential Home – the setting for Traitor at the Beeches and home to a group of mature, eccentric Second World War veterans – and again it has been a pleasure to watch a play I have written come to life and see all the many different elements of the production come together. And now it is almost time for an audience to join us in the hunt for a traitor!

As opening night rapidly approaches, the amazing cast and crew having been working hard to skilfully piece together all the different elements to create a successful show.

With lines learned, over the past few weeks our talented, devoted actors have really focussed on bringing to life the eccentric jumble of characters who live in Beeches Manor Residential Home, from no-nonsense Iris to belligerent Colonel, wheeler dealer Walker, mystical Cassandra, bustling housekeepers Flora and Dora, and glamorous new resident Pearl.

The cast members have also thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of finding the right “look” for their individual characters, utilising the group’s and their own wardrobes as well as a lot of inventiveness to create costumes that really reflect their characters’ personalities.

The backstage members of the team are now applying the finishing touches to their creative work with set building nearly complete, three bespoke paintings already framed, and ingenious secret hiding places created for wheeler dealer Walker to hide his “treasure”.

The whole team have been putting in their all to make this production as entertaining, comic and twisty-turny as possible and we hope our audiences will love the show as much as we have loved putting it together.

We can promise plenty of laughs and many twists and turns, dramatic reveals, surprises, comedic tussles, and a celebration of the joys of not acting your age!

So, if you haven’t bought your tickets yet, why not? Go ahead and book yours here and we look forward to seeing you at the show. In the meantime, take a look at a few pictures below from our rehearsals and set building to get a flavour of what’s to come!