Theatre group first to release audio performance of local playwright’s script

A local unpaid theatre group are the first to record an audio version of a local playwright’s new play.

People can now listen to the Cheriton Players (CP) audio production of Johnathan Edgington’s HOLOGRAM, available on YouTube and SoundCloud. It is also being broadcast on BBC Radio Solent between 12:00 and 1.00pm on 28th October.

According to the CP website it is: “A 10 minute comedy/drama about an older couple meeting for the first time on a blind date”.

Mr Edgington wrote the play in 2019, he told Winol: “Someone once said to me ‘I wish you could have met me when I was in my prime’. This got me into thinking ‘Wouldn’t it be great if, when we get older, we could have a hologram of our younger selves to wheel out to show other people what we were like when we were young’.”

In March, when the first lockdown happened, the CP postponed their spring production of Murder Weapon by Brian Clemens. Instead they decided to start performing radio plays. The first two were Jack and Mystery Shopper, both written by members of the group. 

For their third, they contacted Jonathan, who told Winol: “This is actually a great idea as HOLOGRAM could work really well in an audio format!’

Chair of the CP, David Cradduck, told Winol: “We thought Hologram was witty, unusual and rather different from the previous two plays.”

The CP were formed in 1961, making next year their 60th anniversary. They have put on countless productions since and are currently working on a comedy play themed around Christmas; written by one of their members, Helena Gomm.