SOUTHWICK

PLAYERS

COMMUNITY THEATRE SINCE 1935

Upcoming Productions - Our next shows

6-9 December 2023

Directed by Ron Common

Two of the most famous lines in English literature bookend Dickens’ epic and magnificent novel A Tale of Two Cities.

It begins “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and is a tale of love – requited and unrequited, of loyalty, of spies and treachery, of fear and courage, all set against the harsh background of the French Revolution.

This wonderful stage adaptation of Dickens’ sweeping story is told by the proprietors and customers of a coaching inn – they transform the coach yard into the Bastille prison, the London home of Dr Manette, the road to Dover and the Defarge wine shop in Paris.

In the shadow of Madame Guillotine, Lucie and her father fight to save the life of her husband, Charles Darnay, incarcerated as an enemy of the state. Meanwhile, Madame Defarge knits the names of all transgressors into a long, long scarf that she will use to bring them to their dreadful end.

Sidney Carton, a clever and professionally successful, but dissolute fellow, has always loved Lucie so much that he is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, giving us the extraordinary final line: “It is a far, far better thing that I do. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”