Thame Remembers The Players Theatre

MEMBERS of the steering group of the Thame Remembers Project, a community commemorating the centenary of the First World War, has made a generous donation of £750 to Thame Players Theatre Company.

The donation, made on Wednesday, March 13, at the theatre, was made in recognition of the enthusiastic support and assistance given by Thame Players to the Thame Remembers project during its four-year campaign. The objective of the campaign was to commemorate the centenary of the First World War by researching all the names on Thame war memorials, identifying the location of their grave or memorial and placing a Thame Remembers cross on each resting place wherever in the world that may be. The people of Thame rose magnificently to this challenge and the lives of 212 men lost in warfare from the Boer War to the present were commemorated during the four years 2014-18, leading up to the centenary of the Armistice in November 2018.

The Players Theatre was involved in this campaign during two of those years, by working with Thame Remembers to stage two innovative theatre productions commemorating aspects of the First World War. The first production was performed on 1st July 2016, commemorating the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The second, entitled Ten Tommies from Thame, was performed on 9th and 10th November 2018 to sell-out audiences on both evenings. Ten Tommies from Thame was written by Thame Remembers steering group members Mike Dyer and Catherine Jones and performed partly by seasoned actors from Thame Players Theatre Company and partly by amateurs who had never been on stage before. The production was made possible by Thame Players letting out the theatre without a hire fee and by providing stage management, lighting, back projection, sound, and front of house functions, all on an entirely voluntary basis.

On presenting a cheque donation of £750 to Pat Shepherd, chairman of Thame Players, Thame Remembers steering group leader David Bretherton said, ‘Thame Players have been extremely generous with their time and their resources, both for the Somme production in 2016 and for Ten Tommies from Thame in November last year. We could not have achieved what we did without their invaluable help and support. Both shows were a fantastic success and will linger on in people’s minds for many years to come. They enabled us to put across a powerful visual representation of the horrors of this conflict and the part that people from Thame played in it’.

Thame Remembers has just been presented with the Mayor of Thame’s Special Award at the eleventh Thame Town Awards, held on March 14. The award was in recognition of its members’ extensive efforts to mark the centenary of the First World War in Thame. Although the key objectives of the Thame Remembers campaign have been achieved, their educational talks continue to be in demand and research – into those who went to war and returned – continues, involving future generations who can continue their pioneering work.

NOTES:

Thame Remembers is a partnership project with Thame Museum also supported by Thame Town Council. The project has been unique in its global scope and scale, with volunteers travelling 150,000 miles to place crosses, covering four continents, 23 countries, 102 cemeteries and 31 battlefield memorials. Around 1000 people were involved in these missions, including expeditions to locations as far apart as Portsmouth and New Zealand.

Thirty new names identified through Thame Remembers’ research will be added to Thame’s War Memorial at a future date, hopefully in July 2021, the centenary of its unveiling by the then Prime Minister David Lloyd George. For more information about the project’s continuing work, visit https://www.thameremembers.org/

Thame Players Theatre Company is a registered charity, run entirely by volunteers, offering a varied range of entertainment all year round, from serious theatre to comedy and pantomime, including their own productions, visiting shows, and film screenings by Thame Cinema For All.

In July Thame Players celebrate their 75th anniversary with a revue entitled Landmarks, produced by Tony Long and Bernadette Tildesley. Thame Players started with a performance in July 1944 in the Town Hall to help the war effort to become the vibrant, busy theatre we know today. Landmarks is filled with sketches, songs, and fascinating facts from those 75 years and will be performed at 7.45 pm on Friday 26th and Sunday 28th July.

For more information about Thame Players, upcoming shows, and how to join as a member or a friend, call 07881 688895 or visit www.thameplayers.co.uk