ARCHIVE

Welcome to the Talisman Theatre's Archive where you will find links to productions from our theatre's beginnings in 1942. Where available, we have included cast lists, posters and production photographs. In some instances, material is missing altogether and this is indicated alongside the production.

Tony Matthews, a member of the Talisman Stage Staff during the years 1955 to 1963, has many happy memories of the Old Theatre, and has submitted this video converted from 60 year old standard 8 cine film by Ben Hooper.
In 2020 a series of videos was produced depicting a journey through the history of the Talisman. They may be viewed via the following links -
Act 1: The Early Days
Act 2: A New Home
Act 3: The Show Must Go On

We are grateful to Mary and Roger Clements for the photos of early productions featuring founder member Gina Altree. They are displayed in a special page here.
During the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 - 2022) a series of short audio plays was presented online under the heading "Tea With the Tali". A link to those presentations on YouTube may be found here.
        Select the required year from the drop-down menu
You can search for specific titles by keying Ctrl+F in most browsers.

* = Bare Bones Production
** = Youth Theatre Production
=1942 to May 1944: as The Rover Players

2023
Ladies Down Under
Around the World in 80 Days **
Twinkle
The Girl on the Train
Don't Dress for Dinner
Pride and Prejudice
Blackadder Goes Forth
Sweet Charity
Murder By Misadventure
New Foyer - Official Opening

2022
The Deep Blue Sea

Blood Brothers **
The King's Speech
The Mill on the Floss
Private Lives
Twinkle

The Ladykillers
The Railway Children

Children of the Wolf
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Theatre Development - Phase 1

2021
Puss in Boots

2020
Witness for the Prosecution
Annie Jr. **
(The following scheduled productions were cancelled due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic:
The Mill on the Floss
Ladies (Down Under)
Private Lives
50 Musical Years
The Ladykillers
The Railway Children
Children of the Wolf
Puss in Boots
)

2019
The Weekend
The Wizard of Oz
**
Deckchairs

King Charles III

Strangers on a Train

Yank!

The Vicar of Dibley

Shirley Valentine

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

The Frog Prince

2018
Absent Friends
The Musical of Musicals - The Musical!
Dirk Smith - Secret Agent/Working Out Time **

My Cousin Rachel

Stones in His Pockets

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Breath of Spring

Journey's End
[NODA Award]
My Mother Said I Never Should

Aladdin

2017
Dial M for Murder
Ladies' Day

This Business of Murder/Unmurdered
**
The Musical of Musicals - The Musical!

The Cherry Orchard

Stags and Hens (The Remix)

The Crucible

Ladies in Lavender

Cinderella

2016
Separate Tables
Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Youth Show
**
The Sunshine Boys

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Curtains

Three Play Festival

The Diary of Anne Frank

How the Other Half Loves

Red Riding Hood
[NODA Award]

2015
Educating Rita
Top Girls

Aesop's (slightly updated) Fables
**
Hay Fever

The 39 Steps

Pygmalion

Jumpers for Goalposts

Dracula

The Thrill of Love

Dick Whittington
[NODA Award]

2014
Hypnosis
An Ideal Husband

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Sisters/High School Hindsight
**
The Cemetery Club

The Glass Menagerie

The Addams Family Musical

Black Coffee

Lovesong

My Boy Jack

Ali Baba

2013
Blithe Spirit
In Praise of Love

Five Guests, Three Murders and One Poisoning
**
Fawlty Towers

Our House

Little Shop of Horrors

Pardon Me, Prime Minister

Afterplay/The Bear

An Inspector Calls

The God of Carnage

Humpty Dumpty
[NODA Award]

2012
Rope
Blue Remembered Hills
[NODA Award]
Copperfield/Shooting Truth
**
Dancing at Lughnasa

Jubilee
*
Arthur and George

Arsenic and Old Lace

Stepping Out

Richard III

70th Birthday Celebrations

Improbable Fiction

Jack and the Beanstalk

2011
The Business of Murder
Ladies' Night

The Magician's Assistant/Gargantua
**
What the Butler Saw

The Vortex

Rumours

On Golden Pond

Cloaca
*
Cabaret

Tom and Viv

Robin Hood

2010
An Evening of Alan Bennett *
Our Country's Good

Montmartre Stories
*
Young Scarlett Hood
**
The Importance of Being Earnest

Showstoppers
*
Rent
[NODA Award]
Are You Being Served?

And Then There Were None

Reprise
*
The Canterbury Tales

Bedroom Farce

Mother Goose


2009
Fawlty Towers [NODA Award]
Animal Farm / Dog
*
The Last Resort
**
Steel Magnolias

The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shakspr (Abridged)

The Full Monty

A Murder is Announced

Much Ado About Nothing

Playhouse Creatures

Robinson Crusoe


2008

Talking Heads 1*
The Real Thing

Uncle Vanya

Dracula: The Final Countdown
**
The Graduate
[NODA Award]
Juno and the Paycock

The Palace of Varieties

The War of the Worlds / Jacques Brel Revisited
*
The Ghost Train

Talking Heads 2
*
Valentino

The Accrington Pals

Sleeping Beauty


2007
Under Milk Wood *
Abigail's Party

The Homecoming

Ernie's Incredible Illucinations / Launch Into the Past
 **
Charlie and Algernon

Noises Off

When We Are Married

An Evening with Cole Porter and Jacques Brel
*
Outside Edge

A Handful of Songs
*
Oliver!
[NODA Award]
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Aladdin


2006
Cleo, Camping, Emanuelle and Dick
Mrs Warren's Profession

The Fifteen Streets

The Linden Tree
[NODA Award]
Dad's Army

Dames at Sea

Filumena

Love Letters on Blue Paper

Beauty and the Beast


2005

Tomfoolery
Picasso at the Lapin Agile

Julius Caesar

We Happy Few

Humble Boy
[NODA Award]
After Mrs Rochester

Showcase 2005
**
A Few Good Men

The Killing of Sister George

Piaf

Goldilocks and the Three Bears


2004
Star Quality
Night Must Fall

A Little Hotel on the Side

An Evening With Gary Lineker

Brassed Off
[NODA Award]
Daisy Pulls It Off / It Wasn't Me, Miss
**
She Loves Me

Hindle Wakes

Silas Marner

Puss in Boots


2003
Veronica's Room
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Time and the Conways

Straight and Narrow

Ring Round the Moon

Under Milk Wood
**
See How They Run

Passion Play

Second from Last in the Sack Race
Sinbad the Sailor


2002
Dark of the Moon
Design for Living

All My Sons

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

'Allo, 'Allo!

Flush
**
A Kenilworth Story

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

The Nerd

The Handyman

Cinderella


2001
Murder By Misadventure
Travels With My Aunt

Remembrance

Major Barbara

Cash on Delivery

Da Distar
**
Wyrd Sisters

The Winslow Boy

The Herbal Bed

Jack and the Beanstalk

2000
The Anniversary
Great Expectations

A Letter of Resignation

Funny Money
Little Women
The Mishmash Club **/Millenium Meltdown
The Deep Blue Sea
Look No Hans
The Madness of George III
Dick Whittington

1999
Translations
Relatively Speaking
A Month in the Country
Relative Values
Cider With Rosie
Artifice **
A Tomb With a View
A View from the Bridge
Habeas Corpus
Snow White

1998
Communicating Doors
Murmuring Judges
Separate Tables
Taking Sides
Not Now Darling
Once Upon A... **
Bold Girls
Ruthless! The Musical
Broken Glass
Aladdin

1997
It Runs in the Family
The Crucible
The Odd Couple (Female Version)
Wait Until Dark
The Darling Buds of May
Gasping (no archive material found)
Neville's Island
The Merchant of Venice
Born in the Gardens

Mother Goose

1996
Corpse!
The Heiress
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Month of Sundays
Lend Me a Tenor
Henceforward
Racing Demon
Jane Eyre
Babes in the Wood

1995
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Dry Rot
Machinal
The Great Coarse Acting Show
Dear Octopus
This Funny World
Across Oka
The Boyfriend
Death and the Maiden
Jack and the Beanstalk

1994
Don't Drink the Water
Breaking the Code
Last Tango in Whitby
The Lady from the Sea
When Did You Last See Your Trousers?
Dracula
Cold Comfort Farm
London Assurance
Of Mice and Men
Cinderella

1993
Round and Round the Garden
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The School for Scandal
My Mother Said I Never Should

Overture and Beginners
The Mask of Moriarty
Shadowlands
The Visit
Run for Your Wife
Puss in Boots

1992
Rookery Nook
Our Town
Bent
Three Sisters
Two by Two
Lettice and Lovage
Nicholas Nickleby
Teechers
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

1991
Dandy Dick
Men Should Weep
A Small Family Business
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Up 'n' Under
Private Lives
Loot
Hamlet
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The Sleeping Beauty

1990
Pack of Lies
Jekyll and Hyde
She Stoops to Conquer
Mapp and Lucia
Gunslinger
Murder on the Nile
Abigail's Party
The Seagull
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
The Pied Piper

1989
Rebecca
Tom Jones
How the Other Half Loves
Harlequinade/The Browning Version
Daisy Pulls It Off
One for the Road
Pravda
Olympus On My Mind
The Glass Menagerie
The Wonderful Story of Mother Goose

1988
Play It Again, Sam
Twelfth Night
Bazaar & Rummage/Womberang
84 Charing Cross Road
Little Shop of Horrors
Charley's Aunt
Mistress of Novices
An Ideal Husband
One of Us
Dick Whittington

1987
Stags and Hens
For King and Country (Hamp)
The Matchmaker
The Real Thing
The Wind in the Willows
Boeing Boeing
Good
The White Devil
Sisterly Feelings
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

1986
When We Are Married
Amadeus
Rock-a-Bye, Sailor!
Child of the Jago
Arsenic and Old Lace
Home and Beauty
Fall
Macbeth
Farndale Avenue/Murder at Checkmate Manor
Aladdin

1985
House Guest
The House of Bernarda Alba
Once Upon a Mattress
Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
The Cherry Orchard
Just Between Ourselves
Collaborators
A Man for All Seasons
Once a Catholic
Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood

1984
While the Sun Shines
One Woman Plays/Waiting for Godot (played on alternate nghts)
Deathtrap
Outside Edge
The Threepenny Opera
The Ghost Train
Beside the Sea
Blithe Spirit
Terra Nova
Cinderella

1983
The Entertainer
Caught Napping
You Can't Take It With You
The Elephant Man
The Rivals
Breezeblock Park
Rashomon
Under Milk Wood
The Trojan Women
Humpty Dumpty

1982
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Antony and Cleopatra
Lark Rise
Alphabetical Order
The Coarse Acting Show
Same Time, Next Year
Walking Happy
The Long and the Short and the Tall
Sinbad the Sailor

1981
After Lydia/See the Pretty Lights
Much Ado About Nothing
Watch It Sailor
Little Mary Sunshine
Ten Times Table
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
You Never Can Tell
Filumena
All My Sons
Jack and the Beanstalk

1980
Quiet Weekend
The Daughter-in-Law
Tarantara! Tarantara!
Stevie
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Bedfull of Foreigners
Mrs Warren's Profession
Donkeys' Years
An Inspector Calls
Puss in Boots

1979
Collared
Present Laughter
Palace of Varieties
Something's Afoot
Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun
The Sunshine Boys
Old World
A Room with a View
Entertaining Mr Sloane
Mother Goose

1978
How's the World Treating You?
The Golden Era
A Scent of Flowers
Ghosts
Pipe Dream
The Private Ear and The Public Eye
Family Dance
Richard III
Absent Friends
Listen to the Wind

1977
My Fat Friend
The Dame of Sark
Albert
Old Times
The Odd Couple
The Golden Pathway Annual
Relatively Speaking
Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Artist Descending a Staircase/After Magritte
Dick Whittington

1976
Barefoot in the Park
Savages
Who Saw Him Die?
By George
What the Butler Saw
Out of the Crocodile
Waiting in the Wings
Habeas Corpus
A Doll's House
Tom Thumb

1975
Time and Time Again
A Voyage Round My Father
Two by Two
Getting On
Suddenly at Home
Straight Up
The Day After the Fair
A Collier's Friday Night
Two and Two Makes Sex
Cinderella

1974
Palace of Varieties
The Eagle Has Two Heads
Home
The Sea
The Fourposter
The Roar of the Greasepaint
The Secretary Bird
Everything in the Garden
The Father
Loot
Robinson Crusoe

1973
Landscape and Silence
The Disorderly Women
The Hollow Crown
The Two of Us
Promises, Promises
Two Roses
Spring and Port Wine
Luv
Heartbreak House
Journey's End
The Murder of Maria Martin

1972
Not Now Darling
The Noble Spaniard
Forty Years On
The Master Builder
Palace of Varieties
As You Like It
She Stoops to Conquer
The Importance of Being Earnest
Hay Fever
One-Way Pendulum
Aladdin

1971
Gaslight
Garden District
Twelfth Night
A Taste of Honey
Man of La Mancha
The Owl and the Pussy Cat
Beside the Seaside
The Daughter-in-Law
Tonight at 7.30
A Delicate Balance
Old King Cole

1970
A Song at Twilight
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Fall and Redemption of Man
Roots
What Shall We Tell Caroline?/The Real Inspector Hound
Sailor Beware
Eight to Trouble You
Uncle Vanya
Thieves' Carnival
This Story of Yours
Babes in the Wood

1969
The new theatre opens
Trelawney of the Wells
Say Who You Are
Let's Get a Divorce
Days in the Trees
The Fantasticks
The Love Match
On Approval
Happy Family
Andorra
Portrait of Murder
Mr Pompous and the Pussy-Cat

1968
Beyond the Fringe
Fallen Angels

1967
Palace of Varieties
Lady Audley's Secret
Billy Liar
In For a Dig
Three Pinter Plays
Child's Play
Eh?
Sacrifice to the Wind/Ruzzante Returns from the Wars

Hedda Gabler
Rattle of a Simple Man

1966
The Physicists
Palace of Varieties
Arms and the Man
In White America
The Mollusc
The Business of Good Government

1965
The Firstborn
The Tiger and the Horse

1964
Hobson's Choice
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Bedsitting Room
Norman
Rule a Wife and Have a Wife
The Rehearsal
Exit the King

1963
Simple Spymen
The Aspern Papers
The Relapse
Palace of Varieties
The Gazebo
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Pacifists
The Boy Friend
The Knack
The Business of Good Government

1962
The Brides of March
Variations on a Theme
The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd
Gilt and Gingerbread
All for Love
Paddle Your Own Canoe
Ghosts
A Penny for a Song
The Hostage
The Singing Dolphin

1961
Caught Napping
Blood Wedding
Flowering Cherry
A Moon for the Misbegotten
Something Borrowed, Something Blue
The Sound of Murder
Orpheus Descending
Sganarelle/Lysistrata
Frost at Midnight
Charley's Aunt

1960
The Tender Trap
Measure for Measure
A Dead Secret
Student Group Show **
Bus Stop
The Man
Poet and Pheasant
The Rose Tattoo
Why Not Tonight?
The Cherry Orchard
Kind Sir (no archive material found)
Hans, the Witch and the Gobbin

1959
Candida
The Crucible
Look Back in Anger
The Moon is Blue
Under Milk Wood
Odd Man In
The Lark
The Chalk Garden
Meet Me By Moonlight
Epitaph for George Dillon
Toad of Toad Hall

1958
The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker
The Recruiting Officer
Separate Tables
Twilight of a Warrior
Curtain Up
A View from the Bridge
Spring at Marino
The Rainmaker
Who Cares?
Winter Journey
The Lesson/The Chairs
Treasure Island

1957
Simon and Laura
The Magistrate
Death of a Salesman
I Am a Camera
Between Ourselves Again
The Little Hut
Tiger at the Gates
The Gentle People
Time Remembered
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Truffaldino

1956
Seagulls Over Sorrento
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Burning Glass
Trial and Error
The Cathedral
You Never Can Tell
Someone Waiting
The Seven Year Itch
Winterset
Book of the Month
Dick Whittington

1955
When We Are Married
Daughter of My House
A Man About the House
Count Your Blessings
Just Between Ourselves
Message for Margaret
Angels in Love
The Living Room
Cinderella

1954
The White Sheep of the Family
The Three Sisters
A Man's House
Don't Listen Ladies
Dark of the Moon
The Happiest Days of Your Life
The Same Sky
Larger Than Life
Of Mice and Men
Red Riding Hood

1953
Duet for Two Hands
Rookery Nook
The Wandering Jew
Home at Seven
Point of Departure
September Tide
To Live in Peace
Arsenic and Old Lace
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Master Crook
The Sleeping Beauty

1952
Queen Elizabeth Slept Here
The Seagull
The Paragon
The Constant Wife
Fly Away Peter
Morning Departure
The Light in the Storm
Black Chiffon
Worm's Eye View
Who Goes There?
Dracula
The Holly and the Ivy
Mother Goose

1951
On Monday Next
The Hasty Heart
The Glass Menagerie
Quiet Wedding
The Cure for Love
Prunella
Pick-Up Girl
Young Wives Tale
The Browning Version/A Phoenix Too Frequent
Puss in Boots

1950
Someone at the Door
Prison Without Bars
The Perfect Woman
Rope
Easy Money
Power Without Glory
Little Lambs Eat Ivy
Present Laughter
Rebecca
Robinson Crusoe

1949
Mother of Men
Tomorrow's Child
Give Me Yesterday
Trespass
Nine Till Six
White Cargo
Peace Comes to Peckham
The Corn is Green
Miranda
Arms and the Man
The Chinese Bungalow
Jack and the Beanstalk

1948
Outwardbound
Springtime for Henry
The Light of Heart
Festival of Plays (no archive material found)
Quiet Weekend
Guest in the House
A Hundred Years Old
Acacia Avenue
Private Lives
Little Women
The Shop at Sly Corner
The Beggar Prince

1947
Dangerous Corner
Hamlet
The Whole Town's Talking
The Tender Years
Murder Without Crime
Goodness, How Sad
George and Margaret
The Ghost Train
Frieda
We Proudly Present
Saloon Bar
This Happy Breed
A Bill of Divorcement
Dick Whittington

1946
Night Must Fall
I Lived With You
The Man With a Load of Mischief
Love in a Mist
Babes in the Wood

1945
Blithe Spirit
Thunder Rock
The Silver Cord
The Taming of the Shrew
Pygmalion
The Farmer's Wife
Suspect (no archive material found)
Claudia (no archive material found)
Mr Pimm Passes By
Aladdin

1944
Sweeney Todd
The Artist's Murder
The Housemaster
The Shining Hour
Bird in Hand
To Kill a Cat
Tons of Money
Without the Prince
Jane Eyre
The Two Mrs Carrolls
Cinderella

1943
Distinguished Gathering
Ladies in Waiting
Tony Draws a Horse
Behold, We Live
The Man From Toronto
Berkeley Square
Ladies in Retirement
Kenilworth
The Blue Goose

1942
Children to Bless You
Canaries Sometimes Sing

Origins
A painting of the original Talisman Theatre and its naming

 

 

Talisman Theatre, Barrow Road, Kenilworth, CV8 1EG

Box office: 01926 856548
Registered Charity: 1164913

© 2016 Talisman Theatre