St Michael's Players to Perform Harvey to Mark 75th Anniversary

Mary Chase's play premiered in the year of the group's foundation

Members of the St. Michael's Players cast for Harvey with director Alastair Dewar on front row second from right

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September 17, 2024

This year is the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the St Michaels’s Players and to celebrate this landmark the local amateur dramatic group is performing a play that premiered in London in 1949, 75 years ago.

Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Harvey is perhaps best known through the film starring James Stewart but from Wednesday 2 October to Saturday 5 October the original play will be performed at St. Michael’s Centre on Elmwood Road (W4 3DY).

Eleanor P Dowd is a good-natured, mild-mannered eccentric, well known in all the bars of her small town. Eleanor's best friend is Harvey, a six-foot-tall white rabbit that only she can see. Eleanor's relatives, who live with her, are so embarrassed by her behaviour that they want her committed to a mental asylum. But perhaps Harvey has other ideas.

Director Alastair Dewar says, "Harvey has always been one of my very favourite films and its message to value people for who they are is still as relevant today as when it was written."

Cast
• Myrtle Mae Symmons (Dina Fahmy)
• Veta Symmonds (Vicki Belcher)
• Mrs Chauvanet (Sue Darrieulat)
• Eleanor P Dowd (Allison DeFrees)
• Nurse Kelly (Alice Klapwyk)
• Wilson (Darren Cheers)
• Dr Sanderson (Alex Jupp)
• Dr Chumley (Chris Hulatt)
• Mrs Chumley (Alison Du Cane)
• Judge Gaffney (Gareth Sammer)
• Cabby (Chris Jones)

All performances start at 7.45pm with doors open half an hour beforehand. Ticket cost £12 (£10 for concessions) or £14 on the door on the night. Click here to book in advance online.

St. Michael's Players is one of the longest established drama groups in London. It has been staging plays in West London since 1949. In a good year it will present two full length performances in the Spring and the Autumn, a one-act play in the Summer and its famous panto at Christmas. This year’s Christmas panto from the St. Michael’s Players will be Cinderella which is being performed from 10-14 December.

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