Production Notes for Crampons of Fear!

Welcome to our 20^th Eastern Angles’ Christmas show, Crampons of Fear. And as we enter our 3^rd decade of Christmas merriment at the Sir John Mills, and our second year at Woodbridge’s Seckford Theatre, I could not help looking back at how it all started.

Those of you who stumbled across a rough and rubble–strewn temporary car park way back in 1988 will remember that at the time the new Record Office building was still being constructed. In fact our end of the building was still waiting for the new heating system to be installed, although the theatre even then turned into a sauna during a mild Christmas period – we just had gas fumes and pilot lights to contend with.

The first year was Mr Pickwick’s Victorian Christmas and the second continued the Pickwick idea.  In fact our second Mr Pickwick, Ian Ashpitel, is currently in the West End in Nicholas Nickleby and he told me he got the audition for the job because he had Mr Pickwick on his CV.  The actors sweltered in big nineteenth-century coats and hats. It wasn’t long before we tumbled to the problems of keeping the show in Dickens’ Christmassy mode –everyone got too hot! When Don Williams, an actor many remember, went down with a throat infection and I had to go on, I realised we couldn’t set every show in the middle of winter. Not long after, we switched to detectives and ran a long series of Sherlock Holmes (the first being a certain Julian Harries), Father Brown, Lord Peter Wimsey, Sherlock Holmes again (and the first written by Julian), and Sexton Blake.

During that time I also remember having a conversation in the Hoxne Swan with two little known comedians, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, about whether they could write a seasonal show for us. So it was amusing when a couple of years ago I was asked on Radio Suffolk what I thought about the uproar surrounding Jerry Springer The Opera and I had to say that the author (Stewart) once nearly wrote our Xmas show.

Since then the show has been extended to its current run of 62 performances and virtual monopoly by Julian. By my reckoning this is Julian’s tenth show, which he has written while away on the world tour of the Ian McKellen/Trevor Nunn RSC production of King Lear and The Seagull. Consequently he has grappled with the glaciers and ice picks of Crampons while in Stratford, Newcastle, Melbourne, New York, Singapore and finally Los Angeles, where he emailed me that he was writing Noel Coward-like about Fred and Ginger with waving palm trees in the background. Perhaps we should have a competition to guess which bits were written where?

Of course Julian’s contribution is equalled by his partner in life and Xmas, Pat Whymark, who has written the score to the show for every single year of the show’s score of years, whatever the author: a phenomenal run. She has also increasingly contributed to the story and direction and this year taken over the principal director’s role as Julian and the RSC arrived in the West End.

You may also see a new face around The Sir John Mills as we say goodbye to Anna Travers, our Marketing Officer, who has moved to Bristol Old Vic School as their new Marketing Manager. So we welcome Karen Goddard to our team. She comes straight from Red Rose Chain and the Evening Star and so knows the territory. Why not give her the best start by recommending this year’s show to someone who hasn’t seen us before and pointing out the Seckford performances which still have seats left.

And thank you again to Ensors, who clearly enjoy sponsoring us so they can ensure their Senior Partner has to be photographed once again in a silly pose with actors around him.

Ivan Cutting

Artistic Director