Preachers of today may recall with embarrassment Alan Bennett’s hilarious parody of a Church of England sermon in the 1960 revue Beyond The Fringe. “Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines.” Eight years later Bennett included extended mockery of the Church of England in his comedy Forty Years On, of which Hampstead Players is giving a rehearsed reading on 21st and 22nd October 2016, their fortieth anniversary year. The play is set in a boys public school and the Headmaster’s prayers set new standards for floundering, cliché-ridden vacuity. The religious puns are dreadful – when he says “Lord take this cup from me” a boy called Lord comes up and does so. And worse, during a one-to-one Confirmation class a master makes a pass at a boy.
Be warned too that the show is stuffed with gay double-entendres; and that our large cast of (cross-dressed) “boys” delivers several bawdy songs with gusto if not musical professionalism. But it has been
Crypt Room, Hampstead Parish Church, Fri 21st October 7.30pm and Sat 22nd October 4.30pm. Tickets on the door: £8.00 full rate or £6.00 concessions.
Forty Years On
Stephen Clarke