Cast members accelerate the aging process for new show

ACCELERATING the aging process is the challenge for members of a drama group embarking on a new production.

The main members of the cast of The Golden Pathway Annual, the new show from Corvus Amateur Drama Society (CADS), have to age 20 years during the show. This is particularly problematic in the case of the main character, who begins the play aged two and a half.

Cast members also take the roles of seven-year-old schoolchildren, anti-American protesters, holiday makers and chickens in the show, which is being performed at Greneway School, Royston, next week.

CADS Secretary Michael Young said, “We’ve taken a slightly off-beat approach to the play, in as much as the original show featured only four actors whereas we have sixteen!

“The same three actors play the main characters – Michael and his parents – throughout the play, but the rest of us make up a sort of chorus of “extras” who drop in and out of scenes and play the characters Michael meets on his journey through early life. These include teachers, schoolmates, friends and employers, and also those chickens!”

Written by John Harding and John Burrows, the Golden Pathway Annual tells the story of Michael Peters, part of the post-war baby boom. Born in 1946 to working-class parents, he grows up in an age of austerity, rationing and self-help. But his parents want him to have a better chance in life than they did, and so when a travelling salesman persuades them to subscribe to a yearly set of children’s encyclopaedias, they seize the opportunity to improve the young boy’s mind and stimulate his imagination.

Mr Young added: “The Golden Pathway Annual becomes Michael’s companion and guidebook through school and university. But when he comes to graduate in the mid 1960s, he finds that his relationship with his parents has changed irrevocably, he can no longer trust authority, and it is not clear whether the Golden Pathway Annual will still equip him to face modern life.”

The show is being directed by Kathy Wholley but CADS has also enlisted the talents of Louise Atkins on piano and a trio of young singers to provide a number of brief musical interludes between scenes, featuring some familiar songs from the years covered by the play’s action.

The Golden Pathway Annual is being performed on June 11, 12 and 13 at Greneway School, with Friday and Saturday performances at 7.30pm and a Sunday matinee at 3pm.

Tickets for all performances cost �7 and �5 and are available now from the CADS Box Office on 01763 223805. If you would like more information about the production, please visit the CADS website at www.cadsroyston.org.uk.