Delight at society's golden jubilee

The highlight of their anniversary programme will be their production of Mother Goose, from Wednesday December 16 to Sunday December 20 at their base, Barn Theatre, Field Place, Worthing.

Loving every moment, just as she has right from the start, is Society chairman Peggy

Jordan, ably backed up by her "right-hand woman", daughter Julie.

"It all started when Durrington First School decided that they wanted to put on a panto for the children, and we got together. I had had theatre experience and so had one or two others including Peter Lock who brought in Doreen Norris to come and produce it '“ which she did. And Doreen and I started a long-term friendship. We used to run the Society together."

It started as a PTA group in 1959 and became Durrington Theatre Society three or so years later when it started to expand.

"It was about 62 when a good friend of the society suggested that we take the panto down to the pier after we had done it at school. It was successful and we decided to do it every year. We just seemed to do it right and everybody loved it. There was not a lot going on panto-wise in the town at the time. There was no pantomime at the Pavilion back then."

The company started doing plays as well, quite a bit later: "We moved first into doing a lot of revues. We did the Fiesta review for the town three years running and we did two in the summer, in May and August. That was real revue stuff, all the girls in leotards and so on!

"We have continued all these years doing a panto every year, but the revues have gone out of fashion. People just wouldn't go to them. We changed tack. A lot of us said that we would like to do comedy or farce. We have been doing plays for the past 25 years or so, and we opened a young company within the society to do youth shows as well, around about the same time."

One of the things which has helped keep the company so buoyant is its strong nucleus of people: "You get people that get on their high horse and walk away, but the rest of us keep it going. We have got people that just want to enjoy themselves and put on a good show."

These days Peggy has stepped back from directing to take care of the wardrobe, but the enjoyment is just as strong as ever.

"I love seeing a show completed on stage, standing at the back, watching them perform and watching the audience enjoy themselves."

Tickets for Mother Goose are available from Peggy on 01903 872073.