Community Event / Theatre

Play reading group

Monday 8 December 2025

Unleash your inner thespian! Would you like to read a part in a play? Would you like to listen to a play being read aloud? All ages and backgrounds are welcome at our play reading group. Play titles are shared in advance. It's more fun than a Book Group with no homework to feel guilty about forgetting. This month's play is ‘Sleuth’ by Anthony Schaffer.

Book Now

Starts 7:00 P.M.

Free entry

Free but ticketed

Book online at any time, at the Lyme Regis Bookshop and Bridport Tourist Information Centre during normal opening hours, the Marine on Monday mornings 10 – 1, and over the phone on 01308 424901

Unleash your inner thespian! Would you like to read a part in a play? Would you like to listen to a play being read aloud? All ages and backgrounds are welcome at our play reading group. Play titles are shared in advance. It's more fun than a Book Group with no homework to feel guilty about forgetting. This month's play is ‘Sleuth’ by Anthony Schaffer.

This event is free but ticketed.

‘Sleuth’ by Anthony Schaffer (using the 2007 film script written by Harold Pinter)

A wonderfully complex two-hander mystery full of unexpected plot twists that first hit Broadway in 1970. It has subsequently been adapted for film as a magnificent vehicle for Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in 1972, and again in 2007 for Michael Caine and Jude Law. This meant that Caine got a chance to play both the older and the younger parts (‘not a lot of people know that!’). After this event, you will be tempted to spend an evening watching both versions back to back and comparing the wonderful acting in both, not to mention the two adaptations by Schaffer himself in 1972 and Harold Pinter in 2007.

A Message from the organiser Chris Gill

We have been running play readings once a month at the Marine Theatre since January 2023. The Theatre continues kindly to provide the venue free to support community drama. We have a small group of regular attenders and we are always pleased to welcome new people, whether they want to read or just listen. The selection for October to December is diverse as usual and follows a tradition we are developing of including rehearsed script in hand performances, to give people a chance to explore performance more than simply cold reading. If you want to go on our circulation list or have any questions about the meetings, please contact Chris Gill through the Marine Theatre.

Please remember to bring with you a paper or screen copy of the script if you wish to read. We are not able to provide copies.

The rehearsed ‘script in hand’ performance this quarter will be ‘The Maids’, by Jean Genet and directed and performed by regular members of the group. Please do come and support this free event where the bar will be open, and you won’t be called upon to do any more than sit back and enjoy!