The concept is simple: we read a play together out loud in good company. Everyone who wants to gets a chance to read, but it’s perfectly okay just to listen. Copies of the script will be available to participants during the event. Please note that play readings are not performances.
After the reading, we hang around for a bit to chat about the play and other things. Remember to bring your own snacks and refreshments.
We often read plays to see if anyone is interested in putting on a production, or to give actors the chance to familiarise themselves with a play in advance of upcoming auditions. Play readings may also act as script workshops – the playwright wants to hear the play read aloud and get feedback in order to edit the play before the first performance.
ADMISSION is free, but a small voluntary entrance fee on-location would be greatly appreciated to help cover our venue and printing costs.
New play readings will be added to the “upcoming” list as they are decided upon.
NEXT READING:
FRIDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2026 at 6 PM
The Gentleman’s Relish by Matthew Paines
THE PLAY
In a world of cigars, whispered confidences and carefully staged scandals, Honoria and Petronella have perfected the art of feeling delightfully rebellious – while their husbands, Edward and George, quietly congratulate themselves for letting them. Then a mysterious stranger appears at the ladies’ pond, and the household’s elegant little game begins to change. As Oleandra transforms into something else and sets out to unsettle the gentlemen’s club, every character must confront the roles they’ve mistaken for freedom, love and control.
The Gentleman’s Relish is a witty, theatrical melodrama of shifting identities, marital manoeuvres and political satire, where the rules keep changing – and no one gets the last word without a fight.
Attend this reading to familiarise yourself with the play ahead of the Auditions for “The Gentleman’s Relish” on Sat 7 November @ 1–3 PM.
PAST READINGS
SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER 2026 at 5 PM
Summer Still by Anthony Herman
THE PLAY
Summer Still is a play about a world in which all suffering has ceased completely, but it comes with a price. There is no growth, no creation, no destruction, no decay … only a summer that is forever still.
The play revolves around the character Anastasia and her attempts to topple the regime she finds to be oppressive and cruel in nature. She finds herself in trouble when she realizes that most people don’t want to change back, that a world in peace is better than a world that can change. The play deals with subversive themes on authoritarianism and utopian societies that don’t end up being as utopian as one would imagine.
FRIDAY 1 MARCH 2024 at 6:30 PM
The Auctioning of an Angel by Tony Herman
THURS 16 MAY 2024 at 6:30 PM
What the meadow whispered to the summer nightingales
by Tony Herman
THURS 19 JUNE 2024 at 7 PM
A contemporary satire
WEDS 14 AUGUST 2024 at 7-9:30 PM
The Last of the Wild Bees by Vladislav Nenchev
The August reading will be a script workshop and chance to read the play in advance of the auditions on Saturday 31 August. The reading will be led by Vladislav Nenchev, who is looking for both feedback on the script and actors interested in an autumn production.
THE PLAY
This is the not-so-distant future of ours, in which all species of wild bees have gone extinct. The Wild Bees of Ettlingen, often addressed just as “The Bees”, is a small volunteer organization dedicated to taking care of the forests and meadows which have lost their most impactful natural pollinators.
We focus on four of the most pivotal members of The Bees as they prepare for one of their regular “flights”. Even though they have plenty of flights behind their backs, this one is not going that well. In fact, it’s gearing up to be a monumental disaster, as multiple conflicts, rivalries, and personal problems threaten the future of these guardians of the memory of lost species. Will The Bees survive these troubles, or will they ultimately join the actual wild bees in history?
SUN 1 SEPTEMBER 2024 at 1–4 PM
Purge by Sofi Oksanen
THE PLAY
Purge is a chilling drama of two generations of women. Set in the occupied Estonia of the 1940s and again in the same country fifty years later, the play grapples with the realities of a new Europe.
The September reading will be a chance for actors to familiarise themselves with the play in advance of a preliminary casting session on Sunday 8 September.