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Shows

A Christmas Carol

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Open Bar have brought Dickens’ classic Christmas tale into the heart of Fuller’s pubs since 2017. In true Open Bar style, the show is totally family friendly, engaging and full of laughs. With music, ghostly goings-on and more than a little Christmas magic!

A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter old miser, who, on Christmas Eve is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley. Desperate to convince him of the error of his ways, Marley sends three ghosts to lead Scrooge through his past, present and future. The spirit (or spirits in this case) of Christmas is brought to life in this Classic tale.

Company:

2017:

  • Ben Galpin
  • Annie Gregson
  • Thomas Judd
  • Jo Wickham

2018:

  • Ben Galpin
  • Laura Harling
  • Thomas Judd
  • Jo Wickham
2019:
  • Ben Galpin
  • Laura Harling
  • Thomas Judd
  • Lilian Tsang
2021:
  • Ben Galpin
  • Jessica Alade
  • Thomas Judd
  • Laura Smithers
2022:
  • Ben Galpin
  • Vicky Gaskin
  • Thomas Judd
  • Laura Smithers
2023:
  • Ben Galpin
  • Vicky Gaskin
  • Thomas Judd
  • Laura Smithers

Creative team:

  • Director: Nicky Diss
  • Adaptors: Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin
  • Producers: Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin
  • Composer: David Knight
  • Costume: Grace Kelly Miller
Reviews:

“A Dickensian production that is both original and one that successfully conjures up the elusive ‘Christmas spirit’”
-ReviewsHub

Audience Reviews:
 
“From 17 to 62, we all enjoyed this show, in a very intimate venue where no one could hide! Great use of costume and props really showed off the talents of the cast who all seemed to relish their task. Would highly recommend for a truly festive night out.”
 
“The second time we have gone and it does not disappoint. Fabulous delivery, good fun and makes you feel very Christmassy. Audience participation makes it that much better.”
 
“My Husband always loves to see A Christmas Carol prior to Christmas and this was one of the best productions we have seen over the years. The actors are exceptional, using great props to assist with telling this awesome story and there was a fabulous array of costume changes along the way. The actors included lots of audience participation and carol singing during the performance and they made the entire show enthralling and a whole lot of fun. It was nothing less than magnificent and a great way to kick off Christmas! Thank you.”
 

 

Romeo & Juliet

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So you’ve come to see a play you already know the ending to…what were you thinking? But this is Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy (sorry Hamlet) and sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination, right? The Prince of Verona is struggling to keep the peace between two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets.  The grudge is so old noone remembers how it started  (not even Shakespeare) but it’s going to take something  big to end it. Perhaps two young members of each family falling in love? Enter Romeo and Juliet… But time, loyalties and bad advice are all against these  star-crossed lovers and the path to their ‘happily ever after’ is full of twists and turns. So grab some food and your tipple of choice,  sit back and enjoy this absolute barnstormer  of a play. But you might need a tissue by the  end, because after all, everybody knows how  the story goes…
 
OffWestEnd Award Nomination: NICKY DISS (Director: plays)
 

Cast:

  • Thomas Delacourt
  • Princess Donnough
  • Vicky Gaskin
  • Thomas Judd
  • Dewi Sarginson
  • Harriet Smithers

Creative team:

  • Director: Nicky Diss
  • Producers: Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin
  • Assisant Producer: Sarah Gain
  • Composer: David Knight
  • Costume: Grace Kelly Miller
  • Set: Tarn Aitken
  • Fight Direction: Annie Lees-Jones

Reviews:

“Nicky Diss…has taken a very familiar story and injected much vitality and warmth into it, with her snappy production carried off delightfully by all concerned.”
-ReviewsHub

“A charming and throughly entertaining show”
-Broadway World

Audience Reviews:

“Absolutely excellent! We were amazed at how many parts each actor played and not only how many lines they learned but how totally believable each actor was in every part. Definitely a tour de force!”

“We’ve been watching these shows for a number of years now and they never dissappoint! Whilst many of the actors have changed this year, it was still as witty and humerous as ever with the obligitary audiience participation always rausing a smile! Keep up the good work and see you next year!”

“What a fantastic event. Never have I enjoyed Shakespeare so much! We’d seen Twelfth Night by the Open Bar a week previously and loved it so much, booked for Romeo and Juliet. It was highly entertaining – loved the audience participation, bawdy humour and occasional asides. The set was fantastic and the actors all full of energy. Very well done and thank you!”

Twelfth Night

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Open Bar are back with ‘Twelfth Night’ a play brimming with comedy, romance and adventure! Four actors will play numerous characters in Open Bar’s production of Twelfth Night. Expect disguise, tomfoolery and original songs. Whether this will be your first, or thirty-first night of Shakespeare, you will not be disappointed.

Twelfth Night is a comical play with a tangled love story. Viola, a shipwrecked woman, disguises herself as a man named Cesario to enter the service of Duke Orsino. Orsion is in love with the Countess Olivia, who is grieving the loss of her brother and refuses to see any suitors. However, Olivia falls in love with Viola/Cesario, thinking she is a man. The confusion deepens with layers of love, mixed identities, and delusions. Completed perfectly with music and song, reminding us that life is fleeting and we should enjoy it while we can!

Cast:
  • Ben Galpin
  • Shadia King
  • Caroline O’Mahoney
  • Hannah Pryal

Creative team:

  • Director: Nicky Diss
  • Producers: Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin
  • Assistant Producer: Sarah Gain
  • Composer: David Knight
  • Costume: Grace Kelly Miller
  • Puppetry: Chris Dobson

Reviews:

“…..the entire cast should be praised for crafting a truly wonderful performance”
-Curtain Call Reviews

Audience Reviews:

“An excellent performance by four talented actors. Clever use of a limited space/stage and some very funny additions to Shakespeare’s already witty play. Something this good wouldn’t happen without great backstage and creative input – everything came together for a most enjoyable couple of hours.”

“A hilarious and entertaining evening of Shakespeare by a fantastic cast who managed a whirlwind production, with laughs aplenty, ad-libs and some audience participation there was rarely a time when there wasn’t a smile on my face.”

“It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The play was held in the garden of the Bay Tree hotel and all the seats were very close to the stage so it was an intimate affair. The actors all threw themselves into the roles and the audience participation made it a fun event. You don’t need to be a huge Shakespeare fan to enjoy this (and I am not a particular fan of Shakespeare). I would highly recommend to anyone who wants an enjoyable evening.”

 

 

Sense & Sensibility

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Sense & Sensibility tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret as they come of age. It follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up and look for a new home. They find themselves on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton and start on a journey of love, romance and heartbreak.

And what better place to follow that journey than from the comfort of our pub garden with a glass in hand! The perfect way to while away a early summer evening and fall in love again with this Jane Austen classic.

OffWest End Finalists: Grace Kelly Miller (Costume Design) & Thomas Judd (Best Supporting Performance)
 
Cast:
  • Darrel Bailey
  • Laura Cooper-Jones
  • Thomas Judd
  • Grace Kelly Miller

Creative team:

  • Director: Nicky Diss
  • Adaptation: Nicky Diss
  • Producers: Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin
  • Composer: David Knight
  • Costume: Grace Kelly Miller
  • Stage Manager: Sarah Gain
Audience Reviews:
 
“A wonderful evening! The actors were amazingly talented, with a lovely, humourous responsiveness to situations in the moment. How they remember all their lines is a mystery to me! Thank you!”
 
“Absolutely fantastic performance! The four actors were so brilliant at playing so many roles (17?). One moment one is playing the shy youngest Dashwood sister, the next moment he’s the dastardly Willoughby. We also really enjoyed their occasional ad-lib, even cleverly referring to the passing siren. Not sure that was in the novel? And all with such a minimal set. Amazing what can be achieved with the turn of a cushion. We truly had a wonderful evening in The Duke of Kent’s garden, and hope to do it again later in the summer.”
 
“An amazing evening. The actors were so talented and enthusiastic. A very entertaining portrayal of Sense and Sensibility. They captured the humour and the sadness and gave it a temporary twist with ad libs and songs. The pub setting was wonderful. The staff were so welcoming and helpful and the food delicious. I would definitely recommend an evening like this. Excellent value and entertainment.”

 

 

 

The Comedy of Errors

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Six actors bring to life this classic story brimming with Shakespearian wit and humour.

What happens when a man, Antipholus, and his servant, Dromio, arrive in town looking for their identical twins and are mistaken for the very twins they are looking for, who also confusingly have the same names as them (thanks Shakespeare)?

A comedy of errors, that’s what…

The Taming of the Shrew

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A four-person performance with a contemporary twist on one of the bards most mischievous tales.

Everyone wants Bianca but until her sister, the quick tempered Katherine, is married off, their father won’t let anyone near her. Petruchio arrives in town announcing his need for a wife and he has one desire: that she be rich. Bianca’s suitors smell an opportunity…they’ll pay Petruchio to marry Katherine. And so follows a battle of wills for the ages.

 

As You Like It

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“Rosalind escapes her vicious uncle, dresses as a boy (because this is Shakespeare after all) and heads for the forest. There she meets a group of shepherds, and the boy she loves who also happens to be on the run from her uncle.

Run away with Rosalind and Celia as the Forest of Arden quite literally lands in Fuller’s pub gardens this summer. It may look fresh out of Shakespeare’s day, but it’s as relevant as ever, with original songs to help audiences follow the plot and six actors leaping around an impressive two-storey set.”

Love’s Labour’s Lost

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“Four men decide to lock themselves away from all human connection (imagine!) to study and improve themselves, – but they soon find that it really isn’t as simple as that, especially when the Princess of France and her three beautiful friends are coming to stay.

Four couples separated by an oath, a “fantastical Spaniard” longing for a forbidden love, misplaced letters, a ridiculous play-within-a-play, a chorus of ukuleles, lightning-fast costume changes, drinks at your fingertips all make for a riotous Shakespeare comedy. Four actors will play all seventeen characters in this mischievous, and rather pertinent, love story. Laughter, romance and, perhaps most importantly, the longest word in Shakespeare.”

The Tempest

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“Isolation, a hostile environment, divisions in the royal family…these are things that are hard to imagine in 2020, but Prospero is all too familiar with them.

He is a former duke, exiled on a virtually uninhabited island in the middle of the Mediterranean for twelve years. Fortunately, for him, all of his enemies are about to sail past. So, he conjurs a storm, wrecks their ship and leaves them separated all over his new home so he can regain his dukedom and his freedom.

It’s not the greatest plan, but it’s all he’s got…and it all has to comply with social distancing measures!

Will he get everything he desires? Will he figure out what “one-metre plus” means? And will we all get the happy ending that we so desperately need this year?

The Merry Wives of Windsor

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“Falstaff: a character so good, Queen Elizabeth commissioned a new play about him…
Shakespeare dumps him in Windsor and pits him against two strong, intelligent women who promptly have him thrown in the Thames. They are The Merry Wives of Windsor. This epic farce, this chaotic comedy, this multi-prank fiesta is perfect for a summer evening!”

Merry Wives was seen across 18 Fuller’s pub gardens between 30 July – 14 September 2019.