By John Fisher

Cuckfield Dramatic Society’s autumn show at the end of the month is a comedy double bill to keep us feeling good even as the days lengthen. Whether you have heard of the playwrights or not, the shared comedic theme of battles between the sexes is something everyone will enjoy.

The Bear by Anton Chekhov is about a very angry man trying to collect a debt from a weeping young widow while her loyal retainer tries to both cheer her up and throw him out. It’s all mirth and no melodrama as two very stubborn people get hot under the collar about money and marriage.

Also known for realistic long dramas Chekhov was also a prize winning writer of short stories and plays, including collections of humorous ones, and he is still considered to be a master of that form. The Bear is subtitled A Joke in One Act.

Director Hazelle Woodhurst says it’s a hilarious play – a classic about an archetypal man and woman with some wonderful comic timing. Chekhov it may be but this Russian farce is more Carry on Comrade than heavy drama!

Fumed Oak by Noel Coward is set in 1930s Clapham where Henry Gow is fed up with his whiny daughter, moaning mother-in-law and demanding wife. But he has a secret and soon it will be out…

Despite being known for plays about high society and having one of the poshest voices ever ‘born and bred in the suburbs of London’ Coward also wrote about ordinary people, and in Fumed Oak horribly funny ones too!

Performances run from Tuesday 29th October to Friday 1st November 2019. Tickets are on sale now at: www.cdsweb.co.uk/book