Cheriton Players 
Cheriton Village Hall
John Sivewright 
23 April 2026
Cheriton Players have staged a real love letter to the theatre this week with their production of Gareth Armstrong’s Fondly Remembered. This gentle comedy sees four luvvies (well, three luvvies and a retired Stage Manager) reunite after many years to participate in a memorial service (not a funeral!) for their former director, Douglas, at a church in East London. As the players reminisce, prompted by the non-stipendiary vicar (don’t worry, that technical term is thoroughly explained during the show!), we are reminded that we humans are a complicated folk; Douglas was a genius director, but a swindler, a former lover, while a bitter rival. As the Players’ poster asks, was Douglas a saint or sinner? That’s perhaps, for the audience to decide in a piece that, as well as providing plenty of laughs, packed a surprisingly emotional punch and left the punters plenty to think about on their way home.
The theatricals, gathered in the storage room of the run-down church (set designer, Tim Conway, and his construction team did a splendid job depicting this, right down to the boarded-up windows), were an eclectic mix of characters, all very well depicted by the cast. As the biographies in the programme make clear, the cast of five are a very experienced bunch who, in the case of the four theatricals, must have revelled in their parts – anyone that’s spent at least a couple of years in amateur theatre must have run into a motley crew like this themselves!
As the cynical Donald, who was certainly no fan of the recently deceased Douglas, Glynn Williams gave a splendid characterisation, and his transformation for the final scene was impressively done, with particular credit due to the hair and makeup adjustments. Glynn spent much of his time casually leaning on the lower rungs of a stepladder, a nice directorial flourish, as it added some visual depth to a piece that could have been very static otherwise, while establishing the character’s nonchalance and tinge of bitterness.
Jan Conway as Douglas’s long-time friend (and admirer?) Cressida and Jenni Watson as ex-leading lady, Zoe (Douglas’s one-time “bit on the side” and now much beloved radio actress) produced well-rounded characterisations, while Craig Robb as former juvenile lead but now “more out of work than in”, Barry, put in a highly impressive performance, really getting under the skin of his character. His monologue about embracing life and getting his fun where he finds it was a highlight of the evening. Rounding out the cast was Paul Willcox as Reverend Tom, the former big city high-flyer turned clergyman who hadn’t quite turned his back on “mammon”, and his depiction was spot on; he got some of the biggest, and most well-deserved, laughs of the evening.
Director, Linda O’Byrne, is new to Cheriton Players, but certainly not a theatrical novice, having acted and directed for many years in London, Yorkshire and Kent before moving to the area. Linda did an excellent job with this piece; it was the second time she’d directed it, and it showed, as she helped her cast extract every laugh and poignant moment they could from the script, while keeping the players moving around the stage and maintaining an interesting visual. Let’s hope she directs many more productions for this group.
Fondly Remembered runs until tomorrow evening at Cheriton Village Hall and is a treat for theatre participants, theatre goers and, well, anyone with a sense of humour, really. Catch it if you can.
