The young actors in the Festival Players filled the Town Hall in Evesham with an excited audience – twice over.

As a thank you to the people of Evesham for supporting their Agatha Christie murder mystery play last summer, the young actors presented Dick Whittington and his Cat for special free performances.

Festival Players director and founder Eric Jones said that the one-hour special had been intended to attract mums and dads with young children who may never have experienced live theatre before.

He said: “Within two days [of publicising the event] it was decided that one 6.30pm performance was not going to be enough and a second performance for 8.15pm on the same day was scheduled.

“The young actors were thrilled doing two shows in one evening and they stepped up to the mark brilliantly.

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“With barely 35 minutes between shows there was just time for two mouthfuls of pizza, delivered fortuitously at the right time, and a can of diet Coke, before all the props were re-arranged, costumes changed, pyrotechnics re-wired and the town hall was full up again.

“They had a free performance, free programmes, and free drinks and biscuits, thanks to the generosity of three supermarkets in the town.”

The Festival Players are now preparing for their next production, Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery thriller, Spider’s Web, due to be performed at The Arts Centre, Evesham on July 22, and Pershore Number 8 on July 24.

Any young person interested in joining the group and maybe taking part in the play can contact Mr Jones on 01386 48788.