MADAM,

On behalf of Off Centre Theatre may I express my thanks to the management and staff of the Monmouthshire Beacon who allowed me access, recently, to the archives of the newspaper.

29 years ago the Beacon, in its review of the Monmouth Festival, reported that ‘The newly formed Off Centre Theatre presented a melodrama, “The Murder in the Red Barn”, directed by Brian Philips.’

As the Society begins on its 30th year of providing amateur theatre in the town, your readers might be interested in how the Beacon reported on the genesis of the group. The story, presented in a sequence of contemporary clippings from the paper, can be found on the society’s website, www.offcentretheatre.org.uk, and shows how it all began back in 1986 when Maggie was in her pomp and today’s technology was still sci-fi.

The society’s latest production, Quartet by Ronald Harwood, runs from Thursday 15th October to Saturday 17th October at the Savoy Theatre, Monmouth.

Cedric Gibbons

(Monmouth)