Why it is so immportant for amateur theatres to survive in Northampton

It was with interest that I read the Show Must Go on piece (Chron, Aug 20) on amateur theatre.

Certainly in Northampton, the Masque Theatre can claim to have been performing since 1932, initially as the Drama League and very much in the wartime spirit of Holidays at Home, when an annual Shakespeare play was put on in the open-air in Abington Park. Masque has continued to perform open-air shows and five studios shows ever since and has only had to stop because of Covid and social distancing, like so many other amateur companies. In normal times we perform at different venues, including an invitation to perform Rozencrantz and Guildenstern at the RSC Open-Stages event in Stratford. Some of our past members have become professional too, including Birds of a Feather’s Lesley Joseph, who is also our Honary President; Alan Carr, the televison personality; Marc Warren (Hustle and the ‘new’ Van de Valk); and more recently, Martin McCreadie who had the lead with Masque in Trainspotting and has now performed with Tom Hardy in the Kray’s movie, Legend, as well as the Netflix series, Alienist.

It is very important that both our public and our 80 members realise that social distancing will eventually be revised and, hopefully, we can perform again, but it is unlikely that we will do so until 2021.

Then we will welcome everyone back to amateur theatre.

Should anyone wish to learn more about the history of Masque Theatre and our past productions in Northampton, please check out our website www.masquethetare.co.uk.

Rob Kendall

Masque Theatre,

Northampton