A VE Day secret revealed

A VE Day secret revealed…

Greenham Tower Theatre Co truly is a community theatre company.

The company includes actors across the age range from 10-year old Bertie Croft and his father Gareth, to writer/director Andy Kempe, who, along with other company members, is a bit older!

Having performed a number of plays exploring local stories at the Control Tower over the past few years, they have now moved on to presenting plays on Kennet Radio.

A Sign of the Times was broadcast at the end of February and is now available as a podcast which can be accessed from the Kennet Radio website.

Their latest venture is Half-light which will be broadcast at 7pm on Friday, May 2.

The play tells the story of how a man clearing out his mother’s attic discovers a box full of objects which, piece by piece, reveal a family history he never knew, and why VE Day 1945 was so significant for his mother.

Originally written to be performed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the play wasn’t staged at the Control Tower until March 2022 due to Covid.

Now, in time for the 80th anniversary, it has been adapted for radio.

The play draws on careful research into local history to capture the sometimes humorous, and ultimately moving, effect of a momentous day in history on ordinary people.

It also raises the question of just how much any of us really know about our parents’ lives before we came along.