The Complete Plays: Touch Wood & Whistle (1986)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Touch Wood & Whistle
Stephen Mallatratt
Yes

Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round
Main house (Round)
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
16 July 1986
16 July 1986
13 September 1986
Company Details
Director:
Lighting:
Design:
Costumes:
Music:

Stage Manager:
Deputy Stage Manager:
Deputy Stage Manager:
Assistant Stage Manager:
Robin Herford
Mick Thomas
Glenn Willoughby
Peter Fairchild
Paul Todd

Duncan Lewis
Pat Fawcett
Toni Jay Lewis
David Parker
Character
Maurice Blaze
Jane Pickles
Ronny Aldrich
Bronwen Miller
Biddy Ampleforth
Actor
David Neilson
Elizabeth McKechnie
Russell Dixon
Janet Jefferies
Lesley Meade
Why is this play significant?
Touch Wood and Whistle is one of the few new plays produced in Scarborough to be directly inspired by a real life event, in this case the attempt to purchase a church in Hebden Bridge to be converted to a pagan temple (another notable play inspired by reality being The Price of Everything in 2010 which featured the professional stage debut of Jodie Comer). At one point, one of the protagonists of the actual events threatened to hex the theatre and the production but eventually came to see the play and professed to enjoy it.
Notes
○ Touch Wood & Whistle was a world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round and loosely inspired by an event two years previously in which the Hermetic Order Of The Silver Blade attempted to buy the derelict Heptonstall Slack Baptist Church in Hebden Bridge to convert into a pagan temple; objections by the local people thwarted the purchase attempt.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust