Grange Park Opera

From Plant Food to Bacon

It is 1947 in a hungry small town in the north of England. Rationing rationing rationing.

Local businessmen plan a party to celebrate the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip and illegally decide to raise a pig (Betty) for this royal occasion. She is gorgeous and delicious and abducted by Gilbert Chivers (played by Michael Palin in the film).

And then there is the region’s food inspector to contend with…

The musical is based on the 1984 film A Private Function to a screen play by Alan Bennett.

In 2011 Cameron Mackintosh, presented with the idea to make the film into a musical, said “The score was written by friends of mine, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, whom I’ve known for 25 years and [who,] of course, did all the terrific new songs for Mary Poppins … The book was written by two Americans [Cowen and Lipman], and it was their idea… I read it and I thought it was the most original piece I had read in a long, long time. I mean, I knew they were working on it, because the moment I heard it was a musical version of A Private Function — a film I loved, by Alan Bennett, which was very, very funny and off-the-wall — I was intrigued…“

Cast & Creatives

GILBERT CHILVERS ∙ FREDDIE KING
JOYCE CHILVERS ∙ CHARLOTTE FLEMING
DR JAMES SWABY ∙ MICHAEL BURGEN
HENRY ALLARDYCE ∙ TOM DUERN
MOTHER DEAR/ MRS ALLARDYCE ∙ BETH ATKIN

DIRECTOR ∙ SASHA REGAN
MUSICAL DIRECTOR ∙ ASHLEY JACOBS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER ∙ KASPER CORNISH
SET DESIGNER ∙ ALEX DOIDGE-GREEN
COSTUME DESIGNER ∙ BEK PALMER
LIGHTING DESIGN ∙ WARREN LETTON
SOUND DESIGN ∙ MIKE THACKER
PRODUCTION MANAGER ∙ JULI FRAIRE

Performance Dates

Sunday 6 November, 6:30pm
Tuesday 8 November, 6:00pm VIP Evening
Thursday 10 November, 6:30pm
Saturday 12 November, 6:30pm
Sunday 13 November, 4:30pm

Your visit

Performances take place at HMP Bronzefield  TW15 3JZ

There are road closures near the prison which are shown on google maps.
Sat Nav TW15 3JZ

Important Information