Community
Local History Something from Strutts
The Strutts building is elegant and, in every way, pleasing to the eye. Its rooms are spacious and adaptable to most groups or situations and the fact that the school building was purpose built is immediately evident. However, what it does not have is a theatre so a stage or performance area must be created to suit the event, which in itself encourages creative thinking! These practical problems have never stopped the building from hosting some memorable theatre events and it has been exploited by generations of school pupils. I have memories of excellent productions such as Agamemnon and Murder in the Red Barn, to name just two, and I have read positive reports of earlier performances of Our Town and The Importance of Being Earnest, along with many others. School productions were well staged, visually creative and memorable. We have some excellent records in our school archive.
Strutts was also the first performance venue for some well-known actors. Alan Bates attended the grammar school between 1945 and 1951 and during that time took part in several school plays. As many people know, he then went on to star in films such as Whistle Down the Wind, Far From the Madding Crowd and Women in Love. His theatre work is less well known but includes the role of Cliff in Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Mick in Pinter’s The Caretaker.
Timothy Dalton also attended Strutts School, where he demonstrated his acting talents, between 1957 and 1962, after which he trained at RADA. Later he was to work with The Royal Shakespeare Company and in a BBC production of Jane Eyre, in which he played Mr Rochester, before making films which led to him being cast as James Bond. But we should return to the school and to the Arts events which still take place there. Belper Players are major users of the facility and have presented a strong repertoire over the years and the Captive Audience Theatre Company regularly uses the premises. Throughout each year the community centre welcomes Arts events of all types; at present it is working with Live and Local with the intention of hosting a professional show annually for Belper audiences. We have also been known to stage specialist evenings celebrating the works of some of our major writers such as Shakespeare, Dickens and Jane Austin. We hope there will be more so please watch this space! The Arts can play a very large part in the lives of people of all age groups as a means of enhancing their approach to teamwork, problem solving and critical thinking. With many schools now side-lining artistic subjects in favour of the core curriculum, any exposure to live performance can only be good. So please come along to the performances from our various local groups and keep a lookout for guest appearances. We hope to see you soon. By Joan Hardy Strutts Society Committee www.strutts.org.uk
To advertise contact Ruth: T: 01332 883140 M: 07545 261034 E: ruth@allthingslocal.co.uk
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