Busman’s Honeymoon

A Love Story with Detective Interruptions

A comedy by Dorothy L.Sayers & M.St.Clare Byrne
Thursday 15 December 1949 - Friday 16 December 1949
Faringdon Corn Exchange, Corn Market, Faringdon SN7 7JA
Directed by Bill Carter

Performances start 7:30 pm.

busmans-honeymoon-1949-photoA detective comedy in three acts. The action takes place in the Living Room at Tallboys over three days in October.

After an engagement of some months following the events at the end of Gaudy Night, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry. They plan to spend their honeymoon at Talboys, an old farmhouse in Harriet’s native Hertfordshire which Wimsey has bought for her, and they abscond from the wedding reception, evading the assembled reporters. Arriving late at night, they are surprised to find the house locked up and not prepared for them. They gain access and spend their wedding night there, but next morning they discover the former owner, Noakes, dead in the cellar with head injuries. The quiet honeymoon is ruined as a murder investigation begins and the house fills with policemen, reporters, and brokers’ men seizing Noakes’ hideous furniture.

Photo of the cast: Back row: ??; William (Bill) Reeves; ??; Arthur Probert; ??; ??; William Perkins; Arthur Holifield; ??; ??; Front row: ??; ??; Kathleen Allanson; Nancy Reeves.

This is the second play performed by Faringdon Dramatic Society.

See the programme for further details, it cost thrupence 3d (a fraction over 1p in today’s money).

“The scenery was made from an old crate and the stage was extended a further four feet by balancing tables on concrete blocks. That is how we started. Since then, we have learnt a lot (we think) about how to do things and how not to do things and here we are more or less at our journey’s end, but still learning a lot from that expert teacher, trial and error.”

Cast (in order of appearance):

Mr Puffet - Arthur Probert
Bunter - Llewellyn Williams
Mrs Ruddle - Margaret Bolton
Harriet - Kathleen Allanson
Lord Peter Wimsey - Rees Dee
Miss Twitterton - Nancy Reeves
Frank Crutchley - Arthur Holifield
Rev Simon Goodacre - William Perkins
Mr McBride - Tom Bartlett
Constable Sellon - William Reeves
Supt. Kirk - Stanley Mills
George - Alfred Cross
Bill - Ron Venn

See programme for further details.


Production No.2 (2 shows were performed over 2 days).