THE Dukes Theatre and Cinema will be transformed into a 1940s Odeon in February when a new play by Lancaster writer Lesley Anne Rose opens.
Home Fires, showing from February 1 to 23, is
interspersed with real archive film footage from the Second World War courtesy of The North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University.
This family drama,
exploring four generations of L
ancaster women bound by blood, is set in 1943 – a time when all the men looked like movie stars (if the lighting was dim enough) and one of the best things a girl could do was to lose herself in the whirlwind romances of films like Casablanca.
Against a backdrop of war, Lily, a young cinema
usherette whose husband is off fighting, finds new
possibilities in a pair of Gary Cooper eyes and dares to dream about a new future.
Diary
Sixty years later, Lily's daughter and granddaughter discover her wartime diary, wrapped lovingly in a red silk scarf and begin to
discover that their ties with the past are knotted more firmly than they realised.
The play is partly set in Lancaster's old Odeon, one of seven cinemas operating at the time.
The more modern Dukes auditorium will be sent back in time with the glow of old cinema lighting, Art Deco
features, sassy usherettes and the heady scent of Evening in Paris perfume.
The play has been cast with actors predominantly from Lancashire and the North West. They are Eithne Brown, Pip Chapman, Alison Holroyd, Roberta Kerr, Catherine Kinsella and Mark Plonsky.
For booking details call the Dukes box office on 598500.
