Calendar Girls at DBS Arts Centre - Home of SRT

Calendar Girls is set in present day England and tells the story of a women’s group (The Women’s Institute) who meet to do good within the community. When one member’s husband contracts leukaemia and dies, she (Annie) and her best friend (Chris) resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. They manage to persuade four fellow Women’s Institute members, Cora, Celia, Ruth and Jessie to pose nude with them for an ‘alternative’ calendar. The news of the women’s charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and hordes of press soon descend on their small community hall in a village in the heart of Yorkshire. The calendar is a success and they manage to raise more money than any of them could have dreamt of. They may have taken a big step in their help to combat leukaemia, but Chris and Annie’s friendship is put to the test under the strain of their new-found fame.

This chain of events happened in real life. The play is based on the true story of eleven WI members who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund.Calendar Girls opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2008 and hit London’s theatre-land in the West End in 2009. It has toured Britain, been performed in North America and has since become the fastest selling play in British theatre history.

The story is about the triumph of all that is good in human nature over some of the worst things that fate can throw at it. It speaks of the power of community and friendship. Directly and indirectly, Calendar Girls increases awareness of the disease as well as donations for research and help for underprivileged sufferers of it.

It is definitely a life-affirming piece taking the audience on an emotional journey culminating in a feel-good confirmation about what we can achieve when we work together.

Authors

• Tim Firth