The Southwick Players return with Hedda Gabler

The Southwick Players are forging links with the education community in the area by producing an education pack for their next production, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen.
Wick Director Gary CookWick Director Gary Cook
Wick Director Gary Cook

President of The Southwick Players Gary Cook said: “A new Hedda comes to the Barn – tragic, manipulative, raging against conformity, full of energy and rebellion. We are incredibly happy to return to the Barn with this adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler – our entry in the 2021 Brighton and Hove Arts Council Drama Awards.

“As a community theatre company, it is vital that we connect with local educators to help find creative ways to support them in their roles. Hedda Gabler is a great theatre classic and this modern adaption by Patrick Marber is thrilling.”

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Gary is directing the production and is keen to offer additional opportunities to groups of students to discuss the text and production decisions with members of the creative team and cast members during the production week of September 15-18. For more information on The Hedda Gabler Education Pack, email [email protected]

“The Southwick Players are an award-winning local Community Theatre Company who are resident at Southwick Community Centre and perform at The Barn Theatre. Producing a minimum of four productions a year, the Southwick Players offer opportunities to those interested in all aspects of theatre productions, whether on-stage or backstage.”

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Initially working in publicity and promotion for several Brighton Theatre Groups (including the Southwick Players, for whom he has won several Arts Council Publicity Awards), Gary has also worked on sound design, set design, props and “hanging about backstage trying to be useful,” he says.

In 2016 he co-directed Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills for the Southwick Players (with Nettie Sheridan), which gained many Brighton and Hove Arts Council awards including the Excellence Award. In 2017, Gary teamed up with Nettie Sheridan to form Identity and reprise Blue Remembered Hills at the BOAT. 2018 saw Gary direct Henry James’ The Turn of The Screw for the Southwick Players (runner-up in the NODA south-east drama awards); in 2018 he directed a rehearsed reading of the gangster farce Wetwork.

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In 2018 Gary became president of The Southwick Players and also performed in the award-winning production of The Corn Is Green as the rickety and confused Old Tom.

Identity returned to the BOAT in 2018 with The Crucible, and again in 2019 with Wuthering Heights.

His play Pity was presented to acclaim for Southwick Players as a rehearsed reading and in a revised full performance version for the Worthing Theatre Trail in 2019. 2020 saw Gary appearing at The Barn Theatre as a fairground barker in The Elephant Man; September 2021 sees him return to the Barn, directing Hedda Gabler. After Hedda, in December 2021 he is producing Blithe Spirit for the Players.

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