Kyrenia Amateur Dramatic Society (KADS)

**Absolute Kads and Bounders III**

By Margaret Sheard….

Videos by Chris Elliott….

KADS have done it again, with an evening of comedy in celebration of their 40^th year, which makes it the oldest English language Performing Arts Society in North Cyprus. Quite an achievement and during this time KADS have produced 3-act plays, 1-act comedies, radio plays, murder/mystery dinner events and of course the ever popular variety shows.

The 8^th/9^th/10^th May saw the performance of Absolute Kads and Bounders III with many familiar faces in the cast and a few new ones. As well as some old favourite sketches there was a lot of new material which has been written by John Melville and Phil Lucock and judging by the hilarious content I am sure they must have had a great deal of enjoyment in coming up with some of the new sketches.

The performance was in two parts with a nice 25 minute interval, giving the audience plenty of time to have a drink, a smoke or stretch their legs. I would think the cast also welcomed this break to relax a little from the fast running comedy sketches.

Just to mention a few of the sketches there were new ones such as Teenagers, based on present day youngsters being oblivious to everything except their computer games and cell phones, and a classic old favourite with a new look was Hole in My Bucket – I can remember this from many years ago on the radio and the on-stage performance was really very funny. There was also the Hat Sketch, a tribute to comedian Tommy Cooper, an excellent performance by John Melville. As well as the comedy sketches there were some excellent musical performances by the cast with Teach the World to Sing, London Medley and the finale of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. A newcomer to the cast is Amelia Mehmet who is 16 years old and has a beautiful singing voice, as well as singing with the cast, Amelia also did a solo with Hallelujah, which received much applause.

The Girne Municipal Cultural Centre theatre has recently had some refurbishment work carried out with new lighting and sound systems and it is a lovely venue for this type of performance. The foyer area has also been re-organised so that the interval can now be spent on the same floor level, with drinks and snacks available and comfortable seating.

All of the cast were excellent in their solo and joint roles and I am mentioning them here to give congratulations for their dedication and time to give the public a different type of entertainment.

John Melville, Şirin Damdelen, Amelia Mehmet, Phil Lucock, Diana Peek, Nicky Montgomery, Ian Chennell, Barbara Booth, Jacqueline McIntyre, Alan Peek, Deborah Bahadir, David Wheatley, Stephen Everett. Also thanks to the people behind the scenes who work so hard to make these productions a success. Last but not least thanks to Beverley Westbrook the Director of KADS who has now taken over this role due to the loss of Lawrie Oxley.

Stephen Everett the Chairman of KADS wrote a very nice welcome as a tribute to Lawrie Oxley and we are showing this below:-

In January 2015, KADS lost one of its much loved members of the team, Lawrie Oxley. His impact on KADS can never be forgotten, In fact, it was him joining KADS in 2009 that started to bring the society back into prominence. Lawrie’s enthusiasm for comedy drama has left a legacy that is now ours to uphold. We will miss him greatly and our productions over 2015 will be in tribute to our love and respect for such a gentle man.

Lawrie preferred comedy plays to variety shows but that did not deter him from offering support and advice as KADS worked out its format for its Absolute KADS and Bounders Productions. A quality in him that we will forever hold in our hearts.

We hope tonight we will do justice to the talent that was Lawrie Oxley and offer a loud “cheers” to a revered member of the KADS community.

Thank you.

Stephen Everett – Chairman KADS

To continue the tribute to Lawrie, KADS will be offering 2 new productions “Last Panto in Kyrenia” and “Mistaken Identities” which will come to the stage in October 2015. There will be auditions in early September and then rehearsals during September and October so if anyone is interested in joining the KADS team either on stage or behind the scenes please contact Stephen Everett the Chairman on 0533 844 0194 or email Stepheneverett@hotmail.com or contact Beverley Westbrook on 0533 832 8121.

In addition, KADS are hoping to host another Christmas themed whodunnit Murder/Mystery Dinner during the 2015 Christmas period.

All profits from the 3 performances will be donated to the SOS Children’s Village and Kyrenia Animal Rescue (KAR) so as well as having an enjoyable evening’s entertainment, the audience is also helping two worthy local charities.

Well done to all of the KADS cast and crew for another brilliant performance. Long may they continue.

Chris Elliott was asked to do a video of the production, as he had done for a previous one, and he was pleased to do so but as this show had a lot more content, it was an arduous task when the time came to format it and there was a great deal of “hair tearing out” as there is a limit to the amount which can be uploaded on our system and even with two videos (Part 1 and Part 2) there has had to be an amount of editing so apologies for anything left out but I do not think it will spoil the enjoyment of watching the recording of Absolute Kads and Bounders III. If anyone would like a copy of the show DVD’s please contact Beverley Westbrook on 0533 832 8121.