Cable Street Blues: ‘Curtain up’ for Maldon Drama Group’s latest production in collaboration with Maldon Orchestra this weekend

By Ben Shahrabi 18th Oct 2023

Local News

Local News by Ben Shahrabi 18th Oct 2023

Maldon Drama Group and Maldon Orchestra will bring "the joys and sorrows" of life in London's East end to Plume Academy this weekend.

Musical drama 'Cable Street Blues' will be performed at the academy's main hall on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October. Tickets cost £10 each, but 85 per cent of them have already been sold.

Writer and Director Neil Fisher told Nub News: "I'm really pleased to see the story I wrote in 2019 brought to life by the acting of the cast and the music of Maldon Orchestra.

"Rehearsals are entering their final stages and our cast, which ranges in age from eight to eighty, are doing a fantastic job."

Set between the wars, the play is about ordinary people living their lives in Cable Street as best they can, in rapidly changing and often dangerous times. A Jewish orphan meets a middle class girl with a secret and love begins to bloom - but it is threatened by Mosely and his fascists trying to march through Cable Street.

It will feature music from the Jazz age such as Blue Moon, Brother Can You Spare A Dime, Careless Love, 'Sing, Sing, Sing', and more.

Maldon Orchestra will provide music for the production. (Photo: Maldon Drama Group)

"The musical arrangements Ron and Belinda have created bring out the moods of the plot brilliantly," Neil added.

"The story has shades of light and dark.

"Mosley's message back in the 1930's is sadly still heard today. Look out for the final number, Love Is the Sweetest Thing. For me that simple phrase contains the moral of the story."

All profits will be donated to The David Randall Foundation, a local charity which "provides good days for people in Essex with life limiting illnesses". It also distributes scholarships and awards to help dedicated young musicians and sportspeople achieve their goals.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the TicketSource website, call 07928 403991, or get in touch via email.

Maldon Drama Group notes the story features occasional references to suicide.