Make a date at Priory to see Calendar Girls

The team in Rosemary Hill are the first out of thousands of theatres in the country to win the performing rights to stage the play, which are owned by the Samuel French drama company.

The Priory’s publicity manager Mike Connell said: “This show has been - indeed still is - on tour professionally, and so cannot be released until the professional tour has finished - and a suitable period of time has elapsed.

“We applied to produce Calendar Girls on the very, very first available date it was possible to do. We kept in touch regularly and made sure we knew we wanted this production.”

He added: “It’s very difficult to get the rights because it’s up to the company when or indeed if they want to release it to the amateur circuit.

“It can often be down to a case of the relationship held with the company that holds the rights. We have an excellent relationship with Samuel French and have done so for many years.”

Mike said members of the Kenilworth theatre are keen to stage this show because it is so well known and “a great story” - and the crew are so excited about winning the rights that they are considering holding a special midnight performance so audiences can see it at the very first moment possible.

Work on staging, directing, promotion and casting has already begun, even though there are still another seven months to go before performance dates.

Theatre chairman Richard Collett said: “Naturally we are extremely pleased to have been granted the rights to the show. It will delight our audiences and with our intimate theatre setting it is sure to be another high profile success for Kenilworth and the county.“

Calender Girls tells the true story of a group of extraordinary women, members of a very ordinary Yorkshire Women’s Institute, who spark a global phenomenon by persuading one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference. As interest snowballs, the ladies find themselves revealing more than they’d ever planned.

Widely considered an uplifting, inspiring, quirky, poignant and funny tale, the very British play will come to the Priory on Saturday September 1 and will be on until Saturday September 15.

Tickets, priced from £7.50, are available to book in advance. Call 863334 or go online.