Three members of Buckland Monachorum Drama Group have written a comic play which is being performed in early June.

After failing to find a play suitable for the group members’ ages, numbers and acting experience, Sarah Earley, Caroline Price and Jack Turnock decided to have a go at writing their own play.

The Result is ‘A Glass of Bolly’ – a modern day comedy take on the traditional vampire castle genre.

The one-act play as been written as a counterpoint to the other party of the evening’s entertainment, a traditional gothic comedy one-act play written by Nick Warburton which features vampires, a spooky castle and endangered maidens

Rehearsals are currently underway for the two plays, to be staged together over three nights in Buckland Monachorum Village Hall from Thursday, June 4 to Saturday, June 6.

“Finding plays which are suitable for our small group is one of our biggest challenges,” said group chair and co-author of the new play, Caroline Price.

“After reading dozens of plays which wouldn’t work for us, we decided to have a go at writing a play ourselves.

“The three of us spent night after night hammering out the play which we delivered scene by scene over three weeks for the cast to rehearse.

“We’re now waiting in trepidation to see if the audience like it – or boo us off stage. It’s also my debut as a director so I will be a bag of nerves on the first night.

“We’re having a lot of fun rehearsing – in fact we keep having to stop while cast members get over a fit of the giggles – but the real test will be in front of a paying audience.

“We’re a long-established drama group with most members from Buckland Monachorum and surrounding villages. We’re also blessed with an enthusiastic and forgiving loyal audience.”

It’s the first time the three have worked together. Sarah, who is theatre/access manager at Plymouth’s Theatre Royal, has previously written comic sketches. She and Jack, who has acted on stage since he was five, ran the Whitty Kids drama group for primary school children for a number of years.

Caroline is a published fiction writer under the pen name ‘Roz Levens’.

Caroline and Sarah live in Buckland Monachorum and Jack lives in Tavistock.