In 2026, we have performed Whose Life Is It Anyway? at the Bellerby Studio, G-Live, in March; and in July The Revenger’s Tragedy at the Castle Keep. Rousing successes, both of them, and now we’re focusing on playreadings, Play in a Day events, workshops, etc. for the rest of the year. In October, however, we will be auditioning for our next full production, George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, to be performed Spring next year.

Details for all of this below.

Play in a Day: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” in the back room of the Star Inn on the 4th of October, 2026.

Written and directed by Alex Marks in a pair of very faithful adaptations of the short stories of Arthur Conan-Doyle, this Play in a Day event will give actors a chance to get together and perform a play with scripts in hand (no line learning!) and perform a play in the evening that they began rehearsing that morning.

The two plays will each run about 40–50 minutes, and there will be an opportunity for Holmes and Watson to each be played by two actors across the two different plays.

The currently intended plays are “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Illustrious Client”.

Auditions on the 25th of October for a funny, poignant, romantic / anti-romantic play about love, war, delusions, and chocolate creams. To be performed at G-Live’s Bellerby Studio in April 2027. Directed by Sam Gould.

Written by Bernard Shaw in 1894, Arms and the Man takes place during the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885; it’s a play full of laughs as it mercilessly satirises ideals still in force today about romance, honour, nobility, and war.

Available parts will include Raina Petkoff (F, 24, lead), Captain Bluntschli (M, 30s, lead), Sergius (M, 20s–30s), Louka (F, 20s–30s), Nicola (M, 30s–50s), Catherine Petkoff (F, 40+), and Major Petkoff (M, 40+).

And thus, we begin the 50th anniversary year of the Pranksters just as we began the company in 1977 – with a Bernard Shaw play (our very first production was The Inca of Perusalem).

Play in a Day: “Fight Against the Machine” at St. Catherine’s Village Hall in November 2026.

Written and directed by David Clegg, this Play in a Day event will give actors a chance to get together and perform a play with scripts in hand (no line learning!) and perform a play in the evening that they began rehearsing that morning.

The play is a wholly original work about Luddites and their (ultimately failed) revolution against low-quality machine replacements for skilled workers in the weaving industry, with clear parallels to current fears about Generative AI.

And in summer 2027, we will be returning to the bandstand in Guildford castle grounds with The 39 Steps, directed by Jen Haynes.

When the stiff-upper-lipped Richard Hannay meets a femme fatale at a West End show, he finds himself pulled into an adventure concerning an international conspiracy – espionage, a chase on a train, and many other wondrous sights await you, evoked with many a suitcase and ladder.

There will be plenty of roles for this play which calls for a cast of anything between 4 and 24.

Keep your eyes peeled for further announcements. Our 2027 programme is sure to be a great one – particularly as we will celebrate our 50th anniversary in the autumn.