22/10/2026
THROWBACK THURSDAY
Heather MacTavish and the Farndale Ladies
Those of us fortunate enough to have known and worked with the late Heather MacTavish (https://bit.ly/4Bbb0QY) will cherish the memory of her not only as a superb actor and inspirational director, but as a friend and mentor.
One of the traditions established by Heather in the old Shakespeare Street theatre was a series of comedies featuring the ladies of the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Drama Society and their ambitious attempts at staging ‘productions’ of mind-boggling ineptitude.
The eight plays in the Farndale series, written by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr, were directed by Heather for Kucom Theatre between 1992 and 2009 and were immensely popular with audiences.
For the sake of brevity, imagine that each of the following titles is prefaced by the words ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Production of’ (to include the full title of each was always a challenge for whoever was designing the poster – so many words, so little space!)
Macbeth (1992)
Murder Mystery (1993)
They Came from Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall in Time for the Townswomen’s Guild Coffee Morning (1997)
Chase Me Up Farndale Avenue, S’il Vous Plait (1995)
A Christmas Carol (1999)
The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle (2002)
The Mikado (2005)
We Found Love and an Exquisite Set of Porcelain Figurines Aboard the SS Farndale Avenue (2009)
Audience members from those years will recall Brenda Price as Mrs Reece and Sue Stock as Thelma, along with regular appearances by Maureen Coleman, John Atkinson, Kelly Gregg, Peter Rosier, Stan Hillard and many others.
Sadly, some of those fondly remembered names are no longer with us – Heather, Brenda, Sue and Stan – but we still cherish the Farndale tradition and are looking forward to presenting the Farndale (etc.) production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ as our final show for the year.
Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/farndale-christmas-carol
