THE first performance since 1944 of a play written by one of the Forest’s most popular authors will take place later this month.

It was 75 years ago this year that Harry Beddington’s farce in one act, Footing the Bill, saw off the competition at the Gloucestershire Music and Drama Festival to win the top prize.

And remarkably the entire play was written and performed in Forest dialect.

Jason Griffiths of Reading the Forest has been looking into Harry’s work and re-discovered the play.

Jason said: “I picked up a rare published copy of the play a few years back and I have been researching it ever since.”

The play was first performed in the Forest as part of the qualifying rounds for the competition.

At the finals in Cheltenham Town Hall there were groups competing from across Gloucestershire.

But it was Harry’s dialect farce that won the day after scoring highest marks from the judges.

Performed by the Mintec Players (named after Cinderford’s Mining and Technical College), the cast of four featured Harry himself and his wife Mildred, whose love of acting prompted Harry to first start writing for the stage.

The Dean Forest Mercury reported the comments of county drama adviser Mr Leo Baker saying that, “when he saw it at Cinderford he could not understand much of it, but the audience rocked in their seats all the time.

“If the Cheltenham audience were mystified by ‘thee bist’ or wondered what a ‘butty’ was, they were also convulsed and gave the players the biggest applause of the evening.”

On Sunday July 21, as part of the Mitcheldean Festival, four experienced local amateur actors are putting on the comedy at Jolter Press in the Mitcheldean Mews to mark the 75th anniversary of the winning performance.

Louise Bullen and Lynne Teague of the Wesley Players, Andy Scarf of Forest of Dean Mummers, and Darren Hoskins of Oh Crumbs have come together specially for this production.

As part of their preparation they’ve had dialect coaching from Forest poets Keith Morgan and Maggie Clutterbuck to ensure that they get the Forest words and accents just right.

Andy Scarf said: “I have been a Jolter fan for many years, so it is a great privilege to be asked to perform in a play by the great Harry Beddington. 

“As an actor, but not a born Forester like the rest of the cast, I am so pleased that Keith and Maggie are around to help me with the Forest dialect.

“We all want to give the play the performance it deserves.”

And the performance will be captured for posterity.

As part of a forthcoming BBC TV feature on Harry Beddington and Forest dialect, a crew from Inside Out West will be at Mitcheldean filming the revival of the play.

The performance starts at 6pm.

Entry is (with donations welcome) and follows an afternoon of dialect poetry in performance featuring among others Maggie and Keith.