Preview by Claire Evans.

Terence Rattigan’s longest-running West End play, While the Sun Shines, and is being revived as part of the Summer Play Festival at the Manor Pavilion, opening on Monday 2 September 2024.

The classic wartime comedy play was first produced on the West End stage in 1943 and was later made into a film.

The setting of the play is the Albany in Piccadilly on the eve of the wedding of the young Earl of Harpenden. He is serving as an ordinary seaman preparing to wed his long-time fiancée.

Hilarious complications ensue when two suitors, one American and one French, turn up, along with a former girlfriend and Harpenden’s father.

Directed by Jack McCann, making his debut at the Festival, the production welcomes back several younger actors who have featured in previous Seasons.

Laura Mead, who will be playing Mabel, was last seen at the Manor Pavilion in 2023’s Ayckbourn’s trilogy Damsels in Distress and has recently been playing Betty in Some Mothers Do Have ‘Em in Cirencester. She said, “The character of Mabel is a complete change in energy from Betty Spencer. I’m excited to be in one of Rattigan’s classics.” Gwithian Evans, who is playing the American Mulvaney, was last in Sidmouth in Sailor Beware!. He said “I am thrilled to be back in Sidmouth after missing last year due to a 6 month stint in The Mousetrap. Both plays present their own challenges of endurance for the actor in equal measure.”

Full details can be found on the Manor Pavilion website.