Disaster strikes as four college students reunite after 30 years

Show spokesman Steven Knopf explains: “White Lies is about a reunion of four women who, 30 years earlier, went to college together.

“One member of the cast, Annabelle Heath from Shoreham, has in the past few years become rather an expert in reunions.

“Annabelle is one of the original cast members of the 1954 film The Belles of St. Trinian’s. In that film, starring Alastair Sim and Joyce Grenfell, Annabelle played Maudie the bookie. In the past few years she has organised and attended a number of St Trinian’s reunions, events and special screenings, notably in 2011 at the Barbican in London, then at the Cinema Museum in London and in June this year at the West Street Loft in Shoreham.”

For Lancing Repertory Players she plays Bea.

Annabelle said “Bea, my character, is such an awful person, a snob who has married for money and thinks she is above everyone else with no thought for their feelings. Unfortunately, I have met one or two people like her in the past!”

In 2011 The Guardian newspaper called Annabelle the “wrangler-in-chief for St Trinian’s reunions”

She agreed: “Any time anyone wants a team from St Trinian’s they come to me because I’ve got all the girls’ details.”

Annabelle is excited about appearing on stage in Lancing, close to her home. Comparing the play’s plot and her own recent experience of reunions, she said “There’s no comparison really, the reunion I organised at the Oakley Court Hotel in Windsor was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. The reunion in White Lies turns out to be a bit of a disaster ... at least for my character”.

White Lies, a one-act comedy by Richard James, will be staged from July 31-August 2 at the Lancing Parish Hall, South Street, Lancing at 7.30pm; doors 7pm.

The production also includes another one-act play, After the Flags and Bands by Allan Williams, a compilation of letters and monologues exploring the companionship between women left at home during the First World War.

Tickets covering both plays cost £8.

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