Studio Event - 'An Afternoon of Wit & Wickedness'

Two or three times a year, Lewes Little Theatre puts on a themed lunch or tea, partly social, partly informative/entertaining. The last one was serious, based on themes arising from the production of Anne Frank that had been running. The next event, coming up this Sunday, is far more light-hearted. I’ve been talking to Keith Gilbert about it, because he's the host. It is intriguingly billed as ‘An afternoon of Wit & Wickedness’ and is followed by tea. ”What can people expect?” I ask him. “It’s madness” he tells me. “But the wickedness is purely located in the sketches. The tea will be sane”. Disappointing; but there is he tells me, the possibility that cream cakes will be involved. He promises that the planned sketches and jokes, commenting on political correctness and incorrectness, will be “near the mark” and “fairly scary for Lewes”. There will be jokes from Clockwise scriptwriter Michael Frayn’s Alarms and Excuses about how people ignore the safety warnings given by air hostesses. Keith mulled over whether the rapid succession of 18-20 sketches might be “too dangerous” for the town, and concluded they were not, quite. The audience can expect “a bunch of people with really good comic timing”. He claims the major selling point is that: “it’s cheaper than staying at home”. EC