FORTY-FOUR years of experience has come together in Criccieth for the Starlight Player’s latest offering.

The group, which has been going for over four decades, continue to present the much-loved farce Boeing Boeing.

Criccieth’s Starlight Players are flying high with the show which opened on 17 July and runs through to September.

The NODA award-winning group started in the town in 1974 and has produced pantomimes, plays and musicals ever since.

“It was started by a group of local people who were interested in amateur theatre and who wished to ‘give something back’ to the community,” said member Dan May.

“The society started life as a pantomime group with its first production, of Cinderella, being staged in 1975.

“A summer play called Friends and Neighbours followed, and was staged in 1979, and this format continued until 1996 when more music-based variety shows were introduced as the main summer performance.

“In 2001, the society took the step of staging three productions in a calendar year – a play in May/June, a show in the summer and a winter pantomime.

“In 2003, a dedicated junior section was started (SPYDRS) who meet every Saturday morning and is proving very popular with our local young performers.”

This summer, Boeing Boeing is on at the town’s Memorial Hall.

It was written by French playwright Marc Camoletti and premiered at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1962.

The audience joins the action in Bernard’s Parisian apartment where he and his American fiancé, Gloria, are enjoying breakfast before she takes-off on a transatlantic flight.

Gloria, and in fact all three of Bernard’s fiancées are airline stewardesses with frequent Parisian layovers!

Bernard keeps “one up, one down and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris and his apartment at the same time.

Bernard’s old school friend Robert and his housekeeper Bertha, attempt to diffuse the inevitable chaos.

Director Geoff Atherton is new to the Starlight Players and, ironically, came across this play at the same time the group launched its first show, as he explained.

“My first encounter with Boeing Boeing was in 1975 when, as a young director, I produced and directed this hilarious French farce.

“Having recently joined the Starlight Players I have found myself directing the same play four decades later.

“This is an ensemble piece depending on teamwork and timing. It is non-stop action and potential hilarious disaster for our lead character Bernard and his school friend Robert, as the situations within his domestic/romantic life go from a minor complication to potential meltdown.

“The anchor of the play is the long-suffering Bertha for whom life ‘isn’t easy you know’, as she facilitates her boss’ social life.”

The show opened on Tuesday, 17 July and performances will take place every Tuesday night until 4 September.

Doors open at 7pm with performances starting at 7.30pm.

Tickets are available online in advance from thestarlightplayers.com.