Overtones and When Cupid Came To Earl's Court

The Stables Theatre is pairing two early 20th-century one-act plays on Monday 23 November, both exploring love in the Earl's Court area of London. The first is Overtones (1915) by Alice Gerstenberg, an American writer whose work is often cited as a seminal example of depicting split personalities on stage. The second is When Cupid Came to Earl's Court (1911) by Cosmo Hamilton, a prolific author and playwright. Together they make a double bill that runs about two hours including an interval, with both plays directed by Heather Leech.

The cast is made up of local actors who've come together from different routes, so it's a homegrown production in every sense. The two plays sit in the same decade and the same part of town, and both take a light-hearted look at love, though they approach it from different angles. Gerstenberg's Overtones is the more unusual of the two, known for how it handles a split personality on stage, while Hamilton's When Cupid Came to Earl's Court comes from a writer who spent much of his career in the theatre.

The venue is The Stables Theatre and Arts Centre on The Bourne in Hastings Old Town, a volunteer-led space that's been running since 1959. It puts on around ten amateur productions a year and keeps a resident art gallery on site. This particular show is in the Studio, and it's suitable for ages 14 and over, with no trigger warnings to keep in mind.

There are two performances on the day, a matinee at 14:30 and an evening show at 19:30, and all tickets are £10. You can find them at stablestheatre.co.uk.