July 2024

‘The Dressing Book’ is both an hilarious comedy – When two ladies turn up to a ball in identical dresses a fracas follows! - but equally poetic and tender. An excellent might out with friends and family!

The Rudes create brand-new plays full of songs, poems and slapstick, performing outdoors in mainly small rural communities across the South of England from Kent to Somerset – always funny with excellent music, they are thought-provoking too. ‘The Dressing Book’ is set in 1795 in Tunbridge Wells but plays games with time and social status and has a twist in the tail. It follows the ‘social round’ of Maybelline who records which dresses she wears for each event in her ‘dressing book’ - and the men she encounters while wearing them. The play opens a window on the way clothes were – and still are - a means by which men could control the separated public and private worlds of women. Has anything changed? Through a process of ‘magic realism’ the action changes to the 1960’s and Maybelline’s clothes, which had been her prison, now set her free. You won’t want to miss this! So, get it in your diaries. Bring your own low-backed chairs & a picnic from 6.00pm. To book tickets or if you want to know more go to the company’s website – www.therudes.co.uk. Superbly done!’ – The Stage. ‘A delight!’ – Independent on Sunday. ‘Such a good night! – The Times.