New play at The Bull Theatre aims to celebrate life and times of townspeople of Barnet during the Second World War

Wartime comings and goings among patrons and staff at Barnet Odeon contribute to storylines in the latest production by the Blue Door Theatre Company to be staged at The Bull Theatre in October.

A Nightingale Sang in Barnet – all about the blitz and beyond – is based on memories and tales about life in Barnet in the 1940s during World War II.

Barnet Odeon – now the Everyman – opened in 1935 and the cinema became a popular venue during the war years.

The newly built picture house and a dusty, makeshift air raid shelter are two of the settings for what director Siobhan Dunne says will be backdrops allowing the cast to weave “a rich tapestry of verbatim stories and imagined events”.

For at least four members of the Blue Door company, the new production is a personal affair as they have family stories of life in Barnet during the Second World War.

They aim to recreate a Barnet where some say they continued to hear the nightingale sing when life in the town was “ruled by the skies, the sirens, the thrum and the silence”.

Ms Dunne said they had all jumped at the chance to build a production around Barnet of the 1940s and extend Blue Door’s well-earned reputation for delivering sell-out shows that reflect the town’s history.

“We visit the newly built Odeon. A flickering projector mirroring the heartbeats of people who work and visit the picture house of dreams.

“A magic lantern bringing light to break the shadows, respite for all the strangers brought together as a family in a dusty, makeshift shelter.” 

Writing what is billed as a “fascinating and moving production full of war time drama and classic songs” has been a team effort by Sarah Munford, Hannah Gerolemou, Rafaela Golding, Claire Fisher, Dominique Carruthers-Reeve, Francesco Giacon and Brigid Hekster.

Music has been arranged by Nick Godwin.

There will be four performances – Thursday 15 October, 7.30pm; Friday 16 October, 7.30pm; Saturday 17 October, 2pm and 7.30pm. Tickets at £19 plus booking fee now available via www.thebulltheatre.com

A photograph from the Barnet Museum collection shows a children’s street party in Crescent Road, New Barnet, celebrating Victory in Europe Day on 8 May 1945.

What would they have eaten is the question which was posed when the photograph was reproduced in the museum’s 2018 calendar.

“There would have probably been a lot of sandwiches and at least one ‘eggless’ fruit cake since eggs were rationed.

“It is likely that hoarded tinned fruit and similar treasures would also have appeared at this party.

“Certainly, the happy young mothers portrayed would have pooled their rations and exercised a great deal of ingenuity to make a treat that the children would remember for a very long time.”

Barnet Museum’s photograph of Barnet Odeon – see above – is dated 1937. The cinema was opened on 15 May 1935 before an audience of 1,110, including the architect, Edgar Simmons.

Its façade is an example of Art Deco architecture, and it was awarded Grade II listing in 1989.

There were four local cinemas in the 1940s and 1950s – the Odeon; Cinema Palace which opened in Barnet High Street in 1912 and was later known as the Barnet Cinema and then the Gaumont; New Barnet Kinema in Lytton Road which later became the Regal; and the Dominion, opened in 1938 in East Barnet village to come the Essoldo in 1950.