August: Osage County by Tracy Letts

Matlock, Derbyshire: High Tor Players, the amateur drama group that has been entertaining Matlock and the Derbyshire Dales since 1937, will stage Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County at the Imperial Rooms, Matlock, from Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 November. It is the group’s 199th production.

August: Osage County is one of the most celebrated American plays of the last twenty years. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008 and the Tony Award for Best Play the same year. The 2013 film, with Meryl Streep as Violet and Julia Roberts as Barbara, earned both of them Academy Award nominations, alongside a cast that included Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Cooper, Margo Martindale, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin and Sam Shepard.

The play has only been seen in Britain once, when the original Chicago company visited the National Theatre in 2008. Its first British production opens at the Noël Coward Theatre in London on 18 January 2027, with Lesley Manville and Anna Maxwell Martin. High Tor Players open theirs seven weeks earlier.

Amateur groups in the UK have not been able to perform the play until now. Director Alicia Bloundele wrote to the playwright, Tracy Letts, via his agent to ask, and High Tor Players believe theirs is the first amateur production in the country.

The story follows the Weston family, who gather at the family home in Oklahoma when Beverly Weston, the father, goes missing. His wife Violet and their three daughters, with husbands, a fiancé, an aunt and uncle and a cousin in tow, spend a hot August under one roof, and everything that has been left unsaid for years comes out. There is a lot of swearing and some difficult family history, and it is also very funny. The dinner scene at the centre of the play is one of the most talked-about scenes in modern theatre.

The production is directed by Alicia Bloundele and Rose Oliver. Alicia Bloundele said: “I wrote to Tracy Letts via his agent to ask if we could do it, because the amateur rights weren’t available over here, and he said yes. I’ve wanted to do this play for years. It’s about a family who all end up back in the same house for a few days, and everything that’s been left unsaid for years comes out. It means a lot to a lot of people, because you watch it and you see your own family in it, the bits you laugh about and the bits you don’t talk about. We’ve got thirteen local people in the cast and it’s the biggest thing we’ve taken on in a long while. I can’t wait for people to see it.”

The cast of thirteen all live in Matlock and the surrounding villages. They have day jobs, families and everything else that goes with them, and they have given up three evenings a week since September to rehearse a three-act play, for no money, because they love doing it. Kate Stuart plays Violet, Lewis Hancock plays Beverly, Alicia Bloundele plays Barbara, Jodi Lee Thomas plays Ivy, Kristina Flickinger plays Karen, Pete Wilmot plays Bill, Selina Peerbux plays Jean, Susan Devaney plays Mattie Fae, Tim Diggle plays Charlie, Luke Marsden plays Little Charles, Phil McGowan plays Steve, Mary Wilde plays Johnna and Chris Gale plays Sheriff Gilbeau.

High Tor Players’ 2025 production of The Crucible won NODA’s East Midlands Outstanding Play award. The group’s 200th production will fall in its 90th anniversary year, 2027.

Performances are at 7.30pm from Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 November, with a 2pm matinee on Saturday 28. Tickets are £13, and £5 for under 18s. The Saturday matinee is a Pay What You Want performance, where people pay what they can afford on the day, and community transport from villages across the Dales is available for it. The play runs for three hours, including two intervals of 30 minutes in total, and is suitable for ages 13 and over.

What: August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. High Tor Players.
Where: Imperial Rooms, Imperial Road, Matlock DE4 3NL.
When: Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 November 2026, 7.30pm. Saturday matinee 2pm.
Tickets: £13, under 18s £5. The Saturday matinee is Pay What You Want. Book at https://www.google.com/url?q=http://hightorplayers.co.uk/tickets&source=gmail&ust=1793477041447000&sa=E.
Age: 13 and over. Running time 3 hours, including 30 minutes of intervals.
About: The Pulitzer Prize winning family drama that became the Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts film. Staged by Matlock’s High Tor Players, a few weeks before it opens in the West End.