Carousel February 2005
A show which is regularly performed both professionally and by amateur companies. It is popular and well-loved by audiences everywhere.

Charity Collections
Collections at the end of each performance raised almost £300 for Take Heart and over £350 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The Story
The time is 1873. In a small fishing village on the rocky New England coastline, Billy Bigelow, the swaggering barker for Mrs Mullin's carousel, meets Julie Jordan, a young girl working at the nearby mill, and her friend Carrie Pipperidge. Carrie already has her sights set on an enterprising fisherman named Enoch Snow, but Julie is quickly smitten with Billy. They are soon married. Billy, though, is moody and inclined to trouble. He loses his job, just as Julie informs him that he will soon be a father. Desperate to provide a life suitable for a new child, Billy agrees to join Jigger, a shiftless sailor, in a hold-up. The robbery is thwarted, and Billy is caught. Disgraced, terrified and faced with the prospect of a long prison term, Billy kills himself.

Fifteen years later, and Billy is informed by a Heavenly Friend that he will never get into heaven until he redeems himself. He is given the chance to return to earth for a single day, during which he must perform one good deed. He meets his daughter Louise, but he is still the rough blunderer he was in life - Louise is shy and unnerved by Billy's eagerness. Unable to reach her in any other way, Billy slaps his daughter - but the sting feels miraculously like a kiss to the girl. Louise explains this to her mother, Julie, who instinctively understands.

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