TITCHFIELD Festival Theatre (TFT) are nosing ahead to be Britain’s most prolific amateur theatre company with 27 productions planned this year.

Last year saw significant audience growth for the Hampshire company, with 30% more people visiting the venue compared to 2016. 2017 finished on a high, with several sell-out performances for its pantomime Hansel & Gretel following a highly successful 12 months which included productions of Spamalot, Romeo & Juliet, Jerusalem and The Sneeze.

They continue to push ahead with well known plays and original work written by members of the company specifically for TFT. Performances are held in three separate auditoriums: the main Oak Theatre (seating 200 people) plus the smaller Acorn Studio (100 seats). And the historic Great Barn hosts every summer an annual Shakespearian festival.

Now they will present the world premiere of The Nose by Johnny O’Hanlon ( Monday March 26 -31.)

Their intriguing publicity states: “Strange things happen, perhaps rarely, but do happen. One day something strange indeed did happen to a man called Simonov who was due to be married that very day. He lost his nose…”

The Nose is inspired by the famous Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol and written in the 1830s. TFT member and the play’s director Johnny O’Hanlon took Gogol’s idea of a man with a missing nose - and decided to write a different narrative. This is a hilarious story, capturing the surreal quality of Gogol’s writing whilst providing entertainment for a modern day audience to appreciate. The play is rich in bizarre characters and storylines: A marriage bargain, a money-grasping family, a ruthless and pretentious poet, a desirous actress, a beleaguered husband, a frail servant, a few macaroons, a misbehaving sausage and, oh yes, a missing nose!

Johnny O’Hanlon said: “I wrote The Nose because I was attracted by the idea of a ridiculous egotistical man, Simonov, running around his bedroom looking for his nose on the day of an important marriage deal with an equally scheming family called Uppervitch. Simonov cannot wait to marry their beautiful daughter, but Mr & Mrs Uppervitch are hatching a plan to deceive Simonov. The scene is set for the fun to begin…”

Gogol wrote his absurd but brilliant short story as criticism of the way small-minded bureaucrats jockeyed for position within Russian government circles. Titchfield Festival Theatre’s production however is not political, but instead centres on how two families – the Simonovs and Uppervitchs – are prepared to deceive each other to gain popularity and status.

TFT Artistic Director Kevin Fraser said: “We decided to focus on classic productions this month – Gogol is one of the world’s greatest writers who we wanted to feature in the Acorn Theatre here. Johnny O’Hanlon has specially written this play for us and it is great fun. Imagine Monty Python and The Goons meeting Benny Hill….that is the essence of what we promise will be a fun night of laughter and comedy.”