This year marks fifty years of uninterrupted twice yearly productions from Chandler’s Ford Methodist Drama Group the MDG Players, Since they first put on Christmas Rose by R. Wilfred Massey in 1963, the group have won a host of Curtain Call awards.

In May, the group will be holding a dinner to celebrate half a century and are expecting around 70 members and their families.

But, the celebrations start with a world premiere this week. Love, Loss and Latte is a new play written by Sarah Sullivan, a member of the group.

The gentle comedy is the story of the changing lives and loves of a small village community over a year.

The play runs until Saturday at the Methodist Church Hall in Chandlers Ford.

Tickets can be reserved by calling 023 8025 3922.

n A DOUBLE bill of two contrasting plays from The Maskers Theatre gets under way tonight.

Joan of Arc, condemned to burn at the stake, is denied a rosary, cross or any form of service in Forward to the Right. But the guard becomes sympathetic and arranges for her to receive the last rites.

The sales company Emma toils for has accorded itself the right to dictate the terms by which coworkers can conduct inter-personal relations in Contractions. It is described as a chilling black comedy at times grotesque and appalling, taking a plausible premise to a lethal conclusion.

Both plays can be seen at the Maskers Studio in Shirley until Wednesday.

Call 023 8055 1489.

n CCADS make their Ferneham Hall debut with one of the first local stagings of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind.

Based on the much-loved book and the 1960s film that starred Hayley Mills and Alan Bates, Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s musical is an extraordinary, uplifting tale of the transforming power of love and was a smash hit success in London’s West End from 1998.

It features a powerful score that includes the title song and the charttopping hit No Matter What, still the biggest-selling chart hit ever to be taken from a musical.

In America’s Deep South, a 15- year-old girl discovers a mysterious man hiding out in a barn; when she asks his identity and he utters the words ‘Jesus Christ’ it is as though her prayers have been answered.

She and the other children of the town vow to protect him from the outside world; meanwhile, the adult townsfolk are determined to catch a fugitive.

Whistle Down The Wind runs from Thursday to Saturday.

Tickets: 01329 231942.

n IT’S an extra special week for one of the cast of Fareham Musical Society’s Summer Holiday.

Alison Dea, a lifelong Cliff Richard fan who has attended more than 100 of his concerts, wrote to her hero telling him all about the show – and received a handwritten good luck message for the show’s programme.

A rocking’n’rolling musical treat from the award-winning Fareham Musical Society. Based on the classic sixties film that starred Cliff Richard, Una Stubbs and The Shadows, take a trip on the hippest double-decker ever, with songs including Bachelor Boy, In The Country, Move It, The Young Ones, On The Beach and of course Summer Holiday.

Box office: 01329 231942.

n A group of ordinary women, members of a very ordinary Yorkshire WI, spark a global phenomenon by persuading one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference! As interest snowballs, the Calendar Girls find themselves revealing more than they’d ever planned...

Lee Players present Calendar Girls at Croft Hall Theatre in Stubbington until tomorrow.

Call 01329 662128.