top of page

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NERJA PLAYERS


We started life in 1988 as the Onda Players whose chief objective was to prepare and present plays for the English speaking service of Nerja’s local radio station, Radio Onda (now Radio Sol Almijara or RSA). The first official meeting took place on 13th January 1988 with the initial production, ‘Sorry Wrong Number’, being broadcast shortly afterwards on 30th January. When Radio Onda was forced off the air for a year the Players rapidly discovered that they were quite capable of amusing themselves with rehearsed play readings, evenings of ‘Call My Bluff’ or ‘Give Us a Clue’ and other activities associated with the theatre. During this time membership actually doubled and the group voted to become simply ‘The Nerja Players’, not tied exclusively to the radio station.

​

Early meetings were held in local bars or at members’ homes before moving to the International Club in Calle San Juan and, in 2004, to the premises of the Nerja Bridge Club in Avenida Castilla Perez 1.  A succession of talented directors, including Bob Harris and Geoff Higginbotham, expanded the group’s repertoire to include performances in local hotels in addition to the regular radio plays.  

 

Our first production, at the then recently opened Casa de Cultural, was ‘Under Milk Wood’ in Spring 1999, directed by the multi-talented Bryn Davis and this was soon followed by regular Christmas shows and musicals, notably ‘An Evening with Cole Porter’ in March 2007, so successful that it was reprised in February 2008.  That year also saw the first ‘straight drama’, an evening of Alan Bennett plays including ‘An Englishman Abroad’ and two playlets from his ‘Talking Heads’ series. Since then our public productions at the cultural centre have included:

 

  • A Christmas Carol  

  • Blithe Spirit 

  • The Players’ Christmas House Party 

  • Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat (Frank Loesser tribute) 

  • Poetry of War - Homage to Remembrance 

  • Maria Marten, or Murder in the Red Barn 

  • Some Enchanted Evening (Rodgers & Hammerstein tribute) 

  • Poetry of War (expanded version - centenary of outbreak of WW1) 

bottom of page