IT WILL mark 500 years since one of Amersham’s most harrowing events, but it will also commemorate a more welcome milestone for the show’s director.

For the inspiration behind the Amersham Martyrs Community Play, Stan Pretty MBE, is working on his third production since the original sell-out a decade ago. And, building on his previous two successes in 2001 and 2004, Mr Pretty is excited to welcome back a few familiar faces to his popular performance.

One, in particular, Holly Newson played a teenager in the second production but has now made the transition to one of the lead roles as a young woman.

“From a cast point of view I get enormous satisfaction,” said the Australian-born director, who settled in the Amersham area about 30 years ago.

“I have got some people I haven’t had before, which is really exciting, but I have some people who have had the experience of the last two productions and also people who have been in all three.

“They were just children at the very beginning.”

The long-standing play tells the shocking story of how seven people from Amersham were burnt at the stake for being Lollards - people who had heretical beliefs about the bible. They were followers of John Wycliffe and believed that people had the right to interpret the bible in their own way – which meant praying and reading the bible in English rather than in Latin – a terrible crime in those days.

And making this year’s production even more special is the fact that it marks the 500th anniversary of the first martyrdom – when William Tylesworth was executed in 1511.

Yet, despite the tragic nature of the tale, Mr Pretty is still confident that the audience is likely to forget the show’s heavy theme when they step foot into St Mary’s Church, in Old Amersham.

For the scene of the performance will have undergone a remarkable transformation to recreate Amersham - then known as Hamersham – as it was in the Late Middle Ages.

“When the audience arrive they are steeping into 1511 - the cast will ignore them and, if you listen to them talking, you will hear that their have their own personas,” explained Mr Pretty, who is a keen Shakespearean actor himself.

“They all know what they are doing – they are chatting and gossiping with each other.

What’s more, Mr Pretty explained that the lively nature of much of the show will take the audience’s mind off the impending tragedy at the show’s finale.

“There is singing and dancing and games,” he added. “It seems like a grim subject but the evening is really quite light-hearted.

“There is quite a lot of comedy which heightens the last drama - it’s not all doom and gloom.”

The show – which lasts about 90 minutes without an interval – is split into four scenes.

The play runs from March 17 to 19, and March 24 to 26 and will be staged in different parts of the church in Church Street. Provisions will be made for wheelchair users. Doors open 7.45pm.The show starts at 8pm. Tickets, priced £10, can be bought from Terry's Newsagents, Sycamore Road, Amersham, by calling 01494721103, or via the website, www.amershammartyrs.info