Framlingham Amateur Dramatic Society is one of the oldest amateur theatre groups in this part of the country. According to Sidney Gray, whose book 'Drama in a Small Town' charting the history of the society from its beginnings, it had its first production on the 22nd and 23rd January 1878. In the early days the productions where mainly musicals & plays, but the organisational difficulties, not to mention the costs, put a stop to that in the 1970s.

In recent times we have put on two productions every year, unless for some very pressing reason, one of them had to be cancelled ('A Death in the Society' for example). More often than not the productions are comedies, although from time to time more serious plays are staged.

In the early days we used to use the Assembly Rooms behind the Conservative Club as our stage.

Unfortunately the County's Health 'n' Safety Officials put a stop to that in the early 1990s. 

There were then a dozen or so performances in the St Michael's Rooms and since 2006 the venue has been the recently refurbished Headmaster Porter Theatre at Framlingham College.

During the 1970s and 1980s most of our productions were directed by Philip Barker, a man with great experience of putting on comedies. He used to direct (among other programmes) Hancock's Half Hour on the radio. Since his death there has been a succession of directors, with only one (Liz Lines) doing more than three or four plays. 

Up until about four years ago our sets were built by various members of the society, but recently we have been lucky enough to find living in Framlingham a former professional stage-designer and builder, and so - if nothing else - at least the scenery has been first class!