Based on a true story, “The Calendar Girls” will be presented in April by the Prime Time Players: SaddleBrooke Onstage.
The play, written by Tim Firth, is based on a fundraising effort when a group of Yorkshire women produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia Research under the auspices of the Women’s Institutes (WI) in April 1999.
It all started with a woman named Angela Baker. When her husband, John, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she and a friend, Tricia Stewart, came up with the idea of a nude calendar to raise funding for research into the disease.
A few years earlier, Tricia had thought it would be really amusing to do an alternative version of the traditional WI calendar, which usually featured pictures of hills, sheep, and village greens. The nude calendar was a joke for all that time, until personally touched by the serious illness of her friend’s husband. Then, raising money for research into blood-related cancers became a serious goal.
John knew about the calendar and thought it was a very amusing idea, but said the ladies would never do it. When John died in July 1998, Tricia was determined to go ahead with the calendar in memory of John. She recruited 11 women between the ages of 45 and 65 to pose for the calendar. There were no difficulties recruiting models because they were all friends of John and Angela’s. The photographs were taken by Terry Logan, a well-known local artist.
The Alternative WI Calendar was launched in April 1999. Tricia’s name and number went out with the press releases, and she was on three phones for weeks. The media coverage was huge. The story was in the national papers every day for three weeks.
The resulting exposure gave the women the opportunity to model at the Savoy during London Fashion Week; they were voted Women of the Year; baked a spotted dick on Thames TV (classic British raisin-studded sponge cake with custard sauce); and took calendars to the palace for the Queen and the Queen Mother. England’s Oldie magazine awarded them “The Oldie Exposure of the Year.”
In 1999, the calendar sold 88,000 copies in the U.K. The calendar proved inspirational and touched people’s hearts. It changed the image of the WI forever, shifted the perception of the older woman, and sold thousands of copies. People admired their courage.
A year later, the calendar was published in America, selling a further 240,000 copies, promoted by two tours of the U.S. In 2001, Tricia’s book Calendar Girl: In Which a Lady of Rylstone Reveals All was published by Pan Macmillan.
The aim had been to raise £5,000 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and to have a calendar dedicated to John’s memory. The effect of the calendar was expected to last three weeks, but 10 years on it had raised £3.5 million for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
In September 2003, the film Calendar Girls, based on the story of the alternative WI calendar, premiered. In the film, Tricia’s character was played by Helen Mirren. June 2003 saw the launch of a second calendar featuring the six actresses from the film and the six original WI members.
The stage version hit the West End on April 4, 2009, at the Noel Coward Theatre, with Anita Dobson playing the role of Chris, the character based upon Tricia. The stage show has played all over the world, including Australia, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Israel, Brazil, and Greece — and continues to pack theaters in the U.K.
To purchase tickets for the SaddleBrooke performance, visit www.primetimeplayers.net. The performances are Tuesday through Sunday, April 5–10, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and curtain at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $24 per person.