Charmed Life is an independent writing and production company in the East of England. We work closely with Bungay’s Fisher Theatre. We create film and theatre and have built a reputation for developing first class new writing. We seek out and support talented writers to develop and produce innovative new performance, focusing on themes of unexplored local, or historical interest – stories as yet untold or not widely performed.
About Charmed Life
Who We Are
Charmed Life is a creative venture for three Bungay women who work together to write and produce original drama and film. Our passion is to create plays and films from the germ of an idea right through to the final curtain call.
We work as a partnership, co-opting people with creative skills and enthusiasm to bring innovative ideas to fruition.
Our core writers and production team leads are Hilary Mason, Diana Cook and Cathy Edwards – Gill – visit our Team page to learn more. Cathy, who is Operations Manager of Bungay’s Fisher Theatre is also one of our lead actors and directors.
Our Team
Hilary Mason
One of the three dreamers behind Charmed Life Productions Hilary is happiest when writing playscripts and stories for adults and children.
For more years than she cares to count, as an education consultant Hilary wrote and produced educational resources and training programmes for global businesses, schools, colleges and charities.
Before becoming a businessperson, Hilary was a teacher working in schools in the UK and overseas in the Sultanate of Oman. During her seven years in Oman, Hilary helped to set up a new school – literally in the desert – co-funded by Omani and American backers. She wrote the school’s curriculum, which was a challenge – but nowhere near as much fun as writing and directing three pantomimes for school staff to perform to the children. A frustrated actor herself, Hil couldn’t resist writing herself into the role of Dopey the dwarf in Snow White, an ugly sister in Cinderella and a snake charmer in Aladdin. These roles are best forgotten.
Hilary’s latest play never-2-late.com goes on tour during June 2026 in venues across Norfolk and Suffolk.
She is currently writing a one-woman performance which brings together the stories of two women, both escapees of persecution, but with 60 years, rough seas and whole continents and cultures between them.
Diana Cook
My late father taught me to love three important things: landscape, language and literature – and vodka that has been kept in the freezer. Charmed Life works on at least two of these.
After more than 20 years as a skills development advisor with the Environment Agency, she has now retired from full time work and focusses her efforts on Holocaust education and writing – there will be a book one day!
Diana works with a charity Generation2Generation and visits schools, and community or civic organisations telling her family’s story of persecution in Nazi Germany, and her mother’s escape to a new life in England. She tells the story to new generations, to help ensure the Holocaust does not drift into oblivion, like so many other stories of prejudice and scapegoating. Diana has put together the little evidence she has, precious clues of lost lives and times, stories and scraps of memories to preserve the story and meet her responsibility for making sure the story is told and re-told.
By telling her family story, particularly to young people, she helps make sure they know about the past and can help challenge those who would prefer the world to forget, at a time when more people than ever before are fleeing war, conflict, drought and persecution.
If you would like Diana to speak to your school or college (or other organisation) contact Generation2Generation
Cathy Gill
Having started out as an illusionist’s assistant, and been fired from a cannon in a circus, Cathy got a degree, did drama training, and has worked in the theatre ever since as an actor, a director and most recently as the Operations Manager at Bungay’s Fisher Theatre. She is also Associate Director of Suffolk-based Open Space Theatre Company.
After years working from London, a professional theatre life which involved a lot of time away on tour, she moved to Suffolk and there began to focus more on working with local professional and community theatre groups, and with children and young adults. She also started up Classic Theatre, which produced acclaimed small-scale productions.
As an actor and director, she has worked on all sorts: great classics, modern plays, adaptations, children’s theatre, large scale tours to fabulous regional theatres, studio and site-specific productions, open air theatre, two-handers and huge community productions. She has directed several new plays.
Cathy’s interest in researching, editing and adapting plays as part of the directing process has led her to dip a toe into writing, including Charmed Life’s eclectic show Behind the Big Blue Doors, and Slyghtly Hystorical. She also rather worryingly has the inkling of an idea for a musical…
What people say
Theatre for Everyone
We write our own plays for performance and also seek out and support talented writers with a tale of their own to tell, with the aim of developing and producing refreshingly different theatre and film.
We are inspired by themes with a local or historical interest. We love unravelling myths and legends. We delve shamelessly into the unexplored lives of the great and the forgotten – and above all we are drawn to stories as yet untold or not widely performed.
In creating these plays we aim to bring creative people together, release untapped potential, and work with others in the community to tell stories in a new way. We tour our public shows to theatres and arts centres both locally and nationally taking with us our unique blend of quirkiness, style and theatrical magic.
There is a kind of alchemy in the creation of fantastic theatre – this is what we love, and with it we hope to be able to dazzle and intrigue audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Why not come and be a part of it!
Diana has taken on an important role in Holocaust education, telling her mother’s story of escape from Nazi Germany. She uses photographs and testimony from her mother’s memoir to engage young audiences through her family history and ensure the voices of the victims and the survivors continue to be heard, especially in these days of Holocaust denial and distortion.
Diana also explores how the echoes of the past resonate today when the mass movements of people displaced from all that is familiar, all over the world, and the importance of tolerance, understanding and human rights.
By telling her family story – of real people with fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who lived, loved, existed, and perished – she looks at how collective sympathy for the plight of refugees can turn to fear and prejudice in no time at all.
Diana works with a Holocaust charity, Generation2Generation, and visits schools (year 9 and above) and adult civic or community organisations in person (or online if required). There’s no charge, but contributions towards expenses are always appreciated. Her presentation normally takes around 35 minutes to fit in with lesson timings and she can be flexible for other venues. There is also a set of learning resources available to support teachers.
Testimonials:
I think that I will always remember Margot’s story, and from it I have learned more about the struggles of individual people in the Holocaust. It was very emotional to hear Margot’s story so close to first hand, and I have only ever read about people experiences of the Holocaust, and this has helped me to understand it more. I think that it is important that people get a chance to experience this, as it is a very powerful story that should be shared.
(a High School in Edinburgh)
Thanks so much – the speakers were superb and the testimony they gave was really impactful. The students were overheard by multiple members of staff saying this too.
Our role-play actors put the pizzazz into training programmes. Using our experienced actors to simulate real-life work scenarios means that your trainees can practise new skills in a safe, controlled environment. You tell us the skills you want your staff to practise, and we’ll write and deliver a bespoke programme.
Presentation Skills – a world away from PowerPoint
We are allergic to PowerPoint screens packed with text. Our presentation skills workshops focus on how best to interact with the people in the room through narrative, visual stimulation and – above all – enjoyment.
Who stole the jargon?
We did!
We can rewrite your company literature to remove the corporate jargon which so often sets people’s teeth on edge. We’re skilled in the use of plain English to create clear communications. This may make us rather sad old gits, but we also offer a service called punctuation for the terminally confused.
Looking to get noticed on all the right platforms? Promotional films
You give us the brief, and we can turn your vision into the finished product – script writing, editing and postproduction.
Do you have a story itching to be told, an idea that’s ripe for development or a script looking for an audience? The Charmed Life team would love to lend a hand. We provide script editing, directing and marketing services as well as support with casting, stage management and set design and realisation.
David Fisher, illustrious actor-manager of the original Fisher Theatre has returned! He has plans to stage a glittering production of Hamlet and has called upon the greatest actors of all time to take part. Alarmingly, none of them turn up.
Instead, he is presented with a weird and wonderful array of characters from history – including a large black dog – who have all left their mark on Bungay. Just as all hopes of putting on any kind of show, least of all Hamlet, are fading fast, Fisher’s young assistant hatches a plot of her own that could just save the day…
Where Care Counts – All Hallows Healthcare Trust
We’re delighted to be able to show you our latest project – a short promotional film for local healthcare trust.
Hey Jig-a-Jig!…let the fool dance
‘Hey Jig-a-Jig!’ is the story of Will Kempe and his extraordinary nine-day dance from London to Norwich in 1599. It’s not just a comic retelling of the Kempe story; it also touches on his darker and sadder side. The Nine Day’s Wonder jig to Norwich came as a direct response to his falling out with Shakespeare and Burbage at the Globe, where Kempe had been the lead comic turn for some years. His constant grandstanding and straying from the script infuriated the other shareholders, and Kempe left, under a very dark cloud. The madcap dance to Norwich was Kempe’s way of restoring his reputation – he was immensely popular and was followed by delighted crowds along the way – and it is that feat that has secured his name in history.
Hey Jig-a-Jig! opened at the Fisher Theatre and then toured various venues in Norfolk and Suffolk during June 2014.
Behind the Big Blue Doors
When a teenage boy breaks into the theatre to retrieve his mobile phone he gets more than he bargained for… he awakens the spirit of David Fisher, the theatre entrepreneur who built 13 theatres in East Anglia in the 19th century. The audience is taken on a fast, furious and hilarious journey through the life and times of Bungay’s Fisher Theatre, from the opening night in 1828 right up to the present day.
Now the only remaining example of a thriving Fisher Theatre and restored to its former glory, the building has variously been a corn hall, a cinema, a skating rink and a textile warehouse. Behind the Big Blue Doors was a celebration of the Fisher and in two sell out nights raised £2,500 to help keep the theatre alive and kicking.
Otherwise Engaged
Written and performed in collaboration with Cambridge-based women’s theatre group the Freudian Slips.
Otherwise Engaged is a hilarious and poignant exploration of women’s often thwarted creativity. During the performance the audience weaves a giant woollen web which forms the backdrop to the show. The action includes singing, dancing, hilarious sketches, poetry and life-sized puppets. In the final scene the cast creates three art installations depicting the life of women in our times, which include everything – including the kitchen sink!
The Town of Total Darkness
Commissioned by the energy company E.ON, ‘The Town of Total Darkness’ is a cautionary tale for 7–11-year-olds about mankind’s over-reliance on fossil fuels. The 30-minute play is told as a ‘who dunnit’ where Sherlock Holmes meets Dr.Who and his faithful dog K9, and together they solve the mystery of why a town has suddenly been plunged into total darkness. The play toured UK primary schools for two terms and went on to win the IVCA award for the best environmental drama for education.
Captain Greenbeard and Briny Surfrider
Captain Greenbeard, Briny Surfrider and the crew of the Flying Porpoise are preparing for their next voyage to Antarctica. Their mission is to protect the planet from environmental disaster. They must stop Poll Ooshun and her crew from depleting the sea of krill and turning them into fast food krill burgers. If Poll can claim the waters of Deception Island before Greenbeard stops her by serving a Notice to Protect the Seas, she will cause environmental havoc. A chase across the southern seas ensues before Poll recklessly collides with a giant iceberg.
The play is written in free verse form and also includes passages of structured verse.
Brand new and original drama – never-2-late.com Touring venues in Norfolk and Suffolk during
Contact Charmed Life
Do you have a fantastic idea, or are you an actor, stage manager, prop or costume maker or a set designer? Maybe you’re just interested in finding out more about our work? We are always keen to welcome and work with new people. Call us for a chat.
