The Dames

Donna Ward, Director of Financial Aid, retired.

Thursdays, 2 – 4 p.m., February 8, 15, 22, 29. In person. Bohm Theater. Class size 80.

There is Nothing Like a Dame, unless its TWO Dames – Maggie Smith and Judi Dench – treasures of stage and screen. Both have spent decades as actors on stage, in movies, and on television.

We will talk about their careers and then view four films: Ladies in Lavender (2004) starring Dame Maggie and Dame Judi as two sisters whose lives change when they discover an injured young foreigner washed ashore near their coastal home in pre-war England; Iris (2001) starring Dame Judi and Jim Broadbent, a powerful true story of celebrated English author Iris Murdoch; The Lady in the Van (2015) starring Dame Maggie in a “mostly true story” about Miss Shepherd who parks her van in playwright Alan Bennett’s London driveway and proceeds to live there for 15 years; Tea with the Dames (2018) a documentary with Dames Maggie and Judi, plus Dame Eileen Atkins and Dame Joan Plowright, four legends of stage and screen who get together for a weekend in the country. They share their “candid, delightfully irreverent thoughts on everything from art to aging to love to a life lived in the spotlight.”

There is a $10 charge to help cover the cost of the theatre rental.