MORE than 40 women will take to the stage in Areley Kings tomorrow to prove there is more to Women's Institutes than jam and Jerusalem.

Performers from 12 WIs in Worcestershire will take part in a drama festival which continues on Saturday at Areley Kings Village Hall.

The event, organised by the Worcestershire Federation of Women's Institutes, will include plays, monologues, poetry recitals, choral speaking and prose reading from Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

Verses include Gus: the Theatre Cat by T S Eliot, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf by Roald Dahl and The Hero by Siegfried Sassoon.

There will be plays such as Let's Do Variety by Blakedown WI and Red Hot Cinders by Richard Tydeman, which members of Hallow WI will perform.

Women from Astley, Hallow and Beoley WIs will be hoping to impress the judge and entertain the audience with their raps and there will be monologues read by members of Wolverley and Areley Kings branches.

Shirley Fieldhouse, of Astley WI, who is a member of the WFWI performing arts committee, said everyone was looking forward to the festival and added there would be a something to suit all tastes.

She added: "Last time we held the festival we had a lot of plays. This year, it seems to be more people doing their own thing.

"There's quite a lot of poetry, which reflects the feeling nationally that people are getting more interested in poetry. "

Astley WI members will perform Astley Rap, written by Julie Jeacock, which is about all the activities the branch does, as well as several monologues and a play called Spread Sheets and Pillows about women going to a computer class.

Jacqueline Tevlin, a drama tutor at Denman College, will be the adjudicator.

The last event was held at Stourport Civic Hall in 1999 and since then members have taken to the stage at the Rose Theatre and Kidderminster Town Hall.

The festival is open to the public and tickets are available on the door. Friday's entertainment will start at 7pm and on Saturday it starts at 2pm.