Bournemouth visit: (performance of Adrian Plass's play The Visit arranged by Leone Beale).

Richmond Hill United Reformed Church in Bournemouth, in the south of England, was packed at the end of April when a group of local people performed The Visit. The play, by Adrian Plass, describes the shockwaves in the church of St Thomas the Doubter when Christ comes to visit.

The staging of this production for Bournemouth was the idea of Frank Beale, a former mayor, and his wife Leone. When Frank died in January this year, Leone decided to carry on with the project. `We've done it in Frank's memory, remembering his life and his vision of the part each of us has as a citizen,' she says.

Frank Beale was a director of Beales Department Stores, founded by his grandfather, and also followed family tradition in his civic work. Both his father and his grandfather were mayors before him. He was known in the town as `Mr Bournemouth'.

Leone also followed family tradition in her profession. Brought up in a family of Bournemouth hotel owners, she became Managing Director of the restaurant of the Westminster Theatre, London. In the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, the theatre was a centre for Christian theatre in London's West End.

They met for the first time when she was 19, lost touch and only got married 47 years later. As a religious person, she considers it to be a miracle as she had come to terms with leading her life by herself. `One has to trust and put oneself into the loving hands of God.'

They spent seven and a half years of `truly happy marriage' together. During that period Leone organized a number of events through their church. `We tried to give what we could to the town and it happened with The Visit.'

Five hundred people turned up on the night. The cast included a vicar and his wife, a councillor and his wife and a funeral director. `We had Catholics, we had Protestants, we just had a cross section of people,' says Leone Beale. `It was a mountain top experience.'

The play found a great response in people's hearts. `People were laughing, people were in tears,' she says. Afterwards the Vicar of St Peter's Church, Bournemouth, said, `That play was a blessing and showed us what our real priorities are.'

`Frank was always an enabler,' says Leone. `He enabled people to do things. He would give money, his time, his friendship, so that other people would benefit. My vision that his death could bring new life has come true through The Visit.'