2002 productions

16–18 May 2002

Death of a Salesman

By Arthur Miller

Willy Loman, a sixty-year-old travelling salesman, is having trouble because he can't keep his mind on the present. He keeps drifting back and forth between reality and memory, looking for exactly where his life went wrong.

Having been demoted to a commissions salesman, as he was at the beginning of his career, Willy begins to wonder what wrong turn led his life to this dismal existence. Willy always believed that being well liked was the key to success.

Willy had always told his sons that this was the key to success in business and to prepare them, especially his oldest son Biff. Willy pretended to be a successful salesman to win the love and respect of his family.

As the realisation dawns, taking his own life seems to be the only way out for Willy.

10–12 October 2002

Relatively Speaking

By Alan Ayckbourn

Greg and Ginny are in love and planning to be married. Greg finds a strange pair of slippers under the bed and is too besotted to believe they might have been left by another man (which would also explain the bunches of flowers and boxes of sweets filling Ginny’s apartment).

When Ginny goes off for a day in the country – supposedly to visit her parents but actually to break things off with her older married lover, Philip – Greg decides to follow her. Showing up unannounced before Ginny, Greg asks for her hand from the man he thinks is her father, while Philip mistakenly believes that the strange young man is asking permission to marry Sheila, Philip’s exceedingly befuddled wife.

Once Ginny arrives, she convinces Philip to play the role of her father. Meanwhile, Greg still believes that Sheila is Ginny’s mother. The situation is further complicated by a series of hilarious misunderstandings until no one can be sure who’s in love with whom.

23–26 January 2002

Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates

By Paul Reakes

The Crusoe boys, Robinson and Willy, find their hopes of marrying their sweethearts dashed due to their lack of money. Then Robinson is left his uncle's old sea chest with a mysterious treasure map hidden inside.

Off he sails with Willy and their mother, Ma Crusoe, in search of Captain Flint's treasure. Unbeknownst to them the evil pirate Blackbeard and his daft sidekick Patch intend to steal the map. They all end up on a deserted island both sides trying to get their hands on the treasure, throw in a tribe of blood thirsty savages lead by the scary witchdoctor and a swashbuckling female pirate and it's spills and chills, laughter and fun all the way.