2008 productions

15–17 May 2008

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

By Peter Nicholls

A poignant comedy and biting social satire, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg walks a tightrope between humour and heartbreak.

A couple are struggling to cope with caring for their disabled child. Brian is a harassed teacher who works at an unruly British comprehensive and is defiantly unsentimental about their situation. Sheila on the other hand is a resilient mother who desperately clings to the hope that one day her daughter will overcome her medical condition.

Finding it easier to confide in the audience than each other, they replay key episodes in their life story like practiced marital rituals.

Nothing is off limits for Brian’s mockery including his doting, decent wife who plays along to keep her husband happy. But as they are pushed to the limits of emotional trauma, it becomes a self-defeating means of deflecting the heart-ache within.

16–18 October 2008

Absurd Person Singular

By Alan Ayckbourn

This witty comedy focuses on three couples over three Christmas Eve’s over three years.

In the first act we see the lower, but up and coming, class Hopcrofts in their nice, gadget filled kitchen, anxiously giving a little christmas party to their bank manager and his wife, and also an architect neighbour. In the second act, we see the architect and his wife in their neglected, untidy apartment as their fortunes shift from the year before.

In the last act, we see the bank manager and his wife, in their large, slightly modernised, old victorian style kitchen.

Running through the comedy of the behind the scenes disasters at Christmas parties is the story of the climb of the Hopcrofts to material prosperity and independence, and the decline of the others. In the final stages of the play everyone realises that they now look up to the man they once looked down on.

23–26 January 2008

Little Red Riding Hood

By Paul Reakes

In the land of Pantovia, trouble is brewing. The country has been brought to near ruin by the foppish Count De Cash. Despite all this, the Rumple family and their neighbours do their best to celebrate young Rosie’s birthday, even if she is dreading her grandmother's inevitable present of a red riding hood!

When the Count's efforts to romance the young Rosie with lavish gifts fail to win her heart he tries to kidnap her and take her to his palace. She is rescued by a mysterious young man and his faithful manservant and it is love at first sight. Little does she know that he is in fact Prince Rupert, the rightful ruler of the land.

The young lovers are soon parted as more mishaps befall the Rumples, a fierce Werewolf now roams the woods.

When Rosie realises the Werewolf is in the woods where her granny lives she sets off to save her. But this granny isn't the frail old woman she seems to be! Can Rosie save her grandma? Only Rupert’s valet knows the beast is really Rupert, changed by the full moon, and must try to save him from the vigilante villagers and the Count’s silver bullet.