OPERATION NEW LIFE (50 minute stage play) by KATY DARBY      MARCH 2006

OPERATION NEW LIFE was written by Katy Darby in January this year in response to an offer by the First Draft Company to cast, direct and produce a play written inspired by a recent item of news and to do it all in six weeks!  The play starts on a University campus where students are relaxing with a few drinks and playing TRUTH, DARE and PROMISE.  They each have to reveal a secret and the sexy girl tells of her adventure at midnight on the White Horse of Uffington.  No one can beat that but the quiet lad in the corner is goaded into saying that he burnt his parents' house down when he was 12.  The game breaks up in embarrassment at this obvious lie but the sexy girl wants more (and gets it).  Her best friend is worried about the relationship which develops and does research into back news items and finds a report of such an incident (the report which inspired Katy to write the play).  We in the audience see it in flash back, including what happened to the boy's brother and little sister.  The friend tries to warn the girl but she won't listen so the friend contacts a reporter who comes running round eager to scoop the story that the young murderer whose name and identity were changed is once more mixing freely with society.  And then something happens (not telling you what) to make the friend back down on the story.  It was brilliantly done in a performance at the Hen and Chickens and a packed audience gave longer and louder applause than than this reviewer has heard for a new play for many, many years.   More about the author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS IS FUN (70 min stage play) by  ANGELA STREET      APRIL 2006

THIS IS FUN is the slightly ironic title of Angela Street's six-hander about speed dating in East Anglia.  There are three flawed men and three obsessive women.  Two of the women are mother and daughter and the third has a dark past and a passion for line-dancing (very funny, that bit).  The men are all sexually inadequate, in different ways, and speed dating in the slow lane constantly puts them together with the same hapless women.  This is a fast-moving play for today, with six good parts and no great demands on the producer: it can be performed on an empty stage and our Player-Playwrights critics gave it a high mark.  If you would like to know more contact the author on angelastreet@postmaster.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISS McCRINDLE'S CASE BOOK (radio sitcom: episode one) by PETER VINCENT and DICK VOSBURGH     MAY 2006

MISS McCRINDLE'S CASE BOOK had a warm reception at Player-Playwrights.  It could hardly fail with a line-up which included Sheila Steafel and those golden oldie comedy-writers Peter Vincent, who played the Lord of the Manor, and Dick Vosburgh who played the American visitor and also the English butler.  The situation is pre-War Agatha Christie and the local aristrocrats are trying to make ends meet by offering niggardly hospitality to gullible paying guests, who include a succession of scheming foreigners some of whom end up dead.  This gives an opportunity for Miss McCrindle, the governess, to start her Casebook by solving the crimes ahead of the local constabulary (not a problem) and most of the audience.  We were treated to episode 1 which  had a brilliant plot, extravagant sound effects and much referential humour, which we all enjoyed.  Seemingly the appetite for this kind of comedy-thriller never tires, so Good Luck to the authors, Peter Vincent and Dick Vosburgh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAND OF THE BLIND (30 min  IT sit-com) by  BEDE BLAKE      JULY 2006

LAND OF THE BLIND is a highly unusual sit-com idea by Last Laugh winner Bede Blake.  It over-ran its 30 minute slot by 20 minutes but we enjoyed it so much we forgave him.  The premise is Triffidian in concept: the world (our bit of it at least) has been taken over by intelligent plant life and government is effectively in the hands of a single family.  So us humans have to come to terms with the new order and it is not easy since the plants have all the best jobs.  But there are vacancies in [plant] childcare which is where our hero obtains employment.  Can't wait for the next episode. If you would like to know more contact the author on bede@b-di.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CANDY(60 min  episode in TV series) by  STEPHEN LAVERS and FRANCES LYNN      SEPTEMBER 2006

CANDY  received the highest mark in a month of very good quality scripts.  We had a reading of episode 2 in what is proposed to be a TV series.  The eponymous Candy is a sweet-faced youth with echoes of Volatire's Candide.  He is brought up in a hippie commune and is released into the world in the early 70s with expectations of love and peace.  He has skill as a photographer and is soon caught up in the Punk scene travelling with a nihilistic group of non-musicians who have a recording contract to make their first album F*** YOUR MUM.  Candy has the purest love for two young women, one of whom may be his sister, although it does him little good.  But his photographic skills are already propelling him into the next circle of Hell: the world of fashion.  Yes this is a spirited reprise of the 70s and 80s for the benefit of those who were around but missed what was going on.  Learn more by contacting the authors at  stephen.lavers@dial.pipex.com; and franceslynn@mac.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS BLOODY RIVER (80 minute stage play) by  MARK CRUMPLER     NOVEMBER 2006

THIS BLOODY RIVER  is the Thames.  Mark Crumpler's play focuses on a stretch of riverside popular with courting couples and suitable for family picnics.  In the opening scene a young man keeps a date with his Indian girlfrield and they reluctantly end their relationship rather than face the hostility of their families.  The time is the 50s.  The rest of the play is set in the present, as two families settle down for a Sunday afternoon picnic on opposite sides of the stage.  On the one hand there is an Indian woman doctor and her very sophisticated schoolgirl daughter.   On the other is a grumpy old Brit, whom we realise was once the young man in scene 1, and his family, down to a grandson who is only a little older the Indian daughter.  Granddad embarrasses his family with his sub-racist jokes; and awkwardness develops as the Brits find they haven't any salt, they forgot the plates etc and they have reluctantly to accept help from the Indians who are very well equipped and rise above the indignities of granddad's language.  There are tensions within each of the families, brought to a head when the young couple go off in kayaks and nearly drown.  But at the same time the two families are moving closer together.  The doctor diagnoses grand-dad's illness and he, bless him, experiences an epiphany when the rescued girl comes on in a saree and he thinks she is his girlfriend of 50 years ago.  So all are saved at the last: a heart-warming story.    Find out more from the author at m.crumpler@virgin.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CALL (45 minute stage play) by KATY DARBY      JANUARY 2007

HOUSE CALL is a one-set, one Act, play by Katy Darby.  The scene is a poorly furnished flat where a middle aged woman lives on her own.  She has come home from the office where she works as a receptionist and an insurance salesman calls, first on the telephone then at the door.  He is keen to make a sale - it is the last call of an unsuccessful day - and she seems very ready to buy.  But she does ask a lot of questions.  And she brings out some wine she was given for Christmas; and they drink.  Surely she doesn't aim to seduce him!?  Well, No, she has an altogether nobler plan; but I mustn't reveal the McGuffin.     More about the author.