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THE
EFFECTS OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS Frowzy, acid-tongued, supporting herself and her two daughters by
taking in a decrepit old boarder, Beatrice Hunsdorfer wreaks a petty
vengeance on everybody about her. One daughter, Ruth, is a pretty
but highly strung girl subject to convulsions; while the younger
daughter, Matilda, plain and almost pathologically shy, has an intuitive
gift for science. Encouraged by her teacher, Tillie undertakes a
gamma ray experiment with marigolds which wins a prize at her high
school - and also brings on the shattering climax of the play. Proud
and yet jealous, too filled with her own hurts to accept her daughter's
success, Beatrice can only maim when she needs to love, and deride
when she wants to praise. Tortured, acerbic, slatternly, she is as
much a victim of her own nature as of the cruel lot which has been
hers. And yet,,as Tillie's experiment proves, something beautiful
and full of promise can emerge from even the most barren, afflicted
soil. This is the timeless lesson of the play, and the root of its
moving power and truth. 84
Charing Cross Road. In 1949 a struggling American writer started a correspondence with
a firm of British antiquarian booksellers that was to last for twenty
years. The warm, compassionate and very human exchange of letters
was published as a book and is here skilfully and lovingly adapted
for the stage. 'An evening of enchantment and charm the like of which
is rarely encountered in the theatre.' What's On in London EH? Set in a factory boiler room, with the main prop the boiler itself,
a great hiccuping, squealing, roaring, glug-glugging behemoth, the
play details the plight of a hardy individualist caught in the overprotective
web of mechanized, computerized and dehumanized modern industry.
In this case the victim is one Valentine Brose, who takes a job pushing
buttons and reading gauges, but whose defiant spirit will not let
him knuckle under to the machine. To the exasperation of the long-suffering
Works Manager, the Freudian-centered lady Personnel Director and
the omnipresent local parsons, Brose comes and goes as he pleases,
confounds them all with his circuitous and unanswerable retorts,
moves his bride into the boiler room with him, and raises enormous
hallucinogenic mushrooms in a crate in the corner. The monkeyshines
never cease, as Carnaby Street-suited Brose forgets to push the right
button at the right time, clambers about the hissing, belching boiler
in desperate attempts to stave off explosive destruction, and turns
a deaf ear to the exhortations and
"mood music" which boom persistently from the plant loudspeaker.
In the end Brose, the free spirit, emerges undaunted and unbowed,
with the disconcerting (to others) discovery that perhaps his vision-producing
giant mushrooms may offer the key to survival in this "better" world
of electronic ease. At least they produce bizarre results - as unpredictable,
wild, funny and refreshingly unrestrained as the play itself. EINSTEIN
AND THE POLAR BEAR The scene is a cluttered farmhouse in rural New England, where Bill
Allenson, a highly regarded but no longer active novelist, has withdrawn
from the world, supporting himself and his ailing father by selling
rare books through the mail. As the play begins a winter storm is
in progress and an attractive young New York commercial artist, Diane
Ashe, appears at the farmhouse door, explaining that her car has
broken down in the blizzard. Although suspicious, Bill gives her
lodging for the night, and as the evening progresses we are aware
that Diane, unlike Bill's neighbors, is both aware of his literary
reputation and determined to gain his concern - which she soon does.
As the two draw closer, with humorous interruptions by several colorful
local characters and the ramblings of Bill's aging father, who had
once encountered Albert Einstein at a lunch counter, Bill's eloquent
but persistent cynicism seems to soften - until he learns that Diane's
presence is not as accidental as she has claimed. As turbulent as
it is sudden, their relationship eventually finds its center, and
Bill is forced to confront the pain and loss and self-doubt which
have made him forsake his talent and the harsh realities of the world
in which it once flourished. ELEEMOSYNARY A sensitive study of three generations of women - the grandmother
Dorthea, who has asserted her independence through strong-willed
eccentricity; her brilliant daughter Artie, who has fled the stifling
domination of her mother; and Artists taught Echo, a sensitive and
intelligent child how has been abandoned by her mother and brought
up by Dorthea. -[he play begins after Dorthea has suffered a
stroke, and while Echo has re-established contact with her mother,
it is only through gentle, evasive telephone conversations focusing
movie on Echo's domination of a national spelling contest. But in
the end, after Dorthea's death, both Arti, and Echo come to accept
their need for each other and summon the courage to try to at last
build a life together, despite the perils brought about by ycars
of alienation and estrangement. The
Elephant Man. The true story of John Merrick, treated first as a fairground freak because of his hideously, repulsively deformed body and later exploited more subtly by Victorian society. He is befriended by a young doctor who provides him with a home in the London Hospital where Merrick is shrewdly used for fund-raising. He is introduced to high society, and is trapped by Victorian values so incongruous to his reality. Even those who love him can't help him and he dies from his horrible affliction. Period 1884-90 ELLIOT
LOVES Elliot has been dating Joanna for the last six weeks when the curtain
rises on his brilliant monologue which in a nutshell captures sex
and love in the 90s. Elliot describes that gap between the sexes
with shape and substance - the gap that people talk over, go to movies
over, drink, go to parties and make love over. That gap is revealed
when Elliot brings Joanna to meet his friends. Joanna, not quite
ready for this, bolts in front of the elevator that is to take them
to this dinner party. The party, dampened, happens anyway and in
the course of it, much is revealed about the relationships of these
four life-long friends. In the middle of all of this, Joanna arrives
and causes a sensation much to Elliot's displeasure. The final scene
in the play is a reconciliation in which Joanna and Elliot move across
the
"gap" to tentatively touch each other with honesty - and with love. ELM
CIRCLE The action begins in Troy, New York, where Janet Ann, a lonely teenager
with a vivid imagination, chafes under the restraints imposed by
her blue-collar family. She dreams of becoming a movie star, and
believes that she is on her way toward achieving her goal when she
persuades her brother, a would-be song writer, to run off with her
to New York City. But her hopes remain elusive and her fantasies
become increasingly bizarre as Janet Ann is drawn into a series of
picaresque but destructive adventures while zig-tagging across the
country in her westward flight. Driven ever deeper inside herself,
her calls to her family become more disoriented and outlandish as
her alarmed parents plead with her to come home before her life is
forfeited to her delusions. But, in the end, it is hopelessness which
prevails - as Janet Ann, in the final, devastating scene of the play,
chooses oblivion to a reality which seems to offer no place for her
to exist happily. Elizabeth
Gordon Quinn (in Scot-Free) : Chris Hannan Elizabeth Gordon Quinn battles to keep her dignity as she is faced with squalor, poverty, rising rent prices and a son who is wanted for desertion from his regiment. You expect that a play set in the Glasgow rent strike of 1915
will be a model of dour social realism, but [the play]
confounds all expectations. The result is both startling and provocative.
Guardian. Elsie
and Norm's "Macbeth". Comedy. John Christopher-Wood Elsie and Norm have decided to have a bit of a bash at culture by
staging a production of Macbeth in their living-room. After
a spot of judicious rewriting by Norm to make it snappier and more
punchy, and undaunted by the large cast, Elsie and Norm set out to
act 'one of the greatest pieces of literature what has ever been
wrote in the English language', playing all the characters between
them. The hilarious results set Shakespeare spinning in his grave! End of Me Old Cigar. John Osborne. Copies available on hire only. Please contact Samuel French Ltd for further details. Elton
John's Glasses. Play. David Farr Bill is a fanatical supporter of Watford FC. Day after day he sits in his unfurnished flat, watching the 1984 Cup Final with an obsession verging on madness. The video replays the fatal moment when the Watford goalkeeper fumbles the ball and Everton take a two-nil lead. Bill blames the goalkeeper's mishap on the glare from Elton John's glasses. Reconciled to an agoraphobic existence, Bill laments the decline of his beloved team: 'It was there the dream died'. EMMA'S
CHILD Jean and Henry Farrell, after years of unsuccessfully attempting
to have a baby of their own, decide to adopt. Emma, the birth mother,
approves of the couple. Now a new waiting game begins: awaiting the
birth of their child. To help Jean through, her best friend Franny
comes for a visit, but brings more baggage than a normal traveller
as she is separating from her husband, Sam. When the time arrives
it is not a happy occasion however, as the baby, Robin, is born hydrocephalic,
and will not live long. It was agreed that Jean and Henry would only
accept a healthy infant, but Jean's investment in the waiting game
was too intense and she falls for this child. The attention she pays
to Robin not only threatens to tear her marriage apart - sending
Henry away on a camping trip with the estranged Sam is a male bonding
scene not to be missed - but causes trouble at the hospital as well:
Jean has no parental rights, even though Emma has disappeared, and
the administrators (despite what the nursing staff have to say) are
wary. Eventually, after making some progress, Robin succumbs to his
condition, leaving Jean and Henry, not only having to repair their
marriage, but right back where they started - interviewing a new
birth mother. THE
ENCLAVE A group of congenial friends have restored several adjoining houses
in one of New York's more attractive neighbourhoods, and plan to
move in en masse - setting up a sort of urban commune. However, one
of their number, a confirmed bachelor, has resolved to confront the
others with the fact of his long-concealed homosexuality and to bring
along his young male lover as a permanent addition to the group.
Although his friends have always prided themselves on their tolerance
and open-mindedness they are outraged, and the enclave itself is
put in jeopardy. But as, in the developing crisis, the particular
nature of each other character is exposed and explored, it is evident
that they are not above reproach themselves - and the ultimate lesson
of the play is one of forbearance and understanding and the need
for fairness in judging those whose lifestyle may diverge from the
conventional. |