Jeremy Howe & Absent Father & Last Man Standing

Monday 30th January brings us a triple bill, with the main event being a talk by the BBC's Commisioning Editor of Drama, Radio Four, Jeremy Howe.

So get your questions ready: who do I send my radio play to? Do you listen to cds people have made of their own scripts, because you're so bored of reading them? When are you going to bring back Listen with Mother?

That kind of thing.

Then, to supplement the evening, come a brace of fifteen minute radio playlets by the two Marks, messrs. Lindow and Brown. Maybe he'll stick around to give them a listen.

Is Anything Broken?

Monday January 23rd brings us a writer new to us, Dan Davies, but he isn't new to the real world. Indeed, a version of Is Anything Broken? is getting a hearing on Radio Four in the spring. So here's our chance to see the stage version. It's a comedy-drama, set in real time that uses momentum and the stuff of real life to build into a thrilling, pitch-black satire.

Here's the outline:

"Patrick, an architect catching a flight to give a major pitch, is settling down to enjoy a few moments of luxury in the executive lounge when he finds out his son has had an accident at school, a thread that will cause his tightly-stretched life to unravel, at a really inconvenient time.

Patrick and deputy architect Oriane now need every second their plane has been delayed to re-organise his over-complicated work and home life; juggling multiple simultaneous phone calls, the arranging of childcare, marital breakdown, call centre delays, emergency emails, overlapping commitments, and the jealousies and petty power plays between them - they enter a nexus of mind-bending stress. A hadron collider of obligation and commitment requiring ever faster decisions; the 10th circle of hell newly opened for the super-connected of the 21st century.

"Is Anything Broken" is about the fabric of our lives and the sacrifices our jobs demand, often so quickly we barely notice until it is too late. As such, it’s also a dramatic examination of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s suggestion that “action is character”.


Monday, 7.45 at the Phoenix.

Competition Play-Off

Early January means only one thing to the P-P cognoscenti: The Play-Offs. We have three competitions a year, and the top two go through to the finals. Form means nothing now, it's winner take all, men from boys, sheep from goats. Last year I won one of the term comps and came last in the final, so I should know. It's all up for grabs. Game on.

The difference this time is that the pieces are a bit more rehearsed ( or could be, if some of the original casts are being used ) and anoynymity has been abandoned. We know who you are.

Monday 16th January. Fun starts at 7.45.

Celebrity News

Some of you will have received the Celebrity Newsletter for the last year in your inboxes. Some of you won't, in which case, here it is, detailing the joys of the Christmas party, 2011's award-winners, and some of our more recent successes, as compiled by our chairman John Morrison.

Last Orders Please & The Lady from the Esplanade

Yes, we're back! Monday January 9th at 7.45 in the usual place. In 2010 Peter McKelvey won the best comedy award. In 2011 he won the best play award. Can he complete a hat-trick in 2012 with this double bill of short stage plays? Come along to the Phoenix to find out.

Winter Programme

It's up, in the usual space. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that some spaces haven't been filled. That's because they're still available, so if you have a piece ready to go, get in touch with the new Programme Secretary Mark Lindow.