Final Score & Is Anything Broken?

This time last year we were in the throes of getting Country Life up and running for the Camden Fringe. Well, here we go again, and this time P-P is back with a double bill. First up is Final Score  by Lisa Fulthorpe. Lisa, you may remember, had a big smash with Love and Other Gamesa at the Etcetera and this is the followup. Directed by Emma Blundell, it's about "friendship, parenthood and football collide in this darkly comic drama about failed ambition".

"Meet Keith and Christie – they’ve got it made: their son’s the rising star of the Premiership League. Meet their life-long friends, Eddy and Samantha: their son excels at nicking donuts and smoking dope.

With the kids out on the lash together, celebrating their joint sixteenth birthday, the parents throw a party of their own. But as the drinks flow, friendships fracture, leading to enmity, betrayal and disaster".

It's at the Tristan Bates Theatre from Monday 30th July to Saturday 4th August. (Mon to Wed 7.30pm, Thurs to Fri 9pm, Sat mat 5pm)

Tickets are £8. However, if you'd like to see 'Is Anything Broken?', as well on the same night, also produced by Player-Playwrights, at the same time, it will only cost you £14; only available through the box office on 020 7240 6283 or in person)

The second play, 'Is anything Broken?' is by Dan Davis and is adapted from his BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play. The stage version is directed by Maja Milatovic-Ovadia, and runs on the same dates, (Mon-Wed 9pm, Thu-Sat 7.30pm, Sat mat3.30pm)

This is a real-time comedy drama about the stress of modern life. "Ambitious architect Patrick is about to catch a flight to present a career defining project when his son has an accident at school. Go to him, or get on the plane? This thrilling satire explores the new 10th circle of hell, where the super connected are forced by instant communications to make crucial life-changing decisions at light speed.

How far do you go to get the job done?"

Tickets £8 (book to see 'Final Score', also produced by Player-Playwrights, at the same time and see both for £14, only available at Tristan Bates box office)

Book: 020 7240 6238 or tristanbatestheatre.co.uk

The Actors Centre, 1A Tower St, Covent Garden, WC2H 9NP

UPDATE: Both got fantastic reviews. Here's one, and here's another.

Go West, Young Man

A message comes through from our Presidents:

"Today we were reunited with Don West. We hadn't seen him in twenty years and thought that if we don't hurry along to see him (he is 93) then we probably won't ever see him again. After all, it was Don who approached a very young Laurence and Maurice and said, "I really think you two should try writing together." Prophetic words.

I attach a photograph taken this afternoon, some 38 years after we met Don on our first visit to Player Playwrights. We have all grown older and wiser, and we are all still writing. Don has just completed a new play that we said we would discuss having put on at P-P".

Peter Thompson continues:

Don West joined Player-Playwrights in 1948 and has been writing stage plays ever since. He was the man who, in 1974, persuaded new boys Laurence and Maurice to try their hand at sit-com and told them how to do it. Yesterday they called on him in his country retreat to say thank you and to see if he needed help changing a ribbon on his typewriter. All three went down to the pub, as one does, and reminisced. Those who don't remember Don's early years as chairman and 18 years as secretary may need reminding that, of all our members past and present, he has had the most stage plays published and produced [starting with a P-P production of THIS PASSING NIGHT in 1954] and has won the most prizes and awards. His thrillers, such as VACANT POSSESSION, NO EXIT, THE LAST TEA BREAK and DON'T CALL FIONA are still to be seen on the Am Dram circuit.

We'll see if we can't arrange a reading of your latest play next term, Don: so don't stop writing!

A Father's Love

July 9th brings us the final piece of the term, a sixty minute stage play by Michael Mills with the above title. As Michael asks:

"What is a father's love ? Why and when does it live and die ? A stranger comes and forces a father and son to confront these issues".

Come along to the Phoenix on Monday at 7.45 to see how things work out.

And just because it's the end of the term, doesn't mean that you can all go off the Faliraki until September, as there are three P-P productions at the Camden Fringe in August. More news to follow...

Jesus in the Bran Flakes

Another Monday and another P-P debut. This time, July 2nd, it's the turn of Gordon Crawford, whose 45 minute radio play gets a reading. As Gordon describes it: "When a parishioner has sightings of Jesus in her breakfast cereal, how will a cynical priest, a go-ahead archdeacon and a retiring bishop react?"

It's easy to do. I spent five minutes glued to the pic on the left, and have already noticed The Dalai Lama, Doris Stokes and Che all glaring back at me. See if the trio of Bible-bashers take a similar line on Monday at 7.45.

Going for Gold

Monday 25th June is competition time, and, ever-tuned to the zeitgeist, the theme this term is Olympian in scope. At least six sketches are on the cards, none longer than ten minutes. Who wins? You decide. Fun starts at 7.45.

Running Out of Time

Monday June 18th brings the welcome return of P-P veteran Denise O'Leary, fresh from her stage triumph with Pandora's Boxes. This time it's a 60 minute radio play entitled Running Out of Time "about love and loss written to a secret formula.  To find out what that formula is, please come along!"

 

That's what Denise says it is. Find out on Monday at 7.45 to see if she's right.

Amanda Whittington Speaks!

June 11th and a double bill. First up is our guest speaker,. Amanda Whittington. Amanda will be talking to chairman John Morrison about her plays, about her successful career in regional theatre, and about her work as chair of the Theatre Committee of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain ( for more see this. She's best known as the author of the phenomenally successful Be My Baby, about a group of pregnant girls preparing to give their babies up for adoption in a Church of England hostel in 1964. Like her other plays, including Ladies Day and Ladies Down Under, this one has wonderfully realised female characters and dialogue so sharp it leaves our chairman, for one, "feeling madly jealous". Nick Hern Books licensed an incredible 72 amateur productions of her plays in 2011. How does she do it? Come along on Monday and find out.


Then it's a reading of the new radio sitcom by Dylan Davies and Tim Gambrell entitled Me and My Mum Against the World. I read the very first draft, when it was solely Mr. Davies' responsibility. I shall be intrigued to see what the Great Gambo has added to it. I shall be there. Shall you?