Time and Love

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran need no introduction. Unless you don't know who they are of course. On Sunday 13th September they have arranged a Player-Playwrights Promotion at the Leicester Square Theatre at 4pm on Sunday 13 September: tickets £20, proceeds to charity.  The event is entitled Living Legends, and for once, that isn't an exaggeration. As Peter Thompson reminds us:

"Maybe half a dozen of us remember them in their early days at P-P winning our internal competitions every term with 5 minute plays like The Early Bath Merchant and the one about the guy who rings the AA because his car won't start and gets through to Alcoholics Anonymous.  They made us laugh then and eventually they made someone at the Beeb laugh and now they are a Living Legend.  But they have not forgotten their humble origins [us, I mean] so I hope some of us can spare the time, and £20, to show that we remember them too".

Then, the very next day, Monday 13th, we have quite a coup, in the form of an exclusive reading at of their newest drama, for a tv series entitled Time and Love.

As Peter T once again summarises:

"The scene is Edinburgh, where feisty young Nicola has moved from London to take a job in the prestigious Exordium Trust [think KPMG].  She has an under-furnished flat and a good singing voice.  We see her getting a warm reception singing Time and Love (Barbara Streisand) at the local pub where we meet her friends Neil and Craig who are poor but honest strivers in the pub entertainment business.  They both fancy her as do many of her co-employees at Exordium Trust.  Sexism runs through this male dominated organisation but Nicola has risen already to being a research analyst and is determined to pass exams and go higher.  The top man, Chester, is not as crass as his senior executive team and he sees something in Nicola he really likes.  Will he get it?  Will she?  Fortunately there is one woman in the senior structure, Juno, who chums up with Nicola over a game of squash.  We hope that she is going to be a genuine ally but you never know: the female of the species.....The story settles down into office manoeuvres which lead Nicola into an opera date with Chester and a working weekend at his rural retreat.  The vast security gates clang behind them as his Bentley glides up the drive.  Can Craig and Neil rescue her in their beat-up old van?  What do you think?  Nicola survives, thank goodness, and Ha Ha, smooth old Chester gets the chop.  Was this engineered by Juno? perhaps we will find out in the next episode".
 

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

and I haven't even mentioned Desert Island Discs...

Well Done, Giles!

P-P's time-keeper and score-keeper Giles Armstrong has chalked up his own record, fifty years working at Foyles.

I remember, many years ago when I has just joined P-P, once phoning Foyles, not knowing he worked there, trying to get hold of a book for my wife. The girl who picked up the phone could not answer my request so called out to someone at the other end of the room for help. Then came a booming reply. It was Giles' voice, quite unmistakeable, authoratitive and assertive. He, of course, knew the answer without even having to look it up.

Hats of to Giles, and here's to the next fifty.

Up Against the Wall, Toy Storey, The Human Letters

Summer's gone but Player-Playwrights is back, and we start the autumn season on 7 September kind of where we left of, with a miscellany of very short plays, with contrasting themes. I say 'where we left off" because the first two almost got a reading in our last night, back in early July, in the Danger competition. Georgina Varley who came sixth with Up Against the Wall, makes her P-P debut with a strong piece in which "Jenny and Timmy are two people whose lives are linked by the loss of their child.  But that is not the only reason she is detained in a mental hospital as Timmy finds out on his final visit."

The play that came seventh, Toy Storey, by Juliana Lisk, then gets an outing: "Mayhem at Crhistmas on the toy and games floor".

Then, to round things up, we get The Human Letters, which wasn't entered in the competition (perahps it wasn't dangerous enough) by our chairman John Morrison, recounting how "a couple of suffragettes behaved with great ingenuity".  If you'd like to know more, read this.

 

7.30 at the North London tavern.

Danger!

Monday July 13th brings us the end of the summer term and we are going out with a bang, in the form of the Competition with the theme of Danger. We had over 250 entries from all across the world, and they came in all shapes and sizes: knowns, unknowns, published writers, people I'd actually heard of, and even one Emmy-award winning Hollywood writer, all in the hunt for the £300 cash prize to the winner, not to mention the fame and fortune that will no doubt transpire. Four of our most august members and I were the panellists, and each script was read by at least two of us. We managed to come up with a short list of 19, from which we picked the five best. These are, in alphabetical order:



Disturbed by Ian Cowell

Fallout by Jonathan Skinner

Ifs and Buts by Corrina O'Beirne

Log-In Error by Adam Hughes

Struck by Isley Lynn

I genuinely have no idea which will win. In any case, it is out of our hands. A combination of audience, actors and script will have some influence I would imagine. I wish I could be there, but unfortunately I shall be in Crete.Anyway, good luck to all, and may the best script win!

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

July 6th

Regrettably Indhu Rubasingham can't give us a talk on 6th July after all.  But as one door closes another opens and we shall be using Monday 6th July for:

1 Casting and auditioning for the five shortlisted plays for our Danger Competition which will be performed and judged on the following Monday (13th July)

2 If time allows, the script in hand performance of a late entry for the Women Behaving Badly competition.
I don't think we've ever done public auditions before. Should be a bit like Britain's Got Talent.

Be there. at 7. Should be an interesting evening.

Let Me Explain

Many years ago I read a book of theology called Let Me Explain. Well if it's good enough for Teillhard de Chardin it is good enough for Peter Mckelvey. Let him explain:

"LET ME EXPLAIN....Let me explain...Let me explain.....The play is an affection re-visiting of an old genre.  Many years ago, J.B.Priestly lamented the passing of the 'story' in the theatre. But he added, 'the story will return.'    It hasn't yet.   At least not in the West End, or in any of the more pretentious venues.   But it has here, affectionately and I hope amusingly and exclusively for P.P. What's it about?   It's about to be read next Monday.  Do come along".  

Do. 7.30 at the North London Tavern>

Danger Competition Shortlist

We had nearly 250 entries from across the world. These are the final five that will be read at the final on July 13th:

Disturbed

Fallout

Ifs and Buts

Log-in Error

Struck

Congratulations to them and commiserations to everyone else. Thanks for joining in and please come along.