Brexit

Monday 23rd November brings us this term's competition, on the theme of Brexit. Hey, who says we don't do topical? Usual rules apply.

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

UPDATE

Peter Thompson writes:

In the winning play Pete Picton, as the Prime Minister, was very pleased to see BREXIT on the Cabinet agenda.  Having only had muesli first thing he was strongly in favour of bacon sarnies all round.  He was not the only one to have difficulties with the title of our autumn competition.  But five skilled craftsmen [Wot no Wimmin] produced clever and, in one case, very erudite, works of drama on the BREXIT theme.  They did well.

Nick Rose was the least successful with SALVATION, but it scored a healthy 123 points and had an exciting start, as the tanks moved into position on the Cliffs of Dover and the Prime Minister of the day, played by Denise O’Leary, exhorted the sappers to blow up half the Tunnel, but to leave the other half as an emergency exit.  As I closed my eyes, as required by the new Spiritual Leader, I could hear the distant timbre of Mrs T.  But peace and astral harmony won the day, disappointingly.

Next up was Michael’s Barry’s ARE WE ALL IN?  This was an entertaining family squabble about whether to leave the Book Club seeing that some new members had deplorable literary tastes and others only came for the refreshments.  Faced with an even split within the family the casting vote was given to Martin the goldfish.  But by the time he was ready to move (clockwise for In, anticlockwise for Out) he had forgotten the question.  Ultimately it was decided to have the issue determined by the upcoming referendum on EU membership, which some us had by then spotted raised very similar issues and tensions.

BE ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED was a philosophic gem by Peter Vincent, whose learned play summoned to the heavenly throne of justice three notorious characters: Brian Rathbone, Beryl Reid and that logic-chopping unbeliever, Bertrand Russell.  Judge Giles had no difficulty in opening the pearly gates to the two thespians, but the third BR only just escaped an exit to another place, pursued by bear or possibly Beelzebub.  John Bunyan and Ludwig Wittgenstein came into the story too, as you would expect, and earned the author 149 points.

In second place with 158 points was Peter Skyte’s play about the PM’s attempt to re-negotiate terms of membership with some heavily accented Europeans, played with ferocity by Anthea Merkel, Silas Hollande and Francis Juncker.  Despite riling them with his “I’m All Right, Jacque”, attitude the PM finally won them round with his arguments for limiting membership and weighting the voting in favour of larger countries.  Then at last the euro dropped.  They were re-writing the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, beautifully clued in by the title NUL POINTS!

Finally the winner with 176 points, IN, OUT, SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT by Phil Philmar, with Peter Picton as PM.  His policy is to leave Europe and, in addition, to move the country somewhere warmer, but without bumping into France: “I’m not an idiot. Obviously I’ll let someone qualified steer”.  But he reckons without Scotland, who won’t take the brakes off!  Wonderful.  Please write us another episode, Phil.

A great evening, masterminded by Natasha, Peter, Christa and Chukwudi.  Many thanks to them all and to the clever writers and wonderful performers.

We Need to Talk About Clive & Whitaker's Lunch

Monday 16th November brings us a double bill of stage plays. First is a one act drama by the prolific John Hill called We Need to Talk About Clive:

"Talking in the cinema is not to be encouraged, except when Anthea Courtenay and Elizabeth Trueblood are the only ones there and they are watching a porn film and musing about Kevin's activities. In this production you will not  see the film (sorry), But the conversation is hilarious."

After the break we then have the welcome return of Francis Beckett. It's been a busy year for Francis, so it's good to have him writing stage plays again. In case you'd forgotten what the great man looks like, here he is, posing, perhaps as Whitaker himself. As Francis explains:

"Whitaker, public relations consultant, has invited a new client to lunch. Now all he has to worry about is what he’s going to do when the bill arrives".

Sounds appetising. Be at the North London Tavern, at 7.30.

AGM

John Morrison writes:

"This is to remind you that we have our annual general meeting coming up on 9 November at 7.30 pm at the North London Tavern, and this year it will be more important than usual.

We have been offered the chance of moving back to central London from January 2016 after more than a year of meeting weekly in Kilburn.  The Phoenix gastropub near Victoria has an upstairs room which is available on Monday nights.  As you know, finding a central London venue at an affordable price has been an uphill task.  Many members have been reluctant to make the journey to our current venue, and a return to a more central location would give us a chance of restore our Monday night attendance to its previous healthy levels.  The Phoenix is at 14 Palace Road SW1E 5JA, next door to the St James Theatre.  The AGM will allow members to express their views on a possible change of venue, though a final decision will have to be taken by the new committee.

The other vital agenda item will be electing a new committee and replacing officers who are standing down, including myself as chair.  Most importantly, Peter Thompson is standing down as programme secretary after many years organising our weekly readings, though he is prepared to continue as secretary.  The programme secretary's current workload can be reduced if the task of reading and mentoring scripts is shared with two or three others.  Our long-standing treasurer Tony Diggle is also standing down.  We also need a new competitions secretary and two new casting secretaries, preferably actors who can share the task of assembling casts for our readings, and we need help to improve our website.

If these key posts cannot be filled, either from the existing committee or our wider membership of actors and writers, then our weekly programme cannot continue in its present form.  P-P has a long history going back to 1948 and it now needs a fresh team to take over.  So if you think you can contribute, please contact Peter Thompson, preferably before 2 November when the existing committee will meet to look at our options before the AGM.

I would like to appeal to all current (and lapsed) members to make a big effort to attend the AGM if they possibly can". 

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Talk by Indhu Rubasingham

P-P chairman John Morrison writes:

"Our guest on Monday 2 November is a rising star in London theatre, Indhu Rubasingham, artistic director of the Tricycle theatre in Kilburn since 2012. She took over from Nicolas Kent who had run the theatre for 28 years, specialising in verbatim plays.  Indhu's bold international choices in new writing reflect her long career as a freelance director in a wide variety of theatres, beginning at Nottingham Playhouse and taking in Chichester, Birmingham and Hampstead. Her current production at the Tricycle is The Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes, a loose adaptation of Moliere's Tartuffe by American playwright Marcus Gardley.  The Tricycle has one production running in the West End -- The Father by Florian Zeller at Wyndham's -- and another on the way at the Garrick in January as part of the Kenneth Branagh season.  This will be a revival of her first show at the Tricycle, Red Velvet, starring Adrian Lester as the pioneering black American actor Ira Aldridge.
She's also directed The Motherfucker With The Hat at the National Theatre.  You can read an interview with Indhu from The Independent here".

After the break we have CANCER RESEARCH, a short Halloweeny play by Our Man in Hollywood: Napoleon Ryan.

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Blind Date

Monday 26th brings us the first full length play by P-P debutant Colette Cullen. She is an experienced director, producer and writer of short pieces. Indeed, a shortened version made the short list for our recent DANGER competition. This is the expanded version. As Colette explains:

"Two couples.  Two dates.  One gay.  One straight.  Each recount a radically different version of their blind date.  Sophie and Karl are persuaded to go on a blind date by mutual friends.  Mark and Alan meet through  facebook friends.  What have they to lose?  A compelling and intense drama about looking for love".

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Conflict of Interest & Into the Trench via the Breach

October 19th brings us an enticing double bill. First, a welcome return for Mr. Player-Playwrights himself, Peter Thompson, who brings all his legal knowledge to bear in a forty minute radio play entitled Conflict of Interest. As he explains:

"Two young lawyer-wannabees (1m, 1f) decide to set up a Free Legal Advice Centre in St Barnabas church, for the benefit of the local community.  They have good intentions but no qualifications worth talking about and their public-spirited venture soon takes them way out of their depth.  Will they make it back to dry land?  Vicar Mary sincerely hopes so because she has £250K riding on  the outcome."

Then, after tea and biscuits, or a dry sherry and profiteroles ( according to taste) and a short discussion we have the second half of the double bill, perennial competition winner Debbie Maya returns with Into the Trench via the Breach:

"A school trip to a portrait gallery is not everybody's idea of heaven, least of all Josh. However, he has an unforgettable experience that will change his life forever".

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Monster in Human Shape

Monday October 12th brings us a screenplay by P-P's time-keeper extraordinaire Giles Armstrong. let the great man explain:

Sylvia Connors is a businesswoman on top of her game. Just a short time ago she thought she'd lost eveything - but now, with the help of her faithful PA, Madge, she's back on course and rapidly becoming a player on the world stage.
"But gradually she comes to realise that Madge - pretty, super efficient, totally devoted to her - is a fiend in human shape. Kidnapping, blackmail, torture, burglary, data thrft on a vast scale, probably quite soon murder - these are only some of her crimes  - how can Sylvia be rid of this creature before Madge drags her into the abyss?
"She can't. On the day Madge plonks a severed head into her lap, Sylvia realised they are joined at the hip and that in fact she will achieve much more with this monster at her side.
"One day, perhaps,  the reckoning - but not yet".

7.30 at the North London Tavern.