Living in Dystopia

Monday March 21st is the last day of the term, and so we come to our customary competition. This time the theme is Living in Dystopia. Usual rules apply.

7.30 at the North London Tavern




UPDATE

Peter Thompson writes:

The competition theme of Dystopia attracted seven well-turned entries, each coming at it from a different angle. Michael Barry’s HISTORY OF THE WILD VOGELS over-ran but we enjoyed every minute of Hitler’s Last Stand [a terrifying performance by Phil Mison] in a farmhouse in Galway where the kindly landowner, Stephen Cavanagh, forms the last remnants of the Reich into a singing group, The Wild Vogels: they earn their keep by singing in Bars and Family Hotels and gorge on the delicious pastries provided by beautiful Eva Braun aka Natasha Staples.

Natasha switched to a wonderful West Coast accident in a dialogue with a pump attendant in Oregon [where such ready listeners are to be found apparently].  The title RITZMED did not give much away and only a late reference to the Wall of Mexico hinted at a dystopic future, but Sian Williams kept us chuckling and scored 157 points.

Peter Thompson’s TEMPLE OF LOVE contemplated the conversion of an ancient parish church into a spiritually led brothel [“evening services at St Salome’s”] where sinners could resort for love and forgiveness or, if preferred, mortification of the flesh in Miss Hardbroom’s specially equipped crypt: fifth place with 177 points.

Michael Barry’s IT MIGHT BE DYSTOPIA came fourth with 183 points. It was about a commune set up by Pete Picton and Denise O’Leary which turned out to have much more discipline than the world outside and proved a turn-off for drop-outs like feisty newcomer, Megan Gilmartin.

There was a tie for second place with 190 points:  Lynne O’Sullivan turned in A BREAK IN UTOPIA, a very neat story of how a cheating husband, Phil Philmar, turns up at the Utopia hotel in Italy expecting to meet up with his latest girlfriend but has a surprise visit from his wife.  What went wrong? The silly fellow ignored the concertina player’s advice to toss a coin into the wishing well and UTOPIA became DYSTOPIA, geddit.  Marriage under stress featured in Elaine Clayton’s A ROOM WITH NO VIEW in which a priapic Clive Greenwood, in great Carry On form, had the tables turned on him by his vengeful wife who set him up for permanent confinement in a subterranean hospital room.

Way out in front was Peter Skyte’s disturbing glimpse of 2084 (211 points) in which Richard Evans gave a heart-rending performance as a 136 year old who turns up on a hospital appointment to see a consultant about his prostate and finds that “the system” not only fails to acknowledge his appointment but won’t even let him use the toilet.  Help, please get me back quickly to the present day!

Thanks to all participants and particularly to Christa Engelbrecht who set it all up to run like clockwork and to Chukwudi Onwere who delivered a very entertaining evening to a full house and presented certificates to the winners.  Well done, all.

Away Like Snow

Monday 14th March brings us a stageplay written by Peter Vincent and Mary Conway. Given that both have won P-P awards as individuals, their collaboration should be doubly as good.

As Peter explains:

"Time present and time

Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past...'

T.S.Eliot said that, still does, always will. Why not?

'Away Like Snow' is set in a family home that lies between Romney Marsh and the endless sound of the sea. The time is 1940. It is also 1999. The times are indivisible. Each flows, merges and conjoins with the other. Our ancestors live on within us. just as we live on in the next generation. Not only their genes but their times are moving within us.
Beware! The sweet song of temptation is heard by all of at all times. The lady still sits in her chamber late, the gypsies still sing at her castle gate,
And her heart still melts. Still melts - away like snow.

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

When, Why, and How To Be Published

Monday March 7th brings us our third guest speaker of the term, in the shape of James Hogan, who founded Oberon Press in 1986, and still runs the company.

Oberon publishes about 80-100 new plays per year by established and new playwrights. James's own first plays were read by Player-Playwrights in 1962, when it used the British Drama League studio theatre in Fitzroy Street.

James's first professionally produced play was at the fledgling Gate Theatre, Notting Hill; in fact, the first original play produced there (1978). He has recently returned to playwriting with productions at the Print Room and the Jermyn Street Theatre. His next play, Dizzy Fingers, opens at JST in May. He will also talk about his beginnings with Player- Playwrights and its open door policy at The Green Man in 1962. His own writing, and publishing, grew out of that experience, because, he says, P-P took beginners seriously.

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

YOU CAN’T TEACH ANYONE TO WRITE BUT ….

Monday 9th February brings us our third talk of the term, with veteran comedy writers and collaborators PETER VINCENT and IAN DAVIDSON sharing their tricks of the trade.  Peter Vincent, is of course,  one of our longstanding members, and has a TV track record that goes back many years as a writer and editor.  He wrote or co-wrote 69 episodes of comedy for the BBC including seven series of Sorry with Ian Davidson, and episodes of All at No. 20 and the Brittas Empire.  He wrote for twelve series of The Two Ronnies and also edited some of the scripts.  He was Dave Allen’s script editor for around twenty years, and also edited the Russ Abbot show with Barry Cryer.  He has worked with Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse, Bruce Forsyth, Harry Secombe, David Frost, Cliff Richard, Les Dawson, Michael Parkinson and many others.  He has also written plays with David Nobbs, John Chapman and Barry Cryer.

Aside from their collaborations, Ian Davidson has performed and written with Michael Palin and Terry Jones at Oxford University - his first BBC writing credit was for That Was The Week That Was in 1963 - he became an actor at The Second City in Chicago. Returning to the UK, he worked for Ned Sherrin (as a film director) and David Frost, and then began a lifelong association with Barry Humphries as a writer and director. He appears, briefly, in many of the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes - notably as a Dead Indian On a Pile of Dung, and as a news reporter who interrupts a sketch to say that it's his first time appearing on television.

Work In Progress

Monday 22nd February brings us a P-P first. Let Mary Conway explain:

"This is an event for everyone. Whether you are a writer, actor, theatre professional or happy onlooker, you are invited to come along and have fun in this, our first ever, ‘Work In Progress’ session.

The purpose of the evening is to explore the art of playwriting through collaboration with other writers and actors. We would like as many members as possible to join us and give us your views on how we might use similar sessions in the future. We will be sharing with you a few extracts from scripts produced by the PP collaborative group. We will then work in small and larger groups to develop ideas, scripts, characters, scenarios which can be turned into plays or used to stimulate individual creativity. Actors will be most valuable, both to read scripts but also to suggest ideas and possibly to improvise.

We very much look forward to seeing you there and kicking up our heels together".

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Fakebook

Monday 15 February brings us a 65 minute stageplay entitled Fakebook, by P-P debutant, Glenda Cooper. She may be new to us, but Glenda is a seasoned writer and journalist currently completing a PhD on the influence of social media.  She was part of the Theatre 503 community playwrights scheme in 2015;  recent work infludes TODAY (Royal Court Theatre ‘Grit’ scratch night), KING ATHELSTAN AND CHUMS (co-writer, Rose Theatre Studio, Kingston) and OH YES, SHE DID (RWR, Theatre 5030.  She won the 2014 Poetic Republic and Writers’ Bureau short story prizes.  She tweets at @glendacooper and keeps her Facebook settings on maximum privacy.

 "How much do we rely on social media to form our memories, or define our identities?  Amy Lang thinks she is going mad and her husband Dan sorrowfully agrees; her memory is failing, and if she turns to her email, Facebook and Twitter pages, the information does not add up.  Then a stranger turns up at Amy’s door with a quite different set of memories".

7.30 at the North London Tavern.

Andrew Loudon

February 8th brings us a guest speaker, actor, writer and director, Andrew Loudon. He's got more credits than I've had hot dinners, and no fewer than three of his productions have transferred to the West End. As Tony Diggle explains:

TAKING A SCRIPT FROM THE BOTTOM

DRAWER TO THE WEST END

Andrew Loudon made his directorial debut in 1999, an adaptation by Emma Reeves of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women at the Pleasance, Edinburgh. The success of the show led to a further production at Sadler’s Wells in 2002 and its eventual arrival at the Duchess Theatre in 2004.

He has since directed other shows in the West End, most recently Cool Hand Luke at the Apollo Theatre in 2011 with Marc Warren in the lead. He has also had a long career as an actor appearing on stage and television. 

His regional theatre credits include Charles Ryder in the stage premiere production of Brideshead Revisited, and he has just appeared for a year as the father in the Railway Children at the Kings’ Cross Theatre. His television credits include Peak Practice, Absolutely Fabulous, Doctors and The Bill. He also writes, and has found time to appear in two of his own plays including Dangerous Play at the Arts Theatre. So there will be plenty to talk about during Q & A which might be sub-titled “How to survive in the theatre”!

Find out how he does it, at 7.30 at the North London Tavern.