Script readings – THIS WEEK

Summerheath Hall Thursday 1st June 7.30pm

 The Cemetery Club (1987) by Ivan Menchell
3 New York widows wise-crack their way through a plot that starts with their lives revolving around a regular pilgrimage to their husbands’ graves. This supportive but unfulfilling existence is ruptured when one looks as though she is going to start an affair. Many lines are laugh-out-loud and it’s a very easy read as the plot is so involving. American accents required.

Private Lives (1930) (Revived 1944) Noel Coward   
Probably Coward’s best play. It’s a 30’s comedy of manners/situation where a divorced couple find themselves in the same French hotel on their respective new honeymoon nights. The second half then switches to a Paris flat. With plenty of short snappy dialogue, the play zips along but there is an edge of cynicism to it as well. The script has very detailed stage directions which are helpful. The main parts are the two couples but there is a French maid character as well.

Habeas Corpus (1973)  Alan Bennett          

An off-the-wall absurdist comedy, with lots of lines out to the audience.  It is set in a Hove GP surgery waiting room but the stage is really a cross between this and a game show.