Genre: Play for teenage to adult audience; a wonderfully written cross between Alan Bennett monologues, Victoria Wood and Joanna Trollope.
A fantastic must-see lovely concept pice, which surely must have been though of before? The audience form the rest of the cafe clientele, and are served tea and cakes. 2 hour long with an interval. The setting in Lauriston Hall has been so well researched and the tea and cakes are sourced from Edinburgh institutions. The menu is the programme and production values are very high. It has already toured around their native Dorset; many of the actors are semi-pro or amateur, ( not that you's know that), and herein lies the one difficulty for it being a winning RTA show; there are 12 actors; all essential. I don't think you could double up .
The writing is brilliant and incredibly perceptive of psychology of character; ranging form an older couple with a bullying bigotted husband, a tortured wife of a husband with bi-polar, a couple of young woman meeting up after a year with one telling a momentous piece of news, a busybody neighbour, the sisters whose lifelong good/bad rolesa are about to swap as the goodie contemplates an affair, and an old lady who doesn't consider herself as old as the (old people" she loves. Her advice and wise (?) thoughts are taken up by the waitress whose story ends the play. One particular quote I loved, from the elderly philosopher, bemoaning the state of male/female relationships, though she has never heard of Men are from Mars: " women do what they can; men do what they have to"; think about it!!
Other than the problem of size of company this is perfect for RTA, no set or lighting required, self-sufficeint in tablecloths and unmatched china tea-cups
5* play
JO Cheshire
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