Afternoon Plays XVII
Afternoon Plays XVII
Afternoon Play - Peter Lorre v Peter Lorre by Michael Butt
******Towards the end of his unique career, movie star Peter Lorre found himself
at the centre of a strange legal case. Incorporating verbatim extracts from the
court transcripts, Michael Butt's play wonders what was going through Lorre's
troubled mind as he fought to protect his name.
Afternoon Play - Sunday by Georges Simenon
******A dramatisation by Ronald Frame of Georges Simenon's novel about a chef who decides to kill his wife.
The tense and vivid story is set in 1957, and takes place on a single day, in and around a modest auberge
in the untamed wooded hills above Nice.
Afternoon Play - So You Want to Disappear by Mark Wheatley
******Fraser once tracked clients who jumped bail. Then he added a little twist to the business
by helping people disappear instead, which is why Kathryn gives him a call.
Afternoon Play - Can You Tell Me the Name of The Prime Minister? by Martin Jameson
******A week after the election, psychiatrist Liz De Souza is called to examine a patient
at a secure government research facility. Disorientated and confused, he is convinced
that Tony Blair is still Prime Minister. A Science Fiction mystery.
Afternoon Play - The End of the World by Danny Brocklehurst
******It's 1983: the Cold War is raging; Thatcher is in goverment; Britain is in recession
and seventeen year old Simon Miller, living in the shadow of Sellafield is haunted by fears
of nuclear holocaust. When he falls in love with Tasha, a beautiful anti-nuclear activist,
he sees his chance to make a difference.
Afternoon Play - The Recordist by Sean Grundy
******Stuart is a freelance surveillance expert who teaches covert 'information gathering'
to new Intelligence recruits. As part of his work he 'bugs' friends & family, including his wife,
Penny. When he discovers that she's having an affair with a man called Neil, his work colleague,
Ren, offers her own skills in 'enhanced interview techniques' to help, but Stuart declines.
He realises that the secret affair could make an engaging teaching aid. Initially, his students
are slightly unsettled but very intrigued. The affair becomes the main focus of the curriculum,
and the group study how to 'bug' all manner of difficult situations, such as an impromptu hotel room,
a car in a field, busy nightclub, and hot-air balloon. But Penny feels terrible about the affair and
Stuart discovers emotions deeply buried and things soon spiral out of control.
'The Recordist' is a dark, offbeat comedy, looking at the price love pays for clear acoustics in Dolby NR.
Afternoon Play - Waves Breaking on a Shore, part 1
by Michael Eaton and Neil Brand.
Afternoon Play - Waves Breaking on a Shore, part 2
******At the turn of the twentieth century two vaudevillians
- one Irish, the other Jewish - are trying to achieve success
as Music Hall double act Cohen and Cohan, when they
find themselves bitten by the bug of cinematography at the
birth of film.
Performing in the small halls of London's poverty stricken East End, both would consider
themselves to be loyal sons of the British Empire. Above all, they believe that laughter
and song can bring different folk together.
Though their act is popular in the East End, they have their sights set on the big time.
A chance meeting leads them down a path of new technology, performing their act for the new
Edison phonograph, recording comic turns and melodramatic scenes.
But the flickers are a whole new territory, and Danny and Manny learn the hard way that this
new form means big business to the people calling the shots.
Afternoon Play - Norman Birkett and the Case of the Coleford Poisoner by Caroline and David Stafford.
******A true story of murder, mayhem and political intrigue from the casebook of Norman Birkett,
the most celebrated advocate of the inter-war years.
Afternoon Play - Harry and the Angels by Bernard Kops
******A very personal story about death, love and friendship. Award winning writer Bernard Kops
guides us through London's East End in an impressionistic, idiosyncratic journey of lost love,
kite flying, angels and tube station tragedy
Afternoon Play - Six Impossible Things by Glen Neath
*******This drama contains scenes of violence and is based on true events.
Peter Hardy doesn't fit the psychological profile of your average double murderer.
There's something vulnerable about him, or so thinks police psychologist Dr Kennedy
as he makes his assessment after a particularly violent bank robbery. Could it be that
Hardy is a victim of 'mind control' and was acting under a hypnotic trance?
Dr Kennedy has a tough job to convince police colleagues. Can a man really rob a bank
and kill two people under hypnosis? As the evidence mounts to support this bizarre theory
it becomes impossible to ignore.
This extraordinary story was inspired by true events that took place in Denmark in the 1950s
and while this production is updated to the present day, the facts of the case are unchanged.
Afternoon Play - The Last Witch Trial by Melissa Murray
******In 1944, exhausted by war, many people turn to spiritualism. But the authorities are worried
that mediums may give away military secrets.
Afternoon Play - Last Days of Grace by Nick Warburton
******Easter Monday, 1908. And there's snow on the ground. An aging icon, W.G. Grace,
contemplates another day in his life-long cricketing obsession. He arrives at the Oval
and can't quite bear to sit in the clubhouse to meet the usual people. Instead he trudges
out in to the cold to face a different type of questioning.
Afternoon Play - Prospero, Ariel, Reith and Gill by Gary Brown
******Gary Brown's comedy about artist Eric Gill's clash with the BBC over his famous sculpture
of Prospero and Ariel stars Anton Lesser as the artist and Tim McInnerny as Sir John Reith, the
first Director General of the Corporation. Inspired by real events, the play charts a clash between
the BBC's Governors and the artist over the propriety of the sculpture's appearance.
Gill became quite a celebrity as he carved the statue in situ on scaffolding in front of Broadcasting
House. In his trademark smock and beret, he drew the attention of the tabloid papers and became
known as the "Married Monk". The play imagines conversations between Sir John and the artist
as he passes him on his way into Broadcasting House each morning.
Framed with a period newsreel-style commentary, the comedy playfully deals with the perennial tension
between the Establishment and the Artist. The strange and mysterious Gill contrasts with the authoritarian
but often troubled figure of Reith, but in the end the sculpture focuses their thoughts about the role of Art
in the life of mankind. While this is a comedy, the play touches a little on the well-documented darker side
of both men's nature, and offers an insight into one of the more celebrated events of early BBC history.
Brown's play speculates on how Reith struggled with the Governors and with his own psyche in dealing
with one of the trickier events in the early days of the BBC. It also looks at how Gill, the artist, struggled
with reconciling his unusual beliefs and lifestyle with a major commission from the heart of the Establishment.
Afternoon Play - High Hopes by Rob Kinsman
******When he was a child, Charlie was kidnapped and held to ransom. He never knew who was
behind it nor why he was picked. When another child goes missing, many years later,
he has a chance to discover the truth.
Afternoon Play - Nuclear Reactions by Adam Ganz
******Nuclear Reactions stars Nick Dunning and Nickolas Grace. At the end of WWII,
Germany's most talented and formidable nuclear physicists were rounded up and
brought to England. The British were keen to discover exactly what they knew about
the atomic bomb, but they also wanted to ensure that the powerhouse of German
thought remained intact, and capable of regenerating a defeated nation.
Afternoon Play - Philip and Sydney by Alan Pollock.
******In 'This Be The Verse', Philip Larkin famously bemoans the impact parents have on their children.
In Philip and Sydney, playwright Alan Pollock uncovers some of the reasons why Larkin may have had
such a profound sense of anguish.
In 1937, Philip Larkin's father took him on holiday to Germany. Sydney was Coventry's City Treasurer
and had a keen interest in the Nazi regime.
It was a holiday that Philip never spoke of. But, taking inspiration from Sydney's diaries, Philip and
Sydney imagines what might have happened during their trip.
A witty and powerful coming of age drama starring Tim McInnerny as Sydney and Pip Carter as Philip.
Alan Pollock is a playwright, translator and screenwriter.
Plays include One Night in November, Pigs, and All Tomorrow's Parties.
Afternoon Play - Listening to the Generals by Adam Ganz
*******In 1943, the secret recording of captive German officers, provided invaluable
information to the allied war effort, but placed an intolerable burden on the mostly
Jewish 'listeners' who transcribed details they often couldn't bear to hear.
Between 1942 and 1945 captured high-ranking German officers were imprisoned in
Trent Park, a large mansion with extensive grounds in North London. This was no
Colditz. The captives were treated well, given access to films and newspapers, and
taken for walks in the capacious grounds. Churchill was horrified to discover that
they were even being taken on daytrips to Windsor and Eton. But the aim was to
get them to relax - and talk. The newspapers and films were carefully chosen to
provoke conversation and they made use of stoolpigeons to get the officers talking.
And then through bugs placed in every room and even in the garden, the British
Intelligence Service listened as they talked amongst themselves. Everything was
recorded and transcribed - for use as evidence at what was to become the trials at Nuremburg.
One of the Jewish 'listeners' tasked with the, at times, infuriating job of recording and
transcribing, was Peter Ganz - the author's father.
During World War Two, German generals were imprisoned in Trent Park in North London.
Unbeknownst to them their conversations were being recorded and transcribed by
German Jews, forced to flee the Nazis.
Afternoon Play - Country Life by Shelagh Delaney
******A new drama from Shelagh Delaney, writer of A Taste of Honey.
Set on a small holding during the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, Country Life
brings together three people who all want to change the world but don't know how.
Rose has lived in far flung rural Yorkshire for years now, alone apart from her beloved sheep.
Childless, she has a close bond with her nephew, Boris, a restless teenager with great musical
talent but no idea what to do with it, or how to cope with his actor father Eddie's newfound fame
in Hollywood. Things are tranquil enough on the smallholding, until Eddie turns up looking for Boris,
the local press sense a story, family tensions explode and Rose has to stave off media instrusion
alongside preparing for the inevitable fate of her livestock in the current Foot and Mouth crisis.
Afternoon Play - Whoopi Goldberg's Country Life by Shelagh Delaney
******Whoopi Goldberg's Country Life is a new play by Shelagh Delaney,
the award winning writer of A Taste of Honey.
Rose lives alone on a smallholding. When Poppy, her embittered ex sister in law
visits for the weekend, the peace is shattered. Things get worse when they learn that Boris,
Poppy's 20 year old son, has gone missing. Old wounds and grievances are aired - then Boris
turns up out of the blue. His presence brings the women closer again, allowing for new hope
for the future. Both Rose and Poppy sense that this could be the turning moment for all of them
- until an accident on the beach affects them all.
In this witty, poignant play about parenting, rural life, and family ties, Shelagh Delaney demonstrates
her skill as a leading modern dramatist of unusual choices by unusual people.
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim 1.4 He Who Would Valiant Be by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim 2.4 Then Fancies Flee Away
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim 3.4 No Foes Shall Stay His Might
Afternoon Play - Pilgrim 4.4 'Gainst All Disaster
******Pilgrim's toughest adventure. Joseph of Arimethea, guardian of the
sleeping Knights who will wake only in Britain's hour of greatest need, is
being held captive by Malachai Styler - a very malevolent angel. Styler is
bent on the destruction of the Greyfolk, the Knights and the balance between the worlds.
If Pilgrim is to save Joseph, it will be at the most terrible cost to himself.
Paul Hilton stars as the reluctant and unthanked hero protecting mankind from
an enemy they resist believing in.
Pilgrim is summoned to help retrieve an egg stolen from the Lady Ursula - a huge,
powerful dragon. The egg has been stolen by the outlaw Faerie, Puck, who has holed
up in a house in a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham. Puck has recruited a bunch
of feral 'estate lads' to his army. Indeed, he has bewitched the whole town. Pilgrim must
retrieve the egg before Ursula can exact a terrible retribution.
Afternoon Play - Two Pipe Problem 2010 1.2 Right Old Charlie 1.2 by Michael Chaplin
Afternoon Play - Two Pipe Problem 2010 2.2 The Memory Man Forgets
******We revisit The Old Beeches retirement home for members of the theatrical profession
and discover that new odd job man Geordie is making care assistant Karen's heart beat faster,
but is he hiding something from her?
Ageing, once-famous stand up comic Charlie Fisher regales the inmates with a few too many
very old gags, but when his joke book and a large sum of money go missing, resident sleuths
Sandy and William have a few tough questions to ask of the inmates, the new odd job man,
and Charlie himself.
The story is spiced up delightfully with some really vintage gags in a classic stand up routine
from Radio 4's much loved comedian Barry Cryer, joining Richard Briers, Stanley Baxter, Edna
Dore and all the regular inmates in a new set of two pipe problems
Afternoon Play - I Am I Said by Paul Mendelson
******When Sandy Morrison, a celebrated Scottish head-teacher, media pundit, and
turner-around of a failing school has a minor stroke, his voice changes completely.
Due to a disorder called Foreign Accent Syndrome, he is left sounding like an Englishman.
Suddenly Sandy's life and career are in freefall. He hardly dares open his mouth. How does
this once outspoken man claw his way back to who he was? In desperation he turns to a
speech therapist - ex-pupil, Kirstie Newton.
This is the story of a charismatic but seriously troubled man, who is only now discovering the
truth about himself - and the state of his relationships with his long-suffering wife, son, and
the hundreds of kids he has taught. Ah yes - the kids. Pushed and bullied towards an escape
from impoverishment - whatever the cost.
Ironically Kirstie was one of these kids. His 'speechie'. The one person he believes can restore
his old familiar voice. Because she can remember exactly how 'Mr. Morrison sir' used to sound.
Afternoon Play - Bell in the Ball by Lloyd Peters.
******Danny was blinded in a fight on New Year's Eve 2008. He's angry about it -
in fact he's angry about everything. So his long suffering girlfriend suggests he joins
a blind cricket team. It's surprisingly competitive and skilful. There's only one problem
- Danny hates cricket.
Afternoon Play - Philip and Sydney by Alan Pollock
******In 'This Be The Verse', Philip Larkin famously bemoans the impact parents have
on their children. In Philip and Sydney, playwright Alan Pollock uncovers some of the
reasons why Larkin may have had such a profound sense of anguish.
In 1937, Philip Larkin's father took him on holiday to Germany. Sydney was Coventry's City
Treasurer and had a keen interest in the Nazi regime.
It was a holiday that Philip never spoke of. But, taking inspiration from Sydney's diaries,
Philip and Sydney imagines what might have happened during their trip.
A witty and powerful coming of age drama starring Tim McInnerny as Sydney and Pip Carter
as Philip.
Alan Pollock is a playwright, translator and screenwriter. Plays include One Night in November,
Pigs, and All Tomorrow's Parties.
Afternoon Play - Black and White Riot by Edson Burton
******It's April 2nd 1980. Inside the notorious Black and White Cafe in St Paul's, Bristol,
local hustler Reagan is drinking whisky and playing dominoes with his friend Carlos.
Outside, Reagan's daughter Ross is keeping an eye on her Dad's beloved Cadillac
and playing tag and shoot-out with Levi, a Rastafarian, and the 'biggest kid you can
imagine'. He's been 'away' for a while and she's delighted to see him back, even though
he's a grown up and she's only eleven. To Ross, the 'Black and White' is a place where
her Dad is King, and she's a princess. There's always a party going on. But today is going
to be different. Today he's going to lose his crown.
The Black and White Cafe in Bristol was notorious (even in Jamaica) as a place where you
could buy illegal drink and drugs. The Cafe is the setting for this exciting new play by
award-winning playwright Edson Burton which marks thirty years since the St Paul's Riots.
The St Paul's Riots in Bristol were the first in a series of infamous inner-city confrontations
between police and mainly Black communities in Britain in the 1980s. Close to the heart of the
city centre, yet isolated by poverty and White fear, the tiny parish of St Pauls replicated in
concentrated form the forces that ignited those riots, leading the way for Brixton,
Handsworth and Toxteth.
In this subtle, exhilarating and revealing play, Edson Burton brings a new perspective to the
conventional explanations of police racism, white oppression and poverty as factors in why
people rioted that day in Bristol. He tells the story of the Black criminals busy exploiting their
own people: the rioters struck out against them too. And many people recall a carnival atmosphere
as the police retreated and the looting began.
Afternoon Play - Boom Boom by Emily Steel.
******A car crash. A middle aged woman falls for a younger man. What's the connection?
Emily Steel is a new Welsh radio writer, currently under commission to the Sherman Theatre,
Cardiff. In her first radio play, developed through BBC writersroom, she takes an unusual
approach to romance in later life and the consequences of passion.
Unhappily married Nicola whose reclusive writer husband has little time for her or her work has
settled into her existence as a cafĂ(c) cum gallery owner. David is a teenager whom she hires
as a summer help. Little by little, she finds herself drawn to him, and they become friends.
When he falls in love with a girl his own age, she finds to her horror that she is jealous -
friendship is in fact love.
As we follow the development of their relationship, we flash back and forth to an apparently
unrelated car crash, caused by teenage Adam, driving his dad's car, after an illicit night out with a girl.
When Nicola finally tells Stephen about her feelings for David, there are dramatic consequences.
The play brings together Nicola and Adam's stories, two seemingly unrelated incidents, to a powerful conclusion.
Afternoon Play - The Confessions by Charlotte Greig
******When Luke cons an unknowing client into selling him a valuable artwork at a cut price rate,
he knows he stands to make a killing - but he can't pull off his plan without the help of his girlfriend
Catrin. Catrin is a good girl who has fallen for a bad boy but will she override her moral scruples and
go along with Luke's scheme whatever the price?
Afternoon Play - Silent Nights by David Nobbs
******Gordon's hatred of noise is threatening his marriage. But will his attempts to foist silence
on the world just make matters worse? Another great comic obsessive from the creator of Reginald Perrin.
Afternoon Play - Badfellas by Andy Lynch
******Danny Brewer and his long suffering fiance Jan go to Las Vegas to get
married, after many years of failed attempts. But it isn't long before they've
lost all their money and the wedding looks doomed again. Danny's brother
Bernie attracts the eye of a gay Elvis impersonator, who could be the salvation
they desperately need.
Afternoon Play - So You Want To Disappear by Mark Wheatley.
******Fraser once tracked clients who jumped bail. Then he added a little twist to the business
by helping people disappear instead, which is why Kathryn gives him a call.
Afternoon Play - Mr Anwar's Farewell to Stornoway by Iain Finlay MacLeod
******Mr Anwar has lived for four decades on the Isle of Lewis, in the
Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Indian by birth, and a tailor to trade, he
came to the UK to make his fortune. Heading north, away from London's
cramped confines, he built a successful clothing business from scratch:
selling men's trousers and ladies underwear from two suitcases
balanced on the back of a bicycle.
The suitcases were soon exchanged for a busy shop in Stornoway. He brought his wife to
the island and the pair raised their family in the community. And yet, across the decades,
Mr Anwar clung onto a fervid dream of his youth: to make a fortune and retire in style to India.
Now, five months into retirement, things are not going quite as he had planned. Distraction
appears in the form of his taciturn neighbour, Tormod, who asks Mr Anwar to tailor a jacket for him.
As the pair get the measure of each other, some difficult questions are asked and hard truths confronted.
Afternoon Play - I Love Stephen Fry by Jon Canter
*******Jackie is married to a good-natured but big-bottomed butcher, Terry.
She works in a newsagent and she's restless. Her youngest child, Chloe,
is about to get married to Carl, a sensible lad. But Jackie thinks Chloe's
repeating her own mistake: marrying too young, without exploring her
options. Jackie's a big fan of Stephen Fry and would love her daughter
to be marrying a man as interesting as him. Jackie buys a tent, ostensibly
as a wedding present for Chloe. But instead Jackie sleeps in the tent herself,
in the garden, to escape her husband. She has a series of dreams about Stephen Fry.
He's everything her husband Terry is not: eloquent, metropolitan, learned and gay.
In a series of exciting and alarming fantasies, Jackie and Stephen have a platonic
love affair. Then Chloe meets Stephen Fry in an Indian restaurant and tells him her
mum is in love with him. Suddenly, fantasy is becoming reality.
Terry discovers his wife is in love with a man known only as 'Steve'. He's no idea who Steve is.
Should he confront Steve? Or should he keep quiet and wait for his wife's affair with Steve
to blow over. Eventually, husband, wife and Steve meet in an Ipswich bookshop and have
their lives changed forever. Except Steve. He just carries on being Stephen Fry.
I LOVE STEPHEN FRY is written by Jon Canter. Jon's worked with many of the biggest
names in TV comedy and was script editor on 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie'. His writing credits
include The Two Ronnies, 'Not The Nine O Clock News', 'Mr Bean', 'Alas Smith & Jones',
'Murder Most Horrid' and 'Posh Nosh'. He has had two comic novels published by Jonathan Cape.
'Seeds of Greatness' and 'A Short Gentleman'. 'I Love Stephen Fry' stars Stephen Fry himself,
Lesley Sharp, Phil Davis, Karl Theobald, Sinead Matthews and Carolyn Pickles.
Afternoon Play - A White Velvet Nightcap in Florida by Stephen Mollett
******A young wife tries to help keep the truth of her husband's imprisonment from his elderly mother,
but can their trust and love survive?
Afternoon Play - Danny's Wake by Jim Sweeney
******Patrick and Billy are old
friends. Very old. They
haven't seen each other
since they were at school.
Patrick has married and
moved away. Billy has
stayed, married anddivorced.
Patrick is a teacher. Billy is a plumber.
They have nothing in common but their childhood. But they have to spend the night together
as they are the only guests at Danny's Wake.
Danny was their mutual friend. The Third Musketeer. He is dead and lying
in the coffin on the sideboard.
As the hours pass, it becomes clear that Patrick's misty - eyed memories conflict with Billy's
recollections of their childhood days.. A bottle of vodka later and old wounds are opened,
current worries are shared and pizza is eaten.
Afternoon Play - A Slight Tilt to the Left by Michael Mears
******"A slight tilt" is about Lenny, whose father has just died - a man obsessed
by horse racing, and buried next to the local racecourse. the problem is -his father's
headstone is starting to tilt. What can be done about it? Mears has made a speciality
of these one-man plays, and they are of the highest quality.
Afternoon Play - From Galway to Graceland
******
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