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New Writing – Two New One-Act Plays

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Show Dates

Wednesday
10 June 2009

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Saturday
13 June 2009

Taking Stock by Rob Johnston

Directed by Mary Wright

Five working women put the shelf-stacking on hold while they try to fix the world from the comfort of the tea-room. And the world needs a bit of fixing – there’s a petrol strike raging outside, chaos down the aisles inside, and the search is already on for the elusive Barmy Bob …

“Women are from Salford. Who cares where men are from?”

CAST

Ruth Metcalfe as Elaine
Julie Cunningham as Jude
Janet Slade as Mary
Jacqueline Wheble as Beth
Ashley Foster as Kaz

ASM – Ken Curragh

Consequences by Duncan Battman

Directed by Mark Butt

An elderly man is found dead in his home. By his side is a note confessing to a murder of some thirty years earlier.

But who was the victim?
Was anyone else convicted of the crime?
What were the circumstances?
Whose lives were forever changed?
Indeed, what were the consequences…?

CAST

Tony Broughton as Norman
Sarah Roberts as Cilla
Andrew Higson as Danny
Martin Pritchard as Alan

ASM – Val Watkinson

Directed by Mark Butt

Sale & Altrincham Messenger's Review

New Writing 2009

By Rick Bowen

Taking Stock ****

Consequences *****

ANOTHER exciting season at the Lauriston Studio draws to a close with a double bill of plays from Altrincham writers Rob Johnston and Duncan Battman. Each piece is very different but what unites them is the sheer quality of the writing.

Rob’s play, Taking Stock, is set in a Salford supermarket during the recent fuel spike. Beth, the central character, has made the break and gone to university - this is her holiday job - but mystery surrounds the reason as to why she called off her wedding.

But the truth will out and, if you’ve never seen the piece before - it premiered at the 24:7 Theatre Festival - I guarantee the revelation will take you completely by surprise. This is a sensitive, insightful, touching and funny work that features a deeply human performance by Jacqueline Wheble as Beth, a good hearted, strong young woman who is difficult to dislike.

After the interval the evening takes a sinister turn with Duncan’s fascinating and strangely unsettling playConsequences. Two policemen, one old school the other in the Sam Tyler mould, are called to a house where they discover the maggot ridden corpse of a local loner. One of them, while scouring the kitchen for evidence, stumbles across a note in which the deceased confesses to the murder of Cilla, a teenage prostitute and drug user. With consumate cleverness, Duncan goes back in time to give us a flavour of the relationship, albeit brief, that existed between Norman and Cilla, a decidely odd couple.

Tony Broughton gives the amateur stage performance of the year so far as the learned Norman, and there’s a compelling chemistry between him and Sarah Roberts (Cilla), who seems to bring her street wise character effortlessly to life. Roberts is supremely convincing. Director Mark Butt must also take a great deal of credit for this. A must see.