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REHEARSED READINGS 1992

Three Plays:
AUDIENCE, UNVEILING and PROTEST
by Vaclav Havel, translated by Jan Novak and Vera Blackwell

February 1992
Director: by Ron Bloomfield
Cast: John Kearns, Steve Fitzpatrick, Michael Langridge, Renata Nash, Graham Williams

Programme

CHOICE OR CHANCE
by Lope de Vega, translated by Renata Nash

November 1992
Director: Renata Nash
To complement the Spanish setting of our Playhouse production, this month's Rehearsed Reading is a translation of Lope de Vega's La Dama Boba, a Spanish with 'intellectual' complications.

On one level the play is a farce with some good, comic scenes, on another it is a theatrical thesis on love. Finea and Nisea are two sisters, the first as stupid and unlettered as the second is intelligent and well-read. They are pursued by two young men, Liseo and Laurencio and the play examines the motivation of these four as each pursues their quest for their ideal partner.


DEVASTATION
by Paul Prescott

May 1992
Director: Rodney Figaro
Cast: Stephen Bentley, Mary Davies, Matthew Flexman, Fiona Gee, Pamela Major, Diana Nesbitt, James Price, Dorothy Boyd Taylor, John Kearns
Crew: Linda McDonald, Diana Nesbit
Programme

DON JUAN
by Molière, translated by Christopher Hampton

May 1992
Director: Steve Fitzpatrick
Cast: Paul Botly, Steve Fitzpatrick, Dominique Gerrard, Lisa Gordon-clark, Paul Hotly, Simon Thomas, Megan Whelan, Peter Whelan, Graham Williams

Programme

FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY
by Odon von Horvath, translated by Christopher Hampton

February 1992
Director: Michael Gerrard
Cast: Peter Gardiner, Anne Gerrard, Nikki Gerrard, David Hovatter, John Kearns, Mike Langridge, Roland Scarce, Lynn Scrivener, Paul Vincent, Sue West
Programme

FILUMENA
by Eduardo de Filippo

June 1992
Director: Michael Langridge
To coincide with our production of Saturday, Sunday, Monday, we present another rich comedy by the same author, last seen in London in 1977 with a cast led by Joan Plowright and Colin Blakely, directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
After twenty-five years of living together, Domenico is tricked into a 'deathbed marriage' with Filumena after she discovers that he plans to marry a much younger woman. When Domenico realises he has been duped he tries to annul the marriage. But he underestimates the determination of Filumena, who has some startling revelations up her sleeve.

A MAN WITH CONNECTIONS
by Alexander Gelman

July 1992
Director: Mary Davies
Cast: Julia Cooke, Ian Harris, John Turner

Programme

OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE
by Peter Handke

November 1992
Director: Simon Thomas
Cast: Antonia Cavendish, Judy Lane, Anne Sawbridge, Simon Thomas

Programme

ONE FOR THE ROAD
Willy Russell

April 1992
Director: Kelvin West
Cast: Nigel Lawrence, Fiona Nicholson, Wendy Smith, Piers Whibley

Programme

THE ROOM
by Harold Pinter

October 1992
Director: Brian Ingram
Pinter's first stage play, The Room, contains all the hallmarks of his style: ambiguity of intention, failure of communication, menace from outside. Yet, while this last is certainly present, this play was initially dubbed 'The Comedy of Menace' and it is the comic aspects of the play that director Brian Ingram intends to explore in this Reading.
While the menace lies in the plot, the comedy stems from the characters and in what they know and think they know. It is through their inability to 'know' that Pinter creates the menace and from this ignorance comedy is born.


SEASON'S GREETINGS
by Alan Ayckbourn

December 1992
Director: Barbara Neville
It is Christmas Eve in the home of Neville and Belinda Bunker and the relatives are gathered for the festivities. But anyone accustomed to the Ayckbourn view of family life can be sure that Christmas in the Bunker household holds more than a few blackly comic moments. The presents are wrapped, Belinda is trimming the tree, Phyllis is creating havoc in the kitchen prior to collapsing in an alcoholic stupor, while her husband is unpacking the trappings of his latest puppet show. And into their midst walks the unsuspecting Clive ...


THE VIKINGS OF HELGELAND
by Henrik Ibsen

January 1992
Director: David Gowman
Cast: John Davey, Amy Finegan, Robin Ingram, John Turner, Margaret Turner, Sue West, David Wheatley
Programme

OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER MARCHING TOWARDS THE SOMME
by Frank McGuinness

December 1992
Director: Joe Campbell
The story of eight men who volunteer to serve in the 36th (Ulster) Division at the beginning ot World War I, this play reaches its climax at the start of the Battle of the Somme.


JUST US
by Michael Law

July 1992
Director: Simon Thomas
Cast: Peter and Ffrangcon Whelan

Programme