THE WORKOUT
by Albert Bermel
Directed by Alan Chambers
Cast:
Kay Eldride, John Howard
THE AUTHOR
Born in London in 1927, Albert Bermel was a playwright, theatre critic, translator and academic who settled in the United States in 1955. He taught theatre and film at several American universities, becoming Professor of Theatre at the City University of New York, and received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in playwriting and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.
His influential critical studies included Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty and books on Molière, Shakespeare and Carlo Gozzi; he also translated numerous French plays.
The Questors presented two of his plays in successive New Plays Festivals: The Workout in 1963 and One Leg over the Wrong Wall in 1964. Bermel died in New York in 2013.
THE PLAY
At the first rehearsal it was found that the double bill of plays by William Norfolk was too short to make a reasonable evening's entertainment so THE WORK OUT, a satire on religious athleticism or athletic religion by Albert Bermel, was added to that evening's bill.
PRODUCTION PHOTOS
PRESS RESPONSE
The Workout emerged as the festival’s clearest comic success. The Times praised it as exceptionally expert American comic writing—taut, witty and alive to both verbal and physical comedy—and said it redeemed the programme containing the two Norfolk plays. Douglas McVay (The County Times) found it the festival’s most entertaining work, while Amateur Stage admired its professionalism and The Stage called it a hilarious satire on packaged religion and physical fitness.
Amateur Stage
The Middlesex County Times
The Stage and Television Today
The Times
QUESTORS ARCHIVES
THE WORK OUT