Questories

QUESTSTORIES
THE QUESTORS NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL
4th FESTIVAL 1963
THE THINGS

THE THINGS
by Colin Finbow

Directed by Barbara Hutchins
Cast:
Tony Barber, Ralph Cottrell, Martin Ferriday, Ned Gethings, Thomas Mercer, Dorothy Boyd Taylor, Susan Tylor

COLIN FINBOW

Colin Finbow began writing seriously for radio when he was 18, and by the time of this Festival had five radio plays accepted, of which three had been commissioned by the B.B.C.

His first stage play, the one-act NIGHT TIME FOR THE BIRDS, was produced by The Questors Student Group in 1963.

THE THINGS had been specially commissioned by The Questors and was his first full length play to be produced. He has since enjoyed a lengthy and prestigious career as a film director and writer.

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Colin Finbow on WIKIPEDIA

THE PLAY

The theme of the play, which was specially commissioned for the Festival by The Questors, is the obsession some people have with things, with belongings, and the way such an obsession can destroy human relationships. A serious enough theme, but from it Colin Finbow makes an original and highly entertaining comedy which traces in a very unusual way the progress of a very normal marriage from wedding day to destruction.

PRODUCTION PHOTOS

Extract from Alfred Emmet's Festival News Report:
"The author, Colin Finbow, was at the first rehearsal and expects to attend others. Tony Barber and Dorothy Boyd Taylor are playing the newly married couple and wish to make it clear this is not to be regarded as a trial run! Tom Mercer is the conjurer and has been having lessons in magic from club member and magician Geoffrey Culliford. The boy is played by Pat and Peter Ferriday's boy Martin and Mrs. Martin by Susan Tylor, her first part since graduating recently from the Student Group. Ralph Cottrell plays a Furnishing Man. Kit Emmet is producing, Jay Hillan is stage managing and other members of the stage team are Jenny Pettit, Pat McGrail, Gerry Isenthal, David Cook, Iris Phelps."

PRESS RESPONSE

Critical reaction to Colin Finbow’s commissioned full-length play was largely unfavourable. Kenneth Tynan in The Observer thought its potentially promising subject had been weakened by fashionable borrowings from Pinter and Ionesco. Douglas McVay writing in the County Times was more brutally dismissive, while The Stage and the West London Star found some humour, ideas and effective performances but considered the theme obscured and the writing immature.

The Middlesex County Times>

The Observer

The Stage and Television Today

The West London Star

QUESTORS ARCHIVES
THE THINGS