| by Jean McConnell
Directed by Valerie Clarke
February 5, 6 & 7, 2009
Act I
Shoppers
|
Rosemary |
Sue Worker |
|
Angela |
Angela Charles |
Early Blight
|
Helen |
Barbara Williams |
|
June |
Dorothy Bentote |
Dancers
|
Wynn |
Estelle Dunham |
|
Betty |
Ann Taggart |
Act II
It's Not the Same
A sketch by V. Clarke
|
Joy |
Valerie Clarke |
|
Ange |
Angela Charles |
Late Frost
|
Pamela |
Sue Worker |
|
Kate |
Katherine Plummer |
Doggies
|
Thelma |
Bieneke Barwick |
|
Eleanor |
Katherine Plummer |
and featuring:
Alison Marshall
Matthew Newman
Ann Sykes
Graeme Gibaut
Brian Beeston
Tag
Malcom Bentote
Programme Notes
[Photographs]
Time: The present
About the play
Jean McConnell has written five twist-in-the-tail playlets for women -
all set on a promenade - that are by turns, funny and poignant.
In Shoppers two well-to-do shopaholics have a rather surprising secret.
Early Blight is a heart breaking exploration of a doomed mother/daughter relationship.
Dancers wittily dissects the tea-dancing world of two skittish women.
Late Frost is a drama in which a woman finds out something she would
rather not have known.
And Doggies is a hilarious tale about two very different types of dog-owner -
one with a Pekinese and the other with a mongrel.
The plays are drawn together by the Players with a love story and some other
dog owners!
About the author
As well as her many plays, Jean McConnell has written for film, television,
radio and numerous fiction stories for women's magazines. An actor herself,
Jean directs her own work at her local amateur dramatic society in Tunbridge
Wells, Kent, where she lives.
When a production of Deckchairs 1 was produced in Perth in August 2005,
a local journalist from the newspaper Post Impressions, telephoned Jean
McConnell from Australia to interview her for an article. Jean told the journalist
that she started writing her series of 'Deckchairs' plays for two women, for
two actor friends who asked her to write a play that would give them a range
of characters to act. Perhaps the reason why they are so popular is that Jean
said that they were based on true stories that she had heard or experienced.
Also she revealed that her favourite playlet from Deckchairs 1 was Doggies.
Jean's volumes of Deckchairs - she is up to Deckchairs 4 now - have been
amongst her most famous works, being performed all over the world by both
professionals and amateurs.
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