A Season of Short Plays

Darlington Theatre Players present A Season of Short Plays

"Real Estate Reel"
written and directed by Alice Dale

"Gum and Goo"
written by Howard Brenton
directed by Jesse Wood

"An Idea for a Play"
directed by Rachel Vonk

 

Every year the Darlington Theatre Players Inc put on a series of one act plays at Marloo Theatre to introduce new directors and old to their loyal audiences.

This year is no exception. They have struck the usual balance between comedy, drama and thought-provoking scripts. The three this year are, firstly, An Idea For A Play by Richard Tydeman, directed by Rachel Vonk as her first attempt at solo direction, after acting on stage and assisting Douglas Sutherland-Bruce in the direction of Lloyd George Knew My Father.

With an extremely large cast of eight actors playing such anthromorphs as Humanity, The cast includes Science, Education, Religion and so on the play both touches and moves to laughter.

The cast includes Jessica Russell, Chris Ball, Tania Morrow and Alex Sutton, all of whom are Marloo stalwarts.

The second play is directed by Jesse Wood, from an acting and professionally musical family. Jesse himself has been on stage many times and now attempts his directing debut with Gum and Goo.

The playwright, Howard Brenton described the play thusly: ""Two boys transformed into fantasy gremlins by autistic girl. Girl pushed into a hole and found 'not dead - worse, she's silent.'"

The third play is directed by long-time professional actor, director and playwright, Alice Dale. Professional actors aren't always in work and during one of her periods of 'resting', Alice tried real estate.

Real Estate Reel is the product of her realty experiences - a lively jamboree of Vera, a real estate rep trying to sell a heritage-listed house to a variety of prospects while a younger colleague uses the place as a venue for seduction, a previous occupant in tears and an American lady with a really bad case of flatulence.

A cast of twelve cleverly interweave in this delightful romp.