Archives - November 1992

OUT OF FOCUS
by Peter Gordon

Produced by Ann Burfoot

THE PLAY

A comedy. Multiple bookings at a church hall lead to a mix-up. Battleaxe Helen the Brownie leader has a camping evening organised, Sue, along with married couple Bob and Kath are part of a sports club. Dim Wayne hangs about with them trying to pick up girls. Leonard has arrived to give a slide show, David is part of the visiting sports team and glamorous Linda - Bob's would-be affair - turns up assuming Kath won't be there. Vicar's wife Evonne, responsible for the bookings, is trying to cast a pantomime.

In the event, everyone agrees to join in with the panto. It is, as might be expected, a disaster. Helen rows with everyone, particularly Evonne, except David - who she fancies. David and Sue, however, are getting on very well together. Linda uses Wayne to make Bob jealous, while Kath makes sure Bob stays away from her. Only Leonard seems happy, possibly because he hasn't a clue what's going on.

Opening night is awful, with Helen threatening to walk out, and the rest of the run is little better. Matters finally come to a head at the after-show party where David and Sue get engaged, Bob and Kath sort their problems out and it transpires that Evonne's husband has apparently been unfaithful with Linda, who is now quite genuinely friendly with Wayne. After having to reveal that the pantomime made a loss overall, Evonne gets very drunk and has a fight with Helen - but apart from all that, the party, at least, is a roaring success...!

FROM THE GROUP

Another of my favourites with some delightful characters and a well-written script, which helps move things along in the right direction.
Ken had always had a great deal to say about previous productions, so I suggested that if he could do any better, he should get up there. And he did, making a real success of his part as irritating Leonard Trotter.
Rehearsals, I recall, had a great many laughs and were a lot of fun. Set build proved to be not so much fun as the crew struggled to build a working sink & tap. I kept out of it. They managed it in the end.
I particularly remember Mike coming into his own in this play. He seemed to fit very comfortably into the role of Wayne.
Loved every minute of this production. Wouldn't have changed a thing.

Ann - Producer

On the subject of bad health, the first time we did Out of Focus, I had a really bad cold and come the Saturday performance had completely lost my voice. The vicar's wife did the whole play squeaking the words out through her nose. It was so tiring that I went straight home at the end even missing the after show bash and back in those days we still had enough energy left after three performances to party till the wee small hours.
Judith - Actress

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