Archives - July 2006

PARTY PIECE
by Richard Harris

Produced by Cheree Buckler

THE PLAY

Modern-day comedy, set in London. Michael and Roma are hosting their fancy-dress house-warming party and looking forward to an evening of fun with their friends. Except, as it turns out, they don't really have any, with only two guests and the next-door neighbours turning up. Worse, their neighbour is the awkward Mrs Hinson, whose relationship with her son and daughter-in-law is at best rocky and uncomfortable. A string of disasters brought on by Michael's insistence - despite a lack of any noticeable talent - on doing all sorts of handywork himself do not help matters at all. The result is perhaps the worst party ever held!

FROM THE GROUP

Before Cheree even considered casting the play, she handed it to me to look at the set. Two entire gardens - including sheds, a rotary washing line and the backs of the houses - to fit into a space of about 25'x12' and still leave room for a cast of seven to move around. I've seen easier plays to stage - in fact, in terms of fitting things in, this is the toughest one I can remember doing! After a lot of head-scratching, I came up with a working plan: then realised we were going to have to be able to mark it all out (at both rehearsal venues) quickly and easily, just to get anywhere with the cast moves. So, right from the off, we needed half the props and all sorts of wooden and cardboard templates to work with and had to cart them around for the best part of three months. Meanwhile Pete and Steve were kept busy building the real items ready for the production itself and I had all the lights, sounds and incendiary devices (- including one in Stuart's wig!) to worry about. And two days of painting the stage walls with life-size brickwork. It really was a challenge to get this one organised, but looking at the photographs, it was also one of our best stage settings.

Mike - Set design and Stage Management

STAGE DIAGRAM