Andy Reed: IT Professional & Amateur Dramatics Enthusiast

//On Stage/Crimson Cocoanut

 

 

Crimson Cocoanut
Belfrey Theatre, Shropshire

Part of 'An Evening of Comedy and Drama'

October 2011

"The Crimson Cocoanut"

by Ian Hay

Wellington Theatre Company

An Absurdity in One Act

"The Crimson Cocoanut," first published in 1913, is set in a Soho café. The farce includes Russian spies, a policeman from Scotland Yard's CID, two love affairs, a bemused waiter and a device set to explode at any second.

Major General John Hay Beith (1876 –1952) was a teacher and soldier, and, under the pen name Ian Hay, a novelist and playwright. He was born in Lancashire, educated at Cambridge, and later fought in World War One in France and was awarded the Military Cross.

Cast (Click links for photos)

Jack Pincher (a detective) Dominic Silk
Robert (the waiter) Andy Reed
Mr Jabstick Tim Crowson
Nancy Jabstick Fliss Gee
Glisserinski John Binns
Mde. Glisserinski Beryl Edwards
   
Director Brian Hughes

The ensemble

... and the rest of 'An Evening of Comedy and Drama'

"After Magritte"

by Tom Stoppard

Wellington Theatre Company

"After Magritte" is theatre of surprise, of flamboyant surreal gestures, where legitimate reasoning is often used to bolster absurd argument. It holds together with abounding and intricately concocted idiocies, whose central image is a one-legged footballer hopping through the rain with a tortoise under his arm.

Tom Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937. His plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth, and The Invention of Love. In addition to his work for the stage, Stoppard has written a number of screenplays including The Human Factor, Empire of the Sun and Billy Bathgate. In 1999, he won an Oscar for "Best Screenplay" for Shakespeare in Love, which he co-authored.

Cast (Click links for photos)

Thelma Sara Newall-Lecrivain
Harris Rich Harris
Mother Marianne Foster
Foot Simon Phillips
Holmes Matt Richardson
   
Director Claire Hall

"Zoo"

by Terry Adlam

Little Eyeses

"Zoo" is a multi role farce based upon a day's events at the unfortunate Southmoor Wildlife and Zoological Park, where Richard, the manager, strives, with increasing desperation, to keep the public happy and safe. But he hadn't counted on the intervention of Raj the Tiger and a 6 foot penguin...

Terry Adlam is a comedy scriptwriter who started out as a special effects technician, working on such films as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Return of the Jedi". He later moved from film to television. Since then he has written over 2,000 sketches and short plays, including material for Spitting Image, The Freddie Starr Show and Hale and Pace as well as five full length plays.

Cast (Click links for photos)

Richard Stephen Davies
Wendy/Zoe Lynne James
Claire/Chimp Margaret Stanworth
Peter/Vistor Tim Crowson
Facker/Gate Simon Phillips
   
Director Brian Hughes

The ensemble

| www.ajreed.uk www.upstaged.co.uk |