Number 15.5 - Don't Dress For Dinner - Marc Camoletti/Robin Hawdon

 A brilliantly funny farce I'm performing in at the end of May

Bernard's wife Jacqueline is going away for the weekend to see her mother so Bernard invites his mistress Suzanne over to stay.  He also invites his best friend Robert as an alibi so if anyone asks, he can say she's Robert's girlfriend. 

However, when he tells his wife Robert is coming over, she cancels her plans and decides to stay.  What Bernard doesn't know is that Robert is Jacqueline's lover. 

Robert goes along with the plan to pretend to be Suzanne's lover because otherwise Bernard will find out. When the hired cook Suzette arrives before Suzanne and introduces herself as Suzy, Robert declares her to be his girlfriend, much to her surprise and Jacqueline's disgust, and events rapidly spiral out of control. 

When Suzanne arrives, she has to be the cook, since Robert's "girlfriend" is already here.  Lies pile upon lies and things get incredibly confusing, as per all the best farces.

The quality of some of these lines make it difficult to believe that it's been translated from French. 

It's one of the funniest scripts I've read and we've got a really good cast (including me).

We perform the last week of May at Stepping Stones Nursery, Chorley Old Road, Bolton

The Marco Players event tickets from TicketSource.

Numbers 24 & 25 - Soldier from the wars returning - David Campton - At Midnight I steal Your Soul - John Probert

 

I don't want to waste an entire entry on the David Campton book.

In this one, a barman and barmaid reduce a returning soldier to a quivering ruin of who he was. 

Despite the fact that he's one of my favourite playwrights, this just didn't work for me. It's very short - only 16 pages.  It's described as a grotesque comedy, which I thought was a great sign. His comedies of menace like Little Brother Little Sister are amazingly good.  

I didn't get this one though.  I just couldn't tune into it at all which is unusual for me with Campton. I actually read it twice and still didn't get it. Normally with his plays, i can see it happening as i read it, hear the characters talking.  Not this time, and I don't know why.

A rare misstep.

Next up was another cheat read. John Probert's gloriously titled "At Midnight I steal your Soul". It actually says on the front cover a quick read - so it was ideal.  I read it at lunchtime today. Its a short story in large print and double spaced to make it dyslexic friendly.

A young woman attends a choir rehearsal at an unusual location - a local mental hospital. However, something is stalking the corridors that's more frightening and more vicious than any human.

It's a good fun read. It's atmospheric, weird and, occasionally laugh out loud funny.  I loved the cameo appearance of two of Mr Probert's fellow horror writers on the British scene, the two Gary's, Fry and McMahon, both of whom sounded very like the real thing.

If you're looking for a quick easy read with a gleeful nastiness behind it, this will suit you admirably.