Grass and Quake - Two One Act Plays

Peaslake Players made a super choice for their autumn production of one act plays. Two more contrasting themes could hardly have been found – we were transported from a very cosy (kind of!) home counties home to deepest South America in the middle of an earthquake. Two very different scenarios indeed, and it worked so well.

Grass

Written by P. P. member Tinx Newton, Grass was a gentle comedy centred around long married couple Frank and Rita. Frank is a stuffy old chap, a creature of habit, whose comfortable life revolves around the golf club, and his car. Rita bakes good orange cake, and is very much a family woman, yet yearns for more. Frank has a great sense of humour though, and Mark Davies had us all chuckling away throughout, and excellent portrayal of this typical Grumpy Old Man, yet not just a caricature, very much a real person. Rita, too, was very real, finding it hard to conceal her irritation at Frank’s silly japes, and flippant attitude to life, easy to understand after so many years of marriage. Of course she felt taken for granted, the provider of endless cups of tea, and food. Tinx Newton, the author, played this role herself, and we could sense her frustration and urge to bash him on the head with a frying pan! A super performance.

Great excitement was in the air, as their daughter Julie and her American husband Brad were due over from the States. And there was the rub – Frank couldn’t stand Brad, and one could see why, as Brad was the typical Californian hippy, sporting a headband, colourful clothing, and I think a moustache. Great casting here of Karen Warren as Julie, calm and sensible, and Ted Horton, also calm but very Californian, into therapy etc, and grower of cannabis (for his own use, of course). Much of the humour revolved around the clash of personalities between archetypal Brit Frank and Californian Brad – even the name irritated Frank!

There were several very amusing themes in the play – would Frank lose his licence, after ‘just a couple of knocks’, just as he was about to purchase a new car?  Would Constable Golightly finally be granted membership of the golf club? (A committee meeting was held at Frank’s house where this issue came up). Brad found Frank a bit uptight and tried to persuade him to partake of a bit of weed to calm his nerves, and was met of course with an angry dismissal. Brad was quite a cookie baker, so later Frank inadvertently took one of the wrong sort, to great hilarity, just as the Constable came to interview him about his recent accidents. This coincided with the committee meeting at Frank’s house for the Golf Club with Frank ‘out of sorts’ after eating the dodgy cookie.

This gentle and often delightfully funny comedy was well-directed by Tricia Monk, with great characterisation and good comic timing from the whole team. We hope to see more plays by Tinx Newton.

Quake

In Quake we found ourselves in a scene of devastation in a in an abandoned cattle station in a South American desert immediately after a severe earthquake. The loud rumblings and roarings were quite shocking, and they kept happening, aftershock after aftershock. Five women who had been travelling in a 4 by 4 had had a narrow escape after their vehicle was hit by a landslide, which had killed their male driver. They found shelter in the nearby cattle station, where there were scenes of devastation, tables, chairs, tea chests, cupboards knocked over. It looked as though the camp had been occupied until very recently, various hats were on the floor, for example, and they luckily found stocks of food.

There then followed a kind of ‘Lord of the Flies’ situation. Ellen (Alison Colvile) who was the wife of the most senior official back at the base they were attached to, felt that she had the natural authority to be the leader here, although she really had few practical ideas of what to do. Marcia (Sarah Knott) was in fact the more practical person, and took over the decisions about what was to be done leaving Ellen feeling totally useless. Pearl (Katie Kinnes) set off to find and organise provisions, and got on with a positive attitude, making what meals she could from the beans and other things she found. Ellen, wanting to redeem herself, at one stage baked a loaf of bread, to everyone’s delight, only to discover the flour she had found was in fact gypsum!  A moment of lightness and humour, which lifted the mood temporarily. We felt for poor Ellen though!

So everyone found their tasks. Generally they got on, though there was a lot of tension, obviously, as they debated what to do. Sue (Alessandra Daidon) and Marcia had a long talk about their fears. Pearl managed to haul the dead driver from the car, and they buried him. They had decided to wait at the camp, and make an SOS sign with the gypsum they had found. The days passed, which we noticed by the way their rather lovely 70s dresses, skirts, trousers gradually got ripped, sleeves became shorter, outfits more practical, and the days got crossed off the calendar on the wall. Gradually the post-earthquake silence was replaced by the sounds of birdsong  and crickets. One plane passed overhead. No rescue came. Tension built. Ellen apologised for her uppity attitude at first, and did indeed come up with some good ideas. Due to illness, the part of Sheena was taken on at the last minute by Ellie Galloway, and she made a very good job of it.

Strong performances indeed from all 5 women. We so wanted them to be rescued. In the end they decided to try their luck at walking. And so they left, Marcia taking just one final look behind.

This was also an excellent production, well cast and well directed by Sarah Trotman – food for thought, what would WE have done?

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