The Nomads Double Bill: Cold Blooded Killer/Passengers

At their wonderful, modern theatre tucked away behind a row of shops in the village of East Horsley in Surrey, the Nomads produce not only drama and pantomimes of much merit, but twice a year, I think, a double bill of short plays in their intimate studio – 4 rows of seats, two of them tiered.

One always attends these full of anticipation, as the choice of plays is always fascinating. This time both plays were written by Nomad members. Not only written by, but directed by and performed in by them – this must have been a fascinating experience. Hard work, of course, and very rewarding too, I imagine.

This was a good pairing – both intriguing, exciting plays kept us on the edge of our seats, we never knew what to expect. They were performed, to my mind, in the right order too, the scary two-hander first, the lighter, comic one with a larger cast and more scenes second.

Cold Bloodied Killer

A rather swanky living room, at night. Two hooded figures enter, one soon disappears on a signal to depart, the other starts to plunder the desk.  Jack enters brandishing his gun, to confront the burglar.

Strangely she bears a striking resemblance to his recently deceased wife, Siobhan. And his mind starts working, conjuring up a clever plan to claim his wife’s inheritance (her mother had also died in the same shark incident in South Africa). Would Becky go along with it? Did she have a choice?  There was the gun, and the fact that Jack could report the burglary to the police. She agreed reluctantly to try, needing to learn everything about Siobhan in great detail, and perfect this lady’s Irish accent.

Who had the upper hand? This changed constantly throughout – Jack couldn’t denounce her to the police, she pointed out, as having stayed overnight, her DNA was all over the house, in the kitchen, spare bedroom, bathroom, so a burglary was implausible. First, she was offered £500, then she demanded £5000, later on discovering the extent of the possible inheritance, £100000. There were so many twists – Jack appeared one morning to discover her gone, and money missing from his wallet, so called the police. She reappeared, looking SO much more like the Siobhan she had seen in Jack’s photo – new hair colour and style, and wearing on of that lady’s dresses. For a moment Jack was confused.

The accent was perfected, along with the plan. Things went wrong, the gun changed hands, Becky wasn’t Becky but someone else, then someone else again. The tension kept rising, and rising.

This was an exciting watch, played to perfection by Geoff Rose-Michael as Jack and Helen Teasdale as Becky. At times the one had all the power, at times the other. When power changed, the other was perplexed, discombobulated, scared, defeated. They both brought this out very plainly. How would it end? Suspense to the very last minute! A gem of a play.

Passengers

This second play gets us to take a look at six clear cut characters, all lurching their way through life. Maisie, a single lady of middle years, who spends her busy working life at feline conferences, it seems, is taking her Mum, Beryl, to the bus station in London, where Mum is going on a coach trip to Bruges, with the most amazing amount of luggage. They’re running late, and moving fast with Mum is proving difficult. Maisie accosts Andy, a man of great wit: ‘Well, we’re all searching for our next adventure, - or Waitrose’ was just one of the many quips that I managed to note down in this fast-paced dialogue. The obliging Andy duly offers help with that luggage and gets Mum off on her trip. Maisie invites Andy for a coffee to thank him and gets his phone number, he seems a little reluctant, but it appears that they do meet up, one was already intrigued at the dynamics of this relationship – do they really like each other, or are they both just passing the time? And what was the dynamic between Mum and Maisie, that was also intriguing. Mum seemed far more clued up about life than Maisie did, with her knowledge of various dating Apps. Maisie seemed to be bogged down in her work.

A disaster in Bruges, as Mum is propositioned by her coach driver, who has the attitudes of a typical 1970s member of that profession. Shocked and horrified, she instructs Maisie to organise her trip back on Eurostar – with that man she wouldn’t spend another minute! There were some very funny scenes in the hotel in Bruges, where the hotelier Jonathon, played with great aplomb and French accent by Stephen Liddle, dealt with Ray ‘The Coach’, played amusingly by Ross Hodgkinson. Mum was a great part for Judy Abbott, who made her a very real, and great fun character of feisty personality. She was an interestED person, as well as an interesting one.

Maisie had found that Andy was not returning her calls. Yet in her predicament of how to escort Mum back from Bruges, she asked him whether he could spare the time to do this. The ever-obliging Andy, who never seemed to have much to do, although as he told us, he was a civil engineer, agreed. Maisie the career woman, - was Mum a slight annoyance? – was played well by Moyra Brookes, she also had some witty lines.

Andy and Mum had some marvellous and quite deep chats on their Eurostar journey, among other things about vulnerability - ‘I suppose I’m just 12 stone of vulnerability’. JP Judson was brilliant as Andy. His comic timing was superb. He seemed to relate far better to Mum than to her daughter, and indeed Mum was far more relaxed with him.

Some time later, Mum went round to Andy’s flat, ostensibly to return a lunchbox he’d forgotten on the train, and discovered he was now living with the rather dishy Patrice, who had been the refreshment attendant on the Eurostar! Patrice only had a brief appearance, but Paul Reynolds, the writer and director, managed to make him also a real character.

So in that short time, we felt we knew all these 6 people. Ships that pass in the night, yet that’s what life is like! This short play gave us many surprises, and a great many laughs.

Both plays were well-written nuggets. It was fun to see the authors performing too. An enthralling, exciting evening, very well appreciated by the audience. Once again, the Nomads had come up trumps!

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