Charles Johnson - an estate agent (mid 50's); Victoria Dukes - his mother-in-law (60s) Mary Holmes, Victoria's
elder sister (60's); Rachel Hudson, Mary's daughter (mid 40's) William Hudson (late 40's), Rachel's husband.
Detective Inspector Claire North, a divorcee, is buying a flat through charming Estate Agent, Charles Johnson.
Though separated from his very attractive, but mischievous, wife, Alex, she and Charles still live in the same cottage. Claire
has agreed to have dinner with Charles, and having returned home with him, stays overnight. Answering her mobile early the
following morning, she is summoned to the Royal Hotel where a body has been found in a bath.
When Alex's family assemble later that day to celebrate her fortieth birthday party, Claire arrives at the
cottage to tell them that the body in the bath is that of Alex, who had arranged an assignation the previous evening with
a man she met on the Internet, calling himself Iron Duke - the assumed killer. As evidence emerges that each member of the
family was in the hotel that evening, in suspicious circumstances, all find themselves possible suspects - each having a motive.
Much incriminating evidence against them is found in Alex's E-mail box, but when a second body is found in the hotel car park,
that of a private investigator, with incriminating images in his digital camera, Claire has to decide who kept the Iron Duke's
assignation with Alex, and who administered a date-rape drug, before strangling her and dumping the body in a bath of hot
water - and shooting the investigator!
An old-fashioned entertaining whodunit with many twists and turns to the surprise ending.
When Jill & Jacks daughter has her baby on Christmas day, and Gill breaks her legs,
murder merely adds to the chaos.
But Once a Year
by Reg Mitchell
Single set. 4m, 4f
Its Jill and Jacks turn to host Christmas. Their daughter is due to have her baby and their son-in-law's parents arrive
for the holiday. Jill's close friend, the actor Laura, and her dipsomaniac husband, Harry, are also guests. Jill is surprised
to learn that Laura's marriage is not all it seems, but when, in her haste to answer the phone, early on Christmas morning
to hear of the imminent arrival of her grand-daughter, Jill falls down the stairs, she manages to break both her legs. An
eventful Christmas continues with the arrival on Christmas day, of her blood-stained friend who announces that she has just
killed her husband. The plot ducks and weaves to the surprise ending.
This is a play not merely to be seen, but experienced. (Shrewsbury Chronicle)
The Clouded Yellow
by John Oliver
Full length domestic drama (1916)
Simple interior set. 3m 3f
Today, the British Army offers counselling to its shell-shocked and distressed troops. In the
1914-18 war, if you were of suitable rank, you would have been sent away to convalesce. Treatment for the rank and file, however,
was swift and merciless. John Oliver's play revolves around a group of people whose lives are deeply affected by this terrible
practice, and highlighting how all parties were trapped victims of this sorry chapter in our military history. John Oliver
always writes with a passion and conviction, plus an uncanny ability to convey a sense of time and place, leading the audience
through all aspects of the subject from the madness and cruelty of war, the anger and petty bigotry at home to all things
remotely seen as German, or the merest hint of cowardice, to the vulnerability of human relationships. (Shropshire Star)
This is a beautiful piece of work and provides a graphic and disturbing account of the
mental and emotional destruction wreaked by the War on the central family. As the shattering of Jamie's mind spreads its ripples
through the family, the play gathers a compelling momentum. (Stagecoach! WMA)
A wonderful modern two-hanky romantic comedy by Ian Harris
The Return of Harold Hardy
Set in America's South, The Return of Harold Hardy deals with the re-discovery
of a forbidden love between black and white, and the passions, both negative & positive, that such a love still, even
in the 21st Century, can arouse. (Requires a black actor in his fifties.) 4m, 2f
