We finished an extremely funny play last session entitled “Breath of Spring” by Peter Coke. The play was West End hit in 1958, portraying Dame Beatrice and her lodgers – a posse of posh but impoverished “paying guests” who hit on a novel way of making money while discovering what jolly good fun it is to be criminals. After finding how easy to snuffle a fur coat or two carelessly left unattended in shops and cafes, they set about their unlikely new career, selling off the stolen goods to donate the proceeds anonymously to assist similarly impoverished friends. In the end, when a policeman turns up to report a fur coat was found in a local cafe all panic breaks out among the house guests. After total confusion, excuses and the police convinced that these people are not the highly organised gang responsible for stealing and selling the fur coats things settle down and house members talked about relaxing holidays overseas. A couple of guests chat about another fund raiser, others gather round. The final line in the play is “Well, my idea is this. We . . . . .” Much laughter all round.
The next play we started was “Inheritance” by Hannie Rayson, written after two of her block buster successes - “Life after George” and “Hotel Sorrento”. “Inheritance” has been described as a powerful new drama where duty contends with freedom, and the differences of race, gender and generation must be reconciled before the claims on “Allandale” and its families may be settled. Some key characters are the Myrtle twins, Dibs Hamilton and Girlie Delaney who are turning 80 in the very near future, all members of both key families are descending upon the family home in the Mallee district of Victoria to see who will be the one to inherit the family property, “Allandale”, when the ageing Farley has gone. Already our group has had some enormous bouts of laughter at the various situations and as the plot thickens. We all are excited about continuing with this script.
Keith Rogers