A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

What is Susan's Secret?

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  3f, 3m

The Cider Mill Inn is an old, rustic and somewhat run down country inn owned and operated by an endearing elderly couple, Michael and Susan Edwards. At first they appear to be bordering on senility. We quickly learn however that they are very clever con artists, preying on their unsuspecting guests!

What is Susan's Secret?

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3f, 3m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for All Audiences

Details

Summary

The Cider Mill Inn is an old, rustic and somewhat run down country inn owned and operated by an endearing elderly couple, Michael and Susan Edwards. At first they appear to be bordering on senility. We quickly learn however that they are very clever con artists, preying on their unsuspecting guests, by advertising huge discounts to various tradesmen. Using an elaborate check-in form with duplicate copies, guests are, in fact, signing a work contract, requiring them to perform various tasks and improvements at the inn. Over the course of three weekends, plumbers, tile layers, carpenters and electricians are recruited to do work they never expected.

This unique play offers theatres the opportunity for the other twelve characters (Besides Susan and Michael) to be played by either two males and two females, or twelve different actors, or any number in between. The characters vary from the world's most boring man, (his wife says he's had charisma bypass surgery), to a young couple on their honeymoon. Audiences will fall in love with each of these distinctive characters, but especially the loving relationship between the two main characters, Michael and Susan, so touching that this play might be called a love story, if it wasn't first and foremost a farce.

So, what is Susan's secret? On this subject the authors remain silent, preferring instead to let the audience decide on the truth, which of course, in a Parker play, is only revealed in the last few seconds of the show.

History
What Is Susan's Secret? was first produced by Rocky and Claudie Varcoe at Class Act Dinner Theatre in Whitby, Ontario, Canada on January 15, 2011.
Performing Groups
  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features Physical Comedy
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)

Music

  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Michael Parker

Michael Parker

Michael Parker (1935-2019) was active in the theatre almost all his life. At age 14, in England, where he was born and raised, he won the title role in a regional production of Terence Rattigan’s play The Winslow Boy, for which he received a Best Actor of the Year award. By a ...

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Susan Parker

Susan Parker

Susan Parker, a prolific Concord Theatricals/Samuel French-published playwright, forged a remarkable theatrical legacy collaborating alongside her late husband with a portfolio of seven acclaimed plays that have graced stages both in the United States and across the globe sin ...
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