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A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 3w, 7m
Mike Stott
The play is a raucous sex comedy, that was simply too outrageous to be staged in Britain when originally written, so it premiered in a German production in 1973 at the Bochum Schauspielhaus, directed by Peter Zadek. It wasn’t until 1975 that the play was produced at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. It then transferred to the Mermaid Theatre and the Garrick in London the following year. The play was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and made stars out of its cast, one that included Julie Walters, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy.
Custom dwindles in the Tinsleys' corner shop when Trevor expresses sympathy for the local vicar and discusses his theories on free love to the few customers left. But Shirley, a newcomer, agrees with him. Trevor goes to Shirley's and they make wild, passionate love until Eric arrives and Trevor makes an undignified exit, witnessed by Mrs. Baldry who informs Eric and Irene. Eric already knows and condones it, but Irene is hurt and leaves home. When Mrs Baldry turns up begging the miserable Trevor to make love to her he is so horrified he falls down the cellar steps breaking several bones. Irene, Shirley and Eric come to visit him in hospital and Irene, having been introduced to the joys of uninhibited sex under Eric and Shirley's guidance, puts forward the joint idea of them all running a chicken farm together.
Trevor Tinsley: mid 20s. Irene Tinsley: mid 20s. Rev. A J Thwaite: homosexual; middle-aged. Sgt. Harry Asquith: policeman; middle-aged. Mrs Baldry: a gossip; middle-aged. Stanley Baldry: her son, simple, young. Shirley Smith: mid-20s. Eric Smith: mid-20s. Desmond Ainsley: the bread man, jovial; early middle age. Shane Pritchard: a patient in the hospital.
2 Living-rooms, a Shop, a Hospital Room.