The Positive Hour by April de Angelis
Directed by David Lomas
Performances: Wednesday 19th to Saturday 22nd July 2006, 8pm, Prompt Corner
Some scripts leap out at you as soon as you pick them up and demand to be put on stage. Exactly as with Loveplay last year, I was immediately drawn to The Positive Hour by its directness, spiky issues and crackling wit. There are certainly themes in common with April de Angelis' slightly earlier Playhouse Creatures (recently seen in Prompt Corner, December 2005). We are again concerned with a close-knit group of women trying to survive, to find their own place in a pretty unwelcoming world and to form relationships with men.
However this play is far from being a period piece. It was first performed in 1997 and it is very much set in today's world, with all of the characters facing very contemporary dilemmas and traps. Two of the main characters - Miranda and Emma - were students in the 70s and they grew up in a world which was to some extent more idealistic and less determined by all-pervading capitalist forces and corporations than today. Where they now stand with regard to issues of morality, self-protection and self-expression are questions which are central to the play. The script keeps asking whether the driving enthusiasms of their youth - feminism, socialism, truthful artistic communication - continue to have any validity at all in today's world. But if this is starting to sound as if it might be a bit over serious and worthy, please don't be put off. This is very much a laugh-out-loud funny and earthy piece, just as Loveplay was a rude and comic exploration of some pretty dark and important issues last year.
The biggest draw for anyone thinking about auditioning will, I think, be the sheer quality of the parts on offer. As with April de Angelis' Playhouse Creatures the four women's roles are unusually meaty and feisty. These are:
Miranda: a social worker who has very recently returned to work after illness. She is highly principled, assertive, and dangerously close to snapping point with her job and personal life. The pivotal character in the play. Age 35-50.
Emma: Miranda's best friend from her college days who has been unsuccessfully trying to make a living as an artist for close to 20 years. Facing an almighty mid-life crisis. Age 35-50.
Paula: a single mother from Lewisham, Miranda's client, who is determined to reclaim her daughter from middle class foster parents. Close to the edge, she has more than her fair share of wonderfully acidic one-liners. Age 25-35
Nicola: a young woman who lives with a domineering, selfish father. Softer-edged than Paula, she is also trying to escape a very unhappy home circumstance. Age 18-30.
Roger: Miranda's long-term partner, a frustrated college lecturer with a book which has remained unfinished for years and who is not totally unaware of the attractiveness of certain of his young female students. More mid-life crisis brewing. Age 40-early 50s.
The Man: Emma's one night stand who introduces her to a darker side of sexuality. Slightly mysterious, polite and very English! Age 30+
Victoria (to be cast at a different time from Youth Group): Paula's daughter aged 8.
David Lomas Director
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