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Rehearsed readings - Paradise Lost by Ben Power and Cleaner Point of View by Rodney Quinn
Directed by Janet Low and Rodney Quinn
Performances: January 2011
You may be aware that there are no full productions in January next year so that essential maintenance can take place. But... we couldn't pass up the opportunity to offer some exciting new projects as works in progress. The format for rehearsals and workshops is flexible, depending on how many people are interested in taking part. There are opportunities to contribute to all aspects of production and the results will be on show on several dates in January to be announced nearer the time. So, if you fancy it, get in touch and get involved!
Theatre Committee
Paradise Lost by Ben Power
Saturday, 22nd January 2011
A rehearsed reading of Ben Power's dramatic adaptation of Paradise Lost, John Milton's epic poem. The action joins Satan and his horrid crew at the point of first defeat. He calls the associates and co-partners of his loss to debate and jointly decide future strategy. His cunning plan to avoid outright war while achieving absolute victory is fed into debate via Beelzebub – "one next himself in crime, and next in power" – and persuades the indolent lawyer Belial and meat-head warmonger Moloch to support Satan's expedition to Earth. Secure in his democratic right, Satan sets off on his terrifying journey through Chaos, encountering the fearsome shapes of Sin and Death before finding Eden, and the unwitting objects of his fiendish scheme. Through subterfuge and deception, he cleverly lies his way past the guardian angels Gabriel and Raphael to present Eve with every good reason to eat an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Everything changes in an instant – Adam and Eve are reduced to trading reproaches and recriminations before their expulsion from Eden. Raphael describes the new future of toil and pain that they must face beyond the gates of Eden. Throughout the play a narrator lurks in the background, arguing with God, commenting on the action, and inviting the audience to pose its own questions. Finally he invents his own big idea set things straight in the future ...
Janet Low - janet.low@mac.com
Cleaner Point of View by Rodney Quinn
Friday, 21st January 2011
Set in the late 1970s in a fictional African country on the eve of its first democratic elections, this gripping piece of new writing tells of an assassination plot gone wrong. When a hitman accidentally takes three hostages, there are many questions to be asked. Who is paying him to do the hit? What are the real identities of his captives? And, most importantly of all, who may have inadvertently witnessed the key to the whole thing? A fast-paced (and at times very funny) thriller in which the characters' lives - and the future of their country - are at stake.
Rodney Quinn - qwinuk@yahoo.co.uk
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