A burlesque – dances, lies, laughs, sings even cries its way to a hideously funny conclusion!!
Murray Lachlan Young’s hilarious new verse play – on tour Autumn 2012.
Touring 14 September-19 October 2012
Touring to Theatres, arts centres
On the road 4 actors plus 1 dedicated stage manager (late night ‘after show’ performances with Murray Lachlan Young can be arranged on request for an additional fee)
The play
A full moon rises over a windswept cottage in the middle of Cornwall
The children are in bed, the wine is breathing nicely and the dinner is in the oven
It’s Gordon and Celia’s wedding anniversary. They wanted to ask their oldest and best friends Zach and Jane down from London. The only problem is that Zach and Jane aren’t Zach and Jane anymore. Jane has gone and Julia has taken her place. Julia is: twenty five, French and a burlesque performer – annoyingly bright and disgustingly gorgeous.
As the wine flows the food reaches dizzying new heights of culinary distinction – but each course seems to bring a new revelation. Until we become aware that no one seems to be telling the truth to anyone about anything.
We watch the characters slowly stripped of all pretensions and secrets. Savaged in the glorious downward spiral of an evening that will leave them with no option but to take a good hard look at just about everything.
The process so far
With the support of a small Arts Council GFA and £5,000 of crowd sourced funding Exeter based Director Paul Jepson and Cornwall based poet Murray Lachlan Young began working on a scenario for a play in January of this year. During a residency at Beaford Arts in North Devon they developed the scenario into a series of scenes with the help of the actors Mary Woodvine and Rory Wilton (both from Cornwall). This was followed by a second residency in April at Dartington where the company grew to include the actors Jerome Wright and Kirsty Osmon. In between the two residencies Murray wrote first a prose draft and then a verse draft in response to the initial improvisations.
Following further work on the verse draft a final residency took place at London’s Drill Hall prior to a reading to an invited audience to rave reviews. Now the play is going into full production – heading to the Edinburgh Festival over summer before embarking on a national tour.
