This Happy Breed by Noël Coward1919: almost unscathed from his time in the trenches, Frank Gibbons returns to civilian life, starts a new job in a travel agency and moves his wife, Ethel, their three children, Reg, Vi and Queenie, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Flint, into a new home near Clapham Common.
On the day of the move to Number 17 Sycamore Road, Frank is delighted to discover that their nearest neighbour is Bob Mitchell, an old comrade-in-arms whom he had given up for dead in 1915. With the Mitchells – Bob, his wife Nora, and son Billy - living cheek by jowl with the Gibbonses, the two families adapt to life in suburbia - and to peacetime. Over the next 20 years, as their parents slip into middle-age, the children grow up and become the next generation, subject to all the usual trials and tribulations: political awakenings, doomed romances, tragic accidents, unexpected weddings, and shameful elopements, the human face of the two momentous decades between the wars stretching from the coming of the Jazz Age, the General Strike and the depression, to the rise of fascism, appeasement and Munich. Written in the spring of 1939, but rarely seen on the stage after David Lean's magnificent film version was released in 1944, Coward's saga of the lives and loves of one lower-middle-class family and their friends during a turbulent period of history is warm-hearted, funny, deeply moving and infused with a love of Britain and its people. |
CAST
Ethel Gibbons Helen Logan Mrs Flint Jacqueline Dutoit Sylvia Gibbons Stephanie Willson* Frank Gibbons Mark Elstob Bob Mitchell Owen Aaronovitch* Vi Gibbons Anna McGarahan* Queenie Gibbons Hannah Howie* Reg Gibbons John Winchester* Sam Leadbitter George Arvidson* Phyllis Blake Gemma McElhinney* Edie Tabitha Tingey* Billy Mitchell Lee Dillon-Stuart |
CREATIVE TEAM
Director John Durnin Set & Costume Designer Adrian Rees Lighting Designer Wayne Dowdeswell Stage Manager David Brown Deputy Stage Manager (book) Jo Ashberry Assistant Stage Manager Heather Saunderson |
Things are looking up for sporting, man-about-town, Sir Hector Benbow . . .Not only has he finally managed to offload his gloomy country pile, Thark, onto an unsuspecting buyer, but he's also caught the eye of the beautiful Cherry Buck. And while his wife is away visiting friends, Hector plans a romantic liaison à deux.Unfortunately, Lady Benbow returns home unexpectedly - and Hector has to act fast. Helped by Ronny, his plucky nephew, Cherry is passed off as Mrs. Frush, the new owner of Thark - only for the real Mrs. Frush to suddenly turn up, complaining that the house she bought in good faith turns out to be haunted . . .Hector manages to talk his way out of the, er, marital misunderstanding. But it seems that the only way to convince Mrs. Frush not to renege on the house purchase is for the Benbows to decamp to Thark - and prove that it is untainted by the supernatural.
|
CAST
Hook Greg Powrie * Warner Anna McGarahan * Cherry Buck Hannah Howie * Lionel Frush George Arvidson * Sir Hector Benbow Mark Elstob Ronny Gamble John Winchester Lady Benbow Helen Logan Kitty Stratton Tabitha Tingey * Mrs Frush Jacqueline Dutoit Jones Dougal Lee |
CREATIVE TEAM
Director Ken Alexander Set & Costume Designer Nigel Hook Lighting Designer Wayne Dowdeswell Stage Manager David Brown Deputy Stage Manager (book) Maggi Lindsay Assistant Stage Manager Rachel Rieley |