2010

April

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Out of Order

by Ray Cooney

Directed by Keith Pollard

	Cast
	Richard Willey	Roland Garrad
	The Manager	Steve Hill
	The Waiter	Aubrey Sinden
	Jane Worthington	Laura Cade
	A Body	Graham Baldock
	George Pigden	Keith Miller
	The Maid	Esther De Vries
	Ronnie Worthington	Tom Miller
	Pamela Willey	Carol Ardley
	Gladys	Rose White



	The action of the play takes place in suite 648 of the Westminster Hotel, London, at about 8.30pm on a September evening.

Synopsis

When Richard Willey, a Government Junior Minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane Worthington, one of the Opposition's typists, things go disastrously wrong, beginning with the dicovery of a "body" trapped in the hotel's only unreliable sash window. Desperately trying to get out of an extremely sticky situation, Richard calls for his PPS, George Pigden who, through Richard's lies sinks further and further into trouble with everybody and ends up going through an identity crisis.

Things go from bad to worse with the arrival of Ronnie, Jane's distraught young husband and with the addition of an unscrupulous waiter, Mrs. Willey and Nurse Foster things really come to a head!

Just hanging around May I have this dance?

What should we do next? How would you like to earn a bob or two?

How did I get here? Honestly, it's all perfectly innocent

But ... what ... eh ... pardon .. who? Love ... Mrs. Willey!

Non capisco Not you again!

It's not as bad as it looks, Nurse Foster Oh, bloody hell!

Endnote - A somewhat unsung feature of the set for this play was a superb chalk drawing of the Palace of Westminster, glimpsed here through the open sash window. This was drawn for us by Karen Spencer and, at the date of writing this, it is still there behind the scenes (we can't bring ourselves to clean it off until we really have to).

Endnote 2 - I see from the script that Donald Sinden played the part of Richard Willey during its run at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, in 1990. Previous to that, it was performed at the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead (under the title Whose Wife Is It Anyway?) with Ray Cooney as George Pigden.