EPT Get Married
Classic JB Priestly for EPT’s full length show
Edinburgh People’s Theatre are revisiting JB Priestley’s When We Are Married this week at the Church Hill Theatre, with a four date run starting tonight, Wednesday.
The company is hot from a very strong performance in the recent SCDA One Act Festival at the same venue, with David Greig’s Yellow Moon, directed and adapted by Niloo-Far Khan, which came second, winning through to the next round.
The couples put on a brave face in EPT’s When We Are Married. Photo: Robert Fuller
When We are Married is on a very different tone. Set around 1900 In the heart of Northern England it is a farcical comedy in which three respectable couples – married on the same day, at the same church and by the same vicar – return to celebrate 25 years of blissful matrimony.
Or so they think…
Director of this week’s production is Val Lennie, who was involved in both of EPT’s previous productions of this play. She assisted with wardrobe for 1975 production which went on to win the final round of the SCDA Full Length Play competition in Greenock.
Eighteen years later, in 1993, Lennie played the part of Annie Parker: the downtrodden wife who becomes the worm that turns, when the happy celebrations are brought to a sudden halt by a shocking revelation – these pillars of the community aren’t quite as respectably married as they thought they were.
stood the test of time
When Lennie came back to the play again, as director, she realised that it was in no need of modernisation of updating.
She told Æ: “Once I reread it I felt that, unlike many plays, it had stood the test of time, was still very funny and would appeal to a modern audience. I also felt that it worked best when presented in a straightforward way and needed to be set in the original time period of 1908.
“I didn’t feel that attempting to bring it up-to-date would improve this lovely old classic and therefore haven’t done so.”
Indeed, the comedy is all there in the script. Once the revelation is made, the home truths begin to fly like confetti with conjugal rites turning to farcical fights.
With a photographer from the local paper due to arrive any second, a missing housekeeper and a doorbell that won’t stop ringing, the question is whether the the three couples can keep a lid on their embarrassing secret.
As Lennie adds: “It is well written, full of wonderful characters who are great fun for the actors, and is a delight to direct. It is not surprising that When We Are Married is one of J.B. Priestley’s best loved plays.”
* Hugh Simpson’s review of the show is now online here: “✭✭✭✭✩ Charming fun”
Listings
When We Are Married
Church Hill Theatre, 33a Morningside Road, EH10 4DR
Wednesday 18 March – Saturday 21 March, 2015
Weds-Fri: 7.30pm; Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickes and details: http://www.ept.org.uk/shows/show=201503married.html
SCDA One Act Festival 2015, Eastern Division Final
Church Hill Theatre, 33a Morningside Road, EH10 4DR
Thursday 2 April: 7.30pm
Killin Drama Club – Dirty Dusting by Ed Waugh & Trevor Wood
Aberdour Players – Three More Sleepless Nights by Caryl Churchill
Edinburgh Theatre Arts – Blind Date by Peter Quilter
Friday 3 April: 7.30 pm
Edinburgh Peoples Theatre – Yellow Moon by David Grieg
Tryst Theatre – The Lockerbie Bomber by Kenneth Ross
Kirkcaldy ADS – The Briggs Boys by Jamie Thorburn
Saturday 4 April: 7.30 pm
St. Serfs Players – Please Release Me by Neil Robertson
Fintry ADS – The Path Of True Love by Barry Grantham
Leslie ADC – The Night I Danced With Cyd Charisse by Nancy McPherson
Tickets and details: http://www.scdaedinburgh.org.uk/page49.html
ENDS
