John Antrobus
THREE AMAZING PLAYS FOR THE STAGE OF GOOD REPORT A historical take on the early days of a comedy-writing partnership between John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Mix in fifties BBC Radio corridors and a determination to root out left wing elements. There was no blacklist at the Beeb, that would not be subtle, but a writer could find himself unemployed, no reason given. We also meet bomb-happy ex-army officers become producers who were intent on imposing get-your-hair-cut discipline amongst anyone with artistic leanings. First produced at The White Bear Theatre, December, 2004, and was directed by John Antrobus. Heralded as ’play of the week’ in Time Out... LACK OF MORAL FIBRE Produced on BBC Radio Drama, 1976, with Richard Briars and Brian Murphy. A play always intended for the stage, still knocking on the door. Wing Commander Teddy Wilmot, Bomber Command, retired, runs a pub on the moors in the early postwar days, a dream come true shared with his wife, ’We’ll build a sweet little nest, somewhere in the west...’ except that it is becoming a bit of a nightmare as he struggles with rising debt. However, he keeps drinking in the company of his ex-army barman, Dennis. Did Dennis abandon the front line in Italy to flog cigarettes in Naples? That is unclear... Where is Teddy’s wife? Gone to stay at her sister’s; except that turns out not to be the case. She is in hospital and it is Dennis who reveals this. Teddy, the Skipper, attempts to bring all his morale-boosting wartime skills to this phase of his life. What will the results be? The play’s the thing... THE LOONEYS First produced at the Traverse Theatre, director Michael Rudman, who subsequently recast the parts of the looneys at The Hampstead Theatre, London, starring Leonard Rossiter and Colin Welland. A dysfunctional family living in the country are celebrating Katey’s 21st birthday as they wait for daddy to return home. He is a film star who’s star has fallen. But the first visitors to arrive are two escaped inmates from the local mental hospital. When the alcoholic father, Arnold Gosport, eventually arrives home he decides he can use the disturbed and maybe dangerous visitors to his own advantage but with an enabling wife and his own off-the wall personality and his long-suffering agent who turns up for the party, the mix becomes the stuff of an absurd series of outcomes...
