The Torch Theatre Company presents Only a Matter of Time by Alan PlaterTuesday 31 January – Saturday 11 February (excl Sundays & Mondays) Performances start at 7.30pm Tickets: £10.50 (£8.50) The production is directed by Peter Doran and features performances from Gareth Bale & Giles Thomas. The set is designed by Sean Crowley, with Lighting Design by Dan Jones. Once upon a time an Englishman met a Welshman in a field…..he was there to tell him the right time. It’s hard for us to imagine these days that in Victorian Britain, there was a difference in time of half-an-hour from the eastern to the western extremities. The play begins with the arrival of an Englishman representing Brunel: he comes to tell the Welsh that due to railway expansion, time needs to be standardised. Plater’s comedy tells of the consequences over the next 180 years. The first half is set in 1840, nine years on from the Merthyr Riots and the death of Welsh Martyr Dic Penderryn; A representative of Mr Brunel comes to Wales to inform the local communities that there will no longer be an eleven minute time difference between London and Cardiff but that time has to be standardised due to the expansion of the railways. The second half is set in the present day, with a Government representative arriving in Wales to consider a possible pardon for Dic Penderryn; unfortunately the train from London to Cardiff is running eleven minutes late! Originally written and produced for the radio the resulting strong dialogue grabs the audiences’ attention from the start and follows Plater’s favoured method of taking deeply serious ideas and kicking them around the stage until the stuffing drops out! Alan Plater is best known for writing popular television series such as The Barchester Chronicles, The Beiderbeck Trilogy, Keep the Aspidistra Flying and The Last of the Blond Bombshells. |
| Torch Theatre web site: www.torchtheatre.co.uk |
| e-mail: abigail@torchtheatre.co.uk |
Friday, January 13, 2006 |
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