by Rodney Ackland
Goodwood Theatre 166a Goodwood Road, Goodwood
April 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29 @ 7.30, Matinees Sunday 23 @ 4.00, Saturday 29 @ 2.00, Early Tuesday 25 @ 6.30
presented by arrangement with ORiGiN Theatrical, as agents for Samuel French Pty Ltd
Noël Coward meets Alfred Hitchcock
Independent Theatre kicks off 2017 with Rodney Ackland’s wickedly funny black comedy, based on a short story by Somerset Maugham.
Britain. 1948. The war is over. Petrol and paté are still being rationed. Hitler and Mussolini are gone. The new menace is gossip!
As the socially-conscious Skinner family get dolled up to go to a garden party for the Bishop of Capetown, a series of shock revelations disturb their tranquil suburban life.
For starters, their recently-widowed daughter, Laura, plans on wearing pink, instead of black. And she wants to get engaged to a travelling salesman while she's still in mourning.
Then they discover that not only has their maid been fraternising with American soldiers, but their cook is an unreconstructed Nazi. Both will have to go! . . . But cook is a wizard in the kitchen, and the maid's uncle sends them black market eggs from his farm.
As if this weren't enough, Laura now stuns them by revealing that her late husband died of something other than malaria.
All of this threatens their father’s candidacy for the Conservative Party – and the snobbish middle daughter's secretaryship of the Golf Club.
Do they go to the party, and brave it out? Do they go, but leave chatterbox 12-year-old Susan at home? Or do they all stay away, and risk exposure to gossipy speculation behind their backs? It's a living nightmare!
Described as “Noël Coward meets Alfred Hitchcock”, Ackland's brilliant script is social satire at its cleverest – an absolute comic riot!
REVIEW | THE ADVERTISER
"Before the Party by Independent Theatre calls for an Ackland encore" READ MORE...
CAST
AUBREY SKINNER · David Roach
BLANCHE SKINNER · Bronwyn Ruciak
LAURA WHITTINGHAM · Madeleine Herd
KATHLEEN SKINNER · Laura Antoniazzi
SUSAN SKINNER · Jenna Bezuidenhout
DAVID MARSHALL · Will Cox
NANNY · Myra Waddell
PRODUCTION TEAM
DIRECTOR · Rob Croser
STAGE MANAGER · Bob Weatherly
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER · Christy Stasinowsky
GRAPHIC DESIGNER · Nicholas Ely >>
