JERSEY ARTS CENTRE
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Say Something Happened
by Alan Bennett
Directed by Liz Fisher
"Say Something Happened is a delightful play, in true Alan Bennett style. However, we have taken the artistic liberty of changing the setting to Jersey, with Mum and Dad being a true old Jersey couple. Old age meets the establishment in the form of a trainee young social worker from the Mainland!! The characters are wonderfully brought to life by Carole Owens and Geoffrey Fisher who play Mum and Dad and Elizabeth Sale who plays June Potter the social worker."
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Alternative Accommodation
by Pam Valentine
Directed by Liz Breen
"We have a great cast with Sue Guenier as Anna (mother) Mike Berry as Peter (son) Debbie Taylor as Joy (elder daughter) and Dani Perrier as Gemma (younger daughter). We have been rehearsing at The Barn for a few weeks and are aiming to put all three plays on at the Arts Centre in October this year.
The story behind Alternative Accommodation is a simple one.
Anna has been recently widowed. Her married life has been one where she has stayed at home looking after husband and children. Her husband has ruled the household. Her children have all got together and decided it would be for the best for their mother (on the basis that the house is too big for her to manage) to go and live in a Residential home or in a flat with a warden on call to help her with any difficulties.
Peter is a financial adviser. Joy runs her own business and Gemma is the wife of a Vicar. They all lead busy lives. So, they arrange to meet with Anna to tell her what they think she should do. But Anna has a surprise in store. She is not the meek (maybe unworldly) little housewife they think she is. She has been learning to drive, has got herself an I Pad, has even looked at selling the house because guess what, she is going to Florida and surprise, surprise she likes the odd glass of whisky! In the space of half an hour she turns her children’s lives upside down.
It’s a play that makes you think not only about how children view their parents and the relationships between them all but also that its never too late to do what you want in life to make you happy.
If this sounds a serious down-hearted play then don’t be deceived, there are some lovely pieces of comedy and many in the audience will be cheering Anna on as she goes to tell her children exactly what she thinks of their lives and how she is about, finally to enjoy the rest of her days.
I’m rooting for her and I think you will all be by the end of the play."
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Parcel
by David Campton
Directed by Debbie Taylor
"Grandma, old, silent and almost immobile, is passed from one relative to another, who ‘care for her’ from ‘pure charity’, treating her as inanimate bundle, a parcel. Transferring her from one home to another, she disappears.
As Rose and Arthur search for her, the hurt and bewilderment suffered by some characters is revealed. This play is a comedy, but it has a certain poignancy as it deals with a difficult subject, that of what to do with our elderly relatives. Although written some years ago, the same issues remain. David Campton has written this in the genre of the theatre of the absurd, where individuals try to make sense of the world and their situation, often using repetition and non-sequiturs as they do so. (An example of this genre is Waiting for Godot.) Michelle Parker as Rose and Stuart Langhorn as Arthur really bring this play to life, and both use the script to its best, heightening the humour of the play. They are ably supported by Gemma Derrick as Amelia, Clare Scott as the Conductor, Dominic Egre as the Man, Benjamin Taylor as the Policeman and Christine Haggar as Grandma."
