067 - Relatively Speaking (1974)

By ALAN AYCKBOURN  

Greg and Ginny are in love and planning to be married. Greg finds a strange pair of slippers under the bed and is too besotted to believe they might have been left by another man (which would also explain the bunches of flowers and boxes of sweets filling Ginny’s apartment). When Ginny goes off for a day in the country—supposedly to visit her parents but actually to break things off with her older married lover, Philip—Greg decides to follow her. Showing up unannounced before Ginny, Greg asks for her hand from the man he thinks is her father, while Philip mistakenly believes that the strange young man is asking permission to marry Sheila, Philip’s exceedingly befuddled wife. Once Ginny arrives, she convinces Philip to play the role of her father. Meanwhile, Greg still believes that Sheila is Ginny’s mother. The situation is further complicated by a series of hilarious misunderstandings until no one (including the audience) can be exactly sure who’s in love with whom.

(We performed this play again in 1996)

066 - Strike Happy (1974)

By DUNCAN GREENWOOD

The wife of union member Albert Hellewell declares strike action herself and moves out, leaving Albert to cope with the arrival of glamorous variety actress Mrs Flannel and her daughter, who get rather too comfortable in the Hellewell home. 

065 - I'll Get My Man (1973)

By PHILLIP KING

Peter Graham, T.V. series hero, seeks refuge at the country rectory with his mild clerical Uncle Humphrey from all the females who continually chase after him, and in particular from Pixie Potter. Humphrey, horrified by the threatened loss of his housekeeper who has been dismissed by his formidable sister, advertises for a wife but absentmindedly omits the important word “marriage". These two occurrences resoundingly shatter the peace of the village. Answers to the ad pour in. The arrival of the dignified Bishop of Lax adds to the confusion. Peter finds the vicarage no refuge from Pixie Potter and even more hectic than the outside world.