‘The Lesson’ by Ionesco - His new pupil is bright and accomplished, so the professor (Richard Ellis) wastes no time in commencing his zany and nonsensical lesson. He demonstrates that the pupil (Lindsay Barker) still has a lot to learn and impresses on her his formidable mastery of all subjects. Whilst supremely ridiculous, Ionesco's comedy becomes a grapple for power and dominance in which the fate of professor and pupil alike is already sealed. Saturday 28th Jan, Wednesday 1st Feb - Friday 3rd Feb.
‘The Dumb Waiter’ by Harold Pinter – Ben (Steve Williamson) and Gus (Nick Brown) are hit men holed up in a dingy basement awaiting their next job. In a wonderfully lean, darkly comic and suspenseful script, the characters veer between incarnations of the Kray twins and Laurel and Hardy as tension and farce build skilfully, punctuated by mysterious interruptions from the dumb waiter. Friday 27th Jan, Tuesday 31st Jan, Friday 3rd Feb and Saturday 4th Feb.
‘Gosforth’s Fete’ by Alan Ayckbourn - Publican Gordon Gosforth (Charlie Cook) is in his element organising the annual village fete. Gradually, however, his relationship with the cub master’s fiancé, inanimate objects and even the elements, conspire together to turn his best laid plans into farcical chaos. Friday 27th Jan, Monday 30th Jan, Thursday 2nd Feb and Saturday 4th Feb.
‘A Chip in the Sugar’ by Alan Bennett - Graham’s harmonious yet hum-drum life is thrown out of kilter when an old flame of his mother butts in. Graham’s stability comes under threat in every respect. But when Graham (Ian McBride) realises that his growing paranoia is not born of imagination, the revelation leaves life ‘restored to the perpendicular’. Alan Bennett’s remarkable talent for getting inside someone’s head and giving us a view from that vantage point is outstanding in this poignant yet amusing tale. Saturday 28th Jan, Monday 30th Jan, Tuesday 31st Jan and Wednesday 1st Feb.
