Welcome

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Welcome to the Co-operative Theatre for another night of drama and comedy. We hope you enjoy the performance.

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One for the Road

Wheatsheaf Players Committee

Secretary Joanne Russell

Treasurer Georgia Darlison

Artistic Director Heather Evans

Technical Director Stephen Hocking

Front Of House Manager Joanne Crawley

Publicity Manager Roni Tillman

Member Relations Manager Ruth Carver-Smith

Bar Manager Darren Bradshaw

Chairman Chris Evans

Director’s Cut A view from director Joanne Crawley

Having directed ‘Our Day Out’ and seen the Wheatsheaf performances of ‘Shirley Valentine’, I was already a great fan of Willy Russell. When reading the script for ‘One For the Road’, I found I was able to visualise the characters and cast and couldn’t wait to start rehearsals. The humour that Russell provides is at times understated whilst allowing the audience to connect with experiences that are familiar to them. I am sure many people will remember objects and items from the eighties that are present in this play and the cast and I really did have fun discussing our own memories. Although the issues presented in the play are sometimes sombre, Jane and Roger provide a humorous and light hearted atmosphere. Whilst Dennis agonises of his future and Pauline worries about other people’s perception of her, Jane and Roger are self assured enough to present themselves in an amusing and sometimes ridiculous light. It is this contrast between the two couples that makes up an overall fluid, informative and thoroughly enjoyable show!

Jo

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Cast Profile

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Nic James – plays Dennis Cain After his performances in ‘Two’ and ‘Medium Wave Murders’, Nic has certainly shown his versatility as an actor. He confirms this again, tackling the peaks and troughs of emotions experienced by Dennis throughout the course of the show. Another excellent performance!

Ben Goodman – plays Roger Fuller This is Ben’s second production with the Wheatsheaf Players and he takes on the role of Roger with enthusiasm. Roger is a bit of a rascal and Ben has enjoyed playing up to this, resulting in not only an excellent performance, but also some very funny moments in rehearsal!

Heather Evans – plays Pauline Cain Last seen on our stage in Panto as the wicked witch Hogben, Heather takes on the very different role of Pauline, the long suffering wife, with enthusiasm and talent. Her ability to understand a character is what makes her performances so believable and enjoyable and this is another great portrayal.

Cast Profile

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Felicity Devlin – plays Jane Fuller Fliss has enjoyed getting to grips with the role of Jane, playing up to her strange ideas of social etiquette and giving a flawless presentation of a woman who truly believes in her own self worth. Fliss has shown she is indeed an actress to be reckoned with in more ways than one!

Programme

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One for the Road

Act 1

Dennis And Pauline Cain’s Living/Dining Room

Interval

Act 2

Later that evening

One for the Road

Programme

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Cast

Dennis Cain Nic James

Pauline Cain Heather Evans

Roger Fuller Ben Goodman

Jane Fuller Felicity Devlin

Crew

Lighting and Sound Operation Stephen Hocking

Stage Manager Lewis O’Hara

Set Construction Wheatsheaf Wednesday

Graphic Design Chris Evans

One for the Road

About the Author

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Willy Russell was born in Whiston, near Liverpool in 1947, grew up in a left-wing household and left school with one O-level in English. His dad, at various times, worked in the mines, in a factory, ran a fish and chip shop and also ran a library-on-a-bicycle, transporting books in two suitcases strapped to the sides of his bike.

"When I grew up, on an estate, we didn't live in a classic extended family, but there were all my aunties, cousins, my mum and granny. It was after the war and all the men were on shift in the factories, so I was brought up in a very maternalistic atmosphere, and I suppose I must have spent a lot of time sitting un-noticed but absorbing the women's view of the world. You know what adults are like when they're all together, talking; they think a small child isn't interested or isn't taking it in. But I think I did - not by consciously doing so. I think I absorbed it through my pores"

At his Mum's suggestion he became a women's hairdresser when he left school at 15 and although maintains he was never very good at it, Willy eventually managed a shop in Kirkby. He was a hairdresser for six years, an experience, he says, that made him an indifferent dresser of hair but 'a good listener'. When he left he did a variety of jobs, including stacking stockings in the warehouse at 'Bear Brand' and a brief spell in the Ford car factory at Hailwood cleaning girders.

He originally began writing as a songwriter, composing songs in the folk idiom. Many of his songs were performed at local folk clubs playing in a semi-pro capacity on the same kind of circuit where the likes of Billy Connolly, Barbara Dickson, Mike Harding, Jasper Carrot and Victoria Wood cut their teeth. He contributed songs and sketches to local radio programmes. Willy also ran a folk club for a time. He had one song recorded on a Radio Enterprise LP 'A Sampler of Britain' and he and his group The Kirkby Town 3 performed on Granada TV in 1967 - losing out in a talent competition that also featured an early incarnation of Tyrannosaurus Rex and was ultimately won by the band Amen Corner.

He also collaborated on a stage documentary ' A Lancashire Story' (performed at Notre Dame College, Liverpool in 1969). At the age of twenty, he decided to complete his education and went to college in order to improve his qualifications, after which he became a schoolteacher in Toxteth. Willy met Annie (now his wife) and at her prompting, he became more interested in drama, started going to plays and began to write. His ambition to be a serious writer was fired and further focused when he saw a

About the Author

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production of John McGrath's Unruly Elements at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre in 1971. What he particularly noticed about this play was 'the poetry of common speech', and this has been a hallmark of his own work.

His first play, Keep Your Eyes Down, was produced in 1971, but he made his name with John, Paul, George, Ringo… and Bert, a musical about the Beatles. This had been commissioned by the Liverpool Everyman where it ran for a (then) unprecedented eight weeks before transferring to the West End where it won the Evening Standard and London Theatre Critics awards for the best musical of 1974. Thereafter his plays have won widespread popular and critical acclaim

Two of his best-known plays have female protagonists, Educating Rita, which was inspired by his own experience of returning to education, is about a young woman working class woman who decides to study English with the Open University. Much of the comedy arises from her fresh, unschooled reaction to the classics of English literature, but she is never patronised by the author, who recognises from his own experience that education is a means of escape from one's own circumstances. Shirley Valentine is also about escape, and takes the form of a monologue by a housewife before and after a transforming holiday in Greece. Both plays were made into very successful films from Willy Russell's own screenplays, featuring the actresses who originally created the roles on stage (Julie Walters, and Pauline Collins each of whom won an Oscar nomination for their respective roles, as did Russell for his Educating Rita screenplay).

Willy Russell's other huge theatrical success has been Blood Brothers, 'a Liverpudlian folk opera' about a pair of twins separated at birth and brought up in completely different environments. It continues to enjoy a very long run in London's West End and played a two year run on Broadway. The British touring version continues to play to packed houses and many foreign productions have been produced, including Korea and Japan.

Willy Russell has also written plays for television, the most famous of which was Our Day Out, an affecting story of a group of Liverpool schoolchildren on a coach outing with two teachers. This play has been enacted by tens of thousands of school kids across the UK (including here at the Wheatsheaf).

The Wrong Boy, Willy Russell's first novel, was published in 2000 to critical acclaim and, as with his all his plays, has been translated into many different languages.

Willy Russell continues to live and work in his home city of Liverpool and in 2009 is currently working on a number of projects.

Wheatsheaf News

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Save Our Stage

As some of you may know we have been in the Co-operative Theatre for 30 years and, as with everything, as it gets older it starts to show signs of wear and tear. Our current stage floor is now in need of a major overhaul and so we have launched a Save our Stage campaign.

After all - WHAT IS A THEATRE WITHOUT IT’S STAGE?

To help raise the much needed funds the theatres fund raising committee will be holding quiz nights, running car boot sales and members of The Wheatsheaf Players are entering a team into this year's COVENTRY FUN RUN on Sunday 12

th June.

We hope to raise as much money as possible to be able to buy the much needed stage.

We hope you will be able to support us in any of the fund raising events. If you would like to sponsor the fun run team please speak to any member of the front of house staff who will be able to assist you.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Paint Donation

We have received a hearty paint donation from Dulux Decorator Centres this month, to help towards sprucing up the auditorium.

The donation was made as part of the Dulux Decorator Centres’ Colouring the Community scheme after we entered the competition on the Dulux website. The scheme aims to help local community groups and charities restore their premises, community centres and surrounding areas.

We hope to be able to put the donation to good use and revive the auditorium walls before the next show starts in June 2011.

Roni

Coming Soon

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