Absent Friends 1983

PRODUCTION: Absent Friends (Comedy Drama)
PRODUCTION DATE: October 1983
DIRECTED BY: Nancy Forsdike
STAGED: The Martlets Hall, Burgess Hill
SYNOPSIS: Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancee so his friends, who never met the girl, arrange a tea party for him. Understandably they are on edge wondering what to say, but there is more to their unease: Diane and Paul, John and Evelyn, and Marge and her husband is perpetually out of circulation with trivial illnesses are all kept together by a mixture of business and cross marital emotional ties By the time Colin arrives for tea, their tenseness contrasts dramatically with his air of cheerful relaxation. He is the only happy one among them and his happiness and insensitive analyses of their troubles causes each of them to break down
PLAYWRIGHT: Alan Ayckbourn. Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE (born April 12, 1939) is a popular and prolific English playwright. Absent Friends was written in 1974.

CAST

Keith Grant - Paul

Jo White - Diana

Anthony White - John

Jane Josephs - Evelyn

Charles Lewis - Colin

Mary Jupp - Marge

CREW

Margaret Coveney		Stage Manager
Peter Coveney		Technical Manager
Anthony White		Set Design
Tim Kendell & Ken Guest		Set Construction
Jeremy Hole, Jane Cook & Richard Griffin		Technical Team
Suzanne Lewis		Wardrobe
Barbara Chamberlain		Prompt
Jacky Somerville		Properties
Elizabeth Lorentzen		Box Office Manager
Jane Towell		Front of House Manager
Graham Knight		Publicity Manager