Synopsis

Norman is an island. Actually, Norman is a telecoms engineer and has been sent to the small island of St Peters to disconnect the old red telephone box, which is no longer commercially viable. The residents are not happy about it.

He arrives at his B&B, above the island's Off-Licence, and soon discovers than island life works a little differently to life on the mainland. Not only are some services and businesses absent from the island entirely, but most residents have several jobs or combine businesses, not just to earn them selves a living but to keep the island working as a whole.

Before he knows it he has unwittingly signed a petition to save the phone box, is being referred to as ‘Mrs Norman’, and has no mobile phone signal, no daily newspaper, and is trapped here until the next boat home due in four days.

As 'Mrs' Norman slowly gets fleeced and jibed by the islanders, he discovers that here he has more of an identity than being one of the anonymous masses on the mainland. Is it the barmaid studying to be a marine biologist, the policeman/vicar with a fear of spider plants, or the quirkiness of the Vernal Equinox wheelbarrow race that endears 'Mrs' Norman to St Peters?

With a boat to catch and a job sheet to complete, will time and tide wait for Norman? Or like the island will he end up disconnected?

The action of the play takes place in the Off Licence and next to a big red public call box, on an island off the south west coast of the UK.

Duration

Characters