by Alan Bates

Synopsis

Elizabeth is a feisty widow, a former entrepreneur and explorer, living with her daughter Penny and begrudging son-in-law Barry. Penny and Barry are preparing to go out for the evening, to visit Clive and Roberta – old friends and business associates. Unfortunately the visit has to be cancelled because Clive comes down with measles. However, other guests due at Clive’s, that evening, need access to a computer, due to a break down. Because of mutual business arrangements, access to one is essential. The use of Barry’s equipment is volunteered and the venue for the evening is changed to their house. 

Barry and Penny, not having the ideal marital relationship, are both, unknown to each other, in the throes of an affair. And as coincidence and the script would have it, and unbeknown to them, their respective paramours just happen to be the two business associates of Clive’s who are to descend upon them that very night. 

An evening of tension, plotting, scheming and suspected murder ensues.

Their secrets eventually come out and the weather takes a turn for the worse, trapping them together for the night under the same roof. During the evening it becomes clear that Elizabeth is in position of a fantastic ancient artefact called the Diamond of Shallanab. Driven by lust and avarice the two pairs of adulterers decide to combine their forces and hatch a plot to steal this valuable treasure and launder the artefact through a dodgy dealer and make a new life for themselves in foreign climes.

Characters

(2m, 3f)

• Elizabeth - the head of the family and custodian of the Diamond of Shallanab
• Penny - Elizabeth’s daughter, Barry’s wife
• Barry - Penny’s scheming husband
• Fliss - an American businesswoman and Barry’s paramour
• Charles - Fliss’s husband, an upper-class drip, good at heart, but a bit vague, Penny’s paramour