Synopsis

The actors in a play are just getting into their stride in Act One when ‘complications’ arise. The cast are already one actor down due an accident, and, by sheer coincidence, the author has stepped in to read his lines (even though he is visibly too old for the part). Unexpectedly, a member of the audience stands up, stops the play and calmly tells the cast and audience that she, Beryl Pointer, wrote the play, not the stand-in on stage.

It transpires that many years ago they were desperately in love, but lost touch, when he (Stephen Bradshaw) left her in the lurch. Beryl came to see the play she thought she had written, and was amazed to see her ‘ex’ on stage and claiming he wrote the play. In a discussion between auditorium and stage, she tells him that she wants to clear up both why he left her, and the ownership of the play, but is convinced he will ‘scarper’ again, if not detained, as the character he has been playing has ‘died’.

The other actors are understandably a bit annoyed with this interruption, and their various simmering undercurrents of hostility and passion rise to the surface in the heat of the moment. The actress playing Beth flounces off in a fit of jealousy, which leaves the others unable to carry on with the play, until they have the bright idea that perhaps one or both of the authors might do a quick re-write to deal with this difficulty. Some of the actors use the possibility of a re-write to advance their own careers or viewpoints, or for personal reasons to show them in a more flattering light.

Characters