Synopsis

All but the last scene of ‘Ring Ring’ takes place over the phone. The play reminds us that romance, at any age, is hard work and fraught with worrying rules and rituals.

Tom and Liz, both fifty something, have met at a party. As the play begins they are attempting to make contact with each other by telephone, but end up playing ‘answerphone tennis’, talking to each other’s answering machines. Liz’s friend Dot – who remembers when they were both fifteen and earned their fathers’ disapproval for calling boys from their families’ landline phones – encourages Liz to keep going until she gets hold of Tom; Kav, Tom’s friend, who fancies himself as a 1970s playboy, advises Tom to wait before calling Liz to ‘keep her keen’. Tom doesn’t call Liz and she can’t call him because she asked him to phone her and can’t let him think she doesn’t trust him … It seems as if they will never make contact …

Things change when Kav calls a couples counsellor to discuss his marriage. Discovering that, in fact, he understands nothing about women or relationships, Kav tells Tom to go ahead and call Liz. So he does. While he is talking to Liz’s cleaner, Mrs Goyle, Liz is working her way from one work colleague of Tom’s to the next until - she gets cut off.

Duration

Characters