St Nicolas Players Spalding

Note from the Director ...

It's commenly agreed that there is a fine line between comedy and tragedy.

Whilst there is little in this play that could be regarded as genuinely tragic, it is a play in which the comedy derives to a great extent from the inability of individuals to see themselves for what they are. Whether this be the vainglorious, seld-appointed leader of men (in the Captain Mainwaring mould), the embittered spouse, the unbearably creepy philanderer, or the individual with a hopelessly over-inflated view of his own abilities, we as the audience can take delight in whacting such characters meeting their nemesis in some form or other as a result of their own inadequacies, acting as viewers to a series of mini-tragedies which assume a far greater importance in the lives of those affected.

In other words, of course, this is a pplay about people we all know in some form or other. Perhaps not specifically in the confines of a slighhtly worn cricket pavillion, but in any number of other settings individuals such as these are around us all the time to varying degrees. Added to this the pactor of unfulfilled hopes and dreams - the yearning to play cricket for England, for example, coupled with the gradual realisation that one is unlikely to ever find oneself in the position of striding out to face the worst the Australians can dish out at Lords or anywhere else - in the meantime acting out dreams on the nearest avaliable stage / wicket. All of this combines to create a comedy in which we can sit back, laugh at the inadequacies of others - and perhaps feel the mildest discomfort at momants of self-recognition ...

Alisdair Baker