We are looking for:

ACTORS:
There are three couples in the play: 3 male and 3 female roles.

HELPERS:
We need lots of helpers for all sorts of tasks: not just hair and makeup, props, sets costumes but also for designing marketing and advertising materials, helping with the public on performance days….. and may other activities.

To sign up, or if you have any questions:

Please contact Anna Spooner.

About the play and the characters:
How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn is a well-known and much performed comedy. It is a full-length play in 3 acts for 6 actors: 3 women and 3 men. The action is set in modern day but before mobile phones became widespread – much of the action relies on landline telephony.

The set is very simple and there are minimal changes between the acts.

The play is very funny and the themes of love, marriage and the challenges, which couples face at different stages of their lives are universal and readily understood by international audiences.

Synopsis
There are three couples in this play, the men all working for the same firm. One of the younger men is having an affair with the wife of the oldest, and when each returns home suspiciously late they invent a story about having to spend time smoothing domestic matters in the home of the third couple. Both living rooms are shown in the single set, and both share a common dining room which takes on a character of its own as it serves two dinners simultaneously on two different nights. Of course, the third couple have to show up to put the fat in the fire, but that complication only adds to the fun.

CHARACTERS
Fiona Foster
Age: 45 to 55
Dress: fancy and glamourous
Descripton: glamourous older woman who is bored with her husband and is having an affair with Bob Philips who works under Frank Foster

Frank Foster
Age: 45 to 55
Dress: formal suit and tie to work
Descripton: a successful executive; boss of Bob Philips and very fond of his wife but boring and forgetful; feels responsible for the well being of his employees and their wives; looks after his health by going for a run every morning

Teresa Philips
Age: 25 to 35
Dress: she dresses down around the house and looks frumpy but “scrubs up” extremely well!
Descripton: harassed young mother who is frustrated to be stuck at home with the baby while her husband is enjoying his work and social life; suspects that her husband is having an affair and is upset that her husband is not being a good husband or a good father

Bob Philips
Age: 25 to 35
Dress: smart casual to work
Descripton: bored with his wife and baby and excited to lead a double life; gratified by the attention from an older woman – Fiona Foster

Mary Featherstone
Age: 25 to 35
Dress: frumpy
Descripton: a gentle and shy woman who is afraid of her husband and totally under his control; anxious in social situations

William Featherstone
Age: 25 to 35
Dress: like an older man
Descripton: feels superior to his gentle and submissive wife and treats her like a strict disciplinarian. Has no social skills but fancies that he is very suave; desperate to make a good impression on his new boss (Frank Foster) and his new colleague (Bob Philips)