7 April: Billy Liar

 

I thought that we could read Billy Liar this month, and follow it up in May with a more modern, perhaps comparable, play The Kitchen Sink.  I think they will make a good pairing, Billy Liar being one of the original Kitchen Sink dramas of the 1950s/60s and The Kitchen Sink being, well ... a 2011 Kitchen Sink drama!

Billy Liar

By Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall

Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and been featured in a number of popular songs.

The semi-comical story is about William Fisher, a working-class 19-year-old living with his parents in the fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire. Bored by his job as a lowly clerk for an undertaker, Billy spends his time indulging in fantasies and dreams of life in the big city as a comedy writer.

Characters

William "Billy" Fisher:  Billy is 19, and living with parents and grandmother. Billy lies compulsively to everyone he comes across, and he constantly refers to a vague job offer writing scripts in London for comedian "Danny Boon".
Alice Fisher:  Billy's mother. 
Geoffrey Fisher:  Billy's father. 
Florence Boothroyd:  Billy's grandmother, Alice's mother. 
Arthur Crabtree:  Billy's best friend. Arthur works at Shadrack & Duxbury with Billy.
Barbara: One of Billy's fiancees.
Rita:   One of Billy's fiancees.
Liz:  Another love interest of Billy's.

3 March: Master Class

 Oops!

It seems that the two short plays last month were not as short as anticipated - and so in March our play is Master Class.  With music!

Master Class

By Terrence McNally

The opera diva Maria Callas, a glamorous, commanding, larger-than-life, caustic, and surprisingly funny pedagogue is holding a singing master class. Alternately dismayed and impressed by the students who parade before her, she retreats into recollections about the glories of her own life and career. Included in her musings are her younger years as an ugly duckling, her fierce hatred of her rivals, the unforgiving press that savaged her early performances, her triumphs at La Scala, and her relationship with Aristotle Onassis. It culminates in a monologue about sacrifice taken in the name of art.