Secondary
Spring Quartet
PLAYS THAT GO WRONG
The concept of a play within a play is as old as drama itself, back to the days of Greek theatre and ever since. Shakespeare memorably used the device in both ‘A Midsummer Night’s dream’ and ‘Hamlet’.
However, more recently, a subgenre has developed – the play about a play that going wrong. The set up is usually an amateur dramatic group attempting to stage a serious piece of drama. Over the course of the performance the serious drama disintegrates as the incompetence, personal frictions and general bad luck of the amateur actors and crew converges towards a finale of total chaos.
The notion of making comedy from the performer’s (supposed) incompetence is not confined to the stage. In the seventies on TV a slew of comedians brilliantly drew comedy from disguising their genius as ineptitude. The great Tommy Cooper left audiences weak with laughter from his inability to perform magic tricks. (In reality, Tommy Cooper was an excellent magician and a highly respected member of the magic circle.) Likewise, Les Dawson, a talented pianist, revelled in error-strewn performances. Even the Godfathers of TV comedy, Morecombe and Wise found comedy gold in portraying themselves as rank amateurs. (Ernie’s weekly ‘Play what I wrote’, Eric’s ‘right notes, just not in the right order’.)
In British theatre, the approach become a firm, even staple favourite. (It is not limited to our shores but does seem to have a peculiarly English bent) There have been many fine examples:
The peerless ‘Noises Off’ by Michael Frayn is the genre at its absolute best while a series of plays designed for amateur groups – ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswoman’s Guild Dramatic Society’s production of…’ is perennially popular. More recently, the excellent Mischief Theatre Company, both on stage and on the BBC, have taken the concept further than ever before. Anyone who has seen ‘The Play that Goes Wrong’ or ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ will know their sets alone are a cause for celebration.
What we present tonight is in this tradition. A hapless amateur theatrical group, led by dedicated but deluded producer Harriet Howard who has high ambitions for serious drama. She has written four short plays each exploring different aspects of the human condition. But as always, she has reckoned without the general ineptitude of her cast and crew, not to mention their petty jealousies, spurned romances and inflated yet fragile egos. She lives in hope that this will be production where all goes to plan. They are there to ensure that will never happen.
When writing ‘Spring Quartet’ (originally intended as post-lockdown ‘bubbled’ production before Omicron reared its nasty little head) I continually drew on my own experiences of watching and occasionally participating in amateur productions. Many of the incidents that occur in tonight’s play have really happened at some point, sometimes in rehearsal, more often in performance.