“Time Please”: A new dark comedy

It’s closing time at the Hope and Anchor –  and the Hope is the Anchor of a better day. A new play by established local writers and performers. See it here first, before they head off on tour.

Time Please is a new play by local comedy writers, John Knowles and Kate Tym, both of whom have been long term players on the Hastings scene with their hit comedy sketch show, ‘Table Talk’ and individual performances as comedy stand-up poets and performers.

In between writing hopefully hit films scripts, John and Kate have penned this latest show, a one-act, one-hour plus, dark comedy set in a fictional public house ‘The Hope and Anchor’ (actually the Garage – through ‘The Horse and Groom’ in St Leonards on Sea). The play follows married pub owners, Steve and Cath, as they reflect on their lives, before they are dragged into the dysfunctional world of Keith, whose drink and pill fuelled conspiracy theories threaten to destroy the lives of everyone around him.

The play forms part of a series of site specific works, which John in particular is keen to explore, and was written specifically with The Garage in mind. The play reflects on the chaotic lives of some of St Leonards’ local inhabitants, who find themselves washed up on these pebbled shores.

“It’s no accident that we’ve written this play now”, says John “The chaos of some of the lives we see around us reflects the chaos of our time, with a government that seems  increasingly to blame the poor and the dysfunctional for just being alive – and who expect the working poor to somehow just keep going whilst any sense of social care is being destroyed’. However John is keen to point out: “This is a comedy about people and not a social diatribe”.

The play has been self-funded and the writing team hope to take it on tour early next year.

Time Please. 20 – 23 November, The Garage, (which is through ‘The Horse and Groom’ pub in St Leonards on Sea). Tickets are £8 and are on sale online at: http://theneverplayed.wix.com/time-please and also available from Wow and Flutter record/comic shop in Robertson St and Central St Leonards in Marine Court. Shows start at 8.00pm.

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