Live Like Pigs & On Approval

‘LIVE LIKE PIGS’ Cast

AN OFFICIAL OF THE LOCAL HOUSING DEPARTMENT – Gerry Steer
BIG RACHEL – Grace Gemmell
ROSIE – Pat Rix
SALLY, HER DAUGHTER – Liz Tooth
COL, RACHEL’S SON – Peter Turner
SAILOR SAWNEY – Bob Clement
MRS. JACKSON – Phil Wherry
DOREEN, HER DAUGHTER – Ann Westcott
MR. JACKSON – Richard Westcott
BLACKMOUTH – Bryan Ferriman
THE OLD CROAKER – Marion Flint
DAFFODIL, HER DAUGHTER – Sally Howes
A DOCTOR – Peggy Lester
A POLICE SERGEANT – John Howarth

SINGERS: Mavis Roberts Sylvia Mehta

THE PLAY DIRECTED BY – Bryan Ferriman
SET DESIGNER – Bryan Ferriman
SET BUILDING BY – John Bennett, Bob Chorley & Brian Bond
STAGE MANAGER – Colin Hands
LIGHTING BY – Derek Herbert
SOUND BY – Phil Hutchings and Lawrie Bradshaw
ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR – Margaret Ferriman
PROPERTIES – Gay Reynolds and Peter Flint
WARDROBE – Ursula Wood
FRONT OF HOUSE – Heather McNair
TIME – The Present
SCENE – A Council Estate in an industrial town in the North of England.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES
If a group of gipsies is moved from a derelict old railway carriage to a new Council Estate, they are likely to prove difficult neighbours. This is the theme of ‘Live Like Pigs’ which Arden wrote in 1958.

It could also reflect the wider conflicts going on in the world to-day, such as the clashes in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, the U.S.A. and even the generat- ion gap. However, the author, refuses to get involved with either side, and remains totally dispassionate. He is neither on the side of the intruded upon or the intruder, and simply presents an explosive situation with a good deal of skill and comedy.

In his introduction he states, “I approve outright neither of the Sawneys nor the Jacksons. Both the groups uphold standards of conduct that are incompatible, but which are valid in their correct context. The Sawneys are an anachronism. They are the direct descendants of the “sturdy beggars” of the sixteenth century and the apparent chaos of their lives becomes an ordered pattern when seen in terms of the wild empty countryside and a nomadic existence.

The Jacksons, on the other hand, are an undistinguished but not contemptible family, whose comparitive cosiness is not strong enough to withstand the violent disruption of their affairs which the Sawneys bring. Their natural instincts of decency and kindliness have never been subjected to a very severe test. When they are they collapse…… I have chosen them for the play because they illust- rate my theme, in a fairly extreme form.

BRYAN FERRIMAN

‘ON APPROVAL’ Cast

MARIA WISLACK – Sonia Blinkhorn
HELEN HAYLE – Dorothy Prescott
GEORGE, DUKE OF BRISTOL – John Bennett
RICHARD HALTON – Antony Wood

DIRECTOR: Martin Blinkhorn

STAGE MANAGER – Mary Klingler
SET DESIGNER – Martin Blinkhorn and Brian Bond
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT AND LIASON COSTUMES – Anne Parkin
COSTUMES – May Neal
LIGHTING – Derek Herbert
SET CONSTRUCTION – John Bennett, Bob Chorley and Members of the Society
FRONT OF HOUSE – John Howarth
PROPERTIES – Sheena Bennett
WARDROBE – Ursula Wood

DIRECTOR’S NOTES
What a lot “the twenties” have given those of us who have lived through the dismal decades which followed. Flappers’ fashions showed knees for the first time and a jazzing world went tearing through one long perpetual party. Fast cars and slow cruises helped a determination to forget the bloodiest of wars and escape into a thoroughly modern world of carefree consumer entertainment. Cigarette-smoking girls bobbed their hair short and set out at pyjama parties to forget mother’s good advice. Young men widened their trousers and left the office for a long weekend in the country, pipe and plus-fours thrown into the dicky-seat of the Aston Martin.

For ten frenetic years the champagne bubbles rose to the top only to burst in the sadness of the thirties. But who can blame them now? Frederick Lonsdale’s play of the twenties has survived to the seventies because it truly reveals the shallowness of outlook in a mad, sweet meringue of a world where boy meets girl for the first time on equal terms.

What a pity the cookie had to crumble.

M. B.