Written By
Alan Ayckbourn
Where and When
16th – 19th May 2001 @ The Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne
The Plot
The leading lights of the village have decided to hold a pageant of local history based on a somewhat vague event, “The Massacre of the Pendon Twelve”. But there’s a young left wing teacher on the committee who decides to turn it into a rally for proletarian revolution. Committee meetings become symbolic battlefields for conflicting views – the right wing faction being led by the Chairman’s conservative wife. The event turns into a violent confrontation between the two extremes, with cataclysmic results. Police intervention brings matters to a relatively quiet conclusion, but already another pageant – Romans versus Britons – seems an attractive possibility.
Cast
- Ray -Mark Ellen
- Donald – David Pile
- Helen – Jan Stevenson
- Sophie – Carolyn Hewitt
- Eric – Peter Brown
- Audrey – Margaret Pope
- Lawrence – Dave Williams
- Tim – Paul Dodman
- Philippa – Lucy Harrold
- Max Kirkov – Christian Napier
- Boy – Fred Tyson-Brown
Creative Team
- Director – Barry Baynton
- Set Designer – Barry Baynton
- Stage Manager – Jackson Kingham
- ASMs – Tracey Nicholls, Chrissie Neal and James Carrington
- Make-up – Clare Downs
- Wardrobe – The Company
- Music Composer – Rebecca Dudley-Smith
- Programme – Richard Neal
For the Tivoli Theatre
- Stage Manager – Ashley Thorne
Gallery
Reviews
RH – Wimborne Magazine
ALAN Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table is an hilariously funny insight into the internal wrangling of life on a committee. John Cockle, William Brunt and The Massacre of the Pendon Twelve are colourful figments of the playwright’s imagination that inspire the characters in the play to organise a pageant.
The self appointed chairman of the committee, Ray, was superbly portrayed by Mark Ellen, who battled against a colourful array of members.
For instance there was Helen, played by Jan Stevenson, who became moody if her husband disagreed with her, and smug if things went her way. Then there was the lovelorn alcoholic Lawrence, Dave Williams, who, perversely, due to a marital dispute, wanted to job-share his committee position with his estranged wife. Peter Brown put in a strong performance as Eric, the Marxist teacher who was determined that the massacre of John Cockle and the Pendon Twelve was not in vain. The other players, David Pile, Carolyn Hewitt, Margaret Pope, Paul Dodman, Lucy Harrold, Christian Napier and Fred Tyson-Brown, made up an excellent balance of the inept and the easily led, as the two factions of the Militia and the Proletariat at loggerheads.
Programme
