The Emperors New Clothes

Dir. Rebecca Taylor and Garry Thomas

Season runs 19 – 22 and 26 – 29 Jan 2012 (Thurs to Sun x 2):

Elmwood Players’ Children’s Theatre returns with a delightful, amusing re-telling of the Hans Christian Andersen story.

The vain and childish Emperor is duped by two schemers who convince him they can make him a unique suit of clothes that is not only beautiful, but magical - it can only be seen by those who are honest.

Afraid he won't be able to see the cloth himself, the Emperor enlists the aid of his two ministers, who complicate matters when they are afraid to admit they cannot see it.

Katydid

by Lucy O’Brien

Dir: Garry Thomas

Season runs 11 – 14 and 18 – 21 Apr 2012 (Wed to Sat x 2):

Award winning new NZ drama.  19 year old Kate is daddy's little girl. He feeds her, bathes her, and keeps her safe from the obstacle course of 'normal' life. But, when daddy gets sick, and a handsome boy arrives to pick up the slack, Kate sees an opportunity to flee the tower.

Like any other young woman her age, Kate clashes with her parents and longs to make her mark on the world. But Kate has cerebral palsy.

With her father clinging to his little girl for comfort, and her mother clinging to her Southern Comfort, no one could blame Kate for seeking solace in an unwitting young man who has been brought in to ‘paint the fence’.

What follows is a searing examination of a family unravelled by the strains of living with disability, and living with each other.

Habeas Corpus

By Alan Bennett

Dir: Brian Sullivan

Season runs 13 – 16 and 20 – 23 June 2012 (Wed to Sat x 2)

'He whose lust lasts, lasts longest'.  Simply staged, Habeas Corpus introduces the Wicksteeds, a family for whom the determination to put sex and the satisfaction of the body before everything else is the ruling passion of their lives.

Permissive society is taken to task in this farcical comedy in which the characters move in and out through a maze of mistaken identities and sexual encounters.

Habeas Corpus concerns the aging Dr. Arthur Wicksteed and his pursuit of a nubile patient, Felicity Rumpers, Wicksteed's wife, Muriel, is, in turn, lusting after the charming head of the BMA, Sir Percy Shorter, who, as well as being Wicksteed's old rival, turns out to be Felicity's father - the result of an under-the-table liaison during an air-raid with Lady Rumpers, her mother. Felicity herself is pregnant and finds a way to cover it up in the hypochondriac son of Dr. Wicksteed, Denis.

Meanwhile, Wicksteed's spinster sister Connie, ashamed of her flat-chestedness, has schemes of her own. The 'chorus' is provided by the lower-class, housekeeper Mrs Swabb.

 
Hmmm, can’t really say any more than that really, except maybe that ‘Habeas corpus’ is also a legal term: It is Latin and translates as "you shall have the body".

Triple Treat; A Season of One Act Plays

26 July to 4 August (Thursday to Saturday - Two Weeks)

Elmwood Players season of short plays returns with three more one act plays for your enjoyment.  Full details to follow.

Jefferey Bernard is Unwell

by Keith Waterhouse

Dir: Heather Giles

Season runs 3 - 6 and 10 - 13 October 2012 (Wed to Sat x 2)

"Jeffery Bernard Is Unwell" centres around real-life journalist Jeffery Bernard, who wrote the "Low Life" column in The Spectator. The play's title refers to the magazine's habit of printing a oneline apology on a blank page when he was too drunk or hungover to produce the required copy and a substitute article could not be found before the deadline for publication. Its premise is that Bernard has found himself locked in overnight at his favourite public house, the Coach And Horses, and uses the occasion to share anecdotes from his life with the audience.