Section links

Love and Other Crimes poster

There are more photos from this production below. Selecting any of the small thumbnail images will show a larger version of the picture in the main part of the page. »

Preserves/And He Said/In Case of Emergency/White Elephant by Roger Stennett & Sheila Yeger - Earnest Walker/The Conductor/Student

- Ad Hoc Theatre, Bristol. Directed by Chris James.

An evening of short plays by Roger Stennett and Sheila Yeger, performed with wonderful local actress Val Lorraine - two one-person shows and two two-handers.

'Preserves' was a very funny black comedy. The eccentric Mr. Earnest Walker, sole survivor of a nuclear apocolypse, engages in a poignant and surreal dialogue with his family and friends - all of whom are nothing but carefully collected dust held in a variety of jars!

'And He Said' was a two hander set on a bus, in which Val's anonymous 'woman' and the bus conductor 'man' play out their gender-defined and socially-reinforced passive and aggressive roles until - in a wonderfully theatrical and satisfying moment - the worm turns and the roles are reversed.

'In Case of Emergency' was another subversion of the sterotyped male/female roles as my 'student' was faced with the originally unwanted mothering of the older woman only to realise that that was not the whole story.

Finally, 'In Case of Emergency', Val's solo piece, was a hugely moving character study in which the brittle surface jollity of Val's white elephant stallholder cracked to reveal the aching loneliness and sense of being left behind and unwanted that lay beneath.

It was a delight to work with Val, and with two such witty, observant and skillful writers. The dialogue was a gift to any actor and the shows were hugely well-received by the small audiences.

I also designed and drew the poster..