Comeday strikes a chord in the recession
IT'S about what happens when you are hard up - and that's why it should strike a chord in credit crunch times.
Joan Shirley's comedy The Tart And The Vicar's Wife gets a timely revival at The Capitol in Horsham from February 4 to 6.
The vicar's wife in question is Glenda, played by Linda Armstrong. She's a woman with a lot to put up with.
Glenda and her husband Robert Parry who were an archetypal successful couple. He was an affluent businessman, she enjoyed her role as a glamorous executive's wife. And they enjoyed every aspect of their well-paid life until Robert decided to devote his life to God and become a vicar after surviving a horrendous car crash unscathed.
Glenda finds herself thrust into a new role, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with an identity crisis. As Linda suggests, it's all about how far you would go when the money is short.
"It's about a group of women who are hard up and... well, quite imaginative. They end up running a mini-brothel for a week, as you do. Just for seven days. They have even got a good professional madame who shows them the ropes.
"Glenda is rather disgruntled. She was a woman who thought her life was well on track. And then her husband has his Road to Damascus experience and becomes a vicar. She's very unhappy. He is in a state of beatific oblivion. He is hell bent on being holy and being righteous and goes off on a course.
"They have a month apart, and he manages to realise that he has been over-zealous about his conversion. She has had a week to... well, I dread to think what she has been up to."
The play is a farce, but it is also so much more, says Linda: "The reason people haven't done it more often is because it is not just a farce. There is a huge farcical element in that we are all in fear of being caught by our other halves, and the local curate keeps popping by. We are all concerned that our reputations would be in tatters.
"But there are also some quite serious storylines that weave throughout it. There is a love story and there is quite an upsetting story for Pru. There are a lot of poignant and moving things going on, which I think can make it tricky to do."
The production features a strong TV cast taking a break for the small screen.
Linda played Irish nursing nun Sister Brigid in The Royal. Matt Healy is best known for his role as bad boy Matthew King in Emmerdale, and Marcus Hutton plays Brookside regular Nathan Cuddington.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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