Autumn Production Announced!

Stage2 presents

A Chorus of Disapproval

By Alan Ayckbourn

Wed 8^th – Sat 11^th January 2014

At 7.45pm (+ Sat 2pm)

The Crescent Studio, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B16 8AE

Nothing if not ambitious, the Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society (PALOS) is taking on The Beggar’s Opera.  And The Beggar’s Opera is definitely winning . . . until, that is, a personable but shy widower, Guy Jones, joins the team . . .

Despite being an instant hit with the company’s energetic, excitable director, Dafydd Llewellyn, and an even bigger hit with PALOS’s female members  (including, unfortunately Dafydd’s wife, Hannah) the inexperienced Guy seems destined for a spot in the chorus. But then a series of casting mishaps propel him up the PALOS ladder - on and off the stage. Everyone wants to get to know him but ulterior motives abound. As he climbs closer and closer to the top, from part to part and actress to actress, Guy - a man all too susceptible to wine, women and song - discovers that there are definite downsides to being a big fish in a small pond . . .

‘..a serious comic masterpiece: brilliantly constructed, ruthlessly observant,

hilarious and hard as nails.’ The Sunday Times

After epic Shakespeare (The Tempest), stylized physical theatre (Steven Berkoff’s Graft) and    pioneering premieres (Philip Ridley’s Towerblock Trio) we now present an amateur theatre company, performing standard repertoire, in a studio theatre… The Crescent space will be used to the max, with scenes happening anywhere in the audience’s earshot, as the rehearsal process is brutally exposed.

‘Deliriously funny. Director Liz Light makes ingenious use of the Bedlam Theatre space.’

The Scotsman on Stage2’s previous production of this play at The Edinburgh Festival 1997

One of Britain’s most acclaimed playwrights, Ayckbourn is renowned for his hilarious observations of human idiosyncrasies and here he excels himself with a blistering expose on the world of amateur dramatics.

‘It is delightfully done. The evening's success is due to Ayckbourn, whom we consistently underestimate. He is as funny as any of the classic comedy writers and, in this early piece, showed how prolonged misunderstanding can become a source of painful truth.’

Michael Billington The Guardian, on Relatively Speaking at Wyndhams Theatre Summer 2013

Tickets £9      crescent-theatre.co.uk      0121 643 5858

For further information on Stage2 www.stage2.org        info@stage2.org        07961 018841