The Big Bite-Sized Breakfast Show Menu 1

Angela Clarke, James McLindon, Adam Hadley, Bill Knowelden, Mark Harvey Levine, Grant McDermott
Pleasance Dome

Bite-sized Plays

Chugging for Kittens by Angela Clarke

This year’s opener is a light comedy about a trio working the streets for a cat charity.

Dan Greest is a keen nerdy bore, Claira Watson-Parr his dim acolyte and Emma Wingrove a Lithuanian immigrant.

The tensions are limited, only spiced up by some kinky intimations from an unlikely source.

Broken by James McLindon

Owen Bleach and Javier Rasero are torture victims, sharing a cell in this short, taut drama.

Neither trusts the other and they jockey for control in suitably miserable fashion until a twist in the tail that might surprise.

Thrilling Hostage Melodrama of High Speeds with Pineapple by Adam Hadley

No 10-minute play could live up to this title but Adam Hadley has a good try.

Claira Watson-Parr and Annie Harris portray two Pinteresque interrogators, the former hysterical and brainless, apparently the actress’s speciality, her colleague calm and supportive.

Eventually, the pineapple of the title becomes a significant influence on what becomes a tragedy.

All You’ll Ever Want by Bill Knowelden

BBSB regular Bill Knowelden has penned the pick of this programme. All You’ll Ever Want is an intelligent comedy centring on Emma Wingrove as Jane.

She is visited by Owen Bleach playing a sales/delivery man from an online company.

The shtick is that the organisation has taken client intrusion to the limit, delivering goods that are desired, without the need for an order, even sorting out the financing.

There could be much more in this chilling comedy with a full-scale play or screen option worth pursuing.

Surprise by Mark Harvey Levine

Claira Watson-Parr is irritated by her boyfriend, Dan Greest’s psychic abilities. While he can see the future, the vision only goes two minutes ahead.

This clever conceit generates a witty mini-comedy with an unexpected ending.

Ten Reasons Why Hamlet was Gay by Grant McDermott

Set is a school room, this piece does what it says.

Bill Knowelden is one of those trendy, enthusiastic schoolteachers. His patience is tested to the limit by a cheeky trio of pupils, all of whom try to prove their collective thesis that Hamlet was gay.

By the end, viewers might just be persuaded and will certainly have been amused.

Reviewer: Philip Fisher

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