Entries for the Harold Jolliffe One Act Play Festival 2008 were as follows:

The Clarendon Players

'Ghosts of Bedlam'

by Arthur Aldrich

(Drama)

Rhona Chatsworth is commissioned to film a sanitised documentary contrasting old style mental health care with the improvement 1990's care-in-the- community has brought. Showing him round the derelict ward of a former mental hospital is nurse-turned caretaker, Janet. Will Rhona still produce that sanitised version her paymasters require?

Further Information

See the Clarendon Players website (http://uk.geocities.com/clarendonplayers@btinternet.com).

The Sodbury Players

'A Life Sentence'

by Mark Seaman

(Drama)

'A Life Sentence' is the story of Dave and Anne Bailey, and a reflection of their time as a couple and family together. Dave is a former policeman in his mid-fifties, affected by dementia and being cared for in a local nursing home. Anne recounts times from their past, coupled with their very different life together now.

Further Information

See the Sodbury Players website (www.sodburyplayers.org.uk).

Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatic Society (PVADS)

'Verve'

by Mark Lucas

(Comedy)

Mitchell Germaine is the ultimate loser. After a massive argument, his wife Sally leaves him and he then proceeds to take Leon (the pizza boy), Warren (the TV repairman), ‘Tash (the prostitute) and Imelda (the disciple of God) hostage, much to the financial delight of Jane, the Brownie.

Further Information

See the Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatic Society website (www.pvads.net).

Wroughton Amateur Drama and Music Society (WADAMS)

'Port and Starboard'

by Rob Burbidge

(Comedy)

Matrimonial solicitor Gooch has handled many cases of divorce, and arranged the rescuing of more than one marriage, so long as the price is right. This time he faces three clients, all involved in the same marital discord, and each one willing to pay. Along with his long-suffering legal secretary, can he untangle the threads and still come out a winner?

An original play written by a member of WADAMS.

Old Town Theatre Company (OTTC)

'On a Day in Summer in a Garden'

by Don Hawarth

(Comedy/Drama)

This is a play about dock plants. Yes, the ones you rub on your ankles when you’ve just been stung by nettles. Three such docks, called Vera, Mavis and Jack sit in the garden of an elderly couple, where they discuss the triumphs and tribulations of, well, being weeds. A surprisingly funny, yet touching, take on those plants we pretty much ignore in our gardens.

Further Information

See the OTTC website (www.swindonweb.com/ottc).

Sodbury Players Young Adults (SPYA)

'Curses, Foiled Again!'

by Evelyn Hood

(Comedy)

Henry’s hilarious send up of the Victorian tragic farce is set to be entered in the local drama festival. But the eve-of-performance dress rehearsal is running anything but smoothly as the cast constantly steps out of character to bicker or drink cups of coffee. Feuds simmer below the surface and Henry tries a little casting-couch technique on the pretty heroine who can’t remember her lines! However, when all seems lost, and the play likely to be cancelled, the cast rally like true troupers – the show must go on!

Further Information

See the Sodbury Players website (www.sodburyplayers.org.uk).

Sodbury Players Youth Section (SPYS)

'Witch Hunt'

by Stuart Ardern

(Drama)

When an old woman moves into a cottage, she is initially greeted with hostility, however her knowledge of basic medicine gains her the respect of the local community. Trouble starts when there is famine and sickness, and the old woman is accused of witchcraft.

Further Information

See the Sodbury Players website (www.sodburyplayers.org.uk).

Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatic Society (PVADS) Youth Section

'Fall of the House of Usher'

by Edgar Allen Poe

(Horror)

The story begins with the narrator receiving a letter from his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, begging that he come to him. Usher wrote in the letter that he was suffering from a terrible mental and bodily illness, and had longed for the companionship of "his only personal friend". The request seemed so heartfelt that the narrator immediately set out for Usher's ancestral home. Approaching the house, he saw an ivy-covered, old house that was overwhelmed with gloom and depression. So begins this story of horror!

Further Information

See the Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatic Society website (www.pvads.net).

Highworth Community Drama

'Late Entry'

by David Tristram

(Comedy)

The second of two plays this festival about plays in festivals! This one is a spoof monologue, followed by a spoof adjudication. Our real adjudicator had better watch out!

The Athelstan Players

'Bus Stop'

by Rae Shirley

(Comedy)

A group of women gather at a bus stop and indulge in gossip to pass the time. There are two unnamed women, joined by Mrs Hickery armed with a bag of chips wrapped in paper and then by Mrs Finney carrying a shopping bag which she scatters all over the floor. Two well dress not very frequent bus users arrive and there is a touch of class conflict too. Athelstan Players are the returning Champions from HJ’07 and will have high hopes for this production.

Further Information

See the Athelstan Players website (www.athelstanplayers.org).