Productions
MTG prides itself on providing fun, entertaining plays in a relaxed atmosphere. We select two plays each year and perform one in June and one in November. Seating is cabaret style, with guests welcome to bring their own drinks and food, to create a fun, sociable atmosphere.
A list of our current and previous productions can be seen here.
Farndale Ave … Production of “A Christmas Carol”
by David McGillivray & Walter Zerlin Jnr
In festive mood, the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's mount another assault on the classics with their stage version of "A Christmas Carol." With great enthusiasm, the cast present a dizzy array of characters from the Dickensian favourite (and some which aren't) under the ever-battling leadership of Thelma and Mrs Reece. Throughout the play, Mrs Reece engineers some novel audience participation while bravely contending with a chattily-intrusive PA system. A review of the play describes it as "another classic, dramatic massacre with an awesome, convincing idiocy that enthralls, despite one's better judgment."
Just the Ticket
by John Waterhouse
Harry is a Zealous traffic warden whose eccentric hobbies of collecting stuffed birds and folk dancing cause great friction between him and his wife. His daughter, Ruby, engaged to Gerald, who has an allergy to birds. Harry's hobby seemingly pays off when he returns home with an owl stuffed with hundreds of pounds, until they discover it is stolen money.
Accommodations
by Nick Hall
Lee Schallert, housewife, feeling she may be missing out on something, leaves her husband, Bob, and her suburban home and moves into a two room Greenwich Village apartment with two roommates. One roommate, Pat, is an aspiring actress, never out of character or costumes; but through an agency mix up, the other roommate is a serious, young, graduate student male. The ensuing complications make a hysterical evening.
A Bad Year for Tomatoes
by John Patrick
Gracious, glamorous Myra Marlowe, fed up with fame after a very long career as a television actress, retreats to the small town of Beaver Haven, Vermont, planning to live quietly and anonymously, write her juicy autobiography, and grow her own tomatoes. The complaints of her faithful agent and less faithful lover, Tom Lamont, that she is throwing herself away on a backwards backwater of a town, fall on deaf ears, until she gets to know her neighbors: Reba and Cora, the Hospitality Ladies, full of rapid fire gossip and rapid fire questions; woodcutter Piney, impressively bearded and smelling of the great outdoors, who terrifies his victims with the force of...
Key for Two
by John Chapman and David Freeman
Harriet, a divorcee living in an elegant flat in Brighton, solves her financial problems by entertaining two married gentlemen callers on different days of the week. The scheme faces collapse when her friend Anne, whose marriage is tottering, arrives at the flat hotly pursued by her husband. One of Harriet’s lovers is confined to Harriet’s bed with a sprained ankle, and the second lover turns up unexpectedly, closely followed by two irate wives in search of itinerant husbands! The indescribable confusion that ensues builds to a rich complexity of mistaken identity, splendidly farcical situations and a climax of comic wizardry.
Curtain Up!
by Peter Quilter
The hilarious story of five women who inherit equal shares in a dilapidated theatre and plan to bring it back to life again. They try various fund-raising schemes but their most ambitious is to hold a concert featuring local talent and a world-famous star who agrees to appear for no fee! However, their plans go awry and it's a race to keep their audience from guessing the truth of the matter.
The Savage Dilemma
by John Patrick
Depressed and world-weary, after extensive travels, the reputedly wealthy Mrs Ethel Savage returns to the sheltered precincts of the Cloisters (a home for the mentally ill), seeking refuge among fellow patients. But the Cloisters, is on the verge of closing down due to lack of funds, and as Mrs Savage's fortune is now in the hands of her greedy step children, she is powerless to help. Until, that is, a "hippy" couple storm in bent on robbery - and Mrs Savage persuades them to "kidnap" her, with her share of the ransom to go to the Cloisters. From there on the plot twists and turns delightfully as one hilarious event...
Ski Whizz
by Richard Ingham
It is opening day at Ernst Edelbaum's hotel and already things are going wrong. His English niece turns out to be Leslie, a male punk, most of his guests don't arrive and the tour company are about to discover that his required wife doesn't exist. As for the guests, they all have their own problems. This hilarious farce, complete with man in drag and indoor tobogganing, ends happily of course.
Out of Order
by Ray Cooney
When Richard Willey, a Government Junior Minister, plans to spend the evening with Jane Worthington, one of the Opposition’s typists, in the Westminster Hotel, things go disastrously wrong - beginning with the discovery of a body trapped in the hotel’s only unreliable sash window.
Steel Magnolias
by Robert Harling
The action is set in Truvy's hair salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are 'anybody' come to get their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure if she is married or not), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser ('I'm not crazy I've just been in a bad mood for forty years'); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'lynn, whose daughter Shelby (the prettiest girl in town) is about to marry a 'good ole boy'. Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few...
Cash on Delivery
by Michael Cooney
Eric Swan (aided by his uncle George and unbeknown to his wife, Linda) has pocketed thousands of pounds through fraudulently deceiving the department of social security. When Norman Bassett (Eric's lodger) opens the door to Mr Jenkins, the DSS inspector, deceptive mayhem follows - as do the undertaker, bereavement counsellor, psychiatrist, Norman's fiancee, a corpse, the ominous Ms Cowper and a rather rebellious washing machine. Meanwhile, a frantic Linda consults with Dr Chapman about the discovery of her husband's bra, corset and stockings (all part of Eric's swindling activities) and draws some rather comical conclusions.
Rumours
by Neil Simon
It is the night of Charlie and Myra's tenth wedding anniversary and time for celebration, however, their first guests to arrive discover that Charlie has shot himself and Myra is nowhere in sight. Though only a flesh wound, four couples are about to experience a severe attack of farce as they struggle to get 'the story' straight, and keep it that way! As the confusions and mis-communications mount, the evening spins off into classic farcical hilarity.