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RolePlay (play)
Encyclopedia
RolePlay is a 2001 play by British
playwright
Alan Ayckbourn
, the third in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress
(GamePlan
and FlatSpin
being parts one and two). It is about an engaged couple, Julie-Ann Jobson and Justin Lazenby whose engagement party is interrupted by unexpected intrusions.
Damsels In Distress
was originally intended to be only a pair of plays: GamePlan
and FlatSpin
. However, during early preparations, Ayckbourn had an idea for a third play, RolePlay. When the cast agreed to the third play, the end of the Stephen Joseph Theatre
's 2001 season was altered to accommodate this third play. Like the other two plays, this drew some inspiration from the London Docklands, where Alan Ayckbourn has a flat, and people often do not know each other well.
for its original production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
. However, it was adapted for the Proscenium
for subsequent performances elsewhere.
The play is performed in two Acts. The first Act is divided into two scenes, and the second Act is one continuous scene.
However, after Julie-Ann leaves in search of a replacement for a missing fork, a bigger problem emerges: a woman falls into Justin's balcony. She is Paige Petite, who climbed out of the window of the penthouse she lives in, on the run from her violent gangster boyfriend, Rudi, who mistakenly believes she cheated on him. Before she can leave, Paige's "minder", Micky Rale, enters, having gone in search of her. Paige refuses to go back with him, and Micky refuses to leave without her. Julie-Ann returns to discover Paige (having earlier taken a bath) wearing the dress she was intending to wear. Julie-Ann demands Paige takes off the dress, but it ends with Micky pointing a gun at Justin and insisting Julie-Ann helps herself to one of Paige's dresses upstairs. After Julie-Ann leaves, Micky acknowledges Justin is holding a party this evening and asks "Is there anything we can do to help?"
When Justin's mother, Arabella, finally arrives, it is without her "man-friend" Olaf, who was ditched en-route. Very drunk, she mistakes Paige for Justin's fiancée and says Justin has finally struck gold. When Justin eventually manages to point out which girl Julie-Ann really is, she says "He's done it again! Another bloody dog." Julie-Ann leaves in tears, Arabella collapses on the sofa, and the Act closes with Justin cheerfully saying "Soup anyone?"
Meanwhile, Micky takes the occasional phone call from an angry Rudi, now returning from a boxing match in Birmingham (where all his fighters lost). Paige gets increasingly fearful of what he will do to her when he returns, but Micky refuses to change his mind - not because he wishes this on her, but because he is doing his job. In spite of this, Paige rescues Micky when Arabella takes an interest in his boxing career, claiming he was brilliantly successful when in fact he was a dismal failure. After Arabella falls and breaks fourteen glasses, the evening starts to fall flat. Derek makes a few lame jokes that his family find hilarious, then attempts to start a couple of racist jokes. Undeterred, Julie-Ann insists on Justin's speech. Justin attempts to start with "It's with great pleasure ..." but keeps stalling on "It's ...", and instead breaks into It's a Long Way to Tipperary
.
The conversation then moves to Paige's common-sounding voice, and she says it was down to a motorbike accident she had when she was younger - a story that Justin correctly suspects she made up. Arabella then suggests Paige does a dance as her party piece, (having earlier misunderstood what kind of “dancer” she is). Paige, having been incensed by the Jobsons over the evening, agrees and gives Justin a lap dance, before Julie-Ann attacks her. Considering the evening a write-off, Justin gets his mother away into a taxi before Julie-Ann talks to him. She forgives him, but in a way that implies that she expects Justin to take up Derek's garden centre offer to stay together.
The doorbell rings, which Justin believes to be Rudi. He is all set to deny everything, but it is only Arabella, having only made it a few hundred yards instead of to Godalming
. Micky, having warmed to Arabella, and moved by Paige's story of her accident, not to mention fear of his getting hurt too when Rudi returns, offers to take Arabella home in Rudi's favourite car, thereby setting Paige free. Justin gives Paige some money to get on her way, but by now he wants an escape from his own life. He persuades Paige to take him with her. They leave together, and the play ends just as Rudi's gangsters are trying to force their way through the door to a surprised Derek and Dee.
The production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
had an opening night on 30 August 2001 and a premiere on 4 September 2001 (the late performance in the season due to the play being a late idea). It featured the following cast:
The production team was the following:
The production then toured, including a return to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in November to make up for the short run earlier.
The first West End
performance was made at the Duchess Theatre
on 7 September 2002, featuring the same cast and production team. The success of this play over the other two Damsels in Distress
plays eventually led to this play dominating the run. This caused considerable upset amongst Ayckbourn and the cast who had expected the plays to be performed equally. Eventually, Ayckbourn expressed his frustration with West End Theatre in general. This was interpreted by many as a threat to boycott the West End altogether.
In 2004 and 2005, the play received three further professional productions by professional theatre companies.
wrote that it "returns to vintage Ayckbourn territory: the dinner party from hell." Others, however, saw the play as having more depth Michael Billington
of The Guardian
wrote about the trilogy as a whole: "It shows Ayckbourn moving beyond his familiar terrain of suburban angst to deal with metropolitan madness and moral confusion.". Jeremy Kingston commended the play for the collision of three different worlds, and scenes where six of the characters remain immobile whilst the seventh speaks.
There were a number of niggling criticisms, including questioning why Julie-Ann did not call the police whilst she had the chance, but none of them bore any weight on the overall verdict of the plays.
Alison Pargeter
won Best Newcomer in the Critics' Circle Awards for her role as Paige, along with her roles as Kelly in GamePlan
and Rosie in FlatSpin
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
, the third in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...
(GamePlan
GamePlan (play)
GamePlan is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the first in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress The darkest of the three plays, it is about a teenage girl who tries to support herself and her mother through prostitution.-Background:See also: Background on Damsels in Distress...
and FlatSpin
FlatSpin (play)
FlatSpin is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the second in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress It is about an actress called Rosie Seymour who accepts a date with a mysterious Sam Berryman, who seems to have mistaken her for a Joanna Rupelford.-Background:See also:...
being parts one and two). It is about an engaged couple, Julie-Ann Jobson and Justin Lazenby whose engagement party is interrupted by unexpected intrusions.
Background
See also: Background on Damsels in Distress (plays) page.Damsels In Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...
was originally intended to be only a pair of plays: GamePlan
GamePlan (play)
GamePlan is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the first in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress The darkest of the three plays, it is about a teenage girl who tries to support herself and her mother through prostitution.-Background:See also: Background on Damsels in Distress...
and FlatSpin
FlatSpin (play)
FlatSpin is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the second in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress It is about an actress called Rosie Seymour who accepts a date with a mysterious Sam Berryman, who seems to have mistaken her for a Joanna Rupelford.-Background:See also:...
. However, during early preparations, Ayckbourn had an idea for a third play, RolePlay. When the cast agreed to the third play, the end of the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
's 2001 season was altered to accommodate this third play. Like the other two plays, this drew some inspiration from the London Docklands, where Alan Ayckbourn has a flat, and people often do not know each other well.
Characters
As part of the Damsels in Distress trilogy, RolePlay was written to use the same seven actors as the other two plays in the series. In this play, the characters are:- Justin Lazenby, about thirty, a software developer
- Julie-Ann Jobson, twenty-three, Justin's somewhat mismatched fiancée
- Paige Petite, twenty-nine, an ex-dancer living in a penthouse upstairs
- Micky Rale, forty, an ex-boxer and Paige's "minder"
- Derek Jobson, late fifties, Julie-Ann's right-wing father
- Dee Jobson, forty-five, Julie-Ann's mother
- Arabella Lazenby, fifties, Justin's stylishly alcoholic mother
Setting
The entire play is set in Justin Lazenby's flat, on the riverside in the London Docklands. As part of Damsels in Distress, the play was written to use the identical set to the other two plays. As with most Ayckbourn plays, it was originally performed in the RoundTheatre in the round
Theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre is any theatre space in which the audience surrounds the stage area...
for its original production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
. However, it was adapted for the Proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
for subsequent performances elsewhere.
The play is performed in two Acts. The first Act is divided into two scenes, and the second Act is one continuous scene.
Scene 1
The play opens where Justin Lazenby and Julie-Ann Jobson are busy preparing for a dinner party. Julie-Ann's parents are expected, as is Justin's mother with her current "man-friend". It is intended Justin will announce their engagement but, there are already warning signs that they are perhaps not fully compatible. Julie-Ann's desperation to get every detail perfect isn't a good sign, neither is Justin's reaction to her suggestion of living chastely apart until their wedding night. In the meantime, Justin receives a series of phone calls from his mother, Arabella, indicating that she will be both drunk and late.However, after Julie-Ann leaves in search of a replacement for a missing fork, a bigger problem emerges: a woman falls into Justin's balcony. She is Paige Petite, who climbed out of the window of the penthouse she lives in, on the run from her violent gangster boyfriend, Rudi, who mistakenly believes she cheated on him. Before she can leave, Paige's "minder", Micky Rale, enters, having gone in search of her. Paige refuses to go back with him, and Micky refuses to leave without her. Julie-Ann returns to discover Paige (having earlier taken a bath) wearing the dress she was intending to wear. Julie-Ann demands Paige takes off the dress, but it ends with Micky pointing a gun at Justin and insisting Julie-Ann helps herself to one of Paige's dresses upstairs. After Julie-Ann leaves, Micky acknowledges Justin is holding a party this evening and asks "Is there anything we can do to help?"
Scene 2
In the second scene, Justin, Micky and Paige are still waiting for Julie-Ann's return. Julie-Ann's parents from Doncaster, Derek and Dee Jobson, arrive first. They instantly warm to Justin, but whilst it is clear they regard Julie-Ann (nicknamed "our apple") with far more fondness than their other two daughters. When Julie-Ann finally returns, it is in one of Paige's revealing dresses, much to her parents' horror.When Justin's mother, Arabella, finally arrives, it is without her "man-friend" Olaf, who was ditched en-route. Very drunk, she mistakes Paige for Justin's fiancée and says Justin has finally struck gold. When Justin eventually manages to point out which girl Julie-Ann really is, she says "He's done it again! Another bloody dog." Julie-Ann leaves in tears, Arabella collapses on the sofa, and the Act closes with Justin cheerfully saying "Soup anyone?"
Act 2
The second act takes place after the dinner. In spite of Arabella spending the entire dinner unconscious, and Paige and Micky joining the meal and messing up the cutlery arrangement, things have evidently gone well. Julie-Ann, having swapped dresses with Paige at some point, attempts to make things up with Arabella, although Arabella never seems to grasp which girl is which. However, things start to go downhill when Derek has a private word with Justin. Derek suggests Justin should move up to Doncaster to take over his garden centre business, oblivious to Justin's hints that he is not interested. Furthermore, Justin learns from Derek that the reason Derek and Dee fell out with Julie-Ann's two sisters was because one of them is a lesbian and the other married a Chinese man.Meanwhile, Micky takes the occasional phone call from an angry Rudi, now returning from a boxing match in Birmingham (where all his fighters lost). Paige gets increasingly fearful of what he will do to her when he returns, but Micky refuses to change his mind - not because he wishes this on her, but because he is doing his job. In spite of this, Paige rescues Micky when Arabella takes an interest in his boxing career, claiming he was brilliantly successful when in fact he was a dismal failure. After Arabella falls and breaks fourteen glasses, the evening starts to fall flat. Derek makes a few lame jokes that his family find hilarious, then attempts to start a couple of racist jokes. Undeterred, Julie-Ann insists on Justin's speech. Justin attempts to start with "It's with great pleasure ..." but keeps stalling on "It's ...", and instead breaks into It's a Long Way to Tipperary
It's a Long Way to Tipperary
It's a Long Way to Tipperary is a British music hall and marching song written by Jack Judge and co-credited to, but not co-written by, Henry James "Harry" Williams. It was allegedly written for a 5 shilling bet in Stalybridge on 30 January 1912 and performed the next night at the local music hall...
.
The conversation then moves to Paige's common-sounding voice, and she says it was down to a motorbike accident she had when she was younger - a story that Justin correctly suspects she made up. Arabella then suggests Paige does a dance as her party piece, (having earlier misunderstood what kind of “dancer” she is). Paige, having been incensed by the Jobsons over the evening, agrees and gives Justin a lap dance, before Julie-Ann attacks her. Considering the evening a write-off, Justin gets his mother away into a taxi before Julie-Ann talks to him. She forgives him, but in a way that implies that she expects Justin to take up Derek's garden centre offer to stay together.
The doorbell rings, which Justin believes to be Rudi. He is all set to deny everything, but it is only Arabella, having only made it a few hundred yards instead of to Godalming
Godalming
Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
. Micky, having warmed to Arabella, and moved by Paige's story of her accident, not to mention fear of his getting hurt too when Rudi returns, offers to take Arabella home in Rudi's favourite car, thereby setting Paige free. Justin gives Paige some money to get on her way, but by now he wants an escape from his own life. He persuades Paige to take him with her. They leave together, and the play ends just as Rudi's gangsters are trying to force their way through the door to a surprised Derek and Dee.
Productions
See also: Productions on Damsels in Distress (plays) page.The production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
had an opening night on 30 August 2001 and a premiere on 4 September 2001 (the late performance in the season due to the play being a late idea). It featured the following cast:
- Arabella Lazenby - Jacqueline KingJacqueline King-Career:King trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After training she worked as an actor in Africa, Canada, America, Sri Lanka and UAE.On returning to the UK, she appeared in several Alan Ayckbourn productions, including the original runs of Comic Potential and the Damsels in Distress...
- Julie-Ann Jobson - Saskia Butler
- Paige Petite - Alison PargeterAlison PargeterAlison Pargeter is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, also Mary Slessor in a 11-part television series of Mary Slessor, and the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.-Theatre:Pargeter was a...
- Derek Jobson - Robert Austin
- Micky Rale - Tim Faraday
- Dee Jobson - Beth Tuckey
- Justin Lazenby - Bill Champion
The production team was the following:
- Director - Alan AyckbournAlan AyckbournSir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
- Design - Roger Glossop
- Lighting - Mick Hughes
- Costumes - Christine Wall
- Music - Keith Jarrett
The production then toured, including a return to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in November to make up for the short run earlier.
The first West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
performance was made at the Duchess Theatre
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street, near Aldwych.The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest 'proscenium arched' West End theatres. It has 479 seats on two levels....
on 7 September 2002, featuring the same cast and production team. The success of this play over the other two Damsels in Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...
plays eventually led to this play dominating the run. This caused considerable upset amongst Ayckbourn and the cast who had expected the plays to be performed equally. Eventually, Ayckbourn expressed his frustration with West End Theatre in general. This was interpreted by many as a threat to boycott the West End altogether.
In 2004 and 2005, the play received three further professional productions by professional theatre companies.
Critical Reviews
In spite of RolePlay being the afterthought of the trilogy, it earned the most praise of the three plays, throughout the original Scarborough run, the tour, and the later West End production. Whilst the critics were unanimous in praise of the play, opinions varied as to how they saw the play. Some saw it a revivial of 'Classic Ayckbourn', and Paul Taylor of The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
wrote that it "returns to vintage Ayckbourn territory: the dinner party from hell." Others, however, saw the play as having more depth Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
wrote about the trilogy as a whole: "It shows Ayckbourn moving beyond his familiar terrain of suburban angst to deal with metropolitan madness and moral confusion.". Jeremy Kingston commended the play for the collision of three different worlds, and scenes where six of the characters remain immobile whilst the seventh speaks.
There were a number of niggling criticisms, including questioning why Julie-Ann did not call the police whilst she had the chance, but none of them bore any weight on the overall verdict of the plays.
Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, also Mary Slessor in a 11-part television series of Mary Slessor, and the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips.-Theatre:Pargeter was a...
won Best Newcomer in the Critics' Circle Awards for her role as Paige, along with her roles as Kelly in GamePlan
GamePlan (play)
GamePlan is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the first in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress The darkest of the three plays, it is about a teenage girl who tries to support herself and her mother through prostitution.-Background:See also: Background on Damsels in Distress...
and Rosie in FlatSpin
FlatSpin (play)
FlatSpin is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the second in a trilogy of plays called Damsels In Distress It is about an actress called Rosie Seymour who accepts a date with a mysterious Sam Berryman, who seems to have mistaken her for a Joanna Rupelford.-Background:See also:...
.