PREVIEW: The End of the Pier, Arts Centre Washington & Durham Gala
Comedy, The End of the Pier, will be performed at Arts Centre Washington and Durham Gala as part of a regional tour.
It tells the story of Edith and Lionel Bosh, a music hall double act who’ve been married for 25 years - their only desire now is to kill each other.
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Hide AdAs they approach the last night of their run marooned at the end of a pier in an Edwardian Theatre, their plans to dispatch each other are thrown into chaos by an unforeseen arrival.
Writer Neil Armstrong said: “The End of the Pier began life as an idea I wrote down on a Post-it note. I scribbled down ‘A plans to kill B - and B plans to kill A - at the same time.’ I then had a second idea which I shouldn’t really tell you about because if I do I’ll be giving a bit of the plot away! I love writing comedythrillers and this seemed like a good enough pretext to get me started - so I did.
“When it came to thinking of when and where to set the play and who the characters would be, a song I had recently enjoyed listening to popped into my head. The song was an old music hall number entitled ‘Let’s all go to the Music Hall.’ So I decided upon Edwardian England as my time frame and a music hall dressing room as my setting.
“And so to the characters - who would they be? Well a music hall duo sounded like a good idea and then I thought, ‘Why would these two people consider killing each other?’ The answer was simple - they’ve been married for twenty-five years!”
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Hide AdNeil has been writing comedy for theatre and television for over twenty five years. His work has been nominated for awards by both BAFTA, The Writers Guild of Great Britain and The NationalComedy Awards.
He is also co-director, writer and chief pantomime villain of the Gala Theatre Durham pantos.
•The End of the Pier comes to Arts Centre Washington on Thursday, June 23 at 7.30pm as part of a regional tour. Tickets are £8.50 / £6 (conc) and are available from www.artscentrewashington.co.uk or from Tel. 561 3455
•It will also be staged at Gala Theatre Durham on June 24 and 25. Tel. 03000 266 600