By Peter Schaffer.

Open Reading: 14th November at 7pm

Auditions: 18th November at 3pm.

Playing Dates: April 5th – 13th 2019.

Director: Leigh Shine.

Assistant Director: Alec Mohun-Smith.

White Liars is a one-act play first performed in 1967 originally titled White Lies. Shaffer wrote it to precede the 1967 Broadway production of his farce Black Comedy.
White Liars revolves around Sophie Lemberg, an eccentric and disillusioned fortune teller (who imagines herself to be a baroness of the Holy Roman Empire) living in a decaying seaside resort, and the two young men—Tom, the lead singer in a rock band, and Frank, his business manager—who consult her. It soon becomes clear that their lives are much stranger than the
fiction Sophie tries to create in her magic ball.

Characters

SOPHIE –  (‘Baroness Lemberg’) – “a women in her fifties, once beautiful and
still handsome, speaks with a strong but never incomprehensible German
accent.”

TOM – Lead singer in a band, has a heavy North country accent (age 20 – 30’s).

FRANK – The band’s manager, middle-class and softly spoken (age late 20’s – 30’’s).

Black Comedy was first performed by the National Theatre in the mid 60’s. This ingenious one-act play is based on a single dazzling idea, which Shaffer pinched from a fight scene in a Peking opera and transformed into a brilliant high-comedy concept of his own. When the lights are on in the London flat where the action is set, the audience is confronted only with impenetrable darkness. But when there is a power cut in the apartment, and the characters suddenly find themselves groping around in pitch-black darkness, the stage is bathed in brilliant light, and those in the auditorium can observe exactly what is going on. The skill with which Shaffer develops the idea is cause for joy and wonder. The harassed hero, Brindsley, is about to meet the military father of his new Sloaney fiancée Carol. Since he’s a struggling artist, and wants to make a good impression, he “borrows” antique furniture from a house-proud
neighbour. The only problem is that the neighbour turns up, too, followed by Brindsley’s former and now vengeful girlfriend. There are blissful moments as a teetotal spinster is mistakenly presented with an enormous whisky instead of her favoured bitter lemon and discovers she likes it, eagerly and repeatedly returning under cover of darkness to the drinks trolley for more; and deft scenes of physical comedy as Brindsley heaves the borrowed furniture past, over and around his unseeing guests as he attempts to return it. – Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph)

Characters

BRINDSLEY – “…a sculptor in his late 20’s, intelligent and attractive, but
nervous and uncertain of himself.”
CAROL – “…his fiancee, a young debutante, very pretty, very spoilt and very
silly. Her voice is that unmistakable, terrifying, deb quack.” (age 20’s)

MISS FURNIVAL – “She is a middle-aged spinster, prissy and refined….her
hair in a bun, her voice in a bun, she reveals only the repressed gestures of
the middle-class spinster – until alcohol undoes her.”

COLONEL – “He is brisk, barky, yet given to sudden vocal calms which
suggest a deep & alarming instability.” (age 50’s)

HAROLD – “He is the camp owner of an antique-china shop and comes from
the North of England. His friendship is highly conditional and possessive….he
is older than Brindsley by several years.”

CLEA – “Brindsley’s ex-mistress, late 20’s, dazzling, emotional, bright and
mischievous.”

SCHUPPANZIGH – “A middle-aged German refugee, chubby, cultivated and
effervescent.” (age 50 +)

BAMBERGER – “…evidently a millionaire. Wears a beard, an eye
glass…carries a large deaf-aid.” (age 50+)

These plays were originally intended to be cast using some of the same actors in both shows,
this is not necessarily the way we will produce them.

If you’re interested to know more please come along to the open reading on Wednesday 14th of November or feel free to contact me on
07801932321 or email misterleighshopper@gmail.com – hope to see you there, Leigh.

First rehearsal:  End of Jan / beginning Feb  2019.

Scripts are available to hire from the Box Office.