Play by Play

Cast & Crew

Cast

Actor One
Actor Two
Character Man
Confidant
Leading Female
Leading Male

Crew

Director
Designer
  (credited as Jenni Holland)
Press Representative

Photographs

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Photo credits

  • Programme, Public domain due to age

Observations

  1. On 11th August 2022 at 11:18 a.m., Davison77 noted:

    (The Stage, 30 Oct 1975) THE PLEASURES in Robert Patrick’s “Play By Play”, the latest evening production at the King’s Head Theatre Club in Islington, come mostly from the players and not the play, though the play is about the ruthlessness, selfishness, and silliness of players. In rhyming… couplets and studied blank verse, Mr Patrick has two stars, a villain, two small part plavers. a character man and a confidant, each bent upon puffing out to the limit at the expense of another. They are dressed in what seems roughly to be Eliza bethan costume and are performing a drama with a grand reconciliation as the climax. Mr Patrick sends up facts and fables of life on stage and back stage; he makes his people greedy and vain; everyone is a Big I Am, or would be so. Mr Patrick’s little joke has enough in it for a twenty minute revue sketch; one hour and forty minutes is much too much. The joke palls and becomes tedious after its early impact. This of course is because Mr Patrick’s invention and imagination give out. In any case, at its best “Play By Play” is shallow stuff, though not without skill and amusement, and does not really get at any truth in the matter. The pleasures, as I said, come from the cast, who play the play for far more than it is worth, giving performances individually and in concert of wit, technical prowess and rich character. Sheila Hancock and Hugh Paddick as the stars in battle are extremely funny, and, in their proportions in the production, excellent too are Kate Binchy, Frank Thornton, Robin Askwith and Christopher Benjamin. What a good cast! Stewart Trotter directed, with designs by Jenni Holland.

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