Finally, after being cancelled twice, we will be premiering this fantastic play, written and directed by our very own Pip Rolls.
Performances are 8pm on 23rd, 24th and 25th November at The Riddell Hall, Deans Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, KT20 7UL
Doors open 7:30pm
THE PLAY
Molly’s Calling is a comedy about a bunch of oddities who take on the world and knock some sense into it. From the outset, things are not quite what they seem. Quiet, unassuming ladies turn out to be anything but. They have a mission, or ‘calling’ to help the downtrodden and it leads them into some of the murkiest and most sophisticated activities on the planet.
Molly and Pauline are aided by their thespian pal Lionel, who has a penchant for shortbread fingers and a conviction that a return to medieval law would cure us of many of our woes. Then there’s Molly’s destitute brother Donald from darkest Africa, who’s only happy when big game hunting, and there’s also a foreign care-worker whose grasp of English is amusingly quirky.
But don’t pass them off as cranks. Their machinations are remarkably successful in managing to keep the Russian menace at bay and promising to bring back the Good Old Days, when fair play ruled.
Molly’s Calling is set in 2019, when there were a lot of things about Britain that seemed to be going wrong. The UN had recently published a damning report, stating that a fifth of the population was living in poverty and that the government was making things worse. Since then, the number of people going to food banks has doubled and our system of government has gone from being an admired beacon of good sense to one of incompetence and intolerance.
Don’t despair, the play presents these issues with humour and a possible way out of the current predicament. The solution may seem bizarre but it points to the fact that, sensible people banding together, can make a change for the better.
Intrigued? Why not come along and see it for yourself.
THE DIRECTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT
This is the fifth production that Pip has written and directed for The Gage, following on from two nights of Snapshots from History in the last year, Waiting for the Train in 2017 and The Junipére Affair, a musical, in 2002, for which he also wrote the music and lyrics. He has performed locally with Leatherhead Operatic and in many productions with The Gage, The Heath Players, and at The Open-air Theatre at Polesden Lacey, where he is Chairman. He has also designed and built sets for all three companies. He sees writing, directing and building sets as easier options than trying to remember lines as an actor. In his youth he worked as a professional actor on the London West End stage and in films, television and radio, as well as back-stage in a number of London Theatres.
