Local thespians take centre stage for 2001 festival of drama

The Scottish Community Drama Association festival is now underway in the Orkney Arts Theatre with 11 entries, one of them a youth team.

This year's adjudicator is Miss Irene Rostron from Cheshire. She has worked in theatre as an actress, director, choreographer and a designer ranging through drama, musicals and grand opera.

As one of the UK's most respected adjudicators, Irene has appeared at major festivals throughout the UK and Eire and as far afield as Brussels, Germany and Gibraltar.

The running order of plays is as follows:

Tuesday

The River
by Charles Mander.

Set on the bank of a polluted tidal estuary the play depicts the hopes and disappointments of a young boy and an old man. (Palace Players).

Courting Disaster
by Margaret Wood

Romance is in the air. All around him there are courting couples. Can the selfish and emotionally dead Trevor Lloyd find and secure a partner? If he does, what then becomes of Meg his highly efficient and scheming housekeeper? of Sandra her assistant? and, of course, his downtrodden and overshadowed little brother, Hughie? Set against a hard-grafting agricultural background this is a light-hearted account of one man's quest to woo and marry the lady of his dreams. But as the story develops it is not just one lucky lady who is the object of his desires; it is any eligible lady who fits his exacting but dubious specifications for marriage. Will one say "I do," or will they all say "I don't?" (Orphir Drama Club)

Albertine in Five Times
by Michel Tremblay

Presents the story of one woman, Albertine, at five different times of her life. The older Albertines warn the younger ones of what is to come "We all depend on you," Albertine at 70 says to Albertine at 30 and the younger Albertines are passionate and full of explanations. Together, the five Albertines provide a moving portrait of an extraordinary "ordinary" woman. (Stromness Drama Club)

Wednesday

The Well
by George Mackay Brown

Depicts people gathered round a well above the shore the essence of the strange history of the Orkney Islands - both what is past and what may be to come. (Palace Players)

Inspector Drake's Last Case
by David Tristram

Murder's a funny business. What drives someone to kill? Greed, jealousy or fear? Well, one thing's for sure. No one could have foreseen the strange events that took place at the home of Mrs Gagarin and her son, Victor. Indeed it took the world's greatest detective to unravel the complexities of that foul and unnatural murder. Everything may not be what it seems. (Birsay Drama Group)

The Diel's Bargain
by Isabella C. Rae.
(St Andrews Drama Club (Oystercatchers))

Thursday

In the Attitude of Life
by J. S. Moore

This play takes place in an island community off the north coast of Scotland. Remote places tend to attract one or two oddballs, and here is no exception. Incomers Peter and Angela Porter have come in search of "the good life," but are not finding it as easy as they thought it would be. Things aren't helped by the fact that Peter is one of those people who is always going to "get round to it sometime!"

Tonight he's been left to make his own tea, his wife's on a diet, his overdraft's enormous and his cat's incontinent. Surely things can't get any worse? But of course they can, and do as the evening unfolds. (Rousay Drama Club)

Forsaking All Others
by Anne Keyworth.

Three women meet in a hospital waiting room. Is it by chance or is there more to it? (Plays Yersels)

Split Ends
by Frank Vickery
(St Andrews Drama Club (Skerryscrapers))

Friday

Fae the Cooan tae Canada
by M. Drever and S. Harcus

The whole of the action of the play takes place in the "but end" of the croft of The Cooan in Rapness, Westray, in the mid-19th century. The Rendall family are preparing to say goodbye to one of their young folk. A ten acre croft can barely support a large family, from old Granny to young Robbie, so Jean is preparing to join her older brother in Canada and who knows whether she will ever see Westray again. (Westray Community Drama Club)

Death (A Comedy in One Act)
by Woody Allen

Kleinman, a New York salesman, is woken up in the middle of the night by friends. They are a group of vigilantes determined to find the maniac killer who is roaming the New York streets before he finds them. Reluctantly, Kleinman joins them, and things go from bad to worse. (Kirkwall Grammar School)