Acting Edition S. Series

Billy Liar

by Keith Waterhouse

Published March 1967

Billy Liar is a regional comedy about a youth who attempts to escape his dull family life through fantasy.

Crosby and Gilbert are escaped convicts who couldn't face the thought of yet another Christmas dinner in gaol. Their adventures on the run, in various disguises, dodging a host of amazing characters are all tremendous fun.2 women, 7 men

Our Song

by Keith Waterhouse

Published 1 July 1988

Roger Piper is married, middle-aged and middle-rung; he is a man who has elevated failure to an art form. His wife thinks he is up all night writing a novel. In fact, he's writing a suicide note, a long farewell letter to Angela Caxton, the girl with the marmalade-coloured hair, with whom he has shared a wild but hopeless affair. OUR SONG traces their entanglement from its carefree beginnings to its inevitable yet unexpected tragic end. Pouring out his heart, the former advertising executive - his career, as well as much else, sacrificed to the consuming trauma of his obsessive relationship - looks back upon the astonishing helter-skelter experience of falling unsuitably but violently in love.

Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell

by Keith Waterhouse

Published 1 March 1991

Gambler, journalist, fervent alcoholic and four-times married Jeffrey Bernard writes the "Low Life" column for the Spectator magazine chronicling Soho life as well as offering a very personal philosophy on vodka, women and race-courses. From this, Keith Waterhouse has brilliantly constructed a play (the title being the euphemism used by the Spectator when Bernard is incapable of writing his column) which is set in the saloon bar of Bernard's favourite Soho pub, the Coach and Horses. Having passed out in the lavatory, Bernard awakes in the early hours of the morning to find himself alone and in the dark. Unable to contact the landlord, he is resigned to spending the rest of the night with a bottle of vodka and an endless chain of cigarettes, narrating a story of hilarious anecdotes and witty reminiscences which are enacted by two actors and two actresses who bring to life the various characters who populate Jeff 's world. Starring Peter O'Toole, later succeeded by Tom Conti then James Bolam, the play enjoyed a hugely successful run at the Apollo Theatre, London.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall

Published 1 October 1982

An exhuberant comedy which is yet a sad commentary on twentieth-century bureaucracy. The Hesseltines are living in property well overdue for demolition and they are looking forward to being re-housed in more beautiful and salutory surroundings. The crisis comes when they find that, far from a house with a little bit of garden, they are to live in a warrenous block of flats.-3 women, 6 men

A Right Christmas Caper

by Willis Hall

Published 1 June 1978

This is the third Christmas Eve spent in the company of convicts Gilbert and Crosby (the first two being Kidnapped at Christmas and Christmas Crackers). Our lovable heroes are back in prison again with Warders Mullins and MacBain.2 women, 7 men

The Long and the Short and the Tall

by Willis Hall

Published 31 December 1965

Literature for life

The Play of the Royal Astrologers

by Willis Hall

Published 1 April 1991

Ordered by the Emperor to find the gold "in the skies" and aided by his equally lazy son, they have just four days in which to recover it. They succeed but only after an accidental discovery of the thieves, a trip on the high seas with pirates and a fortunate case of mistaken identity.-Large flexible cast

Whoops-a-daisy

by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall

Published January 1979

Celebration

by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall

Published 1 March 1983

The Wedding and The Funeral make up the two parts of this comedy in which we are introduced to the same family, first making preparations for a wedding and subsequently, six months later, returning from the funeral of their Uncle Arthur, a lovable personality who provides the link between the two plays.7 women, 7 men

Children's Day

by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall

Published 1 May 1975

A hectic children's birthday party provides a noisy background to a series of domestic crises. Robin has left Emma and Emma has become friendly with her solicitor, Tom; both Tom and Robin arrive for the celebrations. The mishaps of the party spill over into the kitchen'situation, the behaviour of the young visitors affecting the adults. By the end of the party however, thin's look a little brighter for Robin and Emma.4 women, 3 men

The Railwayman's New Clothes

by Willis Hall

Published August 1974

Who's Who

by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall

Published 1 April 1974

Who's Who takes place in the lounge of a Brighton hotel a place of faded elegance where the inevitable trio saw away playing sad and dated ballads. In the first act we follow the confusion that Mr. Black and Mr. White land themselves in as inextricable as the hotel itself in their efforts to cover up a clandestine weekend; a confusion which ends in no one knowing anyone else's identity and a hint that, even when things have more or less cleared up, it's likely to start all over again. In the second act the male leads discuss the previous events and Mr. White says that if positions and identities had been reversed the confusion would never have happened. 2 women, 2 men

Christmas Crackers

by Willis Hall

Published 1 December 1976

Christmas Crackers is the hilariously funny sequel to Kidnapped at Christmas, written by Willis Hall for Christmas 1975. Crosby and Gilbert, our two convicts, are spending a lonely Christmas Eve eating baked beans on the stage of an empty theatre when they encounter their old enemies - Detective Constable Grummett (and his wife and son) and Mullins and Macbain (now promoted to Constables - 'evening all'). -Large flexible cast

Walk on, Walk on

by Willis Hall

Published April 1976