Eat Your Words Cabaret

Written by Mark Wakeman and David Penrose

Saturday 27th September 2008

Directed by David Penrose

This series of specially written comedy sketches was created by Mark Wakeman and David Penrose as a special production in aid of Havant Literary Festival 2008.

AuthorsMark Wakeman and David Penrose

Mark Wakeman (b 1972)

Mark Wakeman is an amateur author, amateur playwright, amateur actor and an amateur director. He started writing short stories, at the age of 8 and, spurred on by positive comments from a teacher, was inspired to write many more. It wasn't until he went to university, however that his writing achieved wider recognition when two of his situation comedy scripts (co-written with Neil Kendall) - 'The Quiet Life' and 'Helpline' were performed by the University of North London Theatre Society. The success of these two works led to a full-length thriller, 'Undue Aggravation' being taken to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1995. Following university, he directed his own comedy 'Terror at Blagg Castle', which was produced by Goggles Theatre Company at Portsmouth Arts Centre in 1996, and Bench Theatre has produced several of his his one-act plays; 'The Unusual Suspects', 'Ice Station Zeros', 'Father for Justice', 'Lonesome Pine', 'Unworkable', 'The Big Freeze', 'Stand and Delivery' and 'The Girl in the Corner' for various 'Supernova' festivals of new writing since 2003.

His novels (as yet unpublished) include works in the detective, comedy, thriller, fantasy and sci-fi genres and he hopes to one day see one of his screenplays for sit-coms, TV detectives or sci-fi/action-spy thrillers accepted by the BBC. As an actor, Mark Wakeman has been performing since he was at school. The first of many acting roles with Bench Theatre was Dr John Jobling in 'Martin Chuzzlewit' in 1990 and he frequently receives excellent reviews. He directed several one-act plays at University of North London Theatre Society and his first directing role with Bench Theatre was 'The Office Party' by John Godber in 1998. As a member of the Soop Theatre Company, he has performed improvisational comedy in their 'Dude, Where's My Script?' shows since 2008.

Wakeman won Best Original Play for 'Stand and Delivery' (2007) and The Madge and Stanley Williams trophy for Best Script for 'Father for Justice' (2009) both in the All-England Drama Festival. Since he joined Bench Theatre in 1990, he has been a member of both the Bench Committee and Artistic Panel, and was Editor of Bench Press for a number of years. Mark Wakeman currently has four cats and lives in Havant.

David Penrose (b 1950)

David Penrose is an amateur actor, designer, director and writer with Bench Theatre, where he has been a member since 1976.

David penned his first writing; revue sketches at Leeds University when he was an under-graduate. Apart from these, most of his writing has been adaptations for the stage of extant work. In 1980 he adapted 'The Brothers' and 'The Merchant', originally written by Plautus, both of which were staged by Bench Theatre in the open air at Fishbourne Roman Palace. He has adapted Martin Chuzzlewit (also performed by The Bench), compiled the 1981 musical revue 'The Only Way to Cross' and (together with Dik Bird) adapted the Bench production of 'A Frankenstein' which was taken to the Edinburgh Fridge Festival in 1982.

David's creative flair has been employed many times with Bench Theatre where he has been responsible for countless poster and set designs and he has occupied committee roles on many occasions - notably as Chair for five years - during his membership. As an actor, David's first Bench role was as Orlando in Ingrid Corrigan's production of 'As You Like It' in 1977. He appears regularly in Bench plays and reviews of his performances are consistently outstanding. He has won numerous acting awards including The News 'Guide' Awards and an All-England Theatre Festival Award. His directorial debut with Bench Theatre was 'The Philanthropist' in 1978. David was instrumental in the formation of the annual Havant Literary Festival in 2008 and continues to work with its organisation. He is also part of 'The News' theatre review team and his reviews of local productions appear regularly in print. David is currently Bench Archivist and lives in Havant with his wife Jacquie.

Sketches and SongsEat Your Words Cabaret

The Great Escape by David Penrose

A bungled escape job has hilarious consequences.

Born to Write by Mark Wakeman

Mr Scoggins, possibly the worst writer in the world, refuses to accept literary criticism and drives his publisher to despair.

Enter The Librarian by Mark Wakeman

The rules of the library are taken to extreme as the customers (forbidden to talk or make a sound in the library) must act out the titles and plots of the books they want to borrow.

Those Sweet Words

Song by Lee Alexander and Richard Julian.

Book Technology by David Penrose

It's medieval England and this new "book" technology has some of the older scroll-users flummoxed. If only the technology help-desk was actually helpful.

Criminal Writing by Mark Wakeman

A t a book festival, crime writers start taking liberties with their genre and quality writing suddenly takes a turn for the worse.

Bad Luck for Macbeth by David Penrose

It's "the Scottish play" - so what could possibly go wrong for the actors taking part?

Tale as Old as Time

Song by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

The Other Dead Parrot by David Penrose

A twist on the classic sketch, an expert doesn't really know what he's talking about.

Goal by Mark Wakeman

A truly literary team doesn't really have what it takes when it comes to competing on the sports field.

The Bench Production

Bench Theatre Cabaret poster image

This revue was staged at Havant Arts Centre, East Street, Havant - Bench Theatre's home since 1977. The single short matinee performance was given in the Centre Gallery free of charge as part of the Havant Literary Festival.

Cast

Eat Your Words Cabaret CastNathan Chapman
Dan Finch
Kathryn Kendall
Jaspar Utley
Alice Corrigan
Megan Green
David Penrose
Mark Wakeman

Crew

Director David Penrose
Producer David Penrose

Production Photographs

The Great Escape


Born to Write


Enter The Librarian


Those Sweet Words


Book Technology


Criminal Writing


Bad Luck for Macbeth


Tale as Old as Time


The Other Dead Parrot


Goal