The Bench Production
This play was staged at Havant Arts Centre, East Street Havant - Bench Theatre's home since 1977.
Characters
| Caretaker | Peter Le Feuvre |
| Gethin Price | Steven Foden |
| Phil Murray | Andrew Caple |
| George McBrain | Pete Woodward |
| Sammy Samuels | John Corelli |
| Mick Connor | Stuart Hartley |
| Eddie Waters | Peter Corrigan |
| Ged Murray | Simon Norton |
| Mr Patel | Damian Lodrick |
| Bert Challenor | David Penrose |
| Concert Secretary | Peter Le Feuvre |
| Club Pianist | Damian Lodrick |
Crew
| Director | David Penrose |
| Stage Manager | Aislinn D'Souza |
| Lighting Design | Jacquie Penrose |
| Lighting Operation | Ian Friel, Sacha Pennington Ellis |
| Properties | Justine Spencer |
| Costume | Sue Spencer |
| Set Design | David Penrose |
| Set Construction | David Hemsley-Brown |
| Front of House | Rita de Bunsen |
Director's Notes
It must have been an autumn evening in 1974 that I went to hear Trevor Griffiths talk in Leeds his home town. He had just become something of a celebrity with his first major success 'The Party', having just opened at the National Theatre; a double coup that punctuated the last period of his stage life. I don't remember a lot about the evening. Griffiths was dour and funny about 'actors' with a classical training; how getting up and leaving a room like a normal person became a major achievement, taking yo half a day's rehearsal. His contempt for the breed was pretty clear. He talked about the crisis in a theatre that was ill-equipped to reach a mass audience, and has since written most of his not very prolific output for television. Questions were taken; the meeting winding up. Then came a question about how he saw the future of popular theatre if it didn't lie with 'The Profession'. Suddenly he started talking about Morecambe and Wise and their enormous power over an audience. The stand-up comic on a tiny stage in a working-men's club, he went on, had more chance of catching the experience of his audience and illuminating it that of any touring fringe companies of earnest left wingers, even if only because their tiny stages were NOT in working men's clubs. The man had lit up with an enthusiasm new to the whole evening. He was clearly talking about new work, as yet untouched by actors.
'Comedians' opened at Nottingham playhouse in February 1975, with Eddie Waters played, not by a trained actor, but a veteran of the Variety stage, Jimmy Jewel.
David Penrose
Reviews
The NewsHelen Palmer
Funny - but disturbing
When is a joke not funny? When it relies on racism and sexism for a cheap laugh, according to Eddie Waters, a central character in Comedians. Once a famous comic, Eddie is coaching a group of aspiring wits for a talent spot.
Havant Bench Theatre's production of Trevor Griffiths powerful play is innovative and fun. The audience titters at thrusting pelvises and jokes about girls with large breasts. You cringe but you also laugh - until Angry Young Man Gethin Price comes on the scene. Acted with a finely controlled confidence by Steven Foden, he brings out the disturbing side of an extremely funny play. Comedians runs until Saturday.
The News, 23rd July 1991
