VDL Awards Entries 2021

Shakespeare’s wonderful comedy brought to glorious life in this glorious adaptation. Love, adventure, misadventure, mistaken identity – all to the tune of a World War One Hospital ward. Adapted and directed by Emma Louise Watson, presented by the award-winning Skin Of Our Teeth Productions.

Surf’s up, and murder’s afoot, as “Psycho Beach Party” mashes up ’50s psychodramas, ’60s surfer films and ’80s slasher horror flicks into a truly madcap comedy. Think Gidget meet’s Mommie Dearest! It’s 1962 and teenage tomboy Chicklet Forrest desperately wants to be a part of the surfer crowd on Malibu Beach. The one thing getting in her way, however, is her unfortunate tendency towards multiple personalities … and her most dangerous alter ego — voracious vixen Ann Bowman — has nothing less than world domination on her mind! Hilarity ensues as mischief, madness and the passionate pursuit of the perfect wave come crashing over the heads of the audience as beach blankets and Hitchcockian psychological suspense thrillers are tossed around in this rollicking, zany comedy.

Looped depicts an actual 1965 recording session in which an intoxicated Tallulah Bankhead required eight hours to dub a single line from her final movie Die! Die! My Darling! while antagonizing the film editor assigned to the job..
“Matthew Lombardo’s riveting new play is as funny as it gets in theatre! … A seductive, funny and frequently moving piece.” —The Hollywood Reporter

There must be more to life that this! For 26-year-old Rita, cutting hair all day is just not ‘cutting it’ anymore! And while a good night in the pub is enough for her friends and her husband, it’s not nearly enough for Rita. The answer, she decides, is to get an education, so she enrols in an Open University course to see if the giants of English Literature can guide her to a better way of life. But her tutor Frank has spent his life immersed in the classroom, and would now much prefer to be in the pub himself.

As the classes progress, and their friendship deepens, what they learn from each other will surprise them both. Willy Russell’s tender comedy about education, love, and the joy of self-discovery, has charmed audiences for years, and is sure to work its magic again at Malvern.

Synopsis
The UK is in crisis: debt is spiralling, unemployment is on the rise and the fragile coalition cabinet, led by Prime Minister Jim Hacker, is at breaking point. But salvation may exist in the form of a complex pipeline deal with the oil-rich country of Kumranistan that would entitle the government to a multi-trillion pound loan. When the Kumranistan Foreign Secretary makes a shocking request of Jim’s Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, moral considerations collide with the economic future of the nation. But how will Jim and his team: Bernard, Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, and Special Adviser Claire Sutton, reconcile the two? Political machinations, media manipulation and an appeal for divine intervention ensue.