Phil Mansell: Words & Pictures

I was delighted to see that another amdram group is staging my one act play ‘Bats’.

Hedgehog Productions have put on five productions of the play in three different venues in October 2018.  This follows the very successful staging of the play by by Newtown Amateur Dramatic Society at the Powys Theatre  earlier this year, which I wrote about here.

‘Bats’ is a black comedy set in a quiet cul-de-sac, where a couple find their nice, quiet orderly lives disturbed by an infestation of bats. A string of people turn up and are mistaken for the bat exterminator. When he finally does turn up, his work is interrupted by a birthday strippergram, and by the time he gets down to business, it looks like it might be too late…

I’ve been in touch with Jim Hayman, who played the bat exterminator called in by the harassed householder in the play, and he wrote, ” I’ve based the “bat man” on Ronnie Barker’s character in ‘Porridge’.  Ann is weirdly middle England and tweedy.  Peter is very uptight, impatient and boring, even anal about  the detail he chooses as important.  Helen has bursts of emerging from her shell.

“The play demands character extremes and strong differentiation between the players. Once this was mastered, we started to have real fun with the piece and were able to draw out comedy,which would only work for certain types of characters.

He added, “We have sold out and will raise our target sum for our chosen charities.”

Very pleased to hear that.

If any other amdram (or professional) companies want to perform ‘Bats’ it’s available from my publisher Stage Scripts. I also have have several as-yet unpublished play, the details of which can be found here and on my other blog Phil Mansell Plays.

Hedgehog Productions rehearse my play ‘Bats’. Photos courtesy of Jim Hayman who played the role of  the “bat man” called in to solve the problem.