Talk-Ease
By Mary Benzies
Age range
16 +
Cast size
15 +
Approx. running time
60 – 90 mins
Gender breakdown
Male: 10
Female: 7
Also: Character’s gender can be changed when appropriate.
Female: 7
Also: Character’s gender can be changed when appropriate.
Setting
The basement of a large Georgian house.
Note
A darkly comic play about communication and the power of silence for a medium sized cast.
First performance
SSYT (Stamford Senior Youth Theatre), at Stamford arts centre, Lincolnshire, UK, 2010.
Synopsis
Simon is sixteen and doesn’t speak. Aided by his obsession with the silent movie era and his eccentric black and white on screen “Friends”, he creates for himself a secluded, silent world where he can be the hero, romantic lead and witty comedian all rolled into one. That is until he stumbles across a well-known social networking site on his computer and suddenly discovers that making real friends is a lot easier than he had imagined. “For who needs voices when you have FACEBOOK?“
With hilarious and at times thrilling consequences, Simon finds his new world spiralling out of his control as the realisation dawns that sooner or later, everyone must come face to face!
*Director’s note: teacher’s booklet, costume & staging suggestions and original piano recording for silent movie sequence can be provided with the script.
With hilarious and at times thrilling consequences, Simon finds his new world spiralling out of his control as the realisation dawns that sooner or later, everyone must come face to face!
*Director’s note: teacher’s booklet, costume & staging suggestions and original piano recording for silent movie sequence can be provided with the script.