Open Play Reading - Fracked!

Name: Open Play Reading - Fracked!
Start: 2024-11-19T20:00:00+00:00
End: 2024-11-19T22:00:00+00:00
Location: 30 Godstone Road, CR3 6RA Caterham, United Kingdom

Schedule

Tue Nov 19 2024 at 08:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

30 Godstone Road, CR3 6RA Caterham, United Kingdom | Caterham, EN

Our open play reading for FRACKED! by Alistair Beaton will be at 8pm in the Studio on Tuesday 19th November 2024. This is your chance to come and find out a bit more about the play and meet the director, Gail Bishop.
Our play readings are free to attend and open to everyone, including non-members. Anyone who wishes to read will be given a chance to do so, but you are also very welcome to come and listen to others read. We hope to see you there! At the end, you will be able to borrow a script (which must be returned before or at the audition).
The auditions will be on Tuesday 3rd December at 7.30pm and Sunday 8th December 2024 in the theatre. You only need attend one of those dates. The audition notice is available here:
http://millercentretheatre.org/index.php/auditions
You do not need to be a member to come to a play reading or audition, but if you are cast in a play, you must join (membership is £30 per year).
PERFORMANCE DATES: 27th March - 5th April 2025 (including a matinee on Saturday 29th March).
GETTING HERE
Access to the Studio is around the back of the theatre: This is at the end of Timber Lane, off Timber Hill Road - use the postcode CR3 6LZ or what3words: knee.marker.slides
https://what3words.com/knee.marker.slides
We are a few minutes walk from both Caterham train station (trains from London Bridge/East Croydon run every 30 minutes) and the 407 and 434 bus routes. Parking is available in local side streets.
SYNOPSIS
“Everything that people take for granted could end tomorrow. That dark nightmare, that awful thought: one day the lights are going to go out. What if you can’t read your email? Can’t charge your phone? Can’t iron your shirt? Can’t take a hot shower? And all because we failed to be self sufficient in energy.”
Professor Elizabeth Blackwood had hoped for a quiet retirement with her husband, Jack... but that was until Deerland Energy had earmarked their pretty village of Fenstock as a place to “explore for shale gas”. She’s now on a mission to stop them, by whatever legitimate means are necessary.
But Deerland Energy aren’t fazed by Elizabeth: she’s just another ‘mad old biddy’. Besides, they’ve hired smooth-talking PR guru Joe Boxberg to show the locals how fracking will bring them prosperity. The local Councillor and Chair of the Planning Committee is struggling to pay for his Mum’s care home costs; perhaps an offer that’s too good to refuse might be mutually beneficial? And how far will Elizabeth and a ragged band of protestors go to keep fracking out of Fenstock? A petition? A letter to their MP? A march? Or is the situation now so dire that it calls for full scale civil disobedience and rioting?
This is a sharp, funny and timely satire about the issues surrounding climate change and how we power our homes, vehicles and electronic devices. We live in a time of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion routinely disrupting our travel plans and throwing soup over artworks to draw attention to their cause. We’ve seen in the news where some politicians have put local and national interests aside for their own personal benefit. And when the energy companies promise us that they’re making commitments to building a sustainable future, how many unsavoury facts are being obscured by a glossy PR campaign? Academics, NIMBYs, hippies, politicians, businessmen and spin doctors all collide in this brilliant comedy with fantastic roles for a variety of ages.
Please note: Script contains frequent use of strong language