
ALYS ALWAYS by Lucina Coxan, directed by Paul Ackroyd
This is a new play first performed at the Bridge Theatre in March 2019. We may be the first amateur group to perform it. It is based upon Harriet Lane’s acclaimed novel of the same name.
Perhaps best described as a psychological thriller, it tells the story of Frances, a young woman who lives a mundane life in the publishing industry, who one day stops to help at a fatal roadside accident. When the victim’s family reach out to make contact, a door opens into a world previously out of reach, a world of privilege and possibility since the victim’s grieving husband is a luminary in the very world where Frances is trying to make her mark. Are her actions motivated by ruthless ambition or is she just doing what anyone might do to help a grieving family? Are the distortions of the truth she recounts merely trying to help their feelings or an attempt at ingratiation and will she get found out?
“Everything about the play rings with a horrible truth, and the writing is consistently funny and flecked with pain” What’s onstage.
“Wonderfully observed…, A gripping psychologically complex achievement whose greatest success is the lingering sense of unease” Sunday Telegraph.
CAST
Frances Thorpe | Helen England |
Alys Kyte | Ann Morgan |
PC | Lewis Holloway |
Oliver Culpepper | Andrew Newbon |
Mary Pym | Kay O’Dea |
Charlotte Black | Jane Buckland |
Laurence Kyte | Chris de Pury |
Polly Kyte | Philly Spurr |
Teddy Kyte | Rebecca Cilento |
Mrs Thorpe | Ann Morgan |
Audrey Cullum | Ann Morgan |
Other parts to be played by members of the cast |