Monday Club

Tuesday 13th October. 3.40 a.m. I wasn't going to go to Monday Club at the Oaktreee Centre on Monday afternoon (strange that, it's called the 'Monday Club', and by coincidence, it's held on a Monday.), but, because I have been working so hard on my play-writing, I decided to go. On arrival, all the chairs were arranged in a circle, and my first though was, we could play musical chairs. You know, the kid's party game, where you sit in a circle, play music and, pass around a parcel, wrapped in many layers of paper, and whoever has the parcel,  when the music stops, has to rip off a layer of paper. When the last layer is removed, the person who has the parcel, wins the item inside.

I'm sorry to say, I am put off going to this over 60s group, basically because, all they want to talk about is, their hip-replacements, boils on their bum, bunions and being, frankly, just dead boring. Someone went on about, how cold it was getting. They had the heating on permanently and I suppose it is going to get colder, now we're in October. But I haven't got the heating on in my flat. Infact, this flat gets too hot, and I open the window open, to let the heat out. Well, if you're cold, move about a bit, go for a walk, do anything to get your blood circulating.

There is plenty of cake. Probably far too much. But, looking at the arrangement of the chairs, the idea of a play called simply 'Musical Chairs' comes to mind. Then, as the session continues, and a couple comes in and they hvae a small dog, I think a Pekenise, but whatever breed it is, it's small and they can carry it. Very friendly and loves being made a fuss of, just like Alfie. I have the idea for a new play, set in a similar club, held in a village hall, so I have the entire concept, so when I get home, I begin to develop the characters, writing it all in a large hard-bound notebook I forgot I had. Within barely an hour I have all the characters developed in note form and programmed into my Macbook Pro and act one completed. Even the little dog which I mentioned has a small part in this play, by now called 'Raising The Roof.'

I have now begun working on 'Musical Chairs' a second piece of theatre, sprung out of Monday Club. I don't think it's a full-length play, but probably a shorter piece, so it could be combined with other, shorter pieces, to make a full evening's worth of theatre. Fit probably for small-scale venues, with 200 seats or even less. So, to get two pieces of theatre from Monday afternoon is something of a miracle, so it goes to show, theatre doesn't have to be about big things, big issues, kings, rich people, but can be found in the smaller places, about those at the bottom of the pile, the grafters, those don't usually show up in the headlines, the back-room boys, and girls.