Unhappy marriages that lead to firm friendships (From Wharfedale Observer)

Unhappy marriages that lead to firm friendships

10:52am Thursday 19th April 2012 in Leisure By Newsdesk

Children are just back at school, but it’s already nearly playtime at Otley Courthouse.

This Saturday sees Free Birds, a funny, tender, emotionally-charged drama from Yeadon’s Icabod Productions.

Lizzie and Ben are both unhappily married (to different partners), and find solace and romance with one another. Their story is told through flashbacks, from their first meeting in France, to Lizzie’s emigration to California. Lizzie is plagued by her marriage to Texan husband Randy, while she and Ben move from lovers to ‘best friends’.

Can this frustrated ‘friendship’ last – will Ben and Lizzie break the bonds of their failing marriages and fly above everything that life throws at them, or lose their spark of romance and be buried in their separate lives? This surprisingly relevant play shines a light on modern love, and offers an affecting take on very different relationships.

Next Friday’s play, Captain Murderer And The Morecambe Mermaid, could hardly be more of a contrast. This pitch-black comedy is shot through with strange surprises. The characters’ weird personalities and faults are enhanced by the huge array of masks, puppets, illusions and projections.

This is a world with a real-life mermaid, whose sad history has left her literally washed-up, and stuck as a performing freak in a sideshow on Morecambe pier. Meanwhile, her boss is a drink-addled clown with an obnoxious, foul-mouthed daughter, who continually breaks in and distracts him from his beloved Dickens shocker, ‘Captain Murderer’.

Be aware these aren’t plays for the young or faint-hearted – both have fairly adult themes, and Captain Murderer carries a 15 certificate.

More details and tickets are available at otleycourthouse.org.uk, on (01943) 467466, or in person.