A dark comedy based on the short story by Edgar Allen Poe.

An inspection team that went to visit a high security prison has disappeared.

Another team has been sent to look for them and is very impressed with what they find – a prison so well run it is like clockwork. At the end of the day they are invited to a meal with the warders who want them to leave with ‘only the best memories of the establishment’.

As the food is passed around and the wine flows freely, the stories start to emerge of strange goings on in places like this over the years – from inmates who genuinely thought they were someone famous from history and wanted to take over the world, others who believed they were under military surveillance at all times and could usually be found barricaded under a table, to some who took on the exact attributes of certain creatures, only coming out at night when the mice appear….

The wine is affecting the vision of the inspectors but they are enjoying themselves when the final anecdote starts.

Some time ago, realising they were never going to be able to escape, the more intelligent – some would say genius – inmates got together and decided to make this place their own. They would do this by first using their sheer superiority in numbers to overpower the guards and then to “tar and feather” them, so that they looked like huge chickens! From that day forward, whoever came to see the prison would see them and assume they were beyond help as they cried, “But we’re the warders, honestly!!” 

However, suspicions must not be aroused and so any visitors who ever came in to see the prison would also be ‘kept’ for ever, tarred and feathered. In this way, the inmates could be in charge and have a fabulous life of near luxury with everything provided for them, while no-one would ever be able to reveal the truth.

“Why didn’t their ingenious plan work?” asks an inspector, intrigued.

At that point, the door bursts open and in run two human sized chickens shouting incomprehensibly……

THE COMPANY

Cast:

Pastoral Staff & Arrangements:

Head Chaperone: Mark Rind

Contact phone number: 07948 544 843 (This phone number will be available from 13th August)

Rehearsal venue and dates:

Venue:     Appleford School
Address: Shrewton
                  Nr Salisbury
                  Wiltshire
                  SP3 4HL
           

Dates and times: 20th - 25th August 2007.  Performance 2pm 25th August 2007.

Other important information:

Travel Information:

Reviews