Up Against The Clock - A Play In 24 Hours
It’s Easter Sunday at about 8pm; seven people sit around a table and ponder an antique bed warming pan. Twenty four hours later, five of these people will perform a twelve minute play based around it. This is the essence of the Overnight Plays which has become an annual event at The Questors Theatre in Ealing. This year is my debut as a writer for the plays and as I look at the warming pan I wonder, not for the first or last time, Why On Earth I have decided to do it. The Prop! The Overnight Plays were instigated six years ago by the inimitable Tristan Marshall and he is still the head of the show. Each year, he gathers together seven writers, seven directors and a group of around thirty actors. At precisely 7.45pm, he splits the assembled actors into seven groups and matches them up with a writer and director. There may be two actors in a group or there may be seven; only Tristan knows beforehand. The groups are then assigned a mystery prop, which must form a central par...