Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33938 in Books
• Published on: 1993-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

Customer Reviews

A bizarre and witty account of marital breakdown
Kenneth is a man with a weakness for fatty foods and skinny women. His mid-life crisis forces him to favour the latter, so he trades in Hilary - his stoic wife of twenty years - for the younger, prettier, slimmer (and more culinary-challenged) Laura. However, he quickly regrets his rash decision and finds himself torn between the delights of Laura's bedroom and Hilary's kitchen. The three eventually meet for a 'let's all be grown-ups' meal round at Hilary's, where Kenneth discovers he can no longer have his cake and eat it, as the women regain control... This play sounds bizarre and is, but it also says a lot about human weakness, loyalty, and the consequences of selfishness. It's also extremely funny, with such classic lines as "go and have deep throat sex and leave me here in my sparkling kitchen!"

NB: The play contains some excellent female monologues which make great audtion pieces.

Editor, please?
The first thing I will say about this play is that the grammar is thoroughly appalling. And this is an issue that recurs throughout the text. If you have no patience for this sort of thing then I would strongly advice you stay well away from it. For a published play, this sort of thing should not happen. Monologues written entirely in block capitals and multiple exclamation marks leaves one wondering how exactly the author envisioned the piece originally be portrayed. I believe that such an apparent difficulty in conveying subtext through ill use of grammar may point to a very shallow understanding of human emotion - which certainly does not bode well for a play of this nature.
Isitt also seems quite undecided as to the message of the play in several places. Whether Isitt had penned a tale of feminism or wanted women to see how it was their own folly that brought about the undesirable behaviour in their male partners (which is brave indeed) I am still quite uncertain.
However, there are a lot of good monologues for women. There are at least a few that would make for acceptable audition pieces.