This Spring, the team at Greenwich Theatre announce their next in house production Alarms and Excursions, a collection of short plays by Michael Frayn which takes a hilarious look at society’s tortuous relationship with modern technology.
The production will explore how comically baffling new fangled machinery can be in its dealings with us, exposing the double-edged relationship we maintain with tools that aim to stimulate progress – but more often than not leave us feeling more baffled than when we began. Alarms and Excursions runs from February 11th – March 26th 2022 at Greenwich Theatre, for which tickets are now on sale.
Four old friends sit down for a quiet evening together. But they are harassed by various bells, sirens, buzzers, warbles, beepers and cheepers, all trying to warn them of something. What are these electronic voices so urgently trying to tell them? Can they understand the mysterious messages before disaster strikes? It’s a race against time — because there are seven more plays and twenty more characters still to come before the evening is through, plus a lot more strange noises — and increasingly desperate calls from eleven separate pay-phones…
Director James Haddrell divulges further “our blind reliance on technology, the evolution of relationships over time, our understanding of time and space in our lives – this collection of short plays is so rich with ideas that while I think audiences will certainly laugh they’ll also recognise so much about themselves and others, and will doubtless leave the theatre with at least a glimpse of a new version of the world”. Haddrell adds that, of course “we all deserve a laugh right now, after the two years that we’ve had to deal with, but Michael Frayn’s comedies are never just that – there is always something else sitting underneath and Alarms and Excursions is no exception”.
Haddrell, who will direct the production, shares that “Michael has described the collection as a theatrical tapas evening, and I think audiences will love that. Some larger plates, some smaller tasting plates, and an unexpected dessert at the end – the kind of evening where you always find something you love, and something to talk about!” A production which promises to simultaneously provide both light hearted comic relief and the catharsis of human relatability.
Alarms and Excursions is at Greenwich Theatre 11th February to 26th March 2022. Tickets are on sale here
