Matchbox Theatre: Thirty Short Entertainments
Matchbox Theatre presents a miniature sketch show: thirty dialogues and monologues by Michael Frayn, to be played in the smallest theatre in the world - the theatre of your own imagination.
Sir Geoffrye and Lady Hilarye, sleeping peacefully on their marble tomb these last six hundred years, are woken by the thump of rock music in the crypt beneath them ...
A gala performance of Shakespeare, and as a special treat the sponsor's guests are being wined and dined on stage as extras in the banquet scene ...
The eternal triangle in an airport departure lounge: two lovers and the flight announcements ...
The scripts are provided. Everything else - casting, set design, ice-cream sales - is up to the reader ...
Sir Geoffrye and Lady Hilarye, sleeping peacefully on their marble tomb these last six hundred years, are woken by the thump of rock music in the crypt beneath them ...
A gala performance of Shakespeare, and as a special treat the sponsor's guests are being wined and dined on stage as extras in the banquet scene ...
The eternal triangle in an airport departure lounge: two lovers and the flight announcements ...
The scripts are provided. Everything else - casting, set design, ice-cream sales - is up to the reader ...
Reviews
This book is a delicious jeu d'esprit, and every page is stamped with Frayn's comic genius.
Frayn, as we know, has enjoyed a long and eminent career as novelist, playwright, screenwriter, translator and freelance philosopher. But under that distinguished carapace there still flows the lifeblood of comedy. Here he seems to be writing for the sheer pleasure of writing ... It’s like watching the most abstract, highbrow TV sketch show you can imagine. No one would commission such a show, and it’s possible that only Faber would consider publishing it.
I absolutely loved Matchbox Theatre. They are all terrific, but A Stiff Drink was the one that made me shout with laughter whilst alone in the room.
