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How do you Like Your Wagner

Date Written: 1972

Synopsis:

See Comment

First Produced: Under the title of Tell Me You love Me 26th February 1975 Theatre: Perth

Set: 1. The living room of a flat in London

Comment:

A play of its time optioned by the Peter Saunders management, produced at Perth in February 1975 and loathed by the local critic, one Allen Wright writing for The Scotsman, which at least says something about the play even if not entirely accurate.

Perth Theatre is presenting a new play which has all the trappings of trendiness draped over its old-fashioned form. One character is a drug addict for whom we are asked to have compassion, another is a homosexual who is held up to ridicule; and the dialogue contains enough four-letter words to seem daring without being disgusting.

At the centre of Tell Me You Love Me, Glyn Jones has placed the familiar figure of a Left-wing intellectual who worries about the under- privileged in Bangladesh and Vietnam while ignoring emotional disturbances in his own backyard.

He works as a teacher liberating young minds, but we see him only in his off-duty hours when - between bouts of flippancy - he basks in a blaze of stereophonic Wagner. David's life-style is all pretence; even to the extent of disclaiming he is legally married to Fiona because it seems more fashionable to boast that he is living with her. She appears to be so priggish and petulant that it is surprising he should want to prolong the relationship.

The scene in which Fiona and her mother have a heart-to-heart is so painfully prim one can only sympathise with the actresses involved. The neighbours seem to have stepped out of a Broadway comedy, whereas the solemn young visitor who is in desperate need of affection belongs to more serious drama.

Available for Production contact DCG Media Group