Light of Desire
King Street Gallery, Bristol
24th - 28th November 1982
The Playwrights Company presents
Jon Glentoran in
FLOWER OF DARKNESS
by Sheila Yeger
LIGHT OF DESIRE
by Robin Seavill
DIRECTED BY
John Downie
PS
“The Playwrights Company,” the programme for this double bill tells us, “was formed in 1978, by a group of writers, directors, actors and theatregoers, with an interest in theatre in the South West. A petition in support of the formation of this organisation was signed by, among others, Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and Tom Stoppard. The Company exists both to increase the volume of new writing for the theatre, and to stimulate and develop new writing responses to a changing society. Activities range from teaching workshops to seasons of professional productions.”
This double bill of monologues was performed by local actor (and illustrator, as it turned out – he designed the poster) Jon Glentoran who you would recognise from various TV appearances over the years, though he’s probably best known as the German guard-cum-goalkeeper defending a wartime reservoir in the famous Carling Black Label Dambusters commercial (YouTube it). You’ll find the full script of Light of Desire in the plays section, though if it’s not there yet, it should be soon.
The press release described it as “a quirky, upbeat tragicomedy” (I’ll take that), and the programme even featured my first author’s bio by another hand, which gathered together so much material that the biographer’s grasp of grammar eventually collapsed under the weight: “ROBIN ANDREW SEAVILL is a 26 year old Bristolian. Educated at Cotham Grammar School and St John’s College, Oxford. He has written for, and appeared in, half a dozen revues in Oxford, including two shows with Rowan Atkinson, and two revues at the Edinburgh Festival, Knockers (1977) and Knockers 2 (1979). His first play, A Change of Air, won Bristol Arts Centre one-act play competition, performed in King Square. Seventh play, Three Chairs, a Spot, and …, produced in Oxford. Light of Desire is his twelfth play. He has also written and performed songs on radio and T.V., and he is the author of four novels (unpublished).” (That ‘unpublished’ was the best-timed punchline in the whole business.)
This was never a completely satisfying experience for me as I was more or less presented with the idea to see what I could make of it, and I ended up producing another variation on my trusty (or even rusty, by now) man-cum-machine theme. The review in the local paper was decent enough though, considering, and seemed to sum it up in a way I’d never been able to manage myself: “In Light of Desire 26-year-old Mr Seavill, a former Cotham Grammar pupil, examines the dilemma facing a government employee called Ralph, who has become so mechanised by his work that he cannot make up his mind whether he is a man who is becoming a machine or vice versa. An excellent piece of acting from Mr Glentoran, together with a witty and perceptive script and some effective lighting and sound effects, resulted in an interesting production.”
(FWIW, I see no big Blade Runner mystery here. There was never any doubt in my mind that Ralph is and always was a machine. A very sensitive one no doubt, full of finer feelings and guilt and all that. But mostly full of circuitry.)
One night we had a school party in, and they all seemed to enjoy mine very much, possibly because it was a bit risqué at times and the effects were quite well done. “You seem to have found your audience at last,” the author of the other half of the double bill told me afterwards. I think she meant it as a compliment. I would hate to think she intended it to be anything else.
