Silly Cow

Unseen Theatre Company
By arrangement with Dominie Pty. Ltd.

Presents

Ben Elton’s
Silly Cow

Directed by Robert Andrews

Unseen Theatre Company’s mid-year production (June 23 – July 9) will see it take a turn in the limelight and become more “visible”. In a temporary departure from its usual author Terry Pratchett, it will present Ben Elton’s “Silly Cow” – a black comedy with a twist in the tale.

Artistic Director Pamela Munt would like to assure Unseen’s Pratchett fans that the end of the year production will see a return to their favourite author, but meanwhile, she is sure that they will enjoy a very similar sense of humour from Ben Elton.

Ben Elton is a profilic and innovative master of comedy who has written for both stage and screen, being resposnsible for many a laugh or two in BBC television series including “The Young Ones” and “Black Adder”. Silly Cow is one of three of his scripts written originally for live theatre and published in the same volume with Gasping and Popcorn.

The plot revolves around Doris – a brassy, witty journalist who has her own theatre column that is pure abuse. Needless to say, Doris gets her comeuppance in a way that only Ben Elton could write. Doris will be played by Pamela Munt who is really looking forward to being on the other side of the stage and having a break from directing.

Ann Portus who has appeared in many and varied roles at the Bakehouse Theatre will play the role of Doris’s personal assistant Peggy. Ann has recently returned from London is looking forward to working with Pamela again after first doing so in Unseen’s 2002 production of Lords and Ladies.

The Silly Cow cast also includes Steven Parker as Sydney, the populist tabliod newspaper man who likes to think of himself as a rough diamond, Sean Venning as the kindly but astute accountant and Mark Drury as Eduardo – Doris’s street-wise toyboy.

Director Robert Andrews is the subject of much envy by Pamela Munt as he enjoys the luxury of working with only five cast members, while she usually has at least twenty. Robert assures us, though that he would never rub this in and has in fact really only mentioned it once – and he thinks he got away with it! Seriously though, Robert would like to say that he is having a lot of fun with this play while being ably assisted by Merri Brown as Assistant Director.