Cast

Synopsis

A wry, witty portrait of middle class England, the play is a comedy about broken vows, failed hopes and the joys of bee keeping. All is not well in the Humble hive. Thirty-five year old Felix is a Cambridge astro-physicist in search of a unified field theory. Following the sudden death of his father, Felix returns to his middle England home and his difficult and demanding mother, where he soon realises that search for unity must include his own chaotic home life.

Directors Notes

In my first years as a director I practised on writers like Shakespeare, Molière, Congreve, Ibsen, Chekhov. Playwrights who are my contemporaries, Ayckbourn, Stoppard, Pinter, Bennett, Albee, Dario Fo were all automatically part of a good theatre’s programme. In recent years amateurs have become far more timid. For financial reasons or from ignorance of the huge theatrical canon, they lean towards tepid thrillers or TV-inspired comedies, which are all too easy for an undemanding audience to enjoy.Even BLT occasionally succumbs to this wasting disease. This debilitating tendency damages practitioners and diminishes an audience’s rights to good theatrical pleasure. | don’t condemn enjoyment: I am merely concerned about its quality.

If I sound like a grumpy old man, I am. Bad work annoys me. A mediocre performance of a good play still presents you with a good play and you can enjoy it; a mediocre play is still mediocre whatever you do with it.

All too rarely a fine new play by a young dramatist emerges. The quality of the writing in “Humble Boy” is remarkable, the dramatic structure is very sound and Charlotte Jones presents everyone involved with great challenges. Working on this play has proved to be intensely rewarding and I hope that some of its quality comes through in the production tonight.