JOHN RANDOM (1958 - )
| Nationality: | British |
| Literary Agent: *: | |
| Email: | |
| Website: | n/a |
* If shown, click on the literary agent's name for full contact details and links to all the Playwrights they represent.
Plays by John Random
Orange Penguin, The |
| 1st Produced: | Hoxton Hall, London | 1992 | ||
| Company: | Risk Theatre Company | |||
| 1st Published: | - | - | ||
| To Buy This Play: | I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page | |||
| Genre: | Satirical Comedy | Satire | Parts: | Male | - | Female | - |
| Parts Other: | - | |||
Notes: The play was written for a specific group of actors, at that time all around the thirty mark. | ||||
Synopsis: The Orange Penguin is an Innocent Abroad in the Big City kind of story; in this case the Big City being London. As such it shamelessly pilfers elements from My Fair Lady and Oliver Twist. Ian comes to London from Scotland after animal rights activists free all the stock on what he mistakenly believes is the mink sanctuary at which he worked. Like Oliver Twist, he soon falls in with an Artful Dodger and a Fagin, only to be whisked from a poor milieu to a rich one, in this case a flat in the pyramid at the top of the Canary Wharf Tower. Unlike Oliver Twist, Ian develops from a charming ingénue into a ghastly snob, in the mould of his bourgeois mentors, although fortunately he does eventually achieve a measure of independence and maturity. As may be gathered, this is all very silly and there is scant effort at realism. At one point, Dave and get jobs as Egyptian slaves in a production of Aida, and the climax is resolved with a swordfight. Nonetheless, there's a backbone of satirical purpose and plenty of targets are hit, though of course with the passage of years, their relevance has faded and even grown obscure. | ||||
