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Stags and Hens Stags and
Hens was originally conceived as an in-house television piece for
Manchester Polytechnic's television and drama students in 1978 when
Willy held the Chair in Creative Writing.
The play focuses on a
group of girls and local lads who venture out for a night of
pre-marriage stag and hen party celebrations. The action takes place
in the Gents and Ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, Bransky's,
where Dave and Linda (bride and groom-to-be) have decided,
unbeknownst to each other, to hold their stag and hen parties.
Linda runs into her
old boyfriend, Peter, a musician with a single climbing up the pop
charts, but who is back in Liverpool on this particular night -
playing a gig at Branskys.
Whilst entering the
club, Dave, in a drunken stupor, becomes ill from the indian curry
he ate (washed down with a copious mix of cider and Guiness) and
spends the remainder of the evening (and the play) in the Gents,
with his head down the lavatory bowl!
His mates, including
Kas, and gang leader Eddie decide to take the law into their own
hands when they suspect that Linda has developed a crush on Peter
and may be having second thoughts about marrying Dave.
The play opened at
the Everyman in October 1978 and was subsequently widely produced
throughout the country and abroad, playing (as it still does today)
to enthusiastic audiences and reviews (except for some adverse
comments on the raunchy language and sexual innuendo in the play).
In 1984 it was performed in London.
The play is still as
fresh and relevant today as it was in 1978 and is still being
performed both here in the UK and as far afield as Australia,
Canada, America and Sweden.
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