Save our Supermarket

It's based on a Disney story that my kids were reading about that time (A little Golden Book, or some such) called "The Magic Grinder" I haven't looked it up, but I presume the story had it's origins in the works of the the Brothers Grimm or somewhere like that. Minnie Mouse was cast as the Heroine in the Disney version if memory serves me.

Also in my mind at the time was the general rabbitings of one Barry Jones MP who'd been pointing out with some glee (it seemed to me) that automation was reaching new heights with entire factories operating with practically no staff, except a tireless, un-unionised collection of machines. And as far as he (Barry) could see no body was taking a blind bit of notice of the effects this was having on employment generally or the long term prospects for work.

The third idea that was floating around in my mind was the desire to tackle a science fiction story for the stage. I'd always felt this was particularly difficult as the few science fiction play's I'd seen were, generally speaking, not that successful.

There are a few play in the canon that might be considered successful science fiction. "RUR" The Capek play, and possibly Shaw's "Man and Superman" might qualify. But there's not much else.

So I sat down, took up my pen, and this is the result. It's not earth shatterning stuff, but it does have its moments.

What I tried to do was make the play something that would give a big cast lots of opportunities to tackle lots of different aspects of staging a play. There are something over 20 fairly big parts so there's something for everybody to do. There lots of different styles of character from "straight" to comic. There are small intense scenes and large every-body-on-stage-at-once scenes. The result is the student is exposed to a range of different material in the one play, and that, in a student play, is ideal.

Of course so many characters, and so many short scenes doesn't make for a great audience experience, but the play wasn't written for you, the audience. This time you're just here on sufferance.