Bangkok Community Theatre holds regular weekday evening online play readings at 7:30pm. Each week we choose a new script and share it with the participants in advance. Then we get together and read the play aloud on zoom, regularly switching up the roles so that everyone gets a chance to read, if they wish. Some BCT friends don’t want to read; they just like to listen. That’s okay, too.
These play readings are open to anyone who wants to join age 16+! Just email: RSVP@bangkokcommunitytheatre.com to get the link. It’s free and a great way to meet some other people who enjoy live theatre and to practice your performing skills as well.. Please join us; tell your friends.
On Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 7:30pm (7:15 sign in), please join us to read “Children” by A. R. Gurney.
ABOUT THE PLAY
Children is an early play by American playwright A. R. Gurney. It was first produced in London in 1974 and received its American premiere in 1976. It was inspired by John Cheever’s short story “Goodbye My Brother”
Randy and Barbara, adult children of an affluent New England family, spend Fourth of July weekend at their family’s beach house on an island off the coast of Massachusetts. Both are shocked when their widowed mother informs them that they’re soon to be joined by their youngest brother, Pokey, long estranged from the family. When questioned as to the reasons for the reunion, their mother reveals that she plans to remarry—to their late father’s best friend—and that, due to the conditions of their father’s will, the house will pass to the three children. Pokey’s arrival threatens the stability of this solid WASPish clan. Randy’s childish competitiveness with his brother is reawakened. Pokey’s liberated wife, Miriam, causes Randy’s wife, Jane, to confront her true feelings about her life as a suburban wife and mother. Meanwhile, Barbara is having an affair with the family’s former gardener, now married. Pokey announces his intentions to sell the house once it passes to the children, thus upsetting Barbara’s plans for a quiet domestic life with her lover on the island. The children’s upset forces their mother to confront where her life with her husband has brought her, and whether the true happiness really waits in her future.