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, September 28, 2021 at 7:30pm (7:15 sign in), please join us to read ‘a bit of Oomph!’ written by Bangkok resident, Roger Mitton.
ABOUT THE PLAY
The action in ‘a bit of Oomph’ unfolds against the backdrop of two concurrent events: the Entebbe airplane hijacking of July 1976 and the infamous ‘Lady in the Lake’ murder case in NW England.
At first, the murder victim and her husband appear to be a typical couple living in a bungalow in the countryside. But it is soon
revealed that they and their family and friends are anything but typical. She suddenly and mysteriously disappears. One of her lovers is a nomadic former seaman with “a bit of Oomph” and a record. Naturally, he becomes a suspect, as does her husband. Also seeking answers is a Muslim family friend, who is radicalised after losing his brother in the aftermath of Entebbe.
Overarching these events is a leitmotif of aspiration and change, the “possibilities” of escaping the “here and now” of a small and isolated northern town, as the years pass by with Death’s winged chariot at your back.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
After school in England, Roger Mitton spent time in the merchant navy, then worked in the Post Office, a textile factory, and as a bartender and part-time English teacher in Spain. He then moved to this region as a journalist and had posts in Hong Kong, KL, Bangkok and Hanoi. Later, he became the US bureau chief for the Singapore Straits Times. He has now
settled in Bangkok. This is his first full-length play.