Director: Matt Hansen
Assistant Director: Kathryn Dickie
Costumes: Kath Harris
Set Designer: Kathryn Dickie
Production Dates: August 2015
Free and Easy was set in 1960’s Manchester where Eric and Iris Dobbins (played by Steven Malcolm and Marianne Whelan) have been running a friendly neighbourhood pub called The Last Drop for many years. It’s a place where everybody knows everybody – a real family style pub; a home away from home – somewhere to feel safe, warm and comfortable. Sound familiar…?
Their peaceful existence is threatened however by a visit from Ron Stone (Bob Congdon), the pub’s new external premises consultant who presents them with a new five-year business plan and a revised tenancy agreement. The devious Stone has seen the ‘marketing potential’ of The Last Drop and has persuaded the pub to not renew their existing agreement, but to demand twenty-five thousand pounds for a new one. Failure to pay will mean eviction – and thus allow the consultants to take over the pub and transform it into an ‘adult entertainment centre’ where pole-dancing and other salacious events are held!
Eric, Iris and their daughter Tracy (Rachel Head) are distraught. The barmaids, Vanessa (Sam Henderson) and Sharon (Leigh Jeffress) are devastated, and the regulars Kev (Paul Glanvill), ‘Switch’ (Matt Hansen) and Lonnie (Tom Macartney) are not happy.
