Parkway Dreams: All Change!

‘Parkway Dreams' involves a number of characters that you wouldn't necessarily expect to find in a New Town musical. Right now, Matt is singing as Roy Kinnear (father of Rory), dressed as a Roman soldier, then Ros will give us her best Katherine of Aragon.  Gareth has been getting to grips (not literally) with Wyndham Thomas, the General Manager of the Peterborough Development Corporation. Handily, the Welsh accent is not an issue. 

‘I know how to strike a bargain, gift of the gab they said about me back in Hemel. And you know if they say it in Hemel, it must be true.'

Polly whizzes off and on as the Clerk of the Corporation, intermingled with scenes as Mary, the matriarch of our London over-spill family, and a number of other characters. Robert has been handed the music baton by Simon Egerton and so spends much of his time behind the piano, popping out now and again as yet another Government Minister.

‘To go ahead with the development of a New Town in north Buckinghamshire, and with the expansions of Ipswich, Northampton and - Peterborough!'

More instruments are starting to creep in - today a banjo appeared, two saxophones, a violin and a high-hat to name a few. And an accordion, because it wouldn't be ‘Parkway Dreams' without an accordion. Finally, Rob rapidly alternates from young Peter, via Peter Glaze and Terry Wogan, to Tom Hancock, architect of Peterborough. 

‘He used to plan for Harlow
But now he's our new hit man!'

We're onto what we call Act Two, our family have moved and are starting to come to terms with life outside of London. We've opened a Parkway and discussed the glories of having a fitted kitchen in the early 1970s. But change is round the corner: tomorrow Scottish horticulturalist Sadie will make an appearance, followed shortly by Janice, who completes our family.

‘We are happy. A family.'

Also kicking off this week is the schools element of the outreach programme, with three facilitators visiting many of our host towns to explore verbatim theatre with the pupils. We're looking forward to sharing our distinctive style through these workshops. Last but not least, watch out for our online trailer, the fruits of today's labour. There could be a lot of close-ups...