A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG

by Peter Nicholls

Performed at the Nuffield Theatre on 28th March to 1st April, 1989

Peter Nichols

Peter Nichols was born in Bristol in 1927 and educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After National Service in India, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, he was an actor, then a teacher in London junior and secondary schools.

He has written some twenty original plays and adaptations for television, several feature film scripts and the following stage plays : A Day In the Death of Joe Egg (1967) and The National Health (1969), both winners of the Evening Standard Best Play Award; Forget-Me-Not Lane (1971); Chez Nous (1974); The Freeway (1974); Prlvates on Parade(1977), which won best comedy awards from both the Evening Standard and the Society of West End Theatre, and the Ivor Novello Award for the Best British Musical; Born In the Garden, (1979); Passion Play (1981); Poppy (1982), which won the Society of West End Theatre Award for the Best British Musical and A Piece of my Mind (1987), which ran at the Nuffield Theatre before transferring to the West End.

He was resident playwright at the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, where he co-directed a production of The National Health on the thrust stage. He has also directed a revival of Joe Egg at Greenwich and the first production of Born In the Gardens at Bristol. The 1985 Broadway revival of Joe Egg won two Tony Awards. In 1984 he published his autobiography, Feeling You’re Behind.

 A Day In the Death of Joe Egg

Joe Egg is an autobiographical play based on Nichols' experience of caring for a severely disabled child; his eldest daughter Abigail was the model for Joe Egg. Nichols makes unusual use of the actors directly addressing the audience and acknowledging that they are performing a play. He said of the play , ‘‘If Joe Egg is a problem play, the problem is not only how to live with a handicapped child but how to describe that life (as Bri says) ‘in a way that will prevent a stampede to the exit doors.’’’ He succeeds by making us laugh, through the pain, with Bri and Sheila.

CAST   in order of appearance

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