ALAS POOR FRED/THE DISGUISES OF ARLECCHINO to be Presented at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre

Scarborough-based theatre company Lost and Found Collective is presenting two rarely seen plays from the back catalogue of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the year the theatre celebrates its 70th birthday.

The two shows, directed by Paul Elsam, who wrote the biography of the man who founded the theatre back in 1955, can be seen back-to-back on Friday 3 October.

Alas Poor Fred, by James Saunders, was produced in a heavily edited version by Stephen Joseph in 1958. This is the first full staging of the original, uncut, play.

Something funny has happened to Fred. Not funny… odd. Quite odd. Will Ernest ever get to the bottom of it? As Ethel knits, the clock ticks… but what day is it? Does November really come before September? And where actually is Fido...? 

Finding its roots in theatre of the absurd, this funny, moving show nods to Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. It explores echoes of the past and the memory of memories. 

The Disguises of Arlecchino is by Clifford Williams, who wrote just this one small original play (performed briefly in Scarborough in 1956), before becoming an internationally acclaimed theatre director. 

Perhaps you know Harlequin? Or maybe modern anti-hero Harley Quinn is more your style. We present: Arlecchino – the original anarchist! – a savvy Italian manservant with a talent for disguise and an instinct to Get Rich Quick (then promptly lose it all again).

Alas Poor Fred is performed by Dan Henley and Georgie Samuels; the cast for The Disguises of Arlecchinois Gui Sá Pessoa, David Lomond, Hannah Curtis and Dan Henley. Lee Ure provides technical support, and wardrobe is by Ruth Hill-Beeley.

Director Paul Elsam, who wrote Stephen Joseph: Theatre Pioneer and Provocateur, says: "A digital artist explained to me recently about AI in the Arts. It's not really artificial and in no real sense intelligent: it simply bottom-trawls the digitised record of human creative achievement, then uses that to predict stuff. Basically, it's advanced predictive text. “The thought struck me that only one art form can never be replaced by AI: intimate live theatre. These two little plays are both very human, highly intelligent and entirely unpredictable – unless of course you saw them briefly when, comet-like, they flashed and burned in Scarborough some six decades ago.

“Both come from the forgotten personal archive of Stephen Joseph. Lost for half a century in an attic, this dusty collection of ink-smudged paper is astonishing – featuring some of the most exciting forgotten British stage plays of the post-war years. Both came from the wonky typewriters of soon-to-be stars of the theatre.” 

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