Alan cannot sleep. Worse still, his wife is a very accomplished sleeper. Each night, Sarah dreams vivid, prophetic dreams which she paints when she wakes. Through the night, with only his imaginary friend Ted for company, Alan sits and watches as his wife dreams.
Alan is a college lecturer. A stunning girl in his class, Juliet, takes a shine to him. Juliet convinces Alan to give her a lift home. She makes a pass at him which he nervously resists. He arrives home late to finds Sarah in the middle of one of her dreams. Sound asleep, she grabs him by the throat and says, ‘Juliet, let him be, he’s mine’. Both Alan and Ted are suitably worried. In the morning Sarah brightly announces that she dreamed Alan was having an affair.
Alan knows he better leave Juliet alone but she refuses
to be ignored. She knows what she wants and intends to get it. Alan is
drawn into seeing her once again and, as he stumbles back home to Sarah
and Ted, he correctly anticipates the worst. While awake, Sarah may know
nothing of her husband’s guilt-ridden lapses but she will know it all when
she finally goes... to sleep.
‘To Sleep’ marked a big step forward for me. It was the second year I had entered a full-length script in the London Radio Playwright’s Festival and it ended up as one of that years winners.
Since then the play has served as an introduction to many new people and opportunities.
I have reshaped it into a
full length theatre play which was performed as the opening night show of my beloved Linenhall Theatre, directed by John Breen - thanks John!
‘To Sleep was produced by Tim Crook for Independent Radio Drama Productions in 1992.
The Cast were:
Alan - David Peart
Sarah - Tessa Wojtczak
Juliet - Mandy Lassalles
Ted - John Talbot
Tildy - Angela Rooks
Rob - Anthony Ofoegbu
It was originally broadcast in five instalments between
25th July 1994 and 29th July 1994 on LBC Radio and was repeated this year
on Sunday Playhouse on LBC. It was also IRDP’s
Internet Play of the Month last March.
The Theatre version of 'To Sleep' was performed to a packed house as the opening night play in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar. It was directed by John Breen. This was a very proud night for me.