Third Element Theatre
Alas, Poor Fred - The Original, Uncut Version
*** A WORLD PREMIERE PRE-TOUR PREVIEW ***
Alas Poor Fred’ features Ethel and Ernest, an ageing couple with a dark suburban secret: years earlier, someone very close to them was chopped in half…
The play premiered in 1959 at Stephen Joseph’s theatre-in-the-round above Scarborough Library. Director Paul Elsam jokes that the story echoes the play’s history:
‘James Saunders was a sort of playful philosopher - he was even mentor to a young Tom Stoppard. Even so, when Stephen Joseph first read ‘Alas Poor Fred’, he seems to have panicked! He took out his black pen and basically chopped the play in half. And that cut version is the one people know today.’
Paul discovered the uncut original script while he was writing a book about Stephen Joseph. For months now he’s been working on this never-before-seen version with actors Rae Yaldren and Dan Henley - and now they’re ready to share it. Paul and his talented cast promise ‘something really special. There’s still comedy, but this play is much darker. They say ‘time plays tricks’ - well so does this play!
Limited tickets are available for the preview performance at The Old Parcels Office in Scarborough on 30th June at 19:30 via: