BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

 A Comedy by Edward Taylor

 3 males, 3 females

When young clerk George Dale (20-35) joins his uncle Tony Hill (35-50) in the small Dorford Income Tax Office, he expects a quiet life. What he gets is quite the reverse. For Tony and his per secretary, Anthea, have been operating a brilliant scam for years.

This tiny branch office has all the facilities of a big one, but not enough work to fill the day. So Tony and Anthea have been running Helping Hands, a problem-solving agency, on the side. Using the Inland Revenue’s computer and office space, they’ve been finding and supplying plumbers, baby-sitters, careering staff and entertainers, plus all manner of props and hardware, to their customers, as well as running a dating agency.

George is persuaded to join the racket, but comes to regret it when a senior tax inspector arrives to check out the office. (It’s been nominated as Tax Office of the Year: as they don’t do much work, they’ve made fewer mistakes than others!)

Naturally the Inspector’s sudden visit comes on a day when the place is already infested with dissatisfied clients, an angry lonely–hearts lady. A scantily-clad exotic dancer, and some bizarre props acquired for a film company.

The resourceful Tony and the terrified George do their best to cover up. But it is indeed a Bad Day at the Office.

MURDER BY MISADVENTURE by Edward Taylor

1 set, 3 males, 1 female

Despite their success as TV thriller writers, Harold Kent has become dissatisfied with Paul Riggs, his writing partner. Riggs threatens to blackmail him if the partnership is ended. Harold conspires with Emma his wife to kill Riggs, using the plot from a projected script as his inspiration. The perceptive Inspector Egan prevents things from going smoothly. "It has a last-minute denouement which turns every available table until you are left giddy with bewilderment" – Evening Standard

NO DINNER FOR SINNERS

 A Comedy by Edward Taylor

 2 males, 4 females

No Dinner for Sinners charts a hectic Saturday in the life of a good-looking advertising executive, Jim Watts (aged 30-50), London manager for a big international company. Tonight Bill McGregor, the American head of his firm is coming to dinner in Jim’s smart London flat. And McGregor is an intolerant puritan, President of Moral Outrage, and steadfastly opposed to the Permissive Society. He expects all his staff to be respectably married.

Bachelor Jim had assumed that Helen, his glamorous live-in lover would pose as his wife. But after some romantic breakfast horseplay goes wrong, Helen announces she’s leaving him. She’s off on a modelling job and won’t be back.

To keep his job, Jim must find a wife for the evening. But where? His dating book is out of date, and all his old girl friends seem to have married or emigrated. His devoted secretary Terri would do it. But she has a dress rehearsal for a leading role with her amateur players.

In desperation Jim recruits his cleaning lady, Edna, who’ll do anything for money and quite a lot for small change. At least she’ll know how to cook the dinners.

Then just as the McGregors arrive, some ladies change their minds, as ladies do. And suddenly, instead of no wife at all, Jim has three, all needing to be kept apart, and explained away to the belligerent McGregor.

And in the kitchen, things are going alarmingly wrong …

PARDON ME, PRIME MINISTER by Edward Taylor and John Graham

Farce.  4 males, 5 females

Set: The Prime Minister's study at 10 Downing Street, London

GEORGE VENABLES, the inwardly vulnerable Prime Minister, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, HECTOR CRAMOND, a militant Puritanical Scot, are preparing a severely puritanical budget, designed to tax amusements such as bingo, gambling, and night-clubs out of existence. On the day before its presentation, however, shocks are in store for both of them as each in turn appears to be father of the pretty SHIRLEY, result of a party during the Progressive Party’s annual conference twenty years before.