Blast from the Past

Continental-European Premiere in English

written by Ben Elton

directed by Martin Buxbaum

with Bronwynn Mertz (Polly Slade), Dennis Kozeluh (Jack Kent)

 

Assistant Directors: Anita Aichinger, Xenia Bayer

Stage Managers: Anita Aichinger, Juliane Langenbach

Sound & Lighting: Xenia Bayer

Costumes & Set Design: vtp team

Props: Juliet Najjar / vtp team

Box Office: Thomas Crawley, Juliane Langenbach

Teacher Materials: Margit Atzler, Georg Drennig, Martin Buxbaum

 

Facts

May 3-15, 2004

Monday-Saturday, 8.00 p.m.

Premiere: Monday, May 3

 

Theater Die Tribüne

Café Landtmann, right next to the Burgtheater

Dr. Karl Lueger Ring 4, A-1010 Vienna

 

About the play

Part noir thriller, part hilarious send-up of the politics of extremism, Blast from the Past is based on Ben Elton's novel of the same title.

 

In the early 80s, when Polly Slade was a seventeen-year-old ideological peace protestor and Jack Kent was a U.S. Army captain stationed at England's Greenham Common, the two had a secret and improbable love affair. No two people could have had more to argue about, save that they couldn't live without each other, yet one day Jack came to the conclusion that he loved soldiering more than Polly and sacrificed their love to be a career army man.

Now, sixteen years later, Polly is a lonely thirty-something social services employee while Jack is a four-star general in line to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Before his promotion, he returns to Britain to find her, his only true love. With only one night to resolve their differences, and a knife-wielding stalker lurking in the shadows, for everyone concerned this will be a night like no other.

 

About the author

Ben Elton was born in London in 1959. After graduating from Manchester University in 1980, he started a career as stand-up comedian, and soon began to write material for others. His early work saw him writing for, and on the TV-screen with, later stars such as Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, and Robbie Coltrane in the comedy show Alfresco. He went on to write shows such as Spitting Image, Blackadder, and Mr. Bean. He has also published several books, including Gridlock, Dead Famous, High Society, and Blast from the Past.

Besides being a highly successful comedian both as a writer and on the stage, Ben Elton is known as a prolific political voice – his Anti-Thatcherist and progressive political stance have informed much of his work. In Blast from the Past, however, he shows that he can easily portray and master both sides of a political argument, while at the same time revealing their respective faults and errors.

 

Teachers

Teacher Material for all vienna theatre project productions is available in PDF format to download from this website. Please visit our Education section to find the required documents which are available free of charge.The material available includes background information about the author, the play, main themes, characters, reading suggestions, possible teaching objectives, dialogues for discussion, assignments and vocabulary (English-German).

 

For further enquiries please contact education@viennatheatreproject.at