Too Much Punch for Judy. Mark Wheeller

to base how we should do it. There was no Frantic Assembly… no physical theatre groups that we were aware of. We didn’t let this put us off. To tell this story we had to stage this scene… and so we did, progressively well as time went on. The version you can see in the OYT 25th Anniversary production is to date (2020) the definitive presentation of this scene. I am very proud to say it was directed by my son Charlie, who wasn’t even born when the play was written. He is now a circus performer (Barely Methodical Troupe) and my instruction to him before I left him with my cast was ‘bring a bit of circus to it’. And he did! Thanks, Charlie.

      I have also loved writing a resource book which has been published by Salamander Street alongside this script. This was designed by Barrie Sapsford who was in the very first production of this play when it was a twenty minute add-on to our Quenchers play. It was very much a labour of love developed on the request of teachers and students who wanted to know more about the play. This volume tells you everything you could ever want to know. It’s not that I have a great memory (I don’t) but I kept production diaries at the time, which with all this interest in the play have proved unexpectedly useful!

      This is a genuinely ‘new’ publication. It includes all the updates I made in the previous one where I went through all the interviews and spotted parts that I missed first time round. I also made small alterations to the order of the ‘jig-saw’ and have consciously made a point of stressing certain moments that had been previously passed over. I also discovered for this edition an interview transcription I did with Judy after the second incident. There was some of this I’d not included previously but now I think the time is right to reveal it. I have also included some of the context for that second incident. I had always been fearful that to do so would be seen to be offering a justification of what happened. I don’t intend it to be that, and nor would Toni. It is merely the facts that led to the situation she found herself in. It is my decision to include these words in this publication. I hope it adds to our understanding of an appalling situation for anyone to be in.

      I hope that the increased availability of this play script will lead to new performances in new territories and new audiences so that the openly propagandist message is spelt out to even more people… young and old alike.

      Don’t drink and drive.

       Props and Presentation

      This play should be presented simply, yet imaginatively.

      Few props are required:

      A wheelchair, two sets of car keys and two half-filled beer glasses.

      Be imaginative with the other props… They can be much more symbolic: empty beer crates (to sit on), a sheet (for the decorating scene / baby Leanne) and scaffolding poles for the accident scene.

      Too Much Punch for Judy received its professional premiere by Touchstone Theatre In Education Company in May 1987.

       Characters

      6 male, 6 female, 1 male or female.

      JUDY

      A woman in her early twenties

      VI

      Judy’s mother

      JO

      Judy’s sister

      PETE

      Judy’s husband (a non speaking part)

      BOB

      A cocky ‘lad’

      NOB

      Bob’s sidekick

      VOICES/ACTORS

      Male or female

      DUNCAN

      The first person on the scene of the accident

      P.C. CATEN