A Villanova Players Production

“Failure: a Love Story”

A play by Philip Dawkins

Directed by Rod Thompson

SEASON ENDED

“It’s about Time”

It’s 1928, and it’s about time Mortimer found a wife. He has a lot going for him – he is very rich, good looking, personable, sharp, but he wouldn't know the time of day!.

Gerty Fail is a thoroughly modern young lady. She has been running the family business “Fail Clockworks, Est 1900” since the untimely demise of her parents. She has absorbed these new-fangled ideas of female equality and it is certainly not “love at first sight”, in fact she comes very close to throwing him out.

But this is a love story, so the formula is that they will disagree about everything, eventually fall in love, and finally live happily ever after.

But this play does not follow the usual rules (or any rules) and the actual story is much less predictable - much less!

Mortimer is played by Lachlan Gregory Hugh

Gerty Fail is played by Erin Hall

Photography by Luke Monsour

The Roaring Twenties

Just one hundred years ago! They were exciting, if dangerous times.

Art Deco, Spectacular Clothing, Jazz, Prohibition,

Speak-easies, The rise of organised crime,

The St Valentines Day massacre.

Of all places, Chicago seems to have been, if not the hub of all this, at least involved up to its stylish armpits.

This is the background, but not the subject of this play about a family of three girls and a boy, running their family business on the corner of Lumber and Love in a non-salubrious part of Chicago, by the banks of the smelly Chicago River.

They have successfully run the family clock repair business since the death of their parents, who had emigrated from The Old Country. They are:

Gerty Fail: An accomplished clock repairer since a very young age.
Jenny June Fail: A very accomplished swimmer and diver with a crush on Johnny Weissmuller (whom she came second to in a diving competition).
(Johnny Weissmuller later became even more famous for playing the role of Tarzan).
Nelly Fail: A bright young thing who loves life, music and dancing. A professional singer (who hasn't been discovered yet).
John N Fail: Their adopted brother, who finds animals better company than people. In fact, his best friend is Moses who was found floating down the Chicago River in a wicker basket, which also contained the baby John N. (Moses is a ball python).

Into the Fail Family s peaceful but not quiet life, surrounded by music, clocks, and animals, comes Mortimer. He is rich, successful, and an all-round nice guy.

Now: Some people are lucky in love;
Some people are unlucky in love;
Some people are very unlucky in love;
And then ... there is Mortimer.

But is it a “Sad Play”?

Well, yes - we have to admit it is sad in parts. It is the story of a family that lived and loved in the roaring twenties. It is now a hundred years later. But this is emphatically NOT a tragedy.

It is probably the funniest, cleverest, brightest, sassiest, corniest, picaresque, pun-infested, historically accurate, uplifting “Sad Play” in the business.

It is a play about TIME. As physicist Carlo Rovelli says “... it isn't absence that causes sorrow. It is affection and love. Without affection, without love, such absences would cause us no pain. For this reason, even the pain caused by absence is, in the end, something good and even beautiful, because it feeds on that which gives meaning to life”. (Rovelli, C. 2017 “The Order of Time”, Page 105)

It is a play about PEOPLE: strange and wonderful, smart and foolish, but all likeable.
As one of the characters says:

“Just because something ends, that don't mean it wasn't a great success.”

Some Reviews

Review by Alan Bresloff - “… a theatrical experience that will stay in your memory for years to come.”
https://aroundthetownchicago.com/theatre-reviews/failure-a-love-story/

Review by Bob Bullen - “while life is random and unfair, it's also supremely precious. You simply have to make the most of it while you have it. And Dawkins ... celebrates this notion through comical, fast-paced scene work.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/failure-a-love-story-play_b_2201847"

Review by Brian Granger - “… the production at PURE is simultaneously hilarious and heart-wrenching,”
https://charlestoncitypaper.com/2015/11/10/review-pures-failure-a-love-story-is-a-heartwarming-and-humorous-show

Performances at The Ron Hurley Theatre, 28 Tallowwood Street, Seven Hills on
Fri 8th November 2024 at 7:30pm;
Sat 9th Nov at 2:00pm and 7:30pm;
Sun 10th Nov at 2:00pm

(Special preview for members on the evening of Wed 6th Nov).

MORE INFORMATION

BOOKINGS

Al Capone, Bugs Moran and Thompson sub-machine guns have no part in this story whatsoever.