Fall 2010 – White Sheep of the Family
White Sheep of the Family
by L. du Garde Peach and Ian Hay
Directed by Roy Ballantine
White Sheep of the Family takes place in London in the 1950s. The Winters are a reputable, well-to-do family, living in the best part of Hampstead. As a Justice of the Peace and a churchwarden, Mr. Winter serves his community in the best traditions of conventional respectability. It comes as a shock to the family, therefore, when Peter Winter, the son, decides to break out of the mold and follow a rather different path from that of his parents and sister.
The reason is not long hidden: he has met a girl. He takes a job in a bank (his ‘references’ are excellent). The family makes every effort to get him back into his ancestral profession, and to no avail, until it is discovered that his fiancée (the daughter of a Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner) is a first class amateur safe breaker!
The ‘white sheep’ is happy to re-enter the fold and the family welcomes their talented new daughter-in-law.
Half the fun of the play is the way in which the family rationalize their trade on the basis of free enterprise economics.
| Role | Played By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| James Winter, J.P. | Martin Weeden | Well regarded as at the ‘top of his profession’ in Britain. |
| Alice Winter | Helen Weeden | Alice has a particular talent for pinching jewellery. |
| Pat Winter | Paula Milbradt | Pat has inherited her mother’s talents, which she applies at the opera – as an expert pickpocket. |
| Peter Winter | Alex Singer | Peter was a top-notch forger of bank notes. But why is he suddenly being so mysterious? |
| Janet | Sasha Pellerin-Gardner | Alice and Pat have taken the maid, Janet, under their wing as an apprentice until she’s good enough to go out and steal from strangers. |
| Sam Jackson | Ian Glen | A friend of the Winter family and an ‘International Broker’ dealing in stolen goods. |
| John Preston | Mike Brown | John is an Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. Can he see through the Winter family’s act? |
| Angela Preston | Megan Carty | The Commissioner’s daughter and Peter Winter’s love interest. She is more than she appears. |
| The Vicar | Bruce Buie | He forgets everything he is told, invariably jumps to the wrong conclusion and yet may know more than he lets on |
