Albert Make Us Laugh
By Jimmie Chinn

Albert Nutall, aged seven - some would say he is backward, and, at first glance you'd agree - but Albert is special. He is a poet and a visionary who, as he grows to manhood, inspires unexpected depths of emotion in other people, notably his classmate Primrose, whose glorious future as an actress fails to materialise, and the lost and lonely young schoolteacher, Janet Partington.

This strange, touching and uplifting story - written to be enacted entirely by adults - is engaging and theatrically innovative, as one has come to expect from the ever popular Jimmie Chinn, author of Straight and Narrow.

Jimmy Chinn

Jimmy Chinn was born in Middleton, Manchester and went to London in 1959 to train as an actor at RADA. After a short career as an actor he went on to train as a teacher at Whitelands College, Putney, where he gained a degree in English and Drama. He taught and was a housemaster at a comprehensive school in Middlesex until becoming a full-time writer in 1984.

Encouraged by the success of a handful of radio plays, including From Here To The Library (which was later adapted for the stage), Too Long An Autumn, A Woman Who Does and A Different Way Home, he began to write for the stage.

Most of his work for the theatre was premiered by Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Court Theatre or on the London Fringe. His full-length plays include Our Linda, Our Carol And Freda (bought by Yorkshire Television, for whom Jimmy also wrote episodes of Emmerdale), In Room Five Hundred And Four, To The Island, After September and Albert Make Us Laugh, which was based on his own boyhood experiences in the north of England.

In 1992 he had his first West End production, Straight And Narrow, which opened on 18th March at Wyndham's Theatre starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Carmel McSharry.

Other work includes But Yesterday, Home Before Dark, In By The Half, Interior Designs, Pity About Kitty, Respectable Funeral, Something To Remember You By, Sylvia's Wedding and Take Away The Lady.

 

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Cast:

Headmaster Tope - Mike Waring
Albert - Bryan Bailey
Charlie Shorrocks / Eric Smallshaw - Sam Barrett
Shane - Bruce Chalmers
Mr Leatherbottle - Tony Dreze
Primrose - Gill Coverdale
Enid- Carol Southby / Jan Hilditch
Miss Mint- Ann Bradley
Miss Hemsley - Joan Birkett
Barbara Batch / Miss Partington - Tricia Commons
Lobelia Bottomley - Caroline Marston

Crew:

Director - Jan Hilditch
Assistant Director - Tony Dreze
Props / ASM - Caroline Marston
Lighting - Sandie Smith & Andrew Jackson
Sound and Visual Effects - Jim Ranyard
Costumes - Marjorie Inman
Make- up - Pat Lamb
FOH - Charmian Thomas & team