High Hopes
The stories of a diverse group of Londoners is presented, they thrown together out of circumstance. Couple Cyril and Shirley, a motorcycle courier and gardener respectively, live in a flat overlooking Kings Cross Station. They generally espouse Marxism and the rights of the workers, and while Cyril is arguably more philosophical about their political views, he also doesn't believe that an uprising of the working class will ever happen. While they deal with their more militant friend Suzi who Cyril calls out for what he sees as her hypocritical attitude, and with a stranger named Wayne who has just arrived in the city for a job while unable to connect with his sister with who he was supposed to stay, they have a disagreement of their own as Shirl contemplates having a baby, which Cyril believes is a bad idea in this world. They rarely associate with Cyril's sister Valerie and her used car lot dealer husband Martin. Nouveau riche, narcissistic Valerie is all about presenting herself as well-off, while she is totally neglected by brash Martin, who is a chronic philanderer. Cyril, Shirl and Valerie only need to speak to each other in their respective interactions with Cyril and Valerie's seventy year old mother, Mrs. Bender, who still lives on her own in a council house, but who is just starting to show signs of dementia. Cyril, Shirl, Valerie and Mrs. Bender eventually meet the latter's relatively new neighbors, wealthy, snobbish and somewhat garish husband and wife Rupert and Lætitia. While Rupert and Lætitia are openly perturbed by needing to help helpless Mrs. Bender, which is only exacerbated by meeting the other three, Valerie can only do her best to ingratiate herself with people wealthier than her.
Play | Title | Artist |
---|---|---|
High Hopes
|
||
Poor Man's Prison
|
Keith Colley:
Writer
|
|
Sex Drive
|
Chris Blackwell:
Performer
|
|
Cosi fan tutte
|
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Writer
|
|
Brown-Eyed Handsome Man
|
Chuck Berry:
Writer
|
|
MEANTIME: End Credits
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
HIGH HOPES: Suite
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
NAKED: Opening Titles
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Tribal Initiation
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
On a Cold, Grim Night
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
The Mysteries of His Trade
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
The Party's Over
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Jeremy is Angry
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Friendly Visit
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Brian in the Window
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Sneaking Out
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Taking a Bath
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Blank It All Out
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Johnny Returns Home
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Bad Quartet
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Sandra
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
More Heartbreak
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Escape to Nowhere
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
End Credits
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
SECRETS& LIES: Opening Credits
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Burial/Wedding Photos
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
Maurice and Monica
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
I'll Be Thinking Of You
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
A Night Out
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
BONUS: Interview with Mike Leigh
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
The Party's Over
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|
I'll Be Thinking Of You
|
Andrew Dickson:
Performer
|
|