Double Booked

Double Booked is a pair of very witty monologues which chart the everyday juggling of family life by an harassed mother of two who has to contend with a husband who is away working a lot. Like Shirley Valentine before her, Ruth Rich dreams of something better. Pre-menopause it was Colin Firth complete with wet shirt but now she worships from afar her son's English teacher.
Written and performed by Ginny Davis she has created an everywoman we can all relate to. Think Outnumbered written by Joyce Grenfall and you will have some idea of the beautifully accurate characterisations that populate the quirky situations her heroine finds herself in.
The first half of this double bill chronicles the mayhem caused by a diary mishap as Ruth struggles to contain her fantasies about Pete, the English teacher while trying unsuccessfully not to let her son's best mate's Yummy Mummy lord it over her.
The second of these exquisite tales is the result of her son having misbehaved and only being allowed on a school trip to Marrakech if she chaperones him. This means she has to leave her 17 yr old daughter home alone for the first time and she ends up in North Africa having to share an apartment with the sexually frustrated aforesaid Yummy Mummy like a slightly restrained episode of Ab Fab.
These two plays are the second half of the Ruth Rich saga which Ms Davis tours regularly inbetween playing to sell-out audiences at Edinburgh Festival and the Brighton and Buxton Fringes.
Double Booked is on again on Weds 12 Feb at Upstairs at The Western as part of the Dave Leicester Comedy Festival

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 11/2/2014