Alan Ayckbourn (copyright: Tony Batholomew)

 

Home Introduction History Synopsis Productions Quotes Notes Reviews
Plays Index   Other Media Programmes Scripts

Images

Further Reading

Staging

Whenever: Synopsis
In her Uncle’s house, young Emily is being tormented by her cousin Clara. Emily goes to her Uncle Martin to talk about Clara and finds him putting the finishing touches to his latest invention, a time machine. After a successful experiment, Emily is sent to bed but returns later to hear Martin arguing about the machine with her evil Uncle Lucas. Lucas wants to use the machine to make himself rich, which Martin will never allow and threatens to tell Lucas’s family. In a rage, Lucas stabs Martin and discovers Emily. He tries to kill her too, but she escapes into the future in the time machine.
She arrives in 1940 during a German bombing raid. She meets the cowardly, but good natured, Oscar, but is then kidnapped and taken to a stately home where an opulent party is taking place. A much aged Lucas and Clara are waiting for her, made prosperous by dealing with the Germans – now set to win the war. Oscar rescues Emily and sceptically finds himself travelling on with her to the future.
They arrive in 2010 and after being decontaminated by robots, discover one of the last surviving humans, Char Tee (Clara’s great, great grandchild. Lucas machinations in the past have led to a huge war which has virtually wiped out humanity). Emily, Oscar and a malfunctioning droid call Ziggi grimly move on to the end of time.
There they meet the final human being - a large furry beast called Hoombean – and the Timekeeper. She explains the big bang theory and how when the universe contracts, it will enable the party to travel back in time and put things right.
The universe begins to contract and the group are thrown back in time to Uncle Martin’s lab. The rest hide in a cupboard while Emily goes to avert tragedy. But she is in a separate time-stream and cannot be heard by either herself (still there from the original event) or Martin. At the critical moment, Emily’s scream rips through time and space alerting Martin and bringing Clara and Charity down to the lab to see Lucas’s disgrace. They are expelled from the house, after Emily proves that Clara is merely a bully and no longer scares her.
The time line is restored to normal and from the cupboard emerges a brave and decorated Oscar, Ziggi who is now part of the Techno Circus and First Ambassador Zarack. Humanity has spread to the stars in the future. They all return to their rightful places in time, leaving Emily to tell Martin of her fantastic adventures.

Copyright: Simon Murgatroyd 2006
 
 

If you have enquiries about this play or any other aspect of this website, please contact the administrator at: admin@alanayckbourn.net.