The Complete Plays: The Adventures Of Bongo Bungle (1975)
Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:
Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Author:
New Play:
Venue:
Location:
Staging:
The Adventures of Bongo Bungle
Janet Dale
Yes
The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Concert Room
Round
Janet Dale
Yes
The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Concert Room
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
19 July 1975
19 July 1975
30 August 1975
19 July 1975
30 August 1975
Company Details
Director:
Stage Manager:
Stage Manager:
Janet Dale
Unknown
Unknown
Character
Bongo Bungle
Other Roles
Bongo Bungle
Other Roles
Actor
Kevin Wood
Bob Eaton
Polly Warren
Christopher Godwin
Kevin Wood
Bob Eaton
Polly Warren
Christopher Godwin
Notes
○ No programme is held in archive for The Adventures Of Bongo Bungle with all details having been taken from the summer 1975 brochure for Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, and the only review published for the play. Full cast details are unknown.
○ The Adventures of Bongo Bungle was a children's show performed on Saturday mornings during the 1975 summer season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ Admission was 5p which included a lolly-pop and a badge.
○ The second performance of the play saw more than 500 children turn up and a decision to stage a second performance immediately after the first to cope with the demand.
○ The play was performed on a voluntary basis by both the acting company and stage management with all box office profits going to the company.
○ The play was a seven-part serial with a new instalment each week. The success of the original production led to a second six-part serial continuing Bongo Bungle's adventures, which ran on Saturdays from 1 November to 6 December 1975.
○ The Adventures of Bongo Bungle was a children's show performed on Saturday mornings during the 1975 summer season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ Admission was 5p which included a lolly-pop and a badge.
○ The second performance of the play saw more than 500 children turn up and a decision to stage a second performance immediately after the first to cope with the demand.
○ The play was performed on a voluntary basis by both the acting company and stage management with all box office profits going to the company.
○ The play was a seven-part serial with a new instalment each week. The success of the original production led to a second six-part serial continuing Bongo Bungle's adventures, which ran on Saturdays from 1 November to 6 December 1975.
Actor Chris Godwin on The Adventures of Bongo Bungle
"I particularly remember the children’s shows, which Alan Ayckbourn hadn’t really evinced any great enthusiasm for. The company got together after putting on the repertory for the summer - because we got bored! - and Janet Dale said, ‘why don’t we do some children’s shows?’
"We would meet on a Thursday with a skeleton story and flesh it out with improvisation and raid the prop box on Friday and then advertise it as ‘leave your kids for an hour’ and I think it was 5p. So we did The Adventures of Bongo Bungle in 1975, which you can sometimes hear people sometimes whistling in the street fifty years later!
"On our first Saturday, we were told by the theatre manager - Ken Boden - that we could keep the box office receipts. It wasn’t much for the first Saturday, we got half a house, but the next Saturday we got a house and a half and that was more difficult. Improvising something twice is OK, but doing it 20 minutes later is very difficult.
"I remember I played the whale that excreted Bongo Bungle onto the beach, which was probably my most esoteric part!"
"We would meet on a Thursday with a skeleton story and flesh it out with improvisation and raid the prop box on Friday and then advertise it as ‘leave your kids for an hour’ and I think it was 5p. So we did The Adventures of Bongo Bungle in 1975, which you can sometimes hear people sometimes whistling in the street fifty years later!
"On our first Saturday, we were told by the theatre manager - Ken Boden - that we could keep the box office receipts. It wasn’t much for the first Saturday, we got half a house, but the next Saturday we got a house and a half and that was more difficult. Improvising something twice is OK, but doing it 20 minutes later is very difficult.
"I remember I played the whale that excreted Bongo Bungle onto the beach, which was probably my most esoteric part!"
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust