One Way Pendulum
Directed by Brandon Acton-BondWriters: N.F. Simpson
1961
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Alison Leggatt . . . . . . . . . . Mrs. Groomkirby
Richard Pearson . . . . . . . . . . Arthur Groomkirby
John Laurie . . . . . . . . . . Judge
Joan Hickson . . . . . . . . . . Aunt Mildred
Patsy Rowlands . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia Groomkirby
Alex Scott . . . . . . . . . . Prosecuting Counsel
Frank Finlay . . . . . . . . . . Robert Barnes
Roddy Maude-Roxby . . . . . . . . . . Kirby Groomkirby
Anna Wing . . . . . . . . . . Mrs. Gantry
Douglas Livingstone . . . . . . . . . . Stanley Honeyblock
Jeremy Longhurst . . . . . . . . . . Policeman
Walter Horsbrugh . . . . . . . . . . Clerk of the Court
Frank Forsyth . . . . . . . . . . Usher
Ernest Hare . . . . . . . . . . Defending Counsel
TONIGHT'S 'outrageous "comedy' by N. F. Simpson will appeal, says its author, to 'anyone approaching it for the first time with a lasso.' It concerns the domestic life of the Groomkirby family : Kirby, the son, rehearses a choir of speak-your-weight machines in Handel's Messiah; his sister Sylvia is troubled by the length of her arms. Mr. Groomkirby builds a replica of the Old Bailey in his living-room, and Aunty Mildred, in her wheel-chair, is on her way to outer space via the Outer Hebrides. Just an ordinary suburban family, the Groomkirbys.
One Way Pendulum was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1959 and, following wide critical acclaim, moved to the Criterion in 1960, where it ran for 126 performances.