Bazaar and Rummage

SHOWS : BAZAAR & RUMMAGE

Best known for her novel – The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, which was also turned into a play (produced by Tawa Community Theatre a few years ago), Sue Townsend turns her attention to agoraphobia and the nature of ‘caring’ in Bazaar and Rummage.

Agoraphobics act in the most ridiculous and bazaar fashion and are often regarded as funny and comic by outsiders, but for the sufferer the phobia is real, dominating their lives totally.

This is wonderfully portrayed by Townsend in Bazaar and Rummage, the characters in the play at times hilariously funny at others sad and pathetic. The play is also about ‘caring’ and the often parasitic way carers deal with those they are supposed to be caring for, and so we are confronted with the question of who needs whom.

Described as a play that is distinguished by sensitive characterization, touching, funny reminiscences and affectionate, sometimes sparkling repartee, Bazaar and Rummage tells the story of Gwenda, an ex-agoraphobic who has decided to "devote herself to the poor and ignorant" by leading a self help group of three agoraphobics - Margaret, Bell-Bell and Katrina who are confined to their homes: Margaret was raped at fourteen and hasn't left the house for fifteen years, Bell-Bell is a hygiene obsessed housewife who fights germs in the house all day, Katrina was a cabaret singer who was pelted with plastic pineapples during a big finale and hasn't left the house for years. She sees her salvation in listening to Barry Manilow records.

Enlisting the support of Fliss, a trainee social worker, Gwenda forces the three to help at a bazaar in the local hall. As they sort through the rummage, their individual fears erupt but calm is restored by the ever sensible Fliss who, with the others' help, manages to keep them all together until the bazaar is over.

As they leave the hall it is apparent their agoraphobia is not cured but they have made the effort.