Stony Broke In No Man's Land
Written and directed by John Burrows
Written and directed by John Burrows
Stony Broke in No Man’s Land is a poignant and comedic play about Private Percy Cotton, who navigates love and loss while Nellie Mottram exploits her psychic abilities amidst the backdrop of post-World War I Britain.
About The Play
About The Play
★★★★ The Public Reviews
Stony Broke in No Man’s Land, the world premiere of a new play from acclaimed playwright John Burrows stars two original members of the Number 1 chart-topping group, The Flying Pickets, as two jobless ex-Tommies busking on a London street and tells in words, song and music the story of Private Percy Cotton and the love of his life, bogus-spiritualist Nellie Mottram.
On 11 November, 1920, the Unknown Soldier was buried with great ceremony in Westminster Abbey. But was it a genuine act of recognition and gratitude by Lloyd George’s government? Or a calculated display to diffuse the pain and anger of a country grieving for nearly a million dead?
And where did the idea of burying the Unknown Soldier come from? Did an army padre suggest it to the Dean of Westminster who passed it on to the Prime Minister? Or did Lloyd George perhaps get the idea from a very different quarter…
When Private Percy Cotton’s commanding officer is killed, Percy is determined to return his diary to his next of kin. But the love of his life, Nellie Mottram, has other ideas. She soon convinces Sir Arthur and Lady Elizabeth Munroe that she is in contact with their dead son. Taking up residence with them in Grosvenor Square, Nellie abandons Percy to his fate on the battlefields of France and is soon the aristocracy’s favourite psychic. And mistress to Sir Gregory Sleight…Secretary to the War Cabinet.
A fast moving, comic yet poignant piece of storytelling, taking the audience from the streets of Woolwich to the battlefields of France, from London smart society to the highest echelons of power.
Stony Broke in No Man’s Land reunites the writer/director and two of the cast members of One Big Blow, the acclaimed play about coal miners and their brass band that John Burrows wrote for 7.84 Theatre Company in the early 1980s, and which spawned the a cappella group, The Flying Pickets, best known for their Christmas Number One hit, Only You.