Browse By

Dennis Potter's deceptively simple tale relates the activities of 7 seven-year-olds (played by adult actors) at play in a seemingly idyllic and ever-youthful world. The children play, fight and fantasize. Their aggressions, fears, hostilities and rivalries, a microcosm of adult interaction. All the children gang up on the terrified "Donald Duck" who abused by his mother and ridiculed by his peers, plays his own dangerous game of pyromania which ends in tragedy.

Still Building is about people trapped by family, by friends, by buildings and by themselves, and their attempts to break free.

TWO STORIES ARE JUXTAPOSED IN ONE PLAY:

The first is about two sister, Kim and Cheng, and their good friend, Alan Cheng, the younger of the two, cannot cope with the memories their house represents for her, and decides to move out. Alan, who is adopted, receives a letter from a couple in Manila claming to be his real parents and decides to go there. Kim, who beleives in stability and not rocking the boat, finds difficulty coping with Cheng and Alan's decisions.

In the second story, three people (played by the same actors) are trapped when the building they are in collapses suddenly. Inspired by the Hotel New World collapse, this story shows the trauma of three people stuck in a mass of rubble, waiting to be rescued.

It is a strange world . . . where the higher the blocks climb, the deeper the rats dig. . . where paper is worth more than gold. . . where there is real lemon in detergent but not in lemon juice.