Stage Plays by Ian Hornby

The Price to Pay
Thriller - split set - 3m 4f

Synopsis
Roger and Laura are just an ordinary married couple. Why then do a man and a woman, posing as police, kidnap Laura and keep her captive in a run-down farmhouse? After all, Roger has no money.

The plot unfurls on a dramatically-split stage - half in the couple's flat and half in the farmhouse - as we share Roger's and Laura's private agonies and uncertainties. The police are called, but their motives do not always seem in Laura's best interests. It is left to Laura and Roger to effect the final solution, but there is a price to pay, and their lives will never be the same again. This play has good character parts, especially the schizophrenic kidnapper Dianne and her slow partner Barry.

"A tough, taut thriller. As tense as tomorrow's headlines" - T.O.A.D.S.

Author's notes
This was my first ever thriller, and still one I like to watch. It's not just about the storyline (a kidnapping), but how the events affect the people involved, Laura and Roger.

I think of it as a play of contrasts, starting with a sickly-sweet married couple and ending with a hardened man and wife, united by the threat of her loss. There are a few sub-plots too, with the workmanlike older "copper", bypassed for promotion in favour of a younger female university graduate, who is full of resentment to the extent he tries to sabotage the case, but has to agree in the end she did a good job. As for the villains, bipolar Dianne is nice to Laura one minute and totally evil the next. Her opposite number Barry, who Dianne manipulates to do her bidding, is at first brutal until he falls for Laura's persuasive and calculated charms until he sets her free, only to pay the ultimate price for his kindness.

This play presents a "dream of a part" for the actresses and actor who play Laura, Dianne and Barry.

The split stage is very easy to achieve.