Stage Plays by Ian Hornby

Situation Vacant
Comedy - single set - 1m 1f to 1m 6f

Synopsis
Unemployed Derek doesn't really want to work, and wife Jane has had enough. After a row she walks out on him, suggesting he should go through the papers for a job. Enraged, he decides to advertise for a new wife. The series of applicants each looks too good to be true at first, but finally he rejects every one. He never realises that each has a quality he had forgotten existed in Jane, who turns up as the final applicant. She turns the interview round on him and offers him the job.

The play has six female characters, but these can be doubled up as necessary and could - if desired, using quick costume changes - all be performed by the same actress with challenging, dramatic effect.

Author's notes
This comedy was intended for festivals, but has proven to be good entertainment among all kinds of theatre groups. The ludicrous idea that a man would advertise for a replacement wife seems more plausible every day, and explores similar ground to Dream, Lover! - namely man's childish dissatisfaction with his lot. Each of the interviewees seems ideal at first, until some character trait comes out that infuriates Derek. perhaps the audience sees the sum of the parts before Derek does, but each of the good traits, when summed together in the same person, add up to his actual wife. That she turns the tables on him in the end comes as no real surprise. I originally had a very camp gay guy turn up at one of the interviews, staunchly defending sexual equality from a different direction from the norm, but a professional actress who was in the first production persuaded me to remove him lest I offend someone. A pity.