Michael Abbensetts: Four Plays

Features the plays Sweet talk, Alterations, In the Mood and El Dorado



Michael Abbensetts is the writer who gave Caribbeans a real voice in Britain. Sweet talk is a witty, energetic and finally moving account of a marriage in crisis. Alterations is a comedy set in a tailor's shop, inspired by a real visit to a small room off Carnaby Street where two black tailors had set up shop with just two sewing machines and an ironing board. In the Mood focuses on two Caribbean Second World War veterans, whose nostalgic Remembrance Sunday lunch is disrupted by a visit from their frivolour and irritating friend, in search of a loan and as many free drinks as he can get his hands on. El Dorado turns its attention to a mixed-race, middle class family interred in their formerly grand but now dilapidated house. A grandson returns home to lay some ghosts to bed, and gains an alarming insight into the truths of home life.