Nomads' Rest

by Barry Baddock (Lecturer in English, University of Kassel, Germany)

In the forgotten hamlet of Nether Outlet stands a "private rest home for theatrical gentlefolks." Decrepit and decaying, Nomads' Rest resembles its residents. Lord Bollstock and the 16 Nomads, whose stage careers are well past, continue to rehearse and perform in the little theatre - in the delusory hope that the audiences will one day return. An eccentric bunch, the Nomads vary from the vast and voluptuous Dame Luchaine, Mistress of Ceremonies and devotee of the Tarot, to livid-faced irascible Alf Pask, the 'lights' man, to enigmatic Miss Minnie, in a tight red dress, hypnotic in her flowing, coquettish dance. On the verge of destitution, the Nomads are thrown a lifeline by a rich American food corporation who, stumbling across their website, offers big money to entice the Nomads to stage a 'village festival' to launch the corporation's goods in Britain. IF they accept, they could save their theatre ...but it's a race against time. And the Nomads soon find themselves floundering in the blurred borders between the heroic and the absurd, between reality and illusion, between past and present. The central appeal of the story is the oddity and charm of the Nomads - quirky, ageing eccentrics who continue to rehearse and perform for each other in their tiny, forgotten theatre.