Big Idea

Big Idea is the story of how the group's director, Jonathan, is asked to write a play, which the BBC will broadcast as part of their 'Big Idea' series.  'Big Idea' encourages people to fulfil their life's ambition, and Jonathan sees it as his great opportunity to show that he does really have talent (despite what the other members say about him!), and he sets off to write his magnum opus. 

The Off-the-Wall theatre company are certainly not Jonathan's choice to perform the work of art which will show him for the true genius he really is.  But he's stuck with them!  The course of true love never runs smooth, and neither do Jonathan's attempts to get his play to the stage.  Unexpected obstacles arise to constantly thwart his ambitions, until, despite everything, the group finally manage to present the show - as a live radio broadcast - or so they think!

Big Idea has lots of opportunities for not only your actors but particularly your sound effects enthusiasts!

Big Idea is published by Lazy Bee Scripts - you can find their website here.  Or you can email them by clicking here.

The Concept Players originally performed Big Idea in front of a real live audience on Saturday, 20 May 2006 at the Market Theatre, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, and on Thursday, May 25 at Llanover Hall in Cardiff. 

The play was presented in the form of a radio broadcast (a la Round the Horne); this style was first suggested at the recording of Ripping Off Angels.  The format of Big Idea proved to be ideal for this style of presentation, and from the audience reaction at both venues, we had 'A hit!  A palpable hit!

In particular, the cast in charge of the sound effects (Aggie and Anne, with a little 'help' from Richard and Sharon) really got into the 'shipwrecks' and the 'battle' scenes (even without a safety net!!) and the audience lapped up the resulting mayhem!

The pictures are from the live performances of Big Idea, presented in the form of a radio broadcast in May 2006.  It's been performed lots of times since (even as far away as Australia!)

If you want a flavour of the live performance, try these video clips:

Ophelia's Audition

Barney's Audition

Assorted shipwrecks...


Big Idea - the podcast

At last, Big Idea has been recorded, and edited into six episodes for you to download.  The cast for this recording was almost the same as we used for Ripping Off Angels:

  Jack - Howard Turnbull

 Anne - Lisa Sadie 

 Aggie - Janet Holloway

 Barney - Paul Buckle

 Richard - Kevin Welch

 Christine - Fiona Thomas

 Sharon - Lorna Welch

 Doris - Cheryl Payne

 Robert -  Ruairidh MacLeod-Lyon

 Jonathan - Tim Brown

 Alistair - Steve Davies

We rehearsed the play and recorded it in mid-November 2005, but it took until the end of December to edit it into the form you can hear below.  The main reason for the delay was the amount of work that was involved in collecting the various sound effects together - some we recorded, others we got from the internet, others we already had to hand - and then assembling them into the more complex sequences, like the 'shipwrecks' and the 'battle' scene you can hear in episode 6. 

You can download the podcast version of Big Idea by clicking on the links below:

 Episode 1

 Episode 2

 Episode 3

 Episode 4

 Episode 5

 Episode 6

The cast had great fun recording this podcast, and the challenges posed by the sound effects in episodes 5 and 6 provided a source of endless amusement for the sound editor (if not the rest of his family!).  

We hope you have as much fun listening to the end product!!

© Nigel Holloway 2023