Melody

Melody Smart is the friendly face of the Ocean View Hotel, always there at the reception desk with a breezy smile and a solution to every problem. Melody’s life is predictable – some might say dull. But she’s learned to be happy. She knows how to find joy in little moments. A nice pot of tea. An interesting article in the Radio Times. When she wins a free singing lesson in the hotel raffle, she looks forward to learning how to sing again. She always loved to sing, until a humiliating experience in the school choir took away her voice. But during the course of her free hour with Evangeline Gibson, Melody’s carefully constructed personality begins to unravel, and we discover what lies behind the cheerful grin.

In this new 75-minute musical by Nia Williams, two performers play a cast of thousands (well, at least half a dozen) and create the past and present, characters and places, secrets and lies of Melody Smart’s life. In the course of the evening, one ordinary woman’s ordinary day has led us on a strange and troubling journey, featuring songs, sex, scandal and more than a few buttered digestives along the way.

Performed in the cafe