Louise Page about the play and playwriting

The women in GOLDEN GIRLS have become isolated inside their ambitions. The personal cost to themselves is massive. When Muriel (who I think is my favorite character in the play), feels she can no longer pay the personal cost, she threatens the whole structure. It was exciting when writing Vivien's part to write a character who should be sympathetic but who actually is not. It's always strange rehearsing GOLDEN GIRLS because it's the women's roles which give the play it's dramatic thrust. The women control the action of the play. The male actors often find it very difficult to accept that they do not provide the motor for the play. We don't yet live in times when men will accept that they don't always have to control. If the men are fractious and difficult when rehearsing GOLDEN GIRLS that is why. In many ways Sue, Pauline, Dorcas, Muriel, Janet, Vivien and Hilary are an antidote to all the Mairans, Juliets, Julias, Cordelias and Hermiones. Writing in this country you can never shake Shakespeare off your pen. And somehow he also seems to be in all the word processing packages.

My reaction to seeing (this play) now is to be surprised by the fact that I could write (it). The work seems wise and sensible. I never feel wise or sensible. But then the world you write in is a magical place. It's a place where as a writer you try and make order out of the world's chaos. It's a place where you are free to be wise and sensible. And it's a privilege to pass that on to the audience. Playwriting is about the folly of talking to strangers.

Louise Page, Introduction to Page, Plays: One, London, 1994.

About Golden Girls

Produced: Stratford-upon-Avon, 1984.
Published: London, Methuen, 1985.

Louise Page's GOLDEN GIRLS is concernedwith the professional world of amateur athletice. Five women are competing for places in the England 4 x 100 metres relay team at the Athens Olympics, and it is only when Ortolan, who market the Golden Girl range of cosmetics, decide to sponsor them that the team has a chance of winning. It is less that the girls are persuaded (or bar one, persuade themselves) to take illegal drugs than that they are provided with sufficent funds to employ a doctor, gleaming exercise machines and to buy time to train. The fur coated representative of Ortolan is anxious that the team should sport as many white girls as possible. Of a potential finalist she says: "She's black. You didn't say she wasn't white."

It is Laces MacKenzie, the gentle, scrupulously fair trainer whose sad resposibility it is to leave out one of the five runners, all equal good, from the final. The young runners are, naturally, no philosophers or exciting human beings, their bodies aren't their own and, mostly, they keep their minds to themselves. Yet ist is hardly surprising, given the pressures, tensions and competitiveness, that one of them sells out to a gutter press journalist.

Excerpts from a rewiev of GOLDEN GIRLS by Giles Gordon, published in 'Plays and Players', August 1984.

About Running

Running is a fundamental activity of Man. In early history it was essential for his preservation; firstly to enable him to obtain food, and secondly to prevent him from becoming the food of some predator.

About the 4 x 100 metres

The 4 x 100 metres relay involves four sprinters combining forces to move a 50g circular hollow tube, called a 'baton', around one lap of the track. The baton is 28-30cm in length and 12-13cm in circumference.

It is passed from one sprinter to another within a 20m long change-over zone staddling each 100m section of the race; these zones are marked with yellow lines on synthetic tracks by international convention. Each change-over zone is preceded by a 10m long acceleration (or pre-change-over) zone, marked by an orange line and within which the outgoing runner can stand. However, the baton must not be exchanged in this area.

Key points:

• The incoming runner continues running flat out until aftert the baton has been passed on.
• The incoming runner calls 'Hand' or 'Stick' when close enough to exchange the baton.
• The outgoing runner presents a steady hand on the call and waits until he feels the baton in his hand.
• The incoming runner places the baton firmly into the receiver's hand.

About Drugs

The use of drugs by athletics represents a gross violation of the basic ethics of the sport. It is condemned out of hand on two counts.

• It is cheating, and contravenes all principles of fair competition, a concept which represents the core thos of the sport.
• It represents a social evil by being dangerous to health (some drugs are addictive)

International and national federations now invest considerable finance and energy into developing ever more sophisticated means of detection. Random testing outside the competition season is fast becoming standard practice world wide. Detected abuser are banned from competition for long periods; in some countries for life.

Lists of banned substances are available from national federations. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse if you are found to have taken accidentally a banned drug, even if you have done so for perfectly legitimate reasons. Consultation with your doctor on such matter is a sensible precaution.

The last three text taken from 'Track Athletices', London, 1994.

The CAST

DORCAS ABLEMAN, black athlete Barbara Braun MURIEL FARR, black athlete Flora Herberich PAULINE PETERSON, white athlete Linda Elias SUE KINDER, white athlete Susanne Rinecker JANET MORRIS, black athlete Sandra Anzer MIKE BASSET, white athlete Christian Kaiser LACES MCKENZIE, coach Stefan Enderle VIVIEN BLACKWOOD, doctor Silvia Maier NOËL KINDER, Sue Kinder's father Manuel Künstner HILARY DAVENPORT, sponsor Ricarda Wagner TOM BILLBOW, journalist Tomasz Jarczok HOTEL PORTER, white Joachim Schlosser THE GOLDEN GIRL, everything the name suggests Stefanie Maugg PHOTOGRAPHERS Jan Ostmeyer, Joachim Schlosser, Jochen Wolf poster Manuel Künstner programme Karen Conboy-Wiedemann, Dieter Ungelehrt prompt Ramona Benz speech training Karen Conboy-Wiedemann make-up and hairstyling Karen Conboy-Wiedemann, Sabine Reiter costumes and props the crew stage and set the crew lighting and sound Sabine Reiter stagehands Joachim Schlosser, Jan Ostmeyer, Jochen Wolf stage manager Ludmilla Block music Georg Voglrider sports director Peter Meidert directed and produced by Dieter Ungelehrt

Was die Presse sagte Augsburger Allgemeine/Schwabmünchener Allgemeine, Montag, 10.7.1995 Mit welchen Mitteln man die Mädchen an die Sprinterinnen der Weltspitze bringen kann, überlegen (von links) Trainer Laces Mackenzie (Stefan Enderle), Sponsorin Hilary Davenport (Ricarda Wagner) und die Ärztin Vivien Blackwood (Silvia Maier). Bild: Heike Hutter Golden Girls und die große Welt des Sports "KiDS" führen in das Stadion der Mißstände (Bobingen) In die "große" Welt des Sports führten die Mitglieder der "Königsbrunn Drama Society" (KiDS) die Besucher des englischen Stückes "Golden Girls". In einer vierstündigen Aufführung gelang es den Schauspielern in der Bobinger Singoldhalle, den Zuschauern einen Einblick in die Probleme und Mißstände unserer Leistungsgesellschaft zu geben. Aber nicht nur die negative Seiten des ständigen sportlichen Wettkampfes, sondern auch Freundschaften und Zusammenhalt zeigten die Darsteller bei "Golden Girls" nach Louise Page. Das 1984 von der Royal Shakespeare Company uraufgeführte Stück erzählt die Geschichte von fünf jungen britischen Sprinterinnen, die danach streben, nicht nur den Männerrekord des Landes über 4 x 100 Meter zu knacken, sondern auch die Goldmedaille in Athen zu holen. Nachdem ein Sponsor gefunden ist, stellen sich die fünf Athletinnen, gespielt von Barbara Braun, Flora Herberich, Linda Elias, Susanne Rinecker und Sandra Anzer die Frage, wer von den zwei weißen und drei dunkelhäutigen Läuferinnen am Ende auf der Strecke bleiben wird, denn nur vier können zum großen Wettkampf antreten. Die pelzmantelbekleidete Repräsentantin der Sponsor-Firma, Hilary Davenport (Ricarda Wagner), ist betrebt, möglichst viele weiße Mädchen an den Start gehen zu lassen. Diese schwere Aufgabe, eine Auswahl zu treffen, liegt am Ende bei dem gewissenhaften und eigentlich einzig fairen Trainer Laces Mackenzie (Stefan Enderle). In dem zunehmenden Leistungsdruck ist es nicht überraschend, wenn die Sportlerinnen mit Drogen und Bestechungen zu kämpfen haben. Zu kämpfen haben sie auch gegen die dominante Männerwelt. In "Golden Girls" sind zwar die Männer nicht handlungsbestimment, aber ennoch als ständige "Hindernisse" vorhanden. Daß in diesem Stück die Frauen im Vordergrund stehen, liegt wohl vor allem daran, daß es von der Autorin Louise Page geschrieben wurde. Die in London geborene Schriftstellerin ist seit 1977 beinahe jedes Jahr mit einem neuen Stück auf den Spielplänen der britischen Theater vertreten. Auch wenn sie in Deutschland weitgehend unbekannt ist, gilt sie allgemein als Dramatikerin, deren Werk jene feministische Militanz fehlt, die man so oft bei Autorinnen findet. Trotz aller Konzentration auf das Weibliche ist auch in Golden Girls die Sympathie nicht nach dem Geschlecht verteilt. Im Vordergrund stehen zwar die Frauen, aber die Männer sind deshalb keine negativen Gestalten. Heike Hutter