Caramba's Revenge

Written by: William Norfolk

Directed by: Barbara O'Kelly

May 2004

Four elderly ladies have been sharing their lives in Violet's rented house, pooling their pension books and sharing chores. After a mugging Violet dies, but needing to hold on to her pension book (not to say the house's rent book!) Marge, Lottie and Doris omit to tell the authorities and leave Violet's body peacefully in the cemetary.

Life goes on: Marge begins another evening course, Doris shops - pocketing change for her secret tipples - and Lottie the writer pushes taste to the limit with her hard boiled heroine, Vanda Lane. However, Violet's granddaughter Ronnie, arrives from Australia in search of her relative. When she guesses the story she joins the commune hoping to improve their standard of living by bumping off the other old ladies for their pension books. Fending off the suspicious Inspector Grubb, she almost succeeds in attracting shoplifter Rose to the co-operative. But Rose is more than a match for the others, and Lottie's crime novel, which has mirrored the events of the play throughout its macarbe process, is completed by Rose in quite a different manner than Lottie had intended...