(8000 words)
"....undoubtedly a miniature masterpiece of modern dramatic writing, treating the joys and travails of existence with delicate humour and great deftness of touch...."
Robert Wilson, Evening Standard
KUDU is a short play about sex, death and child-rearing on the plains of the Serengeti. Its first performance was at the Greenhouse Theatre, West Hampstead, in 1998, directed by David Holden.
Vince has tried his hand at many jobs and has been, at various times, milkman, factory hand, junk-shop owner, plumber, builder, sailor, local government administrator, copy-writer in an ad agency, and composer of articles about philosophy for an encyclopaedia. But his constant love has always been the theatre, whether as actor, writer or director. His sister Olivia is also a gifted writer and had a recent success with her screenplay for the film Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) from the novel by Tracy Chevalier.
Zoothenics
In 1994, whilst living in Copenhagen, Vince published a short book on an innovative new form of exercise. Although it was at first treated as a joke by critics the method has gradually gained acceptance and some form of it is used in many holistic practices in Denmark. The book has not yet been translated into English, but the following excerpt from the blurb on the back cover gives an idea of what it is about:
In rising to an upright position and adopting a bipedal gait, man has stretched and distorted the frame of his quadruped ancestors. Many of the pains and chronic weaknesses of the spine, the feet, and all that is between them, are down to standing up. We may relieve them or prevent them by exercising in the position of a four-footed animal. With the knees bent, place your fingertips on the ground. Your spine should be straight and level, and your weight distributed between back and front legs about in the ratio 3:2. Walk or run about, turn and jump, try eating or drinking from the level you walk upon. Remember that you come from the zoo and your body will be rested and strengthened by resuming its natural relations.
the four characters:
Alpha-male GRANT has plenty of cows in his harem: amongst them are the matronly WANDA, and the nubile and attractive KERRY . As the play opens it is the rutting season and Wanda and Kerry discuss Grant's sexual prowess in a matter-of-fact way. Wanda is trying to wean her son, WAYNE, of his dependence on her and her milk, as she faces the remorseless approach of the next round of reproduction. He is rapidly growing up and beginning to ask awkward questions...