Chips with Everything

For the television show, see Kate Russell (reporter).

Chips with Everything is a 1962 play by Arnold Wesker. The play shows class attitudes at the time by examining the life of a corporal.

Productions

Chips with Everything premiered in the West End at the Royal Court Theatre on 27 April 1962, and subsequently transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre. Directed by John Dexter, the cast featured Frank Finlay as Corporal Hill.

The play opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre (and then the Booth Theatre) on October 1, 1963 after one preview, and closed on February 8, 1964 after 149 performances. British actors Alan Dobie (as Corporal Hill), Barry Evans (as First Airman) and George Layton (as First Corporal) made their Broadway debut. The director was John Dexter, with a cast that featured Gary Bond as 276 Thompson (Pip), Corin Redgrave (Pilot Officer), Norman Allen (Fourth Airman), John Levitt as 277 Cohen (Dodger) and Gerald McNally (Third Airman).

The play was revived in the West End in 1997, with a production at the Royal National Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre, from 4 September 1997 to 13 December 1997. Directed by Howard Davies, the set was designed by Rob Howell, with a cast that featured Rupert Penry-Jones, Ian Dunn, Eddie Marsan, and James Hazeldine as Corporal Hill.

Plot summary

Pip Thompson is "conscripted for National Service", but prefers to be treated as an ordinary soldier and not become an officer. Pip is a socialist who has seen "squalor of London's East End, typified by greasy cafés offering ‘chips with everything’".

Songs performed

• Cutty Wren
• Lyke-Wake Dirge

External links

• Internet Broadway Database