Everything Else

EVERYTHING ELSE A play by Derek Strahan - SYNOPSIS Tony, Kurt, Dave and Dennis meet most evenings after work at the nearby Runaway Bar to exchange views and commiserate about problems with their respective wives who are all banning their favourite pastimes. Tony works for Alumox and wants to alleviate guilt feelings about their products by using empty aluminium cans to construct art works such as a model of the Taj Mahal. Kurt works for Idea, a self-assembly furniture company whose products he despises. He wants to build and design high-end quality furniture. Dave Rockford works for APM (All Planet Media) a company that is suffering from the effects of the digitisation of intellectual product. He wants to sell up, and go surfing. Dennis, a realtor, is frustrated because Louise, his wife, is retreating from him sexually. Hugh McGregor, a thrice-divorced old Scot, explains to the guys why their wives are banning what they most want from life: they are manifesting the “Everything Else Syndrome”: when a wife bans what her husband really wants and allows him everything else. Tony and Kurt agree to outwit their wives by each taking on the other one’s chosen hobby in the guise of play activities for children at arts centres that they persuade their respective firms to set up, as good company PR. Tony accidentally meets up with Louise at a Surf Shop and resume a previous affair dating from when they were both surfing hippies. Dennis finds out about the affair. Carol and Ingrid rumble the lies and evasions of their husbands, Tony and Kurt. These crises threaten the opening of the Picasso Children’s Arts & Crafts Center where Dennis and Dave get into a fist fight. Dave, coming off worst, crashes into the Taj Mahal and destroys it. Hugh mediates, and suggests rebuilding the cans as the Loch Ness Monster. With nothing resolved all combine to prepare for the opening. Hugh hopes there’ll be a rich widow in attendance.

EVERYTHING ELSE A play by Derek Strahan - SYNOPSIS Tony Thomas, Kurt Ullman, Dave Rockford and Dennis Overton all work in the city for different companies. They all meet most evenings after work at the nearby Runaway Bar to exchange views and, often, to commiserate about problems with their respective wives. Tony works for Alumox and has developed guilt feelings about his company’s products, especially aluminium cans and the soft drinks that are sold in them. He wants to compensate by using empty cans to construct art works, starting with a model of the Taj Mahal. Carol, his wife, bans this activity. Kurt works for Idea, a self-assembly furniture company whose products he despises. He wants to build and design high-end quality furniture. Ingrid, his wife bans this activity. Dave Rockford works for APM (All Planet Media) an entertainment monolith that is suffering from the effects of the digitisation of intellectual product. He wants to sell up, and go surfing. Alice, his wife, bans this activity. Dennis, a realtor, is frustrated because Louise, his wife, is retreating from him sexually, and banning a favourite sex act. Hugh McGregor, a thrice-divorced old Scot, explains to the guys why their wives are banning what they most want from life: they are manifesting the “Everything Else Syndrome”: when a wife bans what her husband really wants and allows him everything else. Tony and Kurt agree to outwit their wives by each taking on the other one’s chosen hobby in the guise of play activities for children at arts centres that they persuade their respective firms to set up, as good company PR. Tony accidentally meets up with Louise at a Surf Shop where each has been sent by their respective partners to buy snorkelling gear. They resume an affair that they had 20 years ago, when they were both surfing hippies. Everything that could go wrong goes wrong when Dennis finds out about the affair and when Carol and Ingrid rumble their husbands’ lies and evasions. This occurs because Alumox and Idea join forces to fund the children’s art centre and everyone is invited to the opening. At a crisis meeting 90 minutes before opening, Dennis and Dave get into a fist fight. Dave, coming off worst, crashes into the Taj Mahal and destroys it. Hugh mediates, and suggests rebuilding the cans as the Loch Ness Monster. With nothing resolved all combine to prepare for the opening of the Picasso Children’s Arts & Crafts Center. Hugh hopes there’ll be a rich widow in attendance.

Derek Strahan was born in Penang, Malaysia on May 28th 1935, and spent his early childhood in colonial Malaysia. He was evacuated with his mother and sister to Perth when Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942. In 1946 the Strahans settled in Northern Ireland and Derek completed his schooling in Belfast, where his interests in music and drama developed alongside academic studies. In 1952 he attended Cambridge University studying for an arts degree in modern languages. (French and Spanish). He further developed his interest in theatre and cinema, and acted in a number of university productions. He graduated in 1954 and worked in London for the next six years as relief teacher, actor, singer-songwriter and assistant film director making commercials. In 1961 Strahan returned to Australia and settled in Sydney for 2 years. He then worked in TV in NZ from 1964 to 1966 writing and directed documentaries. The year 1967 was spent in the UK, visiting family and teaching. He then returned to Sydney and has remained here. A period of teaching for the NSW Department of Education in Sydney (1968–70) was combined with writing music for numerous wild life documentaries and writing songs for live performance and on TV. He then wrote full time for TV. He has remained in Sydney where he functions in several aligned capacities as opportunities arise: scriptwriter, composer of film and concert music, film director, film and record producer. As a writer Strahan worked for 3 years (1964-66) scripting and directing documentary film features for New Zealand television including a 6-part series on Sir Edmund Hilary’s aid work in the Himalayas. He then worked for 5 years as contract scriptwriter for the TV serial “Number 96” (1970-75). He also wrote episodes for “Cop Shop”, “Glenview High”, “Chopper Squad”, “Carrots!” (a children’s’ program on Channel 7), and “Flying Start” in 1986 (ABC program on small business). He also scripted corporate videos for Broadcom. Three feature films have been produced from his scripts “Leonora” (1985), released on video, cable in US & Europe, and shown on Channel 9 in 1996; “Fantasy” (1990), Columbia Tri-Star video, and “Inspector Shanahan Mysteries – Cult of Diana”(1992), shown on Channel 9 in 1996. He produced & directed “Leonora” and co-directed “Fantasy” with Geoffrey Brown for Combridge International, and also wrote music for these three features. His 1-Act play “Triple Six” was staged as a drama student qualifying production at Newcastle University in the early 1990s. In 2011 he wrote “Anatomy of Murder”, a 3-part web mini-series for Combridge International. He has written 7 theatre plays. Strahan has previously worked (1982 to 84) for AFTRS the.as script assessor, and has given 8 and 16 week courses in scriptwriting for the (then) NSW Institute of Technology and for the Australian Film and TV School in Bathurst Street, Sydney. From 2004 he has worked for the Australian Writers Guild having assessed over 140 scripts. He has conducted a 4-day seminar on Writing Film Treatments for Associate AWG Members and has been a panelist for an Associates evening on Script Writing.