No Mean Company

May The Farce Be With You

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY Woodstock, Illinois

May The Farce Be With You - A comedy by David Rogers © MCMLXXVIII by David Rogers

20 & 21 June, 2003

O'MacDonald's Health Farm in New Mexico is under siege by Aliens from the evil planet Inferna. Their plan is world domination but first they must take care of a team of Superheroes known as the Elite Idealistic Earth Individuals Organisation E.I.E.I.O. who are attending their annual conference in the health resort.

Star Raider, the intergalactic villain has discovered the secret of the E.I.E.I.O.’s strength. They all seem to be some insignificant Earth person until they change their clothes and become superheroes.

Will our Superheroes win through to save the world.

Will the health farm ever see their kitchen staff again?

Does Superbrain have the answers to any of these questions?

There's only one way to find out...

Drama group investigated by US

News & Chronicle Wednesday April 2003

CUMBERNAULD Theatre's adult amateur theatre group, No Mean Company, have come under scrutiny from US government and military agencies.

This interest from Uncle Sam has registered on the hit counter of their newly launched website, www.nomeanco.co.uk since they began carrying information on their forthcoming production of May The Farce Be With You, a science fiction play by David Rogers which tells the story of an alien invasion.

Within days of the new material being put in the site, the drama group noticed an unusual amount of interest from the US military and government, rising to several hundred contacts. Director and webmaster Linda Howitt said: This is an amazing development. We can only guess at why they were suddenly interested in us but we think it may be to do with the links to UFO sites.

As no similar visits have been made to the website prior to this, Linda is stumped for any other explanation. She said: Our play is about an alien invasion. We thought it would be fun to include some links for more information to UFO’s on the site, particularly because we are so close to the Bonnybridge area. It seemed like a topical approach. We had no idea it would cause quite so much interest across the pond.

So what is it about the play that causes such a stir? The plot revolves around O'MacDonald's Health Farm, besieged by invaders from the planet Inferna. They are bent on world domination but must first dispose of a team of superheroes known as the Elite Idealistic Earth Individuals Organisation (EIEIO), taking their annual conference at the resort. Will the superheroes win through to save the world> Will the health farm ever see their kitchen staff again? Does Superbrain have the answers to any of these questions? The only way to find out is to see May The Farce Be With You at Cumbernauld Theatre on Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3 at 7.45 pm. Tickets are £6/£3 and can be booked from the Box Office on (01236) 732887. And when you’re there keep an eye out for men in black sitting in the audience!

The stats for the website reveal that 4873 hits have been received from US commercial visits, 168 by the US government and one from the US military. In fact, the American visits OUTNUMBER those from users in the United Kingdom!

No Mean Company Do It Again

Cumbernauld News Wednesday May 7 2003

No Mean Company, Cumbernauld Theatre's resident amateur group, took to the stage once again at the weekend with May The Farce Be With you, a frankly bonkers sci-fi comedy from the pen of David Rogers.

NMC, as I will call them for the sake of brevity, may lack the big budgets of George Lucas and the like, meaning their special effects are more Doctor Who than Attack of the Clone, but they make up for it with boundless enthusiasm, something which characterises all their performances.

The plot to May The Farce Be With You revolves around O'Macdonald's Health Farm, which most of the time is a secluded tranquil resort. However, the staff keep a secret from the rest of the world ' the health farm closes for a fortnight every year when it hosts the annual get together of the EIEIO (Elite Idealistic Earth Individuals Organisation), a group of super heroes with such nomenclature as Acrobat Woman, Tapeman, and Gadzooks, who protect the world from mind-bogglingly evil supervillains such as invaders from the planet Inferna.

Speak of the Devil, mind-bogglingly evil supervillains from the planet Inferna do indeed show up for the supposedly secret convention, after housekeeper Miss Broom, secretly a supervillainess by the name of Deprava, blows the gaffe, inviting her star-crossing lover Star Raider to infiltrate the resort, smuggling in enough intergalactic weaponry to blow up Twechar.

Cue a battle of wits between the goodies and baddies, with weedy-yet-smart wannabe superheroes Superbrain and Wizard Woman helping the good guys save the day.

The show was good fun, with charismatic performances throughout and more than a couple of big laughs from the audience. Extra kudos to the cast members who kept straight-faces while having a bit of trouble with the props during Saturday's performance (namely a roll of sticky tape).

So once again it's a hearty well done for NMC, whose next production is probably less likely to lead to investigation by the US military (as reported last week).

Review by Neil McGrory

Aliens spoof becomes case for X-Files

The Sunday Post Sunday May 11 2003

Big Brother watching Scots drama group

A SMALL Scottish theatre group has been hit by stage fright of a different kind after its latest production came under intense scrutiny — from the US government and military!

The website of amateur group No Mean Company, who perform at Cumbernauld Theatre, has been the subject of Mulder and Scully-style surveillance after displaying details about their spoof play, which depicts an alien invasion.

The group performed May The Farce Be With You last weekend, but were astonished to discover that their home page, www.nomeanco.co.uk had received more than 500 hits from American intelligence.

Maximum interest

Company Director Linda Howitt explained, We decided to do the play last August and to ensure maximum interest we flagged it up on our site and created links to UFO sites.

The basic narrative centred around aliens who come down to take over the earth, but all the superheroes who would naturally save the day happened to be on a health farm!

There were a few outrageous characters, including Electro Man, Super Brain and Wizard Woman, who stepped in to rid the Earth of invaders after a brief period of alien domination.

Despite the wacky storyline, Linda, who also runs a greetings card business, described how she was taken aback to discover interest from Uncle Sam.

She said, 'On the server that holds our web page you can access statistics of people who have visited and where the visits have come from.

When we posted information last year there were five hits from the US government in the first few weeks.

The monitoring seemed to increase when I updated the site and we've now received 53 hits from the US military and 491 from the US government.'

Linda could only speculate about why the space parody had become a real-life X-File.

Cumbernauld is fairly close to Bonnybridge which has had more UFO sightings in recent years than Roswell in New Mexico, the UFO capital of the world,' she said.

However, I suspect it may be the links to the UFO sites that have generated the interest from across the water.'

Mark Birdsall, intelligence expert and editor of Eye Spy magazine, explained that American intelligence interest in Scotland is not unusual.

Ideal explanation

He explained, 'Clearly, with the volume of hits, the Americans are taking this website seriously.

The thing with UFOs is they are the ideal explanation for governments to conceal operations like rocket tests and unmanned probes. Far better the public think it's a flying saucer rather than a top-secret test.

The Americans will probably be keeping their eyes on the website for message boards and any new reports of UFO sightings.

They will want to see how the public react and perceive this information.

Scotland is of huge interest to the Americans and the US military will be curious about Cumbernauld because of its close proximity to Bonnybridge, they want to get to the bottom of what's going on there.'

By Euan Duguid