Sugar Daddies: Synopsis
Cast: 2 male / 3 femaleRunning time (approximate): 2 hours and 20 minutes not including the interval.
Availability: Sugar Daddies is available for both professional and amateur production.
Acting edition: Published by Samuel French.
Characters
○ Sasha (Early 20s)○ Chloe (Her half-sister, early 30s)
○ Val (Late 70s)
○ Ashley (Late 70s)
○ Charmaine (Mid 60s)
The two are properly introduced: Sasha having recently arrived from the country to study with ambitions to run a restaurant; whilst Val tells her he is a retired policeman. Sasha’s fraught half-sister Chloe returns to the shared flat, upset by being stood up by text by her boyfriend, Zak, and can’t believe Sasha has invited a stranger in. Val leaves and a bunch of flowers arrives, not as Chloe thinks for her, but for Sasha from Val.
Sasha begins to spend more time with Val, who spoils her and begins to change her both outwardly and inwardly.
Sasha returns one evening to find Chloe drunk - stood up by Zak again - and calls on Ashley, a mysterious one-eyed neighbour to help her get Chloe to bed. Ashley, who presumes the girls are prostitutes, tells Sasha he was a policeman and warns her to be wary of Val - who it is becoming increasingly obvious is not at all who he appears to be.
Later, Chloe discovers Zak has been viciously and embarrassingly assaulted with a mobile phone. The pair decide to go away on holiday. Chloe returns to find the flat transformed into a designer nightmare. Horrified by what is happening to Sasha, the two girls have an explosive argument and Chloe walks out.
Sasha organises a meal to thank both Val and Ashley, inviting the flat’s ‘designer’ Charmaine too. The evening is a disaster: Sasha’s cooking is inedible; she is alienated from the others as it becomes obvious Val was a major criminal who ran prostitution rings and Ashley was the policeman trying to take Val down. Sasha is eventually encouraged to sing; her performance of Nobody’s Heart Belongs To Me is promptly torn apart by Charmaine. An enraged Val ruthlessly turns on Charmaine verbally and dismisses her from the party.
Val and Ashley’s bickering eventually turns nasty and enraged they begin to fight, although their first swings render their aged bodies immobile. A phone call from a distraught Chloe leads Sasha to decide to leave the men to it whilst she helps her sibling.
Sasha and a sedated Chloe return home the next day with the news that she apparently slipped on a train platform. Ashley again warns Sasha about Val, who says she isn’t as naïve as she appears. Val turns up and Sasha announces their friendship has to end and that neither are truly who they appear to be and have been playing roles.
Chloe and Sasha are reunited and promise to start their lives afresh, but - unheard by Chloe - Sasha answers a call from Zak in which she makes very clear he is never to contact Chloe again.*
* In the original version of the play, Sasha and Chloe are reunited but instead of the call from Zak, flowers are delivered to the door, but they refuse to accept them as they promise to start their lives afresh.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.