About the Play:

A Bad Year for Tomatoes is a full-length comedy by John Patrick. A highly successful TV actress has "escaped" the looniness and fame of Hollywood by moving to a small New England town to write her autobiography and raise tomatoes. It does not take her long to realize she may have "escaped" right into a whole other pack of loonies. A Bad Year for Tomatoes has wonderfully eccentric characters, especially for women of various ages.

A Bad Year for Tomatoes revolves around Myra Marlowe, a mega-star TV actress. Fed up with the pressures and demands of her acting career, she leases a house in the quiet New England village full of tomato fields and hayseeds in rural Beaver Haven. For the next year she plans to take it easy, write her autobiography and grow tomatoes. She is successful in turning aside the offers pressed on her by her long-time agent, but dealing with her nosy, omnipresent neighbours is a different matter. In an attempt to shoo them away, and gain some privacy, Myra reprises an old role, 'Sister Sadie', a crazy, homicidal sister – who is kept locked in an upstairs room, but who occasionally escapes long enough to scare off uninvited visitors. What could go wrong? The ruse works well, at first, but complications result when the local handyman develops an affection for 'Sister Sadie' (really Myra in a fright wig) and some of the more officious ladies decide it is their Christian duty to save the poor demented Sadie's soul. In desperation Myra announces that her imaginary sibling has suddenly gone off to Boston – which brings on the sheriff and the suspicion of murder! How will Myra extricate herself? Needless to say, all is straightened out in the end, but the uproarious doings will keep audiences laughing right up to the final curtain, and then some. A Bad Year for Tomatoes is a charming comedy about the best laid plans.

A Bad Year for Tomatoes premiered in 1974 at the John Patrick Dinner Theatre in Royalton, Ohio. Since then, it has been performed by high school, college, and community theatre groups looking for something amusing and "different."

Cast: 4 female, 3 male

What people say:

"...will keeping you laughing from start to finish...." — New York Times

"Silly? Sure. But for those who enjoy good farce, these 'Tomatoes' will always be in season." — The Tennessean

"...this silly, three-door farce will keeping you laughing from start to finish...." — BroadwayWorld

"The show's main appeal lay in its rather wry, homespun humour, and Patrick's array of colourful, eccentric characters...." — Sydney Arts Guide (Australia)

"Writer John Patrick churned out an amazing amount of material from radio to television to Hollywood – some of it famous. With A Bad Year for Tomatoes, he had for-the-fun-of-it enjoyment in mind." — WFRV-TV (Wisconsin)

About the Playwright:

John Patrick (1905-1995) was a prolific American playwright and screenwriter, writing more than a dozen screenplays and some 30 plays. He had several Broadway successes, most notably Teahouse of the August Moon (which was awarded a Pulitzer, a Tony and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award) and The Hasty Heart. His movie scripts are impressive with Three Coins in a Fountain, The Shoes of the Fisherman and The World of Suzie Wong as well as adaptations of the two plays mentioned above. His "Opal" series of plays remain popular with high schools and community theatres.