Oz and the Pom - Synopsis

 

Philip is deeply resentful that he and Kitty have to travel to Australia for their daughter's wedding - a wedding which was to have taken place at Mowbray Hall, where for as long as records have been kept the Mowbrays have been married. The fact that the groom's father, Oz Tucker, has been diagnosed with a critical heart condition and is unable to fly in no way salves his sense of grievance.

Arriving at the Tucker's house, instead of a sickly invalid, Philip finds a robust Oz in rude health. Oz's explanation that his heart condition was a hospital computer error leaves Philip convinced he has been 'had'.

Later that evening, Oz overhears Philip telling Kitty, Christine has married beneath her and that she could have done so much better. Battle lines are drawn.

Warned by their wives, who have taken an instant liking to each other, not to do anything to mar the big day, an uneasy truce holds through the wedding service and reception. However, once the newly weds have left for their honeymoon, the protagonists start needling each other, extolling the virtues of the respective countrymen. Fired by booze and their side-kicks, Jacko and Donald, the argument grows heated until finally, to prove once and for all the superiority of either the Australian or British male, Oz hits upon the idea of a race.

A race that will follow in the footsteps of Ambrose Tucker's 'heroic' escape across the Blue Mountains to the town of Maquire. A distance of two hundred miles - living only on what they can carry.

The next morning, realizing the stupidity of the challenge, they are trying to worm out of it when a journalist from a local newspaper turns up. Jacko has told him about the race and he is keen to do a story. Now there is no turning back.

As soon as the story appears a radio station picks up on it - then a local TV station. The idea of the race captures the public's imagination and within days Oz and the Pom are household names. When Foster's offer to sponsor the race, what started off as a drunken bet, becomes an international event.
And so the race finally begins. Nothing in their worst nightmares could prepare Oz and the Pom for what lay ahead.

 

 

 

 


Sir Philip Oliver Mowbray, an English aristocrat in his fifties. Philip is extremely proud of his lineage. One of his ancestors, Chevalier Henri La Mowbray, rode at William The Conqueror's side at the historic Battle of Hastings 1066. Philip lives with wife Kitty at Mowbray Hall, the family seat, a large country estate in the village of Mowbray, Sussex, England. They have a daughter, Christine.

Oswald 'Oz' Tucker is an Australian in his fifties who owns ‘Tucker’s Sports Emporium’. Oz is also proud of his lineage. The Aussie Tuckers can be traced all the way back to Ambrose Patrick Tucker who arrived in Australia as part of the first shipload of transportees in 1788 and who later escaped over the Blue Mountains. Oz believes he is the first European to do it. Oz lives with his wife Rose and son Patrick in Sydney.

 

 
 

 

  
  We have a major production of OZ AND THE POM starting at The Theatre Royal Lincoln Spring 07 followed by a national tour prior to the West End.