EPT talk Quartermaine’s Terms

A Local Endeavour

Edinburgh’s theatre scene can look forward to a spring highlight. Edinburgh People’s Theatre (EPT) is staging Simon Gray’s award-winning play, Quartermaine’s Terms, at the Church Hill Theatre from 19–22 March 2025. Set in a 1960s Cambridge school for overseas English students, it follows headmaster St John Quartermaine and six teachers navigating personal dramas amid quiet isolation. This much admired, and award-winning play, written more than 40 years ago, yet last revived in the West End in 2013, blends sharp humour with subtle tragedy.

Evening shows run at 7:30pm from Wednesday to Friday, with a Saturday matinee at 2:30pm.

EPT returns to Church Hill Theatre, a venue they’ve long called home, with performances spanning 19–22 March. Director Andy Moseley, captivated by Gray’s script decades ago, leads the effort. “Simon Gray’s wonderful script has the perfect balance of comedy and tragedy,” he says. “Each of the characters experience loss and loneliness, but there is also a wry comedy that runs throughout the play.”

Quartermaine anchors the tale—a staff room constant who supports his colleagues’ woes but lacks a life beyond school walls. “The play got me hooked on amateur drama when I got a part in a production of it in Oxford in 1995. 30 years later, I’m delighted to be working with such a talented cast to bring it back to the stage in Edinburgh,” Moseley adds.

**The cast of Quartermaine’s Terms getting into** **character**

Why This Play?

Moseley’s choice was instinctual. “Quartermaine’s Terms was a play I’d acted in thirty years ago with Studio Theatre Club in Oxford. It was the second play I got a part in (the first was the premiere of Steven Briggs’ adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms). I played Mark Sackling (now played by James Cumming in our production). I loved the play and the characters, and it’s always stayed with me, so when I was asked by EPT if I wanted to direct one of their productions, I immediately thought of it. I put the script through to EPTs Play Reading Committee, they approved it, we did a read-through with club members, and I knew that I could get a strong cast together, so I went with it. It’s been great working seeing the play coming together during rehearsals, and I’m really looking forward to bringing it to the Church Hill.”

The play’s pedigree speaks for itself—first staged at London’s Queen’s Theatre in 1981, it won the 1982 Cheltenham Prize for Literature, later logging 13,000 West End performances.

Weight of Reputation

Does its classic status add pressure? Ellen McFadzen, who plays Anita Manchip, wife to a philanderer, says: “Of course. You know that people have either seen the play or the TV adaption, which likely means they already know the characters. So you want to get your portrayal right.” Pat Johnson, who plays Edie Loomis, trapped in a dysfunctional family, counters: “Being unaware that Quartermaine’s Terms is considered a modern classic, there was no pressure on this particular cast member in that regard!”

English Echoes

The 1960s English setting poses quirks. Ellen McFadzen notes: “As a Scottish person trying to maintain an RP accent – yes but it’s been a lot of fun. Growing up, I’ve watched the adults around me adopt the stiff-upper-lip approach to mostly everything remotely difficult, and I’d say all the characters try to go about their problems the same way. To an extent.” Pat Johnson adds: “Not for this English person who was at school in the 1950s/60s herself!” Larry Weil reflects: “That probably varies from actor to actor. I’ve lived in England, have more of an English accent and so the ‘Englishness’ of the play and the character hasn’t been the hardest thing to capture. What has been more difficult is characterising Windscape in a way that shows that his multifaceted sides and depth.”

Shaping the Cast

The characters demand depth. Ade Smith (St John Quartermaine) explains: “For me the key to playing Quartermaine was to think on his backstory. I saw him as a genuinely good man who had experienced a difficult childhood. A father who had left the family home when he was young, an over protective mother who tried to shield him from everyday life and the difficulty of experiencing bullying at school. Because of this Quartermaine grew up with a sense of rejection and consequently tried too hard to fit in and be accepted. This also resulted in him retreating into his own thoughts as a coping mechanism. With this backstory in mind it has helped me to bring out some of the emotional difficulties the character faces but also his desire to care and be a good friend to the people around him.”

“You know that people have either seen the play or the TV adaption, which likely means they already know the characters. So you want to get your portrayal right,” says Ellen McFadzen, who plays Anita Manchip.

Larry Weil says: “We all thought about / created a back story that we then discussed to make sure it all fit well like puzzle pieces. It’s no use Henry’s backstory going in one direction if Melanie’s goes in the opposite. This was a very useful exercise for the whole cast. Although most characters speak in a form of RP the speech patterns, energy levels and physicality differ immensely, from a very static Quartermaine to an extremely animated (at times) Sackling. Each actor must inhabit their character physically, ensuring that even when they are not speaking, their presence adds to the scene.”

**The cast of Quartermaine’s Terms getting into** **character** **(again!)**

Ellen McFadzen adds: “We’ve done a lot of character work both in groups and in our own time which I think has helped with the way our characters interact with each other. Getting the back stories of each character and discussing where they are now has been really useful. Being quite a close knit group as actors also helps a lot as we feel comfortable having conversations about the subtext that takes place which lends itself to individual characterisation.”

EPT’s Place

What’s it say about EPT? Andy Moseley reflects: “There’s always a balance to be struck between immediate and obvious crowd pleasers and lesser-known plays that can really get you thinking about the issues they deal with while still engaging audiences. I think EPT do this. The big productions, including the annual panto and Scots comedies at the Fringe, help us to take more risks with the rest of our programme. In the last couple of years, we’ve done some really ambitious large-cast productions such as Brassed Off and Brief Encounters which have had amazing sets, choreography and even a hastily assembled brass band, but we’ve also done plays such as this and one of my own plays – An(other) Inspector Calls – that are more low key, intense pieces that put different demands on actors and audiences. It’s great that we don’t just take the easy option and I think audiences appreciate the company for doing this.”

Ellen McFadzen agrees: “In my experience EPT strives to perform quality theatre, from the play selection and the rehearsal process to the delivery. I think taking on a play like this reinforces that.”

Loneliness, Laughter, and Legacy

The play’s loneliness resonates now. Ellen McFadzen says: “In a world where everything is at our fingertips and so much is on display, you’d think people would feel less lonely but in the absence of actual human connection, I’d say our society is the loneliest it’s ever been. It’s too easy to equate the number of ‘likes’ or interaction on a post with genuine interaction and connection. I often think of Anita running a ‘successful’ ‘Working Mum Life’ TikTok or something sharing the difficulties of having two under two and balancing her teaching with that and having a husband that works away etc etc. I think she’d be even lonelier now than she already is.”

Larry Weil adds: “Yes, the theme of loneliness in Quartermaine’s Terms has not only remained relevant but has arguably become even more pertinent in modern society. Simon Gray captures the quiet solitude of professional life, where individuals occupy the same space daily yet fail to form meaningful relationships. This is especially relevant today, where remote working and hybrid office models have reduced face-to-face interactions, leaving many employees feeling disconnected from their colleagues. In the 1960s setting of Quartermaine’s Terms, loneliness manifests through personal isolation, lack of deep connections, and Strategy the gradual sidelining of individuals like St. John Quartermaine himself. Today, despite the explosion of social media and instant messaging, it’s clear that people are very lonely. Digital interactions often lack depth and emotional presence, mirroring the superficial engagements seen in the play.”

“The play’s comedy is so well-observed, so deeply rooted in character dynamics, and so painfully relatable that I don’t think it has lost any of its humour over time,” says Larry Weil, who plays Henry Windscape.

The cast certainly seems to have developed sympathy for their characters. Pat Johnson says: “In Gray’s play, my character, Eddie Loomis, was written as a male. For this production (with permission from Concord Theatricals) the name has been changed to Edie and she is now female, as is her life partner and co-principal, now called Florence instead of Thomas. Whether Edie and Florence are in a gay relationship is irrelevant; they love each other. We never see Florence, so their bond must be demonstrated to the audience by Edie alone.”

Ellen McFadzen agrees: “Definitely. I think Anita put a lot of pressure on herself to get it right being in the generation of women trying to ‘do it all’ – working, being a mother, keeping a house and maintaining a strained marriage. It seems the staff are aware of her problems at home – a philandering husband and her desire to be a mum – but never ask her about it outright. She’s polite and friendly on the surface but is struggling to keep it together, especially after her daughter is born when she’s beginning to realise that life isn’t what she’d hoped it would be. I think that sort of loneliness is often overlooked even now.”

Larry Weil notes: “As an actor portraying Henry Windscape, I can’t help but feel a deep sympathy for him—not just because of what he goes through, but because of what he represents. He isn’t an obvious tragic character in the way that Quartermaine is, but his subtle suffering makes him, in some ways, even more affecting. He is a man of intelligence, quiet dignity, and deep unspoken sorrow. His life isn’t a failure, but it isn’t the life he might have dreamed of. His life is a series of unspoken regrets and unfulfilled potential, which makes him quietly devastating in a way that lingers with the audience.”

Yet humour cuts through. Ellen McFadzen says: “Yes! It’s always amusing watching other people navigate life – completely missing the mark when trying to comfort others, and interpreting things in their unique way. There are some really funny moments in the most unlikely places and I think that’s what drives the story. Or at least keeps it from being depressing.”

Larry Weil closes: “Yes. Quartermaine’s Terms is a deeply funny play, despite its melancholic undercurrents. In fact, I’d argue that the humour is essential to making the play’s pathos work. Without those moments of awkwardness, irony, and dry wit, the emotional weight of the characters’ disappointments might feel too heavy. One of the play’s richest veins of humour comes from people struggling to fit into social situations — either not knowing what to say or saying completely the wrong thing. The staffroom dynamic is delightfully familiar to anyone who has worked in an office or school. The small grievances — who puts their bike in the wrong place, who gets extra classes — are played with such seriousness that they become inherently funny. Everyone is both exasperated by and secretly fond of Quartermaine, leading to a lot of comedic tension in how they handle him. The play’s comedy is so well-observed, so deeply rooted in character dynamics, and so painfully relatable that I don’t think it has lost any of its humour over time.”

Normally I would now come up with a pith final paragraph to sign off on, however, Larry has provided admirably, so I leave the last to him…

“In fact, its quiet, awkward and ironic tone probably resonates even more in an era where social discomfort and passive-aggressive workplace politics are just as prevalent. The laughter makes the sadness hit harder—and that’s exactly what makes Quartermaine’s Terms such a brilliant play to perform.”