by Peter Vetere
Theatre Arts Society Re:Write winner 2024
It’s opening night for Elodie Marks’ Zarbopulon 5 at the annual Essex Theatre Festival. The cast and crew are hoping that it’s the defining performance of the competition, as winning would finally establish their creative careers and ensure that their show will transfer to London.
The performance seems to go on with only some minor difficulties, although getting a glimpse behind the scenes it’s clear that the appearance of Pierre La Crouton, the infamously critical critic and the Festivals surprise judge, sends the actors and the crew of the show into a spin.
If you’ve ever been involved in amateur theatre you’ll understand the pain of tech going wrong, actors almost knowing their lines and scripts not being as good as they were pitched. The horror stories of working in the creative industry are the foundations of Zarbopulon 5 and are put front and centre in this comical farce.
Peter Vetere (he/him) is an actor, writer and director. Peter has a first-class bachelors degree specialising in script writing and has been lucky to write for the stage and screen. Most recently he has written Alice in Wonderland, The Lakeside Theatre’s pantomime for 2024.
Alongside his writing, Peter is an avid character actor and has performed as Wizards, Elves, Pharaohs and Goblins. He is now a part of the Fools Flock, a comedy theatre troupe who are putting together their first performance together, Zarbopulon 5.
Zarbopulon 5 was initially performed as a part of the Theatre Arts Society’s Re-Write competition in 2024. In its first iteration the show was twenty minutes long. It was this performance that won the competition and the show has now been developed into a feature length play. The new version of Zarbopulon 5 now sports three new characters and is now almost triple its original runtime!
