A STAGE KINDLY - A Fine Time For Wine

A FINE TIME FOR WINE - by Tony Osborne and Jonathan Posner

"The Clock Slows Down" - Featured in A STAGE KINDLY presents "Debut" and "Encore"

A stirring tale of bitter rivalry, tender romance - and damn fine wines

Act 1

LONDON 1925. One night in the racy Blue Lagoon nightclub, a bitter rivalry comes to a head. Suave wine writer Henry St. Aubyn challenges rival writer - the feisty Stephanie Mulholland - to a high-stakes wine tasting wager: the loser has to retire. His task is to find at least one in three fine wines that she cannot name in a blind tasting.

Henry's first wine is an obscure Moroccan, bought in an East-End bric-a-brac shop. His second comes from Lulu - a French singer at the Blue Lagoon who is one of his old flames. She is willing to help for old-time's sake, but despite his considerable charm, she decides against restarting the relationship.

Confident in his chances with just these two wines, Henry arrives at the soiree where the tasting is to take place. But Stephanie has been doing some devious checking behind the scenes and 'guesses' the wines correctly. This is much to the delight of her diffident editor, Geoffrey Smythe, who is on the lookout for a good story.

Act 2

Undeterred, Henry follows the advice of a kindly old butler, Williams and visits a small winery for his final wine.

There he finds Mary Blackford - an uncomplicated country girl running (as best she can) the winery left by her late father. They realise that they had met before in , when Mary had been unjustly accused of stealing by Stephanie and Henry's quick thinking had rescued her.

Henry's chivalry and his growing affection for Mary leads to him agreeing to stay a few days and help her write her wine list. He is further rewarded when he discovers a wine with an almost magically unique character created by Mary's father. With this wine he knows he has found the weapon to defeat Stephanie.

Mary is upset that Henry is only there because of a wager and feels compelled to ask him to leave. So when she is proposed to later by a young squire at a dance, she accepts.

Henry arrives at the dance, aiming to say a final farewell to Mary. She realises her mistake and breaks her engagement - and agrees to let Henry have a bottle of the wine. However, her condition is that he does not give any publicity to her winery - at least until she knows what she is doing. He agrees.

But unknown to Henry, an oily reporter called John Thompson - has got wind of the wager story.

At the final tasting. Henry is therefore faced with losing the bet or breaking his promise to Mary. Finding himself disillusioned with the scene, he decides to do the honourable thing and lose deliberately. He retires to Kent to be with Mary and help her run the winery.

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