How do you set fire to a forgotten pile of old scripts? Metaphorically, we suggest!
The Lost and Found Collective is a company of professionals, lighting fires under some of the dozens of playscripts left behind by famous theatre producer, Stephen Joseph.
Fred / Arlecchino Double Bill
In October 2025 Lost and Found Collective presented its first production: two rarely seen one-act plays from the back catalogue of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, staged in the year it was celebrating its 70th birthday. We’re now planning towards further performances in 2026.
Alas Poor Fred, by James Saunders, was produced in a heavily edited version by Stephen Joseph in 1958. This was the first full staging of the original, uncut, play.
Something funny has happened to Fred. Not funny… odd. Quite odd. Will Ernest ever get to the bottom of it? As Ethel knits, the clock ticks… but what day is it? Does November really come before September? And where actually is Fido...?
Finding its roots in theatre of the absurd, this funny, moving show nods to Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. It explores echoes of the past and the memory of memories.
The Disguises of Arlecchino is by Clifford Williams, who wrote just this one small original play (performed briefly in Scarborough in 1956), before becoming an internationally acclaimed theatre director.
Perhaps you know Harlequin? Or maybe modern anti-hero Harley Quinn is more your style. We present: Arlecchino – the original anarchist! – a savvy Italian manservant with a talent for disguise and an instinct to Get Rich Quick (then promptly lose it all again).
Alas Poor Fred is being performed by Dan Henley and Georgie Samuels; the cast for The Disguises of Arlecchino is Gui Sá Pessoa, David Lomond, Hannah Curtis and Dan Henley. Lee Ure provides technical support, and wardrobe is by Ruth Hill-Beeley.
Director Paul Elsam, who wrote the biography Stephen Joseph: Theatre Pioneer and Provocateur (Bloomsbury), says: “We were thrilled with the audience response to these two little plays, which flashed and burned in Scarborough some six decades ago. Both come from the forgotten personal archive of Stephen Joseph. Lost for half a century in an attic, this dusty collection of ink-smudged paper is astonishing – featuring some of the most exciting forgotten British stage plays of the post-war years. Both these plays came from the wonky typewriters of soon-to-be stars of the theatre.”
Alas Poor Fred and The Disguises of Arlecchino will be seen again in 2026. Meanwhile we’ve started looking at other ‘lost’ plays from the archive.
Details to follow!