Most of the companies who stage one of Raymond Hopkins’ plays go on to stage a second and then a third. 

You might say that Raymond Hopkins is in playwriting for love – and you would be right on two counts.

His first four farces were Love Begins at Fifty, The Love Nest, It Must Be Love and Love and Money, each costing £5.95, incl p&p. His new play, a comedy rather than a farce, is Love and Perfect Harmony and it includes four original songs that can be sung or mimed (Hanbury Plays, £6.50, incl p&p).

Lots of love there, obviously. But there’s more love to him that that – because he devotes all his royalties to Multiple Sclerosis Research, prompted by the fact that his daughter Katy has had the disease for 12 years – and the total has now passed £15,000.

Love and Perfect Harmony concerns the bickering backbiting and successes of a choral society and requires hardly any scenery or furniture. 4m 5f.

NODA, Autumn 2006