Romantic Comedy. Reginald Denham and Mary Orr. 5 men, 6 women. Interior. Archibald K. Holly is a widower with three daughters and a problem.
Gwendolyn, his middle daughter, wires that she is jilting the boy
next door for a new beau from college and that she is bringing him
home. The potential groom is not a young man as expected, but Eliot
Spurgeon, a suave, sophisticated professor as old as Mr. Holly himself.
But the fun really begins when Mr. Holly realises that Eliot is an
old fraternity brother of his, famous as the campus wolf. Holly's
determination to break up this May-December infatuation and get his
stubborn daughter to marry the more suitable young man her own age,
leads to a crescendo of comic situations. Play: Michael McClure. 1M, 1F. Open Stage Examining the nature of seduction and attraction the play brings
into explosive confrontation two legends of America's recent past:
the sultry, platinum blonde movie star, Jean Harlow; and the baby
faced, quick-tempered outlaw, Billy The Kid. Drawn to each other,
but constrained from yielding by their towering egos, the two probe
each other's weaknesses and uncertainties with cruel precision she
mocking his vaunted masculinity, and he accusing her of envying his
beauty. In time, as their obstinacy fades with the knowledge that
there is no one watching them that they are free to slip out from
behind the larger-than-life facades with which they have been burdened
the two give way to their true feelings in a rush of unbridled passion,
leading to a final scene which is one of the most celebrated and
widely discussed of the modern theatre. Laurence Boswell This theatrically thrilling new version of the classic myth was first produced for the Young Vic in 1996. Rather than presenting kids with gaudy, gobsmacking spectacle, this enchanting Beauty and the Beast stimulates the mind. Laurence Boswell's adaptation of the fairy story is at once beguiling and disconcertingly strange... his beautifully written script is so evocative that we seem to see wonders that are not actually there ... It is hard to imagine a more hauntingly beautiful children's show Daily Telegraph. This enchanting play can be performed straight or with music - drawn
from traditional French folk melodies - composed by Mick Sands for
the Young Vic production. The score is available separately from
the text. Play. Warren Graves. 3 men, 3 women. Unit set While closely following the traditional fable so beloved by all,
this imaginative adaptation cleverly compresses the salient points
of the story to make them more theatrically effective and easily
staged. The main line of the action deals with the merchant, Blotti,
who wanders into the castle of the Beast. Having lost his fortune
he is reluctant to return home to his hopeful daughters - until the
Beast promises him riches if he will send his youngest (and purest)
daughter, Beauty, to the castle. There are scenes of humour and daring
as Beauty's haughty sisters argue over who will take them to the
ball, and the valiant Manello challenges the Beast to a sword fight.
But, above all, there is the magic of Beauty's innocence and goodness,
which sees beyond the ugliness of the Beast to the handsome young
prince whom the purity of her love will restore to his rightful form. Jonathan Harvey : 3 men, 2 women. Unit set Jamie and Ste (short for Steve) are teen-age neighbours in a working-class
housing project in London. Jamie is bookish and shy while Ste is
more athletic. Neither one has an ideal home life: Jamie's mother
Sandra is bitter over her financial situation and her romantic life,
but she's willing to settle for a bloke named Tony and cover up her
disappointment with scathing humor; Ste's father and brother abuse
him in the form of escalating domestic squabbles and actual beatings.
After one such fight, Ste asks Sandra if he can stay at her house
and she lets him and Jamie bunk together. As their friendship grows,
Jamie begins to realize he has stronger feelings for Ste, and one
night, after Ste suffers a particularly bad beating, the two boys
decide to experiment together. Both realizing they're gay, Ste and
Jamie begin a tentative relationship. Soon, Sandra hears the rumor
that her son's gay, and knowing that he's been having trouble in
school, she confronts him and he admits the truth. Ste and Jamie's
friend, Leah, is also in on the secret and she's supportive of them,
probably because of her own outsider status as a Mama Cass worshipper
The play ends with the two boys feeling less alone in the world than
before; they have each other, and even the bickering Sandra and Leah
call a truce and accompany the boys in a slow dance for all their
neighbors to see. Farce-Comedy. Conrad Seiler. 10 men, 4 women. Unit Set After rounding up the mothers of our beauty contestants, who have
been backstage giving their daughters last-minute encouragement,
a young Master of Ceremonies sends them to their seats. He explains
to the audience the kind of contest he is staging for the Super Association
for Supermarkets. In this contest both beauty and brains will be
judged to select the Supermarket Queen. The five contestants, the
Misses "Canned Corn," "Pretzels," "Prunes,"
"Skim Milk" and "Upside-down Cake," parade before the judges. Then
to prove the girls have more than beauty, the M.C. quizzes them about
such diverse matters as marriage, their ideal man, the political
state of Europe and Einstein's Theory of Relativity. As Etheleene
Hudkins, "Miss Prunes", is crowned, the angry mothers of the losing
contestants swarm the stage and send the M.C. and the judges fleeing
every which way. Drama. Martin McDonagh. 2 men; 2 women. Unit set Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, The Beauty
Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan,
a plain and lonely woman in her early forties, and Mag, her manipulative
ageing mother, whose interference in Maureen's first and possibly
final chance of a loving relationship sets in motion a train of
events that leads inexorably towards the play's terrifying dénouement. George Farquhar A pair of London gentlemen pose as a Lord and his servant in order
to procure one handsome dowry to split between them. While Aimwell,
the 'Lord', works on the affections of Lady Bountiful's daughter
Dorinda, his 'servant' Archer makes his bid for her son's wife. First
performed in 1707. Play. Constance Cox from the
novel by Dorothy Whipple Set in Lancashire in 1902 this play deals with the Hunter family
who are obliged to live in the poorer district of town. The Lockwoods'
former neighbours prove patronising but the Hunters are saved from
despair by the help of Oliver Read, a young junk dealer whose cheerfulness
and acumen assists them to a much brighter future. This play has
moments of great comedy and is simple to dress and set. Because Their Hearts Were Pure (or The Secret of the Mine) Melodrama. Morland Cary. 6 men, 9 women (several extras). Several Interiors & Exteriors. The plot concerns two worthy widows whose livelihood depends on
a coal mine that has been left to them. The lovely daughter of one
widow is engaged to the son of the other, and when it develops that
the villainous banker who holds a mortgage on the mine is going to
foreclose, the girl seeks a precarious livelihood as a schoolteacher.
The young man goes to sea as a sailor but very soon is given up as
lost. Meantime, the banker, seeking not only to get the mine (in
which silver has been discovered) into his hands, but the heroine
as well, has spun his wicked web so cleverly that he is on the point
of success. But, just in time to save the widows and their children,
amazing events take place which bring success and happiness to all
who so richly deserve them. Play. Jean Anouilh. Translated
by Lucienne Hill As he waits to be scourged for his part in Becket's murder, King
Henry 11 retraces his entire relationship with the saint, once his
dearest friend and mentor. His catastrophic mistake was to create
Becket Archbishop out of political expediency for Becket found a
fulfilment lacking in his hitherto luxurious life and therefore guarded
the honour of God as once he had, as Henry's Chancellor, once guarded
the honour of his King. Period 12th century Play.
Jim Cartwright Seven elderly people share a vast bed, to dream, remember and reflect on a long past. The play, with a running time of 90 minutes, was acclaimed at the Royal National Theatre. 'Cartwright writes better about old people than anyone I know, except perhaps Beckett. This is an odd, harrowing and hilarious piece, entirely without sentimentality, sturdy but moving.' Sunday Times. 'Sophisticated of structure and mature in content ... brims with the confidence of a craftsman who can work as happily with surrealism as naturalism ...' City Limits Comedy. Ben Travers Alma, a rich but physically far from lovely widow, has had no sexual
experience since the sole occasion on her wedding night twenty years
ago. She marries impoverished Victor on the understanding that their
marriage will be based on friendship. But intervention from Victor's
son, his unconventional girlfriend and Alma's free-and-easy cousin
warm up her long-cooled fires with unexpected results. Period 1930 Comedy. Dave Freeman On the eve of a local festival in a French village Stanley and Brenda
on a motoring trip, think themselves lucky to obtain a hotel room.
But in less than an hour Stanley finds himself lowering an attractive
girl, stark naked, from the window. The girl's husband arrives and
by the second hour almost everybody is in the wrong bed, figures
dressed as nuns and monks rush in and out, seductions and confrontations
run rampant! Comedy. Alan Ayckbourn Three bedrooms are presented simultaneously on stage and the action
between three households flows in and out from one to the other during
this hectic night. There are Ernest and Delia celebrating an anniversary
with pilchards on toast after a disastrous meal out; Malcolm and
Kate preparing a house-warming party and Nick and Jan, the former
resting his injured back in bed. The marital disasters of Trevor
and Susannah weave in out and out of the bedrooms. Comedy. Derek Benfield Ferris is looking after his sister's seedy hotel. Two young couples
arrive. Roger has arranged an assignation with Sally, leaving his
wife Helen at home, but Helen and Geoff, Sally's husband, have also
made plans for a naughty weekend together - at the same hotel. The
mischievous Ferris discovers their guilty secrets and tries (at some
financial reward to himself) to prevent the inevitable meeting of
husbands, wives and lovers in assorted compromising situations. Comedy. Tony Lesser Hilary and Pat are successful business executives. Hilary wants
a baby and when she is offered a large salary increase at the same
time that Pat has a row with his boss it is decided that she should
continue working whilst Pat babyminder. Hilary's assistant, Brutus,
complicates matters by falling in love with her, and Pat returns
to his job as he believes Hilary to have been fired. But it looks
as if Hilary's wish is to be granted and the problem of housekeeper
is solved in the shape of Pat's dad. |