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Farce. Philip King and Falkland Cary.
From an idea by Ivan Butler In the Orders Office of Chunkibix Ltd, it is Mr Price-Hargreaves
who gives the orders and Mr Bloome who obeys them. Until, that is,
Mr Bloome is one day accused of chasing a young female person across
Wandsworth Common making him the hero of every woman and girl in
the office not least Miss Spencer. So glorious is Bloome's transformation,
in fact, that when the young person in question discovers she has
made a mistake in her identification, Bloome is the reverse of pleased
and determines to keep her quiet. Comedy Hugh Wheeler. 5 men, 2 women. Interior. In this case the Big Fish is a former professor of great promise whose career went to pot when a trustee's daughter committed suicide, leaving a note that compromised him. Since then he has lived in the oblivion of an insignificant research job, maintaining an apartment which has become the nesting place of an incredible assortment of friends. There is somebody's wife from Conshohocken, Pa., with whom he has had an affair for 20 years, an old-maidish gentlemen who teaches art, a dyspeptic and presumptuous ex-publisher, and a young and highly successful author ... . These people all love him in their divergent ways, and it is this affection upon which he feeds and upon which, conversely, they are equally dependent. So strong is this mutual bond that when he is offered a permanent job which will take him abroad the sycophants rise in fierce indignation, and it is only the persuasion of the young novelist which induces him to leave his complacent rut. The final episodes of the play bring the realization that in his fulfillment there will yet be a need for these friendships, and his dear ones are secure in knowing their contribution to his regeneration. Play John Patrick Shanley. 3 men, 2 women. Unit set A series of self-revelations opens the book of life on the characters,
drawing their view of life. From here we watch them interact: Omar
throws knives for a living and muses about the state of the world.
His understanding wife, Fifi; suddenly pregnant with twins, acts
as a rudder for him, and often for his fiiend, Austin, an out of
work actor, who believes the world would be a better place if everyone
would do something, even one small act of kindness. He follows his
own advice when he comes upon Jill, a young woman sitting in a bar,
covered with grease. Jill had been attracted to Gregory, but on their
first date, he berates her and covers her with petroleum jelly. When
Austin finds her, he must break through her distrust of strangers
and persuade her to let him clean her as an act of merry. He succeeds
and gives her a wonderful bubble bath, the cleansing becoming a metaphor
for the play: that the big funk engulfing society will dissipate
only if everyone will join in the purification process. A dinner
party later reveals the zany and deep way in which the characters
try to make things better, despite their obstacles and even their
triumphs. The play's theme is summed up by Austin, addressing the
world in a very unique way, asking us all to chose love and life
over neurosis and death. Play Clifford Odets. 8 men, 4 women. Interior The story tells of the last few days of Charlie Castle, a top movie
star and an idealist, whose years of compromise with his beliefs
for the sake of a Hollywood career have resulted in the slow destruction
of his personality. We see his struggles to escape from the net of
insincerity and falsehood in which he has trapped himself, and his
ultimate defeat. Bill Corbett. 2 men, 2 women. Unit set In The Big Slam we follow Orrin, a shy young student of history,
who gets caught up in the 90's incarnation of the self-help movement
via his friend Russell, a handsome seducer in whose shadow Orrin
has always lived. Russell is on a quest for success - in every area
of life: financial, sexual, emotional and spiritual. Orrin is happy
to go along with Russell's quest, if it means keeping the company
of his charismatic friend. But one night they meet Stephanie, a sexy,
ruthless young lawyer recently fired for ethical lapses. She and
Russell make an immediate sexual connection, and ditch third wheel
Orrin. When they emerge from Stephanie's bedroom months later, it
turns out that in addition to becoming obsessed with each other,
Russell and Stephanie have become devoted to a new program for financial
aid and spiritual success called Strategies for Power - a home seminar
based on a dynamic late night infomercial. Russell and Stephanie
have been studying and training relentlessly in its ways. They're
to go and apply it to life now. And - as Orrin learns later - they
want him to bankroll their enterprise with his life's savings. Though
skeptical at first, Orrin finally agrees when Stephanie works her
rhetorical and sensual charms on him. From there it's a strange stew
of ambition, slippery language, love, and sex, as Orrin tries to
make sense of his newfound world in terms of the thing he knows best:
history. Comedy: Dalton Trumbo. 10 men, 2 women. Interior In a small town, the undertaker and the doctor plan to steal the
body of the town's wealthiest citizen. That gentleman, a crook, has
just passed out of the picture and the undertaker, who has led a
quiet and honest life to date, sees no reason why he should not get
a well paying job. So the undertaker and doctor enter the home of
the deceased and proceed to take his body back to the shop. The undertaker
and his friend picture a rosy future until the corpse comes to life
and regains consciousness. The old gentleman is left on the sofa
in the undertaker's office, where he proceeds to reveal the fact
that he will die penniless, leaving his affairs in such condition
as to make legal trouble for his successors. The undertaker, who
has bought an option on the only bronze casket west of New York,
sees himseif stuck for a goodly sum and is not unwilling to allow
the job of attending to the deceased financier (he has since actually
died) to go to a rival. When he is on the point of unloading the
casket on his rival, he gets a temporary case of conscience and agrees
to sell the casket for what he paid for it. His rival evidently thinks
he is deceiving him when he reports that the millionaire has died
penniless. So he hangs up the phone with the parting shot: "It's
your funeral" A pleasant romantic interest is sustained by the undertaker's
daughter and a young dancer, who have become engaged and plan to
carve out a career for themselves as professionals. Play. Thomas Babe.3 men, 1 woman. Exterior. The scene is a rundown farm in Vermont where two brothers, Billy
Irish and Joe Witness, tell each other tales of their conversations
with the likes of Mick Dagger and Bob Dylan and (as they also imagine
themselves to.be Jesse and Frank James) of the men they have killed
in the course of their criminal careers. When a young couple appear,
claiming that their car has broken down, Billy and Joe suspect a
trap - a premonition which is borne out when the boy and girl shortly
steal back, announcing that they ate Bonnie and Clyde and taking
the two brothers captive. When all four are then encircled and held
at bay by an unseen force which gives them two minutes to surrender,
the line between fantasy and reality is blurred still further and
yet, somehow, also illuminated by the ensuing talk of Vietnam, political
assassinations, religious fanatics, Charles Manson and other people
and events of America's turbulent recent past. In the end Billy shoots
Joe and then goes out to face a fusillade of bullets himself - but
not before helping the two young people to escape, freeing them to
pursue the disturbing destiny for which, sadly, the disjointed times
have surely conditioned them. Comedy. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall Less than dedicated to his job as undertaker's clerk bored with
his North Country family background, Billy Fisher takes refuge in
his own invented world. For Billy, an energetic imagination makes
life tolerable but well-nigh intolerable for all around him. He lies
his way into and out of every situation producing any explanation
and making any promise that will extricate him from his present predicament,
and thereby creating ever more tortuous entanglements for the immediate
future. Comedy. Neil Simon This sequel to Brighton Beach Memoirs won the 1985 Tony
Award for Best Play and received its British premiere at the Library
Theatre, Manchester, in 1991. When we last met Eugene, he was coping
with adolescence in the 1930s in Brooklyn. Now it is 1943 and the
saga of Eugene Morris Jerome, alter ego of the youthful Neil
Simon, continues with him as a young army recruit during the Second
World War. 'Joyous and unexpectedly rewarding.' New York Times Drama. Arthur Laurents. 8 men, 5 women. Interior. A dramatic tale of a hardboiled owner of a night club, The Bird Cage, in which not only the owner but all the employees symbolise a phase of metropolitan life which is both ironic and tragic. Comedy. Derek Benfield When Sylvia returns only twenty-four hours after walking out, her husband Max isn't exactly overjoyed. Nor is three times divorced Harry who has set the wheels in motion to recapture the romantic successes of their youthful days of bachelorhood and it's too late to stop the young ladies arriving! Sylvia watches with much amusement as her hapless husband tries, and fails, to appreciate the delights of freedom and finally decides that the bonds of matrimony are preferable. Play.
Naomi Wallace, based on the novel by William Wharton Naomi Wallace has skilfully transformed William Wharton's novel into a compelling, intimate piece of theatre. This is the journey of Birdy and his friend Al who are seen both as young men in Philadelphia in the years just before World War Two and as wounded soldiers bearing the mental and physical scars of war. Period 1930s, 1946 ' ... ingeniously conveys the essence of the book's attraction.' Evening Standard Play. Harold Pinter Goldberg and McCann arrive at a seaside boarding house where Meg
and Petey live with their guest Stanley. They inquire about Stanley:
we soon find out that McCann and Goldberg have a job to do. Learning
it is his birthday they give Stanley a party at which Stanley is
verbally bludgeoned into submission. The next day Stanley is removed.
It is the collective impact of the dialogue which welds the seemingly
inexplicable actions of Goldberg and McCann into a menacing whole. Comedy. Robin Hawdon Geoff Tippet has arranged a special birthday treat for his old friend,
Bob. The treat is a hotel room for the night, a double-bed which
folds up into the wall and an attractive girl called Mimi. Add a
shy Kate who anxiously awaits her computer agency date - Dick, who
has been shown into the wrong room; Bob's wife Liz, who believes
she is dining with Geoff, and a connecting door between the two rooms
and you have the recipe for a fast-moving and hilarious comedy. Play. Michael Pertwee Fogg arrives home prepared to spend a peaceful night. He has not
allowed for the antics of his philandering partner, Reaper, who has
not only been using Fogg's name in his affair with the sexy Mrs Barker,
but also borrowing his car. When the car is stolen a frantic chain
of events is set in motion involving the over-inquisitive Inspector
Ruff, and Reaper's wife and mistress - both called Diane-and what
follows is an hysterical nightmare of confusion. Play. Frank Vickery Ted, undergoing a mid-life crisis, leaves the house he and home-loving
wife Beryl have shared for thirty-two years. At first Beryl is shattered
but gradually works back from the edge of despair, helped by her
exuberant daughter Angie and down-to-earth neighbour Dawn. A holiday
abroad, a complete make-over - not to mention a platonic friendship
with the young handyman, who gives her new ways of looking at life
- rescue her from the nightmare of separation. Play. Rosemary Anne Sisson Stefan and Tanya are determined to prevent themselves and their
children from sinking into degradation. In their cramped, bare space
in a displaced persons' camp, they try to create a home, to teach
their children, and above all, to retain their dignity. Emigration
and escape is their only hope, thus Tanya's greatest sacrifice must
be to send her husband and children away to Australia even though
she is barred from the country by having TB. This is a play that
can inspire great affection and love, not just for itself, but for
the whole human condition. Period 1960s |