Play Romulus Linney. 4 men, 4 women. Unit Set As the play begins, Ada, the Countess of Lovelace, who was Byron's
only legitimate daughter, is writing her will. She is 36 (the same
age at which her father died) and dying of cancer. While she had
been estranged from her father during his lifetime, and had reviled
his memory, now, as her own end is drawing near, she is seized with
a desire to know more about her profligate father. Stimulated by
the drugs she is taking for her illness she summons him to life and,
in sharp, sarcastic exchanges, probes into the truth behind the myth.
Aided by a chorus of six other actors who impersonate a variety of
characters, the life and art of Byron are unfolded; his tempestuous
youth; his incestuous relationship with his sister; his homosexual
escapades; the scandal surrounding his brief marriage and his castigation
by the society of his day. In the end the private man, the public
figure and the protean poet are reconciled, and the rare dimension
of this remarkable figure, who became the symbol of the Romanticism
of his time, is made movingly real. Play. A.R. Gurney. 2 men, 3 women. Exterior. The action takes place in the summer home of a wealthy "WASP" family
on a resort island off the New England coast. In residence are a
middle-aged but still attractive widow, her divorced daughter; and
her prep school teacher son and his wife. Their pleasant regimen
is interrupted by two jarring events: the mother's announcement that
she plans to marry an old family friend (which means that the house
will then pass to her children); and the unexpected arrival of her
younger son and his family. The younger son, "Pokey," has always
been out of step with the rest of the family, and while he remains
a shadowy offstage figure throughout, it is quickly evident not only
that (for reasons of his own) he objects to his mother's remarriage
and to the plans which his siblings have hatched for the house, but
also that he can, and will, stop them. As the others lash back at
Pokey much that has been repressed in them rises to the surface,
. and they are forced to painful (yet often funny) examinations of
their own rather sterile lives. In the end, however, their resistance
crumbles, and they are resigned again to things as they are and,
most likely, will continue to be until the ways of the world truly
change. Play Mark Medoff. 3 men, 4 women. M3 (20s, 30s-40s) F4 (late teens, mid-20s, 30-40s). Various simple interior and exterior settings. Unit Set After three years in the Peace Corps, James, a young speech therapist,
joins the faculty of a school for the deaf, where he is to teach
lip-reading. He meets Sarah, a school dropout, totally deaf from
birth, and estranged - both from the world of hearing and from those
who would compromise to enter that world. Fluent in sign language,
James tries, with little success, to help Sarah, but gradually the
two fall in love, and marry. At first their relationship is a happy
and glowing one, as the gulf of silence between them seems to be
bridged by, their desire to understand each other's needs and feelings,
but discord soon develops as Sarah becomes militant for the rights
of the deaf, and rejects any hint that she is being patronized and
pitied. In the end the chasm between the worlds of sound and silence
seems almost too great to cross ... but love and compassion hold
the hope of reconciliation, and deeper, fuller understanding of differences
which, in the final essence, can unite as well as divide. Maxim Gorky. Trans S. Mulrine A somewhat Chekhovian family drama, first staged in Russia in 1905.
In a prophetic echo of the coming Revolution, the play looks at the
lives of the privileged intelligentsia and of the workers and advocates
an alliance between the two. Play. Jerry Devine. 1 man, 2 women, 1 boy. Interior. The time is the 1930s the scene a theatrical rooming house in New
York City, where Daniel Brophy, a stock company actor of long experience,
awaits both his wife and his young son and also his "big chance" in
a forthcoming Broadway play. Determined to give his family a permanent
home and a decent life, Brophy has promised to give up drinking and
to make good, at last, on all his many past promises. Leavened by
the humor of the warm-hearted landlady, May, all goes well at first,
but as the crisis of opening night approaches Brophy's resolve begins
to falter. In the end he buckles under the strain - but perhaps only
momentarily, as the final, emotionally searing scene so eloquently
and hopefully suggests. Play. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall A hectic children's birthday party provides a noisy background to
a series of domestic crises. Robin has left Emma and Emma has become
friendly with her solicitor, Tom; both Tom and Robin arrive for the
celebrations. The mishaps of the party spill over into the kitchen
situation, the behaviour of the young visitors affecting the adults.
By the end of the party however, things look a little brighter for
Robin and Emma. Lillian Hellman : Drama 2M 14F 2 Interior sets Martha Dobie and Karen Wright are both highly respected women, and
together they successfully run a boarding school for girls. Despite
their efforts over the years, their reputations are instantly torn
to shreds when a troublesome and malicious pupil starts an entirely
unfounded rumour, which precipitates tragedy for the women. It is
finally discovered that the gossip was pure invention, but by that
time irreparable damage has been done, and once treasured friends
have failed the test of loyalty. An examination of faith in truth, The
Children's Hour explores the tendency of many people, when presented
with cruel gossip, to believe in the worst. Christmas musical. Jeremy
Brooks and Adrian Mitchell. Based on the poem by Dylan Thomas This enchanting play with music uses a variety of carols and well-known Welsh songs to conjure up the pure magic of Christmas for the enjoyment of an audience of all ages. The main course of events takes place on Christmas Eve itself, when the Thomas family are host to their relatives. Apart from a potentially major hiccup, when the turkey catches fire, the traditional Yuletide celebrations are enjoyed by all. Simon Block Mark and Stevie, a young couple settling into their new home are
visited by two door-to-door salesmen whose nightmare sales pitch
threatens the very foundation of their life together. 'Like David
Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, to which this is something of
a suburban cousin, Block's thoroughly enjoyable play is obsessed
with the deal and the jargon-filled language that clinches it ...
His observations and the strung-out tension as Mark and Stevie struggle
to sort out their differences in the jaws of a brilliantly sprung
trap is thrillingly unbearable' Independent Play.
Robert David MacDonald Subtitled Figures in a Classical Landscape with Ruins, this takes us into the world of the Ballet Russe. On holiday in Venice, the impresario, Chinchilla, is longing for both love and money amid the backstage drama of dancers, choreographers, designers and hangers-on. Autocratic, splendid and world-weary, he is the creator and destroyer of what happens on his stage and to his company. The play is divided into scenes marked 'Present' (taking place on a single afternoon in June 1914) 'Past' and 'Future'. Drama. Ira Lewis : 2 men. Interior It is one in the morning on a freezing New York night when struggling
novelist Harry Levine comes pounding furiously on the door of his
best friend, photographer Jake Manheim. Harry has all of a dollar
and a half in his pocket and Jake owes him a substantial amount of
money. Jake has even less money on hand than Harry but what is worse
he has not, he declares, read the manuscript of Harry's latest novel,
a work on which Harry's last hope is pitched. Or has he? Relentlessly,
obsessively, the desperate Harry probes the sardonic, world-weary
Jake until the truth is finally, revealed. Not only has Jake read
the book and found it to be a thinly disguised account of their lives,
loves and failures, but believes it to be a work of truly commercial
promise, and perhaps of genuine artistic merit. Fiercely jealous,
believing himself to have been potentially the writer Harry has indeed
become, the failed photographer attempts to destroy his friend's
one chance to rise. The final moments of the play explode as Harry
gains the courage to continue living and affirms his right to succeed. |