Laurie Lee. Adapted for the stage by James
Roose-Evans Poet Laurie Lee was born in 1914 in a small Cotswold village and
grew up during a time of change when the rural traditions of past
centuries were being swept aside in the path of twentiethcentury
progress. His autobiography Cider with Rosie, a poetic evocation
of his childhood has become a modern classic both in the United Kingdom
and in America and is here imaginatively adapted for the stage by
James Roose-Evans. (in Cinzano)
: Ludmila Petrushevskaya. Trans S. Mulrine Three young men drink themselves into a stupor to escape their drab
lives and family responsibilities. But their humanity shines through
... It can be performed with its companion piece for women, Smirnova's
Birthday. The collection of plays in Cinzano have earned
the author the accolade: "female Chekhov". Comedy. W. Somerset Maugham Arnold Champion-Cheney has never forgotten or ceased to resent his
mother's elopement. He is a politician with a beautiful young wife-
Elizabeth - in whom he has a proprietary pride. Home from their long
exile come his mother, Lady Kitty, and her lover. With Arnold's father
living nearby, the visit seems fraught with embarrassment, but instead
becomes extremely amusing ... Play. Stephen Poliakoff Leonard, a disc jockey, is becoming increasingly disgusted with
the soul-destroying falsity of his job as he manipulates the fantasies
of his teenage listeners. He tries to force Nicola, a contestant
in an imbecilic competition, into a realisation of the stupidity
of the whole set-up. Nicola's fantasy world is shattered. Our last
glimpse of her hints at the viciousness in which the inducement of
such false dreams may result. Clandestine On the Morning Line Play. Josh Greenfeld. 5 men, 2 women. Interior. Clandestine
is a play with a strongly written central
character, a middle-aged, thrice-married woman who operates a cheap
lunchroom with a bachelor brother. While she is reuniting a pregnant
young woman with the young man responsible, she is charmingly passing
out her ignorant notions about history and geography. But what she
may lack in facts, she makes up in amazing intuition about life.
It's obvious that with her involved, everything had to end happily. Play. Nigel Williams In a decrepit, thoroughly vandalised, South London schoolroom a group of foul-mouthed boys are awaiting the arrival of a teacher who never seems likely to appear. A sort of tribal ritual is self-imposed by the group, forming a natural hierarchy, and events culminate in a fierce fight which is interrupted by the arrival of a master. NB. The play contains explicit language. Helen Edmundson In the 17th century Cromwell moved English troops into a war-weary
Ireland forcing the local inhabitants onto barren land as the English
gentry took over their homes. The cruelty of this racial persecution
is brought into sharp focus through the tragic love of an Englishman
for a local Irish woman. 'A finely written play, full of sharp
observation' Independent on Sunday. Drama. Arthur Laurents. 5 men, 4 women, 1 small girl. Unit Set. The play is, in a sense, a fantasy - in which a multitude of times
and experiences are telescoped into a single moment. The entire life
of a young woman is shown during the course of the play. Atkinson,
in the NY Times, describes the heroine of the play: "She is Virginia,
the afflicted woman, who cannot make peace with life, and is tormented
with memories of the past. She is trying to find a clearing in the
woods; she is trying to find peace in her past and find the place
where the pain began. In the persons of other actors. Mr. Laurents
shows Virginia at various stages in her career, beginning with childhood,
and including the several men in her life, beginning with her father.
They are phantoms from the past. Until the final scene of release,
they weave in and out of her mind in various phases of conflict,
failure and misunderstanding." In some of the finest writing he has
done, Mr. Laments takes Virginia through her entire emotional life
until, through her own courage and the understanding love of a young
scientist, she arrives at knowledge and acceptance of her own nature. Comedy. Georgina Reid James Martin's moral upbringing is suddenly shattered by the encampment
of the Briggs family in his now disused Methodist chapel. Uncharacteristically
James decides to try their way of life by moving in with them. However,
his attempts to solve the Briggs' problems have unexpected and often
hilarious results! Young Julie Briggs' honest if unconventional,
appraisal of James' congregation forces him to reconsider his own
career. A highly entertaining comedy, rich with comic pathos. Mystery/Farce. Charles Marowitz. 6 men, 3 women. Interior. The action begins at a stately home in rural England, where Colonel
Calvarley, the lord of the manor, suddenly expires (or seems to)
after sipping a glass of (apparently poisoned) Sauterne. His body
is discovered by Hannah, the housekeeper and Harold, the houseboy,
which leads to the arrival of Inspector Farcus of Scotland Yard and
his assistant, Poets, two working-class types who have little sympathy
for the decadent life styles of the landed gentry. After putting
the Colonel in the freezer for safekeeping, the Inspector sets about
investigating the circumstances of his death, which brings into suspicion
all the others at the manor. There is Alan Hobbiss, the Colonel's
business partner (who stands to inherit their equestrian outfitting
business); his wife, Berenice (played by a male actor, and smitten
with Harold, the houseboy); Charles Appley, the Colonel's legal advisor
(who is carrying on with Lady Calvarley); and Lady Calvarley herself
(who is hardly dismayed by the Colonel's apparent demise). As their
investigation progresses, Farcus and Potts are surprised to find
that the Colonel was given to whipping Harold (to their mutual pleasure)
and that Harold, despite his cockney accent, is actually a well-born
son of privilege trying to escape his upper-class background. And,
as it turns out, the Colonel is not actually dead, although, in the
second act, after his shocking reappearance, he does manage to expire
for real, after a sip of (this time) properly poisoned brandy. The
second investigation doesn't fare much better than the first as Inspector
Farcus' credentials are called into question; Charles and Lady Calvarley
decamp for Spain; Potts takes up with Harold, who decides to accept
his inheritance after all; and Farcus himself is persuaded to stay
on at the manor by Hannah - who turns out to be the Colonel's possible
murderer, his secret lover, and, ironically, his heir as well. |