 |
|
Comedy. Harold Brooke and
Kay Bannerman Junior Minister David Thornton finds that his daughter's wedding
photographs include another set of photos showing David in a compromising
situation with a prostitute. Threatened with blackmail, David offers
his resignation, but his father-in-law comes up with a scheme which
brings the lady herself to the house, indignant at what she considers
an insult to her profession. A revised plan proves satisfactory to
everyone, not least father-in-law. Doug Post : Thriller 6M 3F Flexible staging A poetic thriller about a would-be poet and part-time librarian
named Sara McKeon whose lover of ten weeks, David Ames, is found
dead one hot August morning. It appears that David, owner of an expensive
art-deco restaurant, may have been involved in several illicit activities
including kidnapping, rape and murder. Unable to believe that her
lover was a killer, Sara begins her own investigation of the come
and is led deeper and deeper through the urban labyrinth into the
contemporary underworld. As the detective story moves forward in
time, scenes from the love affair are interspersed back to the moment
when Sara and David first met. Finally the plots converge and Sara
finds herself face to face with the person who murdered her beloved. Ayub Khan-Din Children of a Pakistani father who is clinging to his Asian traditions
and an English mother with a laissez-faire attitude, the Khans
each try to find their own way of growing up in 1970s Salford. The
play, first seen in London at the Royal Court in 1996, is both funny
and involving, tender and political. 'Full of intelligence, irresistible
laughter and serious promise' Sunday Times. East Lynne or Never Called Me Mother! Melodrama with music.
Brian J. Burton, based on the novel by Mrs Henry Wood Lady Isabel is cunningly seduced by the villain into believing that the clandestine meetings of her husband and another woman are for romance rather than business. In despair, she abandons home and children, only to come back in later years disguised as a governess to her own children and to die in her husband's arms in heartbroken penitence and forgiveness. Period Victorian Drama. Will Scheffer. 3 men, 1 woman. Unit set. It is Good Friday. Matthew and Wilma have just set up home in Prattsville,
Kansas: Wilma had been burning churches in Oklahoma forcing the couple
to flee across the prairie states as felons. Matthew is hopeful he
can make things right for them in Kansas with a new home and a steady
job. Enter Herman, a violin-playing plumber with enormous feet and
angel-like qualities, who fixes the young couple's sink, only to
discover a beautiful Easter egg clogging the pipes. Wilma, who believes
the Blessed Virgin is leading her to a wonderful occasion that will
happen on Easter Day, takes the egg as a sign that she is pregnant.
Wilma thanks Herman by washing his feet with her hair. Meanwhile,
the town handyman, Zaddock Pratt, has been having religious visions
of his own. He also picks up cable TV in his brain, thanks to a steel
plate, and sporadically shouts out incoming news, weather reports
and sitcom theme songs. Upon meeting Matthew, Zaddock recognizes
him as one the of the individuals responsible for a church burning
in their area. Matthew takes Zaddock hostage and reveals the story
of his and Wilma's first baby who died in childbirth, ironically
named Herman, and of Wilmds quest for redemption. When Matthew returns
to the cabin - with Zaddock - Wilma attempts to introduce him to
Herman the plumber, but Matthew can't see him. Matthew confronts
Wilma with her delusion and
"shoots" Herman, forcing Wilma to relive the event that was the cause
of their estrangement and of her intense pain: It is a catharsis
long overdue, and now Easter Day is here and Wilma and Matthew must
face an uncertain future and begin to rebuild their lives. Drama. August Strindberg, translated by Michael Meyer. 3 men, 3 women. Unit set Passion play in three acts taking place on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve. Elis Heyst, a schoolteacher, carries a heavy burden: his father is in prison for embezzling trust funds, his young sister Eleonora is in a mental hospital, and he and his family are awaiting a creditor to take house and furniture. Eleonora, an angelic, Christ-like mystic, escapes from the hospital and returns home. By her faith in the redemptive power of suffering she helps the family to bear its shame. On Good Friday the Heysts fear that they are on the brink of ruin, but Easter Eve brings them hope: the creditor forgives the father's debts; and there are signs that the winter ice has begun to thaw, heralding the coming of spring. Comedy. Richard Greenberg. 3 men, 3 women. Interior & Exterior. The play begins in a trendy Manhattan restaurant, where Stephen,
a young architect, and his best friend, Drew, a Soho artist, are
lunching. At an adjacent table are Phoebe, a Wall Street investment
banker, and her brother, Peter, a discouraged television producer
who, as he confides to his sister, has AIDS. Stephen is attracted
to Phoebe, and Drew (who is gay) is intrigued by Peter and, after
several raucous (and very funny) episodes involving a bottle-throwing
bag lady at still another table, and a long-suffering waitress, the
two couples strike up an acquaintance, which quickly ripens into
friendship. In Act Two, a month later, they, along with Ellen, the
waitress from the restaurant and a would-be actress, and May, the
bag lady, assemble at Stephen's beach house, determined to make some
sense out of their lives and to overcome the alienation and sense
of purposelessness which they all share. Inevitably, this leads to
a series of very funny yet affecting incidents in which various relationships,
non-relationships, mistaken motives, and often shaky alliances are
cleverly set forth and examined. In the end, sobered but still game,
the two couples, one heterosexual, one homosexual, who formed as
they play began, have managed to remain together, well aware that
their best hopes may never be realized, but bravely raising a toast
to the "accidental happiness" which, with luck, may yet come their
way. Comedy. Frank Vickery A year ago Vi Davies suffered a stroke and her son Howard gave up
his college course to nurse her. Vi is now capable of looking after
herself but cannot let go of her son. Howard finds this situation
extremely difficult, not least because he has a secret - he is gay,
and has been seeing Bernard Fowler, Vi's insurance agent, for some
time. A caravan holiday does nothing to relieve the tension ... The Eccentricities of a Nightingale Play. Tennessee Williams : M5 (young, middle-age, 60s) F5 (young, middle-age, 60s). A small square with fountain, three interiors. The action takes place in Glorious Hill, Mississippi, shortly before
the First World War. Alma Winemiller, a sensitive and lonely young
woman, has become increasingly restive and disturbed by the fear
that she will remain a spinster. Hemmed in by her stern minister
father, and her deranged mother, she makes a final, and almost desperate
attempt to win the man of her choice - a young doctor whose social-climbing
mother frowns on his attachment to Alma. The play centres on the
complex relationship between these two; her touching attempts to
sway his emotions; and his uncertainty as to where his heart should
lead him. In the end there is to be only one truly beautiful moment
between them - for neither can break the ties of family and position
which draw them apart and which, inevitably, defeats Alma's hopes
for a new and fuller life. Ecstasy : Mike Leigh : 3m 3f. Black comedy. Single interior set. Jean works in a garage and consoles herself with drink and perfunctory
sex. Jean's insistent neighbour, Dawn, and Dawn's Irish labourer
husband, Mick, and Mick's spineless mucker, Len, all join her in
a funny, drunken, sad celebration of their mutual affection and bleak
lives. 'Unmistakably Leighish - authentic, excruciating and true'
Time Out. Play. Brian Clemens After her disappearance several years ago, Emma finds that her memory
is damaged; there is much she does not recognise or understand. Why
does she appear familiar with certain Russian phrases; why has she
such a horror of a harmless silver bell, of a portrait on the wall,
of knives? Is she, in fact, Emma Cranwell? Behind these questions
looms a menacing mystery which finally erupts into violence and horror.
Period 1900 Play. Meredith Oakes In publishing, little companies are often gobbled up by big ones. This scenario faces the staff of Footnotes in History, who find their old-fashioned magazine amalgamated into a large publishing consortium. What will happen to pedantic William, who has edited the magazine all his life? How does his long-suffering secretary feel about being rationalised'? And does the new company satirically represented by designer 'image consultants' - really want William's magazine to continue? Play.
David Mamet This is a brutal, probing, and controversial story of a man set
morally adrift in a corrupt and violent world. Leaving a wife and
marriage in which he finds no fulfilment, Edmond sets out to find
sex, adventure and companionship but ultimately finds the meaning
of his existence in a world where there seems to be no concern for
others, only selfishness and self interest. What Edmond experiences
is a nightmare odyssey through the underworld of New York City. Christopher Marlowe Marlowe's political tragedy presents the dangers of thoughtless
desire and calculated ambition. Edward's infatuation with the low-born
Frenchman, Gaveston enrages his court and family. His nephew, Mortimer,
raises an army to capture and kill Gaveston. Edward takes on another
favourite, so Mortimer crosses to France, where Edward's wife and
son are living, to gather support for an invasion. Edward is eventually
defeated and held captive until Mortimer gives secret orders for
his assassination. After his father's defeat, Edward III rules under
the protection of Mortimer, but when he learns of Mortimer's part
in his father's murder, he has Mortimer executed and his mother imprisoned.
First performed in 1592. Drama. Robert Morley and Noel Langley. 10 men, 4 women. 6 Interior. The story tells of an ambitious and unscrupulous man who is shown at various periods during his spectacular career. His life is motivated, to a great extent, by devotion to his only son, who turns out to be a failure in the end. A brilliant series of dramatic character portraits and an episodic play of broad sweep and compelling power. Drama. Milton Geiger. 6 men, 3 women. Unit Set This work is filled with episode and circumstance as it tells of a great Shakespearean actor whose own life was as profound a tragedy as any of the dramas he played. As a narrative, Edwin Booth shows a ranting, hard-drinking, insane and imposing actor, Junius Brutus Booth, the elder, being cared for on his tours by his small son, Edwin. Father tells son he will never become and actor, for he is too slight of stature and too lacking in a grand manner. Nevertheless, the lad is determined to follow the stage. As an actor he feels he has two handicaps, the great reputation of his late father and his own notion of how Shakespeare should be played. Perhaps because he isn't big enough to yell convincingly, he thinks acting should be quiet and almost casually natural. The stage is so arranged with the dressing table, fragments of Shakespeare's settings and a rocking-chair which symbolises a home anywhere, that changes of place and time can be instantaneous. And so it is possible for us to follow Booth through the remainder of his life and to his death at 16 Gramercy Park. Comedy. Willy Russell Frank is a tutor of English whose disillusioned outlook on life
drives him to the bottle. Rita is a hairdresser hungry to find some
meaning to life. With Frank as her tutor Rita embarks on an Open
University course and her education process begins. The effects are
both amusing and serious as her fresh, intuitive approach becomes
clouded and stifled as she grapples with the problem of a formal
education, while Frank also learns something - to believe in himself
again. Play. William Dinner and William Morum The day before Edwina Black's funeral, Inspector Martin calls to
interview her husband Gregory, her companion Elizabeth and her housekeeper,
Ellen Gregory has long endured the domination of his wealthy wife,
but is in love with Elizabeth. It is revealed Edwina died from arsenic.
Gregory and Elizabeth quarrel bitterly. However Ellen confesses that
Edwina poisoned herself: with vindictive spite she devised a suicide
which would serve to incriminate Gregory and Elizabeth and so destroy
them. |