Comedy. Karen Ellison : 2 men. Unit Set Harry and Sam are old friends who like to pass the time posing outlandish
questions of one another. "If y'd had the choice would ya rather
love a woman whose top half was a fish and whose bottom half was
a woman or a woman whose top half was a woman and whose bottom half
was a fish?" Harry asks. "Good question," responds Sam. The questions
are off the wall, but they slowly reveal the two men's characters,
and allow them to take stock of each other while avoiding mundane,
but important, life matters. These life matters are woven into their
interchanges hints about their lives apart from one another. Harry
andhis wife, Marge, are having troubles. In the first scene, Harry
mentions he's sleeping on the couch; in the next he is sleeping in
his car; later he asks Sam if he can stay at his house; and after
that, he jokes that he is sleeping in another state. Sam is wrapped
up in New Age books, and tries to dispense their philosophy to enhance
the dialogues. But when Harry finds one of Sam's books in Marge's
possession, he realizes Sam is having an affair with Marge. Sam apologizes
and tries to explain, but the event drives them apart and they do
not speak for a time. The two are incomplete without each other however,
and the incident forces Harry to reconsider his chosen form of communication
(or lack thereof) and to work on his marriage and salvage it. In
the final scene, Harry and Sam meet by chance in their favorite bar
and reconcile, with Harry using an analogy of dunking Ding-Dong's
in what you thought was milk, but which turns out to be orange juice,
to say that you don't throw away years of friendship or marriage
because of one mistake, which is as much his fault as theirs. Play. Corinne Jacket. 3 men, 4 women. Exterior A famous and successful architect, Harry Harrison (after confinement,
for a mental breakdown), can no longer accept the restrictions and
second-rate standards of modern sòciery. He cannot even bear
to stay indoors and has, instead, set up his studio in a clearing
in the woods. As he labors on a new and absorbing project his life
is intertwined with others, family and friends, who, in various ways,
love and admire him. From this skillful, and often funny, interplay
of characters and action emerges an incisive and affecting indictment
of our contemporary way of life - capped by Harry's decision to destroy
his secret project, lest it too become merely a "container for people," rather
than the work of art it was intended to be. Play.
Ellen Dryden The Fenton family are gathered in their village chapel for the funeral
of their oldest member. Marian, who has moved away and is now an
outsider, is critical of the close-knit family; she is furious to
hear that her brother has given up university to remain at home.
After a final confrontation with Peter, the minister, she slips quietly
away as the family sing a hymn heartily in the chapel, which is now
beautifully decorated for the Harvest Festival. Play. John Bishop. 7 men, 4 women. Unit Set The place is Mansfield, Ohio, the time 1976 during the celebration
of the nation's bicentennial. As the play begins a police radio reports
the murders of the wife of a leading citizen and her lover. A team
headed by chief detective John Torski immediately swings into action.
Suspicion, at first, centres on the victim's husband, a ruthless
local businessman named Bim Miller, a classmate and former friend
of Torski's - until he too is murdered. Thereafter, the fascinating
trail of clues leads, step by step, through a series of revealing
interrogations which, in the end, piece together a chilling tale
of hidden crime, festering guilt, alienation and eventual retribution
- violently exacted by a tortured, long-lost son who has never forgiven
- or forgotten - the sins of his unloving parents. Mary Chase : Comedy 6M 6F 2 Interior sets One of the longest running comedies in Broadway and West End history, Harvey has
endeared generations of audiences with the relationship of the amiable
Elwood P Dowd and his best friend, the 6'1" tall white rabbit which
only he can see. Elwood's family are finally driven to committing
him into Chumley's Rest home for the mentally disturbed, and here
the fun really starts when Doctor Chumley becomes convinced he, too
can see Harvey and, believing that the rabbit is a spirit of good
fortune, attempts to charm him away from Elwood. The madness is catching
as everybody soon believes that Harvey is as large as life. Comedy. Mary Chase. 6 men, 6 women. 2 Interiors. When Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey,
a six-and-a-half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister,
Vera, has seen as much of his eccentric behaviour as she can tolerate.
She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter,
Myrtle Mae, and their family from future embarrassment. Problems
arise, however, when Vera herself is mistakenly assumed to be on
the fringe of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living
with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! The
doctors commit Vera instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out,
the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he
shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey it
seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange
influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the, end does
Vera realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all. Comedy/Drama. John Patrick 8 men, 1 woman. Interior The story tells of a wounded Scottish soldier whose last few weeks
of life, spent in a convalescent ward of a hospital in the Orient,
are changed by the sympathetic treatment his fellow patients try
to give him - and his stubborn rejection of this. The man's extreme
independence of spirit nearly wrecks the good intentions of those
who want to make him happy, but at last - particularly after he falls
in love with the nurse - he learns the great lesson of love for his
neighbour. Play. Eric Chappell | M4 (30s, 40s, middle age) F2 (30s). A study. Nigel Burke, aspiring playwright, is neurotic and agoraphobic and
hasn't written a word for three months, to the chagrin of his wife,
agent and friends. He is visited by the mysterious Potter, who knows
of Nigel's interest in Byron and gives him a goblet used by the poet.
Drinking from the goblet brings about subtle changes in Nigel's confidence
and manner-and then, out of nowhere, Byron himself appears! Haunted is
a flippant and exciting play from the author of Natural Causes. Mystery/Comedy. Jonathan Troy. 7 men, 5 women. Interior Dan and Lisa Morgan are honeymooning in England; and they visit an ancient castle with their tour group. Suspicious run high when they suddenly find themselves trapped in the forbidding Egyptian room of the castle, and are greeted by a voice announcing that he is the reincaknation of Osiris, and that they have been chosen as sacrifices to the god, Thoth. Their abductor has provided food and sleeping accommodations, but the first order of business is to protect themselves from his mad scheme (and perhaps each other), which leads to a series of chilling (and often 'funny) events. But terror mounts as the elusive Osiris strikes first one and then another - until it becomes evident that he must be one of them. The final outcome masks his true identity until the last possible moment, and will hold the audience breathless until the truth is known and the killer brought to justice. The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle Comedy.
David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr The ladies of the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild
Dramatic Society make yet another spectacle of themselves, complete
with their harassed producer and some extremely vigorous sound effects,
in this sinister, spine-chilling mystery of murder and mayhem that
is guaranteed to bring the house down, or at least a substantial
part of the set. Andrew Leslie, adapted from the novel by Shirley Jackson : Suspense 3M 4F Interior set Cut off from the outside world by its remote location and shunned
by all who know its forbidding and sinister reputation, Hill House
has remained empty and silent except for the daily visits of its
grumbling caretaker, Mrs. Dudley. Its isolation is broken by the
arrival of Dr. Montague, an investigator of supernatural phenomena
who has been granted a short lease by the present owner. His mission
is to delve into the morbid history of the house and to come to grips
with the occult forces which have made it uninhabitable for many
years. He is joined by three others, all unacquainted, but all having
their particular reasons for accepting Dr. Montague's invitation
to share his Hill House sojourn. Their visit begins with jovial informality,
but their sensibilities are soon jolted by strange and eerie occurrences.
As they struggle to disguise their mounting fears they are joined.
by Dr. Montague's wife and a friend, who have come to Hill House
for purposes of their own. They too are absorbed by the supernatural,
but their approach is via direct communication with the departed
spirits - a type of psychic research which is regarded fearfully
by Dr. Montague and which, as subsequent events bear out, brings
on a crisis in which the evil forces of Hill House are goaded to
a new and, for one of those present, fatal fury. Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years Drama. Emily Mann | 2 women. Interior. The original music composed by Baikida Carroll for the Broadway production is available. Write to Dramatist Play Services for particulars Having Our Say opens as 103-year-old Sadie and 101 year-old Bessie Delany welcome us into their Mount Vernon, New York, home. As they prepare a celebratory dinner in remembrance of their father's birthday, they take us on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of the American nation's history, recounting a fascinating series of events and anecdotes drawn from their rich family history and careers as pioneering African-American professionals. Their story is not simply African American history or women's history. It is our history, told through the eyes of two unforgettable women as they look not only into the past, but also ahead into the 21st century. Comedy. Noel Coward The Bliss family are ultra-Bohemian. One Saturday, they all casually
announce that they have invited guests for the weekend, and each
Bliss is furious. When the guests arrive, they suffer an uncomfortable
tea and then, after dinner, have to play a word game which only the
family understand. The evening is capped by a histrionic display
by the whole family which succeeds in sending their terrified guests
scuttling away by the first train the following morning. Period 1925 Comedy.
Eric Chappell Alec Firth is having an affair with his assistant, Liz, and has
organized his domestic life so that they can go to Spain on holiday
without making Alec's wife Maggie remotely suspicious. What could
possibly go wrong'? The answer: plenty. On the doorstep, in dizzyingly
rapid succession, are: Phoebe, Alec's mother, who has discharged
herself from her old people's home; Alec's son Jamie, with a broken
ankle; and his daughter Mandy, heavily pregnant and not planning
to marry the child's father ... |