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(in German Plays) D. Rust - Trans
R. Riggs A compelling montage of scenes from life in contemporary Germany,
composed of fragments of youth culture and office jargon mixed with
glimpses of personal crisis. Royal Court staged reading 1995. Play: Richard Greenberg. : 1F - Unit set In three monologues, one actress plays three women. First we meet
Jenny, an established left-wing columnist whose newspaper is in the
throes of a takeover. No thanks to her editor, with whom Jenny used
to sleep and who promised he'd be able to save her job, she's tossed
out after 14 years of service. No longer considering herself young
enough to start life over, she reluctantly tails upon the charity
of her grandmother who lets her stay at a leaky family cottage on
a forgotten island off the coast of Maine. There she meets an (at
first) overly friendly handyman whom by the play's end we find out
isn't so bad after all. She also gets angry enough about the way
she's been treated to write a book of essays which ultimately sweeps
her back onto the national scene, 'and then some. In the second monologue,
we meet Jenny's ne'er-do-well sister Claudia, an Upper West Side
bohemian and failed opera singer whose life has been a string of
get- ich-quick schemes and disastrous sublets (both in terms of real
estate and relationships). "My future," she says, "is in break fast" -meaning
she intends to open a breakfast - only restaurant in Jenny's cottage.
This starts a series of answering machine arguments between Claudia
and her sister as they vie for Jennys home and expose past wounds
that have never healed between them. By the end of Claudia's scene
she too gets tossed out of her familiar surroundings when the landlord
finds out she's been renting illegally. In the play's last scene,
the womens grandmother recounts how she's secretly saved up enough
money to take care of both her granddaughters, if only they could
do something she respected. The doorbell rings, and all three are
about to get together for a bumpy evening of settling their scores. Comedy. Jean Kerr. 4 men, 10 women, girls. Interior A charming young girl comes to live in the household of an elderly
priest. Jenny, 18, is the precise opposite of the kind of smart,
sophisticated, young miss that puzzles and exasperates Father Moynihan.
The plot is concerned with the priest's clumsy endeavours to make
Jenny attractive to the boys. Studying feminine magazines and getting
pointers on feminine psychology and new fashions, he is so successful
that he nearly overplays his hand. A romance runs through the play,
which ends in the engagement of Jenny to an attractive, somewhat
older man who, trying hard to be fair and give Jenny a chance to
meet eligible youngsters, almost risks losing her. But this man had
been Jenny's choice from the first. The play is made doubly amusing
by several young girls and boys, all of whom manage to make Jenny "hep." Or
rather, so they think, since Jenny remains to the end a simple and
attractive girl, and her union with the man she loves is a proper
solution to all the plots and plans of the various characters. Comedy. James Sherman : 4 men, 2 women. Interior Sarah and Bob, expecting their first child, are hosting a birthday
party for Sarah's mother. Sarah's brother, Joel, arrives early to
tell Sarah some news he's put off telling anybody: he's gay. Joel's
date, Randy, is not the nice Jewish girl paediatrician Joel led his
family to believe, but a nice Jewish boy paediatrician. Joel, divorced
and about to enter a custody battle over his two sons, has picked
this evening to come out of the closet to his parents, especially
since he knows his homosexuality will be brought up in court. Joel
and Sarah's parents, Abe and Miriam, arrive, looking forward to meeting
Joel's new girlfriend. When the doorbell rings, however, Joel chickens
out and won't let Randy in. The two argue and Randy leaves. Explaining
to his family that Randy is painfully shy and too nervous to come
in, Bob volunteers to talk to "her" and goes outside. Moments later,
the bell rings again and Joel opens the door to Bob - dressed in
drag, pretending to be Randy, and the hilarity begins. Abe and Miriam
instantly like Randy, and the party, including the ruse, is a great
success, ending with Sarah going into labour. Act Two is eight days
later With Sarah and Bob hosting their new son's birth. There's nervous
bickering about how many bagels to cut, where to put the chairs and
who is coming to the ceremony. The mohel, Dr. Rosen, arrives and
completely surprises Joel. Dr. Rosen, it turns out, is Joel's boyfriend,
Randy! The tension builds and for Abe and Miriam's benefit, Bob again
dresses as Randy (the girlfriend), only this time he must do double
duty as himself as well. The humorous antics keep them all busy but
when a bagel is dropped under a table, and Randy goes to retrieve
it, it is Bob who comes back out. The truth exposed, Joel admits
his secret to Abe and Miriam, who are relieved. They knew all the
time, and they're just glad one of their children ended up with a
doctor! Now at ease, everyone vows to help Joel win his custody fight,
and when Randy identifies the judge as an old paramour, they all
know they have little to worry about and can enjoy life as an open,
loving family. Christopher Marlowe The payments made by Malta to the Turks have fallen in arrears,
and the Governor decrees that the entire sum should be paid by the
Jews, or they will be forced to accept Christianity. When Barabas
objects to this, his goods are seized and his house converted into
a nunnery. Barabas embarks on an elaborate plan of revenge, but events
do not go entirely his way ... First performed c.1589. Comedy. David French. 6 men, 3 women. Two Interiors. The play begins on the set of "The Care and Treatment of Roses," an
ambitious work by a budding young local writer, which is now in final
rehearsal by a provincial Canadian theatre company. Animosity has
already developed between the featured actress, a fading beauty who
has worked extensively in the US and hopes to make a comeback, and
her leading man, a local celebrity who has been fearful of venturing
afield and who resents his co-star's haughty airs. Among the others
present are a veteran character actor who cannot remember his lines;
the male juvenile, who attends a wedding before opening night and
turns up drunk; a tyrannical stage manager; an eager, if overly diplomatic
young director; and the novice playwright, who radiates quiet desperation.
Whatever can go wrong does so but the show, despite all, goes on,
even though the New York producer who has promised to attend never
arrives, and the surprisingly good (if somewhat sententious) opening
night notices set the cast members at each other's throats - all
lending special credence to a remark by one of the actors who, when
the rattled director implores his cast to behave like adults, replies: "We're
not adults, we're actors." |