A.R. Gurney. 3 men, 2 women. Unit set
John is an established older playwright recovering from a bout with
cancer. His latest work, which he views as his best, if possibly
his last, has gained the interest of a major regional theatre, the
Shubert Organization, and a possible Hollywood star. Dennis, the
bright young director to whom John has given the play, shows up on
the Labor Day holiday at the writer's house in rural Connecticut
to ask for essential changes. Dennis feels the play has been adversely
affected by the playwright's illness, becoming too inverted and sentimental.
John's family has gathered for the holiday, and when they find out
the play is primarily about them, they also criticize the enterprise.
It is soon obvious that the playwright - and aging father - doesn't
really know either his family or himself. LABOR DAY reveals the age-old
conflict between art and life, and the hard labour it takes the reconcile
the two. In the end, life wins, hands down.
ISBN: 0-8222-1685-X
Comedy. J. B. Priestley
M6 (young, 40, middle-age, 50) F3 (20, 40s). A living-room.
George is apparently a respectable businessman with quiet domestic
hobbies. His daughter is bemoaning the monotony of their suburban
round at Sunday supper but to refute this George makes the startling
revelation that he has for years belonged to a gang of counterfeiters.
His wife pooh-poohs the story but a different aspect is thrown upon
it by the arrival of Inspector Stack, whose investigations of a gang
have led him to George! Written in 1933
ISBN 0 573 01221 0
Comedy. Georgina Reid
F9 (20s, 40s, elderly). A school staff room.
Gibraltar School was founded as a private school for young ladies
by the two dear old Misses Pye, now deceased. The long-suffering
teachers have their lives made miserable not only by their pupils
but also by the present headmistress, Miss Rowe, known universally
as 'Hard Rowe'. They resign themselves to the fact that there is
very little they can do about it, but they find help coming from
a very unexpected quarter indeed.
ISBN 0 573 13002 7
Play. Paul Zindel. 5 women. Interior.
The setting is the lavish reception room of the new multi-million
dollar Alamo Theatre, regional theatre complex which has grown from
a small operation in a converted church to one of the glories of
Texas culture. As the action begins we learn that the leadership
of Dede Cooper, founder and artistic director of the Alamo, is being
challenged, and the Chairman of the Board, a lady of great wealth
and lust for power, is scheming to replace Dede with a fading Hollywood
star. As the hour of the decisive board meeting nears, Dede and her
supporters maneuver to outflank the opposition, and as the crisis
point is reached the verbal battles and shocking revelations build
to fever pitch. In the end no one is left unscathed, and while the
insurrection is put down the scars of battle will, it is clear, be
long in healing.
ISBN: 0-8222-0623-4
Edward Percy and Reginald Denham : Thriller 1M 6F Interior set
Based on a famous murder which actually took place at the end of
the last century and set in the 1880s, this play has become one of
the most successful and most frequently performed in the modern repertoire.
An eerie atmosphere of mystery is evoked in a dark, lonely house
on the marshes of the Thames estuary. The characters, presented with
great psychological realism and the strong vein of earthy comedy
invest the play with a liveliness unusual for such a genuinely horrifying
murder play.
Lucy Fiske, ex-actress, lives in a remote house with her companion,
Ellen Creed. Ellen, who has devoted her life to her sisters, Louisa
and Emily (simple-minded maiden ladies), invites them to visit her.
These eccentric persons make themselves at home, but when Miss Fiske
reminds Ellen it is time for them to go back, they are unwilling
to do so. Miss Fiske and Ellen quarrel, and Ellen prepares to send
her sisters to London. She has, however, secretly told them that
they shall always remain with her. The sisters go for a drive, though
Miss Fiske thinks they are leaving for good; the servants have been
sent away (by Ellen), and Ellen and Miss Fiske are left alone together.
On the return of the sisters Miss Fiske is gone - on a trip, Ellen
says - and all three sisters settle down in what they regard as their
own home. Meantime, Albert, nephew of the Creed sisters, who had
paid a secret visit and got money from Miss Fiske, turns up again.
He has robbed a bank and determines to hide with his aunts. Learning
that Miss Fiske is away, and suspecting something, he pieces together
the evidence. With the help of the maid Lucy, he lays a trap for
Ellen, by reproducing in pantomime, in the moonlit living room the
scene of Ellen's murder of Miss Fiske. Ellen, who faints when she
sees what she imagines is the ghost of her victim, plays a courageous
but losing game. Knowing that Albert and Lury realize what she has
done, she plans for the security of her sisters, and gives up to
the police.
ISBN:
0-8222-0624-2
ISBN: 0 85676 104 4
Comedy. Lillian Garrett-Groag. 7 men, 3 women. Interior.
An hilarious farce about an imagined meeting in Paris, 1897, between
the famous theatre divas Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse. The two
actresses - who were the biggest and most temperamental stars of
their day - were scheduled to perform back-to-back productions of
the play, The Lady of the Camellias, by Alexandre Dumas. Duse's
production will be performing in Bernhardt's theatre, and the two
women are in their own dressing rooms at the theatre, though they
have yet to meet. The members of both acting companies expect huge
fireworks between the two grand dames, and do what they can to avoid
being in the way. Into this tense situation comes Ivan, a young Russian
anarchist who threatens to blow up everyone in the theatre - especially
the two divas - unless his comrades are released from prison. Bernhardt
and Duse must meet and greet each other for the first time as they
are taken hostage by the armed Ivan, yet remain the ultimate theatre
professionals. Ivan's ranting aside, the anarchist seems to know
an awful lot about the theatre, raising suspicions amongst the actors.
Indeed, Ivan turns out to be a new breed of theatre person, someone
who the actors arid playwright deride as useless and as a passing
fad: a director. In a salute to the community of actors, Benoit Constant
Coquelin; who is playing Cyrano De Bergerac, sneaks into the melée,
and, in full costume, challenges Ivan to a duel. A rapier is no match
for a gun and bomb, so it is theatrical dialogue they all must use
to try and convince Ivan to let them go. When word arrives that the
authorities will not trade the lives of even such famous actors fnr
their prisoners, Sarah, feeling sorry for Ivan, offers to give him
a letter of recommendation to a theatre in a far-off country and
show him how to escape through her secret passageway. As the other
actors leave the stage, Bernhardt and Duse are left alone. They drop
their facades and speak to each other as equals, for just a moment,
before they return to glory before the crowds.
ISBN: 0-8222-1501-2
Comedy. Tudor Gates
M3 (middle-age, 50s) F7 (21, 30s, 40s, middle-age), with doubling.
1 male voice. A drawingroom, a duplex apartment, an apartment.
In Ladies Who Lunch, commissioned for the BT Biennial 1998,
Amelia, Rachel and Joane, wives of three of the world's richest men,
meet regularly to do charity work. In order to increase the charity's
turnover Amelia thinks up a scheme to play the stock market exploiting
the information gained secretly from their spouses business dealings.
When the husbands find out, the resulting showdown is not the walk-over
they think it will be ...
ISBN 0 573 01853 7