The Late Christopher Bean Comedy An adaptation of Réné
Fauchois's Prenez Garde à la Peinture by Emlyn Williams The Haggetts extended asylum to a tubercular stranger, Christopher
Bean, fifteen years ago. The many paintings he left were used to
patch up leaks in the roof, etc. Only one portrait has been treasured
-that of Gwenny, their servant. Suddenly strangers call, announcing
the paintings are worth a fortune. These innocent folk become eaten
up with comical cupidity and do their best to get hold of Gwenny's
portrait. But Gwenny is Bean's widow, owner of the portrait, and
seventeen other pieces she rescued from the fire! The Late Edwina Black. Please see Edwina Black. Simon Gray England in the 1950s. Celia, desperate for distraction, fills her
time with tennis and gin; Charles, a pathologist is buried in his
work among the living and the dead; and their gifted son, Holly,
is having his first lessons on the piano and in life. The Late
Middle Classes is a darkly funny study of the conflict between
emotional needs and family restraints. Its premiere production was
directed by Harold Pinter with a cast including Harriet Walter, James
Fleet, Nicholas Woodeson and Angela Pleasence. Comedy. Norman Robbins Terry Early's announcement that he and Susan intend to marry rouses
the fury of his overbearing mother Alice. Alice's sudden demise,
following her handling of a faulty electric kettle, promises a peaceful
solution. But Alice as a vengeful ghost is even more formidable than
as a live wife and mother. Much drama ensues in which both families
are involved before Alice's ashes can be persuaded to lie quiet in
her urn. Play. Corinne Jacket. 3 women. Unit Set The scene is a beach house on the Rhode Island shore, where Molly,
recently widowed, is enjoying a Labor , Day reunion with her two
daughters. While Laurie, the married daughter, bakes a cake, Molly
and Kate, the older but still' single daughter, picnic on the beach,
reminiscing about the years they shared with the late . Malachai,
and pondering the changes his death has brought to their lives. Kate
wants her mother to sell the house and move near her in the city;
while Molly picks at her daughter, who had shown such youthful promise,
for accepting a routine secretarial job. Laura, living in a St. Louis
suburb with her husband and young children, seems to be the most
secure and settled of the three, but, as the disputes and revelations
multiply, it is made clear that she too remains in thrall to the
memory of her father. In the end all three come to recognize their
shared challenge: to redefine the past in terms of the new and separate
responsibilities which each must now face; and to achieve an individuality
beyond the dependence instilled in them, for better or worse, by
the powerful male figure now gone from their lives. Drama/Comedy A. R. Gurney. 2 men, 2 women. Exterior Austin has spent his entire life convinced that something terrible
is bound to happen to him. One night, at a party, overlooking Boston
harbour, he has the pleasure of rekindling a romance begun almost
30 years ago with Ruth. Now a multiple divorcee, Ruth's personal
life is in such turmoil that mutual friends look to Austin as Ruth's
last shot at normality. At the same time, these friends are hoping
the wildly unpredictable Ruth will help loosen Austin from the grip
of years of depression and lifelessness. Comically, and sometimes
painfully, these two people rediscover each other and themselves
while a bevy of free-spirited other guests rally behind them and
remind them of the infinite possibilities that life holds, should
one only choose to pursue them. Laugh? I Nearly Went To Miami! Comedy. Miles Tredinnick : M4 (30, 40) F3 (20, 30, 60). A sitting room. A zany, fast-moving comedy of confusion. When Tom, an Elvis fanatic,
and Alice his fiancee are unable, due to fog, to fly to Miami for
an Elvis Convention, they arrive back at Tom's flat to find they
have inadvertently picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport and
are now in possession of hall 'a million dollars. Confusions arise
when Auntie arrives with a bag containing $20,000 as does Frankie,
a thug working for the owner of the suitcase dollars, and it takes
Inspector Hendy to sort everything out. Comedy.
Christopher Durang In the first section ("Laughing Wild") the Woman enters and
embarks on an increasingly frenetic (and funny) recital of the perils
and frustrations of daily life in urban America - waiting in line,
rude taxi drivers, inane talk shows, and the selfish people who block
the aisles in supermarkets. In particular she is incensed by a man
who prevented her from buying a can of tuna fish by standing. in
her way-and whom she attacked in a fit of pique. In the second monologue
("Seeking Wild") the Man appears, and while the subjects on
which he expounds (nuclear waste; the rigidity of the Catholic Church,
particularly in sexual matters; the threat of AIDS) may be broader
in context, he also dwells on an incident in a supermarket, when
a strange woman hit him over the head in the tuna fish aisle. In
the final portion of the play ("Dreaming Wild") the two protagonists
meet at last, and re-enact the supermarket incident via six varying
interpretations; tell us more fully of their overlapping dreams;
and then launch into an explosively funny parody of a talk show.
In the end the two find an accommodation of sorts as they come together
at the Harmonic Convergence in Central Park - both still hoping to
instil a sense of optimism and purpose in their lives, but both still
sceptical that they will succeed in doing so. Comedy. Victor Lucas Strange but very funny happenings are occurring at the faded manor
of Creeching Cheyney in Hampshire where a nicely assorted group of
people are assembled on Christmas Eve to hear the reading of a will
which makes it a condition that they live in the place a year before
they get their legacies. There are also some unforeseen guests including
a skeleton rattling chains and a ghost or two! Vera Caspary and George Sklar, based on the novel by Vera Caspary. When Detective Mark McPherson first falls under the spell of Laura,
he believes he has fallen in love with a ghost. He has come to her
former flat to investigate the circumstances of her murder. From
her portrait, her letters and her personal effects he builds up an
image of a tantalisingly attractive and real woman. When she actually
turns up in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, it becomes obvious
that it was not she who was murdered, and a web of complications
begins to weave its way into McPherson's life. Well-handled mystery
and suspense assured this play's success both on Broadway and in
the subsequent film version. Drama. Horton Foote. 5 men, 8 women. Unit Set Laura Dennis lives with Lena Abernathy in Harrison, Texas. Her mother
left Harrison years ago, after her father killed his cousin then
died when Laura was very young. Writing to her mother, who now lives
in far away South Dakota, Laura is convinced that once her mother
realises how grown up and ready for the world Laura is, she will
want Laura to visit, or better yet, come live with her. Laura's uncle
comes to visit once in a while; supplying the much needed money for
Laura's upbringing and trying to care the best he can though he really
doesn't want to be a big part of her life. Laura loves her home in
Harrison and the woman who cares for her, but is restless. A high
school senior, she is discovering herself, her burgeoning sexuality
and wondering about life ahead; all these things are confusing and
exciting. A polite, sweet girl, Laura also hears stories about her
family's past: why her mother left and her father killed a man. She
discovers an acquaintance across the street, Velma, is really a distant
cousin, which both intrigues and repels her as Velma is a dependent,
sometimes raving alcoholic, yet she may know the history of her family
no one else will tell her. Over the course of several weeks, while
Laura waits for an answer from her mother, she learns of her mother's
infidelities and her father's jealousies. Parallel lives and stories
also fill Laura's world as she begins dating Stewart, who abruptly
drops her to go to visit his old girlfriend who has moved to Atlanta.
Another classmate, Harvey, seems also involved with that girl when
he is accused of making her pregnant; the reason she moved away.
Denying he is the father and revealing any number of the boys could
have been, he is forbidden out of the house since the girl's father
has threatened to kill him. A quiet, sensitive boy, Harvey has expressed
interest in Laura and wanted to ask her to the school dance. He is
forbidden to do so, not because of past indiscretions or present
threats, but because, as is finally revealed to him by his adoptive
parents, he is Laura's half-brother by her mother and her father's
cousin, the one her father killed. Shaken by all that's happened
to him Harvey disobeys his parents and takes a walk in town. In front
of the movie house he is shot and killed by the pregnant girl's father.
Laura hears the news about Harvey's death and her connection to him,
just after she receives a letter from her mother saying she wants
nothing to do with her. Feeling she lost her mother, and a brother
she never knew well, Laura is devastated. Yet, she tries to find
something in the day to sustain her. She accepts what help she can
get from those who love her through what is now a crossroads in her
young, now saddened life. (in Scotland
Plays) -
IainCrichton Smith The story of a man who cannot, or will not, get out of bed one morning
for 'metaphysical reasons'. As the day progresses he is visited by
his brother, neighbours, doctor, Death and Immanuel Kant ... |