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Eugene O'Neill : Drama 3M 2F Interior set A startlingly honest autobiographical piece written by O'Neill at
a time of acute psychological stress. Set in 1912, the action takes
place in the living room of a summer house, in the space of one day,
from morning until midnight, we are given the tortured family background
which created the elusive yet magnificent talent of the author. The
characters come to life with an almost frightening fidelity; it is
doubtful if any work in the theatre has ever been written with such
first-person authority. The proceedings take place in the living
room of a summer house in 1912. In short order we learn that the
father, although well off, is a confirmed miser; one son is a drunk,
the younger one is tubercular and the mother is a drug addict. Then
we begin to learn the reasons for this excessive bad fortune. The
mother's addiction resulted from the father's penury in sending her
to a second-rate doctor; the elder boy drinks from sheer frustration;
the old man has never been able to get over his magnified respect
for money induced by an impoverished childhood. Even the illness
of the younger son, quite obviously the author, is being treated
by the cheapest local physician, and the father is planning to send
him to a State sanatorium where he will hopefully expire inexpensively.
This sounds like a preponderance of tragedy for any household, and
so it must have been, but it is revealed in such terms of stark honesty
that no one can ever doubt its stature as an autobiographical document.
The people speak in the everyday language of our neighbors; their
emotions rise and fall with the absurd devotion to trivialities which
provoke so many quarrels; these are dimensional characters trying
desperately to keep their doomed household together. The Long and the Short and the Tall Play. Willis Hall M8 (young, 30s). A store hut. Set in the Malayan jungle, this critically acclaimed play is tough,
realistic and full of comedy. Its characters are British soldiers
who look upon their duty in the jungle with a marked lack of enthusiasm
until they discover that soldiering is something more than the game
they thought it was at first. Before the play comes to its unexpected
climax, the men have faced up to unforeseen issues of loyalty and
danger. Period 1942 John Waters, (with David Byrne) Long Black Coat explores the relationship between a father
and son, who - on the eve of possible nuclear war - hole themselves
up in a primitive fall-out shelter, built to the specifications of
a surreal 1960s Irish Government Civil Defence booklet Play. John Osborne Jimmy Porter, frustrated and bitter in his drab flat, lives with
middle-class wife Alison. Also sharing the flat is Cliff who keeps
things tenuously together. Alison's friend Helen arrives and persuades
her to leave Jimmy only to fall for him herself. When Alison becomes
pregnant Helen leaves them together. This play originally opened
at the Royal Court Theatre in 1956 and has since proved to be a milestone
in the history of theatre. Daniel Wain : Comedy 5M 6F Flexible staging This tragicomic panto-within-a-play is set over the holiday period
at a crumbling provincial theatre, chronicling both the on and off
stage lives of the cast and crew of a repertory production of Dick
Whittington that is rapidly going downhill, even on the opening
night. Among the many delightful characters are Anastasia Crabbe,
a faded movie star now playing Fairy Bow Bells; an actor fresh from
drama school applying his classical training to Idle Jack, Bernie
the has-been puppeteer increasingly venting his frustrations on Pistachio,
his puppet Monkey; a weather girl-turned- eading lady who is soon
way in over her head as she competes with a savvy chorus girl for
the attentions of Jake Caffery, the boy band lead singer playing
Dick Whittington. Holding the show together - both on and off stage
- are Maggie the stage manager and Tom, the theatre's owner who also
plays Sarah the Cook. Since the death of his partner the previous
year, Tom has been trying to keep the theatre afloat, but external
financial pressures and the increasing antics backstage are a poignant
counterpoint to the hilarious antics interspersed onstage during
the pantomime. Comedy. John Chapman and Michael Pertwee This play enjoyed a successful run at the Strand Theatre starring
David Jason as the hapless Fisher, manager of the West Berlin office
of a British car company. When his wife Monica returns from the airport
because her flight has been delayed, what follows is a fast-paced
fun-filled farce by the masters of the genre involving Heidi, Fisher's
mistress, Mitzi, a voluptuous singing telegram girl and Cadwallader,
from British Security of Industry, amongst others. Comedy-Drama. Hugh Wheeler. 4 men, 2 women. Interior Belle accepts her plainness, stringy hair and myopia as if they
were unalterable. She wears a shapeless sweater which make her even
less appealing. She is innocent and vulnerable under the surface
of her sophisticated, adult talk A young man is supposed to take
her to Ivan the Terrible Part II, but he begs off ... as others
have before. But then Bobby, a shy, overly sensitive boy, arrives
to deliver Belle's roommate's dress from the cleaners. He too is
an outcast, a closetted homosexual with a fierce distaste for his
mother. He is inarticulate, but he and Belle find a kinship, and
their relationship hesitantly but cheerfully begins with a trip toIvan
the Terrible Part II. Comedy. Derek Benfield When two unexpected guests, Jane and Brian drop in on Sheila and
Andrew, a devoted middle age couple, what ensues is a complicated
and hilarious series of misunderstandings and mistaken identities
as Sheila and Andrew begin to weave an elaborate web of lies and
half-truths to hide their own possible infidelities. |