 |
|
Drama. Tom Donaghy. Minutes From the Blue Route unfolds over the course of one
weekend as a family packs and unpacks their house, trying to consolidate
four lives into one U-Haul truck. While tripping over each other
on the way to work, weddings, picnics, trains and planes, each family
member discovers more about themselves and each other. Tempers flare,
truths emerge, and dreams collide with reality, as they all wrestle
with their fears and defend their definition of "home." Play. William Gibson Helen Keller is world-famous for her work with those born blind,
deaf and dumb. The play tells the story of Annie Sullivan's efforts
to teach Helen to communicate, fighting against the thoughtless indulgence
of Helen's family and her doting possessive mother until, at last,
Annie achieves the miracle of teaching Helen language. Here, Helen's
life can truly be said to have begun. Period 1880 Comedy. Molière. English version by Tony Harrison Commissioned by the National Theatre for the 1973 production starring Diana Rigg and Alec McCowen, Harrison's transposition of the action to the 'reign' of Charles de Gaulle helps to clarify the truly human dilemmas in the play so often obscured behind the frills and stiffness of traditional productions. This comedy of manners centres on the high-principled Alceste who cannot bring himself to temper the truth with tact and has the comic misfortune to be in love with the frivolous wayward Célimène Period 1966 Comedy. Molière. Translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur. 8 men, 3 women. Interior Outraged and disheartened by the vain flattery and calculated duplicity
of his fellow men, Alceste declares that, henceforth, he will speak
only the truth - no matter what offence this might give. His philosophical
friend Philinte counsels him to temper his rashness, but Alceste
claims that he can no longer tolerate the conventions of saying one
thing to a person's face and another behind his back. Ironically,
Alceste is enamored of the young widow Celimene, whose malicious
tongue and unceasing coquetry make her the embodiment of the very
situation he professes to detest. Ultimately Alceste's directness
involves him in a lawsuit and then a showdown with Celimene. But
in the end it is Alceste who rejects the match when confidential
letters are disclosed in which Celimene has set down scathing remarks
about all her would-be lovers, Alceste included. Self-righteously
he declares that he will renounce the world and seek a place where
honesty can still flourish. As the curtain falls, however, the unruffled
Philinte steps forward once more, taking Alceste in hand and urging
him to accept things as they are and for what they are, pointing
to the cynical moral that it is the wiser course to accept for the
best what cannot be changed for the better. Comedy. Molière. Adapted by Miles Malleson Harpagon, the miser, loves his gold but decides to take for his
second wife Mariane, the beloved of his son Cléante. Meanwhile,
Valère and Elise are in love. Harpagon threatens to marry
Elise to a certain Seigneur Anselm, so the four lovers urgently plot
to save themselves. It transpires that Valère and Mariane
are the lost children of wealthy Seigneur Anselm. As Anselm is a
benevolent fellow, the lovers' happiness is assured. Period 1668 Comedy. Molière, translated by David Chambers. The ageing but vital Harpagon is hoarding every centime he can get his hands on, making sure that his two children, the virginal Elise and the dandy Cleante, live under his iron will. To complicate matters, Elise has fallen in love with the handsome Valere, who masquerades as a servant in the household, despite his noble birth, and, worse yet, Cleante and Harpagon are both smitten with the same woman, the beautiful, if somewhat dim, Marianne. Meanwhile, scheming servants and assorted hustlers angle for Harpagon's incredible wealth, much of which is now buried and protected by snarling Dobermans. The delirious plot spirals to a wildly comic finish, filled with all the masterful plot twists and outrageous revelations one would expect from one of Molière's finest plays. Play by Richard Nelson and Alexander Gelman In 1991, Mikhail celebrates his sixtieth birthday in a Moscow hotel; outside, communist reactionaries are attempting a coup. Mikhail has gathered together an uneasy group: his two ex-wives, and their new husbands, his disgruntled daughter Masha, and his young fiancee Lydia, Masha's flatmate. Meanwhile, an American, Mary, frantically searches for her lost granddaughter. Using a recent event in Russia's volatile political history as its backdrop, this poignantly explores many themes pertinent to Russia and the West, from historical determinism to the conflict between generations. (in The Crack In the Emerald). Michael Harding Written by 'one of the most significant new Irish writers of his
generation' (Sunday Times) and strongly influenced by religious
and folk ritual, this near-monologue, full of erotic imagery, offers
the opportunity for a tour-de-force for a male actor. Drama. David Feldshuh. 6 men, 1 woman. Unit Set In an effort to get medical help for Alabama tenant farmers, their
nurse, Miss Evers, convinces them to join a government study to treat
venereal disease. When the money runs out, Nurse Evers is faced with
a difficult decision: to tell the men that they are no longer being
treated and that they are now part of a research study to see what
untreated syphilis will do to them, or follow the lead of the doctor
she respects and the tenets of the nursing profession. Nurse Evers
follows the advise of her advisors, and with the understanding that
the study can help thousands more, she does not tell the men they
are no longer receiving medication. She does this with the assurance
that as soon as medication becomes available, her men will be the
first to receive it. But after 14 years of caring for her patients
as if they were family, when medication is finally available, it
is denied to her study group. Nurse Evers, devastated at the news
and starting to watch her men die, can no longer keep silent. Shunned
for her silence of 14 years, Nurse Evers holds her head up and explains
the reasons and emotions that kept her in the study and kept her
caring for her men. Some of them forgive her, others do not, as Nurse
Evers tries to put back a world broken by prejudice, disease, time
and trust. Comedy. Beth Henley. 2 men, 4 women. Unit Set The place is the small Mississippi town of Brookhaven, the time
a few days before the Fourth of July.. Carrielle Scott (known locally
as "Miss Hot Tamale") is rehearsing furiously for the Miss Firecracker
Contest - hoping that a victory will salvage her tarnished reputation
and allow her to leave town in a blaze of glory. The unexpected arrival
of her cousin Elain, herself a former Miss Firecracker winner, (who
has walked out on her rich but boring husband and her two small children)
complicates matters a bit, as does the repeated threat of Elain's
eccentric brother, Delmount, (recently released from a mental institution)
to sell the family homestead and decamp for New Orleans. But, aided
by a touchingly awkward seamstress named Popeye (who is hopelessly
smitten by Delmount) and several other cheerfully nutty characters,
Carnelle perseveres - leading to a denouement of unparalleled hilarity,
compassion and moving lyricism as all concerned finally escape their
unhappy pasts and turn hopefully toward what must surely be a better
future. August Strindberg. Trans K. McLeish Written in real time, Strindberg's play is an unnerving story of
the seduction of Miss Julie. Bored with her sheltered existence in
her father's mansion, Miss Julie tempts the attentions of the footman,
Jean, during the Midsummer Night's Eve celebrations However, Miss
Julie experiences far more than she bargained for ... First performed
in 1889. Also included is Strindberg's influential Preface. Play. Howard Teichmann, from the novel by Nathanael West. 6 men, 7 women. Interiors. A scornful feature editor of a newspaper picks an ambitious young
reporter to conduct the advice of the agony aunt column. Ambitious,
opportunistic, 'Miss Lonelyhearts,' as the conductor of the column
is inevitably dubbed, begins with contempt of the correspondents
and confidence in his own cleverness. As time goes on, the genuineness
of the agony in the letters that come in gets under the skin of the
columnist. He is distressed to find himself presiding over a monstrous
swindle. For he is an idealist in collision with humanity, as his
diabolical managing editor expresses it. Play. Richard Kane. Adapted from The Slaves of Solitude by
Patrick Hamilton 1943. The Rosamund Tea Rooms houses several women and elderly men,
all of them single and lonely, who nurse resentments and wage minor
wars with each other. Enid Roach makes two unfortunate friendships
which heighten the tension to breaking point: one with Pike, an American
lieutenant, the other with Vicki Kugelmann, a German who steals Pike
from Enid and then sets about humiliating her former friend. Colin Morris : Comedy 5M 5F Interior set Diana Roberts, an attractive heiress, has lost her memory. All she
recalls is falling in love with a sailor, marrying him at sea and
losing him in the port of Cape Town. She can no longer remember his
physical appearance, and only knows his name - Edward. Consequently,
following a series of public announcements from her family requesting
any information which may lead to the discovery of her husbands'
whereabouts, three men appear - each claiming to be Mr Edward Roberts.
Diana however, far from being distressed, believes that three husbands
are better than none and becomes determined to keep them all on the
go! Play Craig Lucas. 4 men, 3 women. Interior. Independently wealthy, a published author and tenured professor
at Swarthmore College, Addie Pencke spends Thanksgiving holiday struggling
to hold together her splintered ego and her fractured family. Her
capacious, book-lined home is peopled with real and imagined figures
from sixty years of political activism, hard-drinking, a failed marriage
and lost opportunities. Neighbors, strays, in-laws, children as they
once were and as they could never be, remembered selves, all inhabit
Addie's home for the holidays. In shifting power struggles, the critic
attempts to reconcile with the artist, the parent with the child,
and the living with the dead. |