Murmuring Judges. Play. David Hare
M19 F6. Extras. Various simple interior and exterior settings

When Irina Platt embarks on her first case as a lawyer, she finds that all sections of the criminal justice system - police, courts and prisons - are running far from smoothly. With its large multicultural cast and contemporary settings ranging from prison interiors to the Inns of Court, Murmuring Judges presents a broad yet finely detailed picture not only of the judicial system but of British society in the 1990s.

Music Lessons (in Cinzano). Ludmila Petrushevskaya. Trans S. Mulrine
6m 7f, extras. Drama in two acts. Flexible staging.

A realistic, domestic drama, set in a Moscow apartment block, tells the story of two interrelated families. Their lives are depressingly full of problems, but the individuals are drawn with great warmth and understanding.
ISBN 1 85459 106 1

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940. Thriller/Farce - John Bishop
M6 F5 - Setting Library of mansion

Under the guise of a backer's audition for their new musical, the production team of a recent Broadway flop assemble at an isolated country mansion to try to piece together the identity of the mysterious "Stage Door Slasher", who murdered three of the chorus girls in the show. While a blizzard rages outside and the composer, lyricist, director and actors prepare for their performances, the Slasher reappears, striking again - and again, and again!
Assassins stalk each other through secret passageways and behind hidden library panels in an ever-increasing romp through comic pastiche involving German spies, a bumbling police investigator and a maid who is apparently four different people - all of which figure in the intrigue and hilarity before the Slasher is finally unmasked.
The creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious "Stage Door Slasher") assemble for a backer's audition of their new show at the Westchester estate of a wealthy "angel." The house is complete with sliding panels, secret passageways and a German maid who is apparently four different people - all of which figure diabolically in the comic, mayhem which follows when the infamous "Slasher" makes his reappearance and strikes again - and again. As the composer, lyricist, actors and director prepare their performance, and a blizzard cuts off any possible retreat, bodies start to drop in plain sight, knives spring out of nowhere, masked figures drag their victims behind swiveling bookcases, and accusing fingers point in all directions. However, and with no thanks to the bumbling police inspector who snowshoes in to investigate, the mystery is solved in the nick of time and the "Slasher" unmasked - but not before the audience has been treated to a sidesplitting good time and a generous serving of the author's biting, satiric and refreshingly irreverent wit.
ISBN: 0-8222-0792-3

MUTUAL BENEFIT LIFE
Play Robert Patrick. 2 men, 2 women. Interior.

Having achieved recognition and some success as a playwright, after a long period of struggle and apprenticeship, Scott has undergone a breakdown and memory loss. Released from a hospital in Los Angeles, he is taken in by Greg and Laura, the young couple with whom he had been living before his illness. Greg, who is concerned and sympathetic, had hoped to produce the brilliant new play (now apparently lost) which Scott had written before his memory lapse; while Laura, seemingly cold and calculating, is an actress who had starred in Scott's earlier plays. Also present is Carol, a beautiful young actress whom Scott had brought with him from New York some months earlier. The interaction of these four, their differing versions of Scott's life before his breakdown, form the intriguing heart of the play, and lead to its surprising conclusion - in which Scott, without regaining his memory, comes to understand more about himself, his past, and his supposed friends, than he did before his senses failed.
ISBN: 0-8222-0795-8