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John Steinbeck : Drama 9M 1F 2 Interior, 1 Exterior set Steinbeck's own stage version of his classic novel tells the story
of George and Lenny, the fast- alking farm hand and the simple giant
who accompanies him on a life of casual labour in the California
Agricultural Belt of the 1930s. They share a dream of a little place
of their own, where Lenny can tend the rabbits and they can "live
off the fat of the land". But when Lenny unwittingly kills the young
wife of a farm owner's son, George must shatter their dreams to keep
Lenny from falling into the hands of the law and the vigilante farm
hands bent on revenge. Drama. John Steinbeck. 8 men, 1 woman. 2 Interiors, 1 Exterior Two drifters, George and his friend Lennie, with delusions of living
off the "fat of the land,"
have just arrived at a ranch to work for enough money to buy their
own place. Lennie is a man-child, a little boy in the body of a dangerously
powerful man. It's Lennie's obsessions with things soft and cuddly
that have made George cautious about who the gentle giant, with his
brute strength, associates with. His promise to allow Lennie to "tend
to the rabbits"
on their future land keeps Lennie calm amidst distractions as the
overgrown child needs constant reassurance. But when a ranch boss'
promiscuous wife is found dead in the barn with a broken neck, it's
obvious that Lennie, albeit accidentally, killed her. George, now
worried about his own safety, knows exactly where Lennie has gone
to hide, and he meets him there. realising they can't run away anymore,
George is faced with a moral question: how should he deal with Lennie
before the ranchers find him and take matters into their own hands. Play Frank Cucci. 2 men, 1 woman. Int/Fore-curtain. Rufus is a black drifter, who is found one day on a park bench by
Bruce, a young, white biochemist. Bruce is conducting a series of
experiments ... to turn black people into white people! After much
amusing banter, Rufus seems convinced, goes off to Bruce's apartment,
and the forbidding Jekyll/Hyde transformation begins, But Dairy,
Bruce's black girlfriend, is full of half-spoken fears and voluble
jealousies. She knows something of the dangers involved, based on
the results of the previous experiments, but she is a willing and
anxious subject and was to be in Rufus' place on the schedule. So,
the loaded situation runs its course, moving from light-hearted chatter
to ominous tongue-lashings, and then rushes headlong to its hair-raising
and perhaps inexorable, Greek-like conclusion. Comedy/Drama. Joan Ackermann. 3 men, 1 woman, 1 girl. Unit set Bo Groden looks back on the summer when she was eleven years old
and everything changed. Serving as narrator, she sifts through the
memories of an unusual childhood spent in the wilds of northern New
Mexico where her enterprising parents forged a rich life off the
land and the local dump. Desperate to escape as a child, longing
for modern amenities and normalcy, now she yearns to go back. This
is the summer when Charley, her father, spiraled into depression.
Usually able to build and fix anything, he is unable to fix himself,
but the family carries on, thanks in large part to the earthy strength
of Arlene, Bo's resourceful mother. George, Charley's life-l6ng friend,
offers watercolors and silence. Lonely for her father's companionship,
Bo amuses herself by writing letters for free samples, and praying
for a miracle to deliver her from a mother who gardens in the nude
and a father who can not stop weeping. The miracle arrives in the
form of William Gibbs, a displaced IRS agent who arrives in a fever
and never leaves. As the artist within William emerges, each member
of the family is touched and affected. By the time a boat arrives
at the end of the play, the family's sails have been filled. This
offbeat evocative comedy has a compelling and lyrical quality. Through
unswerving love,and compassion, the characters stumble into glimpses
of self-discovery and unexpected moments of grace. Gill Adams : Drama 2M 2F Interior set June, Danny, May and Mac - four people living life on the edge in
the seedy and often dangerous world of prostitution. For June, it's
a way of life, the only way of getting the money to make ends meet.
For her teenage son Danny, it's all he's known since the death of
his grandmother. May does it for the money to buy her drugs, while
Mac is a pimp, content to make his living from the earnings of the
women around him. Theirs is an unforgiving world, motivated by money
and fear in a day-to-day existence offering little hope but not without
humour and poignancy. Winner of the 1994 Edinburgh Festival Scotsman
Fringe First Award. Farce. Derek Benfield Harold Spooks is sprung from prison to tell the gang where in the
hotel he stashed the loot. Unfortunately, he's the wrong Harold Spooks
and he hasn't a clue where the money is hidden. Worse still, this
Harold is a twit and likely to give the gang away any minute. More
hazards include Norah, the man-eating manageress, Edna, continually
interrupting the gang's frenzied plottings, and the redoubtable Mrs
Fletcher-Brewer who is suspicious of all men. Play. Gus Edwards. 2 men, 2 women. Interior. The scene is a shabby basement apartment on New York's West Side,
where Bob Tyrone, an aging black, lives with his young wife, Princess.
Now on welfare, Tyrone spends most of his time dozing, or glass in
hand, watching television. Unexpected visitors arrive in the form
of Martin, an obviously prosperous young black man, and Ginny, his
beautiful white girl friend. Martin offers Tyrone a large sum of
money, but Tyrone declines, and invites his visitors to stay the
night. In a series of highly atmospheric scenes, it develops that
Martin, a hired killer, -had known Tyrone when he too was a power
in illegal activity, and he still regards him with awe. At first
the action seems to be concerned with Martin's desire to help his
former mentor, but gradually, as the sense of menace deepens, we
are aware that a struggle for sexual dominance has now become the
focus of their relationship - as Tyrone seduces Ginny and Martin,
suddenly powerless, yields to the psychological battle of wits to
which his now reinvigorated master has subjected him. |