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Comedy. Frederick Lonsdale Richard adores the widow Mrs Wislack, who has a friend in Helen,
herself in love with the Duke of Bristol. The Duke urges Richard
to press his suit, but the widow proposes a test. They are to spend
one month in her house in Scotland. However Mrs Wislack proves a
tyrant: Richard's life becomes a burden, and Helen finds the Duke
impecunious. Richard and Helen slip away from the house, leaving
the selfish couple possibly snowbound for weeks together. Play. Paul Osborn from the novel by L.E. Watkin. Gramps is idolised by his young grandson, Pud, who models his every
action after the old man. But Gramps' salty expressions and rough
behaviour are frowned upon by both the strait-laced Aunt Demetria
and Granny, so Aunt Demetria comes to live with them, hoping she
can steer the boy in the right direction. Death, in the form of Mr.
Brink, comes to claim Gramps, but is forcibly sent about his business.
Still, he manages to take Granny instead and later returns for Gramps,
who outwits Brink by trapping him up an apple tree, thus suspending
Death throughout the universe. Aunt Demetria, who can't see Mr. Brink
in the tree, tries to prove that Gramps is insane in order to get
legal possession of Pud. Matters come to a climax when one of the
townspeople tries to take Gramps to an institution and is shot. But
the victim refuses to die, and the others plead with Gramps to release
Brink so that the world can resume its normal cycle. At this moment,
Brink tricks Pud into climbing the tree, and the boy falls, fatally
injuring himself. In order not to be separated from Pud, Gramps allows
Brinks to come down from the tree and willingly goes with him to
the gates of Eternity where he is greeted by his beloved Granny,
scolding him as usual. Ernest Thompson : Light Drama A touching, funny and warmly perceptive study of a spirited and
lovable elderly couple facing their twilight years. Ethel and Norman
Thayer return to their summer home on Golden Pond for the 44th year.
He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations
and a failing memory, but still as sharp-tongued, observant and eager
for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger and the perfect foil for
Norman, delights in all the small things which have enriched and
continue to enrich their life together. They are visited by their
divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who
then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer.
The boy quickly becomes the grandchild the elderly couple have longed
for and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting
good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage
awareness in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their
brief idyll and in the final deeply moving moments of the play, Norman
and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a
mild heart attack. A work of rare simplicity and beauty. Comedy. Philip King The Drossmouth Repertory Company are holding the second rehearsal
of the play they are hoping to perform the following week. The proceedings
are complicated by the strong-willed producer's rows with his equally
strong-willed actors; by the stage carpenter who insists on sawing
up the stage during rehearsals; by the author who also wants to direct.
Finally, the leading man and lady start to squabble furiously and
there seems little chance the play will open. But these are old troupers,
and the show goes on. On the Bum, or The Next Train Through Comedy/Drama. Neal Bell. In the waning days of the 1930s Great Depression, an out-of-work
actress hits the road again after her first New York show collapses
before it can open. Through the Federal Theatre Project, Eleanor's
landed an acting job in the kind of tiny town she'd hoped to escape
forever. So she hops a train to Bumfork - meeting suspicious tramps
and angry railroad cops - to perform in an innocuous pageant-in-verse
by a stuffy local authoress, about the Great Flood that destroyed
the town fifty years before. While rehearsing at an abandoned farm,
Eleanor meets and falls in love with Frank, an out-of-work, unhappily
married man, who's more and more disillusioned with the world around
him. Or maybe he's seen more of the truth - his version of which
he teaches to Eleanor. With an irate government inspector on his
way to sniff out any traces of bias in the upcoming pageant, Eleanor
discovers the very political truth beneath the rhyming couplets of
the pageant - that the Great Flood was the fault of greedy local
fat-cats (who built a sub-standard dam), and disgruntled workers
(one of whom sabotaged the poorly-built structure). These facts will
offend everybody - the downtrodden locals, the wealthy patrons of
the town, Eleanor's blue-collar lover Frank, and the government inspector.
With the world of Bumfork getting stranger and stranger (some of
the people who died in the Flood are drifting back into town as ghosts
- or are they?), Eleanor wrestles with whether or not to fight for
what she now believes. And her ultimate decision becomes the surprising
climax, both of the play-within-the-play, and On the Bum. Play Guy Hibbert. The setting is the rubbish strewn backyard of Betty's rundown bungalow
near a U.S. Air Force base in rural England. Deserted by a succession
of lovers, Betty makes ends meet by selling herself to the young
airmen, while her current live-in boyfriend, the brutish Ted, supplies
them with drugs. Also living with her are her daughters Rita (who
has a husband in prison and children in local care) and Cherry (who
was brain damaged at birth), and her son, Kenny (a brooding bodybuilder
who is suspected of having murdered an American serviceman). The
action of the play is impelled by the return of another son, Jimmy
who stops by with his friend Bobby, a black American ex-serviceman,
to announce that they are headed for the United States to open a
custom car shop. Their grandiose dreams of prosperity and a better
life exacerbate the feelings of hopelessness and anger which infuse
the others, and lead to the explosive climax of the play, in which
Jimmy and Bobby, despite the pleas of Rita and Cherry to take them
along, depart alone, and the seething Kenny, his frustration boiling
over, turns on the taunting, foul-mouthed Ted and dispatches him
with a steel wire garrote. John Godber : Comedy John Godber takes to the slopes in this hilarious and insightful
view of skiing holidays, complete with all the pretensions and frustrations.
Chris and Alison, Bev and Dave are all beginners - they've got the
designer salopets, but do they have the courage? The sexy, athletically-tanned
ski instructor Tony is eager to put in some overtime, while Melissa,
on holiday alone, is creating one too many diversions. Both on and
off piste, passions are running high while the 'après ski'
brings nerves and insecurities dangerously close to the surface.
Once the skis have been clicked into place, there's no stopping this
fast paced and highly exhilarating play. Farce. Tom Stoppard. Adapted from Einen Jux Will Er Sich Machen by
Johann Nestroy Deciding to wine and dine his intended in town, Zangler, a prosperous merchant grocer, leaves his shop in the charge of two assistants who decide they, too, will have a day out. As they pursue wine, women and song through 1850s Vienna the precise intricate machinery of plot and subplot is soon whining at full speed to deploy all the elements of classic farce. 'A dazzle of verbal wit.' Daily Telegraph Farcical comedy. Peter Horsler Gerald, an archaeological lecturer, rents a remote country cottage
for the weekend - ostensibly to work, in reality hoping for a little
middle-age philandering with his attractive college librarian, Ruth.
He introduces her as his secretary but their privacy is soon invaded
by various locals, a menacing bull and finally by Gerald's wife,
Alison. After increasingly hilarious complications Ruth and Alison
ally themselves against Gerald, but Hamish the bull has the last
word. On the Verge, or the Geography of Yearning Play. Eric Overmyer M1 (playing various parts) F3. Various simple settings. In 1888, three experienced American lady adventurers - armed with
umbrellas, a picnic and pith helmets- set out to explore 'terra incognito'
eagerly embracing cultures and replicas of distant civilisations.
Caught in a time warp, they find themselves in Eisenhower's 1950s
America. The trio split when two decide to remain in 1955 and it
is left to Mary to continue the journey of exploration. This witty,
surreal play was seen in London in 1989 starring Paola Dionisotti
and Juliet Stevenson. Drama: Maxine Wood. 9 men, 6 women. Exterior This effective play on race prejudice had a considerable run on Broadway. A serious play for adult groups. Basing her play on the ever-present problem of the segregation of blacks, Miss Wood presents two families, one white, one black, who live on a friendly basis in a Northern city. The forces of prejudice, however, force the whites into a situation which precipitates a struggle and ultimately brings about tragedy. |