Composers and their stage works 



 

The Sirens

Play. Richard Wesley.
3 men, 3 women. Unit Set

A penetrating study of character and the destructive cycle which so often characterises life in a big city black ghetto. Employing a series of interlocking vignettes, made up of street encounters, dialogues and monologues, the author counterpoints the lives of two young prostitutes; the man who earlier deserted one of them; and a high school age couple whose future is surely shadowed in the present existence of the others. Deftly mixing humour and sadness, the play captures the feel of the streets and of a way of life in which people are so scarred and trapped by their experiences that hope and self-confidence are stunted and betrayed in the bitter search for simple dignity, happiness and individual fulfilment.
ISBN: 0-8222-1033-9

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Actor's Nightmare.

A double-bill by Christopher Durang.

Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You.
M2 (30s) F3 (30s, 50s). 1 boy (8). A lecture platform.

The play opens with a long lecture on Roman Catholicism by Sister Mary, starting conventionally but growing in morbidity and even horror as it proceeds. The lecture is interrupted by four of her ex-students, who present a religious 'pageant', then reveal how far they have strayed from her teaching. A climax is reached in an emotional statement of the truth from Diane, leading to the violence of two deaths by shooting. Playing time approximately 75 minutes

The Actor's Nightmare.
M2 (20s, 30s) F3 (20s, 30s). An empty stage.

George wanders on stage and is met by stage manager Meg, who says he is to fill in for an actor who has had an accident. George is confused as Ellen Terry, Sarah Siddons and Henry Irving arrive, all apparently about to perform. But what in? Private Gives? Hamlet? Or something by Beckett? As each starts playing his or her respective part George tries valiantly to follow them, but is apparently facing the Executioner as Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons.

The Sisters Rosenweig

Comedy Wendy Wasserstein.
4 men, 4 women. Interior

Sara Goode, an enormously successful American woman working as the British representative of a major Hong Kong bank, is about to celebrate her 54th birthday and. she isn't exactly too happy about it. Firmly ensconced in her lovely London home, she leads a quiet, almost cold, expatriate life with her daughter, Tess. For the birthday celebration, her two sisters, Gorgeous Teitelbaum (Dr. Gorgeous, loving housewife and mother, of Newton, MA, who has her own call-in radio advice program and hopes to make the leap to TV), and Pfeni Rosensweig (peripatetic third-world travel writer, alas, unmarried), are expected to arrive at any moment. As if this weren't causing Sara enough stress, Mervyn Kant shows up at her door and she doesn't even know the man, who, at first sight, is instantly smitten with her. Mervyn is a furrier, and a friend of Geoffrey's, the on again off again, bisexual lover of Pfeni. After her sisters arrive for the celebration, Tess and her boyfriend, Tom, turn up and advise her that they're planning on rushing off to his ancestral Lithuania for reasons of political protest. Next to arrive is Nicholas, the stuffy Brit whom Sara has been "seeing" although he seems somewhat anti-Semitic. All of this adds up to a rather interesting evening, which leads to unexpected romance, suspected partings, recriminations, reconciliations and, above all, newfound love and acceptance.
ISBN. 0-8222-1348-6

The Sisterhood

Play. Molière, translated and adapted by R. R. Bolt
M5 (young, middle-age) F5 (young, middle-age), doubling possible. A salon in Paris.

This audacious adaptation of Les Femmes Savantes, Molina's mischievous farce indicting the intellectual ladies of the salons, is full of contemporary allusions. Henriette has had the misfortune to be born into a family of pontificating pseudo-intellectual women. Her only desire is to get married and to live in 'wedded bliss'. The quirks of the cultural snobs are ridiculed while Henriette gets her man.
ISBN 0 573 01681 X

Sisterly Feelings

A related comedy. Alan Ayckbourn
M8 (20s, 30s, 50s, 60s, 70s) F4 (20s, 40s). A small hill.

There are four possible versions of this play, each version a complete play in itself. Sisters Dorcas and Abigail are faced with a dilemma and decide to toss for it. The result is that one of them goes with Simon. Later Dorcas has a deliberate choice. One decision leads to a night under the canvas for Abigail, the other to a day at the races for Dorcas. The inevitable end of either choice is a wedding.
ISBN 0 573 11420 X

The Sisters Rosensweig

Play. Wendy Wasserstein
M4 (17,40, 58) F4 (17, 40s, 50s). A sitting-room.

The sisters Rosensweig are three extraordinary Brooklyn-born Jewish women. Sara lives an ostensibly happy, man-free life in London with her intelligent daughter, Tess. Pfeni is an eccentric travel writer who pursues an unsatisfactory relationship with Geoffrey, a bisexual theatre director. And Gorgeous has the perfect husband and family in Massachusetts, where she pursues a 'funsy' career as a radio agony aunt. When they meet up at Sara's home in Holland Park reawakened familial bonds cause each woman to confront her past and her future.
The Story:
Sara Goode, an enormously successful American woman working as the British representative of a major Hong Kong bank, is about to celebrate her 54th birthday and she isn't exactly too happy about it. Firmly ensconced in her lovely London home, she leads a quiet, almost cold, expatriate life with her daughter, Tess. For the birthday celebration her two sisters, Gorgeous Teitelbaum (Dr. Gorgeous, loving housewife and mother, of Newton, MA, who has her own call-in radio advice program and soon hopes to make the leap to TV), and Pfeni Rosensweig (peripatetic third-world travel writer, alas, unmarried), are expected to arrive at any moment. As if this weren't causing Sara enough stress, Mervyn Kant shows up at her door and she doesn't even know the man, who, at first sight, is instantly smitten with her. She finds that Mervyn is a furrier (!), and a friend of Geoffrey's, who happens to be the on again, off again, bisexual lover of Pfeni. After her sisters arrive for the celebration, Tess, and her rather odd young boyfriend, Tom, turn up and advise her that they're planning on rushing off to his ancestral Lithuania for reasons of political protest. Next to arrive is Nicholas, the rather stuffy Brit whom Sara has been "seeing" although he seems rather anti-Semitic. All of this adds up to a rather interesting evening, which leads to unexpected romance, suspected partings, recriminations, reconciliations and, above all new-found love and acceptance.
ISBN 0 573 01908 8

Situation Comedy

Comedy. Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke
M3 (30s, middle-age) F3 (40s, middle-age). Composite setting: two living-rooms.

Charles Summerskill and Arthur Grey are two sit-tom writers with writer's block and a looming deadline for a new TV series. When the Summerskills invite the Greys round one evening, Arthur goes armed with his home-made pea wine and as the repellent vino flows, tempers rise and by next morning they have swapped wives. This provides an idea for a sit-tom series, or at least it would if they could agree on an ending. Their frantic efforts to find one are moments of hysterical farce.

Six Degrees of Separation

John Guare : Light Drama
13M 4F Interior set

Inspired by a true story, the play follows the trail of a young con man who infiltrates the lives of wealthy New Yorkers. Arriving at the home of Ouisa and Flan Kittredge and claiming to know their children at college, he tells them that he is the son of actor Sidney Portier, and that he has just been mugged and all his money taken. Captivated by Paul's intelligence, charm, parentage and fascinating conversation, Ouisa and Flan invite him to stay overnight. What follows is both a shocking and hugely funny scene when Paul displays some disturbing characteristics and the Kittredge's are forced to throw him out of their home. Ouisa and Flan soon discover that friends of theirs have had similar experiences with this brash con artist, and as the play unfolds, his deception is fully exposed. We soon become horrified by Paul's brutal behaviour and the ensuing tragedy, but during the play's final moments Ouisa suddenly finds herself caring for Paul, feeling that he gave them far more than he took, and that her once idyllic life was not what it seemed to be.
ISBN: 0 8222 1034 7