Play. Richard Wesley. 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. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Actor's Nightmare. A double-bill by Christopher Durang.
Comedy Wendy Wasserstein. 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. Play. Molière, translated and adapted by R. R. Bolt 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. A related comedy. Alan Ayckbourn 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. Play. Wendy Wasserstein 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. Comedy. Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke 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. John Guare : Light Drama 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. |