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Drama. Romulus Linney. Part I, Torquemada, takes place in 1490, in the middle of questioning by the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Archbishop Tomas De Torquemada, and his two assistants, Brother Puyal and Bishop Acero. This day, the most ordinary of "crimes" - angrily calling out the names of devils when catching her husband in an affair - brings in Francicta Mendez and her husband, Fosco, to be questioned, tortured and questioned again. Despite his frailty, the Grand Inquisitor probes into the couples' life, finding grander infidelities in the past involving a young monk who turns out to be Brother Puyal. At the time of Puyal's indiscretion with Francisca, the Abbot in the monastery where Puyal lived was Escobedo de la Aixa, now deceased. The Grand Inquisitor reminds those gathered of his power, and at the end we learn the very gruesome fates of each of the characters, including Abbot Escobedo de la Aixa, whose body was dug up and dismembered. Part II, Anna Rey, takes place in 1992, in the office of psychiatrist Dr. Anna Rey who is writing a book on the Spanish treatment of the insane in a monastery at the end of the 15th century. The monastery was run by Abbot Escobedo de le Aixa, whose philosophy was to unchain the insane and treat them warmly. Alone in his theory, the monks working with him admired him and saw results in the madmen sent there. Dr. Rey does not see patients anymore, believing herself unfit to heal, and considers suicide as a way out of her own state of depression, when she is suddenly visited by Bradley Smith, a mental patient from a nearby hospital, who implores her help. Dr. Rey employs psychiatric techniques with Bradley, and though wanting him to leave, is intrigued by his lies, his life and his obvious pain. When Bradley reveals a knife he was going to use on himself, Dr. Rey shows him a bigger one and invites him to do away with her too. In the end, Dr. Rey convinces Bradley to go to a hospital, and promises to be the Doctor he sees every day. Both have painfully turned back to life and to the struggle to continue. Part III, Escobedo de la Aixa, takes us to 1480, ten years before
the play began, in the garden of the Abbey of Ripal, where Abbot
Escobedo de la Aixa walks with a madman who thinks he is God. The
Abbot must prove to the madman that he is indeed the Abbot, so
that the madman will feel comfortable speaking freely. After the
madman is satisfied, the two talk over what the madman, as God,
should do. They joke, listen to birds and enjoy the garden. The
madman says the Inquisition means to stop the Abbot's humane treatment
of the insane. They talk lucidly of reality - which will kill them
both - and the Abbot breaks down in despair. The madman tells him
that someone somewhere will remember the good Abbot who lived in
Spain, loving madmen. The madman will wait for the Abbot in heaven. Play. Frank Vickery Hoping to revive their flagging marriage-and celebrate twenty-five
years together -Dougie takes Loma back to their honeymoon hotel in
Majorca. The hotel is still managed by the same couple and Loma is
reminded of her liaison with Miguel, the hotel owner and local Romeo.
Out of the memories of Loma, Miguel and his 'wife', Regietta, step
their younger selves to re-enact the events of twenty-five years
ago and we eavesdrop on earlier decisions with the knowledge of what
happens later! Thomas Kyd The ghost of a murdered Spanish courtier, Don Andrea, is promised
by Revenge that he will see his murderer, Prince Balthazar of Portugal,
killed by his mistress. The two ghostly figures sit down to watch
the violent proceedings ... 'A murky world of royal skulduggery,
hangings, knifings and delayed revenge, which is by no means remote
from our own violent times' Evening Standard. Originally performed
around 1580, revived by the RSC in 1997. Play David Greig A drama of cultural and historical identity. Published with "The Meeting". Play. David Mamet Produced at the National Theatre in 1989 after a successful run in New York, this play is a satirical and sparklingly funny vision of Hollywood back-stabbing. It centres around Charlie Fox, a producer, and Bobby Gould, studio head of production, and a major film deal involving a well-known actor. It is through the language that Mamet depicts the self-doubts and vulnerability that lies behind the self congratulatory back-slapping. Fast-paced, full of witty one-liners and guaranteed to keep the audience mesmerised. David Lewis : Light Drama After years of attempting to conceive without success, Matthew and
Lucy's marriage has come under great strain. Matthew, a university
biology lecturer, buries himself in biological charts, sperm counts,
microscopes and textbooks searching for answers while Lucy's desperation
increases alongside her ever- present rat phobia. Finally, Matthew
convinces her that they should enlist the help of their mutual friend
Barry for a bit of DIY artificial insemination, though unbeknownst
to Lucy he has other ideas. After each visit he switches Barry's
sample with one of his own in one last attempt to prove his potency,
but nothing goes according to plan as eventually the strains prove
too much not only for Matthew and Lucy, but for Barry and Matthew's
young nubile student Zoe as the myths surrounding infertility, reproduction
and sexual warfare explode in dramatic fashion. Play. Agatha Christie When a murder occurs in Clarissa's drawing-room she suspects young
stepdaughter Pippa. Things are not helped by the imminent arrival
of husband Henry with a VIP in tow who might take a dim view of bodies
in the drawing-room. However, by the time Henry gets home, the murderer
has been unmasked and all is normal, so normal that Henry is utterly
unable to believe Clarissa when she explains exactly why there are
no refreshments ready for their honoured guest. Mystery/Drama. E Andrew Leslie, from Mel Dinelli. Based on David
O. Selznick's famous motion picture, written by Mel Dinelli. As thunder and rain echo off-stage the town Constable arrives at
the isolated Warren household to report another in the series of
apparently unprovoked murders which have shocked and terrified the
village. Without exception the victims have been young girls - and
all with a noticeable defect or imperfection of some kind. Because
of this there is fear for the safety of Helen, companion of the bedridden
Mrs. Warren, who has been unable to speak since undergoing the shock
of witnessing her parents' horrible death some years before. The
telephone wires have been brought down by the storm, the Constable
has stopped by in person to check on Helen's whereabouts - but neither
Mrs. Oates, the housekeeper, nor Professor Warren, scholarly stepson
of Mrs. Warren, has seen or heard from her since she went into the
village earlier in the day. Their fears are allayed, however, when
Helen, in the company of young Dr. Parry, is brought safely home.
But the threat of danger still exists, for the murderer remains at
large and his cleverness has denied the police any solid clues as
to his identity. Warning everyone to stay behind locked doors, the
Constable goes back into the storm leaving Helen to the care of the
others. One by one, however, her protectors leave - or seem to -
and as Helen's isolation grows, so does the threat of the killer's
visit - leading to a denouement of thrilling intensity. To say more
would blunt the excitement of this thrilling climax where everyone,
and most of all Helen, remains in doubt-filled suspense until the
final, shocking moments of the play. Play with music. Stewart Parke. Music by Jimmy Kennedy Set in and around a bicycle shop in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Frank believes that all the world's transportation problems can be solved if people simply switch to the bicycle. Songs are used to comment upon the action. The bicycle and the shop become a metaphor about the problems in Northern Ireland and, indirectly, about the problems of modern civilisation. Period 1970s and the eighty years preceding Spring, 1600 Comedy. Emlyn Williams Ann runs off to London disguised as a young man. Once there she joins Burbage's company of actors. However she soon finds herself in love with Burbage and unable to reveal her true identity. By the end of the play Ann comes to terms with her unrequited love and a very influential and important new patron has been found, in the person of Elizabeth of England! Period 1600 Comedy. Bill Naughton Rafe Crompton is not a stern man but has such unswerving integrity
that his family is forced to hide slight peccadilloes from him. His
daughter Hilda particularly resents this and her refusal to eat a
herring which is placed before her at dinner makes the situation
explosive. The family is almost broken up before Rafe is made to
see the dangers in his attitudes, and they are reunited in an atmosphere
more progressive and tolerant. Play. Bertolt Brecht. Translated by Frank Jones, music by Dessau In the stockyards and commercial exchanges of modern Chicago, Salvation Army girl Johanna Dark imagines that the meat-packer king Pierpont Mauler is going to save the falling market and prevent unemployment. She helps the workers to organise a general strike, and Mauler is persuaded to lead the meat ring out of its troubles. Johanna, desperately ill, is canonised by Mauler for her work among the poor, and she vainly denounces the class system as she dies. Edna Ferber and George S Kaufman A group of theatrical hopefuls move into Mrs Orcutt's boarding house
in New York, all sharing a common dream - to be a star. The play
traces the ups and downs of their careers. We see girls who face
rejection and the shattering of their illusions, while others succeed
far beyond their wildest dreams. The action is both comic and touching
- there are some who are born to tread the boards, while others are
only destined to trip over them! Charles Marowitz. A leading metropolitan drama critic is led by an attractive production
assistant into a recently discovered 19th century theatre. There,
the critic will film a television interview for a documentary on
the actor John Wilkes Booth, who once acted on those very boards.
The critic, F.F. Charnick, notorious for his venomous reviews, visibly
warms to the classy elegance of the British PA. But no sooner has
he downed a glass of wine than he falls drugged and unconscious.
When he awakens, he is firmly tied to a Shakespearean throne on the
stage of the old theatre with an ominous woman intoning Lady Macbeth
beside him. The attractive PA. has turned into Mitzi Crenshaw, an
actress of the "old school" whom Charnick has savaged in dozens of
reviews. The critically maligned actress has shanghaied the surly
critic as part of an elaborate murder plot against the man who virtually
destroyed both her career and that of her actor-husband, Denis Michaelson.
After forcing the bound critic to endure several dramatic recitations,
Mitzi's husband suddenly arrives on the scene, ostensibly to try
to deter his unbalanced wife and release the imprisoned critic. But
after an elaborately rigged "scene" between the couple, it is soon
apparent that Denis is actually in on the plot and just as determined
to wreak revenge against the critic. The theatricalised torture goes
through several permutations, inspiring blood-curdling confessions
from the critic and ending with the actors granting him a reprieve
- but not before his most embarrassing revelations have been taped
on video to be shown to the entire nation. Play. Simon Gray Robert's conniving wife concocts a plot to obtain grounds necessary
for divorce involving the use of a private detective. Robert, recalling
his days as a stage manager, works out a bizarre method of teaching
them a lesson and the final moments give several grim twists to events
as the 'little game' becomes stark reality. Play. David Storey Stages was premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1992 starring Alan Bates. Fenchurch, successful novelist and artist from a northern working-class background suffers a mental breakdown. He is visited by four women: his daughter, his ex-wife, his neighbour, and his psychiatrist to whom he recounts his past life. '... Storey's starkly observed portrait of an artist in extremis leaves us as close to the core of this eternal enigma as almost anything I have hitherto seen on any stage.' Daily Mail Comedy. Willy Russell Set in the ladies' and gent's toilets of a tacky Liverpool club
where Dave and Linda are holding their respective stag and hen parties.
Dave gets legless while Linda meets up with ex-lover Peter whose
worldly wisdom leaves Linda uncertain whether to pursue an unsuitable
marriage. An exuberantly cynical play which is also a perceptive
study of working-class misogyny. Play. Charles Dyer Charles Dyer and Harry C. Leeds have lived together as a homosexual couple for many years. Charles is terrified at the prospect of a forthcoming court case and fears exposure to his daughter Cassy, who is soon to visit them. Harry realises that all the names mentioned in Charles' stories are anagrams of Charles' own name. Harry will give Charles the strength to face the future, but is it possible that the people we know and love are only figments of our imaginations - or we of theirs? (in Cinzano) - Ludmila Petrushevskaya. Trans S. Mulrine A bitingly accurate portrayal of the misunderstandings and conflict
between the sexes. A young woman tries to fend off the attentions
of two men she met on a blind date; but the men are not convinced
by her determination to get rid of them. Play. John Olive. Catherine, a young and promising poet affected with schizophrenia,
returns home to her cluttered apartment after a stay in the hospital.
Urged on by her publisher she snuggles to pursue her art, but the
very intensity of thought which this demands brings on her attacks,
and the imaginary voices which bedevil her. At a party she meets
Robert, a young stockbroker, and as their relationship deepens she
relies ever more heavily on Thorazine pills to control her illness
and maintain a semblance of normalcy. Ironically, while the pills
block her "voices" they also stifle her creative impulses and the
talent which has brought her the most joy. Trying to handle both
her relationship. with Robert and her needs as an artist she cuts
down on the Thorazine doses, but as her illness again becomes apparent
Robert backs away. In the end Catherine, in a shattering scene, scatters
the pills on the floor, and facing the inevitable truth that she
can be only one person and not two, slips inexorably back into madness. Pam Gems This moving and truthful portrait of Stanley Spencer, the wayward
genius of modern British painting, recreates both his huge appetite
for life and his naive attitude towards women, in particular his
long-suffering wife. First performed at the National Theatre starring
Antony Sher as Spencer, this 'lively biographical ... solid, gripping
play (The Times) transferred to Broadway after winning both
the Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for Best Play of 1996. (in Star-Gazy Pie: Two Plays) - James Stock Punctuated with the dreams of its characters, Star Gazy Pie and
Sauerkraut examines the lives of two families in Cornwall,
one local and one German in ancestry. Both are haunted by the effects
of prejudice and ill-health as they try to come to terms with their
past. With this strange and blackly comic piece, first performed
at the Royal Court in 1995, James Stock 'confirmed himself as both
a thoughtful and a skilful playwright' Financial Times. Comedy: Neil Simon. Two fiercely dedicated men endure near-starvation in order to put
out a protest magazine in San Francisco. An All-American girl moves
into another apartment on the same floor. Her first appearance paying
a good-neighbor visit to the combination home and office of the two
publishers is charming, and the immobile reaction is funny as can
be. Thereafter love is a determined madness, with the humor of it
heightened by her frantic rejection of one of the men. Meanwhile,
his partner is fielding telephone calls from the irate printer who
wants to collect the money due him, and distracting the landlady
from thoughts of back-rent with motorcycle rides and surfing expeditions.
And while she is convinced that they are editing a dangerously subversive
magazine, our heroine soon finds that her real source of annoyance
is that the wrong man is pressing his attentions on her. Happily
this situation is reversed in time, as love and politics blend delightfully
in a bubbling series of funny happenings, set forth with the masterly
skill and inventiveness which have become the hallmarks of the Neil
Simon comic style. Play. Alexander Galin, translated by Michael Glenny and Cathy Porter Galin's fierce, but tender and dignified, drama is set during the 1980 Moscow Olympics when the undesirable 'Olympic Girls' (prostitutes) were herded out of sight from impressionable foreign visitors. The play centres on four of these girls, confined in a derelict lunatic asylum, each one an aspect of degraded womanhood. There is the ageing lush, Anna; glamorous Laura, denying the reality of her life; the fifteen-year-old unmarried mother Marie and Klara, hardened into living for kicks. |