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Comedy. William Marchant. A woman wants to marry the man she has loved for twenty-six years,
even though he happens to be married to somebody else. He is a wealthy
New York jeweller, who spends weekdays at her city apartment and
weekends in Connecticut with his wife. Together with an old friend
who has been deserted by the man she loved, the woman begins a campaign
to inform the wife in the country of the husband's city infidelity
by writing an anonymous letter to her. It has immediate results.
The wife comes to New York and hires private detectives to spy on
him in the woman's apartment, while the woman herself assists the
divorce preparations in ingenious ways. The two women even agree
to meet, and they find that they like each other so much that each
feels she must sacrifice something of her own wishes in order not
to interfere with the happiness of the other. The husband surprises
them in the midst of their good-humored discussion and attempts to
settle his own fate. But the women will have none of it. They have
made up their own minds what is best for him, and he will just have
to like it. Play. Gus Weill. The play is written in the form of a dramatic inquest. Ben, a playwright
and an original person, has come home to somewhere in the Deep South
to bury his cousin Bert. He has also come to place the guilt for
the suicide on the shoulders of Bert's parents, his wife, his circumstances.
The interweaving flashbacks show guilt enough. Bert's parents were
narrow-minded, dominating people, very much responsible for their
son's virtual impotence. More believably, his wife's prudery murdered
whatever physical love might have been possible between them ('He
waited for me and I waited for him'). The play's treatment of this
subject alone - the relationship between marriage, love and sex -
is so wisely conceived that I think it in itself worth the work.
But there is much more. In gliding and flowing through a lifetime,
with incidents of family, marriage and discovery of sex through a
wonderfully physical prostitute, To Bury a Cousin weaves through
a dramatic collage of delicate intensity. Comedy. Jack Neary. Tongues have begun to wag about the handsome young parish priest
Father Jerry Dolan, who has, so they say, been seeing quite a lot
of a pretty young parishioner, Katie Cachenko, whom he has known
since their school days, when both played in the CYO band. The rumors
haven't exactly been scotched by Millie Mullins, Father Dolan's gossipy
housekeeper who, with her romantically minded niece, Margaret, has
kept all and sundry informed of each bit of possibly damaging grist
for the rumor mill. And, as a matter of fact, the situation does
seem ripe for trouble: Katie is suffocating in her marriage to Ralph,
an insensitive; macho lout and former high school football star;
and Father Dolan is suffering one of the identity crises which always
beset him after he has seen a Woody Allen movie - gnawing doubts
about "Who am I, and what am I doing here?" Things come to a head
when Father Dolan dances with Katie six times at a reunion dance
of the CYO Marching Band, leading to a tense, funny/serious confrontation
with Katie's incensed husband, Ralph, in the church vestry. Ending
up in an hilarious wrestling match, the two men eventually realize
that, at best, they are both behaving like silly kids - particularly
in view of the fact that nothing really did, or probably could, happen
between the committed priest and his vulnerable parishioner. And,
as the play reaches its touching, bittersweet conclusion, it is clear
that all concerned have gained, amid the general hilarity, a good
bit of self-knowledge to help them weather future "disturbances" whether
romantic or religious. Play. Norman Holland 'To meet Oscar Wilde' was an inducement printed by Victorian Society
hostesses on soiree invitations. In this fascinating play Oscar Wilde
gives a dissertation on his life in a lecture in 1899. Supported
by his friend, Lord Evelyn, and an actress, Penelope Dyall - who
between them enact all the male and female characters mentioned in
the dissertation - we are taken, in a series of short scenes, on
a journey through Wilde's life. Period Late Victorian Play Israel Horovitz. Based on stories by Morley Torgov. Talented and precocious, Irving Yanover, at the tender age of 10,
is both a piano prodigy and, at times, a thorn in the side of his
orthodox parents, who lament his unaccountable predilection for bacon.
But knowing that his mother and father indulge a similar passion
(while dining out at a Chinese restaurant), Irving can only question
their double standard. But even more upsetting is the unhappy fate
of Annie, the Yanovers' young Ukrainian housekeeper, whose romance
with a young Italian immigrant is bitterly opposed by her staunchly
old-world parents - even though everyone knows that Annie's father
is an enthusiastic devotee of Italian opera. Happily, however, these
and other problems are delightfully resolved, with wit, gentle humour
and a warm sense of humanity which will endear the play to audiences
of all faiths and backgrounds. Drama. William Hanley It is the morning of a sultry July 4th. Evalyn, rouses her husband,
Sam. Sam's arm is in a cast, having been broken fighting off an attempt
to hijack his taxi. But Sam doesn't want to talk about this for he
is unsure of his wife's motives. Their ensuing conversation is filled
with barbs and subtle rebukes. But it is evident that Evalyn has
reached a point of critical re-evaluation, and, amidst their attempts
to hurt each other, she tells Sam that she loves him. He reacts as
though too much had already been done to destroy the very thing which
Evalyn is trying to hold on to. The conversation turns to other matters,
but it is soon brought up short by Evalyn's admission that she is
undergoing psychiatric treatment. The confession is a measure of
her desperate unhappiness and the thing which makes Sam resolve to
leave her. But as he is preparing to go a messenger arrives with
flowers for Evalyn's birthday which Sam had not forgotten despite
all. Somehow this small act of concern brings a sense of release
to both of them, as though their crisis, while not resolved, had
been ameliorated by a new awareness that what they have together
is all there will be for both of them and they must make the best
of it. Comedy. Derek Benfield Seeking peace and tranquility, Gerald goes to spend a few days in
a health farm, presided over by the highly moral Mr Potter. But his
hopes are soon dashed by the arrival of his secretary (declaring
her undying passion for him), his daughter (intent upon naughty assignations
with her boyfriend), and his wife. The resulting mix-ups caused by
crafty deceit and misfiring erotic adventures prove more than a headache
for the hapless Mr Potter! Play. Stephen Churchett It's 1945 and newly elected, pragmatic Labour Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, arrives in defeated Germany for the Potsdam conference. He encounters his most flamboyant new MP, Tom Driberg, a radical journalist and bon viveur. Stephen Churchett's play explores the nature of personal and political compromise and the conflict between liberty of conscience and totalitarianism, against a backdrop of events which were to shape a country and continent in the second half of the twentieth century. Period 1945 Comedy. Joan Macalpine. Based on the novel by Henry Fielding Tom Jones is rich, ripe and rowdy. Tom, Squire Allworthy's adopted
son, falls victim to the charms of one rustic wench after another,
until at last the Squire grows tired of the trouble he causes and
sends him off to cause it elsewhere. Then Tom becomes entangled with
three women at once: Jenny Waters, a lady of warm heart and generous
virtue, Mrs Fitzpatrick, a society lady seeking diversion from her
oafish husband, and Sophia Western, whom Tom truly loves. Comedy thriller. Norman Robbins The action begins with the reading of the Tomb family will (involving
some millions of pounds) to a pretty sinister family, one member
of which has werewolf tendencies, another wanders around in a toga
in the style of Julius Caesar, a third is a gentle, elderly lady
who plants more than seeds in her flower-beds. By the third act there
are more corpses than live members left in the cast! (in Czech Plays) - Vaclav Havel. Trans B. Day A semi-documentary about the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic
in 1918 written by Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech republic.
When Havel wrote the piece in 1988 he had been declared a 'banned
writer' by the Communist Government and so Tomorrow was produced
anonymously. Play. Anne Chislett. The setting is a farm in rural Ontario, where Jack and Maureen Cooper
have made their lives and raised their many children. But now, nearing
retirement age, Jack (without consulting Maureen) has sold the farm
to one of their sons, Joe, with the thought that he and Maureen can
retire to Florida and a life of ease. However Maureen, who finds
out about the sale from her daughter-in-law, Alice, is devastated
by the prospect of leaving all the things and people who mean so
much to her, and deeply hurt that Jack would make such crucial plans
without her knowledge. Egged on by Lisa, Alice's sister and a radical
feminist lawyer, Maureen decides to go to court to block the sale
- and the fur really begins to fly in the Cooper household. Maureen
moves out and, after forty years as a dutiful wife and mother, starts
her own business; while Jack storms off to Florida by himself. Before
long, however, Jack comes to realize not only that he needs and loves
Maureen, but also that she is an independent and capable human being,
and not merely his chattel. As the play ends he is back, wiser and
more humble, and ready to start a new life and a new marriage - but
this time on terms to which they both agree. Farce. Will Evans and Valentine Aubrey has been left the life interest in a fortune which reverts
on his death to his cousin George. Since George is thought to have
died in Mexico, Aubrey 'dies' and then resurrects himself as cousin
George, thus eliminating his own vast debts. He is obliged to 'die'
and take on other identities twice more to avoid complications, until
the real George turns up, announcing that the Mexican Government
has annexed the fortune. Period 1922 Farce. Will Evans and Valentine, revised by Alan Ayckbourn Alan Ayckbourn's revised version of the first of the famous Aldwych
farces, originally produced in 1922 starring the great farce actor
Ralph Lynn, retains the spirit whilst altering some of the original
letter of the text - changes to verbal jokes, for instance, or to
some of Lynn's uniquely personal gags. The basic story, however,
remains the same. The National Theatre produced this version in 1986
with Michael Gambon and Simon Cadell. |