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Play. Anthony Minghella An acutely sensitive, moving portrayal of the lives of a group of
women which reflects the attitudes and feelings of women today, depicted
in a series of settings which flow gently into each other. Caroline
pregnant by one of her boyfriends, escapes to her seaside birthplace
where she is visited by friends. The reaction of these women to each
other whilst awaiting the birth is sympathetically told and we become
totally involved in the heights and depths of their collective emotions
and thoughts. Play. David Berry. The scene is a beach house on an island off the Maine coast, where
two widowed sisters, Sarah Walker and Elizabeth Strong, have been
summering for many years, Elizabeth, the eldest and now blind, has
grown increasingly reclusive and irritable, as she progressively
closes down each of her senses while awaiting "the escort" who will
carry her off to join her late husband. Sarah, much younger and still
incurably romantic, now tends her sister, repaying the debt which
was incurred when their mother died and the older sister assumed
maternal responsibilities. Wistful and autumnal in mood, the play
focuses on the seemingly insignificant events of their ordered lives:
whether to install a picture window in order to get a better view
of the whales who pass by at summer's end; and Elizabeth's guarded
reaction to the charming Russian emigre who, in need of a place to
stay, works his wiles on the still impressionable Sarah. In the end
the play concludes as quietly as it began, but the two sisters have
come to decisions which, for them, are both momentous and filled
with the bittersweet recognition that life, despite the alterations
of time, must continue as best it can. What Are Little Girls Made Of? Comedy. Peter Coke Isabel Merryweather runs an antique shop with her Rear-Admiral father.
One of her eccentric customers leaves a baby temporarily in the shop
and Isabel's strong maternal instincts are aroused. Assisted by her
most eccentric visitor of all she sets about an unconventional adoption
plan. The unexpected results are astonishingly successful, and the
ensuing flood of babies leads to frenetic complications and eventually
to a highly original, if questionable, plan of operation, affecting
not least the Rear-Admiral. Comedy. J. M. Barrie The Wylie family are concerned about Maggie who is still unmarried.
Then one night Maggie finds the local railway porter, John Shand,
surreptitiously studying in their library. Alick, Maggie's father,
offers to help, provided that after five years John will offer himself
to Maggie as a husband. Years later, Maggie finally wins John's heart
for real by proving just how much his success has been owed to her
wit and humour. Period 1900 Play. A.R. Gurney. The setting is a well-to-do vacation colony on the shores of Lake
Erie: the time 1945, during the final stages of World War II. Charlie,
an incipiently rebellious 14-year-old, is spending summer with his
mother and sister (his father is fighting in the Pacific) before
going off to an expensive boarding school in the autumn. Although
he intended to spend the summer loafing and socializing with his
friends; the need for spending money forces him to take a job as
handyman for an iconoclastic, bohemian art teacher, Anna Trumbull,
a former member of the "upper crust" who has lost both her fortune
and her regard for the ideals of her upbringing. Sensing a kindred
spirit in Charlie, she tries to stretch his mind by teaching him
painting and sculpture - and exposing him to "radical" ideas about
life and love which, in time, persuade Charlie to reject the notion
of going back to school. The result is a family crisis and, more
specifically, a showdown between Anna and Charlie's conservative
mother; a clash of philosophies which raises as many questions as
it answers and, in the end, stimulates the selfawareness which will
shape the man Charlie is destined to become. Play. Philip Osment On a dilapidated West Country farm in 1963, Morley is coping with
puberty and the tangles of love within his family. Mother has temporarily
walked out and Morley is drawn to Andy, one of a pair of Scottish
hitchhikers who seek shelter at the farm. But things are not as they
seem on the surface and Morley's habit of telling tales on his seniors
hastens the crisis. Black comedy. Joe Orton Dr Prentice is a psychiatrist who believes that the best way to interview a girl for a job is to seduce her. Geraldine does her best to comply. Mrs Prentice, who has seduced a page boy, brings him home with her, just as a state inspector pays a visit. What ensues is a wild melee of disappearances, disguises and discoveries as husband and wife try to hide their prizes from one another and the state inspector. Drama. Julian Sheppard. Daphne, Roy and Jen have all slept with the same man, Carlo, unsafely.
Carlo had been dating Jen, and Roy and Daphne's affairs with him
had been secret. When they learn Carlo is HIV positive, secrets find
their way into the light. Daphne and Roy both start relationships
with new men. Craig, whom Roy had introduced to Daphne, seems to
be a solid, dependable guy. But, after a few dates, Craig learns
that Daphne might be positive, and he cannot handle it. Jen meets
Adam and thinks he's perfect for Roy. Their first date is right after
Roy has learned that he is HIV positive, but Adam is willing to try
a relationship. Jen learns she is negative - Daphne, that she's positive.
Everyone tries to pick up the pieces of their lives. Adam seems unaffected
by Roy being positive. Craig tries to win Daphne back into his life
and fails. Daphne, trying to repair her relationship with the media-hungry
Jen, goes on a talk show, but due to Jen's machinations, the appearance
backfires. Jen and Daphne stop speaking. Adam reveals that he is
drawn to the idea of being the one to take care of Roy when he becomes
ill. Jen, racked by self-loathing, seeks to cauterise her emotions
through a self-destructive act. Craig tries one last time to convince
Daphne that he can be there for her. Plagued by self-doubt, she succumbs
to him. Craig sees the extent of Daphne's uncertainty and need and
pulls away from her even as she clings to him. Comedy. Conrad Seiler. Professor Delwyn C. Coots, the great authority on the young women,
begins his famous lecture, "What's Wrong With the Girls."
Being a truthful man as well as a scientist, the professor finds
plenty wrong: the way girls walk, talk, dress, fall in love, marry,
etc. To make his lecture more telling the professor has two actors
demonstrate all these faults. However, this scientific demonstration
is interrupted by a young woman, Miss Hazel Duckworth, who indignantly
gets up from her seat in the audience and challenges the professor's
facts. Then with the assistance of two other actors, she shows up
the human male as considerably worse than his female counterpart. Comedy. E Andrew Leslie from the novel by George Goodman. From the top of his Stetson to the tip of his fancy cowboy boots,
Henry Tyroon, independent oil wild-catter, is pure wheeler dealer
- a larger-than-life-sized combination of supersalesmanship, big
ideas, and an unerring instinct for a quick profit. From his natural
habitat of Texas, Henry comes to New York in search of "mullets" (which
is Texas-talk for well-heeled potential investors) but his attention
is diverted when he meets the attractive Molly Thatcher, a struggling
young Wall Street securities analyst. Molly's interest in Henry derives
from the fact that she hopes to sell him shares in Universal Widget,
a mysterious little company which has been turned over to Molly as
her last chance to make good and hold her job. Henry's interest in
Molly is of a more romantic sort, but he is delighted to chat about
widgets (for openers), after which it's on to a series of wild escapades
- ending up first in the clutches of the Justice Department (they
are innocent, as it turns out) and then in each other's arms. When Did You Last See Your Trousers? Farce. Ray Galton and John Antrobus. Based on a story by Ray Galton
and Alan Simpson This hilarious farce begins quietly enough with Howard and Penny
asleep in bed, when a burglar enters and steals various items, including
Howard's suit! Awakening, Howard announces his intention to get back
to the wife; but how is he to make it to Esher without his trousers,
having been left only vest and pants by the burglar'? '... Brilliantly
constructed farce ... achingly funny ... ' Guardian Federico Garcia Lorca. Translated by Gwynne Edwards Of all of Lorca's plays this is perhaps the most experimental, demonstrating his strong interest in surrealism. In the play dreams are mixed with reality, characters and events are presented in no particular order and there is no definable plot. Time is also uncertain. The dreamlike quality of this play offers excellent opportunities for sound, lighting and set design. When I was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout Play. Sharman Macdonald 'Sharman Macdonald recounts with sympathy and deliciously rude detail, the sexual misadventures and misconceptions of Fiona, growing up with her repressive mother and best friend Vari in 1950s Scotland. She shows how the girls' excitement and expectations atrophy, so that in their thirties they have become sober stereotypes of the modern woman.' Time Out. Sharman Macdonald won the Evening Standard Drama Award for the Most Promising Playwright in 1984. Play. Martin Sherman Isadora Duncan, way past her prime as a dancer and haunted by the
death of her two children, has to rely on her legendary reputation
to raise money for the founding of dancing schools in Europe. Her
marriage to Russian revolutionary poet Esenin and her multi-lingual
Bohemian household in 1923 Paris are deftly recreated and a sprightly
dialogue illuminates a wide variety of subjects: the thrill of destructive
passion; language and understanding; and the transience of fame. Play. Don Taylor In an unnamed country at an unspecified time, the Barbarians seize power in a bloodless coup. Insidiously, they take over institutions, reintroducing slavery with the weak crushed and democracy dead. Adrian, a playwright/artistic director, fears for theatre's survival and sells his soul to provide the bloodthirsty, crude, vulgar fare the Barbarians demand-a gala performance of Oedipus with the actor on stage literally blinded and Richard III with a real death. Comedy. Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke Based on the popular TV sit-corn George and Mildred, this
is a riotously funny comedy. Mildred has organised a second honeymoon
in France for herself and George but he is not keen on her idea.
Mildred's sister, Ethel, turns up, having left her husband Humphrey.
Then Humphrey arrives, so the women set off for France. It
isn't long before Humphrey gets George into trouble involving a date
with two girls and the unexpected return of their wives! Play. Raymond Briggs Raymond Briggs's stage version of his famous anti-nuclear cartoon
parable is passionately on the side of sanity and survival. Jim and
Hilda Bloggs, a retired couple, hear on the radio that a pre-emptive
strike is on the way. Armed with Government leaflets, in which he
places all his faith, Jim constructs a refuge for them both, and
gathers emergency rations. They emerge after the bomb to find a devastated
post-holocaust world. Yorkshire farcical comedy. J. B. Priestley Twenty-five years ago, the Helliwells, the Parkers and the Soppitts
were married on the same day by the same parson. They gather at the
Helliwell home to celebrate their silver wedding. The new chapel
organist tells them that he recently met the parson who conducted
the triple wedding ceremony - he was not authorised to do so. Pandemonium
breaks out when these pillars of society believe they have been living
in sin for twenty-five years. Period 1900 Drama. Henrik Ibsen, translated by Michael Meyer After four years abroad, Arnold Rubek, a sculptor renowned for his
statue "Resurrection Day," and his young wife Maja are staying at
a mountain resort where Maja becomes interested in another guest,
the virile bear-hunter Ulfheim. Also at the resort is Irene von Satow,
whom Rubek recognizes as the model for the work that had made him
famous. He learns from her that she had loved him passionately at
that time. On his part, however, he had merely used her to inspire
his art. Irene invites him up into the mountains, and this expedition
coincides with a plan made by Maja and Ulfheim. As they proceed,
Rubek confesses to Irene that he has been tortured by the realisation
that his rejection of her was a denial of life, for which art has
proved a poor substitute. He begs her to give him another chance,
saying that his marriage with Maja has become unbearable. Irene rejects
his plea, telling him that they are both dead and that there is no
resurrection in this life. Urging him on to the heights, Irene leads
Rubek upward. They pass the other couple, who are descending to escape
an oncoming storm. Rubek now calls on his lost love to awaken so
that they may live life to the fullest before they go to their graves.
Striving toward the sunlit peak, Rubek and Irene are buried in an
avalanche as Maja's song of freedom rings out from farther down the
mountain. When You Comin' Back Red Ryder? Play. Mark Medof. The scene is an all-night diner in a sleepy southwestern town, the
time early Sunday morning, when the night attendant, young Stephen
(Red) Ryder, is about to turn his duties over to his daytime counterpart,
Angel. Her friend Lyle, who runs the filling station-and motel across
the road, stops by for breakfast, followed by an affluent young couple
en route to New Orleans. With the arrival of another couple, Teddy
and Cheryl, the existing calm quickly vanishes. Their car, in which
they are smuggling marijuana into California, has broken down, and
while they wait for it to be repaired, Teddy begins to taunt and
then bully the others in the diner. With black, sardonic humour he
gets at each in turn, stripping away their pretensions and exposing
their innermost secrets and fears. They are soon his helpless victims,
too terrified to resist as he binds and robs them before heading
off down the highway, this time alone. In the end the others, after
freeing themselves, realise that they have come through their ordeal
without serious harm - at least physically. But for each a searing
moment of truth has been faced and, in a deeper sense, they know
that they have been changed more than they would have the desire,
or perhaps courage, to admit. Play. Terrence McNally. Constructed as a series of vignettes, skits and brief incidents,
the play portrays the life and attitude of one Tommy Flowers - irrepressible
cut-up, determined freeloader, and disenchanted rebel against society.
In the course of his adventures he befriends a destitute old actor,
acquires an over-sized sheep dog (his best friend), and finds love
with a beautiful music student (whom he meets in the ladies' room
at Bloomingdale's). But as Tommy moves from scene to scene, his bright
red shopping bag at the ready for pilfering and his agile wit poised
to hoodwink everyone in sight, we also glimpse the root causes of
his alienation - his ailing, complaining mother back home; an unhappily
married brother; a former girl friend who has settled for a suffocating
domesticity; and a venturing forth which has brought more rejection
than acceptance. In the end, betrayed yet again, but still buoyantly
defiant, Tommy devises his final rip-off - a bomb to blow him, and
at least some small portion of a world he cannot accept, into oblivion. Comedy. William Inge. As Richard Watts, Jr. comments, Although Mr. Inge is fair and sympathetic
to both sides, it would seem that he inclines slightly to the cause
of the older generation. This, however, is one,'of the deftest touches
in 'his treatment of the subject. For maturity, as it may be described
at least technically, is represented by two unlikely prospects, a
foolish, innocent and bewildered mother and a matronly bachelor unhampered
by any illusions of masculinity. Yet how likeable both of them turn
out to be! They are confronted by quite a problem, too. A boy, who
happens to have been adopted by the bachelor, and a girl,.who is
the unworldly lady's daughter, have got themselves married and are
about to have a child, and the thought alarms the young pair. The
boy wants his freedom and the girl wants to prove her independence
by giving it to him, and they have agreed to send the baby to an
institution for adoption when it arrives. And it arrives unexpectedly,
and amid great alarm...Mr. Inge is good-naturetí but he is
also sharp and can be witty. Instead of getting in the way of the
seriousness of his point of view, the humour emphasizes it ...The
foolishness of the girl's naive, mother is made honestly moving,
the sentimental reconciliation of the boy and girl is believably
touching, and the scenes of the peculiar bachelors are downright
hilarious." John Webster The Italian Court is rich with corruption. The Duke Brascino is
openly seducing a married woman, Vittoria, while plotting the murder
of his own wife. Vittoria's brother, Flamineo, a cold-blooded murderer,
tries to exploit his position as Brascino's servant and pander. Finally,
Brascino's enemies, outraged by his perversions seek a vicious revenge.
First performed in 1612, most recently revived by the RSC in 1997. Drama. Lillian Garrett-Groag. In 1942 a group of students of the University of Munich chose to actively protest the atrocities of the Nazi regime and to advocate that Germany lose the war as the only way to overthrow Hitler's regime. Asking for resistance and sabotage of the war effort, among other things, they published their thoughts in five separate anonymous leaflets which they titled "The White Rose," and which were distributed throughout Germany and Austria during the summer of 1942 and the winter of 1943. When captured, the police inspector of the town, Robert Mohr, is intrigued by Sophie, the youngest of the conspirators, and the only girl among them. Mohr, who doesn't really take the crime of passing leaflets so seriously, knows that the Third Reich does, and is pressured by a superior, Mahler, to obtain a conviction. Mohr wants to save Sophie from certain execution and tries to get her to sign a confession saying she didn't know what she was doing and that she was misled by the others. But Sophie counters with why she is fighting for what is right, the meaning of pride and when it counts and the loyalty she feels to the others, especially her brother who is a leader in the group. The conversations between Sophie and Mohr, and the interrogation scenes of the other conspirators reveal a complex group of people, all clinging to beliefs which ultimately can not be fulfilled at this point in time. In the end, all in The White Rose group are executed, and the Nazi regimes continues its devastation until the end of World War II. Felonious comedy. L. du Garde Peach and Ian Hay James is head of a criminal family. To their horror, son Peter falls
in love with Angela, daughter of Assistant Commissioner Preston of
Scotland Yard, and decides to go straight. James discovers the identity
of a mystery thief: it is none other than Angela. With such a bride,
there is no need for Peter to go straight; the Winters can be a united
family once more. A Whitman Portrait: Staged Reading Paul Shyre. As Thomas Lask describes: "It is not a collection of anthology pieces,
but a sketch of what Whitman, his personality and his life were like.
The passionate faith in man, the buoyant egalitarianism, the humanitarian,
the mystic and prophet, the man who affirmed the body as well as
the soul, who saw old age and death part of the cycle of life, the
great yea-sayer are all celebrated in Mr. Shyre's dramatization.
He tracks Walt from his early days on Long Island and in Brooklyn,
including his affection for New York (he was an early and con firmed
Manhattanite) through what was the central experience of his life
and that bf his generation - the Civil War. Walt's misery as he sits
61 watching the wounded and dying is movingly conveyed and the graphic
account of Lincoln's assassination is easily the high point of the
evening Walt's writing of "Leaves of Grass," and what the book meant
to him, his illness and decline, and his calm acceptance of death
occupy the second half of the evening ..." and round out, with poignant
effectiveness, this portrait through his own words of one of our
most memorable, vital and exultant poets. |