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Play. Geoffrey Beevers, adapted from the novel by
George Eliot In this rich and humorous portrayal of eighteenth-century rural life,
Geoffrey Beevers remains true to George Eliot's original novel. Adam
Bede, a young carpenter of integrity, loves Hetty Sorrel, a pretty and
self-centred dairymaid, who herself dreams of Arthur Donnithome, the
young squire. Arthur cannot resist seducing her, and their passion has
tragic consequences for the whole community. Fantastic
comedy. J. M. Barrie The time-honoured classic comedy of the butler Crichton and his eccentric
aristocratic master, Lord Loam, marooned on a desert island. Play. Terence Rattigan The Pythia had warned Alexander that only self-conquest could fit a
man to conquer the world. Sure of his destiny, Alexander pursues his
vision of a world living in a united concord under his rule. He captures
the enormous empire of Darius of Persia, but the demon that forces him
to press on to Bactria and then India corrupts his purpose and his vision.
He grows despotic, suspicious and ruthless, killing all who question
his divinity. He dies at thirty-one, having achieved his conquests but
brutally aware of their futility. Period Ancient Greek The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Play.
Adapted by Matthew Francis from the novel by Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn's adventurous journey along the Mississippi is skilfully
captured in Matthew Francis' superb adaptation of Mark Twain's classic
novel. First produced at the Greenwich Theatre, this exciting approach
to Twain's epic thrives on the use of minimal set and prop devices to
illustrate the many locations. A truly imaginative, both moral and humorous,
tale of discovery with flexible casting opportunities. Period 19th century THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III Drama. Carlyle Brown. 5 men, 2 women. Unit Set Earning their income with satires of white high society, the African
Company came to be known for debunking the sacred status of the English
classics (which many politically and racially motivated critics said
were beyond the scope of black actors). Inside the Company's ranks, similar
debates raged about whether to mimic the English tongue, or to provide
a more lively interpretation of white theatre by acknowledging the vibrancy
of the black experience (in the words of the African Company's manager:
"say ya Shakespeare like ya want." Shakespeare is the chosen cultural
battleground in this inventive retelling of a little known, yet pivotal
event in the African Company's history. Knowing they are always under
prejudicial pressures from white society, and facing their own internal
shakeups, the African Company battles for time, space, audiences and
togetherness. Their competition, Stephen Price, an uptown, Broadway-type
impresario, is producing Richard III at the same time as the African
Company's production is in full swing. Price has promised a famous English
actor overflowing audiences if he plays Richard in Price's theatre. Fearing
the competition of the African Company's production, which is garnering
large white audiences, Price manipulates the law and closes down the
theatre. The Company rebounds and finds a space right next door to Price's
theatre. At the rise of curtain of the next performance, Price causes
the arrest of some of the actors in a trumped-up riot charge. The play
ends with the Company, surviving, its integrity intact, and about to
launch an equally progressive new chapter in the American theatre: they'll
soon be producing the first black plays written by black Americans of
their day. Play. Timberlake Wertenbaker It's 1831 and the naturalist Charles Darwin is to travel with Robert FitzRoy into uncharted waters off the coast of South America aboard The Beagle. So far, so factual. But for Millie, Ian and Tom, getting to grips with a 1998 stage version of events includes uncovering the polarities both in and between their own lives. The exploration of nineteenth-century philosophical tensions, with the staunch solidity of FitzRoy's Christian ideals sparring with Darwin's slowly dawning radical vision, provokes unsuspected emotions in the present-day director and actors. Drama. Anne Devlin. 5 men, 6 women (flexible casting). Unit Set Greta, an Irish ex-patriot living in England, has been experiencing
religious visions for years. Or are they merely signs of a mental disorder
whose roots lie in Greta's upbringing? A strident non-believer, Greta
has tried to suppress these episodes, but stress from a crumbling marriage
and the birth of her third child have pushed her to the brink of suicide.
At the opening of the play, Greta recounts fleeing a party and sitting
in the middle of a road where she's nearly hit by a bus. Discharged from
the mental hospital that took her in, Greta visits her two sisters: Helen,
a commercial artist who adopts an American accent to hide her heritage;
and Aoife, a not-so-strict Catholic who has married and moved only minutes
away from her childhood home. But on her first night out of hospital,
Greta has a vision of a female banshee entering her room. That night,
the sisters learn of their father's heart attack and they return home
to a confrontation with their overpowering mother, the Church and their
father's death. Play. James Saunders Any number of characters. . (Published with Games.) Playing time
one to one and a half hours according to use made of material Play. Rodney Ackland After October is Ackland's most autobiographical play. It shows a feckless family in the grip of poverty, with a young playwright, Clive, scenting the possibilities of escape to affluence and extravagance. But Clive's play is a failure and his beloved Frances opts for his rival Brian. A loan helps Clive until his novel will be completed and everything will be all right 'after October'. The mood lightens - only the creditors are heavy. Play. Anne Meara. 4 men, 3 women. Interior. Set in the newest "in" Manhattan restaurant, the play opens with an
ethereal waiter preparing for the arrival of a party of four. Just as
the two couples are about to enter, it magically begins to snow making
the night perfect for a cozy after-theatre supper. The two middle-aged
couples, Marty and Terry, and Renee and Phil, old friends reuniting after
three years, have just seen a new Broadway play. Shedding the formality
of the theatre, the four friends settle into the comfort of the restaurant,
order cocktails and begin to reacquaint themselves. The years and distance
separating them have changed them more than they thought. Discussing
the play and playing catch-up leads to little arguments and major differences
of opinion. More drinks are ordered and apologies ease the way into dinner
over which are discussed sex, the wearing of fur, matters of health and
problems with their children. Time and distance aside, these couple know
each other very well and will always be close friends. A third couple,
Emily and Matt, acquaintances of Marty and Terry, stop by the table to
say hello. After introductions, they are convinced to stay for a nightcap
even though Emily has already had too much to drink The nightcap sends
her over the edge, and when the recent tragic death of her son is brought
up, the uncomfortable situation is made worse. Emily makes a drunken,
public spectacle of herself, forcing Matt to all but carry her out of
the restaurant. The ugliness of the moment is not lost on Mary. Terry,
Renee and Phil, all of whom are deeply effected. Having shared painful
secrets and made new discoveries about one another, the four put their
disagreements and arguments behind them and forge ahead in friendship
until next time. Play. Jimmie Chinn The staff of the Gwendolen Kyte School for Girls are an odd assortment
of social misfits and eccentric types. Returning for a new term they
face a catalogue of catastrophe and tension reaches breaking point when
a government inspector arrives with anonymous letters defaming the school
as outmoded, old-fashioned and unsafe, and the staff as unqualified.
Who could have betrayed them? And if the school is closed down, where
will they go? A warm and touching depiction of female relationships,
with several excellent roles for older actresses. Comedy. William Douglas Home This delightful comedy was seen at the Old Vic in 1985 starring Patrick
Cargill and Anthony Quayle. The annual Drayton Castle Hunt Ball is held
on the very night that the Bill outlawing fox hunting passes through
the House of Lords. This inauspicious start to the evening only serves
to herald further confusion and disaster! 'He [William Douglas Home] loves
his characters, knows their world intimately and he sends you away with
a warm regard for their eccentricities.' Spectator Terence Rattigan Set in the Mayfair flat of a high-living, hard-drinking, successful
writer, David, the play turns on his involvement with two women, his
wife Joan and an earnest minded younger woman, Helen. Joan commits suicide.
David considers following her but instead returns to a life of parties
and drinking. A magnificent tragic play by a great modern writer. First
staged to enormous acclaim in 1939, just before the outbreak of war,
and then neglected until the 1994 BBC TV revival. Arthur Miller - Drama 12M 11F Flexible staging A powerful and moving study of a contemporary man struggling to come to terms with himself and his world by probing back into the revealing and often painful events of the past. Intertwining images of the past bring back the memories of inquisition when men were asked to name names of those who had joined with them in a communism that they mistook for a better future. Millers most mature piece of work. Play. John Bowen The time is '200 years after the Rain of 1969' and the action is a paraphrase of the Bible, commencing with the ark and the flood and ending with the sacrifice of the god-figure. A vital youth and a girl are introduced to the rituals of the community led by Arthur, who believes himself divine. Another man becomes his priest and establishes a ritual-ablutions, confession, audiences, sacrifices, etc. But Arthur is disabused of his godly notions and convinced that he was only possessed by God and was only his vicar. It is he who must be sacrificed. Comedy. Ben Travers This sophisticated, saucy, fast-moving comedy takes place in the heat-wave
summer of 1935 and centres on Dottie, young, attractive and slightly
dizzy, whose vocabulary seems devoid of the word 'no'. Her overt kindness
and soft-heartedness leads her into a life of turmoil as, in her endeavours
to please everyone all of the time, she indulges in several affairs with
complicated and desperate results! |