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Play.
Jean Anouilh. Translated by Lewis Galantière This play was first performed in German-occupied France and its theme is resistance to oppression. It is based on the Greek tragedy of Antigone, who tried to bury her brother's corpse against the diktat of her uncle, Creon. Creon is a dictator, but defends his position on practical grounds. In spite of her love for Creon's son, she chooses her part: to bury her brother and die. Play.
Jean Anouilh. Translated by Barbara Bray Play.
Bertolt Brecht A prologue set in 1945 Berlin shows two sisters whose brother has deserted from the German army and is found hanged: should they risk being seen by the SS cutting his body down? In the play itself Creon becomes a brutal aggressor, who has attacked Argos for the sake of its iron ore. Tiresias, instead of prophesying the future, becomes a pessimistic analyst of the present; while the chorus of elders, always reserved in its attitude, eventually turns against Creon too.
Play Jules Feiffer. 4 men, 1 woman. Interior. Once a renowned Broadway playwright, but now a disenchanted screenwriter,
Anthony Rose has taken to travelling around the country visiting
regional theatre groups who are producing his famous comedy success, The
Parent Lesson. His aim is to rewrite the play on the spot to
reflect his changed perspectives, and td reflect the events in his
life which, he believes, have given the lie to the motives which
guided him when he first wrote the play some 25 years earlier. Then
he was a neglected, angry son; now he is a neglected husband and
father who has left his wife and feels that his son cares only for
his money. So far some nine theatres; upset by his disruptive tactics,
have shown him the door but finally, in Kansas City, he finds a receptive
director - and sets about working his "magic."
Ignoring the objections of the actors, Rose adds new scenes, changes
relationships between the characters and even transforms the very
natures of the figures in the play. Consistently funny as they struggle
to deal with these wild aberrations, the cast members begin to pull
back as an underlying tone of arrogance and viciousness becomes more
overt until, at last, Rose, having alienated the director, seduced
the ingenue and insulted the topbilled actor, ends up taking over
the lead role himself. He has, he believes, finally succeeded in
finding the "truth" so long obscured in his play but, as an ironic
coda (which takes place three years later) makes clear, the means
have fallen far short of justifying the ends. Comedy. Muriel Resnik. 2 men, 2 women. Interior. The president of a large corporation is using the executive suite
to house his young mistress, whom he sees once a week A young man
who has sold his factory to the middle-aged romancer is upset to
find it about to be closed for tax advantages. Directed to the suite
by a new secretary, he comes upon the girl, then the wife and finally
the president. But the plot takes nice little turns. When the young
man meets the mistress she tells him that he was misdirected, that
his is not the executive suite but 'a special arrangement - like
a scholarship.' Eyeing the diamond necklace she received for a birthday
gift, he remarks, 'You must have made dean's list.' When the wife
finds them she assumes they are a nice young married couple and between
the playful pretence of the two and the older woman's romantic concern
for them, Miss Resnik builds a delightful scene ... With the completion
of the mixed-up quartet by the husband's return, the fun bubbles
happily along - it is a happy comedy with the giddy bubble of champagne. Play. Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner Max and his lover Suzy have concocted a plot to kill Max's wife
Janet, with ten thousand pounds insurance money as an added bonus.
Their plan is for Janet to have a sailing 'accident'. Then two unexpected
visitors arrive, in the shape of George and Mary Tickle well, who
have an eye on the money, with murder plans of their own. Thus begins
an intriguing round of plot and counter-plot, with a final, unexpected
twist. Comedy. Derek Ziegfeld In this merry comedy of marital mishaps the scene is set for an
evening and morning of riotous misunderstandings and mistaken identities
as the guilty parties in question try desperately to keep their romantic
secrets secret! Your audience will be kept on a roar for two hours
and at the end of the play we realise that the complications and
confrontations - far from ending - are only just beginning ... Farcical Comedy John Patrick. 7 men, 3 women. Unit Set Poor Oliver Pankey is a born loser. His landlady charges him when
someone else breaks his window. His fiancée leaves him for
a married man. His boss at the bank cuts his pay when he asks for
a raise. And a thief takes everything he has - including his only
suit. As the last straw, when he visits a doctor to check on the
results of a blood test the files get switched and he is told that
he'll be dead within six months. Fed up, and reconciled to his fate,
Oliver turns into a raging lion, performing feats of dazzling bravery
and ending up as the new branch manager of the bank. He even agrees
to help the FBI by becoming a sitting duck for a gangland shoot-out
- only to learn, at the eleventh hour, of the doctor's horrendous
error. Needless to say our stalwart hero's knees turn suddenly to
jelly, but the action spins zanily on, deftly finding its way to
a happy - and hilarious - conclusion. Play. Wendy MacLeod. 2 men, 3 women. Unit set Cooped up in their cramped cottage in a remote part of Maine, Hank
and Muriel Tarer are beginning to get on each others nerves. They
have still not agreed on a name for their sevenweek-old daughter,
Muriel refuses to accept motherhood and housework as a full time
occupation, Hank is having an affair with a busty checkout girl ar
the local IGA store and, to top it all off, Hanks father has dumped
a load of totem poles in their front yard, hoping to jar Hank out
of his "traditional thought patterns."
In fact, a general shaking-up is what Hank and Muriel need if they
are to overcome the resentment and constant bickering which have
beset their young marriage and, in a series of wildly funny scenes,
that is exactly what they get. It all comes to a boil when Muriel
catches Hank in the arms of Trudi, his supermarket bimbo, but as
things can't get worse they actually (and miraculously) get better,
much to the bemusement of Hank's delightfully eccentric parents.
In truth, Hank and Muriel really do love each other, and somehow
Hanks infidelity, and the anguish he feels when he is found out,
mark a sea change for both of them, leading to their joint recognition
that, to find the happiness which has eluded them thus far, they
must seek out the "transcendence" which, they know, can yet transform
and enrich a marriage well worth saving.
Play. Kathleen Tolan. 2 men, 5 women (double casting). Fran and Molly are best friends; Molly is already a mother and is
expecting again, but Fran is approaching 40 and has yet to find a
potential father, let alone husband, amid a comic slew of failed
suitors and blind dates, each of whom we hear about in hysterically
funny and embarrassing detail during Fran and Molly's frequent days
out together. When Molly delivers, Fran is so moved and slightly
envious that she sets out to explore the possibilities of single
motherhood, eventually winding up with a shady lawyer who will arrange
for Fran to adopt an unwanted baby if she'll cover the mother's medical
costs. Meanwhile, the mother, an Indiana teenager named Jen, is debating
her decision to give up the baby. When the baby is born, Fran makes
the mistake of showing up at the hospital where she accidentally
runs into Jen and begins to realise that she's just taken part in
an illegal adoption. After she's returned to the city with the baby,
Fran has dreams about the baby's natural mother that haunt her, along
with the doubts about the impact of what she's done, even as baby
Tara sustains her. Comedy. John Godber Bet and A1 lead a quiet, humdrum life in their small Yorkshire home
until Bet wins a 'Romantic Breaks' competition in a magazine. The
prize, a holiday in Paris, represents their first experience abroad
and has profound effects on the way they look at the world around
them once they return home. They sort out French cuisine, wrestle
with their phrase book, and fend off would-be muggers on the Metro
in this hilarious depiction of the English abroad. |