 |
|
Baal. Play.
Bertolt Brecht Baal, a poet and singer, drunk, lazy, selfish and ruthless, seduces (among others) a disciple's seventeen year-old mistress, who drowns herself. He mixes with tramps and drivers and sings in a cheap nightclub. With his friend the composer Ekart he wanders through the country, drinking and fighting. Sophie, pregnant by him, follows them and likewise drowns herself. Baal seduces Ekart's mistress, then kills him. Hunted by the police and deserted by the woodcutters, he dies alone in a forest hut. in (The Evil Doers & The Baby) : Chris
Hannan Set in Rome in 78 BC with dagger-men on the street, the mob rioting,
and bodies dumped in the Tiber, The Baby is an epic, complete
with heightened language, earth-shattering emotion, weighty moral
dilemmas, low-brow comedy and disturbing bloody tragedy. It is also
a simple love story. Comedy. Peter Hedges. 3 men, 2 women, 2 boys. Unit Set. "Bringing up baby" takes on new meaning for a successful young couple
who start living their lives through their baby boy when he is cast
in an award-winning commercial - as a girl! Their lives are turned
upside down and the spoils of success bring unexpected results in
this surprising, twisted comedy. Told in twenty-seven scenes, beginning
in the present and spanning ten years, Baby Anger presents
a timely discourse on the trend of casting our children in the all-too-bright
limelight. Comedy. Christopher Durang. 2 men, 3 women. Unit set As the play begins Helen and John gaze proudly at their new offspring,
a bit disappointed that it doesn't speak English and too polite to
check its sex. So they decide that the child is a girl and name it
Daisy - which leads to all manner of future emotional and personality
problems when it turns out that Daisy is actually a boy. Thereafter,
in a series of brilliantly theatrical and wildly hilarious scenes,
the saga of Daisy's struggle to establish his identity continues,
despite his parents' growing obliviousness. At the outset there is
a zany nanny who gives him a lethal toy to play with; then the small
problem of Daisy's penchant, as a toddler, for throwing himself in
front of buses; then his bizarre problems in school; and, finally,
the sessions with his analyst which enable him, at last, to accept
his maleness and stop wearing dresses. In the end the play comes
full circles as the former Daisy and his young bride fondly regard
their own baby - forgiving of the past but determined not to repeat
its calamitous mistakes. Play. Timothy Mason, 5 men, 5 women; unit. Bill and Jean are a young couple living in New York's East Village
struggling to overcome the death in childbirth of their first-born.
Bill's job as a nurse/anaesthetist brings him face to face with life's
harsh realities on a daily basis. Jean is a painter valiantly endeavouring
to paint again. Day after day she brings her easel to the East River
where she finds a good urban landscape to paint and where one day
she also finds Hector, a young boy who fishes there, and who Jean
tries to take under her wing. While Bill finds solace in the memories
of his elderly patients and in helping Opal, a homeless woman, Jean
attempts to get to know Hector, only to have him turn on her in a
scene of terrifying violence. Retreating to a world of her own as
a result of the attack, Jean remains city-shocked and incapable of
action. Bill, needing to commit himself to something, no matter what,
brings Opal to live in the room he and Jean had been preparing for
their lost child. Play. Euripides, translated by Neil
Curry A lively, modern English translation of Euripides' last and greatest play which depicts the turbulent arrival of the Dionysian religion in Greece. Euripides.
Trans K. McLeish & F. Raphael First performed in Athens in 405 BC this bloodthirsty story still
has a timeless theatrical power. The half-god Dionysos returns to
Thebes intent on punishing his family for rejecting him. Dionysos
persuades his cousin Pentheus, King of Thebes, to disguise himself
as a woman so he can witness the Theban women celebrating the wild
Bacchanalian rites. Pentheus's mother mistakes Pentheus for a lion
and tears him to pieces. But that only marks the beginning of Dionysos's
revenge. Play. Milan Stitt. 2 men, 1 woman. Unit Set Returning to the now ramshackle country house where he had spent
his boyhood summers, Jonathan Edwards VII, a direct descendant of
the famous 18th century Calvinist preacher, wants to learn why his
late father willed the place to the aging caretaker, Cliff, who now
lives on there with his assumed daughter, a half-Indian girl named
Zabrina. Sensing unanswered questions in the relationship between
Cliff, who had served several generations of his family, and his
father, Jonathan seeks answers, only to be met with antagonism and
the threat of violence. But as he probes deeper he also confronts
the disturbing truth of his forebears' often destructive singlemindedness
- from those who ravaged souls in order to save them, to those who
despoiled the land in search of wealth and power. In the end Jonathan
and Zabrina (who may, in truth, be his half-sister) symbolically
burn the Edwards family album, thereby exorcising the ghosts of the
past and, at last, freeing themselves to deal with the present -
and the future - as individuals in control of their own destinies. Play. Simon Bent A group of twenty-somethings hangs out on the sea-front of a northern
resort at the end of the summer season, finding little to relieve
the futility and boredom of their lives: they gamble in amusement
arcades, bicker in cafes, lust on the beach ... Casual sex, mindless
violence and comic clashes of outlook permeate this entertaining,
contemporary and humane play which paints a believable, touching
portrait of modern youth. Comedy. Terrence McNally. Both plays can be performed by the same cast, as each calls for 6 men and 2 women. 6 men, 2 women. Simple Unit Sets. In the first play, Dunelawn, we are in an expensive retreat
for the unhappily married, where the wheel-chaired director, Dr.
Pepper, dispenses a definitely unique sort of marital guidance. His
theory includes complete indulgence of such "bad habits" as smoking,
drinking and sexual promiscuity - which seems to work wonders for
his patients, whose wacky case histories are each examined in hilarious
detail. In the second play, Ravenswood, the approach is quite
the opposite. Here the saintly Dr. Toynbee injects his straight-jacketed
charges with tranquilising drugs to calm such urges - but again the
catalogue of aberrations revealed in his patients is subjected to
close, and enormously funny, scrutiny. Thriller. Maxwell Anderson from William March's novel. 7 men, 4 women, 1 small girl. Interior. The scene is a small southern town where Colonel and Christine Penmark
live with their daughter, Rhoda. Little Rhoda Penmark is the evil
queen of the story. On the surface she is sweet, charming, full of
old-fashioned graces, loved by her parents, admired by all her elders.
But Rhoda's mother has an uneasy feeling about her. When one of Rhoda's
schoolmates is mysteriously drowned at a picnic, Mrs. Penmark is
alarmed. For the boy who was drowned was the one who had won the
penmanship medal that Rhoda felt she deserved! Robert Holman: 3m 3f. Drama. Multipurpose set. Following a fight at a local Chinese in Middlesborough in which
a man is badly injured, one man is sent to prison. The other man
involved goes free, but it is a freedom full of burden. Out of the
blue, a figure from the family past arrives and another kind of escape
is on offer. The emotional fluidity of Bad Weather's characters,
their capacity for surprising - almost shocking - changes of direction,
and their literacy in discussing how they feel, makes this sincere,
absorbing play as contemporary as anything by the new nihilists.
First staged by the RSC, 1998. Comedy John Patrick. 3 men, 4 women. Interior. Fed up with the pressures and demands of her acting career, the
famous Myra Marlowe leases a house in the tiny New England hamlet
of Beaver Haven, and settles down to write her autobiography. She
is successful in turning aside the offers pressed on her by her long-time
agent, but dealing with her nosy, omnipresent neighbours is a different
matter. In an attempt to shoo them away, and gain some privacy, Myra
invents a mad, homicidal sister - who is kept locked in an upstairs
room, but who occasionally escapes long enough to scare off uninvited
visitors. The ruse works well, at first, but complications result
when the local handyman conceives an affection for "Sister Sadie'
(really Myra in a fright wig) and some of the more officious ladies
decide it is their Christian duty to save the poor demented Sadie's
soul. In desperation Myra announces that her imaginary sibling has
suddenly gone off to Boston - which brings on the sheriff, and the
suspicion of murder! Needless to say, all is straightened out in
the end, but the uproarious doings will keep audiences laughing right
up to the final curtain, and then some. Drama. Philip Kan Gotanda. 3 men, 4 women. Unit Set The time is 1919, a period of limited prosperity for Japanese families
toiling in the sugar cane fields of the Hawaiian islands. Yachiyo,
a young peasant girl, is destined for life in the fields and for
a marriage to Willie, a lowly worker. Cashing in on an old family
dept, she is sent by her parents to board with a pottery artist,
Hiro Takamura and his wife, on a distant island where she will learn
proper Japanese manners and traditions. The education that she receives
is more about life's cruelties than its civilities. Hiro, consumed
by bitterness over his father's success, is a perfectionist potter
stuck in a loveless marriage. While his wife waits for him to learn
to love her, she educates Yachiyo on how to ascend the social ladder
and in doing so becomes her confidant. Hiro is inspired by the young
visitor and his pottery flourishes as Okusan begins to become suspicious
of her husband and Yachiyo's growing fascination with him. The story
unfolds with Yachiyo's discovery of life's beauties, her sexual awakening
and the infinite possibilities that ultimately lead to a tragic end. Play.
Arne Skouen This deeply moving play is a poignant examination of the resistance
of ex-ballerina, Edith, to be parted from her autistic daughter,
Malin against strong opposition from family and friends. Edith has
built a language of imagery and ballet-related movement which enables
Malin and herself to communicate. Now circumstances force her to
make a desperate plea for help to Birger, her husband, and their
son Audun, in order to preserve their life together. Lanford Wilson. Drama 16M 8F Interior set Set in an all-night cafe in New York's upper Broadway district,
a group of drifters, bums and no-hopers reflect on their dreams and
aspirations during one evening's comings and goings. A bleak and
vivid portrayal of what can happen to people who fail to live up
to our expectations - having to face society's ridicule and their
own sense of failure. Perfect for large scale student groups in search
of a powerful drama. Comedy.
Michael Frayn It is 1937. Twenty years earlier the Revolution took place in Britain instead of Russia and the Soviet Republic of Great Britain is at the height of the purges. The royal residence of Balmoral is now a State Writer's Home with Godfrey Winn, Warwick Deeping, Enid Blyton and Hugh Walpole among its current inmates. Upon this very entertaining premise, Michael Frayn has constructed a witty, ingenious farce which was presented at the Bristol Old Vic in 1987. |