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Farcical Comedy. Ronald Millar On the eve of her wedding, Serena Kilpatrick is having cold feet.
Among her wedding presents is a magic bowl which can bring aid to
a distressed bride. The aid turns out to be Sir William Benedick
Barlow, lately dead, but earthbound until he can soothe a troubled
bride. He discovers that Serena, abandoned as a baby, is really his
own daughter, while her mother arrives from Heaven to settle matters. Mystery Comedy. Kurtz Gordon. 6 men, 5 women. Interior. Paul Battman and Laura Caldwell had planned a big wedding in June.
But Paul turns 23 in May, and must be married before his birthday
at Battman's Castle on Snug Island in order to inherit $250,000 left
to him by his grandfather, Silas. If Paul fails to comply, the inheritance
will go to his cousin, Kenneth, whom he has never met. So on the
eve of his birthday, Paul, Laura, Paul's mother, Helen, Lauras Aunt
Grace, Clara, the bridesmaid, and Roger, the best man, meet Jonathan
Lancaster, a young attorney representing Silas' estate, and travel
to the island. They are greeted with cold hostility by Martha Morgan,
the housekeeper who lives alone in the castle. While they are waiting
for Horace Wiggins, the justice of the peace, Jonathan presents Laura
with a bouquet left for the bride-to-be in Silas's will. A poem presented
with the bouquet suggests that a gift is hidden close at hand. It
is anything but a pleasant treasure hunt, however. The bouquet is
snatched from Clara by an unseen hand; Mr. Wiggins, is discovered
in a chest, drugged and groggy, and Silas Battman's raucous laugh
booms from the rafters. Is it cousin Kenneth, or can Silas still
be alive? All those present regard each other with growing suspicion.
As the unknown man is ultimately identified the clock strikes midnight.
The ceremony has not been performed and presumably Paul loses his
inheritance. But a final twist brings a surprise ending that will
thrill and delight everyone. John Chapman : Farce 6M 8F Interior set A young member of the Foreign Office living in Finchley is bequeathed five beautiful women by a sheik whose life he once saved. They are 'delivered' when his wife happens to be away, but when she returns, the sparks begin to fly. A hilarious and inventive farce from the author of Dry Rot and Diplomatic Baggage. Tony Scudamore, who did his wartime service with the British Army in North Africa, has settled into a peacetime career with the Foreign Office. Tony displays almost a bit too much British reserve for his American wife, Sally, as does his older brother, Ken, on leave from his tea plantation in the tropics, and when Jack Krasner, a friend from the States, arrives unexpectedly she jumps at his invitation for an evening on the town in London. Tony and Ken are not won over so easily, particularly as the senior Scudamores (he's also in the Foreign Office) have suggested a family dinner for the evening. So the upshot is that Sally and her old beau go one way, while Tony and Ken go another. Nobody stops to think much about a certain letter which arrived that morning informing Tony that he has been remembered in the will of an Arab sheikh whose life he saved during the war. By the end of the evening the fog is too thick for Sally to get home, but Tony and Ken make it, and so does Haroun El Bahn (the sheikh's emissary) bearing Tony's legacy - five nubile, Arab maidens. Tony's first reaction is to send his "harem" back, but it seems that to refuse a dying sheikh's bequest is a mortal offence. Tony's father also brings up the touchy point that the British government is now negotiating oil leases with the dead sheikh's successor - and any dispute could lead to unhappy complications. This is the situation which Sally walks into the next morning, and the misunderstandings which follow are hilarious. ISBN: 0 85676 049 8 Play. Evelyn Waugh, adapted for the stage by Roger Parsley This portrait of the interweaving relationships and fortunes of
a desperately charming, if eccentric, aristocratic family and their
influences upon Charles Ryder has been faithfully adapted for the
stage, preserving all the sharp wit and candid social commentary
of Waugh's narrative. Period 1943, and in flashback to the 1920s. Brief Lives. John Aubrey. Adapted for the stage by Patrick
Garland John Aubrey (1626-97) has come to be recognised as England's first serious biographer. Patrick Garland's adaptation of Aubrey's writings represents a day in the latter part of Aubrey's life. 'It is as if one is paying a visit to the house of an old man, who makes up for the absence of friends by bringing to life reminiscences of people, remembering them and telling stories about them.' Peter Whelan : Drama 4M 6F Flexible staging In the North Staffordshire Potteries in the 1930's, Jessie Frost
works for a small traditional firm, hand-painting designs in the
time-honoured fashion ... until the arrival of Jim Rhys as the firm's
new art director. A man possessed with both high ambition and strong
views of the future, Jim's views on design create tension with the
factory owner, and his political beliefs gradually lead him into
conflict within the small community. But in Jessie Frost, Jim recognises
a special talent, one which he promptly sets out to nurture - though
not necessarily with her blessings. "the result is a play of great
warmth, charm, passion and grace, an exploration of the the nature
of the as of politics, and the politics of art. Farce. John Cecil Holm. 4 men,. 5 women (2 of the 5 women are bit parts). Interior. An absent-minded bachelor spends his life inventing things and going
to school, but he never finds time to learn everything he wants to
know. He is interested also in his young nephew and the nephew's
wife, and he drops in on the couple on his way South. Having money,
he wants to make the young people comfortable, but is especially
concerned in giving them an incentive to raise a family, and he is
anxious to provide bonuses for children who will come later on. When
he arrives he mistakenly identifies a charming bride, a neighbour
of the young people, as his nephew's wife. For sufficient reasons,
the truth is concealed. In order not to disappoint Uncle, all the
young people involved must play out the comedy until almost the very
end. What with this bride and that dashing in and out, and Uncle
meantime happily involved in his schemes for helping his own young
people, we are involved in a series of misadventures. But Uncle finally
gets everything straightened out, and generously gives presents not
only to his nephew and his wife but to everyone else. Play. Neil Simon : M3 (teenage, 40) F4 (teenage, 30s, 40x). Various interior and exterior settings. This portrait of the writer as a Brooklyn teenager in 1937, living
with his family in crowded, lower middle-class circumstances, was
first presented in London at the National Theatre in 1986. Eugene
(the young Neil Simon) is the narrator and central character. The
play's scenes consist of a few days in the life of a struggling Jewish
household, of whom two have heart disease, one has asthma and two
at least temporarily lose jobs needed to keep the straitened family
afloat. It is a deeply appealing play that deftly mixes drama with
comedy. Cindy Lou Johnson : Drama 1M IF Interior set The setting is a remote cabin in the wilds of Alaska, and while
a blizzard rages outside Henry lies sleeping under a heap of blankets.
Suddenly he is awakened by the insistent knocking of an unexpected
visitor - who turns out to be Rosannah, a distraught young woman
who has fled all the way from Arizona to escape her impending marriage,
and who bursts into the cabin still fully dressed for her wedding.
Exhausted, she throws herself on Henry's mercy, but after sleeping
for two solid days her vigour - and combativeness - return. Both
characters, it develops, have been wounded and embittered by life,
and both are refugees from so-called civilisation. Thrown together
in the confines of the snowbound cabin they alternately repel and
attract each other as, in theatrically vivid exchanges, they explore
the pain of the past and, in time, consider the possibilities of
the present. In the end their very isolation proves to be the catalyst
which allows them to break through the web of old griefs and bitter
feelings which beset them both, and to reach out for the solace and
sanctuary which only hard-won understanding, self-awareness and compassion
for the plight of others can bestow. Play. Dennis Potter A clever and highly controversial play about the intrusion of a
slick, satanic young man into the lives of a humdrum couple whose
only deviation from the appalling norm to which they steadfastly
adhere is that they have an attractive only daughter, reduced to
a vegetable after a car accident. 'Dennis Potter is a mass of contradictions
as a writer and in Brimstone and Treacle ... we see all his
paradoxical drives coming fruitfully together.' Guardian Play. Racine. A new version by Robert David Macdonald In his great neo-classical plays, Jean Racine reached the peak of sophistication in French tragedy. Britannicus addresses power and politics with the action centring essentially on the politics seething within the young Emperor Nero's Court. Yet the play is as much about his mother, Aggripina, losing her hold on power as Nero turns against her. Although Racine does not draw a direct parallel with Louis XIV's Court, he regards those in power with an all-seeing, but not forgiving eye. Period: Ancient Rome Play. Neil Simon Forming the third part of the famous Neil Simon autobiographical
trilogy, this charming play about youthful ambition and parental
regret is set in late 1940s Brooklyn. While their parents go through
various conflicts which will ultimately end in divorce, Eugene and
his brother Stanley struggle to become professional comedy writers.
When a sketch based on their family life gets a radio broadcast it
upsets the family but Eugene and Stan are now Broadway bound. Drama. Arthur Miller. 3 men, 3 women. Unit set Brooklyn, New York. The end of November, 1938. Sylvia Gellberg has
suddenly, mysteriously, become paralyzed from the waist down. As
the play opens, her husband, Phillip, and her doctor, Dr. Hyman,
meet to discuss the prognosis and test results. The doctor assures
Phillip that physically, there is nothing wrong with his wife and
that she is sane, but advises the only way to discover the cause
of her paralysis is to probe into her psyche. At this point, the
author begins to peel away all the layers of the characters' lives
in this stunning, deeply effective exploration of what it means to
be American and Jewish in 1938. In his attempts to uncover the truth
about Sylvias paralysis, Dr. Hyman, via conversations with Phillip,
Sylvia, and her sister, Harriet, discovers that the Gellberg's marriage
was built on resentment, and that over the years has become loveless.
While Sylvias affliction leaves her terrified, it exposes Phillip's
deepest emotions. He hates himself and he loathes being Jewish. His
self-hatred has always made him cold, and at times even cruel, yet,
Sylvids condition has magnified his feelings leaving him out of control
with her, with Dr. Hyman, and even with his employers. Dr. Hyman's
obsessive determination to cure Sylvia leads him to discover that
her paralysis occurred quickly after a newspaper report on Krystallnacht
and an accompanying photograph of two old men forced to clean the
streets of Germany with toothbrushes. She feels something must be
done to stop the Nazis while most Americans believe the Germans wont
allow them to get out of hand. But what can she do when she can't
even change her own life? The atrocities in Germany, her husband's
denial of his Jewishness and her own realization that she threw her
life away have overcome her. Suddenly, she no longer simply feels
helpless, she has truly become helpless. Finally, with everyone's
feelings laid bare, the play comes to its heart-wrenching, electrifying,
conclusion, as Phillip has a heart attack and begs Sylvia's forgiveness
as he dies. Play. Jimmy Murphy : M4 (30, 40, 60) A basement room. Jimmy Murphy's 'subtle unsentimental lament for the working class' (Irish Times) tells how housepainters, patching over the cracks of an old house, misuse each other for their own advantage. In a world blighted by economic recession, with workers losing faith in old ideologies, this award winning play demonstrates just how fragile allegiances are when personal interests are at stake. 'There is a new and remarkably realistic voice on the scene with the arrival of Jimmy Murphy...'Sunday Independent (in Scotland Plays) : Ann Marie Di Mambro : 3m. Drama. Single interior set. John, an HIV positive man takes refuge with a Roman Catholic priest.
A fragile relationship begins to develop between them until a figure
from John's past arrives upon the scene. The conflict between them
encompasses questions of forgiveness, reconciliation and the role
of the church in the modern world. A taut yet poignant play. Play George Sklar. 7 men, 5 women. Unit Set Having organised "Project Noah" to protect endangered species, Jeff
Tanager (curator of the local zoo) is appalled when several rare
birds are mysteriously murdered in their cages - and doubly shocked
when he is accused of the crime. As he fights to defend himself and
his family against increasingly scurrilous attacks, Jeff receives
support from a disembodied "Voice". As the action moves on to a bizarre
courtroom scene the "Voice" gives Jeff the absolute power to control
the forces of nature. In the resulting chaos, machines stop, animals
talk, the heads of state confer desperately on ways for a man to
regain domination of his environment. But, as the exciting denouement
makes chillingly clear, it may already be too late - unless mankind
reverses its present ecological destructiveness and seeks out its
true and proper place within the overall balance of nature. Play. Maurice McLoughlin In Sybil Walling's absence her children call in the chimney-sweep,
whose brushes dislodge not only soot but a body. When Sybil returns
she tells them that, just before he died twenty years ago, their
father had killed a Soho gangster and had hidden the body in the
chimney. The police descend in pursuit of an amorous patient of Sybil's
son Henry, which leads to hilarious misunderstandings and surprises. Comedy/Drama. Keith Reddin. 2 men, 5 women, 1 girl (flexible casting). Unit Set Val, a matriarch, comes to live with her daughter, Jackie. Jackie,
recently divorced and having lost custody of her daughter, takes
her mother in willingly, but also enlists her in a crusade to convert
everyone to be a Jehovah's Witness. The two women comb the neighbourhoods
with religious magazines, shoring up Jackies faith, and killing Val's
optimism, not to mention her feet! Val's other daughter, Maggie,
surfaces after a long absence to be told that her mother thinks she's
dead - since Maggie vanished years ago, Jackie just thought it easier
to lie. Maggie's trying to kick her drinking habit, and hearing this
news doesn't help. Re-acquainted with her slightly surprised mother,
Maggie tries to be the ear Val that needs when she can't stand living
with either Jackie's fanatical ways or her newfound zealot boyfriend,
Chris. Val runs away, but Maggie can't take her in. The hilarious
yet dark situations continue as Jackie develops questions about her
faith, and her new husband, Maggie finds sobriety and grandmother
Val hangs out to help her other granddaughter, Marlene, through it
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