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Play. Bertolt Brecht, adapted from Molière.
Translated by Ralph Manheim In this adaptation Don Juan, the legendary lover, is regarded as a means to ridicule the hypocrisy and pretentiousness of the world as he pursues his amorous ways, dodges and outwits his enemies until, in the form of the Statue of the Commander, he meets his inevitable nemesis and is cast into hell tire. This is one of Brecht's less radical adaptations and one of those with which he apparently had least to do. Molière. Trans K. McLeish Set in Sicily, Molière's version retells the famous myth of
Don Juan (or Don Giovanni), the womaniser with no morals and a scorn
for religion. It charts his relationship with his servant, Sganarelle,
his romantic philandering, his false conversion and his ultimate punishment.
Original first performed in 1665. Comedy. David Ives. 5 men, 3 women. Interior. Don Juan is a handsome, rich, sexually naive nobleman in Sixteenth
Century Spain. His servant, Leporello, urges him to find a girlfriend
and lead a normal life, but the Don is more interested in finding the
meaning of life through books and alchemy. Afraid he won't have time
to find it, Don Juan calls up the Devil and cuts a deal that grants
him (and Leporello) immortality - as long as Don Juan seduces a different
woman every day. Unfortunately, the first woman he seduces is Dona
Elvira, his true love. Infuriated by the Don's abandonment, Elvira
cuts her own deal with the Devil: she won't die until she sleeps with
Don Juan a second time. Four hundred years later, exhausted by endless
sex and still pursued by Elvira, Don Juan and Leporello grapple with
the sexual mores of late twentieth-century urban America as embodied
by Sandy, a woman of wide and wild sexual experience. Don also meets
the young and innocent Zoey - who happens to be his daughter by Sandy.
With never any time to pursue the meaning of life, Don Juan swears
off sex after promising Elvira one last evening with her. Hearing this,
the Devil calls in his debt. Don Juan, Leporello and Elvira face damnation,
only to be redeemed by the Devil, who, moved by Don Juan's "unfailing
niceness," sends them all on to eternal bliss. Doña Rosita the Spinster, or the Language of Flowers. Play.
Federico Garcia Lorca. Translated by Gwynne Edwards A realistic social drama set in Granada between 1855 and 1911. The central character, Rosita, is an attractive and hopeful 20-year-old, in love with her cousin. Act II is set in 1900 and portrays the movement of Progress beyond Rosita's home whilst she waits for her cousin. The plays ends dramatically with an anguished portrayal of Rosita as an ageing spinster. Lorca's treatment of Rosita is one of sympathy and understanding as he records her bitter humiliation. Play. Michael Frayn The occasion is a reunion dinner at a lesser college of an older university.
Gathered together are a number of graduates now in their early forties
and mostly in responsible, influential positions. All starts smoothly,
with the usual conventional greetings, but as the night goes on the
college port causes behaviour surprising in those positions of political,
academic or spiritual authority. The play was seen at the Globe Theatre,
London, with Peter Barkworth, Jeffrey Wickham and Penelope Keith. Robin Glendinning : Drama 2M IF Interior set Amid the troubles of life in present day Ulster, Ma is coping with
raising her mentally handicapped son Doom. Donny has witnessed an IRA
murder of a British policeman, and been given the murder weapon to
throw into the river, but instead returns home with the gun. Cahill,
who is also known as the Quartermaster, has apparently committed the
murder and comes to the house to make sure the job has been completed.
The almost farcical nature of the celebration which ensues turns to
horror with the arrival of the British Army in the neighbourhood searching
for a suspect. Cahill vanishes, leaving Ma and Donny to hide the weapon
during the search which decimates their house, but the weapon remains
cleverly hidden. When Cahill returns after the soldiers leave, the
layers of truths and half-truths surrounding what really occurred are
peeled off revealing a much different series of events than at first
appeared. Farce. Marc Camoletti, adapted
by Robin Hawdon Bernard is hoping to weekend in the country with his chic Parisian
mistress Suzy. He has arranged for a cordon bleu cook, is in the process
of packing his wife Jacqueline off to her mother, and has invited along
his best friend Robert as a suitable alibi. It's foolproof. What could
possibly go wrong? Well ... Hilarious confusion piles upon hilarious
confusion as Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed! Comedy. Woody Allen This hilarious affair takes place in an American Embassy behind the
Iron Curtain. An American tourist, caterer by trade, and his family,
rush into the embassy two steps ahead of the police who suspect them
of spying and picture-taking. But it is not much of a refuge as the
ambassador is absent and his son, now in charge, has been expelled
from a dozen different countries. Nevertheless they carefully and frantically
plot their escape and the ambassador's son and the caterer's daughter
even have time to fall in love. Don't Just Lie There, Say Something. Farce. Michael Pertwee Sir William is leading a campaign against permissiveness. In order
to counter this a group of hippies abduct Barry Ovis, a young Parliamentarian
and take him, drugged, to a wild party. He escapes and takes refuge
in Sir William's flat. He finds the great man is far from unpermissive
himself. The pleasant evening of dalliance Sir William has arranged
is upset by a series of complications. The mounting frenzy culminates
in a whirlwind of frenetic, panic-stricken plans and counter-plans. Comedy. Derek Benfield When Sylvia's boyfriend Robin walks out on her she decides on a rather
unconventional method of finding a replacement. Determined not to be
let down a second time, she has carefully arranged a timetable in order
to 'try out' various assorted lovers and assess their suitability before
making her final choice of a potential husband. But timetables have
a way of going wrong... A torrent of confusions and mistaken identities
inevitably arise as Sylvia and her friend Jemma try, with unexpected
and hilarious results, to prevent the final confrontation of the three
trial husbands. A delightfully comic climax ensues. Comedy. Patrick Cargill A light and frothy comedy relating the complications and misunderstandings
that arise when Charles and Margery prepare to entertain Charles's
brother Robert and his new wife, Jane, whom they have never met. Robert
arrives, without Jane, and reveals that he had a brief affaire in
America with Jaynie, but has covered his tracks by not giving her his
English address. Minutes later Jaynie arrives! Confusions arise from
wild deceptions as Charles and Robert struggle to keep Margery Jaynie
and a further young lady from revealing their true identities ... Robin Hawdon : Comedy 2M 4F Interior set The peaceful waters of the Thames get decidedly choppy iwhen brash
self- made property developer Arthur Bullhead decides to cement the
deal of a lifetime. He invites the local planning committee chairman
and his family to spend what appears to be an idyllic weekend on board
the Bunty, Bullhead's converted riverside barge. Bullhead has ulterior
motives however, and the arrival of John Coombes with his wife Carol
and their daughter leads to chaos for everyone, as personalities and
lifestyles clash at every turn. Over the course of the weekend, Bullhead's
unscrupulous approach to doing business proves overpowering to the
straight-laced Coombes, whose indignation knows no bounds - until Bullhead
makes an offer he can't possibly refuse. Or can he? Together with his
skittish wife Mary and rebellious daughter Shirley, Bullhead gives
the Coombes and their own unassuming daughter Wendy a weekend they'll
never forget, which culminates in mutiny ... on the Bunty! Kim Morrissey. A satirical feminist play debunking the theories of Sigmund Freud.
In the famous case, Dora is sent to Dr Freud by her father, who feels
she is suffering from neurosis. Despite her claims that her father's
friend has been sexually harassing her, Freud believed her to be exhibiting
symptoms of hysteria caused by repressed sexual desire rather than
by any abuse. Alfred Shaughnessy, adapted from the film Chase a Crooked Shadow An ingenious new thriller set in a luxury villa on the Costa del Sol.
The plot revolves around diamond heiress Olivia Prescott whose villa
is disturbed by an enigmatic stranger claiming to be her supposedly
dead brother. He seems to know even every trivial detail of their past
family life, his papers verify his identity, but Olivia insists with
mounting hysteria that he is an imposter. He manages to convince all
around him with the exception of Olivia and we begin to question whether
Olivia herself is concealing something. The plot thickens when we learn
that £10 million worth of diamonds arc missing. Is this
what the stranger is after? The complications are finally unravelled
in a revealing denouement to this taut and well-written thriller. Play. Eric Elice and Roger Rees A London apartment. Phillipa has picked up down-and-out
Duncan. It is, she explains, purely a business arrangement based
on Duncan's uncanny resemblance to her recently deceased husband,
Richard, who stood to inherit a million-pound trust fund in a few
weeks. All Duncan has to do for a half-share in the fund is impersonate
Richard at a party. This clever thriller twists and turns until the
stunning climax that leaves the audience gasping. 'A glossy romantic
thriller - it should be seen to be believed.' Sunday Times Double Edge Play: Leslie Darbon and Peter
Whelen Helen Galt, handsome and intelligent holder of the History Chair at an Oxford College, has been commissioned to write a 'clear, concise, objective' book on a recent assassination attempt on the Prime MInister, in the course of which the Home Secretary's wife was shot dead. To aid her research she has acquired a set of slides and a tape recording of the event. From these it appears that things might not be simply explained as a straightforward political assassination attempt. Two visitors call on her - a revolutionary agitator who is 'wanted' as a suspect for the crime, and, in sharp contrast, the Home Secretary himself. It soon transpires that there were indeed other, more personal motives behind the killing. During the evening the ball of suspicion and accusation is tossed - not among two, but among all three persons present, until a final surprised revelation is followed by yet one further twist of the plot as the final curtain is about to descend. Drama. Lee Blessing. 2 men, 1 woman. Unit Set Down the Road centers
on a convicted serial killer, and the husband and wife writing team
hired to help him write an account of his crimes. The killer, Bill
Reach, has admitted to the murders of nineteen women, but there may
have been more. Over many weeks of interviews, the couple - Dan and
Iris Henniman - grow more and more uncertain of the ethics of what
they are doing. Are they simply relating terrifying events, or are
they helping readers consume rape, murder and mutilation as if they
are consuming any other product of our society? Are they, in fact,
helping to turn Bill Reach into a celebrity? Comedy. Laird Koenig. 2 men, 1 woman. Interior The
scene is one of the new African nations which is in the revolutionary process
of overthrowing its once revered dictator. And there in the middle of the
tumult are a black girl singer from America and her manager and more or less
husband, who fancies himself as a stand-up comic. The girl has just made
a big hit singing 'Love for Sale' to the pygmies; and she is much desired
by the fleeing dictator, who watched her with admiration when he saw her
in a New York club. The fugitive tyrant, whose name, by the way, is Kgaravu,
hasn't given up hope of being restored to power and, since he is a virile
and handsome young fellow, he sees no reason why he cannot keep the beautiful
girl with him. He feels he baser much of a rival in the manager, who keeps
fighting with his singer and certainly isn't exactly of heroic stature. But
he reckons without the guile and resodrcefidness of a New York stand-up comic.
The republic in which this triangular love story takes place is called Chaka,
and it is, of course; imaginary ...But the author has told his slender love
story with humor and charm, and there is something dramatically striking
in the basic situation of two black Americans set down in the land from where
their ancestors came and finding it bringing out their native American feelings. |