Comedy: Howard Moss. 3 men, 6 women. 2 Interior. Elena, the richest woman in the world, devises a scheme in which she plays dead and then assumes a different identity in order to spy on her possible heirs amongst whom include a greedy daughter and son-in-law from middle America, a companion, Ramona, who is almost as old and as clever as Elena, a ward who spends most of her time answering her second-class mail, a young doctor substituting for Elena's usual physician, a painter friend, female, who has a loft in Hoboken and two minor characters, a woman and a man, who keep cropping up at seances and may be either genuine spirits or hired actors. A sort of Modern-day Valpone, The Folding Green is a play of wit and language whose targets are greed and contemporary conceptions of money, art, medicine, love, sex, and of dying. Comedy/Drama. Nicky Silver : 3 men, 2 women. Unit set. Amanda, an anorexic poet of some pretensions, has been married for
three weeks, but her husband, Ford, has been missing for two. She
calls a crisis hot line and reaches Bea, a volunteer. Bea's answer
to Amanda's problems is to complain about her own deceased husband's
inattentiveness and her son's embarrassing nature. She also dispenses
hilarious (but useless) advise. Just as Amanda nears her wit's end,
Ford walks in, so she simply hangs up on Bea. Meanwhile, across town,
Serge, a completely vain runway model, paces as he waits for the
arrival of his latest paramour. He is intruded upon by a former one-night
stand, Otto, who worships him and who tips the scales at about three
hundred pounds. Otto tortures, harangues and cajoles Serge while
swilling Yoo-hoo, eating junk food and taking phone calls from his
mother. Serge can take no more and explodes, but is interrupted by
a phone call - his new lover will not be coming. This leaves Serge
and Otto in the same state: both are now victims of fickle romance.
The scene shifts back to Amanda's at the crack of dawn. Serge is
banging on the door, looking for his lover. It was with Serge that
Ford spent his lost two honeymoon weeks. Having followed Serge, it
isn't long until Otto shows up, with breakfast and threatening suicide.
Next to arrive is Bea, furious at Amanda for hanging up on her. As
riotous chaos builds, we learn that Bea is Otto's mother, that Otto
and Amanda are old school friends, that Serge will settle for both
Amanda and Ford and that Ford has absolutely nothing to say. Bea
takes charge and offers a solution short on practicality, but long
on pleasure. Sam Shepard: Light Drama 3M 1F Interior set In a stark motel room on the edge of the Mojave Desert, May, a dishevelled
young woman sits dejectedly on a rumpled bed while Eddie, a rough-spoken
rodeo performer crouches in a comer fiddling with his riding gear.
When he attempts to console May, who is distressed by Eddie's frequent
absences and affairs, she seems at first to soften but then suddenly
attacks him. As the recriminations pour out, the desperate nature
of their relationship becomes apparent - they cannot get along with
or without one another, yet neither can subdue their burning passion.
The poignancy of their situation (they are half-brother and half-sister
as well as lovers) is pointed up by the play's two other characters;
a hapless young man who stops by to take May to the movies and becomes
the butt of Eddies funniest yet most humiliating jokes; and a ghostly
old man (perhaps their father) who sits in a rocking chair at the
side of the stage, sipping whisky and commenting wryly nn what he
observes. Eventually May and Eddie tire of their struggle and embrace,
but it is apparent that the respite is temporary and that their love,
the curse of the past which haunts them, will remain forever damned
and hopeless. Comic fable. Neil Simon : M7 F3. A village square, a house Leon Tolchinsky is ecstatic at landing a job as schoolteacher in
the idyllic Ukrainian village of Kulyenchikovin 1890. But the village
has been cursed with chronic stupidity for two hundred years and
the desperate villagers have hired Leon hoping he can break the curse,
which he must do in twenty-four hours or become stupid himself. Instead
of leaving he falls in love, gets the girl and breaks the curse. Farcical comedy. Peter Coke Although surrounded by valuable antiques, Jane and Catherine live
in debt, for their late husband, Basil, left house and property to
them stipulating they could not sell any of it. Basil's sister has
left them a spray of emeralds. If they prove valuable all their debts
can be paid. Unfortunately Jane giddily accepts deposits on the emeralds
from too many people and has to invent a third owner for them. As
debts and troubles increase, she even accepts a deposit on Catherine's
son! Comedy. Kenneth Horne On her wedding morning Pam is so appalled at the gravity of the
promises she must make that she refuses to be married to Joe. Her
doubts increase on meeting her father, Paul, long divorced from her
mother. Pam was taught to think him an abandoned bounder, but finds
him so charming she is convinced that if his marriage disintegrated
then hers is bound to fail. Paul intervenes and incites Joe to elope
with Pam whilst he himself enjoys a reconciliaton with his wife. Comedy. F Hugh Herbert : 4 men, 4 women. Interior. The play tells of a charming and rather unsophisticated young miss who stumbles, almost by accident, into the home of a charming and sophisticated older man who is wise in the way of the theatre and of life. The theatre man is, of course, pursued by women his own age, but because of the wiles and of the appealing charm of the younger women, he is at last brought to bay and the two decide to get married. Comedy. Oliver Hailey. 2 men, 4 women. Interior. The time is winter, the place a chilly summer house on Long Island,
where Allen and Charlotte, after twenty spendthrift years together,
are "hiding out" - burning bogus art works for heat and raiding a
neighbour's back porch for food. They are joined, unexpectedly, by
Terry, a nun facing a crisis of belief, and then by Martin, a failed
Broadway playwright, and his new wife. Terry and Martin are brother
and sister and Charlotte, years ago, was the girl whom Martin's mother
had chosen as his intended bride. But this, like so many well meant
plans, never came to pass - nor, for that matter, did most of the
hopes and dreams which all had held in their promising, and much
happier, youth. The house they had come together in belonged to Bess,
departed mother of Martin and Terry, who appears as a "vision now
and again to evoke the past or comment on the present - and to bring
into focus the funny, albeit desperate and ultimately touching, plight
to which all these zany yet very human and believable people have
come. Farce. Graham Greene The first chime ushers in to X a con-man supposedly collecting for charity. In a very short time X has changed clothes with him, covered his bald head with his own shock-haired wig, and walked off with his visitor's collecting case. Almost immediately the con-man discovers a dead girl, and from then on situations and surprises become increasingly frenetic. |