Play. David Berry. 8 men, 1 woman. Unit Set The "G.R." of the play's title stands for "Graves Registration" -
the point where the bodies of Vietnam combat victims are brought
for processing before burial. Joining the unit involved in tending
to this gruesome duty is Micah Broadstreet, a New England aristocrat,
and Ivy League graduate, recently drafted. Although it seems unlikely
that Micah will be accepted in a unit comprised of two blacks, a
Puerto Rican, a Greek-American and a hillbilly, he soon joins them
in pot smoking and, more important, survives a hellish fire-fight
in which he kills for the first time. But the more he fits into the
life of the unit, the more his values erode. His increasingly explicit
letters to his mother undoubtedly contribute to the heart attack
which ends her life, and he confesses, with some shame, to having
experienced sexual pleasure in the act of killing. In the end, through
Micah and the others, the playwright captures the real horror of
Vietnam - the insidious way in which it robbed human life of its
dignity and dimension, and led decent young men to commit acts which,
in another time and place, would have filled them with remorse and
horror. Comedy Boyce Loving. 7 men, 7 women. Interior. Having glimpsed life at King Arthur's court through books, Tommy Jones concludes that the days of knighthood were superior to the present era of speed, greed, and mechanical gadgets. Tommy sets out to try to put into practice some of the ideas and customs of the Arthurian court. His family soon loses patience with him, so Tommy decides to practice on Lena, the maid. He dresses her in court dress and crowns her queen of the tournament - only to have his family walk in, to his great embarrassment. However, from Lena he learns of a "damsel in distress," another maid whose husband is cruel to her. Tommy, now dubbed "Galahad" Jones, writes out a formal challenge and carries it in person to the "low churl's" house. The man challenged, a burly truck-driver, all but chokes the life out of Tommy. Threatening messages pour in. Lena's life is threatened as well as that of the young state's attorney, engaged to Tommy's sister. Unwittingly, Tommy has uncovered the meeting-place of a gang of hijackers. This fact he reveals to the prosecutor under oath of secrecy. The gang is surrounded and captured, and Tommy is rewarded. Comedy/Drama. Jack Richardson. 2 men, 1 woman (all roles doubled). 2 interiors. Howard Taubman describes "In a sharp-edged prologue, Mr. Richardson
declares his thesis ...(He) is suggesting earnestly in his cheerful
fashion that the small routines strangle the spirit and that the
adventure to the unknown should be embraced recklessly. No one would
wish to quarrel with such brave, heady counsel. But note the symbols
chosen to develop this argument. In the first part of Gallows
Humour we encounter Walter, who has worked out to the tiniest
detail how he will employ the two hours preceding his hanging. A
benevolent penal system, intent on a new program of magnanimity,
sends him a prostitute to beguile his last hours. He resists her,
breaks down and confesses to her the sources of his troubled soul
and at last lets her recall the joy of life to him. The second half
of Gallows Humour takes place in the executioner's kitchen.
Philip, the hangman, leads a contented existence until he discovers
his wife, Martha, in an embrace with the warden. Instead of being
upset, he feels liberated. He will leave, seeking whatever destiny
each day may hold. But he cannot escape. Marriage holds him in chains.
He must go on with his duties as executioner." Play.
James Saunders A note on Games by the author: 'The script is not the final
version, but the raw material from which the actors, the director
and I worked out a more or less finished production. Games is
about freedom, responsibility and choice, treated not as theoretical
concepts, but as aspects of an actual event which takes place during
rehearsals and during performance.' Games (in Czech Plays) Ivan Klima. Trans B. Day : 6m 2f Comedy/drama. Single interior set. In this witty, surreal play an initially genial house party turns
unpleasant as old guilts break the surface. Written as a parable
of Czech society under Communism, the play has a universal relevance,
as everyday social interactions invariably involve pretence and game
playing. Play. John Guare. 4 men, l woman, 1 boy. Exterior & Interior. The story begins on a deserted Nantucket beach, in 1875, where the
young Joshua Hickman awaits the return of his wife, Lydie, who has
been off island on a nursing assignment. She is furious that he has
let her cherished gardenia plant wither and die in her absence; while
he is disheartened that the novel on which he has labored for years
has been rejected for publication. Their discord reflects on the
failure of the utopian community they had sought to establish in
the house left to Lydie by her whaling captain father, the only other
remaining member being Amos Mason, a young man educated by Joshua
and who now talks of leaving to enroll at Harvard. When another former
communard, Dan Grady, returns unexpectedly the action quickens, as
the old passion between Lydie and Dan is revived and the jealous
Joshua kills his rival. In the second act Joshua is in jail but,
at last, an accepted author - although, ironically, he is importuned
by Amos (now a politically ambitious lawyer) not to publish his possibly
damaging book In the end Joshua gives in, powerfully underscoring
the sense of disillusionment and tragic destiny which infuses the
play and its people and prefigures the climactic events of their
later years. Victorian
thriller. Patrick Hamilton This classic Victorian thriller was first produced in 1935. Jack Manningham is slowly, deliberately driving his wife, Bella, insane. He has almost succeeded when help arrives in the form of a former detective, Rough, who believes Manningham to be a thief and murderer. Aided by Bella, Rough proves Manningham's true identity and finally Bella achieves a few moments of sweet revenge for the suffering inflicted on her. Comedy.
Ben Elton Lockheart Industries are making serious money, but Sir Chiffley
Lockheart is looking for the buzz given by a new way to make money
where no money existed before. Philip, his pushy workaholic exec.,
suggests selling designer air as a privatised alternative to polluted
urban fug. Eventually, oxygen runs low and new supplies have to be
found. The third world is plundered for its resources, the world
starts gasping and nly the biggest suckers survive ... Period 1990 Comedy. John Patrick 5 men, 2 women. Interior Having decided to "come out of the closet," David returns to his
parents' Florida home with his lover, Butch, determined to reveal
his homosexuality. But while his mother, Julia, and his dotty grandmother,
Bunny, seem unruffled by his declaration, his father, Filmore, a
rich and very conservative Bible publisher, may be another matter.
And, to add to the complications, David is hopeful that he will be
able to persuade his father to back an off-Broadway show starring
Butch - a female impersonator who poses as "Maigorilla" the Spanish
spitfire. As Butch is auditioning his act for the others Filmore
suddenly arrives and, as luck would have it, is immediately smitten
by the fetching "senorita." Furthermore, Filmore, who is running
for mayor, senses that "Maigorilla" could help him to gain the Spanish
vote - which is substantial in Florida. Inevitably the two young
men are not only drawn into Filmore's campaign, but succeed beyond
his wildest hopes, and while the grateful Filmore agrees to back
his son's show he insists that he will do so only if David and "Maigorilla"
agree to marry. Needless to say the resultant complications multiply
hilariously, until Bunny inadvertently snatches off Butch's wig,
abruptly revealing the truth to the shaken Filmore. Fortunately,
however, tolerance (with a little help from some appropriate biblical
quotations) prevails and, in a touching, final scene, father and
son, for the first time, come to know - and accept - each other for
what they really are. Comedy/Melodrama. Alec Coppel, based on a story by Myra Coppel and Alec Coppel. 9 men, 3 women. Interior A writer of TV whodunits and whysits, always with an eye toward
inventing the almost perfect crime, gets into a spot where he has
to commit a real do-it-yourself murder. His wife has become the target
of blackmail, so the writer has to silence the so-and-so with a six-shooter
and then find a place to hide the body. Having acquired at auction
a gazebo for their suburban backyard, the writer and his wife decide
to plant the blackmailer in its fresh concrete foundation. Mysteriously,
it isr t long before the body turns up again - in the middle of their
living room! Soon the house is crawling with detectives and district
attorneys, all looking to point the finger somewhere, thus casting
the writer in a role he never expected he'd have to play - the suspect! Play. Albeit Innaurato. 4 men, 3 women. Exterior. The story takes place in the backyard of adjoining houses in South
Philadelphia: one house occupied by Fran Geminiani, a labourer, and
his son, Francis, a Harvard student; the other by a boisterous, earthy
divorcée named Bunny and her fat, asthmatic son, Herschel.
It is the eve of Francis' twenty-first birthday, and suddenly he
is paid a surprise visit by two friends from college, a brother and
sister named Hastings, who set up a tent in the backyard. The friends,
Randy and Judith, are wealthy, attractive and from an elevated social
background which contrasts painfully with Francis' own humble circumstances.
In addition, while Judith is in love with Francis, he is infatuated
with Randy (or thinks he is) and it is from this unsettling discovery
that the plot proceeds - a series of lively, funny, touching and
revealing incidents which occur in fast-moving, antic succession
until the final, joyous moments of the play. |