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Drama. Catherine Butterfield. Maggie Mulroney is on a promotional tour for her novel Joined
at the Head when she gets an invitation to visit her old high
school flame, Jim, and his wife (also named Maggy) who is dying
of cancer. The two women strike up an immediate friendship not
withstanding the total disparity in their characters: Maggie the
novelist is intensely self-examining and analytical while Maggy,
even in the throes of her illness, retains a warm and giving response
to the world and others. Maggie acts as the play's narrator from
time to time, commenting upon the process of her writing while
also shrewdly dissecting her relationship to her former boyfriend's
wife. As Maggy's illness becomes the central question in all their
lives, Jim and Maggie begin to confront their own assumptions about
mortality, ambition and what it means to make a truly lasting impression
in this world. In this riveting portrait of self-awakening, art
and life come fluidly to interact as Maggie's instinct for the
fictitious collides with a new-found yearning to relate to life
with the immediacy of her newest, closest friend. Play. Alan Ayckbourn Charming, naturally successful in everything, Anthea and Richard
almost unconsciously but ruthlessly dominate the lives of those with
whom they are associated. Over twelve years Sven, Richard's partner,
is virtually nudged out of the firm. Brian, who works for Richard,
is ineffectual; Hugh, the local vicar, whose wife is on drugs, falls
hopelessly in love with Anthea. The play ends with Anthea's daughter
awaiting her eighteenth birthday; perhaps a new reign may be beginning
... Comedy T.J. Spencer. 12 men. Four simplified settings. It is the author's fanciful notion that, when Jonah was cast overboard
during the tempest at sea and found himself safe in the fish's great
belly, he also discovered that he wasn't alone there. He learned
that he had a captive companion. It was no less a personage than
Ulysses, the conqueror of Troy. He had been living in the fish contentedly
for several hundred years. Fortunately, Ulysses had managed to learn
some Hebrew and since they had very different viewpoints on things,
they were able to engage in lively arguments. Although the Greek
adventurer admired Jonah's vigorous prose style, he himself preferred
poetry and he thought the prophet's idea of God was nonsense. He
didn't believe in the Greek gods either, and his theory was that
it was the poets who dominated man's destiny by writing tales of
his great deeds. There was another fellow in the fish's insides,
a madman to whom Ulysses had given the name of Thersites. When, however,
the three escape and reach Ninevah, the madman turns out to be just
a troubled industrialist who had modern ideas about doing business
on credit. The sailors from Jonah's ship turn up in Ninevah too,
and there is quite a reunion. But Jonah remains a little disillusioned
because Jehovah spares the city, leaving his predictions looking
a little silly. Comedy. P. M. Clepper, from the novel
by Henry Fielding Fielding's novel recounting the adventures and misadventures of
the handsome footman and the simple parson is dramatised for an easy-to-stage
production, requiring a minimum of props and settings. Robbers, grasping
innkeepers, love, jealousy, rivalry, personal misunderstandings,
revelations of unexpected relationships-all find their places in
the exuberant story. Period about 1740 Play. Michael McClure. Basedd on a story by Kafka. Josephine is a mouse - but she is also a singer, a creative artist
who seeks to be exempted from the nagging demands of the workaday
world. Unfortunately the powers-that-be deny her request, despite
the fact that Josephine's singing mesmerises the other mice, and
particularly, Baby, a young male mouse who falls in love with Josephine
and wants to marry her and produce little mice. But Josephine wants
only to sing, which points up the conflicts which she, as an artist,
must deal with. in her relationship with the public, with society
at large and in her personal life. In the end there seems to be no
satisfactory resolution of her problem, no reconciliation possible
between the public and private Josephines, so she simply vanishes
- trading an untenable present existence for future enshrinement
in the fervent, if inaccurate, memories of her loyal fans. Play Roger O. Hirson. The play is about six mental patients in group therapy at a state
hospital, with the psychiatrist who directs their sessions, and with
their mutual journey toward the day of recovery. The development
of each character, from the first sullen, groping session, builds
scene by scene to the final meeting of the group. The patients begin
to understand one another and their own problems. Even Martha, the
girl who chooses to remain mute, registers an awareness of a world
outside herself. We meet the religious girl stained by guilt, the
abrasive extrovert, the frustrated mother, the confused kook, the
mama's boy. The psychiatrist is doubtful of his assignment at the
outset but his dedication and concern bear fruit when he is able
to send one of his patients home for a trial visit - a milestone
for all of them in their journeys toward the day of eventual recovery
and reinstatement to society. Drama. R. C. Sherriff Second Lieutenant Raleigh, the new officer assigned to C Company,
is welcomed by everyone except, apparently, Captain Stanhope, who
reveals, later, that Raleigh was at school with him and hero-worshipped
him. What neither of them knows is that if 'Stanhope went up those
steps into the front line without being doped with whisky, he'd go
mad with fright.' The drama of the personal relationships between
the men is played out against the larger tragedy raging around them.
Period 1918 Richard Brome, adapted by Stephen Jeffreys : Comedy Written in 1641, A Jovial Crew was the last play to be performed before the outbreak of the English Civil War and the deep divisions within English society form a distinctive backdrop for Jeffreys' sparkling adaptation of Brome's comedy, a special commission by the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed in Stratford upon Avon and London during 1992-1993. Rachel and Meriel, the two daughters of wealthy landowner Oldrents, become fascinated with a passing group of beggars and together with their two lovers Vincent and Hilliard and Springlove, the house steward, they run off to accompany the begging crew for what they envision is a life of carefree abandon. With music specially written for the play by Ian Dury and Mickey
Gallagher, A Jovial Crew is a unique theatrical experience
and a wonderful alternative to a Shakespearean production. The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite Comedy/Drama. Quincy Long. 4 men, 2 women, 1 man or woman (flexible casting). Unit Set Three out-of-work loggers, fueled by alcohol, God and song, set
forth from a Northwoods' bar one night on a misguided errand of merry.
Raymond, Merle and Junior have met a stranger in the bar even drunker
and lonelier than they are, and, after accidentally shooting him,
decide to reunite the poor fellow with his estranged wife somewhere
north of the border in Canada. Hampered at every turn by misunderstanding,
confusion, stupidity, drunkenness, desire and mistaken identity,
the chivalrous loggers resolutely attempt to do the right thing,
while achieving precisely the opposite. In the end, wild certainty
yields to a chastened amazement over what man won't do for a little
peace. Aileen Ritchie First performed by the Traverse Theatre Company, Edinburgh, THE JU JU GIRL tells of two women, connected by a blood line, a century apart, each embarking on a journey of self-discovery. 1929, Rhodesia. Catherine, the daughter of a Scottish Missionary, waits at a train station for her future husband. Together they intend to carry on the tradition of her father before her - the conversion of the 'The Dark Continent' and its people to Christianity, banishing their spiritual beliefs and leaving the power of the juju behind. 1999, Zimbabwe. Kate takes a train journey into the country of her
grandmother's youth. Leaving a restless life in Scotland, she comes
to Africa in search of adventure and meaning, fuelled by her grandmother's
stories of the past, the people and their juju. Drama. Wendy Hammond. Julie seems to be having a breakdown. Her two teenage children can't
get her to stop crying so they send for her best friend, Claire,
to help. Julie has, over time, become completely disillusioned with
her life as a New Jersey housewife and mother: although she dearly
loves her children, she is in a loveless marriage, with an abusive
policeman husband; she's a high school dropout and feels her life
is one big nothing. After Claire and her children get her through
this bad period, Julie picks herself up and decides to start her
life over. She kicks her husband out and for the first time, she
and the kids are on their own. After, a few very rocky days, Claire
shows up and asks to move in with them because she, too, has left
her husband. The two women begin an odyssey of odd jobs, education
and self improvement. The mutual support and lifelong love soon turns
into an affair between the two. Julie eventually falls deeply in
love with Claire, but Claire cannot readily accept the relationship.
She's afraid of what people will think, including Julie's children.
The road to bettering themselves splits and Julie soars. With the
encouragement of. a school professor, she becomes proficient with
computers, eventually winning a scholarship. With Julie's rise, Claire
is left behind, and as close as the women are, Claire decides she
must return to her husband. Julie, on the other hand, is now what
she's always wanted to be: a full woman, loving mother, and whole
human being. |