Drama. Lee Blessing, 3 men; interior. The estranged son of a middle-aged man returns home to find that his father has taken in a young refugee from El Salvador. Not only has the refugee moved in, but he's been given the son's room and is sleeping in his bed. As this explosive situation tests the already strained father-son relationship, we discover that the son is a male prostitute and was sexually abused on a regular basis by his average, working-class father. Throw in the secretive young man from El Salvador and the mix becomes deadly in this play rife with recriminations, secrets, seductions, hypocrisy, confessions and above all the desperate need of redemption and atonement. As played out through the images of an unbalanced father, his deeply wounded son and the young refugee, Blessing unflinchingly delves into the psyche of fathers and sons and patriarchal society in and of itself. Play. David Ives. 2 men, 4 women. Unit set In The Land of Cockaigne, three poignant scenes depict a
small family birthday party in a Midwestern yard on a summer day.
Each scene presents a different angle on the group, what they say
and who they may be. Is this the ideal American family, exactly the
opposite, or something in-between? Play. John Guare. 8 men, 4 women. Unit Set Moving back and forth in time, the action of the play is a mosaic
of short scenes, monologues and original songs, all blending together
into a revealing and affecting study of the American Dream gone awry.
The play moves on many levels. In one sense it is a Murder/Mystery:
a boy is found dead and his mother is suspected of his killing. But,
as the investigation of the crime proceeds, other themes emerge and
combine with it. The boy's mother has come to New York to persuade
her sister to come back to their home in Maine; the sister is killed
in a bizarre accident and her sibling slips easily into her persona,
moving into her apartment and taking over her job; and her son loses
his country innocence and becomes involved in the often ugly street
life of Greenwich Village. In the end all these various strands are
drawn together into a shattering climax - a forceful, moving illumination
of lives first betrayed and then destroyed by illusions which, inevitably,
lie always behind comprehension and control. Large Windows On a Small World Comedy Maurice Hill. 4 men, 4 women. Interior. Still living with his widowed mother, at an age when most of his
contemporaries are well settled into married life, Tad Snow is satisfied
to pursue his job with a toy company, his chemical experiments and
his busy correspondence with a sympathetic young French girl. But
the time has come to exchange photos and Tad, conscious of his own
rather unimpressive physique, sends off a picture of a muscular male
model who lives nearby. So far so good - until his beautiful pen
pal suddenly arrives from France to participate in the Miss World
Subway contest, and rushes over to meet Tad in the flesh. Mistaken
identity, the suspicions of a possessive mother and the disastrous
efforts of well-meaning friends all contribute to the antic events
which follow - but somehow things do ultimately fall into place,
and all emerge happier (or at least wiser) in the end. Play. Václav Havel. English version by Tom Stoppard Professor Nettles lives in constant fear because of his refusal to denounce his work. The play's sense of the sinister gives a chilling edge to this account of life in totalitarian state by the once banned writer and president of Czechoslovakia. Stoppard's English version was premiered at the Bristol Old Vic in 1986 and seen subsequently at the Orange Tree, Richmond, in 1989. 'It is unlikely that we shall see a better play this year. Inconceivable that we shall see one more important.' Daily Telegraph Play. Jean Anouilh. Translated by Christopher Fry To the great lords of her time as well as the politicians of the
Church expediency was God. So the Maid had to die. So to Warwick
and Cauchon, her life has the somewhat artificial, and certainly
impersonal, quality of a play. Short scenes from it are played out
during the trial as they struggle to turn her simplicity into heresy.
But it is the glory of her life rather than the tragedy that is the
triumphant climax of the play. Period 1429-31 Play. Keith Dewhurst, from the book by
Flora Thompson A literary sampler of English village life in late Victorian Oxfordshire, Lark
Rise re-enacts the first day of harvest. The play is written
to be performed as a promenade production with no distinction between
stage and auditorium. The interest lies in the lively picture of
typical country life of the period with music and songs, with a
brief flash forward to the 1914 war. Period 1880s |