Play. Mary Gallagher. 2 men, 2 women. Unit set Karla, a would-be novelist, and Nick, a soap opera actor, meet by
chance in a park overlooking the Hudson River. Their encounter leads
on, in short order, to a rendezvous at Karlas apartment, and the
exciting possibility that true love might have come along at last
for both of them. But Nick, cautious that real friendship and mutual
respect might be dashed on the shoals of physical passion, begins
to retreat - leaving Karla confused and hurt. She gets little comfort
from her brittle, man-hungry friend, Lydia, who sees sex as an end
in itself, and prefers the clandestine company of other women's husbands.
Nor is Nick given much support by his easygoing roommate, Alan, a
fellow actor who returns in disarray from a disastrous tour with
a children's theatre company. Nick wants to work things out with
Karla but can't seem to understand his own motives; Karla is ready
to take up again with Nick but doesn't know how to cope with his
(and her) sense of withdrawal. Matters are further complicated when
Nick meets the tipsy Lydia in a bar and, not knowing of her connection
with Karla, goes home with her; while Alan and Karla also find solace
in each other when Nick fails to show up at her apartment but Alan
does. Eventually, after a series of vacled, cleverly constructed
scenes, replete with sharp and continuously amusing dialogue, an
accommodation of sorts is reached - with all four principals hardly
the richer but certainly the wiser for their experiences. An adult fairy tale: Peter Ustinov : Comedy 6M 6F 2 Interior sets In the conference room of a four-power zone in Germany, four Colonels,
representing their respective countries: the United States, England,
France and Russia, are apparently getting nowhere with their negotiations
except deeper into a mess of red tape. A man - called the Wicked
Fairy - drops in on them and invites them to accompany him to a nearby
castle, which they do. Soon joined by the Good Fairy at the castle
they discover The Sleeping Beauty. Each of the Colonels sees her
as his own particular ideal - the Frenchman as an 18th Century lass
of the boulevards, the Russian as a flaxen-haired figure out of Chekhov,
the Englishman as something virginally Elizabethan and the American
as a moll in an all-night dive. The Colonels each get a chance to
waken and claim her, but they all fail, surrendering the illusion
that they had long cherished. The American and the Frenchman, however,
decide to stay at the castle for the next hundred years and take
another chance at making their dreams come true. Play. Timberlake Wertenbaker In this treatment of the Philomele myth, war hero Tereus takes his Athenian wife Procne to live in Thrace. She becomes lonely and begs him to fetch her younger sister, Philomele, from Athens to be her companion. During the arduous return journey Tereus rapes Philomele and then cuts out her tongue. Despite Tereus's claim that Philomele died at sea, the two sisters are finally reunited, whereby, through a disturbing puppet show, Philomele reveals her horrific ordeal. The sisters wreak their revenge in true tragic style. Drama. Ronald Gow and Walter Greenwood Mr and Mrs Hardcastle's daughter Sally works at a mill and is the
chief breadwinner. She is in love with Larry Meath, an excellent
young fellow, and presently they get engaged. He is killed in a riotous
street meeting, and Sally's burden becomes worse than ever. At last,
desperate and shattered, she becomes the mistress of a prosperous
bookmaker, whereupon her father turns her out of his wretched home.
A vivid depiction of unemployment in a northern manufacturing town.
Period 1934 Love Rides the Rails or Will the Mail Train Run Tonight? Melodrama. Morland Cary. 7 men, 5 women (extras). Several settings. Simon Darkway seeks to control, for his own vile purposes, the Walker
Valley, Pine Bush & Pacific R.R. Opposing him are the gallant
Truman Pendennis, the beauteous Prudence Hopewell, the Widow Hopewell,
and staunch Harold Standfaster. Assisting him are Dirk Sneath, a
viper of a man, and Carlotta Cortez, the sultry siren with a heart
of gold. Swiftly and hilariously the plot unfolds, leading to a tremendous
climax when the hero is bound by the villains to the tracks in the
path of an on-coming train; but the heroine arrives in the nick of
time. She stops the train and virtue stands triumphant while the
evil-doers get their just deserts. The final scene closes in a blaze
of glory as Prudence, flagging the on-coming train with her hastily
discarded red skirt, bravely shouts, "Shall prudish modesty send
those men to their. death? No, no, a thousand times No." Bill Morrison Three linked full-length plays that chronicle the history of an
Irish family Protestant father, Catholic mother - from the North/South
Partition in 1922 to the recent bombings and atrocities. 'If the
woes of Northern Ireland have brought our theatre anything bolder
or more ambitious, I have yet to discover it' The Times. Patrick Barlow, (National Theatre of Brent) After such mighty theatrical milestones as The Charge of the
Light Brigade, The Messiah and The French Revolution,
the Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Brent, Desmond
Olivier Dingle, presents a full and unexpurgated account of the
romance, courtship and matrimonial proceedings of Charles and Diana
- to be performed by two male actors. He has, in his own words,
'tastefully crammed these epic events into a single profound and
unforgettable piece of theatre'. 'Grateful tears of laughter coursed
down my cheeks... Pure joy' Michael Billington, Guardian. Love
Upon The Throne premiered at the Edinburgh Festval 1998 before
transferring to London's Bush Theatre and thence to the West End. Play Terrence McNally. 7 men. Unit Set At a beautiful Dutchess County farmhouse, 8 men hash out their passions,
resentments and fears over the course of 3 summer weekends. There's
Perry and Arthur, a professional couple of long standing, whose relationship,
while strained, always manages to settle into the loving routine
of a couple grown too familiar with one another, but happily so.
The owner of the summer house, Gregory, is an aging choreographer
who dotes on his younger lover, Bobby, who is blind. Their relationship
seems solid, until an irresistible dancer, Ramon, callously flaunts
his sex appeal and manages to seduce Bobby on the first night in
-the house. Trying to keep Ramon to himself is John Jeckyll, a soured
ex-patriot Brit with a taste for melodrama - and cruelty. John rankles
everyone around him, speaking the unspeakable in haughty nonchalance
while probing the weaknesses of the others. The painful truth about
his ire eventually becomes dear when he has to take care of his terminally
ill twin brother, James. Unlike John, James inspires nothing but
affection in those around him, and here lies both the crux of John's
complaint and the source of one of the play's most blistering and
revealing of monologues about the related questions of gay identity
and self-esteem. Finally, there is Buzz, a maniacal lover of the
musical theatre. Like James, Buzz suffers from AIDS, and he has resigned
himself to a life of humorous anecdotes and comforting trivia. Strange
things can happen, though, and against all odds, Buzz finds himself
falling in love for what may be one last summer. Play. Olwen Wymark Amy and Lawrence, whose marriage is on the brink of collapse, invite
Cissy to live with them. Gabriel, a friend of Lawrence's arrives,
on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Amy's attempts to provoke an
emotive reaction from those around her are ineffective. The break-down
in communication is half-resolved and the play ends with Cissy personifying
Lawrence's idea of hope as '... a rather plain but really very nice
woman of indeterminate age sidling into a room dressed in a pink
tutu ...' |