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Comedy Fantasy: Harry Segall. 5 men, 8 women. Interior Stacy and Lydia Bolton, a husband-and-wife team of actor-producers, have everything except children: They are always on tour and children have to wait. They have just chosen a new play by their friend Daphne, with a magnificent role for Lydia. But Little Item, a girl angel, has been waiting for ten years to be born to Lydia, and if the Boltons haven't decided to have her yet they never will. So the angel Charles and his assistant, Gloria, are sent to Earth to bring Little Item back. But Item won't go. Charles, disobeying orders, decides to make another effort. Knowing the Boltons are always looking for "angels" to back their shows, Charles becomes Slim, a wealthy rancher, and he arranges to have Lydia find a six-month old baby abandoned in a phone booth. Unable to find its parents, Lydia takes the infant home and becomes a doting mother. When Daphne arrives she and Stacy proceed to work on Lydia, whose notions on domesticity drive them crazy. Daphne sets out to divert Slim's attention to herself, and Stacy is jealous of the rancher. Trouble looms when it is learned that Slim has no money, no ranch and resembles a fugitive who is wanted by the police. Two detectives appear, identify him, handcuff and prepare to take him away, but Lydia refuses to think ill of him. Just as he is about to be dragged off, Charles declares he is an angel! But he is being punished for insubordination and his powers don't work. Now Little Item intercedes with the celestial authorities. Item is successful and Slim disappears in a flash of lightning. Matters come to a climax when Gloria take a hand. The missing mother of the child is found and claims it from the Boltons. Lydia is heartbroken, and even Stacy is upset. Item realises she will at last be born, and Charles goes back to heaven - mission accomplished. (in Latin-American Plays). Mario Vargas Llosa, Trans S. Doggart Set in a 1940s Peruvian desert town this play is a powerful exploration
of machismo and sexual desire. When a young girl disappears it seems
that only La Chunga, the barwoman, knows the truth, but refuses to
tell. Undeterred, the local men make up their own version of what
happened in an attempt to extract the full story. Play. John Kerr The play recounts the story of Bernadette and the miraculous vision
she claims to have been granted, and also the conflict that this
assertion causes in her relationship with the sceptical and strong-willed
Mistress of Novices. Set mainly in the Convent of St Gildard, Nevrs,
it follows the life of Bernadette until its agonised end, and closes
with the announcement of Bernadette's canonization. Period mid-nineteenth
to early twentieth century. Comedy James Prideaux. 3 men, 2 women. Interior The time is 1927; the place an airplane hangar in New Jersey where
two couples wait for the fog to lift so their chartered plane can
fly them to Washington. Their meeting is quite by chance, but also
ironic, as it develops that the four had switched partners 25 years
earlier, and haven't seen each other since. One couple has settled
into suburban bliss, he a professor, she a housewife and mother;
the other couple are Park Avenue types, he a rich, hard-driving businessman,
and his wife (after all these years) still an aspiring actress. Cautious
and civil at first, their conversation turns gradually bitchier (and
funnier) as time hangs heavy, bootleg liquor flows, and old enmities
are revived. As their veneers crumble, it is clear that neither couple
has benefited as much as they had expected from their marital switch,
and that beneath their pretense lies aridity, albeit tempered by
the witty hijinks they go through to convince themselves (and us)
that all's well in their reordered worlds. An entertainment on marriage by George Melly, Alan Ayckbourn, James
Saunders, Harold Pinter, Alun Owen, Fay Weldon, David Campton, Lyndon
Brook and John Bowen. Comedy Richard Baer. 3 men, 1 woman. Interior. Herman Lewis (a Jewish carpet dealer) and Christine Millman (an
interior decorator and lapsed Catholic) have been friends for more
than thirty years. When their respective mates were alive, the two
couples saw each other constantly and often traveled together. As
the play opens, Christine is preparing to move - tomorrow - from
her apartment in New York City, to Florida, where she will share
an apartment with another widow From out of the blue; Herman appears
to request that she stay in the city and marry him. Christine thinks
the idea is ridiculous, but Herman persists and tries to change her
mind over the ensuing eighteen hours. The play's other characters
are Ralph and Chuck, moving men who empty Christine's home while
Herman doggedly pursues his courtship. Comedy. Donald Churchill Arthur is extremely satisfied with his Friday evening interludes with Sonia but trouble starts when his ex-wife persuades him to help her get rid of her own lover, and Sonia becomes so jealous that she fakes a confession to her husband, Dennis. Norma and Arthur invite Dennis round to give their side of the story. However, when he arrives they discover that Dennis has been perfectly happy to condone Sonia's affair with Arthur as long as she tells him all about it - and now he wants to join in. Mizlansky/Zilinsky or "Schmucks" Comedy Jon Robin Baitz. 7 men, 1 woman. Interior Set in the ever-so-sleek and slick Hollywood of the '80s, this dizzily
funny, yet jarringly sober play revolves around the manic film producer
Davis Mizlansky who is on the brink of being done in by the IRS.
Desperate to save himself, and morals be damned (if he ever had any
to begin with), he comes up with a scheme he's sure will save the
day - and might just make him some money to boot. In order to make
his idea work, he must convince his former partner, Sam Zilinsky,
to come on board with the businessman who can make the deal to produce
celebrity-narrated Bible stories for children. Mizlansky and Zilinsky
square off and chaos ensues as Zilinsky confronts Mizlansky with
the wreck his life has become. Is the offer of selling shares in
a phony tax shelter a form of redemption? Mizlansky thinks it is.
They get away with it, but Zilinsky knows it is a deeper form of
betrayal. |