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Play. Lee Blessing, Commissioned by the Bergalis family to explore Kimberly's case of contracting the AIDS virus, the playwright becomes part of the story as an essential observer to the story. Kim's encounters with Lee reflect their relationship in real life as well as the "playwright" and "character" in the play. A third character, Matthew, represents a composite of the thousands of gay men who have suffered in the AIDS epidemic. As the play recounts Kim's case, spotlighting the media and political circuses surrounding it, we see all three characters struggle with the debate, and with their innermost feelings about themselves and each other. Lee Blessing Blessing's play is a true account of the experiences of Kimberly
Bergalis, whose case marked the first known instance of HIV transmission
from a health worker to a patient. Issues of testing, ignorance,
discrimination and personal responsibility are explored against the
backdrop of the raging AIDS epidemic across America, while the moral
complexity of the issues are skilfully interwoven into the profound
nature of Kim's predicament. Commissioned by the Bergalis family,
the playwright becomes drawn in to the story as a character of his
own, and the encounters between Kim and the playwright take on a
real life of their own running parallel to the characters and the
play itself. Another character, Matthew, emerges as a composite of
thousands of AIDS sufferers and as the play recounts Kim's case,
highlighting the media and political circus surrounding it, we see
all three characters struggling not only with the debate but with
their innermost feelings about themselves and each other. Play. Larry Ketron. The setting is the local liquor store in Patrick Henry Lake, Tennessee,
a sleepy mountain town suddenly jarred awake by the return of Leif,
an ex-Marine whose father was once the most powerful man in the area.
He was also killed by lightning while having a tryst with the mother
of Leif's girl friend, and the effect of that tragic event is still
felt. The mother and her husband are now hopeless alcoholics and
their daughter is committed to their care. But it is the arrival
of an outsider, a mysterious prophet-like stranger named Mickey,
which brings the action to focus and illuminates the shared experiences
which tie together all the various, and disparate, characters who
people the play. And, in the end, it is also Mickey, through his
unsuspected involvement in Leif's own past, who impels matters to
their inevitable, and dramatically moving, conclusion. Comedy. Hugh Leonard When her husband plans to be away with his business partner, Grainne
seizes the opportunity of spending the night with an ex-flame, now
a TV personality. She also involves the partner's wife, Niamh, in
the plot. Things go wrong when Niamh's furiously jealous husband
returns unexpectedly, and matters are further complicated by the
manageress of the motel turning out to be the spurned love of the
TV personality. Drama. Phillip Hayes A powerful chronicle of the life of Paul Robeson, taking us from
his childhood in New Jersey, to his adult life around the world.
An All-American athlete and a lawyer with Columbia Law School credentials,
Robeson faces the racism prevalent in society in early part of the
20th century. He strives to rise above, and it is his triumph in
that struggle that turns Robeson into a modern day hero. Realizing
the racist system would not allow him to practice as a lawyer, Robeson
turns to singing, something he had learned well in the church choir.
His singing leads to acting and his acting, with all the accolades
due a master, leads him around the world. But every place he visits
he sees the strains of racism in its many forms. The more he sees,
the more he speaks out, using the his influence and stature to try
and enlighten those around him. After some time in Europe, he returns
to the United States to perform and speak out about the injustices
in the country he loves. Confronting racism again, he sticks to his
values, adhering to no party line, but is accused of being a Communist,
an agitator and much more. He is blacklisted and his passport is
revoked, but he goes on speaking out whenever he can. For eight years
he fights to clear his name. Finally, the social climate begins to
change and towards the end of his life, Robeson's passport is reinstated
along with some of the glory and respect he earned along the way.
There is still far to go, but Paul Robeson remains a beacon to those
struggling to make this world a better place. This play is a powerful
look at the many facets of Robeson the man, as well as Robeson the
star. It is a tour-de-force for any actor. Play. Otis Bigelow. 5 women. Interior. Play. Henrik Ibsen. Translated by Christopher Fry and Johan Fillinger Written in 1867, Peer Gynt was Ibsen's last work to use verse as a medium of dramatic expression but it carries the marks of his later prose plays in the kind of spare, dramatically eloquent dialogue which has become characteristic of twentieth-century drama. At the same time the poetry is brilliantly appropriate to the imaginative swings between Scandinavian oral folk traditions, the Moroccan coast, the Sahara Desert, and the absurdist images of the Cairo madhouse. Period: early to mid nineteenth century Henrik Ibsen, Trans and adapted by Kenneth McLeish Ibsen's mighty epic (1867) - by turns lyrical, comic, fantastic
and tragic. Despite Peer's quest for absolute purity he repeatedly
falls for the fleshly temptations of compromise, as he swaggers and
seduces his way from the fjords of Norway to the deserts of Africa
and back. First staged at the National Theatre by Declan Donnellan,
Founding Director of Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company. Alan Plater Peggy For You, Alan Plater's new play, is a witty and poignant portrait of Peggy Ramsay, the larger-than-life play agent who nurtured several generations of England's best dramatists and became one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in postwar British theatre. Focusing on one fateful day in Ramsay's life, when old clients are exiting and new ones entering, Plater's play premiered at London's Hampstead Theatre in December 1999. Comedy. Ken Whitmore The virtuous, kind-hearted couple Bethany and Patrick have corresponded
for six months with two lonely pen-friends: Ted, a divorcé,
and Kitty, a widow. Now Patrick and Bethany are to bring this vulnerable
couple together for a weekend in their country house. But never judge
by appearances, as this hilarious comedy goes to show, because nobody
is quite what they appear to be! Vanessa Brooks : Bob and Marion live with their rebellious daughter Pen in a cockroach-infested
tower block. Dougie and Petula are old friends who years before emigrated
to Australia in search of a better life. Dougie and Petula have made
it big Down Under and now live the Australian Dream - luxurious home,
designer labels and kidney-shaped swimming pool - while Bob and Marion
have continued to live a modest life in England. When Dougie and
Petula arrive for a reunion back in the Old Country, home (and abroad)
truths burst through the surface as the veneers are stripped off
and old wounds are re- pened. As the tequila flows a little too freely,
tongues loosen and the pent-up jealousies of seventeen years finally
come pouring out, with disastrous - and hilarious - results. But
where does the Penny Blue fit in? In a stamp collection, brought
back from Australia, which holds the promise of an instant fortune
for Bob and Marion . . . Comedy. Jean Ferguson Black. Penny Wise Farm is the home of Gordon Chase, playwright, and Penny,
his adoring wife. And there is Jeff who lives with them, Gordon's
brother, blissfully unemployed. Gordon is devoted to Penny. Twice
in the course of their marriage he has made romantic excursions "elsewhere," but
neither affair proved an important threat to Penny's happiness, and
each of the ladies involved has slipped into the role of "family
friend." Knowing that Gordon is becoming involved with Katherine
Drake, Martha and Tina rush out to Penny Wise to prevent disaster.
Their efforts are complicated by Katherine, who comes at the seemingly
innocent invitation of Penny. Martha and Tina decide to persuade
Katherine to withdraw for Penny's sake, but they only succeed in
crystallizing Katherine's determination to tell Penny of her "great" love
for Gordon. Gordon is as unhappy as Martha and Tina: he hadn't intended
to allow this affair to take on serious proportions, He blames Martha
and Tina for the crisis. Penny's resourcefulness is demonstrated,
and she deftly side-steps the implications of Katherine's "confession," and
at the play's end we see Katherine definitely relegated to the ranks
of "family friend." David Edgar A valuable mural is discovered in a church in war-torn Eastern Europe.
International and local art historians argue over who should own
the painting. The fate of the mural becomes powerfully interwoven
with the fate of the country. First performed by the RSC in 1995,
this was the 'first serious response in the British theatre to the
tragedy of Sarajevo' Observer. 'One of those rare works that
makes you want to climb on to roof tops to shout about its merits' Daily
Telegraph. Play: J.P. Miller. Stage adaptation by E Andrew Leslie. The drama involves two middle-class families that outwardly symbolise
the tranquility of stable suburbia. But behind the green shutters
and the contentment of sustained affluence lies the latent turmoil
all too frequently documented in police records, the tragedy of households
divided against themselves with children and parents going separate
routes to common disaster. In one of Mr. Miller's families - the
Masons - a 16-year-old girl takes LSD and worse. In the second family
- the Hoffmans - the son turns out to be the wise-guy pusher coining
a fortune in debasing his peers. The girl's destruction is remorselessly
unfolded - the wild fantasies of trips on drugs, the filth and sordidness
of an East Village pad, the unsuccessful attempts at group therapy,
the pure horror of the understaffed ward for the disturbed and finally
the distinct possibility that the child may face a controlled environment
for the rest of her life. In a final scene of explosive fury her
father lashes out against the forces which have destroyed his daughter,
but it is too late - and his own share of the guilt too great. There
is only the hope that others will understand - and learn from - his
agony. |