Liz Lochhead Barbs Marshall is a Celebrity Hairdresser in Glasgow. She is successful
and well off, but she is 39 years old and almost deafened by the
ticking of her biological clock. To make matters worse, her mother
is a nag, her best friend is holding out on her, and her ex-husband
has a new young girlfriend. Then she meets a 26-year-old stranger
who seems more than ready to oblige, but the complications are by
no means over ... Premiered at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival, where
it won a Fringe First before transferring to London (Hampstead Theatre)
then Glasgow. 'People seldom write life-style comedies like Perfect
Days for the stage anymore. 'The last scene has a couple of jokes
so marvellous that they are greeted by rounds of applause as one
blinks back the odd tear' Financial Times Terrence McNally Margaret and Katharine, two outwardly unremarkable middle-aged lady
friends, turn the pilgrimage tradition on its head when they throw
themselves into a rousing tour of India, each having her own secret
dreams of what the fabled land of exotic and intoxicating opposites
will do for the suffering she hides within. Margaret has just discovered
a lump in her breast but hasn't told her friend. The more theatrical
and adventurous Katharine seeks a respite from the haunting tragic
death of her son Walter. Faced with the women's despair, who but
the golden elephant god Ganesha could intervene? Fluid in his power
to assume any guise, at piece with all things, Ganesha is the spiritual
centre around which the play spins itself, drawing upon the tragic
and the comic, the beautiful and the deplorable, until a breathtaking
release arrives for both women at his hands. Comedy. Samson Raphaelson. The plot concerns the tragi-comic efforts of Dale and Jenny Williams to adjust their psychological problems in such a way as to save their marriage. A Serious Comedy. Tennessee Williams. This is the story of two marriages at points of acute crisis. One
couple has just broken up after five years together. The other has
not been able to come to terms in one day of wedlock. Both couples
are living through a period of adjustment. The phrase is tinged with
irony. The play examines the sources of the crisis. Ralph Bates,
a former war hero, has in-law trouble: George Haverstick, a war buddy
who unexpectedly visits him on Christmas Eve with his bride of a
day, has the shakes, his difficulty seems to be a fear of impotence.
The end is happy, as comedy requires. The four go to bed - in the
right combinations. Comedy. A.R. Gurney. Tony, a professor of American literature (and a quintessential WASP),
has given up his teaching post to . stage a party to end all parties.
He has invited people from all walks of American life to attend,
as if.to demonstrate that even if the WASP ruling class can no longer
lead America, it must, at least, teach them to entertain properly.
Tony has also invited a svelte critic from the New York Times in
the hopes of getting a perfect review for his perfect party, but
trouble arises when the critic says the evening lacks the essential
element of danger" that makes all parties worthwhile. Improvising,
Tony warns the reporter about his twin brother, a foul-mouthed and
hugely endowed womanizer, whom he has invited to attend. Piqued by
the chance to meet such a man, the reporter opts to stay, and here
the funny heart of the play takes over. Tony, you see, is going to
have to play his own fictitious twin brother if the evening's to
be a success. In a fake mustache, and with an even faker Italian
accent, Tony aggressively woos the reporter while trying to avoid
the unavoidable and hilarious misunderstandings between both him
and his skeptical wife and an obliging (if sensitive) Jewish- couple
from next door. In the end, the party falls apart, only to be triumphantly
resurrected as Tony's rigid structure gives way to a free-for-all
which may not be perfect, but is as vital and rewarding as the idea
of democracy itself. Comedy. Tennessee Williams Ralph Bates and his wife are on the verge of breaking up after five years together, partly through trouble with in-laws. George Haverstock, a wartime friend of Bates is a newlywed concealing beneath his ebullient exterior a secret fear, which seems to be that he may be impotent. By the end of the day, however, all ends well - with each pair correctly together. Play. Adapted by David Butler from an original play by Olive Chase
and Stanley Clayton The murder of a student brings double distress to Jane Canning,
the Warden of the girls' residential college, because she loves the
detective in charge of the case, and his chief suspect is her brother,
Gilbert. The deceased was involved with Gilbert (her tutor), in addition
to her boyfriend, and she also knew Inspector Conway. Jane's divided
loyalties ultimately put her in personal danger. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up J M Barrie, in a new version by Trevor Nunn and John Caird This is the beloved story of Peter, Wendy, Michael, John, Captain
Hook, Smee, the lost boys, pirates, Indians, and, of course, Tinker
Bell, in their adventures in Never Land. This new version of Barrie's
classic was first presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company, painstakingly
researched and restored by Nunn and Caird to the Barrie's original
intentions. "A resonant and beguiling fantasy that boasts as much
spectacle as any child could wish, and that, at the same time, touches
on the double Barriesque tragedy of growing up into conformity or
being marooned indefinitely in the Never Land." - The Guardian. Play. Brian Clark Sir Edmund Milne is aghast to learn that his wife of more than fifty years is a long-standing, covert Labour voter. In the acrimonious argument that follows, she reveals that she is dying from cancer with only three months to live. The truth, spoken on both sides for the first time in a marriage which has survived by compromises, humour and genuine mutual fondness, serves to unite the couple for the impending ordeal. Sir John Mills and Rosemary Harris starred in the National Theatre's 1986 production. |