 |
|
Tragedy. Jean Racine. Translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur. 3 men, 5 women. Unit Set. Based on a legend first dealt with by Euripides (in Greek) and Seneca
(in Latin) the action of the play centres on the tragic fate of Phaedra,
wife of Theseus, the King of Athens, who falls passionately in love
with her stepson, Hippolytus. At first Phaedra attempts to deny her
attraction for the handsome young Hippolytus, but when word arrives
that Theseus has been slain, Phaedra declares her love, much to the
shock and dismay of Hippolytus, who is deeply enamoured of another.
When Theseus then returns unharmed, Phaedra realises the extent of
her grievous error, and she makes no attempt to stop her loyal servant,
Oenone, from falsely denouncing Hippolytus as' a would-be seducer.
Furious, Theseus sends his son into exile - thereby setting in motion
the inexorable series of events in which the lives of the characters
spin wildly out of control and become subject to the will of the
gods - who exact their tragic and inevitable retribution. Jean Racine. Trans J.Rose A poweful tragedy of family revenge and retribution first performed
in 1677. The legendary Theseus has left his kingdom in the charge
of his wife Phedre while he travels far away. Phèdre has become
infatuated with Theseus's son - her stepson. When word arrives that
Theseus is dead, Phedre reveals her love to Hippolytus who is repulsed
by her proposal. When Theseus does return the vengeful Phèdre
claims that Hippolytus raped her. Theseus calls upon the gods for
justice, but the gods' justice is always cruel ... Play. Brian Friel Gar O'Donnell has accepted his aunt's invitation to come to Philadelphia, as he is fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg with his uncommunicative father, his humiliating job, his frustrated love for Kathy Doogan, and the total absence of prospect and opportunity in his life at home. Now, on the eve of his departure, he is not very happy to be leaving Ballybeg, despite his fantasies of success, wealth and endless love that he will attain in America. Comedy. Christopher Hampton Philip gives a small party for his fiancee Celia and a few friends.
Afterwards Celia leaves with the others, while another young lady
offers to help wash up, later revealing more intimate intentions.
Celia discovers what happened and breaks things off, revealing that
she spent the night of the party with another man. Philip then joins
another couple for dinner, apparently deciding to re-enact the end
of his deceased friend John's original play, which had been responsible
for John's suicide. Comedy. Christopher Fry. In this version of the famous Matron of Ephesus, we have a fresh
retelling of the story of a pious widow - and her maid - who mourns
for the death of her recently deceased husband in the tomb where
his bier lies awaiting internment. The maid is not quite so pious,
yet both women begin to suffer the pangs of a self-imposed hunger.
There are signs that they also are unhappy over the loss of male
company, but not until a handsome guard appears does the widow begin
regretting her noble experiment in withdrawing from the world. The
guard is invited to keep the ladies company, and he in turn invites
them to partake of his food. Before long the widow is ready to forget
her pious devotions and shows indications of returning speedily to
a worldly and pleasant life which she had too soon decided to give
up. Comedy Peter Ustinov. Subtitled An Adventure in Biography. At the age of 80 Sam is the victim of a shrewish wife, Stella, with whom he has quarrelled for 60 years. One night he receives a strange visitor, an immaculately dressed man of 60, who opens a drawer to which only Sam has the key and withdraws a valuable necklace. The necklace had been given by Sam to a lady of easy virtue (but expensive access) 20 years earlier. No sooner do Sam and the mysterious stranger discover that they are the same man, than another interloper appears, Sam at 40, followed by Sam at 20. Valiantly the octogenarian tries to keep the others from making the mistakes he has made but his efforts are futile. Each Sam proceeds to make the identical mistakes; marrying Stella at 20, not leaving her at 40, becoming hopelessly infatuated with another woman at 60. To join this foursome comes their father, an irascible Victorian with a lecherous leaning toward a secretary who looks suspiciously like the lady of the necklace. In the end there is still another Sam, A newborn babe whom Old Sam holds for an instant, then hastily rejects. Play. Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Translated by James Kirkup Because in a mad world the only defence of the sane is to assume
madness, the genius who has invented a nuclear weapon of world-consuming
force decides he can only protect the world from destructive ambition
by pretending to be mad. He is pursued by two agents of the super-powers
who also pretend to be madmen. In the end, all three find themselves
totally in the power of a truly mad megalomaniac. Comedy. Steve Martin This long-running Off-Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein
and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned
scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the
celebrated painter set the art world afire with Cubism. Bystanders,
including Picasso's agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso's
date, an elderly philosopher, Charles Dabernow Schmendimen, and an
idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humour. Period
1904 Play. Lynn Brittney, adapted from The Posthumous Papers of the
Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens Mr Pickwick and his companions journey round the country, to report
on the character of its populace. Their high notions and even higher
ambitions are tested by con-men, deaf old matrons, servants, landladies,
jailers and many others that complete the picture of Britannia the
way Hogarth might have painted it: raucous and cheeky, but ultimately
bound together by a sense of fair play. Period 1830s Play. William Inge. The play takes place on labour day Weekend in the joint back yards
of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who
lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and
a boarder who is a spinster school teacher. The other house belongs
to Helen Potts who lives with her elderly and invalid mother. Into
this female atmosphere comes a young man named Hal Carter, whose
animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group. Hal is a most
interesting character: a child of parents who ignored him, self-conscious
of his failings and his position behind the eight ball. Flo is sensitively
wary of temptations for her daughters. Madge, bored with being only
a beauty, sacrifices her chances for a wealthy marriage for the excitement
Hal promises. Her sister, Millie, finds her balance for the first
time through the stranger's brief attention. And the spinster is
stirred to make an issue out of the dangling courtship that has brightened
her life in a dreary, minor way. Moral entertainment. John Osborne. Adapted from the novel by Oscar
Wilde A brilliant dramatisation of Wilde's classic novel about a young
man who, magically, retains his youth and beauty while the decay
of advancing years and moral corruption appears on a portrait painted
by one of his lovers. 'Osborne has done much more than a scissors-and-paste
job on Wilde's famous story ... he has highlighted the topical concept
of youth as a commodity for which one would sell one's soul ... '
Guardian Play. Peter Nichols Ted Forrest is a playwright with writer's block. When we first meet
him - disillusioned and consumed with envy of a younger, more successful
playwright- he has retreated to the country in an attempt to write
an autobiographical novel. But this proves just as difficult so he
turns it into a play about himself f and the processes of artistic
creation. Inspired by Peter Nichols' own writer's block. Play with music. Based on Robert Browning's poem. Book and lyrics
by Peter Terson. Music by Jeff Parton Browning's famous poem is here transformed and developed into a
play with music. Originally written for in-the-round performance
at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, the play can equally be
performed in a proscenium setting. The edition includes detailed
production notes. Drama. Tammy Ryan. It is the day before Labour Day, 1990, four months before the Gulf
War and the Robinsons are having a barbecue. Jason, the prodigal
son who's been in the Navy since a violent confrontation with his
father, has just called from the airport announcing that he's on
his way home. Jason's family - his parents Jack and Irene, his sisters
Jeanann, Maureen and Peggy, and Aunt Bernice and Uncle George - await
his arrival as they drink, fight, joke, sing Girl Scout songs, threaten
each other with playing charades and otherwise stake out their territories.
Jason arrives with presents for his family from around the world,
and a freshly killed pig in the garbage bag to roast, creating a
stir at the party and forcing emotions to rise. After Santos, the
next door neighbour, casts doubt as to what's really in the garbage
bag, Jason takes his family hostage and forces them, at gun point,
to play a life and death game of charades. Andrew Cullen : Comedy On the eve of the 1979 General Election, a family gathers to watch
the results. And again in 1983, 1987 and 1992. In four acts, over
the results of four elections, Cullen's black comedy travels through
thirteen years of personal and political drama, where the ups and
downs of family members are reflected not only in the changes of
the political tide, but the cultural changes as well. Set in four
parts of the house - the living room, kitchen, bedroom and garden
- we meet Pat, who dreams of being a cleaner; Helen, middle class
and all for equal opportunities; Elizabeth, the family's matriarch;
and her sons Richard, the true blue Tory self- made man and his wife
Carol; Eddie and his girlfriend Helen, and Pat's husband Billy, a
strong supporter of the unions. Their daughter Alice starts off a
punk rebel of the 70s and ends up a teacher playing socialist monopoly
with Simon, Richard and Carol's son as we complete the circle from
Jim Callaghan through Margaret Thatcher to John Major. Packed with
splendid dialogue and characters, Pig's Ear is a look back over the
highs and lows of the Thatcher years, and the changing face of a
nation. Play E Andrew Leslie, from the novel by Paul Zindel. Bored with school, Lorraine and John search for other activities
to fill the time. One of these (random 'phone calls) leads to a meeting
with a retired widower, Mr. Pignati, whose hobby happens to be collecting
china, glass and marble pigs. Although their contact with Mr. Pignati
is instigated by the selfish intention of collecting money for a
bogus "charity," Lorraine and John soon find themselves drawn into
the older man's life. Counterpointed by scenes with their parents,
their relationship with "The Pigman" moves steadily and surely from
casual visits to deeper involvement, inexorably to tragedy. But,
throughout the fast-moving action, a seed of understanding is nurtured
- leading on to a growing sense of compassion and "coming of age," which
is strengthened and enhanced in the final, poignant moments of the
play. Roland Pertwee Set in the parlour of the Strachan's house in Brighton during the
late 1800s, Pink String and Sealing Wax is a domestic drama
concerning a repressed family, whose cold and undemonstrative father
comes to realise the full worth of his children. Edward Strachan
controls his family with little tenderness and understanding. His
loving and ambitious children are pushed to the limits by his lack
of attentiveness. When his eldest son becomes associated with a married
woman who plots to incriminate him in the murder of her husband,
Edward realises how very wrong his priorities and attitudes were
and fights to protect his son and reunite himself with his estranged
family. Family Entertainment. John Morley This delightful dramatisation of Collodi's story of Pinocchio has
all the charm of the original. The story is simple to stage with
many music and production suggestions, and the cast is flexible for
both large and small companies. Three plays. Hugh Leonard These three plays, intended solely as entertainment, share the common theme of travelling near Dublin, in Rome and on the Shannon river. A View from the Obelisk.
Roman Fever. From the story by Edith Wharton On a restaurant terrace in Rome, Mrs Slade and Mrs Ansley are reminiscing about a Roman holiday they had together many years before. Mrs Slade, envious of Mrs Ansley's daughter's engagement to a young and rich marches cannot resist a spiteful jibe at Mrs Ansley, thereby destroying a cherished memory. But in the end it is Mrs Slade herself whose illusions are shattered. Period 1930 Pizzazz.
|