Play. Larry Ketron.
3 men, 5 women. Unit Set.
The setting is a boarding house in the mountains of New Mexico,
where a group of varied characters has been thrown together by the
vicissitudes of fate. They are dominated by Virginia, a strong and
passionate woman, whose past is clouded in mystery. Her affair with
another boarder, a bearded painter named Caldren, holds promise of
happiness for them both, but is suddenly disturbed by the arrival
of her former lover. Brigan, a man who once commanded her as she
now commands others, but who is now ill and weak. However, the memories
they share are still powerful and their effect is soon felt by all
the others: Caldren; his young sidekick, Werth; Brigan's estranged
wife; and the landlady's young daughter, with whom Werth has formed
an attachment. In the end there are hard decisions which must be
made - decisions in which illusions may be shattered, but through
which must come whatever happiness these lonely people can hope to
know.
ISBN: 0-8222-0926-8
Play. Brendan Behan
M22 or M18 with doubling. Various simple settings.
The emotional atmosphere of a prison on the eve of an execution is sustained with subtle and humorous control throughout. The central theme is the paradox of man's urge towards love and fellowship on the one hand and his persistent practice of inhumanity on the other.
Play. Simon Gray
M5 F2. A staff room.
Set in the 1960s in a school of English for foreigners in Cambridge, Quartermaine's
Terms is an often humorous but ultimately moving account of
several years in the lives of seven teachers. The play was first
presented at the Queen's Theatre, London, in 1981 and won the 1982
Cheltenham Prize for Literature, the first time a play has won
this award. '... thoroughly crafted, sharp-witted piece of drama.' Guardian
' ... a refreshingly sensitive, observant piece ...' New
Statesman
ISBN 0 573 11364 5
Play. Sue Townsend
M 12 F 11. Can be played by M4 F5. Various simple settings.
In the not-too-distant future, a radical government has come to
power in Great Britain and the Royal family has been moved ... to
a housing estate in Leicester. For the first time, the Royals have
to live as ordinary people and they find the experience baffling
and frightening, but ultimately enriching. A many-layered and superbly
entertaining fantasy.
ISBN 0 573 01871 5
Talbot Rothwell, based on the play George Washington Slept Here by
George S. Kauf man and Moss Hart
Comedy 7M 6F Interior set
Where Elizabeth slept is a tumbledown country cottage that Norah
Fuller has just bought. Her husband is less enthusiastic about it
than she is, particularly when he discovers that there are no modern
conveniences, not even running water. How he and Norah deal with
their uncomfortable acquisition and eventually manage to turn it
into a place fit to live, makes a delightful and hilarious play.
ISBN: 0 85676 077 3
Comedy Jeanne Michels and Phyllis Murphy.
1 man, 2 women. Unit Set
Where can two sisters on the other side of 50, who want to add a
little zest, fun and excitement to their lives, find it? Bingo! On
any Bingo night at St. Joseph's, you can find Father Mac, Lonnie
and Cindy Conklin, Marge Meranski, Coach Anderson, and the many offbeat,
colorful regulars we meet through the eyes of Sis and Babe. They
dish the dirt, giggle like school girls and share old memories. Sis
and Babe are sisters and best friends. They've been coming to play
Bingo together for years because they love it. Sis is a good loser
who just loves to play. Babe is a player who has always got to win.
Sis is naturally fit and trim. Babe is naturally overweight and always
fighting the battle of the bulge. Sis is content in her widowhood.
Babe is still looking for love. They compliment each other in ways
only sisters can and they drive each other crazy in that same sisterly
fashion. On this particular night, Babe and Sis share something new
as they each confess a secret and find a special kind of redemption.
ISBN: 0-8222-1417-2
(in Scotland Plays) Liz Lochhead
1m 1f. Short drama. Flexible staging.
Verena and her oilman husband are childless, and their marriage
is unravelling. In two intercut monologues, which take place over
the course of a year, we enter the hearts of each of them in turn.
A gem of humane tragi-comedy from the awardwinning Scots author of Perfect
Days.
ISBN 1 85459 383 8
Drama. David Rabe.
6 men, 1 woman. Unit Set
Stricken with AIDS, Anthony's life has become a myriad of endless
symptoms and hopeless desperation. With the help of his lover and
caretaker, Thomas, and friend, Susanah, Anthony seeks the guidance
of an understanding doctor who will put an end to his suffering.
He finds Dr. Chapman, a retired surgeon, who is at first unwilling,
but is soon persuaded by Anthony's sympathetic charm and dignity
to assist in the mercy killing. When Anthony acquires the pills and
sets a day for his suicide, Dr. Chapman devises a methodical plan
that must be meticulously followed. Suddenly realising that Dr. Chapman
could be convicted of murder, Susanah insists that he not be involved,
and soon the doctor is left to confront his own misconceptions of
life, death, law and medicine. They all wait helplessly until the
hour of Anthony's planned suicide, comforted only by their hope that
the wishes of a terminally ill friend will be fulfilled, but, as
the time comes and passes, all their wishes and plans are swept aside
by a force that proves stronger than any of their desires or decisions.
ISBN: 0-8222-1643-4
Comedy/Drama. Nagle Jackson.
5 men, 5 women. Unit Set
Set against the crumbling of the Soviet Union, as observed backstage
at the Kuzlov Theatre in St. Petersburg, The Quick-Change Room is
the comedy metaphor for the too-rapid transformation of Russia from
communism to free-market capitalism. Nina, the daughter of the wardrobe
mistress, has been cast as Irina in a revival of Chekhov's The
Three Sisters. Using her considerable talents - theatrical and
otherwise - she persuades management that what Chekhov's play needs
in the New Russia is "music ...some songs ...maybe even some dances." Chekhov's
masterpiece becomes, for marketing purposes, an American style musical
titled O My Sister! The venerable artistic director is kicked
upstairs - after all, "Russia doesn't need great men now; it needs
clever men" - and the long-reigning prima donna ends up working in
wardrobe. A funny-sad commentary on current events, the metaphor
of the quick-change room is not lost on the audience as the world
around the acting troupe changes as drastically and as quickly as
the world outside.
ISBN: 0-8222-1585-3
Drama: Anne Chislett.
8 men, 7 women, extras. Divided Set.
Jacob (York) Bauman, a young member of an Amish community near Kitchener,
Ontario, chafes at the strict (and, he believes, outmoded) beliefs
of his elders, particularly those of his father, Christy. World War
I is raging in Europe, and most of Canada's young men have gone off
to fight with the British forces, but the Amish, because of their
pacifist convictions, have refused to join the war effort. By deciding
to enlist, Yock alienates himself not only from family and community,
but also from the lovely Katie Brubacher, with whom he has fallen
in love. When Yock returns from the war Katie has wed someone else
and, ironically, the very acts of bravery which have made him a hero
to the rest of Canada have made Yock a bloody-handed villain to his
own people. Although the compassionate Katie offers to leave her
husband and go off with him, Yock accepts his status as an outcast
and departs alone, but not before admitting that, while standing
over the body of a slain German soldier, the meaning of pacifism
was, at last, powerfully revealed to him. In the end, Yock's stern
father (now a bishop) is vindicated - but at the loss of the one
he sought to save, his beloved and only son!
ISBN:-0-88910-270-8
Play. Doug Wright
5 men, 3 women; Unit Set.
Doctor Royer-Collard, head of Charenton Asylum, is visited by Renee Pelagie, wife of the asylum's most notorious inmate, the Marquis de Sade. Furious that her husband's sadomasochistic pornography has tarnished her reputation, she offers the Doctor any. amount of money, if only her husband can be kept from writing. After confiscating the Marquis' quills and paper, the Abbe de Coulmier, the prison's Abbe, is surprised to find lascivious new, stories circulating in public. The source? A lusty young seamstress named Madeleine has been smuggling material out of the asylum. Immediately, the Abbe bars the girl from seeing the Marquis, but ever resourceful, the Marquis pens his stories on his bedclothes in wine, blood and worse. Driven to a fury, the Abbe strips bare the Marquis and his cell, leaving only stone and straw. Undaunted, the Marquis devises a fantastic plan to whisper his stories from lunatic to lunatic, until Madeleine can pen them down - but the last lunatic, in whose cell Madeleine crouches, mutilates and kills the girl in response to the Marquis' grisly tale. A riot ensues, nearly destroying the asylum, and as the second act unfolds, the Abbe is driven to increasingly desperate acts to silence the Marquis: the removal of his hands, feet, genitals, and eventually his beheading. Wracked by guilt, the once humane but now murderous and sexually deviant Abbe is committed to his own asylum where he finds himself crying out for a paper and pen with which to record his own newly arisen perversions. In the last scene, the boxes containing the body parts of the Marquis tremble with, pleasure. One hand snakes loose from its box ... and begins to write.
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