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Play. John DiFusco, et al. Conceived by John DiFusco; written by
the original cast- Vincent Caristi, Richard Chaves, John DiFusco,
Eric E. Emerson, Rick Gallavan, Merlin Marston, and Harry Stephens,
with Sheldon Lettich. A powerful, unsettling and ultimately devastating
account of the Vietnam War, written (and first performed) by men
who were there. : A composite or collage of interrelated scenes, the play follows
the lives of a group of "grunts' as they move from basic training,
on to combat in Vietnam, and, finally to the shattering realisation
that their lives will be forever affected by the horrors which they
have witnessed - and been a part of. Dealing with the grim realities
of the battlefield - free-fire zones, trip wires, drugs, body bags,
rat infested bunkers, and the ever-present stench of death - the
men become increasingly isolated from the "outside world" and from
a society which finds honour in such mindless violence and destruction.
Ultimately the play, through its gut-wrenching verisimilitude, becomes
a moving and eloquent plea for sanity and forbearance, as it assails
mind and hearts with the grim message of what can happen when conscience
is overruled by expedience, and clear reason by a warped sense of
national purpose. Play. Larry Ketron. The place is a secondhand shop in rural Tennessee, the time the
recent past. Wallace, the middle-aged owner of the shop, is about
to bid a reluctant farewell to his long-time lady friend, Claudia,
who is going off to Canada to care for her ailing sister. Both Wallace
and Claudia have been previously married and while everyone in town
(including their own children) is aware that they are a perfect match,
Wallace, particularly, seems unable to articulate his true feelings.
Counterpointing the relationship of these reluctant lovers is the
affair between'Wallace's son and Claudia's daughter - a much lustier
arrangement, but, in its own way, marked with equal indecisiveness.
The interplay of these four very believable and endearing people,
abetted by the hilarious woes of a recently widowed friend, leads
on to the cleverly devised resolution of the play - where things
are set right in a most unexpected and theatrically inventive manner. Play. Brian Friel In Baile Beag, an Irish-speaking community in County Donegal, a detachment of the Royal Engineers engaged on behalf of the British Army and Government are making the first Ordnance Survey. Lieutenant Yolland falls in love with Maire, a peasant girl, and with Ireland, but when he is murdered Maire goes mad. The British soldiers pillage the countryside in revenge. Period 1833 Robert Thomas, translated by Lucienne Hill and John Sutro : Thriller 4M 2F Interior set Set in an isolated chalet in the French Alps, Trap For A Lonely
Man is a gripping psychological thriller concerning a man who
has apparently lost his wife, and is rapidly losing his mind. After
having reported his wife's disappearance to the police, Daniel
Corban is visited by a young priest who claims he has found Madam
Corban well and repentant for running out on her husband. When
Daniel's wife enters the chalet however, he is outraged to discover
that she is not Madam Corban, though she insists she is. It becomes
increasingly apparent to Daniel that he is facing some sort of
conspiracy, as various witnesses declare that she is indeed the
Madam Corban they have seen happily ensconced in the chalet with
Daniel before her disappearance occured, and when the police fail
to believe his story he can only conclude that they are trying
to drive him mad - or worse still, to his death. We learn that
there is a considerable inheritance at stake, which is reason enough
for a scheme of deception and corruption - but just who is telling
the truth and to what lengths can a person go to distort the facts?
The tension and mystery are sustained to the very last moments
of the play. Play. Caryl Churchill First staged at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1977. Caryl Churchill writes: 'When we were casting Traps, we found ourselves repeating the same two things as some kind of introduction to the play. First, that it is like a painting by Escher, where the objects can exist on paper, but would be impossible in life ... Second, that the characters can be thought of as living many of their possibilities at once. There is no flashback, no fantasy, everything that happens is as real and solid as everything else within the play.' Play. Marsha Norman. A brilliant surgeon and cancer researcher, Sam basks in the aura
of success and adulation which his career has brought him. But suddenly
his world is shattered when his longtime nurse and confidant, Mavis,
dies on the operating table because he failed to detect the seriousness
of her condition in time. Gathering up his neglected wife and possessively
loved son, he returns to the home of his aging father, a revivalist
preacher with whom he has long been at odds. Guilty about his relationship
with Mavis, his childhood sweetheart whose love he never returned,
and jealous of his father's affection for her, Sam finds that the
older man is unable, or unwilling, to assuage the guilt which torments
him. In essence the play becomes an eloquent, deeply felt debate
about the conflict between science and religion - Sam's growing doubts
about the values he has lived by, and his father's flinty unwillingness
to relax his own strongly held beliefs. As the play ends there is
a tentative reconciliation between father and son, with love and
self-knowledge mitigating, but not resolving, the alienation which
their differing perceptions, and uncertainties, have forced on them. Play Horton Foote. The play is set in a small town in Texas. Georgette Thomas and her
small daughter arrive looking for Georgette's husband who, she believes,
has just been released from the penitentiary. As she later learns,
he has in fact been free for some time. During the six years of his
imprisonment Georgette had worked and saved to obtain the money to
help her husband get out of prison, and now she is here to join him.
Slim, who had an unhappy marriage, becomes very fond of Georgette
and the little girl, and feels considerable concern over their plight.
When Georgette's husband finally appears he deserts his wife and
child again almost immediately; he robs his present employer, who
had befriended him and makes a calculated attempt to leave town.
As he is captured, Georgette realises that she can never look to
her husband for the love and support she had hoped for, and at the
end she knows she will turn to Slim who already loves her. Play. Adapted by Giles Havergal from the novel by Graham Greene This stage adaptation of Graham Greene's novel of retired bank worker Henry Pulling and his eccentric Aunt Augusta was first presented at the Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow, in 1989, with a cast of four actors playing all 24 characters. It can be staged with a large or small cast and there are many schemes for doubling to suit the circumstances of the production and the wishes of the director. Play. Tom Stoppard James Joyce, running a Swiss theatrical company, invites Henry Carr to play in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Carr agrees and scores a success, but later there is a dispute over Carr's claim for reimbursement of the cost of articles of clothing bought for his role. The author uses this factual framework on which to build an extravaganza of political history, literary pastiche, and Wildean parody, even song and dance, introducing Dadaist Tristan Tzara, and Lenin and his wife. Period 1918 Play. Bernard Miles, Peter Coe and Josephine Wilson from the book
by R.L. Stevenson The story begins in the Admiral Benbow public house, moving thence
to Bristol, the good ship Hispaniola, and to the famous island. It
concerns a map of buried treasure, the fine old Squire Trelawney
and a sea-cook with one leg called Long John Silver among other characters
and pirates. This version avoids elaborate staging so it can be performed
with a minimum of equipment. Comedy/Fantasy. William Walden. Fred Stevenson, a well-to-do architect, who died suddenly at the
age of thirtyone (of a heart attack, he believes), is told by his
portal warden that he has successfully passed his three-year probationary
period and can enter Elysium. When Fred learns that this would preclude
his returning to earth for another ten years, he declines Elysium
for the opportunity to visit earth immediately as a spirit in order
to find out how his widow and his unmarried sister are faring. On
earth Fred discovers, to his consternation, that his widow and his
sister are engaged to marry the same man, Tom, who is an obvious
fortune hunter 'and a possible murderer. Tom searches furtively in
Fred's den for an envelope, hidden there by Fred, containing a large
sum of money as well as Fred's diary. To Fred's chagrin, Tom finds
the envelope and takes it. Some of the diary's entries, interpreted
in the light of subsequent events, indicate that Fred was murdered
- by the last person he would have suspected. Worse, it appears that
his murderer will escape scotfree because legal proof is lacking.
A cunning trap is laid for the murderer. The murderer, after pretending
to fall into it, succeeds in turning the tables on the plotters.
When it seems as though two more murder victims will shortly join
Fred, he asks the help of the portal warden. In an exciting climax,
the murderer is thwarted just in the nick of time, and symmetry (or
justice, as it is called on earth) triumphantly prevails. Play. Christopher Hampton This play consists of the permutations and combinations of Ann and her two lovers. Dave, her previous companion, a journalist, has been away, and on returning finds that he has been replaced by Patrick, amiable but dull. Though Ann rules the roost -and also her two lovers - she herself is weak enough to be unable to do without one of them, and in the end Dave is reinstated and Patrick dismissed. But how long this will last is anybody's guess. |