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Play. Bertolt Brecht There is no cotton to be bought in China; the Emperor and his brother have a monopoly, but are waiting for a rise in price. A group of futile thinkers is called in to invent excuses for the shortage, the most successful whitewasher to marry the Emperor's daughter Turandot. Gogher Gogh, the gangster, burns half the imperial cotton stock so that the rest can be sold on a rising market, but Turandot does not care to marry him. Set in China at some indeterminate past time. Play. Ken Whitmore, adapted from the novel by Henry James Shortly after Miss Grey, a governess, arrives at Bly to take charge
of Flora and Miles she sees the ghosts of the former valet and governess;
it is the children they want. She determines to save the children
from destruction and damnation at hands of these 'devils', but her
courageous efforts are not enough to save little Miles from tragedy.
Period 1875 Play: Jeffrey Hatcher from the story by Henry James Based on the provocative tale of suspense, horror and repressed
sexuality, this adaptation gives the famous story yet another turn
of its own. A young governess journeys to a lonely English manor
house to care for two recently orphaned children. But she is not
their first governess. Her predecessor, Miss Jessel, drowned herself
when she became pregnant by the sadistic valet, Peter Quint, who
was himself found dead soon after under mysterious circumstances.
Now the new governess has begun to see the specters òf Quint
and Jessel haunting the children, and she must find a way to stop
the fiends before it is too late. But one frightening question tortures
the would-be heroine: Are the ghosts real, or are they the product
of her own fevered imagination? Play. Bertolt Brecht. Translated by Pip Broughton This is a modernised version of the 18th-century drama by Reinhold Lenz about the miseries and humiliations suffered by a young private tutor. Treated as a servant by his employers, he is seduced by the daughter of the house and has to flee from the outraged family. Later, in a similar situation, he lands himself in the same sort of trouble. In desperation he castrates himself, and thereafter finds life easier and is accepted by society. Period 1930s Germany. NB. Play. Bertolt Brecht Translations: Ralph Manheim, John Willett, Geoffrey Skelton, Richard
Grunberger For synopsis, see above. Comedy. H. Connolly When Tetford cricket team are faced with the unexpected challenge
of an all women's team their reactions are hardly encouraging. However,
despite intrigue and trickery from the Tetford team, the women win
the day, calling for some rethinking on the men's behalf on the sanctity
of cricket, although not before several major revelations rock the
foundations of the cricket club. Play. Reginald Rose A young delinquent is on trial for the murder of his aggressive
father. The judge has directed the jury to find the boy guilty if
there is no reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors declare there
is no reasonable doubt, but one of them, while far from convinced
of the boy's innocence, feels that some of the evidence against him
has been ambiguous. At the end of along afternoon he wins all the
others round to his view. Period 1950s. Play. James Lapine. Inspired by an actual case history denoted by Carl Jung, the play
traces the story of a little New England girl, Emma, who makes a
booklet of her dreams which she gives to her psychiatrist father,
Charles Hatrick, for Christmas. Still numbed with grief over the
death of his wife, Dr. Hatrick is unable to make sense of these amazing
dreams and passes the book along to his mentor, the Professor, who
is visiting from abroad. The structure of the play sets the daily
life of Emma against the re-creation of these dreams, which are enacted
by the individuals who inhabit her world: her governess-housekeeper,
jenny; her best friend, Rindy; a rich neurotic who Dr. Hatrick is
treating, Dorothy Trowbridge-, Emma's ballet teacher, Miss Banton;
and a young protege of Dr. Hatrick's, Sanford Putnam. The dreams,
which are disturbing and phantasmagoric, are described by the Professor
as those of an older person, one who is facing death. As the events
of the play gather force, we learn that the young girl is in fact
fatally ill - a tragic destiny which her father, for all his erudition
and experience, is helpless to understand or avert. Twelve Dreams is
ultimately a meditation on love and loss, and the forces of life
and fate. Drama. A.B. Shiffrin. Kate Scott is writing articles on recent murders in Central Park. Sam Dundee is a detective trying to solve the murders. Clark Wilson, who is engaged, to Kate, arranges for her to question Dundee about the killings. But Kate and Dundee clash over their opposing ideas on crime. Dundee wants to catch the criminal and kill him. Kate thinks he should be studied. All the time the murderer himself, young Ronnie Brewster, sits within earshot of them. That very day another girl is killed in the park. Kate and Dundee meet and when Kate taunts him he challenges her to stop theorising and do something. Over Clark's protests she joins the manhunt. At the risk of her life, she encounters Ronnie, questions him, realises that he is the murderer, and persuades him to surrender. Everything is moving smoothly when Dundee and Clark arrive on the scene. But Ronnie suspects Kate of laying a trap for him and tries to escape. Dundee shoots him down. Kate is heartbroken to see her near success ruined. Ronnie Brewster is lying dead at her feet just as his mother arrives to take him home. Play. Romulus Linney April, 1945. The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials against the leaders
of Nazi Germany are about to begin. Hermann Goering, in the place
of Adolf Hitler, leads the accused and with his German counsel, prepares
his defence. Drug free and healthy from a Spartan imprisonment, Goering
is once again the formidable man who more than any other made Hitler
Chancellor of Germany and built the engines of the Third Reich. He
defies the Tribunal with wit and ferocity, refuses to blame Hitler
for his actions, denies the right of any conqueror to fairly prosecute
the conquered, and foretells a disturbing future for crimes of war.
As the horrors of what he is responsible for come to light, he demonically
refuses to accept them as anything but the natural consequences of
human conflict, and after manipulating his own suicidal escape from
hanging, asks the audience, "What do you think men are?" Play. Jim Cartwright Set in a Northern pub owned by a savagely bickering husband and wife, Two is a series of short vignettes that skilfully combines pathos and humour, with all fourteen characters played by two actors. During the course of the evening, assorted customers pass through, including a little boy left behind by his father - an event which triggers a movement towards a fragile reconciliation between the pub couple, as their own dark tragedy is revealed. Comedy. Richard Harris and Leslie Darbon Middle-aged George, having reached the 'virility crisis', seeks
reassurance from young Jane. His wife, Clare, finds herself behaving
in somewhat the same way with Jane's boyfriend Nick. The action swings
between the contrasting rooms (in a split set) until matters are
brought to a general confrontation. In a long climactic scene mistaken
identities abound and rebound, and a bizarrely humorous game of make-believe
is played by all concerned. Comedy. Derek Benfield Rachel's husband Victor never suspects that she is keeping an assignation
with a young man in the house of her good friend Georgina. Why should
he? He has other things on his mind - in the shape of the said Georgina,
who he is meeting secretly while her husband Henry, an actor, is
safely occupied in the theatre. But Henry returns home unexpectedly
and the two couples are forced into a riotous whirlwind of lies and
misunderstandings ... Comedy Samuel Spewack. The Office of Medicinal Herbs of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, manages to persist because no one realises that it was abolished years ago, but no official steps have been taken to close it. Two nice old ladies run this department, but never answer the phone for fear of discovery. They are really interested in helping people, and are too scrupulous to cash the salary cheques which are automatically sent to them. They manage to exist by renting parts of their office to a pants presser and a dance teacher, and by collecting fees from a parking lot nearby. In the words of the Daily News, they are "taken over by a newspaper reporter who transforms their hideaway into a top-secret bureau, staffed with Army, Navy, and State Department people who never know exactly what they are doing but believe they are developing a new science of herbal warfare which is the deadliest yet. There's a love story about the reporter, his ex-wife and. the ex-wife's new fiancé - and if you know your theatre you know who wins. The journalist enjoys mystifying people, particularly literal-minded Government employees. This farcical play is not only an entertaining, but is full of caustic and amusing satire on bureaucracy, stupidity and red tape. Play: Tennessee Williams - A revision of Out Cry : 1 man, 1 woman. Unit Set Two actors, a brother and sister, meet in the empty playhouse where
their theatre company is scheduled to perform that evening. But apparently
the other actors have deserted them, and absconded with their money,
so the two decide to perform the
"Two Character Play," extemporizing the parts not memorized or not
yet written. Thus the play-within-a-play begins, and it proves to
be so compelling, and so deeply affecting, that soon both they and
the audience are no longer sure as to where the play stops and real
life takes over. In the end unanswered questions linger, but, with
them, overtones of larger truths revealed and deeper meanings brought
into light at last. Comedy. Kenneth Horne, adapted from the Italian by Aldo de Benedetti : Comedy 3M 2F Interior set Alberto Verani and his wife Marina are a happily married, well-to-do
couple, living in modern Rome. Marina, however, feels that before
old age approaches she wants to prove to herself that she is still
attractive to men. She determines to take a short vacation at a winter
resort with a woman friend of hers. Alberto is somewhat upset until
his wife explains that her project is no way "improper." He therefore
consents with fairly good grace. Chance has it that a telephone message
intended for a nearby florist comes to his home from a well-known
Countess, ordering roses. Alberto decides to play a little game with
the Countess and sends her the roses on his own, together with a
brief anonymous note from a supposed admirer. He believes that an
innocent flirtation of this kind is not entirely out of order in
view of his wife's plans. Just before Marina leaves for the station
the roses intended for the Countess are by mistake delivered to her,
together with her husband's anonymous note. Marina is of course intrigued,
and decides not to go away. Alberto, unwilling to admit his slight
but innocent trick, keeps his silence. So for several days the roses
come regularly to Marina, each accompanied by a mysterious note.
Matters threaten to become even more serious when Marina is seen
to be drifting farther and farther from her husband in the direction
of the unknown admirer. In an attempt to set matters right a family
friend, Tomasso Savelli, resorts to the desperate measure of telling
Marina that he himself is the unknown admirer. However, that story
will not hold water, and in the end the Veranis are not only reconciled
but they have established a more genuine understanding and affection
than existed before Marinas original plan to go away. Comedy. Ray Cooney While staying at the Westminster Hotel, MP Richard Willey despatches
his wife Pamela to the theatre so that his assistant, George, can
arrange a suite where Richard can seduce one of the PM's secretaries.
Unfortunately, George bungles the arrangements and Richard finds
his illicit love nest is the suite next to his and Pamela's. From
then on George piles one outrageous deceit upon another, accidentally
finding himself seducing Pamela, until staff and guests are reeling
in confusion! Comedy. Hugh Janes 'Wally' Wallis is hardly the perfect retirement-home resident. When
his roommate, Potts, dies and is replaced with staid, dull George,
war is instantly declared! Wally decides he must leave, but before
his escape with Potts' ashes he reaches a level of understanding
with George and shares some tender moments with May, another resident,
who has a soft spot for both men. Four one-act plays for two players. Michael Frayn The four plays are not connected except by the fact that they can all be played by the same two performers. In the first Black and Silver, a husband and wife return to the hotel room in which they spent their honeymoon. In The New Quixote a young man has spent a night with a girl, to whom the encounter is so casual that he has even forgotten it when he leaves her. However, he returns to take up residence - but will they really be happy together'? Mr Font, the third play, concerns a couple -he is in line for a new job, she may be 'vetted' as his wife, by his employer. She creates an imaginary interview. The last play, Chinamen, is the longest, and in it the players share five parts. It concerns a dinner patty to which friends are invited who at all costs must not be allowed to meet. They do! Play. Anthony Minghella Set in York in 1392, this play tells of a performance of the Mystery
Plays. For the townspeople the competition is fierce to attract the
attention of the Royal Party and to impress them at all costs. But
the message of Mystery cycle as performed is strong, clear and truthful.
This remarkable and beautifully written play is highly original,
often very funny and ultimately deeply moving. '... a play full of
bustle, life, satire and at times a most moving account of simple
faith.' Daily Mail Lee Blessing : Drama The two rooms of the title are a windowless cubicle in Beirut where
an American hostage is being held by Arab terrorists, and a room
in his home in the United States which his wife has stripped of furniture
so that, at least symbolically, she can share his ordeal. In fact
the same room serves for both,.and is also the locale for imaginary
conversations between the hostage and his wife, plus the setting
for the real talks which she has with a reporter and a State Department
official. The former, an overly ambitious sort who hopes to develop
the situation into a major personal accomplishment, tries to prod
the wife into taking umbrage at what he labels government ineptitude
and inaction; while the State Department representative is coolly
efficient, and even dispassionate, in her attempt to treat the matter
with professional detachment. It is her job to try to make the wife
aware of the larger equation of which the taking of a hostage is
only one element, but as the months inch by it becomes increasingly
difficult to remain patient, and when the official lifts the reporter's
passport to prevent him from going to Beirut, the wife is goaded
to speak out against government policy and, in so doing, triggers
the tragic series of events which brings the play to its startling
conclusion. In the end there are no winners, only losers, and the
sense of futility and despair which comes when people of good will
realize that logic, compassion and fairness have become meaningless
when dealing with those who would commit such barbarous acts so willingly. Play: Neal Bell. Estranged from her husband, and working as a cocktail waitress,
Eileen has perhaps neglected her two small children whose disappearance
has brought about a visit by the tough-talking Lt. Brann. Obviously
suspicious, the detective plays a cat-and-mouse game with Eileen,
suggesting that the children may have been kidnapped; or perhaps
gruesomely murdered; or perhaps are safely with their father; or
may have become victims of the dissolute life style which he attributes
to Eileen. Comprised of a series of contiguous, interconnected scenes,
the play pursues the growing love/hate relationship which begins
to build ominously between the tired, conservative minded police
officers, and the voluptuous woman who both intrigues and repels
him. He drops by at odd hours of the day and night; he is sometimes
sympathetic and confiding, sometimes hard and abrasive; until, at
last, he drives her to confess. Then, in a startling turnabout, the
detective tells Eileen that the bodies of her children have been
found and the vagrant who killed them arrested - but this revelation
only underscores the grief which the mother, for all her worldliness,
will carry with her always and the sexual confusion which their encounter
has aroused in the hard-driving, relentlessly moral police officer. |