Thriller. Seymour Matthews
M3 (40s, 50s) F3 (20s-40s). A living-room.
This tense, dramatic thriller contains plenty of twists to keep
your audience guessing. Beautiful Veronica plots to murder her writer
husband, Gus, but becomes alarmed when Gus discusses the plot of
his new novel, which is uncomfortably close to her murder plans.
She presses ahead, however, but things do not run entirely smoothly.
Next day the police report the finding of a body - but is it Gus?
The final denouement contains several surprises before the guilty
are brought to justice.
ISBN 0 573 11487 0
Play.
Marcelle Maurette. Adapted by Guy Bolton
M8 (30s-50s, elderly) F5 (30s, 40s, 70, 84). A room in a mansion.
Berlin hums with a rumour that the Tzar's youngest daughter had
escaped the bullets at Ekaterinburg in 1918. Prince Bounine, intent
on exploiting the fortune and nostalgia of the Russian exiles, finds
an amnesiac waif on the point of suicide. She is carefully groomed
for the part and makes a convincing impersonation, then suddenly
turns her back on the fortune and the past to live anonymous but
free. Period 1930
ISBN 0 573 60529 7
Play. Royce Ryton
M2 F2. Various simple settings.
Did the Grand Duchess Anastasia actually die with the rest of the
Imperial family at Ekaterinburg in 1918? Using only four characters
-Mrs Manahan, a police Inspector and an actor and actress (playing
between them forty parts) -this brilliantly structured drama presents
in flashback the life of the lady found in an asylum in 1920. Is
Anastasia genuine? Why did some of the closest relatives reject her'?
Your audience will be held by his compelling play until the final
surprising twist.
ISBN 0 573 01642 9
Comedy. David Ives. : 1F. 1M - Interior
Ruth and Jack, both in their mid-thirties, believe themselves perfectly
suited to each other. But when Ruth suddenly mentions marriage, a
subtle but ominous change is felt in their relationship. As it happens,
Ruth is Jewish, Jack is a lapsed Catholic who scorns religion; she
is career oriented and bent on success, he is a poorly paid teacher
who is happy to settle for what he has; she fears her stern parents
would never accept her marrying a non-Jewish man; he has already
been through one failed marriage and is wary of repeating his mistake.
And while the mood at first is light-hearted and filled with brightly
humorous lines, it is also punctuated by the random ringing of an
unseen phone at which times the protagonists quickly vary the mood
and express their secret feelings and recriminations in brief, often
caustic, monologues. Later, no holds are barred, and the irreconcilable
differences which were largely sublimated in the beginning now burst
forth in full fury, leading to a monumental explosion and, apparently,
Ruth and Jacks acceptance of the sobering truth that there is more
that divides than unites them.
ISBN: 0-8222-0041-4
Play. Alan Plater
M4 F4. Single setting.
The Friday Fellowship is a religious group that meets with prayers
and hymns to organise the activities of their parish. During one
meeting when Mr Briggs reports on a recent Youth Club outing, another
member mentions an unfortunate 'physical incident': Mr Briggs, in
fact, 'touched' a young girl. This revelation brings about surprising
results, one of the most surprising being the reaction of the Vicar.
Semi-realistic in treatment, the play is written for the simplest
style of production.
ISBN 0 573 01025 0
Play. C. P Taylor
M4 (20s, 30s, 50s, 70) F3 (22, 30s, 50s). An open stage.
This play follows the course of World War II as experienced by a
working-class family in Newcastle, each scene being opened by a member
of the family addressing the audience or singing a song of the period.
In wartime there are no public worries, only private worries, and
this story of the family's personal relationships, preoccupations,
troubles and joys suggests, perhaps, the reason why - with all the
perils and troubles besieging it- the human race will continue to
survive.
ISBN 0 573 11020 4
And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little
Play. Paul Zindel. 2 men, 5 women. Interior
Their father having deserted them in their childhood, the three
Reardon sisters have grown up in a house of women, dominated by their
mother, who is only recently dead. But time has erased the tender
closeness of girlhood; one sister has married and cut herself off;
another has begun to drink more than she should; and the third, after
a scandalous incident at the school where she teaches, is on the
brink of madness. When the married sister comes to dinner to press
the need for committing her sibling to an institution the simmering
resentments of many years burst alive, and are exacerbated by the
intrusion of a well-meaning but boorish neighbour couple, whose unexpected
arrival impels the action towards its shattering conclusion - in
which all the pathos; humour and searing honesty of the play combine
with overwhelming effect.
ISBN: 0-8222-0043-0
Play. Agatha Christie
M9 (20s, 30s, middle-age, elderly) F3 (25, middle-age). A living-room.
Ten people are invited by unknown hosts to a lonely house on a remote
island. A mysterious voice indicts each of them of murder. First
one and then another dies, and the tension grows as they realise
that the killer is one of themselves. With only two people remaining,
it becomes apparent that one of the deaths was feigned; the real
killer appears and they are able to outwit him.
ISBN 0 573 01441 8
And They Dance Real Slow In Jackson
Play. Jim Leonard, Jr. 3 men, 4 women. Unit Set
In Jackson, a small town in rural Indiana, Elizabeth Ann Willow
lives with her father and mother. Crippled at birth with polio, Elizabeth
Ann is confined to a wheelchair and must wear leg braces, which cuts
her off from the other children and prevents her regular attendance
at school. Although she tries to reach out and make friends, Elizabeth
Ann is increasingly isolated from and then taunted by the others;
whose small town prejudices are reinforced by a polio scare, of which
Elizabeth Ann is a chilling embodiment. Comprised of a brilliantly
conceived mosaic of interlocking scenes which move back and forth
in time, with four performers portraying a varied assortment of children
and townspeople, the play captures not only the moving story of Elizabeth
Ann's inexorable descent into madness, but also the smallmindedness
and unfeeling callousness of her fellow townspeople - whose fear
of the unknown or abnormal makes them the unintentional agents of
her destruction. Culminating in a chilling scene in which Elizabeth
Ann's leg braces are torn from her by a frenzied mob, the play becomes
in the final essence a moving and poetically evocative plea for understanding
and compassion in a world where prejudice and casual cruelty are
too often the norm.
ISBN: 0-8222-0045-7
And Things That Go Bump In the Night
Play. Terrence McNally. 4 men, 2 women. Interior
As the author comments in the preface of the published edition of
his play: "The play is about fear and negation. Ruby is its hero,
Sigftid and Grandpa its conscience, Clarence and Lakme its victims.
It is also a play about choice: the choice of evil, which is constant,
over chaos, which is not necessarily a good. It is a tragedy of intelligence.
Ruby perceives too clearly many truths but does not see the basic
one: we cannot destroy everything without destroying ourselves. Her
error is her negation of all links with mankind. Her way of life
must end as it does, in a colossal suicide. Her Message to the World
has come true. For herself, for Sigftid, for all of them. But she
does not flinch before the steady trend of her approaching fate.
She will not grovel. She cannot beg. She meets it head-on and defiant,
like a female Prometheus."
ISBN: 0-8222-0046-5
Kenneth Horn, : Comedy 3M 6F Interior set
The plot of this unusual comedy centres around a mother's astonishing
discovery that the effect of a prescribed sleeping drought is to
make her mind and spirit slip away from her body. She uses this 'gift'
to solve many of her family problems and at the same time provide
herself with a little harmless fun. One of the author's most endearing
efforts.
ISBN: 085676082X
Tragedy. Jean Racine. Translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur. 4 men, 4 women. Interior
Drawn from the immortal Greek drama by Euripides, Racine's play
focuses on the unhappy fate of Andromache and the murderous passions
which surround her. Beloved by her captor, Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles,
Andromache remains true to the memory of her slain husband, Hector.
When the Greeks demand that she give her son over to them Pyrrhus
offers Andromache a cynical choice: marry him, or her son will be
killed. In desperation Andromache decides to wed Pyrrhus and then
take her own life - which sets in motion a series of shocking events.
The jealous Hermione, who is betrothed to Pyrrhus, persuades Orestes
(who is loves her) to kill him, after which she commits suicide and
the hapless Orestes loses his reason. Thus, in the end, all are betrayed
by their frenzied emotions, and drawn inexorably to a tragic fate
which they, in their mortal fallibility, are powerless to avert.
ISBN: 0-8222-0048-1
Comedy Fantasy. AB. Shiffrin. 8 men, 2 women. Interior.
Lizzie finds contemporary life abhorrent. Out of innocence she marries a man who turns out to be a gangster. When she discovers this she runs away and finds sanctuary in a pawnshop run by an old man whom she knew and trusted as a child. But the gunman tracks Lizzie down. However, the pawnbroker, sick and lonely, determines to shelter her with his life if need be. Lizzie lives in a world of memories fostered by her innocence and romantic other-worldliness. The pawnbroker and a young writer friend convince her that life now is better than a dead past. With the help of the writer, with whom she has fallen in love, she faces the world of reality. The play moves toward a final gripping conflict as a showdown between the forces of good and evil becomes imminent. The pawnbroker, knowing that goodness and faith in humanity are not always sufficient, kills the gangster.
Play. Lanford Wilson. 4 men, 2 women. Interior
The scene is a small mission church in a remote part of New Mexico,
where a middle=aged college professor and his lovely young wife detour
unexpectedly after the highway is dosed because of a possible "accident" at
a nearby nuclear facility. They are soon joined by Father Doherty,
the benevolent but canny parish priest, a brilliant young Navajo
doctor, Don Tabaha, who is about to leave his people (despite Father
Doherty's opposition) to accept a prestigious research fellowship
in California; Marion Clay, an art dealer and the widow of an important
regional painter; and "Zappy"
Zappala, her young paramour and a tournament class tennis player.
Confined within the church as they await the hoped for "all dear" signal
the six, after an initial reserve, begin to reveal their stories
to each other - their problems and possibilities, their hopes and
fears, the personal crises which have brought them not only to this
place but to turning points in their lives. Sometimes brightly humorous,
sometimes deeply affecting,, sometimes explosively dramatic, the
play becomes, in time, a parable of vocation and survival which,
in exploring the lives of its characters, illuminates the human condition
with a breadth of meaning and understanding which has application
far beyond the context of the play itself.
ISBN: 0-8222-1624-8
Fable. Adapted by Nelson Bond from the
book by George Orwell
M5 F2. No setting. . NB. This is a staged reading version.
Orwell's biting satire is a fable with a sting, revealing how an
idealistic Communist dream was converted into a nightmare. This simply
staged dramatic reading begins with the creatures who have emancipated
themselves from their cruel human masters, only to find themselves
subjected to even more ruthless autocrats: the greedy, cunning pigs.
Eventually, the animals numbly accept that 'All animals are equal
but some arc more equal than others.'
ISBN 0 573 60538 6
George Orwell, adapted by Peter Hall, with
lyrics by Adrian Mitchell and music by Richard Peaslee
M9 F6, 1 boy. Extras. Various simple settings.
This much-acclaimed dramatisation of George Orwell's classic, allegorical novel was first seen at the National Theatre in 1984. The play starts with a schoolboy sitting down to read the novel by a toy farmyard. As he reads, the farmyard comes to life around him, enacting the animals' rebellion. The dialogue is complemented by Mitchell's witty lyrics and Peaslee's music, jaunty at first, but increasingly threatening and dissonant.
Top
