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Brunhilde Pomsel looks back on her life in Germany, including her work as a secretary to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Drawing on her testimony, the play examines her choices and recollections of the Nazi era.
As the Civil War nears its end, Grant and Lincoln consider surrender terms while Lee weighs whether to continue the fight. At Appomattox Court House, Grant offers terms that let Confederate soldiers return home, and Lee accepts. The opera flashes forward to later racial violence and civil rights struggles, including the Colfax massacre, the Selma marches, and a jailed Klansman's recollection of murder, as Julia Grant concludes that war will not be the last.
Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to finalize a real estate transaction with the reclusive and elderly Count Dracula, who intends to purchase property in London ("Prologue"). Upon his arrival, Harker is welcomed with an elaborate supper. During their conversation, Dracula speaks wistfully of his desire to abandon his isolation and begin a new existence in a foreign land (“Solitary Man”). Dracula escorts Harker to his chamber, where he notices a portrait of Harker's fiancée, Mina Murray, provoking a powerful reaction. After Dracula departs, Harker and Mina, from different locations, reflect on the circumstances of their first meeting (“Whitby Bay”). In England, Mina suddenly hears Dracula’s voice in her mind. He ominously announces his imminent journey and expresses his longing to be with her. Early one morning, Dracula startles Harker while shaving, causing him to cut himself. Drawn to the sight of blood, Dracula approaches but recoils when he notices the crucifix around Harker's neck. Harker attempts to redirect the Count’s attention to their legal business, but Dracula dismisses the matter and warns him to sleep only in his assigned chamber. As Harker’s stay continues, the castle becomes increasingly nightmarish, and he desperately searches for an escape (“Jonathan’s Bedroom”). While wandering the castle, Harker encounters Dracula’s Brides, who attempt to seduce him. He willingly removes his crucifix, and the women prepare to drink his blood (“Forever Young”). Dracula intervenes, rebuking them for disobeying his command to leave Harker to him alone. When the Brides protest, Dracula appeases them by giving them an infant to consume. Dracula then feeds on Harker to restore his own youth (“Fresh Blood”). Fully rejuvenated, Dracula ascends into the air, while Harker narrowly escapes and eventually reaches Budapest. Telepathically, Dracula contacts his devoted servant Renfield, who is confined to Dr. Jack Seward’s psychiatric asylum. Promising him eternal life, Dracula secures Renfield’s loyalty. Renfield envisions the Count’s arrival in Whitby Bay aboard the ship Demeter and witnesses Dracula’s slaughter of the vessel’s captain and crew (“The Master’s Song”). After learning of the maritime disaster, Mina discusses the news with her friend Lucy Westenra, who also confides her struggles with sleepwalking—an affliction inherited from her late father. Their conversation turns to Lucy’s predicament of having received three marriage proposals in a single day. That evening, all three suitors attend tea: Quincey Morris, a bold American adventurer; Dr. Jack Seward, the intelligent asylum director; and Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s well-mannered childhood companion. Lucy ultimately accepts Holmwood’s proposal (“How Do You Choose?”). Later that night, Mina discovers Dracula feeding upon a sleepwalking Lucy. Speaking directly into Mina’s mind, Dracula reveals that Mina was his true desire, but Lucy had answered his call instead. Mina begs him to spare her friend. Dracula agrees, but only if Mina will come away with him, an offer she resolutely refuses. Furious and shaken by Mina’s resistance, Dracula vanishes. Lucy awakens and recounts the encounter to Mina (“The Mist”). Mina then explains that she has received word from Harker in Budapest and must leave immediately to marry him. Lucy congratulates her, thrilled that they will both soon be brides. Observing from a distance, Dracula recommits himself to the pursuit of Mina (“The Mist – Reprise”). Distressed by Mina’s preparations to depart, Dracula is compelled to follow her to the train station, where he confesses his longing from afar. Torn between her loyalty to Harker and a growing affinity towards the Count, Mina contemplates her unspoken pull towards darkness. She ultimately travels to Budapest and marries Harker (“A Perfect Life / Loving You Keeps Me Alive / Whitby Bay – Reprise”). Simultaneously, Lucy weds Holmwood in London (“The Weddings”). Believing Mina has slipped beyond his grasp, a furious Dracula appears at Lucy’s wedding reception, causing her to collapse. Concerned for Lucy’s failing health, Dr. Seward summons Abraham Van Helsing, a renowned expert on obscure diseases. Van Helsing safeguards Lucy’s room with garlic and provides her with holy water to protect her during sleep. However, enthralled by Dracula’s influence, Lucy discards the protections and invites the vampire into her chamber (“The Invitation”). Dracula drains her blood while feeding her his own in return. The following morning, Lucy attacks Holmwood, her teeth transformed into fangs. Van Helsing intervenes, saving Holmwood and driving Lucy into a frenzy with sacred prayers. Lucy soon dies, leaving Holmwood devastated and bewildered. Van Helsing consoles him while revealing the culprit is a vampire (“Nosferatu”). Lucy is buried but rises again as a vampire. Dracula returns to her and proclaims her the first of his new “dynasty.” He sends her out to claim her initial victims before taking flight into the night sky in the form of a colossal bat (“Life After Life”). Two weeks later, Van Helsing leads Holmwood, Morris, Dr. Seward, Harker, and Mina to Lucy’s tomb. In the intervening days, a disturbing epidemic has arisen: small children are being abducted in the dead of night and returned drained of blood. Van Helsing seeks to convince the still-skeptical Holmwood, Morris, and Dr. Seward that the culprit is the undead Lucy Westenra. Upon entering the tomb, they discover Lucy’s coffin is empty. She soon appears, carrying a child she intends to feed upon, and is confronted by the group. Through religious incantations, they force her back into her coffin. With great anguish, Holmwood drives a stake through Lucy’s heart, while Van Helsing decapitates her, finally releasing her soul. ("Undead One, Surrender"). Reflecting on the horrors of the previous day, Mina once again hears Dracula’s voice within her mind. When the Count asks why she makes him wait, Mina accuses him of murdering Lucy. Dracula counters that Lucy was not killed but granted eternal life—and that it was the vampire hunters who truly destroyed her. Despite herself, Mina feels a powerful and unsettling attraction to him. Torn between fear of his immense power and a growing emotional pull, she begs him not to force her love unless it is genuine (“Please Don’t Make Me Love You”). Van Helsing uncovers the extent of Renfield’s psychic bond with Dracula and visits his cell alongside Mina. Renfield explains his devotion to the Count and his belief that he has been promised eternal life. When Van Helsing questions whether they have met before, Renfield chillingly claims knowledge of Van Helsing’s wife and her fate. Deeply shaken, Van Helsing abruptly leaves. Mina attempts to reason with Renfield, asking whether eternal life is worth the damnation of his soul. Renfield warns her of Dracula’s intentions but soon realizes he has sealed his own doom. After he is left alone, Dracula appears and kills his former servant (“The Master’s Song (Reprise)”). Van Helsing then reflects privately on his past, recalling his youth and his wife, Roseanne. Her death at the hands of a vampire—implied to have been Dracula—drove him to dedicate his life to hunting the undead in her memory (“Roseanne”). Meanwhile, Holmwood, Morris, and Dr. Seward discover Dracula’s London refuge in the house Harker sold to him while imprisoned in Transylvania. Van Helsing departs with the men, leaving Mina alone with Harker. As Harker sees them out, Mina becomes increasingly consumed by a desire to save Dracula from destruction. Unable to resist her longing any longer, she invites him into the house (“If I Could Fly”). Dracula places Harker into a trance and seduces Mina. Their moment of passion culminates when Dracula cuts open his chest and allows Mina to drink his blood, intending to transform her into a vampire (“Mina's Seduction”). The hunters return and confront Dracula, forcing him to flee (“It’s Over”). Through hypnosis, Van Helsing uses Mina’s growing telepathic bond to uncover Dracula’s whereabouts. She reveals that he is retreating to Transylvania after the destruction of his London sanctuary. Fearing her own damnation, Mina extracts a solemn promise from each of the men—including Harker—that they will kill her if her soul cannot be saved (“Jonathan’s Promise”). The group prepares for the journey and the final confrontation (“Deep in the Darkest Night”). Left alone, Harker agonizes over the terrible vow he has made but resolves to honor it (“Before the Summer Ends”). Aboard a train, Van Helsing once again hypnotizes Mina, who reveals that Dracula is concealed within a coffin in the hull of a ship. The trance deepens as Dracula’s presence overwhelms her mind, forcing Van Helsing to break the connection. Mina withdraws to rest while the others plot their next move (“The Train Sequence / Life After Life (Reprise)”). Returned to his castle, Dracula broods over the solitude and emotional desolation that accompany his immortal existence. Touched by her purity, he comes to the realization that he has fallen profoundly in love with Mina (“The Longer I Live”). The hunters arrive at Dracula’s castle, where the final confrontation unfolds. Morris is killed when he attempts to stake Dracula in his coffin. Van Helsing leaves Mina protected within a sacred circle of holy water while he joins Holmwood, Harker, and Dr. Seward in battling Dracula’s Brides. Dracula soon appears before Mina, who chooses to follow the creature she loves into darkness (“At Last”). However, upon hearing the death cries of his Brides, Dracula realizes that Mina would share their fate if she becomes a vampire. Unable to condemn her to such an existence, he relinquishes his own desire. Knowing that only his death can save her, Dracula asks Mina to release him from his cursed immortality using a Bowie knife taken from Morris.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a 1985 play by Christopher Hampton adapted from the 1782 novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The play was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company and opened at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon on 24 September 1985 starring Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Lesley Manville, and Fiona Shaw. It made its Broadway debut in 1987, with Duncan and Rickman reprising their roles. The play has since been revived several times on Broadway and the West End. The play was adapted into the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
In Brazil, British official Alan West is kidnapped by revolutionary Carlos Esquerdo, who tries to explain the movement's politics. West is preoccupied with the ongoing destruction of Indigenous peoples; the play culminates in West's death and the bombing of a Cintas tribal celebration.
The place: A mansion on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, 5 a.m. A homicide has been reported. Joe Gillis sets the scene ("Prologue"), noting that "an old-time movie star is involved / Maybe the biggest star of all", and that, if you want to know the "real facts", "you've come to the right party." Flashback to... Hollywood, 1949 – where a down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis, is trying to hustle up some work at Paramount Studios ("Let's Have Lunch"). His appointment with a producer goes poorly when the executive rejects both Joe's proposed script and a loan to bring his car payments up to date. Joe does, however, meet Betty Schaefer, a pretty, young script editor who suggests they collaborate to rework one of his earlier screenplays ("Every Movie's a Circus"). As they chat, car repossession agents spot Joe, who quickly escapes. During the ensuing chase, Joe evades his pursuers by pulling in to the garage of a palatial but dilapidated mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Beckoned inside the house, Joe encounters Norma Desmond ("Surrender"), a star actress of the silent-film era. Taken aback, Joe comments, "You used to be in pictures; you used to be big," to which Norma retorts, "I am big – it's the pictures that got small!" ("With One Look") The gloomy estate is inhabited only by Norma and Max von Mayerling, her loyal butler and chauffeur. Although decades past her prime and mostly forgotten by the public, Norma is convinced she is as beautiful and popular as ever. Max perpetuates this illusion by shielding her from the realities of life out of the limelight and by writing her letters purportedly from still-devoted fans. Norma informs Joe that she plans to make her comeback with Salome, a script she has written for Cecil B. DeMille to direct with her in the starring role as the teenage biblical temptress ("Salome"). Dubious but sensing opportunity, Joe accepts her offer to work on editing the script. Norma insists that Joe stay in her home while they collaborate on Salome ("The Greatest Star of All"). Joe immediately realizes the script is incoherent, but because Norma won't allow a major rewrite, the revision drags on for months. During this time Joe is virtually imprisoned within the house, but he does break away to fulfill his commitment to Betty. Their working relationship blossoms into a romance that has her reconsidering her engagement to Joe's best friend, Artie Green ("Girl Meets Boy"). Blind to Joe's opportunism, Norma lavishes him with gifts that include a wardrobe makeover and he becomes her kept man ("The Lady's Paying"). She declares her love for him and turns quite possessive ("The Perfect Year"); when he leaves her to attend Artie's New Year's Eve party ("This Time Next Year"), she is distraught and attempts suicide. As a conciliatory gesture, Joe reluctantly returns to work on Salome. Joe is now living in luxury at Norma Desmond's mansion, for reasons he bluntly states are mercenary ("Sunset Boulevard"). A cryptic message from Paramount has Norma certain that DeMille is eager to discuss her script ("There's Been A Call"). She drops in on the set of his current film and is greeted warmly by former colleagues and the famed director himself, but he is non-committal about Salome ("As If We Never Said Goodbye"). Meanwhile, Max discovers the studio had called to ask about Norma's Isotta Fraschini, not her screenplay. However, a delusional Norma leaves the lot convinced she'll soon be back in front of the cameras and begins to prepare for the role ("Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering"). Increasingly paranoid, Norma deduces that Joe and Betty are more than just friends ("Too Much in Love to Care"). Max tells Joe of the depth of his commitment to protecting Norma from discovering the truth, revealing that he was Norma's first husband and has stayed with her all these years ("New Ways to Dream" (reprise)). She calls Betty to reveal Joe's secret life at the mansion, but he overhears and grabs the phone to tell Betty to come see for herself. Realizing their affair is doomed, Joe brusquely tells Betty he enjoys being Norma's pet and that she should go back to Artie. Betty departs, confused and heartbroken, and Joe tells Norma he is leaving her and returning to his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. He also bluntly informs her that Salome is an unfilmable script and her fans have long abandoned her. Furious and grief-stricken, Norma fatally shoots Joe three times as he storms out of the house. Now completely insane, Norma mistakes the swarms of police and reporters who arrive for studio personnel. Imagining herself on the set of Salome, she slowly descends her grand staircase and utters, "And now, Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close-up." ("The Final Scene").
Narrated by Ödön von Horváth, the play portrays German literary refugees in Hollywood from 1938 to 1950. It follows von Horváth's relationship with Jewish writer Helen Schwartz and introduces historical figures including Brecht and the Mann brothers.
At an English university, don Philip and his fiancée Celia host a dinner for fellow lecturer Donald, writer Braham, Araminta, Liz and student John. After a tutorial in which Philip and Donald critique John’s implausible play, the guests pair off; the next morning reveals the emotional and sexual consequences of their awkward encounters.
On his 30th birthday, bank manager Josef K. is arrested for an unidentified crime. He searches the court system for answers, consults a lawyer and a painter, and hears a parable from a priest. On the eve of his 31st birthday, the guards take him away and execute him.
When Dave breaks into the flat of his former girlfriend Ann and her new partner Patrick, he refuses to accept their relationship and bullies both of them. Dave's persistence ultimately wins Ann back, leaving all three unhappy.
On the border of an unnamed Empire, the Magistrate’s peaceful town is occupied by Colonel Joll’s Civil Guard, who torture captured nomads. The Magistrate helps a blinded and crippled barbarian girl return to her people, then is accused of treason, imprisoned, and tortured. After the Empire’s forces are defeated and withdraw, he urges the townspeople to survive the winter and wonders who the true barbarians are.
Brunhilde Pomsel looks back on her life in Germany, including her work as a secretary to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Drawing on her testimony, the play examines her choices and recollections of the Nazi era.
As the Civil War nears its end, Grant and Lincoln consider surrender terms while Lee weighs whether to continue the fight. At Appomattox Court House, Grant offers terms that let Confederate soldiers return home, and Lee accepts. The opera flashes forward to later racial violence and civil rights struggles, including the Colfax massacre, the Selma marches, and a jailed Klansman's recollection of murder, as Julia Grant concludes that war will not be the last.
Jonathan Harker, a young English solicitor, travels to Transylvania to finalize a real estate transaction with the reclusive and elderly Count Dracula, who intends to purchase property in London ("Prologue"). Upon his arrival, Harker is welcomed with an elaborate supper. During their conversation, Dracula speaks wistfully of his desire to abandon his isolation and begin a new existence in a foreign land (“Solitary Man”). Dracula escorts Harker to his chamber, where he notices a portrait of Harker's fiancée, Mina Murray, provoking a powerful reaction. After Dracula departs, Harker and Mina, from different locations, reflect on the circumstances of their first meeting (“Whitby Bay”). In England, Mina suddenly hears Dracula’s voice in her mind. He ominously announces his imminent journey and expresses his longing to be with her. Early one morning, Dracula startles Harker while shaving, causing him to cut himself. Drawn to the sight of blood, Dracula approaches but recoils when he notices the crucifix around Harker's neck. Harker attempts to redirect the Count’s attention to their legal business, but Dracula dismisses the matter and warns him to sleep only in his assigned chamber. As Harker’s stay continues, the castle becomes increasingly nightmarish, and he desperately searches for an escape (“Jonathan’s Bedroom”). While wandering the castle, Harker encounters Dracula’s Brides, who attempt to seduce him. He willingly removes his crucifix, and the women prepare to drink his blood (“Forever Young”). Dracula intervenes, rebuking them for disobeying his command to leave Harker to him alone. When the Brides protest, Dracula appeases them by giving them an infant to consume. Dracula then feeds on Harker to restore his own youth (“Fresh Blood”). Fully rejuvenated, Dracula ascends into the air, while Harker narrowly escapes and eventually reaches Budapest. Telepathically, Dracula contacts his devoted servant Renfield, who is confined to Dr. Jack Seward’s psychiatric asylum. Promising him eternal life, Dracula secures Renfield’s loyalty. Renfield envisions the Count’s arrival in Whitby Bay aboard the ship Demeter and witnesses Dracula’s slaughter of the vessel’s captain and crew (“The Master’s Song”). After learning of the maritime disaster, Mina discusses the news with her friend Lucy Westenra, who also confides her struggles with sleepwalking—an affliction inherited from her late father. Their conversation turns to Lucy’s predicament of having received three marriage proposals in a single day. That evening, all three suitors attend tea: Quincey Morris, a bold American adventurer; Dr. Jack Seward, the intelligent asylum director; and Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s well-mannered childhood companion. Lucy ultimately accepts Holmwood’s proposal (“How Do You Choose?”). Later that night, Mina discovers Dracula feeding upon a sleepwalking Lucy. Speaking directly into Mina’s mind, Dracula reveals that Mina was his true desire, but Lucy had answered his call instead. Mina begs him to spare her friend. Dracula agrees, but only if Mina will come away with him, an offer she resolutely refuses. Furious and shaken by Mina’s resistance, Dracula vanishes. Lucy awakens and recounts the encounter to Mina (“The Mist”). Mina then explains that she has received word from Harker in Budapest and must leave immediately to marry him. Lucy congratulates her, thrilled that they will both soon be brides. Observing from a distance, Dracula recommits himself to the pursuit of Mina (“The Mist – Reprise”). Distressed by Mina’s preparations to depart, Dracula is compelled to follow her to the train station, where he confesses his longing from afar. Torn between her loyalty to Harker and a growing affinity towards the Count, Mina contemplates her unspoken pull towards darkness. She ultimately travels to Budapest and marries Harker (“A Perfect Life / Loving You Keeps Me Alive / Whitby Bay – Reprise”). Simultaneously, Lucy weds Holmwood in London (“The Weddings”). Believing Mina has slipped beyond his grasp, a furious Dracula appears at Lucy’s wedding reception, causing her to collapse. Concerned for Lucy’s failing health, Dr. Seward summons Abraham Van Helsing, a renowned expert on obscure diseases. Van Helsing safeguards Lucy’s room with garlic and provides her with holy water to protect her during sleep. However, enthralled by Dracula’s influence, Lucy discards the protections and invites the vampire into her chamber (“The Invitation”). Dracula drains her blood while feeding her his own in return. The following morning, Lucy attacks Holmwood, her teeth transformed into fangs. Van Helsing intervenes, saving Holmwood and driving Lucy into a frenzy with sacred prayers. Lucy soon dies, leaving Holmwood devastated and bewildered. Van Helsing consoles him while revealing the culprit is a vampire (“Nosferatu”). Lucy is buried but rises again as a vampire. Dracula returns to her and proclaims her the first of his new “dynasty.” He sends her out to claim her initial victims before taking flight into the night sky in the form of a colossal bat (“Life After Life”). Two weeks later, Van Helsing leads Holmwood, Morris, Dr. Seward, Harker, and Mina to Lucy’s tomb. In the intervening days, a disturbing epidemic has arisen: small children are being abducted in the dead of night and returned drained of blood. Van Helsing seeks to convince the still-skeptical Holmwood, Morris, and Dr. Seward that the culprit is the undead Lucy Westenra. Upon entering the tomb, they discover Lucy’s coffin is empty. She soon appears, carrying a child she intends to feed upon, and is confronted by the group. Through religious incantations, they force her back into her coffin. With great anguish, Holmwood drives a stake through Lucy’s heart, while Van Helsing decapitates her, finally releasing her soul. ("Undead One, Surrender"). Reflecting on the horrors of the previous day, Mina once again hears Dracula’s voice within her mind. When the Count asks why she makes him wait, Mina accuses him of murdering Lucy. Dracula counters that Lucy was not killed but granted eternal life—and that it was the vampire hunters who truly destroyed her. Despite herself, Mina feels a powerful and unsettling attraction to him. Torn between fear of his immense power and a growing emotional pull, she begs him not to force her love unless it is genuine (“Please Don’t Make Me Love You”). Van Helsing uncovers the extent of Renfield’s psychic bond with Dracula and visits his cell alongside Mina. Renfield explains his devotion to the Count and his belief that he has been promised eternal life. When Van Helsing questions whether they have met before, Renfield chillingly claims knowledge of Van Helsing’s wife and her fate. Deeply shaken, Van Helsing abruptly leaves. Mina attempts to reason with Renfield, asking whether eternal life is worth the damnation of his soul. Renfield warns her of Dracula’s intentions but soon realizes he has sealed his own doom. After he is left alone, Dracula appears and kills his former servant (“The Master’s Song (Reprise)”). Van Helsing then reflects privately on his past, recalling his youth and his wife, Roseanne. Her death at the hands of a vampire—implied to have been Dracula—drove him to dedicate his life to hunting the undead in her memory (“Roseanne”). Meanwhile, Holmwood, Morris, and Dr. Seward discover Dracula’s London refuge in the house Harker sold to him while imprisoned in Transylvania. Van Helsing departs with the men, leaving Mina alone with Harker. As Harker sees them out, Mina becomes increasingly consumed by a desire to save Dracula from destruction. Unable to resist her longing any longer, she invites him into the house (“If I Could Fly”). Dracula places Harker into a trance and seduces Mina. Their moment of passion culminates when Dracula cuts open his chest and allows Mina to drink his blood, intending to transform her into a vampire (“Mina's Seduction”). The hunters return and confront Dracula, forcing him to flee (“It’s Over”). Through hypnosis, Van Helsing uses Mina’s growing telepathic bond to uncover Dracula’s whereabouts. She reveals that he is retreating to Transylvania after the destruction of his London sanctuary. Fearing her own damnation, Mina extracts a solemn promise from each of the men—including Harker—that they will kill her if her soul cannot be saved (“Jonathan’s Promise”). The group prepares for the journey and the final confrontation (“Deep in the Darkest Night”). Left alone, Harker agonizes over the terrible vow he has made but resolves to honor it (“Before the Summer Ends”). Aboard a train, Van Helsing once again hypnotizes Mina, who reveals that Dracula is concealed within a coffin in the hull of a ship. The trance deepens as Dracula’s presence overwhelms her mind, forcing Van Helsing to break the connection. Mina withdraws to rest while the others plot their next move (“The Train Sequence / Life After Life (Reprise)”). Returned to his castle, Dracula broods over the solitude and emotional desolation that accompany his immortal existence. Touched by her purity, he comes to the realization that he has fallen profoundly in love with Mina (“The Longer I Live”). The hunters arrive at Dracula’s castle, where the final confrontation unfolds. Morris is killed when he attempts to stake Dracula in his coffin. Van Helsing leaves Mina protected within a sacred circle of holy water while he joins Holmwood, Harker, and Dr. Seward in battling Dracula’s Brides. Dracula soon appears before Mina, who chooses to follow the creature she loves into darkness (“At Last”). However, upon hearing the death cries of his Brides, Dracula realizes that Mina would share their fate if she becomes a vampire. Unable to condemn her to such an existence, he relinquishes his own desire. Knowing that only his death can save her, Dracula asks Mina to release him from his cursed immortality using a Bowie knife taken from Morris.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a 1985 play by Christopher Hampton adapted from the 1782 novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The play was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company and opened at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon on 24 September 1985 starring Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Lesley Manville, and Fiona Shaw. It made its Broadway debut in 1987, with Duncan and Rickman reprising their roles. The play has since been revived several times on Broadway and the West End. The play was adapted into the 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
In Brazil, British official Alan West is kidnapped by revolutionary Carlos Esquerdo, who tries to explain the movement's politics. West is preoccupied with the ongoing destruction of Indigenous peoples; the play culminates in West's death and the bombing of a Cintas tribal celebration.
The place: A mansion on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, 5 a.m. A homicide has been reported. Joe Gillis sets the scene ("Prologue"), noting that "an old-time movie star is involved / Maybe the biggest star of all", and that, if you want to know the "real facts", "you've come to the right party." Flashback to... Hollywood, 1949 – where a down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis, is trying to hustle up some work at Paramount Studios ("Let's Have Lunch"). His appointment with a producer goes poorly when the executive rejects both Joe's proposed script and a loan to bring his car payments up to date. Joe does, however, meet Betty Schaefer, a pretty, young script editor who suggests they collaborate to rework one of his earlier screenplays ("Every Movie's a Circus"). As they chat, car repossession agents spot Joe, who quickly escapes. During the ensuing chase, Joe evades his pursuers by pulling in to the garage of a palatial but dilapidated mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Beckoned inside the house, Joe encounters Norma Desmond ("Surrender"), a star actress of the silent-film era. Taken aback, Joe comments, "You used to be in pictures; you used to be big," to which Norma retorts, "I am big – it's the pictures that got small!" ("With One Look") The gloomy estate is inhabited only by Norma and Max von Mayerling, her loyal butler and chauffeur. Although decades past her prime and mostly forgotten by the public, Norma is convinced she is as beautiful and popular as ever. Max perpetuates this illusion by shielding her from the realities of life out of the limelight and by writing her letters purportedly from still-devoted fans. Norma informs Joe that she plans to make her comeback with Salome, a script she has written for Cecil B. DeMille to direct with her in the starring role as the teenage biblical temptress ("Salome"). Dubious but sensing opportunity, Joe accepts her offer to work on editing the script. Norma insists that Joe stay in her home while they collaborate on Salome ("The Greatest Star of All"). Joe immediately realizes the script is incoherent, but because Norma won't allow a major rewrite, the revision drags on for months. During this time Joe is virtually imprisoned within the house, but he does break away to fulfill his commitment to Betty. Their working relationship blossoms into a romance that has her reconsidering her engagement to Joe's best friend, Artie Green ("Girl Meets Boy"). Blind to Joe's opportunism, Norma lavishes him with gifts that include a wardrobe makeover and he becomes her kept man ("The Lady's Paying"). She declares her love for him and turns quite possessive ("The Perfect Year"); when he leaves her to attend Artie's New Year's Eve party ("This Time Next Year"), she is distraught and attempts suicide. As a conciliatory gesture, Joe reluctantly returns to work on Salome. Joe is now living in luxury at Norma Desmond's mansion, for reasons he bluntly states are mercenary ("Sunset Boulevard"). A cryptic message from Paramount has Norma certain that DeMille is eager to discuss her script ("There's Been A Call"). She drops in on the set of his current film and is greeted warmly by former colleagues and the famed director himself, but he is non-committal about Salome ("As If We Never Said Goodbye"). Meanwhile, Max discovers the studio had called to ask about Norma's Isotta Fraschini, not her screenplay. However, a delusional Norma leaves the lot convinced she'll soon be back in front of the cameras and begins to prepare for the role ("Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering"). Increasingly paranoid, Norma deduces that Joe and Betty are more than just friends ("Too Much in Love to Care"). Max tells Joe of the depth of his commitment to protecting Norma from discovering the truth, revealing that he was Norma's first husband and has stayed with her all these years ("New Ways to Dream" (reprise)). She calls Betty to reveal Joe's secret life at the mansion, but he overhears and grabs the phone to tell Betty to come see for herself. Realizing their affair is doomed, Joe brusquely tells Betty he enjoys being Norma's pet and that she should go back to Artie. Betty departs, confused and heartbroken, and Joe tells Norma he is leaving her and returning to his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. He also bluntly informs her that Salome is an unfilmable script and her fans have long abandoned her. Furious and grief-stricken, Norma fatally shoots Joe three times as he storms out of the house. Now completely insane, Norma mistakes the swarms of police and reporters who arrive for studio personnel. Imagining herself on the set of Salome, she slowly descends her grand staircase and utters, "And now, Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close-up." ("The Final Scene").
Narrated by Ödön von Horváth, the play portrays German literary refugees in Hollywood from 1938 to 1950. It follows von Horváth's relationship with Jewish writer Helen Schwartz and introduces historical figures including Brecht and the Mann brothers.
At an English university, don Philip and his fiancée Celia host a dinner for fellow lecturer Donald, writer Braham, Araminta, Liz and student John. After a tutorial in which Philip and Donald critique John’s implausible play, the guests pair off; the next morning reveals the emotional and sexual consequences of their awkward encounters.
On his 30th birthday, bank manager Josef K. is arrested for an unidentified crime. He searches the court system for answers, consults a lawyer and a painter, and hears a parable from a priest. On the eve of his 31st birthday, the guards take him away and execute him.
When Dave breaks into the flat of his former girlfriend Ann and her new partner Patrick, he refuses to accept their relationship and bullies both of them. Dave's persistence ultimately wins Ann back, leaving all three unhappy.
On the border of an unnamed Empire, the Magistrate’s peaceful town is occupied by Colonel Joll’s Civil Guard, who torture captured nomads. The Magistrate helps a blinded and crippled barbarian girl return to her people, then is accused of treason, imprisoned, and tortured. After the Empire’s forces are defeated and withdraw, he urges the townspeople to survive the winter and wonders who the true barbarians are.