Herod the Great
In this interactive biblical pageant, Herod fears the prophecy that Jesus will become king and orders the killing of Bethlehem’s infants; the mothers resist and lament their children.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersHeroes
Heroes is a 2005 translation into English and adaptation by Tom Stoppard of the 2003 French play Le Vent Des Peupliers by Gérald Sibleyras. The play is a comedy set in 1959 in a French retirement home for First World War veterans. (The literal translation of Le vent des peupliers is "The Wind in the Poplars". During the adaptation into English, there was concern this might cause confusion due to being too close to the popular children's title The Wind in the Willows, so Heroes was agreed as the English title. At the time, Stoppard said, "To tell you the truth, if Charles Wood hadn't written a play called Veterans [in 1972], we would have called it that.")
Heroes of the Fourth Turning
The play is set in 2017, shortly after the Unite the Right rally.
Herzl
The show follows the life of the founder of political Zionism, with its characters and plot based on historical fact. The show was directed by J. Ranelli, with scenery by Douglas W. Schmidt, costumes by Pearl Somner, lighting by John Gleason, production stage manager Frank Marino, stage manager Judith Binus, and press by Louis Sica, Suzanne Salter, and John Springer Associates, Inc. The cast included Paul Hecht (Theodor Herzl), Louis Zorich (Moritz Benedikt), Stephan Mark Weyte (Hermann Bahr, Ibrahim), William Kiehl (Captain Henruach, Kaiser Wilheim), John Michalski (Heinrich Kana, Sultan, Arthur Schnitzler), Leo Bloom (Russian General), Roy K. Stevens (Rabbi Gudeman), Jack Axelrod (Edouard Bacher), Eunice Anderson (Jeanette Herzl), Roger DeKoven (Jakob Herzl), Judith Light (Julie Herzl), Rebecca Schull (Nursemaid), Ralph Byers (Nachum Sokolov), Mitchell Jason (David Wolffsohn), Richard Seff (Baron De Hirsch, Pope Pius X), Ellen Tovatt (Fraulein Keller), Lester Rawlins (Count Paul Nevlinski), David Tress (Menachem Issishkin), and Saylor Creswell (Martin Buber).
Hey Girl!
A sequence of stage tableaux explores women’s history, particularly the history of their oppression.
Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I
A theatrical account of Pope John Paul I's mysterious death, described by its author as a cross between Shakespeare and The Prisoner.
Hibernia Freed
During the ninth-century Viking invasion of Ireland, King O’Brien is besieged at the Hill of Tara by Viking king Tergesius and waits for aid from the Ulster leader O’Neill. Phillips presents the Irish as defending their country against Viking tyranny.
High
Sister Jamison Connelly is an acerbic and profanity-inclined nun and drug counselor with a checkered past of her own. She herself is a former drug user and alcoholic whose promiscuity caused her sister's tragic death. Her employer, Father Michael Delpapp, introduces her to Cody Randall, a 19-year-old gay drug user and hustler, hoping that Randall can be reformed. Sister Jamison is left to stop Cody from self-destructing with his crystal meth addiction and to confront her own past. Various plot twists reveal that Father Michael is Cody's uncle and that he has been enabling him financially for years. This support culminated in a cover-up of Cody's murdering his 14-year-old lover. At first resistant, Cody eventually begins to take to Sister Jamison's unconventional approach to religion, but he relapses into drug abuse and a life of crime. Sister Jamison, not knowing what to do, prays with Cody in a back alley and leaves him to die.
High Life
Four men with criminal pasts and drug dependencies devise a scheme to rob automated banking machines. Their hopes for an easy fortune collide with competing loyalties, volatile behaviour, and the practical demands of the heist.
High Life Below Stairs
High Life Below Stairs is a 1759 comedy play by the British writer James Townley. An afterpiece, it premiered at Drury Lane on a double bill with a revival of Congreve's The Mourning Bride. A popular hit, it was frequently revived. The original Drury Lane cast John Palmer as Duke's servant, Thomas King as Sir Harry's servant, William O'Brien as Lovel, Richard Yates as Philip, John Hayman Packer as Freeman, Thomas Mozeen as Tom, John Moody as Kingston Mary Bradshaw as Cook, Frances Abington as Lady Bab's maid and Kitty Clive as Kitty.
High Tor
High Tor is a 1936 play by Maxwell Anderson. It received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the 1936–37 season. Twenty years after the original production, Anderson adapted it into a television musical with Arthur Schwartz.
Hill Cumorah Pageant
An outdoor religious pageant dramatizes episodes from the Book of Mormon, including the resurrected Christ’s appearance in the Americas, and Joseph Smith’s encounter with the golden plates and the angel Moroni. Its ten short scenes trace a restoration narrative through large-scale theatrical staging.
Hillary and Clinton
The play takes place in an alternate universe and centers on a woman named Hillary Clinton who is running for President of the United States in 2008. A few days before the New Hampshire primary, Clinton is in her hotel room trying to turn her struggling campaign around. Her campaign manager Mark advises her to concede the primary race and accept her opponent's offer to be his running mate. Against Mark's advice, Clinton turns to her husband Bill for assistance, but the two disagree on how much vulnerability Clinton must show to win over voters.
Him
In this surreal, metatheatrical three-act play, a would-be playwright called Him and his lover Me alternate between intimate room scenes and scenes from the play he is writing, including absurd tableaux; the ending breaks the fourth wall.
Him
In a limbo populated by Elvis look-alikes, the deceased Elvis Presley grows exasperated with his stillborn twin brother and revisits his death. The surreal play imagines Presley faking his death and fleeing to Morocco, where he lives as a waitress after a sex-change operation.
Hindle Wakes
In a Lancashire mill town during wakes week, mill worker Fanny Hawthorn and mill owner’s son Alan Jeffcote have an affair. Their families press them to marry, but Fanny refuses, treating it as a brief romance and choosing to support herself as a weaver despite being disowned.
Hippolytus
Aphrodite punishes Hippolytus for honoring Artemis and rejecting her by causing his stepmother Phaedra to desire him. When Phaedra's nurse reveals her feelings, Hippolytus reacts with outrage; Phaedra kills herself and leaves a false accusation. Theseus curses Hippolytus, who is fatally injured in a chariot crash. Artemis reveals the truth, and father and son reconcile before Hippolytus dies.
His Bridal Night
His Bridal Night is a three-act play originally written by Lawrence Rising and significantly revised by Margaret Mayo. Producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway in 1916. The play is a farce about a newlywed who is unsure which of two identical twins he has married. The roles of the twins were originally played by the Dolly Sisters, who were popular vaudeville performers, and the play was crafted to make use of their skill as dancers.
His Dark Materials
Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry travel through parallel universes amid conflicts involving witches, armoured polar bears and other beings. The two-part stage adaptation follows their coming-of-age adventures across the epic events of Pullman’s trilogy.
His Excellency
His Excellency is a 1950 play by the British writers Campbell Christie and Dorothy Christie. A former docker takes over as the British governor of an island colony in the Mediterranean. It premiered at the Grand Theatre, Leeds before transferring to the West End where it ran for 453 performances between 23 May 1950 and 23 June 1951 initially at the Princes Theatre before moving to the Piccadilly Theatre. The play starred Eric Portman later replaced by Donald Wolfit in the title role, Clive Morton, John Wood, Ian Fleming, Arnold Bell, Sebastian Shaw, Michael Shepley and Annabel Maule.
His Majesty Bunker Bean
Bunker Bean is a stenographer who lacks self-confidence and initiative. He is transformed after a meeting with the Countess, a psychic, who convinces him that he is the reincarnation of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ram-Tah, a king of allegedly great historic importance. This false belief instills in Bunker Bean a renewed sense of confidence and self importance which allow him to go boldly into the world with kingly resolve. A farcical comedy ensues when Bean fires himself from his job. He ends up besting his former boss in business, and becomes romantically involved with his former boss's daughter, The Flapper, after she discovers a mummy in Bunker Bean's room and becomes fascinated with a man she previously found dull. Bean obtained the mummy from Egypt after sending off for the remains of his former self, Ram-Tah. A comedy of absurdity ensues with a revolving group of eccentric characters. All ends well in the end.
History Lesson
On her last day as a park ranger, Maggie unloads an arsenal of invented historical facts on her listeners.
Histriomastix
Through symbolic scenes, the moral allegory depicts human nature and shows how pride, greed, and sloth lead society into war and destruction. It also satirizes professional actors and other social targets.
Hitchcock & Herrmann
Through intersecting monologues, the play examines the working relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann, including their collaborations on films and the reasons they parted company. Herrmann’s music is interspersed at dramatic points.
Hitchcock Blonde
Across 1919, 1960, and 1999, a short film featuring a blonde woman becomes an obsession for Alfred Hitchcock and is later rediscovered by a media-studies professor and student, prompting a re-examination of Hitchcock's work.
Hitting Town
In Leicester, depressed Clare has recently left her boyfriend. Her brother Ralph offers to take her out, and the siblings travel through bars, malls and discos before ending up in bed together.
Hob's Wedding
Hob's Wedding is a 1720 farce by the Irish writer John Leigh. An afterpiece, it premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in support of the comedy The Half Pay Officers by Charles Molloy. The original cast included William Bullock as Sir Thomas Testy, John Egleton as Woodville, Richard Diggs as Truelove, John Harper as Old Hob, James Spiller as Young Hob and Jane Rogers as Mary.
Hobson's Choice
In 1880 Salford, boot-shop owner Henry Hobson drinks while his three daughters work unpaid. His eldest daughter Maggie leaves with talented bootmaker Will Mossop, establishes a successful rival shop with him, and later uses her business and legal leverage to secure her sisters' marriages and take control of Hobson's business.
Hogan's Goat
In 1890 Brooklyn, political leader Matthew Stanton runs against incumbent Ned Quinn. Stanton’s wife fears that the campaign will expose their marriage outside the Catholic Church, while Quinn threatens to reveal that Stanton was once the companion of his dying former girlfriend Agnes Hogan. Stanton presses on, destroying his political career and marriage.
Hold on to Me Darling
Country music icon Strings McCrane spirals after his mother's death, abandons his celebrity and career, and returns to his Tennessee hometown.
Holding Fire!
An epic drama following the rise and fall of Britain’s Chartist movement in the first half of the nineteenth century, interwoven with the story of servants Lizzie and Will fleeing the police.
Holding the Man
Tim and John fall in love at school in 1970s Australia. Over fifteen years, their relationship faces family disapproval, separation, temptation and the loss brought by AIDS.
Holiday
The story follows Johnny Case, a corporate lawyer on Wall Street. He has abundant financial prospects but little social background. Before the start of the play, Julia, the eldest daughter of the Seton family, has met Johnny at Lake Placid. During the ten-day trip, they have fallen in love and are to be married. But there is one person who does not want the marriage this quickly: Julia's father, Edward, who questions Johnny's life's goal "to retire early and work late." After Johnny makes $25,000, he plans to go away and enjoy life while he is still physically capable. The stock market being what it is in 1928, stocks keep climbing and climbing. Johnny achieves his goal and announces his plans even as Julia's father is announcing the engagement. Julia is upset at his decision; she wants a proper house in town and a place in the country. Now the woman Johnny met and fell in love with at Lake Placid is gone; she is just as materialistic as her father.
Holiday for Lovers
Holiday for Lovers is a 1957 play written by Ronald Alexander. It opened on Broadway on February 14, 1957, and closed after 100 performances on May 11, 1957. It was later adapted into the 1959 film Holiday for Lovers.
Holland's Leaguer
The vain young lord Philautus neglects his wife and pursues flirtation until his friend Fidelio arranges for Faustina to reject him, hoping to reform him. Philautus and Faustina prove to be siblings, while a subplot follows gullible would-be gallants who are deceived and ultimately enter marriages.
Hollywood Arms
Hollywood Arms is a play by Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett. It ran at the Goodman Theatre and on Broadway in 2002. The play is adapted from Carol Burnett's memoir One More Time.
Hollywood Holiday
Hollywood Holiday is a comedy play by British writers John Van Druten and Benn Levy. The play is a satire on Hollywood script-writing, and sees a female playwright's script being transformed into half a dozen unrecognisable screenplays. It ran at the New Theatre for twenty performances from 15 October and 31 October 1931. The original cast included Kay Hammond, Melville Cooper, Dennis Wyndham and Jean Cadell.
Home
Senator and charity founder Baron Courtin embezzles money from the institution he leads, risking ruin and prison. He escapes punishment through help from his wife's former lover, who extracts money from the girls at the charity, and through a political bargain that secures the baron's silence.
Home
Home is a play by David Storey. It is set in a mental asylum, although this fact is only revealed gradually as the story progresses. The four primary characters are seemingly benign Harry, highly opinionated Jack, cynical Marjorie, and flirtatious Kathleen. As they interact we come to realize their delusions and pretensions are similar to those of people living in a supposedly normal society.
Home
Cephus Miles loses his North Carolina farm after being imprisoned for refusing the Vietnam draft. Seeking a fresh start in a northern city, he encounters unemployment and addiction before returning home to rebuild his life.
Home Chat
After married Janet Ebony returns from France with her platonic friend Peter, their shared train compartment prompts suspicions of adultery. Janet falsely claims they are lovers to shock her mother; misunderstandings and staged scenes deepen the scandal before Janet and her husband agree to divorce and pursue other relationships.
Home Free!
Agoraphobic siblings Lawrence and Joanna live in a world of childish games and imagined companions. Joanna is pregnant and becomes gravely ill, but Lawrence's terror of the outside world prevents him from fetching a doctor; the play ends with him pleading over her motionless body.
Home Front
Annie and James, an interracial couple who meet on V-J Day, navigate daily life in New York and the Deep South while James awaits his military discharge.
Home Is Tomorrow
Home Is Tomorrow is a 1948 play by the British author J.B. Priestley. It was inspired by Priestley's experience of attending a postwar UNESCO conference. It premiered at the Princes Theatre, Bradford before transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End running for 37 performances between 4 November and 4 December 1948. The cast included Leslie Banks, Gordon Tanner, Douglas Jefferies, Alan Wheatley, Cecil Trouncer, John Ruddock and Irene Worth.
Home and Beauty
After William Cardew is declared missing and presumed dead in the First World War, his widow Victoria marries his friend Frederick Lowndes. William returns from a prisoner-of-war camp, leaving Victoria with two husbands who both want to be free of her. She seeks to divorce them both and marry wealthy admirer Leicester Paton, but Britain's restrictive divorce laws force the men into an elaborate staged adultery claim.
Home at Seven
David Preston returns home from work to his wife Janet to find that 24 hours have elapsed without him even realising it, and it is now a day later than he thought. As hard as he tries, he cannot recall the missing day. Evidence then emerges suggesting that he was involved in a theft and murder that happened in the period that he cannot account for.
Home of the Brave
During World War II, a group of American soldiers volunteers for a dangerous mission to a Japanese-occupied island. After a Jewish soldier believes he failed a dying friend and experiences prejudice within his unit, guilt leaves him partially paralyzed; his doctor and fellow soldiers help him confront the belief and recover.
Home, I'm Darling
Judy and Johnny lead a 50s lifestyle, clothes, décor, appliances. She stays at home while Johnny works as an estate agent. He hopes for a promotion. He realises they have financial problems; the house might be repossessed. Three years earlier Judy had taken voluntary redundancy, but the money has run out. He is underperforming at work and doesn’t earn as much commission. He says he isn’t happy. They need to change. He gets a promotion, but it will involve a long commute. They agree to compromise.
Homechild
Farmer Alistair MacEachern, crotchety, funny and fearless, has silently longed for seventy years for the sister he left behind in Scotland. The play's wider subject is the migration of British home children to colonies including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Homecoming
As Ezra Mannon returns from the Civil War, his daughter Lavinia confronts her mother Christine about her affair with Adam Brant. Christine agrees to end the affair but instead poisons Ezra when he threatens her; his dying words expose her guilt to Lavinia.
Homecoming
The show revolves around Lauren, who is trying to find her mom, her step-mom, her bossy sister, her aging grandmother, and her boyfriend.
Homegrown: A True Story
A one-act play about the friendship between Toronto writer Catherine Frid and Shareef Abdelhaleem, a man arrested as part of the Toronto 18 case. It presents Frid's account of their relationship and raises questions about the public account of Abdelhaleem's conviction.
Homelife
Peter and his wife Ann explore their marriage in a conversation that ends with Peter leaving to read a book in Central Park. Albee wrote the act to explore Peter in greater depth before The Zoo Story.
Homeward Bound
A contemporary family comedy confronts parents Bonnie and Glen with their son Nick's gay relationship and arguments over autonomy at the end of life. Their daughter and her husband are also caught in a strained marriage as conflicting expectations unsettle the family's conventions.
Honey
Shortly before Ahmad Shah Massoud's assassination in 2001, a CIA officer tries and fails to persuade him to help resume American intervention in Afghanistan.
Honoria and Mammon
Honoria chooses the scholar Alworth over competing suitors, while the wealthy widow Mammon is passed among suitors and manipulated by the demon Phantasm. Intrigues separate Honoria and Alworth before the suitors’ schemes are exposed and the couples resolve their fates.
Honour
A wealthy father's affair with a daughter in a poor family provokes her brother to challenge him to a duel, exposing conflicts between the two families.
Honour
George leaves his middle-aged wife Honor and their 24-year-old daughter Sophie to pursue a relationship with the much younger Claudia.
Hoodman Blind
A confused man blames his wife for misdeeds that were actually committed by her lookalike sister.
Hoodoo Love
Set in 1933 in Memphis, aspiring singer Toulou seeks help from an elderly neighbor, Candylady, to secure the love of her restless musician boyfriend. Candylady performs hoodoo to help her, after which her born-again Christian brother re-enters her life.
Hoppla, We're Alive!
A prologue set amid a crushed 1919 uprising leads into a play set eight years later. Its large cast brings revolutionaries, officials, workers and intellectuals into a portrait of the aftermath of the failed revolt.
Horace
Rome and Alba Longa choose three brothers from the Horatii and Curiatii families to decide their war in single combat, despite the families' close ties. Horace kills all three injured Curiatii, then kills his sister Camilla when she condemns him for killing her beloved; he is acquitted after his father defends him.
Horestes
Horestes seeks revenge for his father’s death by killing his mother and her lover. A Vice character and other allegorical figures frame the classical story in comic and tragic episodes, while the play tests whether the murder can be justified; Horestes is ultimately forgiven without repenting.
Horrible Science
Billy Miller enters the mad theme-park world of Horrible Science and, with time running out, battles hideous facts and factors to ensure life can go on. The educational adventure uses science topics and large-screen 3D effects.
Horse Eats Hat
When a horse eats Agatha’s hat during her secret rendezvous, she fears her husband will discover the affair and sends Freddy searching for a replacement, though he is about to marry. Welles’s version folds the farce into a spectacle that blurs staged action and events among the audience.
Horse Girls
A group of preteen members of the Lady Jean Ladies horse club meet in Ashleigh’s bedroom and learn their horses may be slaughtered when their stable closes. The crisis turns the girls’ rivalries and loyalties into increasingly absurd and violent conflict.
Hosanna
Set in the Montreal apartment of Hosanna, a drag queen dressed as Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra, the play follows her relationship with Cuirette, an aging gay biker, after they return from a Halloween party.
Hospitality Suite
In a Wichita hotel suite, salesmen Phil and Larry and young engineer Bob prepare to court a potential client whose company could save their failing lubricant business. Their differing views on religion and purpose surface as they realize Bob has already met the client and talked with him about Jesus rather than lubricants, exposing tensions among the three men.
Hot 'N' Throbbing
Charlene, a screenwriter of feminist pornographic scripts, faces her violent former husband Clyde when he arrives drunk despite a restraining order. Their confrontation explores domestic violence, pornography and family relationships, ending in lethal violence.
Hot Anger Soon Cold
A lost collaborative play by Henry Chettle, Henry Porter, and Ben Jonson; no surviving text or plot description is known.
Hot Summer Night
In Wapping, trade-union leader Jack Palmer champions the rights of West Indian workers, but reconsiders his own prejudices when his daughter falls in love with Jamaican Sonny Lincoln. Jack's neglected wife Nell reacts with fierce prejudice of her own.
Houdini
Harry and Theo Houdini set out as the Brothers Houdini, but after Theo makes a mistake at a major performance, Harry is offered a solo show. Their paths separate as Harry meets and marries Bess, while the play follows their rivalry, success, love and tragedy.
House & Garden
A linked pair of self-contained plays unfolds simultaneously during one Saturday's country-house fête. In House, Teddy Platt's affair with Jo Mace unravels two marriages and reshapes the relationships between their children. In Garden, fête preparations and mishaps surround Jo and Trish's confrontation, Teddy and Lucille's infatuation, and Lindy's decision to leave her marriage with political adviser Gavin Ryng-Mayne.
Housemaster
Charles Donkin is a long-established housemaster at Marbledown, an English public school. His closest confidant is Frank Hastings, the sceptical and sarcastic maths master. Hastings and the rest of the teaching staff, and their pupils, are discontented at the puritanical innovations imposed by Ovington, the recently appointed headmaster. Donkin, though privately sharing the discontent, strives loyally to keep the peace. Into this all-male establishment comes Barbara Fane, with her three nieces, the daughters of the late Angela Faringdon. Donkin was, it is implied, in love with Angela in his younger days, but she married Aubrey Faringdon, who has brought up his and Angela's three daughters with the aid of their aunt. With the girls now aged 20, 18 and 14, Barbara has decided they need a more stable home than Aubrey can provide, and with his agreement she has come to ask Donkin to fulfil his promise to the dying Angela to look after her daughters if needed. Room is found for them in Donkin's house on the strict understanding that the girls are not to mingle with and distract the 55 boys who board there. This condition is doomed from the outset. The glamorous elder girls cannot help distracting Donkin's older boys and his younger staff; the tomboy Button encourages the younger boys to defy Ovington's petty restrictions. Rosemary, the eldest daughter, has two of Donkin's junior staff falling for her. She spurns the sporty "Beef" Beamish in favour of the gentle, artistic Philip de Pourville. The younger daughters, Chris and Button, encourage the boys of Donkin's house to defy the headmaster's latest and furiously-resented diktat: heedless of Marbledown's long tradition of rowing, Ovington has cancelled the school's participation in the local regatta, and placed the town and the river out of bounds for the duration of the regatta. The boys of Donkin's house openly defy Ovington and go into town en masse. Faced with this comprehensive defiance of the headmaster, Donkin feels obliged to offer his resignation, which Ovington instantly accepts. Sir Berkeley Nightingale, uncle of one of Donkin's senior boys, uses his influence to have Ovington offered a suffragan bishopric. Ovington accepts, and Donkin is appointed headmaster in his place. News comes that Aubrey Faringdon is about to remarry; his fiancée is a sensible widow, whom Barbara considers a suitable stepmother for the girls. Rosemary will stay in England, and Chris and Button will live in Paris with their father and stepmother. Barbara is now free of her responsibilities; the younger girls convince Donkin that she will need looking after, and that it is his duty to marry her. Donkin, with many misgivings, steels himself to propose, but his colleague Frank Hastings anticipates him: Barbara and Hastings have had a private understanding for many years, and now that she is a free agent they are to be married. Rosemary and de Pourville also become engaged; Chris and Nightingale's 18-year-old nephew seem headed in the same direction. Donkin is happier than he has ever been – about to take over as headmaster of the school he loves, and left in peace as a contented old bachelor.
Houseparty
This synopsis is compiled from contemporaneous newspaper reviews. Act I (Library of a Fraternity House at Williams College. Late afternoon.) Alan Bradford is hoping to be selected as manager for a college athletic team. His best friend Ronald Evans and Sally Andrews encourage him. Edward Canby is teased and ordered about by various upperclassmen. Alan learns he has not been chosen for the manager's spot. Discouraged, he remains behind in the library when the others go out to a dinner dance. He is alone when Florence crashes the house party. Although she is well-known to many of the young men at Williams, she has chosen Alan as her victim. He has only been with her once, but his naivete, lack of confidence, and wealthy background make him ideal for her purposes. She wants $10,000, or she'll announce her pregnancy by him. He protests that he was only one of many, which she acknowledges, but will not back down. Alan is appalled to think of begging his father for the money, but is alarmed at Florence's threat to scream right there at the house party. As she badgers him, he steps towards her and accidentally knocks her down by the fireplace. Her head strikes a brass andiron, and she dies. Consumed by fear and guilt, Alan stuffs her body into a book cupboard. (Curtain) Act II (Same as Act I. That evening.) The other fraternity brothers and their guests enter the library. They spend a while in general conversation, with the brothers objecting to their guests' use of the term "frat". Alan's friends notice his tense state and peculiar remarks. Mrs. Milligan is brought in by James; she is looking for her daughter Florence, whose own state of mind has been unsettled of late. Not having seen her, the others cannot offer any information, while Alan frets in silence. Someone suggests a party game, and during the course of this a dictionary is sought to resolve a point. As the only dictionary is in the book cupboard, it is about to be opened when Alan breaks down and confesses being responsible for her death. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act I. Six months later.) Alan returns to the fraternity house for the first time in six months, having been acquitted in an off-stage trial. Ostensibly there to collect his personal items before leaving with his family for a European holiday, he has actually come to brood at the site of the death. Secretly, he has made up his mind to commit suicide. But Ronald has sensed his torment, and with careful sympathy leads from black thoughts and instills hope for his recovery. (Curtain)
How Are They at Home?
How Are They at Home? is a 1944 comedy play by the British writer J.B. Priestley. It features a series of comical episodes revolving around life in wartime Britain. It premiered at the New Theatre in Oxford before transferring to Apollo Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 164 performances from 4 May to 14 October 1944. The London cast included George Carney, Henry Charles Hewitt, Ralph Truman, John Slater, Peter Jones, John Salew, Patricia Laffan, Hella Kürty, Jennifer Gray, Mignon O'Doherty, Jane Carr and Betty Stockfield. It was produced by Basil Dean.
How Brophy Made Good
Three idealistic friends chart and interrogate the career and downfall of Brophy, an apolitical television personality.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Jim McNeil's prison drama examines inmates' need for domestic comforts.
How He Lied to Her Husband
Aurora is distressed that love poems from Henry, her admirer, have gone missing and may be read by her husband Teddy. Henry suggests they confess their affair; when Teddy arrives and confronts him, Henry admits his love, and Teddy responds by proposing that the poems be published in praise of his wife.
How I Learned to Drive
In a nonchronological memory play, adult Li’l Bit revisits her relationship with her uncle Peck, who sexually abused her from childhood into adolescence while also presenting himself as supportive. She eventually rejects his possessive demands and drives away, leaving the abuse in her past.
How Love Is Spelt
Peta, pregnant and newly arrived in London from Liverpool, explores her identity through a series of duologues with five people in her flat.
How Much Is Your Iron?
In an allegorical shop drama, Svenson is repeatedly pressed by a gangster-like buyer to sell iron. As neighboring shopkeepers Austrian and Czech are attacked, Svenson refuses to join Herr Britt’s pact against the gangster, who represents Nazi Germany; Svenson ultimately becomes a victim himself.
How Now Mrs Brown Cow
As Christmas approaches, Agnes Brown awaits Trevor, the son she has not seen for five years. Cathy returns from America with unwelcome news, while the rest of the family face a threatened marriage, a mysterious box, and a hamster crisis.
How These Doctors Love One Another!
In a satirical exchange, doctors William Watson Cheyne and Almroth Wright ridicule each other over the use of antiseptics in surgery, as Shaw challenges conventional medicine and the commercial pressures behind it.
How the Other Half Loves
An adulterous affair between a married man and his boss's wife leads them to recruit a third couple as an alibi. Two dinners staged simultaneously on one set multiply misunderstandings, until jealousy and a physical confrontation expose the lies.
How the Vote Was Won
In this satirical one-act play, anti-suffragist Horace Cole is visited by female relatives representing British suffrage groups. They are on strike and demand food and lodging; as he encounters their arguments, he and his male neighbour come to demand women’s right to vote.
How to Catch Creation
In San Francisco, artists and friends wrestle with parenthood, creative work, and the legacies they hope to leave. Their lives intersect with the rediscovered writing of a Black queer feminist from the 1960s.
How to Defend Yourself
A self-defense workshop is organized by Brandi, the VP of the Zeta Chi sorority, and Kara, the sisterhood chair, in response to the violent sexual assault of sorority member Susannah at an Alpha Epsilon fraternity party. In attendance are Diana, an outgoing first-year who wishes to channel her fighting spirit, Mojdeh, Diana's childhood best friend who is hoping to eventually join Zeta Chi, and Nikki, a shy wallflower who wishes to build her inner strength. Also joining are two members of Alpha Epsilon: Andy, who can be somewhat insensitive but is overall well-meaning in his fight against rape culture, and Eggo, who is confused by consent culture after a complicated breakup. Brandi leads the class in exercises and various fighting techniques, but struggles to control the more discussion-based aspects of the workshop due to her own mixed feelings on sex. Mojdeh, who is jealous of Diana's perceived sexual promiscuity, tries to come into her own at college by joining dating apps and hoping to improve her social standing through the class. Before one class, she tells an elaborate story of her date with another student, involving them showering together and him treating her well, only to find that “it didn’t fit” when they tried to have sex. Privately, however, Mojdeh admits to Diana that she lied about most of the details, and that it was actually humiliating. As she goes on about how no one will desire her in college, Diana kisses her in an attempt to make her feel desired. Mojdeh rejects Diana, claiming she is not attracted to her, and later blows her off after class to go home with Andy. Kara and Brandi come into conflict over Kara's behavior in class, from derailing a discussion on consent by describing a desire to be "used" during sex, to showing up hungover and refusing to participate. After being forced to stay behind when Brandi goes to visit Susannah at the hospital, Kara goads Diana into hitting her before breaking down and revealing she encouraged Susannah to sleep with one of her eventual rapists after she herself had rough sex with him, questioning if she gave him a pass to rape Susannah. Diana tries to comfort her, telling her it is "not that hard to[...] not rape someone." Nikki seems to grow the most from the class, using Brandi's techniques to try to unlock her inner strength. However, her progress comes to a halt when she is stalked and physically assaulted on the way to workshop, and none of the methods worked as her attacker was still much larger and stronger than her. She storms out of the gym after telling the group this, claiming the class is futile in preventing assault. As the other students leave to check on her, Brandi tries to defend the effectiveness of the techniques, but struggles to find the words to justify her reasoning as she breaks down over her own repressed sexual trauma. In a final, surreal sequence, flashbacks of the cast attending parties in college, high school, and middle school are shown, before a final flashback of an elementary school birthday party where a six-year-old Susannah, played by a young child, makes a wish.
How to Fail as a Popstar
Vivek Shraya recounts a long pursuit of pop stardom, from early performances to the compromises of the music industry. The solo show examines ambition, disappointment, gender, and the freedom to redefine success.
How to Get Tough About It
The author described the play as "A proletarian love story of pleasant dimensions." It tells the story of Kitty, an independent-minded waitress in a cheap cafe in a Midwestern industrial district, and Dan Grimshaw, "a boat-builder with more pride in craft than business sense." Atkinson gives the following summary: She has been in love with an amiable thug who promotes himself to labor union racketeering, and has coldly deserted her. By force of circumstances the waitress and the boat-builder are thrown together on the houseboat, where he lives on the mudflats, and they find that their notions of life are congenial. During a bogus strike the racketeer comes back, claims his old girl and takes her. The rest of the play is the story of how the uncontaminated pair learn how to get tough about it and save the decencies of their private principles in a world that is seething with violent corruption.
How to Grow Rich
How to Grow Rich is a 1793 comedy play by the British writer Frederic Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 18 April 1793. The original London cast included William Thomas Lewis as Pave, John Quick as Smalltrade, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Sir Thomas Roundhead, John Fawcett as Latitat, William Blanchard as Hippy, Alexander Pope as Warford, William Farren as Sir Charles Dazzle, William Cubitt as Plainly, James Thompson as Formal, Samuel Simmons as Sir Thomas' servant, Jane Pope as Lady Henrietta, Harriet Pye Esten as Rosa and Charlotte Chapman as Miss Dazzle. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 1 July 1793.
How to Keep an Alien
In a one-person show, Sonya Kelly recounts falling for her Australian stage manager, Kate Ferris, and fighting to keep her in Ireland.
Hoxton Story
A site-specific walkabout through a regenerated Hoxton community combines residents’ interview testimony, fact and fiction, sound and video installations, and street performances. Its material grew from interviews conducted in 2004–05; a loosely Romeo and Juliet-based subplot draws on Shakespeare’s connection to Hoxton.
Hu Chandrakant Bakshi
A one-person theatrical portrait of Gujarati writer Chandrakant Bakshi and his literary life, staged through a recurring ladder that represents his drive to rise to the top. The monologue draws on Bakshi's own books and articles and reflects on his public persona and work.
Hughie
In a Manhattan hotel lobby in 1928, small-time hustler Erie Smith delivers a long monologue to new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting his bad luck since the death of Hughes's predecessor, Hughie.
Human Rites
During a winter war, two men and a woman shelter in an apartment with diminishing resources. Their struggle against the cold forces them to test love, desire, and the value of literature as they decide which books can be burned.
Humare Ram
A theatrical interpretation of the Ramayana presenting selected episodes, including Lava and Kusha and events from Ravana's perspective, through large-scale visual staging and choreographed scenes.
Humble Boy
After his father’s death, theoretical astrophysicist Felix Humble returns to the family garden, where he clashes with his mother Flora, learns that his former girlfriend Rosie has a daughter by him, and confronts the secrets behind his parents’ marriage. As tensions peak at Flora’s engagement gathering, Felix and Flora begin to reconcile, aided by the gardener Jim, who is revealed as the spirit of Felix’s father.
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester is a 1723 tragedy by the British writer Ambrose Philips. It is based on the life of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of Henry V. The original Drury Lane cast included Barton Booth as Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, John Mills as Richard, Duke of York, John Thurmond as the Earl of Salisbury, Colley Cibber as Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Charles Williams as the Earl of Warwick, William Mills as the Duke of Buckingham, Anne Oldfield as Margaret and Mary Porter as Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester.
Humulus le muet
After a doctor enables Humulus to speak one word a day, he saves words to declare his love to a girl. At the crucial moment, he spends most of his remaining words directing her to the beach, then discovers she is hard of hearing and cannot hear his declaration.
Hunger and Thirst
In four periods, Ionesco presents religion as an expression of conformism and the alienation of idealism by the establishment.
Hunger of a Girl
A seventeen-year-old girl struggles with her parents' separation and her mother's new relationship with a younger man. She first tries to enlist a teenage friend in killing him, then kills the lover herself.
Hunted to Death
A drama about life on the early goldfields, reportedly based on fact and including incidents in the career of the notorious Power.
Hurlothrumbo; or, The Super-natural
An eighteenth-century nonsense spectacle combines spoken and musical elements. Its author performed as a principal, singing, dancing, playing fiddle and walking on stilts, making the author’s own virtuoso stage presence part of the work’s conception.
Hurlyburly
Hurlyburly depicts the intersecting lives of several low-to-mid-level Hollywood players in the 1980s. Fueled by large quantities of drugs, they attempt to find meaning in their isolated, empty lives.
Hurt Village
As a Memphis housing complex is redeveloped, Big Mama’s family faces eviction and failed relocation applications. Her returned son Buggy struggles with trauma and lack of support after military service, while his daughter Cookie and mother Crank navigate violence, poverty and family conflict. Drug dealing escalates into confrontation as Cookie watches her neighborhood disappear.
Hyde Park
Set in the real Hyde Park, Shirley’s comedy weaves three romantic plots through a triple-plot structure. Fairfield and Carol contest each other’s wits until they call the contest a tie; Julietta’s honorable conduct turns Bonville from rake to serious suitor; and Mistress Bonavent marries Lacy just as her husband returns from seven years at sea.
Hyde Park Corner
Hyde Park Corner is a play by Walter Hackett. It premiered at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End on October 5, 1934, where it ran until April 11, 1935. The play starred Hackett's wife, the actress Marion Lorne, as The Hon. Mrs. Sophia Wittering; an 18th-century society lady with a proclivity for cheating while gambling. Others in the cast included Godfrey Tearle as both Captain Richard Concannon and Sir Richard Carstairs, K.C.; J. H. Roberts as Benson; and Gordon Harker as Police Constable Samuel Cheatle. The play featured a time jump, with part of the play taking place in the 1780s and part of the play taking place the year the 1934. Harker reprised his role from the stage play in the 1935 film adaption of the work which was directed by Sinclair Hill.
Hymen's Triumph
Hymen, goddess of marriage disguised as a shepherdess, encounters Envy, Avarice, and Jealousy, who adopt pastoral disguises to frustrate her plans.
Hymenaei
Presented for the marriage of Robert Devereux and Frances Howard, the masque stages a Roman wedding at an altar. Sword-bearing figures representing the Humours and Affections threaten the couple until Reason intervenes; Juno then sends eight female figures to join them, and the dancers’ reconciliation celebrates marriage and the union of the kingdoms.
Hypsipyle
Former queen Hypsipyle, enslaved and serving as nurse to the infant Opheltes, accidentally causes his death while guiding the Seven against Thebes to a spring. Amphiaraus persuades Eurydice to spare her; funeral games bring Hypsipyle’s twin sons to her and lead to her release.
Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis
Freud and Dali meet for tea at Freud's house in Hampstead one summer's afternoon in 1938. The play combines that meeting with the arrival of the mysterious Jessica, who brings serious charges against Freud relating to his treatment of her mother and his theory of presexual shock. In the last months of his illness, the exhausted Freud, trying to put his affairs in order, soon finds himself up to his neck explaining both his life's work and the female undergarments in his garden.
Három körösztény leány
Three Christian maidens defend their faith before a Turkish sultan and his officials. This Hungarian adaptation relocates Hrotsvitha’s martyr drama from pagan Rome to the sultan’s court; the surviving text is framed as a devotional reading manuscript rather than a confirmed stage script.
Hélène
A child named Hélène vows revenge after learning that her father has been murdered.
Hérode et Mariamne (Voltaire play)
In ancient Jerusalem, Herod suspects his wife Mariamne of an affair with Roman governor Varus and orders her death. The original tragedy presents Herod as jealous and monolithic; Voltaire’s 1725 revision made him more self-doubting and moved Mariamne’s suicide offstage.
I Am 13 Years Old
A documentary memory-theatre play developed from essays written by thirteen-year-old Estonian schoolchildren under Soviet occupation. It shapes their collected writing into a coherent portrait of early teenagers’ everyday life and culture in the late 1970s.
I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife is an examination of the life of German antiquarian Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who killed her father when she was a young child and survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman.
I Am Thomas
An ensemble retells the story of Thomas Aikenhead, a young Edinburgh student prosecuted and executed for blasphemy in 1697, placing the historical events alongside the present day and telling the story through song.
I Am a Camera
I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten adapted from Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, which is part of The Berlin Stories. The title is a quotation taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." The original production was staged by John Van Druten, with scenic and lighting design by Boris Aronson and costumes by Ellen Goldsborough. The production was a critically acclaimed success for both Julie Harris as the insouciant Sally Bowles, winning her the first of five Tony Awards of her career for Best Leading Actress in a play, and for Marian Winters, who won both the Theatre World Award and Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play. The play also won for John Van Druten the New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best American Play (1952).
I Am the Wind
Two men known as The One and The Other travel by boat; The One eventually drowns himself.
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