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.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersHumble 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.
I Can Do Bad All by Myself
Vianne leaves her verbally abusive husband and moves in with her grandmother Madea. Her sister Maylee's engagement to Vianne's ex-husband intensifies family conflict, while handyman Bobby and Vianne grow close. A revelation about the sisters' past prompts reconciliation and Vianne's decision to pursue a life with Bobby.
I Can Hear You
After their mother’s death and their brother Tommy’s sudden death, Ruth and her father David confront a family’s attempt to restore traditional gender roles when Tommy appears to return. Tommy expects Ruth to take over domestic work, while the family’s attempt to contact their mother ends with her refusing to return.
I Don't Like Mondays
Through interwoven lives across a historical span, this ensemble drama considers why people—especially young people—want to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the hopes invested in each new Monday for a promised lawful state, economic stability and peace.
I Gelosi
A fictionalized history of the commedia dell'arte troupe centers on Isabella Andreini joining the company, its rise to fame and patronage, her romance with Francesco, and the troupe's later scandal and decline.
I Hate Hamlet
Set in John Barrymore's old apartment in New York City – at the time, the author's real-life home – the play follows successful television actor Andrew Rally as he struggles with taking on the dream role of Hamlet, dealing with a girlfriend who is keeping a firm grip on her chastity, and playing host to the ghost of John Barrymore, who, clothed as Hamlet, has come back to earth for the sole purpose of convincing Rally to play the part. Real estate agent Felicia Dantine convinces Rally to stay in the apartment and hold a seance. Barrymore proves to be very convincing (challenging Andrew to a sword fight in the middle of the New York loft), and Andrew decides to play Hamlet. But when a Hollywood friend shows up offering Andrew a new role in a television pilot, with a potentially large salary and fame, Andrew is forced to choose between Shakespeare, whom his girlfriend loves, or television, where he is loved by millions.
I Hate This
In a solo performance across twenty-seven short scenes, a father recounts the thirty-six hours between learning that his unborn child has died and the birth, then the year leading to the child’s first birthday, as he confronts grief and its everyday aftermath.
I Have Been Here Before
At a Yorkshire inn, an exiled German professor recognizes the guests and explains that déjà vu and eternal return bind them to repeating events. He foresees that headmaster Oliver Farrant and Janet Ormund will elope, driving her husband Walter to suicide, and intervenes to prevent the disaster.
I Killed the Count
I Killed the Count is a 1937 play by Alec Coppel. Its success launched Coppel's career.
I Know I've Been Changed
Mary, a young mother who turns to drugs under the strain of raising her children, repeats the verbal, emotional, and physical abuse she suffered. Her husband also abuses the family, including molesting their older son. The play follows the children’s survival and spiritual overcoming, alongside Fanny, a singer who left her daughter Ellen to pursue her career.
I Love XXX
Across four parts, a collage of more than seven hundred repeated and altered 'I love' statements ranges over twentieth-century history, politics, literature and the playwright's personal tastes. The play traces a generation born into Maoist revolutionary ideals and disillusioned by the reform era, using repetition, satire, mime and metatheatrical performance.
I Need That
Cited by the health department for hoarding, Sam has to clean the place up or be evicted. But he can't let go of anything, no matter how much his daughter Amelia and his friend Foster urge him to face reality. The past holds them in its grip while the future arrives.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Walter L. Newton adapts Greenberg’s novel with added material about psychiatrist Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann and restores Jewish and antisemitic elements removed from the 1977 film. Its multilayered ending reverses the fortunes of Deborah and Dr. Fried.
I Ought to Be in Pictures
I Ought to Be in Pictures is a comedy drama play written by Neil Simon, his 18th. The play opened on Broadway in 1980. It was subsequently made into a film, released in 1982. The play involves a film screenwriter who has abandoned his family, and his daughter who arrives at his home, seeking his help in becoming an actress.
I Remember Mama
The play revolves around the life of the Hansons, a loving Norwegian immigrant family, living on Steiner Street in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century. Told through the nostalgic eye of Katrin, one of three daughters, it is the story of a working-class family trying to live the American dream. Papa Hanson is a blue-collar worker; he and Mama attempt to raise their four children so that they understand the difference between right and wrong, between selfishness and selflessness. They are assisted by Mama's uncle, Uncle Chris, whose gruff exterior hides his inner charm and generosity. Mama and Papa (Marta and Lars) believe in hard work and a good education. They struggle to put their son Nels through high school as each member of the family makes sacrifices in order to accomplish this goal. They are warm and affectionate to each other, but very frugal in their use of funds. The three aunts, Jenny, Sigrid and Trina, offer a counterpoint as the first two are usually selfish and petty, and Aunt Trina is mostly kind. Through their hard work, wise financial decisions, and creative common sense, Mama and Papa manage to raise and educate their children.
I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
A fictionalized drama presents the death of English writer D. H. Lawrence, one of Williams’s chief literary influences.
I Want a Baby
Milda, a cultural education worker, seeks to have a child without a father or family and to raise the child through communal institutions. She pursues this plan despite opposition from neighbors in her crowded Moscow apartment block.
I Was Dancing
I Was Dancing is a play by Edwin O'Connor. The work premiered on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on November 3, 1964, and closed after 21 performances on November 21, 1964. The production was directed by Garson Kanin and starred Orson Bean, David Doyle, Barnard Hughes, Pert Kelton, Burgess Meredith, and Eli Mintz.
I Won't Dance
I Won't Dance is a 1981 comedic play written by Oliver Hailey. The play follows a paraplegic man named Dom in the aftermath of the murders of his brother and sister-in-law. It was first produced on Broadway and opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on May 10, 1981. The Broadway production was directed by Tom O'Horgan, and starred David Selby as Dom, Gail Strickland as Lil, and Arlene Golonka as Kay. The production closed on the same day it opened, playing a total of 12 previews and one regular performance. A revival of the play was directed by Jean Hauser for the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego in 1987. Theatre and disability has grown as a movement and portrayal of characters like these characters is subject to greater scrutiny, as disabled actors are more commonly authentically cast, reclaiming disabled stories, bringing authenticity, subtext and postmodern perspective of disability in performance.
I mafiosi
In the first part, Gioacchino and his companions remain in prison amid the mafia hierarchy and political upheaval. Later, out of prison and dressed in fine clothes, Gioacchino procures votes for an unnamed official, who is revealed as the political prisoner from the first part; the play ends with the official welcomed by a cheering crowd after an election victory.
I mafiusi di la Vicarìa
In Palermo’s Vicaria prison, Iachinu Funciazza leads a hierarchical criminal group whose practices include initiation, knife-fighting, and protection payments. A police informer stirs conflict and is killed. In the later act, Iachinu leaves prison and tries to live honestly as a cobbler; when former associates attack him for rejecting crime, a political prisoner intervenes, and Iachinu asks forgiveness for the group as they seek to become upright citizens.
I pettegolezzi delle donne
At a fountain, Columbina and Isobella gossip. Columbina’s husband Pierrot overhears them, setting off comic consequences.
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Chuck and Edith wait for their adult children and confront how empty their marriage has become.
I'll Be Seeing You
A young gay writer is commissioned to write a play about Liberace but resists what he believes the entertainer represents. As he focuses on Liberace’s denial of his sexuality and his libel suit against the Daily Mirror, Liberace himself appears to him.
I'll Be The Devil
In 18th-century Ireland, Lieutenant Coyle’s impending departure for England upends his relationship with a local woman and their two children. Young Dermot, a cattle-killer and Caliban-like figure, becomes the instrument of his mother Maryanne’s revenge against Coyle.
I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers
I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers is a 2013 American one-act play by John Logan, about the talent agent Sue Mengers.
I'll Leave It to You
An uncle promises his fortune to whichever of his five nieces and nephews builds the most successful career, prompting them to work; he later reveals he is penniless.
I'll Tell You What
I'll Tell You What is a 1785 comedy play by the English writer Elizabeth Inchbald. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 4 August 1785. The original cast included John Palmer as Major Cyprus, Robert Bensley as Anthony Euston, James Aickin as Colonel Downright, James Brown Williamson as Sir George Euston, John Bannister as Charles Euston, Robert Palmer as Sir Harry Harmless, William Parsons as Mr Euston, Mary Bulkley as Lady Euston and Elizabeth Farren as A Young Lady. The Irish premiere took place at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin on 12 December 1785.
I'm Herbert
An elderly couple, Herbert and Muriel, struggle through a scattered conversation as they try to remember their past relationships.
I'm Not Rappaport
Inspired by two elderly men Gardner met in New York City's Central Park, the play focuses on Nat Moyer, a feisty Jew, and Midge Carter, a cantankerous African-American, who spend their days sitting on a bench. They both mask the realities of aging, sharing tall tales that Nat spins. The play touches on several issues, including society's treatment of the aging, the difficulties dealing with adult children who think they know what's best for their parents, and the dangers that lurk in urban areas. Its title comes from an old vaudeville joke, a variation of which evolved into dialogue between the two protagonists: Nat: Hey, Rappaport! I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been? Midge: I'm not Rappaport. Nat: Rappaport, what happened to you? You used to be a short fat guy, and now you're a tall skinny guy. Midge: I'm not Rappaport. Nat: Rappaport, you used to be a young guy with a beard, and now you're an old guy with a mustache. Midge: I'm not Rappaport. Nat: Rappaport, how has this happened? You used to be a cowardly little white guy, and now you're a big imposing black guy. Midge: I'm not Rappaport. Nat: And you changed your name, too!
I'm Talking about Jerusalem
Ada and Dave Simmonds move with Ada's brother Ronnie and mother Sarah to rural Norfolk to pursue an off-grid life shaped by socialist ideals, but difficulties lead the family back to London after thirteen years.
I've Got Sixpence
Two female roommates have contrasting relationships with men.
I, Claudia
Claudia, a 12-year-old girl, struggles with her parents’ divorce and the difficult transition into adolescence. In this one-woman play, Kristen Thomson performs all the roles and uses masks to shift between characters.
I, Joan
A retelling of Joan of Arc presents Joan as a non-binary person and uses the historical figure to explore identity and power.
I.D.
Antony Sher's historical drama follows the trial and imprisonment of mentally unstable Demetrios Tsafendas, who assassinated South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966.
Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU
Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU is a one-man stage performance by English stage and screen actor Sir Ian McKellen. The performance sees McKellen reprising roles over his career in the theatre (such as the works of William Shakespeare), on film (such as Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings film series) while discussing anecdotes throughout his life and career. All profits for ticket sales were donated to each venue and organisation for specific causes or an arts-related charity.
Ibrahim
Ibrahim The Illustrious Bassa is a 1676 tragedy by the English writer Elkanah Settle, based on a 1641 novel by the French writer Madeleine de Scudéry. It was first performed by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Solyman, William Smith as Ibrahim, Henry Harris as Ulama, Matthew Medbourne as Morat, Thomas Gillow as Muphti, Mary Lee as Roxolana, Elizabeth Currer as Asteria, Mary Betterton as Isabella, Margaret Hughes as Mirva.
Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperor of the Turks
After being rejected by Amurat, Sheker Para urges Sultan Ibrahim to pursue Morena, Amurat's fiancée. When Morena rejects the Sultan, he rapes her; she later takes poison and dies in Amurat's arms, having inspired revolt against Ibrahim.
Icarus' Mother
Five people wait for a fireworks display after a picnic, playing tense word and mind games as two men secretly send smoke signals. Two women return from an attempt to distract a passing jet; the plane crashes nearby, prompting one man’s disoriented monologue as the fireworks begin.
Icebound
In a Maine farmhouse, the Jordan family gathers for the reading of its matriarch’s will and learns that the estate has gone to distant cousin Jane Crosby. Jane is also asked to address legal trouble involving young Ben, who accidentally burned a neighbor’s farm; meanwhile Ben begins a flirtation with Nettie, an adopted member of the family.
Ichneutae
A chorus of satyrs pursues Apollo's stolen cattle, hoping to win freedom and gold. They track the animals to a cave, hear the infant Hermes playing his newly invented lyre, and learn from the nymph Cyllene what the strange instrument is. The surviving papyrus breaks off as Apollo returns.
Ideal
Movie star Kay Gonda, suspected of murder, seeks support from a series of fans, most of whom disappoint her.
Idioglossia
After a hermit dies in the backcountry, a doctor and police find a younger woman who speaks in apparently unintelligible language. A linguist investigates how she learned to speak and whether she can live independently.
Idiot's Delight
The play takes place in the Hotel Monte Gabriel in the Italian Alps during 24 hours at the beginning of a world war. The guests trapped in the hotel by the sudden onset of hostilities are from Germany, France and the United States, including a British couple on their honeymoon. Harry Van, American, the manager of a group of strippers and dancers Irene, the glamorous mistress of a Nazi arms dealer Achille Weber, the arms dealer the Cherrys, British honeymooners Dr. Waldersee, a German doctor Quillery, a French pacifist Captain Locicero, the commander of the Italian headquarters located next to the hotel
Idomeneus
Returning from Troy, Idomeneus makes a desperate promise to survive a storm. A chorus offers conflicting versions of what follows, questioning the king's choices and whether the story must end in the sacrifice of his son.
If
If is a play in four acts by Lord Dunsany. It premiered in the West End at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 30 May 1921. It ran there for a 180 performances; closing on 29 October 1921. The production starred Henry Ainley as John Beal and Gladys Cooper as Miralda Clement. The play was later performed on Broadway at the Little Theatre where it opened on October 25, 1927. The production was staged by Agnes Morgan, and starred Walter Kingsford as John Beal and Margot Lester as Miralda Clement. The costumes were designed by Aline Bernstein and made by Helene Pons Studio.
If I Were You
After years of marital strain, Mal and Jill Rodale wake to discover they have swapped bodies. Living each other’s roles, they learn about an affair, their daughter’s abusive marriage and their son’s aspirations, and gain a new understanding of their family and themselves.
If I Were for Real
Frustrated rural youth Li Xiaozhang impersonates a senior cadre’s son to get a ticket to a popular play and win a transfer to the city. Officials and cultural leaders court him for favors, exposing their corruption and dependence on personal connections before he is exposed and tried.
If It Was Easy
A down-on-his-luck Broadway producer and a theatre columnist pursue a Frank Sinatra musical after a fabricated story about it draws attention; the project becomes a runaway hit when mobsters become involved.
If Love Were All
Margaret Bryce has been happily married to Dr. Philip Bryce for many years. Dr. Bryce is a tolerant man but very devoted to his work and his patients. Even though in love with Margaret, he doesn't give enough attention to her. Janet Bryce, their child, is 18, admires her mother and is deeply devoted to her father. During Easter vacation, Janet is home from college and discovers her mother has been seeing another man: Frank Grayson, a wealthy businessman with a wife and 19-year old son, Roland. Determined to prevent Dr. Bryce from finding out, Janet meets with Roland at the end of the school year in June and convinces him of the affair. Roland reveals that his mother is an invalid, and that knowledge of her husband's extra-marital affair would kill her. The two college-age children recognize that their generation has the understanding of how love can happen and the ability to accept it with tolerance. Janet is particularly sensitive, having just come out of a relationship. They also believe their parents' generation lacks the ability to understand and deal with such things. Seeing no way to break up their respective parents' affair, they decide to let them spend the summer with each other by vacationing with the unsuspecting spouses for three months. On the French Riviera, Janet is with her father when she encounters George Manning, the person with whom she had an unsuccessful relationship. He is now married and unhappy. Even though Janet believes she could win him back, she recognizes the unhappiness that would befall his wife. Meanwhile in the mountains of Vermont, Margaret Bryce and Frank Grayson have been having an enjoyable vacation. After discussing divorce from their respective spouses, they agree not to do it, recognizing the unhappiness it would bring along with the disruption of their families. In October the families are reunited. Janet and Roland have grown fond of one another but realize their plan was a failure. Margaret Bryce and Frank Grayson seem just as much in love as ever. Janet and Roland agree to invite Margaret and Frank and themselves to dinner at a restaurant to have things out and come to a resolution. At a German restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Janet and Roland reveal to Margaret and Frank that they know all about their extra-marital affair and plea on behalf of the absent parents. But Margaret and Frank reveal a surprise as well: Both of their spouses have known of the extra-marital affair from the start. Because of their acceptance, there had never been any deception. Janet and Roland, shamefaced, realize that their generation does not have a monopoly on understanding human relationships. The curtain falls as they drink a toast to the absent parents, recognizing the understanding that they have yet to develop.
If Only the Dead Could Listen
At a police station near London, Albanian researcher Alma interprets for asylum seeker Leka, arrested on suspicion of theft. Their tense interview exposes mutual shame and prejudice before Leka recounts the loss of his family in Kosovo and the humiliations he faces in Britain.
If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet
Anna, bullied and neglected by her climate-change-obsessed father and misunderstood by her teacher mother, finds an ally in her uncle. As he becomes absorbed in his own troubles, he fails to see her growing depression.
If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody; or The Troubles of Queen Elizabeth
This two-part chronicle play follows the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I. Part One recounts events leading to Elizabeth's accession. Part Two first follows haberdasher Hobson, his troublesome apprentice John Gresham, and the building of the Royal Exchange, then turns to Elizabeth's escape from an assassination plot and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
If You Please
This four-act Dada play presents unrelated stories in which familiar dramatic forms unravel: an infidelity melodrama ends in a subverted murder, a detective abandons conventional cases, and a café encounter turns into surreal dialogue. The fourth act is deliberately left unprinted and, in performance, becomes a staged audience revolt.
Ignoramus
The college farce satirizes Francis Brackyn, a lawyer who woos Rosabella and pays for her hand, only to be tricked into marrying the mannish Polla. Suspected of possession and put through an exorcism, he is carried off to recover at a monastery.
Ikuta Atsumori
A monk recounts how Hōnen raised the son of the slain warrior Taira no Atsumori. The boy travels with the monk to Ikuta Shrine, where Atsumori’s ghost appears, recalls his death in battle, and returns to the realm of endless combat.
Il Cromuele
In Graziani’s five-act historical tragedy, Queen Henrietta Maria escapes Cromwell’s imprisonment of Charles I and heads for France to seek Louis XIV’s help. Shipwrecked and disguised as Dutch merchants, she and Delmira reach London, where Delmira’s mistaken male identity entangles them in a plan to free the king. The conspiracy fails: Charles and Delmira are executed, and Cromwell discovers too late that Delmira was his own daughter, exchanged at birth.
Il feudatario
When Florindo takes possession of a disputed feudal estate, the villagers organize against his abuses, including his pursuit of their women. Rosaura, the rightful heir, contests his claim, and their conflict is ultimately settled through marriage.
Il pastor fido
In Arcadia, an oracle says a young man and woman of divine descent must marry to end an annual virgin sacrifice. While hunter Silvio gradually discovers love for Dorinda, Amarilli and Mirtillo struggle to unite despite her promised marriage to Silvio and a plot by Corisca that threatens Amarilli's life.
Il sindaco del Rione Sanità
Set in Naples’s impoverished Rione Sanità, the play centers on Barracano, a local authority whose protection of the poor relies on threats and life outside the law. His uneasy blend of criminal power and a sincere desire to administer justice exposes the failures of the formal judicial system.
Il teatro comico
A metatheatrical comedy in which actors prepare to perform, adopting masks and names from the Commedia dell'Arte tradition. Its authorial introduction criticizes vulgar theatrical conventions and advocates restoring the comedy's good practices with lifelike scenes and characters.
Il vero amico
Two friends find themselves in love with the same woman, testing their friendship as each seeks her affection.
Illness or Modern Women
Nurse Emily leaves her fiancé after falling in love with Carmilla, a pregnant woman. Carmilla dies in childbirth and Emily turns her into a vampire; the women's male partners pursue them, while the play uses the vampire transformation to reverse patriarchal expectations about women's sexuality and motherhood.
Illyria
British journalist Maria Vargas travels to war-torn Illyria to interview the dictator’s wife, but her translator is killed and she is taken to the dictator’s mistress instead. As a revolution unfolds around the household, Maria and its servants, soldiers, and mistress confront the regime’s violence and its aftermath.
Imaginary Friends
Writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy reunite in hell and reflect on their decades-long antagonistic relationship. Dating back to their first meeting at a conference at Sarah Lawrence College in 1948, it came to a head in 1980 when McCarthy, in a television interview with Dick Cavett, asserted, "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'". Hellman subsequently sued McCarthy for slander. As the play progresses, the two women recall, among other things, Hellman's 1952 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee; McCarthy's childhood abuse by an uncle; and their romantic involvements: McCarthy with Philip Rahv and Hellman with Dashiell Hammett. Throughout it all, McCarthy accuses Hellman of repeatedly presenting fiction as fact, while Hellman insists McCarthy always portrays fact as fiction.
Imagining Madoff
An imagined encounter between Bernard Madoff and his victims, including the fictional Holocaust survivor Solomon Galkin, who carries much of the dialogue initially planned for Elie Wiesel.
Imogen Says Nothing
A bear posing as a human, Imogen travels to a London theatre in 1598 to restore her hometown’s name. She joins Shakespeare’s company, goes onstage as Leonato’s wife, and is later caught among bears at the Paris Gardens; the play follows her presence through the quarto and folio versions of Much Ado About Nothing and ends with her appearing in 1623.
Imp
An unsettling portrait of a fractured world where well-meaning people can suddenly turn against outsiders and fear everything; it also suggests the force of bottled-up desire, violence, and need for companionship.
Imperium: The Cicero Plays
A six-play cycle, performed in two groups of three and narrated by Cicero's slave and freedman Tiro, follows Cicero's rise, exile, return, conflict with Caesar and efforts to preserve the Roman Republic through his execution.
Impossible Cities: A Utopian Experiment
A master of ceremonies narrates passages from Calvino while four performers explore American utopian communities through autobiographical stories and urban planning. The segments address the Amana Colonies, Clarion, Arcosanti, Nauvoo, and the Icarians who followed the Mormons to Illinois.
Impressionism
The setting is the small art gallery of Katharine Keenan, where Thomas Buckle has been employed for the past two years. They use the gallery as a hiding place, to separate themselves from a world which has shattered them. He, by his time as a world traveling photojournalist, and she, by horribly failed relationships. Thomas brings Katharine coffee each morning, and tells her stories of its particular origin, although these stories are actually reflections of his own experiences. These lead to flashbacks of iconic moments that have led to their present state, as well as their relationship to the art that hangs in the gallery, which Katharine will not easily sell. In the end, we journey through a love story which shows Katharine and Thomas, that just like the Impressionist art on the walls, the more they step away from the canvas of their lives up to now, the more they realize that their future together might hold more depth than the past that has led them to each other.
Improbable Fiction
At a writers’ circle meeting, members reveal their unfinished stories while Arnold, the chairman who writes instruction leaflets, tries to keep the group together. When their imaginations take over the room, the writers cast one another in Victorian romance, detective and science-fiction plots, leaving Arnold bewildered as he moves among their invented worlds.
Improvisation or the Shepherd's Chameleon
A one-act Theatre of the Absurd satire casts Ionesco as a beleaguered playwright besieged by three scholarly critics, Bartholoméus I, II and III, whose dogmatic theories seek to replace artistic truth. The character-author is rescued by his cleaning lady.
In 1999
Set in a future where gender roles are reversed, this comic sketch follows a love triangle in which husbands perform domestic chores while women socialize at clubs. Its gender-swapped speeches parody the problem plays popular in 1912.
In Abraham's Bosom
The play takes place in the Southeast of the United States, from 1885 to the beginning of the 20th century. Abe McCranie is a mixed-race African-American field worker, the son of Colonel McCranie, a white man. He tries to start a school to educate black children, as they were underserved by the state. Ultimately, he gets a school, but the white people run him out of it and drive him to murder.
In Arabia We'd All Be Kings
In a Hell's Kitchen bar before Giuliani's city cleanup efforts, unemployed and struggling patrons cling to hopes of a better life. A newly released ex-convict, his alcoholic girlfriend, a junkie former actor, a young single mother and other regulars face the loss of their neighborhood refuge as redevelopment advances.
In Beauty It Is Finished
Marion, a young white woman who divides her time between Brisbane and Moreton Island, begins a relationship with Tom, an Indigenous young man. Their relationship affects the family and island community amid racial prejudice, isolation, and social expectations.
In Celebration
Three brothers return to their parents’ Derbyshire mining town to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary, bringing their contrasting temperaments into the family gathering.
In Extremis: The Story of Abelard and Heloise
In twelfth-century France, philosopher Peter Abelard and his brilliant student Heloise begin an affair that provokes opposition from conservative churchmen. The play follows their love, forced separation, and monastic lives alongside a public dispute between Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux over reason, faith, and power.
In Gabriel's Kitchen
An Italian-Canadian family reacts to their son's homosexuality; the production centers on his relationship with his boyfriend.
In God We Trust
Set at Guantanamo Bay, the play follows central characters Sarfraz and Hamza as it explores American imperialism and philosophical divisions within Islam.
In Good King Charles's Golden Days
At the court of Charles II, the king debates nature, science, power and leadership with Isaac Newton, George Fox and artist Godfrey Kneller, with interventions from three of his mistresses. The short second act has Charles speaking with Queen Catherine of Braganza.
In Honour Bound
Returning from abroad, Philip Graham tells the barrister Sir George Carlyon that he is engaged to Rose Dalrymple. Sir George reveals that Rose is his niece and questions Philip about an earlier attachment to a married woman, exposing obligations that could threaten the new engagement.
In Human Disguise
A performance for four women, who remain nude throughout. One performance invited audience members to join them in stripping, if they wished.
In Lambeth
A fictionalized meeting between William Blake and Thomas Paine in Lambeth in 1791.
In Nomine Dei
A historical drama about the Anabaptist Münster Rebellion of 1534.
In Plain Arabic
A satirical play about Pan-Arabism.
In Praise of Love
During the Second World War, a military-intelligence officer and his East European refugee wife each conceal her terminal illness from the other, using deceptions learned during the war to protect one another. Their writer friend carries an old love for Lydia, while their son rebels against his father's manner and politics.
In a Balcony
During a royal banquet celebrating his political service, Norbert plans to ask the Queen for her cousin Constance’s hand. Constance urges him to approach the Queen indirectly; the Queen mistakes his words for a declaration of love, forcing Norbert to choose between his ambition and the woman he loves.
In a Dark Dark House
Set on the grounds of a psychiatric facility, the play follows two brothers confronting sexual and emotional abuse and trying to overcome its effects; one is a disbarred lawyer and patient, and a teenage girl is also central to the story.
In a Forest, Dark and Deep
In a Forest, Dark and Deep is a play by Neil LaBute. It received its world premiere production in the West End's Vaudeville Theatre on 14 March 2011 following previews from 3 March 2011, running for a limited season until 4 June 2011. The production starred Matthew Fox and Olivia Williams. A review in The Observer described the play as "[…] something approaching a conventional thriller [where] a college lecturer and her redneck brother meet in a log cabin in the midst of the wilds there's a whiff of incest. The play had its American premiere at Profiles Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in April 2012 through 3 June. The production stars Darrell W. Cox and Natasha Lowe and was directed by Joe Jahraus. The Chicago Tribune reviewer wrote:"Interesting and formatively atypical, it strikes me as very much a meditation on what is and is not true, on the ease of rushing to misjudgment, and also a further manifestation of the longstanding authorial fascination with the close link between deep intimacy and dark violence." This production was followed by a Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, West Virginia) production as part of the 2012 Festival from 6 to 29 July 2012.
In a World Created by a Drunken God
As Jason Pierce packs to leave Toronto for the reserve where he grew up, Harry Dieter arrives claiming to be his half-brother. Their dying father needs a kidney, and Harry wants to know whether Jason can be a donor.
In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot
Queer workers repeatedly move from job to job as rising sea levels unsettle their lives, finding love among one another amid uncertainty and the approaching end of the world.
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel
In a Tokyo hotel, alcoholic painter Mark suffers a mental breakdown while trying to revive his career with a new artistic style. His wife Miriam attempts to enlist his dealer and friend Leonard to take Mark back to New York; Mark dies, leaving Miriam without plans or direction.
In the Blood
In a modern urban setting, Hester, a poor mother of five, seeks help from her children’s fathers and others, whose confessions reveal how they exploit her. The tragedy reworks the central figure and motifs of The Scarlet Letter.
In the Boom Boom Room
Chrissy arrives in 1960s Philadelphia with the dream of becoming a successful dancer. Desperation leads her to a job at a sleazy nightclub called Big Tom's Boom Boom Room. While working at the nightclub, she explores love and sex with a variety of unsuitable partners of both genders and forms a friendship with a gay neighbor. She tries to resolve troubling issues in her life, including her mother who had wanted an abortion and memories of sexual abuse by her father.
In the Chest of a Woman
Set in the Asante Empire, the play follows a woman who disguises her daughter as a boy so the child can become king, and the difficulties the daughter faces as she grows up.
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