8284 shows
Clear filtersVianne 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 is a 1937 play by Alec Coppel. Its success launched Coppel's career.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
A fictionalized drama presents the death of English writer D. H. Lawrence, one of Williams’s chief literary influences.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
At a fountain, Columbina and Isobella gossip. Columbina’s husband Pierrot overhears them, setting off comic consequences.
Chuck and Edith wait for their adult children and confront how empty their marriage has become.
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.
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 is a 2013 American one-act play by John Logan, about the talent agent Sue Mengers.
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 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.
An elderly couple, Herbert and Muriel, struggle through a scattered conversation as they try to remember their past relationships.
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!
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.
Two female roommates have contrasting relationships with men.
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.
A retelling of Joan of Arc presents Joan as a non-binary person and uses the historical figure to explore identity and power.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Movie star Kay Gonda, suspected of murder, seeks support from a series of fans, most of whom disappoint her.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two friends find themselves in love with the same woman, testing their friendship as each seeks her affection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Three brothers return to their parents’ Derbyshire mining town to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary, bringing their contrasting temperaments into the family gathering.
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.
An Italian-Canadian family reacts to their son's homosexuality; the production centers on his relationship with his boyfriend.
Set at Guantanamo Bay, the play follows central characters Sarfraz and Hamza as it explores American imperialism and philosophical divisions within Islam.
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.
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.
A performance for four women, who remain nude throughout. One performance invited audience members to join them in stripping, if they wished.
A fictionalized meeting between William Blake and Thomas Paine in Lambeth in 1791.
A historical drama about the Anabaptist Münster Rebellion of 1534.
A satirical play about Pan-Arabism.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
Two embittered male co-workers scheme to romance a deaf female colleague simultaneously and then abandon her. As their deceit damages the woman's life and strains their own relationship, the more passive conspirator's conscience conflicts with the cruelty of the plan.
In Chicago, book clerk George Garga and timber dealer Shlink engage in an inexplicable struggle that devastates Garga’s family. Their attempts to dominate and understand one another lead to betrayal, imprisonment and the ruin of those around them before Garga declares himself the victor and leaves.
In a prosperous post-Civil War town, Dr. Givings uses an electrical device to treat women's hysteria while his wife Catherine struggles with sexual dissatisfaction and motherhood. Patients and their spouses, including Sabrina and Dick Daldry, enter the household's medical and emotional orbit, exposing the limits of Victorian ideas about sex, intimacy and family.
In 1817, the year before his death, George III looks back over his life.
In an isolated Wicklow cottage, Nora tends the apparently dead body of her husband Dan. When Dan reveals he has feigned death, Nora chooses to leave with a visiting tramp rather than remain with Dan and the shepherd Michael.
A nameless Dealer approaches a Client with an offer to supply whatever the Client wants. Their prolonged, oblique exchange becomes argumentative and threatening, while withholding what is being negotiated and leaving its stakes open to interpretation.
In this Tupi-language religious play, devils conspire to take over Guaraparim. They try to claim the soul of the deceased Indigenous man Pirataraca, who answers their accusations with appeals to repentance and God’s forgiveness. A guardian angel protects him and drives the devils away.
Aspiring actors Melinda and Steve are cast in a musical by their acting teacher, Bernardo, but when it moves to Broadway only Melinda is invited along. Their relationship is tested as they negotiate acting, singing and dancing, with Steve’s mother repeatedly visiting their apartment to offer advice and money.
The crew of a small tramp steamer face the strains of life at sea during the First World War.
Inadmissible Evidence is a play written by John Osborne in 1964. It was film adapted in 1968.
After their mother Nawal dies, twins Jeanne and Simon receive a difficult mission that sends them to the Middle East to unravel her past, trace their family roots and find a long-lost brother. Their search reveals a family history shaped by political violence and secrets.
Incident at Vichy is a one-act play written in 1964 by American dramatist Arthur Miller. It depicts a group of men who have been detained in Vichy France in 1942; they are being held for their "racial" inspection by German military officers and Vichy French police. The play focuses on the subjects of human nature, guilt, fear, and complicity and examines how the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust with so little resistance. Miller said of Incident at Vichy, "What is dark if not unknown is the relationship between those who side with justice and their implication in the evil they oppose. [...] The good and the evil are not compartments but two elements of a transaction." The play premiered on Broadway on December 3, 1964, at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in New York City. The production closed on May 7, 1965, after 32 performances. The cast included Michael Strong as LeBeau, Stanley Beck as Bayard, Paul Mann as Marchand, and David J. Stewart as Monceau. A London production in 1966 at the Phoenix Theatre starred Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle and Nigel Davenport. Miller adapted the play for a 1973 television production directed by Stacy Keach and starring Andy Robinson, Burt Freed, Harris Yulin, Richard Jordan and René Auberjonois.
Lemml, the stage manager, introduces the troupe of actors and musicians who will be telling the story of a play that changed his life, playing many different parts in a retelling interspersed with songs. As the actors arrive on stage, ash pours out of their clothing. In 1906, Polish-Jewish playwright Sholem Asch writes a play in Yiddish, The God of Vengeance, which concerns the love between a prostitute (Manke) and the daughter of the brothel's owner (Rifkele). His wife, Madje, is impressed. He holds a reading of the play in a local salon run by the influential I. L. Peretz, receiving mixed reactions from the participants. Some are appalled by the lesbian storyline and the throwing of a Torah across the room, and Peretz, concerned the play perpetuates antisemitic stereotypes, advises Asch to burn the manuscript. Asch's only support comes from Lemml, a naive young tailor, who is moved to tears by the play. The play is eventually produced in Berlin, with Lemml as stage manager, starring the famous actor Rudolph Schildkraut. The play is successful throughout Europe and Lemml emigrates to America to stage-manage the first performances in New York in the Yiddish Theatre. In 1922, the play seeks a more commercial run, prompting an English translation. The actresses playing Rifkele and Manke, Reina and Dine, are in a romantic relationship offstage as well as on. Their relationship is tested when Reina is fired due to her problems learning English and is replaced by an inexperienced American actress. The play is transferred to Broadway, but Dine and Lemml are outraged when the producer alters the play, removing the love between the two women and suggesting instead that Manke seduces Rifkele to also become a prostitute. Asch returns from a visit to Europe, where he witnesses the rise of antisemitism, leaving him in a deep depression. He becomes a recluse in his Staten Island home. The play premieres on Broadway, but the entire cast is arrested for obscenity due to the content of the play. Asch is convinced this is an antisemitic plot, but the charges are revealed to have been organized by an American Rabbi scandalized by the play. The play is closed, but Reina and Dine reconcile. Asch, still depressed, refuses to testify in the actors' obscenity trial, ashamed and unwilling to admit that he approved the cuts without reading them due to his inability to speak English. Eugene O'Neill, an admirer of the play, attempts to testify for the defense but is turned away on a technicality, and the company is found guilty in a verdict that frames the play as "eastern exoticism" and a threat to American morality. A heartbroken Lemml condemns Asch for his inaction and returns to Europe, taking the play's Yiddish manuscript with him. Over the next 20 years, Asch remains in America and begins to receive letters from friends as they attempt to escape the Holocaust. In 1943, Lemml leads a tiny, starving troupe of actors in a performance of the play's second act in a tiny attic in the Łódź Ghetto. The performance is interrupted by the arrival of the Nazis. In his last moments before the troupe is presumably executed, Lemml slips into a fantasy that Manke and Rifkele have escaped. In 1952, Asch and Madje are packing up their house in Staten Island to relocate to England since Asch is being persecuted by the House Unamerican Activities Committee. A young Jewish-American theater student (played by the same actor who played Asch as a young man) visits Asch to receive permission to have a new translation of the God of Vengeance performed by his theatre group at Yale. Asch refuses, traumatized by the Holocaust and convinced the play's time is done, and echoes the advice Peretz gave him at the play's first reading to burn the manuscript. But the young man refuses to accept defeat and promises to one day produce the play. As Asch stands in his empty living room, he sees a vision of Manke and Rifkele falling in love as they dance in the rain.
In Salchester, John Forsyth and his suffragette wife Sidney struggle over her independence while his family’s investments collapse. After the household is ruined, Sidney takes work as a typist; she and John separate, then later reconcile when both find jobs with family friend Samuel Ritchie.
Adolescent Eddie tries to assert himself within a large, traditional Buffalo family. His parents, grandparents and jealous cousin surround him as the action moves fluidly through the family’s different settings.
In 1930, poet Flora Crewe travels to India, where artist Nirad paints her portrait as she falls ill with tuberculosis. In the 1980s, academic Eldon Pike and Nirad's son Anish separately seek answers from Flora's sister Eleanor about the poet's final days and her relationship with Nirad.
Indians is a 1968 play by Arthur Kopit. At its core is Buffalo Bill Cody and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The play examines the contradictions of Cody's life and his work with Native Americans. Alvin Klein, writing in The New York Times, wrote that the play intended "...to open up the real savage story of how the West was won, to demythologize that old game of cowboys and Indians..."
Indiscretion is an 1800 comedy play by the British writer Prince Hoare. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas King as Sir Marmaduke Maxim, John Bannister as Burly, William Barrymore as Clermont, Robert Palmer as Frederic, Charles Holland as Gaylove, Ralph Wewitzer as Lounge, Alexander Webb as Francis, Montague Talbot as Algernon, Jane Pope as Victoria and Dorothea Jordan as Julia.
The play is about five women – four of them are in their 60s, one is 47 – staying at a health retreat in Northern California. The play takes place in May, 2019 and shows their interaction during various treatments and wellness programs which involve fasting. One of the characters reads Daniel Deronda, others engage in philosophical conversation, some indulge in intense sexual fantasies, and others drink exotic juices. There is one minor role for a man.
A satire about a right-wing radio shock jock, inspired by prominent Australian talkback personalities.
A guide leads audience groups through a large house, where they encounter twenty scenes ranging from staged episodes to seemingly private unfinished moments. The promenade piece implicates spectators in observing the lives of Argentina’s disappeared and questions how audiences respond to authority and performance.
Ingomar the Barbarian is an 1851 historical play by the British writer and former actress Maria Ann Lovell. It was based on the German play Der Sohn der Wildnis by Friedrich Halm. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 9 June 1851. The original cast included John Garside Neville as the Timarch of Masillia, James Robertson Anderson as Ingomar and Charlotte Vandenhoff as Parthenia. It appeared frequently on the American stage for the remainder of the nineteenth century.
The play takes place in the small town of Hillsboro, in an unnamed state in the central part of the United States. (It is often assumed to be either Kentucky or Tennessee.) Scenes take place either in front of the county courthouse or in the courtroom. It takes place in the summertime "not too long ago". The play begins with local high school student Howard Blair looking for worms in front of the Hillsboro courthouse. Melinda appears, and they have a discussion about evolution and the recent arrest of their teacher, Betram Cates. They exit when Rachel enters. Rachel convinces Meeker, the bailiff, to give her some time with Cates. Bert and Rachel's conversation tells the audience about why Bert taught evolution to his students. Rachel and Bert are engaged to wed, but her father does not approve. Meeker comes in as they are hugging, saying he needs to sweep. Rachel exits. Meeker tells Bert that Matthew Harrison Brady has volunteered to prosecute him and reminisces about seeing Brady speak during one of his failed presidential campaigns. When questioned, Bert says that the Baltimore Herald has offered to pay for his attorney but doesn't know the man's name. Bert and Meeker exit. Reverend Jeremiah Brown enters and speaks with the townspeople, Howard, and Melinda. Everyone is excited that Matthew Harrison Brady is coming to Hillsboro. When Timmy, a boy who lives in Hillsboro, sees smoke from the arriving train, everyone exits. E.K. Hornbeck, representing the Herald, delivers a soliloquy cruelly ridiculing the people of Hillsboro. Hornbeck spots a monkey someone has brought to mock Bert and feigns conversation with it. The crowd enters with Brady, Mrs. Brady, Rev. Brown, and the Mayor. Brady makes a brief speech, which the crowd wildly cheers. The Mayor honors Brady with the title of "Honorary Colonel" in the state militia and introduces him to Reverend Brown. Members of the Hillsboro Ladies' Aid Society set up a buffet lunch on the courthouse lawn as Brady discusses how he will handle Cates' legal counsel. Hornbeck then announces that the defense attorney will be Henry Drummond, a well-known liberal lawyer and Brady's former colleague. The scene ends with everyone in the town escorting the Bradys to a nearby hotel and the introduction of Drummond, who in contrast to Brady's lavish welcoming is only greeted with boos and mockery. Scene Two occurs in the courtroom. Present are Matthew Harrison Brady, Henry Drummond, Tom Davenport, the Mayor, the Judge, and many townspeople (sitting behind the defense and prosecution and watching the proceedings). It is a day or two later, and jury selection is under way. Davenport questions Mr. Bannister to see if he is an acceptable juror to the prosecution. Bannister says he attends church on Sundays, and the prosecution accepts him. Drummond questions Bannister, and it is revealed that Bannister is illiterate. Drummond accepts Bannister for the jury. Jesse Dunlap is then called to the stand. Brady asks Dunlap if he believes in the Bible. Dunlap states "I believe in the Holy Word of God. And I believe in Matthew Harrison Brady!" Brady finds Dunlap acceptable; Drummond does not but refuses to explain his reasoning. Brady demands that Drummond provide a reason for refusing Dunlap or at least ask him a question. Drummond asks Dunlap how he feels, then excuses Dunlap as unacceptable. Drummond also protests the use of the title "Colonel Matthew Harrison Brady" by the Judge. Realizing that Brady's honorary title may have prejudiced the judicial proceedings, the Mayor confers with the Judge and they agree to make Drummond a "Temporary Honorary Colonel" for the duration of proceedings. George Sillers is brought in after Dunlap steps down. Brady briefly questions Sillers, then accepts him. Drummond asks Sillers some questions on religion and then evolution, then accepts Sillers as well. Alarmed, Brady tells the court that Sillers won't render impartial judgment. Drummond objects to Brady's use of the word "conform". Brady tells the Judge (although his comments are subtly directed at Drummond) about the "Endicott Publishing Case", a trial in which Brady claims Drummond confused the jury so much that they delivered an incorrect verdict. Drummond states that all he wants to do is stop "the clock-stoppers" from inserting religious belief into the Constitution. The Judge reminds Drummond that this is not a federal case, and that constitutional questions cannot be entertained. Drummond demands that they be included, but the Judge rules him out of order. With the jury seated, court is adjourned for the day. After recessing the court, the Judge announces that Reverend Brown will hold a prayer meeting later that night. Drummond objects and argues that such announcements from the bench are prejudicial, but the Judge ignores him. Scene One occurs in front of the courthouse later that evening. Two workmen discuss whether to take down the "Read Your Bible" banner which hangs over the entrance to the courthouse (which Drummond had asked for in court earlier) but decide against it. They leave when they hear people approaching. At the hotel, Brady eats a large dinner while speaking to Hornbeck and some reporters from the "Reuters News Agency". He discusses his past relationship with Drummond, who worked with him on several cases and stumped for him in his presidential campaigns. Brady accuses Hornbeck of biased reporting, but Hornbeck replies that he is a critic - not a reporter. Reverend Brown and a crowd of supporters (including Drummond and Brady) enter for the prayer meeting. Brown engages in call and response with the crowd, preaching about how God created the world in six days. Brown denounces Cates as a heretic worthy of death, and Rachel (who has entered mid-sermon) demands that he stop. Instead, Rev. Brown loudly condemns anyone who seeks forgiveness for Cates. Rachel becomes very distressed. Brady, increasingly uneasy with the tenor of Brown's sermon, interrupts him and quotes the Book of Proverbs: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind..." Brady dismisses the crowd by reminding them of Jesus Christ's command to forgive. After the prayer meeting, Brady approaches Drummond and asks him why he is defending Cates. He accuses Drummond of having "moved away" from everything both men once believed in. Drummond replies, "All motion is relative. Perhaps it is you who have moved away by standing still." Scene Two occurs in the courtroom two days after the prayer meeting. It is the afternoon, and very hot. The scene opens with the trial already under way. Brady calls Howard Blair to the stand as a witness. Brady and Drummond then exchange heated words over "speech-making" before the Judge orders them to stop. Drummond attempts to cross-examine Howard, but Brady repeatedly objects to Drummond's questions (which the Judge sustains). Drummond instead delivers a monologue in which he declares "morality is meaningless, but truth is valuable", then dismisses Howard from the stand. Davenport then surprises everyone by calling Rachel as the next witness. Under Brady's questioning, she reveals that Cates stopped attending Rev. Brown's church after Brown preached that a local boy who had drowned was not saved because he had not been baptized. Cates angrily shouts that Brown had really preached that the boy was burning in Hell. The crowd tries to shout him down, but Cates continues until order is restored. Brady again questions Rachel, demanding to know if Cates denied the reality of God and compared marriage to the breeding of animals. Cates again interrupts her response, yelling that his statements to her were private and just questions — not statements of fact. Rachel weeps on the stand, and Drummond objects to the line of questioning. Brady ends his examination. Drummond is about to examine her, but Cates threatens to fire him, and he allows Rachel to step down. Drummond introduces a number of prominent scientists whom he intends to call as witnesses, but each is rejected by the Judge when Davenport argues that scientific fact has no bearing on the validity of the law. Drummond asks if the Judge will permit testimony about the Bible, which is accepted. He then calls Brady to the stand as his witness. Davenport objects, but Brady boastfully asserts that Drummond can say nothing that will change the outcome of the trial. Drummond attempts to question Brady about his knowledge of the writings of Charles Darwin, but the Judge rules that such questions are inappropriate. Drummond then asks Brady about the truthfulness behind the story of Jonah and the whale and other accounts. Brady states they are all true, and Drummond accuses him of wanting to throw all modern science out of the classroom. Davenport objects to Drummond's line of questioning, but Brady retorts that Drummond is only playing into his hands. Drummond submits that science has proven that a literal interpretation of the Bible is impossible. "God gave man the ability to reason, so why can't he use that ability to question the Bible?", Drummond asks. He also asks Brady if the ability to think is what distinguishes a man from a sponge. Confused and visibly frustrated, Brady responds that God determines who shall be a man and who shall be a sponge. Drummond declares that Cates only demands the same right as a sponge: To think. The crowd in the courtroom erupts in applause. Drummond changes his line of questioning. He asks Brady how old the earth is, and Brady replies it is about 6,000 years old, according to Biblical research. "But if local rocks and fossils are millions of years old, how can this be?" Drummond asks. Unnerved, Brady reasserts that the world was created in six days, as the Bible says. Drummond asks Brady if it isn't possible that, since the sun was not created until the fourth day, that the first "day" of creation wasn't necessarily a normal 24-hour day, which he concedes to.
In Victoria's Mallee, twin sisters Dibs and Girlie represent contrasting farming-family histories. Their children and relatives gather around Allandale, Dibs's family farm, to decide who will inherit it; the dispute exposes rural hardship, exclusion, and tensions between city and country.
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