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If Love Were All

Play · 1931

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 You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody; or The Troubles of Queen Elizabeth

Play · 1606 est

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.

Il Cromuele

Play · 1671 est

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.

Imaginary Friends

Play · 2002

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.

Impressionism

Play · 2009

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.

In a Forest, Dark and Deep

Play · 2011

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 the Boom Boom Room

Play · 1972

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.

Incident at Vichy

Play · 1964

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.

Indecent

Play · 2015

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.

Infinite Life

Play · 2023

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.

Ingomar the Barbarian

Play · 1851

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.

Inherit the Wind

Play · 1955

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.

Ink

Play · 2017

In October 1969, Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch is in negotiations to purchase the failing British daily newspaper The Sun from its parent paper The Mirror. He approaches the Daily Mails Northern editor Larry Lamb and asks him to be the editor of The Sun for its re-launch. Lamb, a Yorkshire native and former sub-editor for The Mirror, is frustrated over his lack of progress in his career, which he attributes to his working-class background. Reluctantly, he accepts Murdoch's offer. Murdoch and Lamb meet with Mirror chairman Hugh Cudlipp to finalise the sale. The contract stipulates that publication must continue uninterrupted after the handover, giving Lamb mere weeks to assemble the first issue. Cudlipp privately reveals to Lamb that he is selling The Sun (as opposed to shutting it down) only to avoid angering local unions. He expects the paper to fail and discourages Lamb from taking the job. Murdoch declares his intent to prioritise profits and proposes that Lamb strive to overtake sales of The Mirror within one year of the re-launch. Murdoch grants Lamb full freedom on the condition that he make the paper "loud", encouraging him to compete aggressively with other papers. On Fleet Street, Lamb frantically recruits new staff members for The Sun, the former staff having been laid off or re-absorbed into The Mirror. While brainstorming with the new staff, Lamb designs the paper's new logo and proposes new features, several of which are blatant pastiches of The Mirror. He also hires Stephanie Rahn and other models to pose in lingerie for the paper. At the London Press Club, Lamb encounters Cudlipp, who mocks The Suns lowbrow content and attempts to copy The Mirror. Convinced that The Mirror does not reflect the mood or interests of common people, Lamb pushes the re-launch of The Sun in a more populist direction that includes frank discussions of sexuality, a television section, and weekly giveaways. The evening before the re-launch, last-minute problems plague the staff, including a lack of enough "E" keys for the full headline and an interviewee's death. Murdoch and his wife Anna visit the office alongside his deputy Sir Alick McKay and his wife Muriel. A power outage delays printing and prevents that day's distribution in the north. Despite the limited distribution and rushed nature of the issue, the paper is an unprecedented success, worrying Cudlipp. In a televised interview, Murdoch defends The Suns outrageous content as a manifestation of the will of the masses. At a meeting, Lamb explains to Murdoch how the paper's newfound success has sown hostility in its competitors. While the Murdochs are visiting Australia, Muriel is kidnapped for ransom. The staff realise that Anna Murdoch was the kidnappers' intended target; the mistake arose after they stalked a Rolls-Royce the Murdochs had lent to the McKays while they were in Australia. Lamb insists on covering the incident in The Sun and publishing the ransom notes, in doing so defying the wishes of his staff, union leaders, and Murdoch himself. Two brothers are arrested for Muriel's abduction and presumed murder. The Sun is widely criticised for its treatment of the tragedy, though sales surge. In a last-ditch effort to take down The Sun, Cudlipp offers to make Lamb editor of The Mirror, but he refuses. As the one-year anniversary of The Suns re-launch approaches, sales remain behind that of The Mirror. Lamb asks Rahn to secretly pose for a fully-nude photo shoot, to be printed on Page 3 of The Sun. After some discussion, Rahn consents. The anniversary issue sparks public outrage, ruins Rahn's reputation, and infuriates Murdoch, but successfully outsells The Mirror. Conceding defeat, Cudlipp begins planning his retirement. Despite his own disapproval and Lamb's reservations, Murdoch allows the Page 3 feature to continue. At a dinner with Lamb, Murdoch proposes that The Sun start appealing to the new conservative government, confident that the paper has the power to sway public opinion. He also tells Lamb his plans to purchase an American television network and relocate The Suns office off of Fleet Street. He concludes the dinner saying, "People like stories." Lamb imagines that Murdoch will outlive him and someday publish his obituary in The Sun.

Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright

Play · 2025

The show begins with a cold open in which an on-stage audience are being seated before a performance of Hamlet. As Charles (Reece Shearsmith) begins to watch the performance, the members around him Angus (Steve Pemberton), Antonia and Daddy become too distracting causing Charles to comedically kill each of them before addressing the audience "Ladies and gentlemen, may I please remind you that you are in a theatre. No coughing, no eating and no mobile phones." Shearsmith and Pemberton step in front of the red curtain to introduce Stage/Fright and explain that the theatre the show is playing is haunted as the cold open was based on an incident that happened a number of years ago where Mr Dowling was in such a state of grieving for his wife that he killed three audience members. They explain about a Grand Guignol play called La Terreur de L'aisle or "Terror at the Asylum" was performed however its lead actress Madame Belle Catron was killed during a scene that went wrong and her ghost has since haunted the theatre called Bloody Belle. Suggesting that Mr Dowling might have seen Bloody Belle's ghost or the ghost of his late wife, they ask “For what is a ghost but a memory? A way of keeping a loved one’s memory alive? Maybe every ghost story is really just a love story.” They also explain the tradition of the ghost light before Pemberton sceptically encourages the audience to summon Bloody Belle by saying her name three times. In the next scene, the episode "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room" is performed. Thomas "Tommy" Shelby (Shearsmith) arrives on an empty stage with props and a ghost light to meet his former "Cheese N Crackers" double act partner Len Drake (Pemberton) to attempt practising their old routines. Shelby has moved on from showbusiness while Drake is enthusiastic about starting again. Tommy reminds Len that he owes him £25 for "Bernie Clifton's dressing room" in which Len doesn't recall what he means. As Len goes out for a cigarette, Tommy reads a script that he has written about two burglars Eddie and Ray (played by Pemberton and Shearsmith respectively, reprising their roles from the episode "A Quiet Night In") who have mistakenly broken into the wrong house and taken a celebrity hostage (in which the celebrity is different every performance). The celebrity is tasked with an improvisational script before Ray accidentally shoots them dead. The scene ends with the celebrity taking a bow in front of the red curtain and is handed flowers. As the scene goes back to the episode "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room", Tommy discovers that Len has been homeless by finding his belongings who insists that he never wanted any money, just to have Tommy by his side performing again. In rehearsing their final routine "Brown Bottles" which involves Len drinking seven bottles of beer within the song, Tommy reminds Len that during one night he collapsed in Bernie Clifton's dressing room choking on his own vomit and reveals that he stopped performing because of fear that Len would kill himself due to his alcohol addiction. Len's daughter Leanne walks to find Tommy who in fact has been on his own the whole time as it is revealed that Len died and he is preparing for his funeral speech. She gives him a card with £25 from Len. As the first half ends, the ghost light starts flickering. After Tommy leaves the stage, Bloody Belle appears. The second act begins with a performance of La Terreur de L'aisle. Suzette arrives at Dr. Goudron's (Pemberton) asylum to treat for her migraines and is greeted by Cragg, one of the nurses and Hugo (Shearsmith), one of the insane patients. Goudron offers a pain-free hypnotic method for operation by which he demonstrates by convincing Hugo to surgically remove his own leg. As violence and chaos ensures, Abby, a theatre usher and aspiring actress, enters with a coffee order ruining what is in fact a rehearsal for the play. Rehearsals continue using a camera and a screen on stage as Abby discusses the curse of Bloody Belle with the director Marcus (and Hugo), Vincent Gannymeade (Goudron) and the play's celebrity leading actress Sherrie Leeks (Suzette). After the rehearsal and theatre has been emptied and the ghost light has been left on, Sherrie and Abby stay behind to rehearse the play's lines. They begin to see movements on the camera and screen, which Sherrie uses the light on the camera to guide herself around the empty theatre to investigate the noises. Having lost Abby, she makes her way back onto the stage where she is frightened away by seemingly the ghost of Bloody Belle, which turns out to be Abby pretending in a ruse by her and Marcus to make Sherrie quit the play and attract publicity. As Marcus rejects the idea of Abby taking over from Sherrie, Abbie becomes possessed and strangles him to death as the real Bloody Belle appears. In what is seemingly the curtain call for Stage/Fright, the company take their bow before Pemberton steps forward to thank the audience for their support and paying tribute to Shearsmith who had in fact died in rehearsals before the show's run began, revealing that Toby, his understudy, had played Shearsmith's roles in the performance, ending with applause and an obituary photo of Shearsmith on the screen. After the curtain falls, the audience can still hear Pemberton on his microphone who walks onstage during the show's reset and is killed by a falling stage light. The curtain rises to see him being greeted by Shearsmith's ghost handing him a coffee, much to his annoyance that Pemberton still continued to go ahead with the show and that the "twist" was that he was dead. With nothing to do but to haunt the theatre, Pemberton exits the stage whilst Shearsmith turns to the audience revealing that the falling stage light was meant for Toby. The show ends with Shearsmith, Pemberton and the company performing "Tears of Laughter" (the finale number from the episode "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room") in what is their memorial service all dressed in white on Cloud 9.

Ion

Play · 1836

Ion, a Tragedy is a tragedy by the British writer Thomas Talfourd. Published in 1835, it was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 26 May 1836. The Covent Garden cast included William Macready as Ion, Ellen Tree (and subsequently Helena Faucit) as Clemanthe, John Vandenhoff as Adrastus, King of Argos, Charles Thompson as Medon, George John Bennett as Phocion, Henry John Wallack as Ctesiphon, John Langford Pritchard as Agenor, Harriette Deborah Lacy as Abra.

Is God Is

Play · 2018

Twenty-one-year-old African-American twin sisters Racine and Anaia were burned and scarred as babies. Racine has burn scars on her arms, back, and neck, and Anaia has scars on her arms, face, and neck. After receiving a letter in their apartment in Northeast, they journey to the Dirty South to the deathbed of their mother, who is known as "SHE" or "God" and has scars all over her body. SHE informs them that their father, referred to as “Man”, set the fire that burned the three of them. SHE instructs the sisters to go west to The Valley to find and kill him for revenge. The sisters travel to the Valley to face Man and his new family.

It Pays to Sin

Play · 1933

It Pays to Sin is an American play in four scenes with an English adaptation by Louis Macloon and George Redman from the Hungarian by Johann Vaszary. The Broadway production was directed by Monty Collins at the Morosco Theatre, opening on November 3, 1933, and closing on November 5, 1933. It survived only 3 performances, receiving scathing reviews from the critics. Leon Ames, who played David Janossy (credited as "Leon Waycoff") and Garnett Lucille Ryman, who played Greta Kasda (credited as Jane Starr), each made their Broadway debut. Victor Sutherland played Zoltan Keleti.

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