8284 shows
Clear filtersA one-person biographical play assembles brief, nonchronological episodes and quotations from Boris Karloff's life. It traces William Henry Pratt's unlikely path to success as an actor, using the Frankenstein monster reaching toward light as a metaphor for human striving and self-realization.
A couple’s love and conflict between duty and affection recur through lives in ancient Egypt, Greece and Renaissance Italy. In wartime London, a soul doctor uses past-life regression to help the wife understand the couple’s repeated separation and resolve to travel to Egypt.
A love story re-enacted through four existences, structured in a prologue, epilogue and three acts.
As the Kurukshetra war approaches, Kunti reveals to Karna that he is her firstborn and asks him to join the Pandavas. Torn between his birth family and his debt to Duryodhana, Karna refuses to abandon his friend. He promises Kunti that he will spare her sons except Arjuna.
In a remote Karoo village, Thozama kills a moose that has appeared inexplicably in the landscape, and the play follows the events that result. It combines magical realism and African storytelling to address the breach of children’s innocence amid violence.
On the eve of battle, Karna tells Shalya how Parashurama cursed him after learning he had concealed his identity. Indra, disguised as a Brahmin, asks for Karna’s armor and earrings; Karna gives them up and sets out toward battle with Arjuna.
Loosely based on Kaspar Hauser, the play presents a near-speechless young man being taught language and social norms. It examines how speech and conformity can shape, constrain, and negate individual identity.
The one-act play follows Sadasivan, an impoverished writer who cannot collect payment for his work. As his landlord, hotel owner, publisher and others exploit or dismiss him, he continues writing; eviction and the loss of his pen leave him to disappear into the darkness.
During the inflation crisis, the struggling Knie tightrope troupe travels from town to town. Katharina dreams of leaving circus life and accepts work on farmer Rothacker's estate, but when she returns to tell her father she will marry him, Karl Knie mistakes her visit for a return to the troupe and dies before learning the truth. Katharina then breaks her engagement and takes charge of the family circus.
Queen Ketevan of Georgia dies for her Christian faith; she is loved by Shah Abbas of Persia.
Katie Roche, raised as an illegitimate child without education, works as a domestic servant in the home of Amelia Gregg. She accepts Amelia's brother Stanislaus's proposal, though she has been seeing Michael, and tries to conform to the role of a gifted man's wife; her efforts leave her trapped in an unfulfilling marriage.
Exiled prince Kalyanavarman and Princess Kirtimati fall in love while his minister organizes a coup against the usurper Chandasena; the prince returns to reclaim Magadha and marry Kirtimati. The Sanskrit drama follows their intertwined courtship and restoration.
At a London dinner, Countess Elena’s fascination with actor Edmund Kean is exposed amid gossip about his affairs and reputation. Kean is also implicated in heiress Anna Damby’s flight from a marriage of convenience, drawing Elena, her husband, and the Prince of Wales into scandal and intrigue.
Goldfields adventurer Frank Keane returns to Sydney to reunite with Tess Morton, only to be entangled in his friend Harold Ross's murder and a false accusation. The melodrama follows the case through city settings and the Sydney Cup, where Keane's horse is targeted by the villainous Harris.
Christine Keeler becomes caught between Stephen Ward’s influence and relationships with a British minister and a Soviet diplomat. The play recounts the Profumo affair from her perspective.
Keely, pregnant after rape, is held captive by an extremist anti-abortion cult to stop her from ending the pregnancy. Du, a member of the cult, guards her.
N. Richard Nash's American stage adaptation of Bill Naughton's Spring and Port Wine, retitled Keep It in the Family and relocated to the United States.
Widower Dr. Raafat wants to marry Esmat but believes he must first marry off his three daughters. When his youngest daughter discovers his plan, she and her sisters disrupt his attempts to control their lives and choose their husbands.
A lost play combines two London scandals: a young suitor keeps a wealthy widow drunk and sleepless until he tricks her into marriage and robs her, while a young boy murders his mother, confesses and is hanged.
A stage adaptation of Earl Derr Biggers’s Charlie Chan mystery novel Keeper of the Keys, written by Valentine Davies.
Kenilworth is an 1821 historical play by the British writer Alfred Bunn. A melodrama, based on the novel of the same title by Walter Scott, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 8 March 1821. A separate adaptation of the novel by Thomas Dibdin appeared at the Surrey Theatre the same year. The original Covent Garden cast included John Vandenhoff as the Earl of Leicester, William Abbot as Varney, Henry Erskine Johnston as Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles Connor as Tresilian, Thomas Comer as Michael Lambourne, Charles Farley as Antony Foster, Harriet Faucit as Queen Elizabeth and Mary Vining as Amy Robsart (Countess of Leicester).
Five people in a dive bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan contemplate their life ten years after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
In rural Skidmore, Missouri, Ken Rex McElroy terrorizes the farming community through cattle rustling, arson and assault while repeatedly evading conviction by threatening witnesses and exploiting legal loopholes. The thriller dramatizes the events surrounding his 1981 killing.
Kensington Gardens is a 1719 comedy play by the Irish actor John Leigh. It is also known as Kensington Gardens, or, The Pretenders. It follows the attempts of several suitors to woo a wealthy rich widow, and the serious of complications that ensue. Leigh himself played the role of Lord George Belmour, with Lacy Ryan as Colonel Lovely, George Pack as Sir Vanity Halfwit, William Bullock as Sir Politick Noodle, James Spiller as Captain Hackit, Christopher Bullock as Bardach, John Harper as Grogram John Egleton as Varnish and Elizabeth Spiller as Melissa. The production at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre lasted for estimated seven performances. The play is dedicated to Lord Brooke, a patron of the theatre.
A deserter of the Spanish Civil War played by Paul Muni redeems himself in death by defending the family of a true war hero against some Mexican bandits on the tiny Florida island of Key Largo.
The poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam finds love with Sevda, but their happiness is broken when she is poisoned. His grief turns into a challenge to human cruelty, as love becomes the foundation of his resistance to oppression.
In a remote church, a Christian monk and his student encounter the caravan of captives from Karbala and its soldiers; a discovered slate draws them into danger as the events of Ashura are recounted.
In a desert, art dealer Hobart Struther's trip to understand himself is interrupted when his horse dies. He kicks it, then struggles to bury it while reflecting on his life, wealth, marriage, and search for authenticity.
The play recounts boxer Bobby Cassidy's biggest fight and his struggle with alcoholism. After losing to Jorge Ahumada on the undercard of the second Ali–Frazier bout, Cassidy turns that career loss into a personal victory by giving up alcohol.
Frances Stevenson narrates this contemporary stage adaptation, which reframes Davie Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart’s relationship as a romance. The cast performs modern songs live as part of the adventure.
On the day Grete must marry, her beloved tailor Johan returns without stockings and cannot wed. He steals Mads’s stockings, is scolded, and takes his life; the others follow, until Mercury restores everyone in an epilogue. The play parodies tragic conventions through this trivial comic chain of events.
A contemporary play invokes ancient Greek revenge killings and brutal deities to examine how violence lies at the heart of Western civilization and how modern killers can appear charming.
An eco-terrorist group takes politicians and journalists hostage in Parliament House, demanding immediate climate action. Environment Minister Gwen Malkin and her press adviser face the crisis as the play's meta-theatrical framing incorporates the controversy surrounding its own title and production.
Gangster Andrew McPherson tries to frame his former associate, Johnny Glendenning, as an informer. Two of McPherson's underlings hide in an Ayrshire farmhouse with a kidnapped investigative reporter, where their plan goes violently awry; a flashback reveals the gangland feud behind the killings and one kidnapper's wish to escape that world.
Drug dealer Chris and his father Ansel hire police detective and hitman Joe Cooper to kill Chris's mother. Unable to pay upfront, they offer Chris's innocent sister Dottie as collateral.
In a one-act monologue, California prisoner Mazon waits in an execution chamber for the electric chair and considers the future he will not have.
Mr. Kim (Appa) owns and runs his own business, Kim’s Convenience, in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood, with his wife Mrs. Kim (Umma). Mr. Kim hopes the store will provide a future for his daughter, Janet, who he hopes will take over the store from him when he retires; however, Janet has no interest in running the store and wishes to have a career as a photographer. Regent Park is being gentrified with new condos and developments and the potential that a Wal-Mart will open up and destroy Mr. Kim's business. Realtor Mr. Lee offers to purchase the store and property. The Kims' son, Jung, ran away from home when he was 16 after Appa had hit him and he was hospitalized for a few days. Everything seemed to go back to normal after Jung was released, until one day when Appa went to get money from the safe and found it—and Jung's room—empty. Since then, Appa hasn't spoken to Jung, though Umma maintains surreptitious contact with Jung by meeting him at church. It is not until the prodigal son returns and reconciles with his father that the future of Kim's Convenience is assured.
Kimberly, a teenager whose rare disease makes her age rapidly, tries to navigate family turmoil and a friendship with classmate Jeff. When her aunt draws the family into check fraud, Kimberly and Jeff take the money to the Wild Safari park, as the adults’ betrayals and Kimberly’s deteriorating health strain the family.
Kind Lady is a play written by Edward Chodorov and first performed on stage in 1935 (on April 23). It was based in part on a short story called The Silver Mask by Hugh Walpole. It was produced frequently on the summer theater circuit. The play has been adapted for film twice by MGM: as the December 1935 film Kind Lady and the 1951 film Kind Lady.
A small misunderstanding and a white lie grow into a full-length, funny romantic comedy in a New York drawing room.
In November 1938, after nights of violence against Jews across Germany and Austria, the British government introduced a programme called the Kindertransport (children's transport), which gave Jewish children—and only children—safe passage to the UK. Spared the horrors of the death camps, the Jewish children were uprooted, separated from their parents and transported to a different culture where they faced, not the unmitigated horror of the death camps, but a very human mixture of kindness, indifference, occasional exploitation, and the relationships between the ordinary people faced with helpless children. Eva Schlesinger, daughter of Helga and Werner, is sent away to temporarily live with a foster carer in Manchester, England, until her parents find work and move to England too. She lives with Lil, a woman who has two other children (Nora and Margaret) and is married to Jack. Lil allows Eva to smoke when she meets her which shows how Lil is not a proper guardian for Eva at first. Eva and Lil fall out as Eva skips her English lessons to go and ask round rich houses if they will give her parents jobs; Lil thinks this makes her seem desperate. She is unhappy and misses her mother. Eva and Lil both eventually become at peace with one another and get on well; Eva is shown as gradually losing her Jewish roots. One day Helga arrives when Eva is in her late teens and Eva tells Helga that Lil and Jack have adopted her and she has been naturalised as English, and her name is now Evelyn. Helga is offended and upset that Evelyn will not travel to New York with her to stay with family. Helga tells Evelyn her father is dead. They have an argument and Helga leaves, which is then followed by an imaginary vicious, angry argument between Helga and Evelyn in which Evelyn gets out all of her hatred for Helga, and she proclaims that Helga IS the Ratcatcher, a character constantly present in the play. At the same time in the present, Evelyn's daughter Faith is uncovering her mother's secret past and they have an argument, which eventually comes to rest. All of this takes place in the attic of Evelyn's house, which supposedly represents Evelyn's psyche.
After a coup, General Basha Bash trades his military uniform for royal robes and crowns himself King Baabu, ruling through an absurd and oppressive regime that satirizes dictatorship and political power.
King Charles I is a 1737 tragedy by the British writer William Havard. Written as an imitation of the style of Shakespeare's history plays, it focuses on the imprisonment of Charles I following his defeat in the Civil War and execution by the English Republic. It was a major success and anticipated later works by portraying Charles as a devoted family man who is undone by the scheming of Oliver Cromwell and his allies. It premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre with a cast that included Henry Giffard as King Charles, William Giffard as Ireton, William Hamilton as the Duke of Gloucester, William Havard as Bishop Juxton, Thomas Wright as Oliver Cromwell, Benjamin Johnson as Fairfax and Anna Marcella Giffard as Queen Henrietta Maria.
Charles and his family gather following the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Charles, as the new king, then holds his first weekly audience with the prime minister. They discuss a new bill for statutory regulation of the press, which has passed the House of Commons and the House of Lords and awaits only Charles' royal assent to become law. Charles is concerned that the law restricts freedom of the press too much, and would allow governments to censor the news and prevent legitimate uncovering of abuse of power by the government. He asks the prime minister for alterations to the bill, but the prime minister refuses. The two men spar, as the leader of the Opposition arrives for a weekly meeting with Charles, an innovation the new king has introduced. The leader of the Opposition expresses his own doubts on the bill, but he sees little alternative but for Charles to sign. In parallel, Prince Harry has begun a relationship with Jess Edwards, a republican. Both Charles and Prince William have seen the ghost of Diana, Princess of Wales, promising each man that he will become "the greatest king of all". One of his first actions is to refuse to give royal assent to the press regulation bill. The prime minister holds a crisis meeting with the leader of the Opposition and then goes alone to try to convince Charles to sign, but Charles continues to refuse. The prime minister then threatens to pass a new law bypassing the royal assent and then pass the press law, but Charles then dissolves Parliament before the prime minister can bring either of these plans into effect. Protests begin across the country and especially in London. Charles increases the army guard at Buckingham Palace, offers his protection to Jess (whom the press have made the centre of a sex scandal), and agrees to Harry's wish to become a commoner. The duchess of Cambridge (Prince William's wife Catherine) proposes a solution: William will serve as a mediator between Parliament and his father. William announces this plan at a press conference without his father's knowledge or consent. Seeing this as a betrayal, Charles reacts angrily. Ultimately, Charles is forced to abdicate in favour of William, who plans to sign the press bill and restore the status quo between king and Parliament. The play concludes with Harry's rejection of Jess, and William and Catherine's coronation as king and queen consort.
King Edgar and Alfreda is a 1677 tragedy by the English writer Edward Ravenscroft. It was first staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is based on the life of the early English King Edwgar and his wife Alfreda. The original cast included Michael Mohun as Edgar, Cardell Goodman as Ethelwold, Nicholas Burt as Ruthin, Thomas Clark as Aldernold, John Wiltshire as Oswold, Philip Griffin as Durzo, Frances Maria Knight as The Queen and Elizabeth Boutell as Matilda.
A friendship between an Iraqi musician and a North American actor unfolds alongside the ancient story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Live Arabic jazz connects the epic with Ahmed Moneka's experiences of exile, artistic ambition, and building a new life.
A usurper becomes king after murdering his predecessor and imprisons the predecessor's daughter while planning her death. His son falls in love with her, as others resist or enable the tyrant's oppressive rule.
King Hedley II is the ninth play in August Wilson’s ten-play cycle that, decade by decade, examines African American life in the United States during the twentieth century. Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985, it tells the story of an ex-con in Pittsburgh trying to rebuild his life. The play has been described as one of Wilson's darkest, telling the tale of a man trying to save $10,000 by selling stolen refrigerators so that he can buy a video store, as well as revisiting stories of other characters initially presented in Seven Guitars. The play is set in The Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hedley’s wish, now that he has returned to Pittsburgh from prison, is to support himself by selling refrigerators and to start a family. Set during the Reagan Administration, the play comments critically on the supply-side economics theories of the day, examining whether their stated aim of providing trickle-down benefits to all Americans truly improved the lot of urban African Americans. Characters King Hedley II Tonya, King Hedley II's wife Ruby, King Hedley II's mother Elmore, a southern hustler (and former boyfriend of Ruby) Mister, friend Stool Pigeon, a wise man and a prophet King Hedley II draws "on characters established in Seven Guitars, King Hedley II shows the shadows of the past reaching into the present." Some of the characters presented earlier include King Hedley II, "the spiritual son of King Hedley from Seven Guitars and Stool Pigeon, a "sixty-five year old harmonica player...now a newspaper-collecting history carrier". The character of Ruby was a "vivacious young newcomer to Pittsburgh" in Seven Guitars but in King Hedley II is "...overcome with worry and regret...". Mister is Red Carter's son.
Matt, a Cleveland bartender with Cavaliers tickets, meets Shawn, a writer who wants to buy them for LeBron James's first Cavaliers season. Across four encounters from 2003 to 2016, their friendship rises and falls alongside James's career and Cleveland's championship drought.
A Protestant morality play portrays King John as a virtuous defender of English church rites against Rome. Allegorical figures join historical characters as John is assassinated by Sedition and Dissimulation and defended by Verity.
In a Caroline historical tragedy, King John pursues Matilda, daughter of the rebellious baron Fitzwater, while struggling against his barons and the papal legate. Matilda is repeatedly captured and rescued before John orders her death; her martyrdom finally brings the king to remorse and reconciliation.
After dividing his kingdom between the daughters who flatter him, King Lear rejects Cordelia, the only daughter who speaks honestly. His decision sets off a chain of betrayal and conflict that leaves Lear and his family devastated.
David Williamson reworks Shakespeare’s King Lear into contemporary, accessible English while retaining the original structure and philosophy.
An anonymous Elizabethan play about the ancient British king Leir and his three daughters. Unlike Shakespeare's later version, Leir survives and is restored to his kingship at the end.
At the height of his power, Bohemian king Ottokar alienates allies through pride and betrayal, loses lands and the imperial crown, and turns to war against Rudolf of Habsburg. After his former wife’s death, Ottokar recognizes his failures but is killed in battle; Rudolf restores order and secures the Austrian and Styrian lands.
A verse drama about Iolanthe, the blind daughter of King René, kept in a secluded garden and unaware that she is a princess. When Tristan arrives to marry her, he falls in love and helps reveal her blindness; a Moorish physician cures her, and the concealed identities and engagement are resolved.
After Victor Amadeus II abdicates in favor of his son Charles Emmanuel III, Charles refuses to believe that his father intends to reclaim the crown. Victor eventually demands it back; Charles's loyalty leads to a final reconciliation before Victor's death.
A stage adaptation of Susan Cooper’s novel about Nat Field, a young actor transported from 1999 to Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre in 1599.
A stage adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel about a draper’s apprentice whose unexpected inheritance brings him into a different social world.
Hajj, a beggar in Baghdad, escapes a bandit, becomes Emir, and attracts the Wazir’s wife; his story concludes with his daughter’s marriage to the Caliph.
A performance of a Syrian love story is interrupted by discoveries that challenge the actors’ understanding of the text. What first appears to be melodrama becomes an inquiry into translation, war, and cultural misunderstanding.
Three Navy war heroes on a morale-building vacation in San Francisco are expected to give speeches at shipyard plants by an officer overseeing their public-relations tour. The men instead seek entertainment, moving between the St. Mark Hotel and a naval hospital.
Two teenage girls become interested in boys, and the girls' parents are making more problems rather than solving them.
Set in a Buenos Aires prison cell in 1976, the play follows revolutionary Valentin Arregui Paz and his cellmate Luis Alberto Molina as their relationship develops; Molina appears to have been planted to uncover the secrets of Valentin’s Marxist group.
Frontier hero Kit Redding’s wife and daughter are kidnapped, and years pass before he meets the renamed villain again. Kit foils the man’s attempt to cheat him at poker aboard a river steamer, learns that the villain killed his wife, then pursues and kills him and is reunited with his daughter.
A Muslim girl challenges gender rules in her family as she seeks to call the azaan like her father. Her arguments about food, education and religious authority culminate in her defying her father to perform at a school play.
After two couples meet at an unsuccessful party, they drink, swap partners and exchange keys. A rich aunt’s visit, an awkward family lunch and the arrival of a cuckolded husband compound the misunderstandings before the farce ends with order restored.
Knave or Not? is a 1798 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. The original Drury Lane cast included John Palmer as Monsrose, Richard Wroughton as Sir Guy Taunton, Richard Suett as Sir Job Ferment, Ralph Wewitzer as Mr Taunton, William Barrymore as Oliver, John Bannister as Jonas, Thomas Hollingsworth as Mr Quake, Jane Pope as Lady Ferment and Dorothea Jordan as Susan.
In a remote cabin, two elderly recluses whose opposing sides of one spirit have split into Abe the romantic and Cohn the realist encounter a magician and Joan of Arc; her call to join a pilgrimage to Heaven before a coming holocaust forces the men to reconsider belief and change.
Know Your Own Mind is a 1777 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 22 February 1777. The original Covent Garden cast included William Thomas Lewis as Millamour, Charles Lee Lewes as Dashwould, Richard Wroughton as Malvil, Francis Aickin as Bygrove, Cockran Joseph Booth as Captain Bygrave, James Fearon as Sir John Millamour, John Whitfield as Sir Harry Lovewith, Ralph Wewitzer as Charles, Servant of Millamour, Isabella Mattocks as Lady Bell, Mary Dayes as Lady Jane and Elizabeth Hartley as Miss Neville. The Irish premiere was at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 13 August 1778. It was acted nineteen times at Covent Garden and in 1789 was revived at Drury Lane, with Dorothea Jordan in the cast, and remained a standard work well into the nineteenth century.
Raymond Williams's dramatic play uses fictional characters to examine events parallel to Joseph Stalin's life, with Joseph becoming Koba and Jordan representing Lenin. Its dialogue considers whether Koba strengthened or weakened the movement.
A domestic comedy about an affair abruptly turns into a courtroom inquiry after actress Kamini kills a man in the audience. The troupe’s tangled relationships and the invented figure of Shekhar Khosla emerge as the characters’ testimony reveals how the murder was manipulated.
Dictator Kongi seeks a ceremonial yam from deposed King Danlola to symbolize abdication, while Danlola's heir Daodu grows the prized crop and tribal resistance challenges Kongi's efforts to unify the nation.
After romantic rejection and a suicide attempt, fifteen-year-old Kordian travels through Europe and searches for purpose. Inspired by the November Uprising, he resolves to assassinate Tsar Nicholas I, but his moral qualms thwart the plot; the drama ends ambiguously.
Lem’s multi-act satire attacks Stalinism and the Soviet cliché of ‘bowing before the West,’ using Soviet-sounding names and a figure of Joseph Stalin. The work was conceived at least in part as a puppet show.
In a Provincetown beach cottage in 1947, Tennessee Williams prepares A Streetcar Named Desire as actor Marlon Brando arrives to discuss playing Stanley Kowalski. Williams’s partner Pancho, director Margo Jones and Brando’s girlfriend Jo are also present as the evening’s personalities clash before Williams casts Brando.
Set in Stanković's native Vranje in southern Serbia, the play draws on Serbian folklore and examines patriarchal customs in the late nineteenth century.
An aging man listens to recordings he made on earlier birthdays, revisiting his memories and confronting the distance between his past ambitions and present isolation.
A card sharp obtains a large sum from a moneylender by pawning a false diamond, based on a rumor circulating in Moscow society.
This temple dance-drama cycle presents Krishna's story across eight plays, from his avatar and childhood deeds through battles, marriage, and ascent to heaven. Performances combine actors, singers, musicians, dance, elaborate costumes, and large puppets.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristina Wong begins sewing masks from old bedsheets and bra straps on her Hello Kitty sewing machine. She quickly organizes the Auntie Sewing Squad, a network of hundreds of volunteers—including children and her mother—working from home to produce masks and address gaps in the U.S. public health system. As the project grows, Wong reflects on the blurred line between mutual aid and cult-like dedication. As demand for masks declines and pandemic restrictions ease, Wong navigates life after leading the group, exploring the challenges of rebuilding personal and communal connections. The performance combines humor and generosity, inviting the audience to witness Wong’s efforts to foster community during isolation while reflecting on the pandemic’s broader social impact.
A traveling monk is offered shelter by a stranger who asks him to pray for an anonymous soul buried by a pine tree. After revealing his past as a robber, the stranger vanishes. Kumasaka later returns as a ghost and recounts his last fight and death at the hands of Ushiwaka, the young Yoshitsune.
Jakki, an educated Kunbi denied white-collar work, accepts a loan to marry Puddu on condition that they become Arius’s vassals if he defaults. A corrupt secretary and the devil-like lender threaten the couple, whose faith and resolve defeat them; the play also depicts caste and social reform in Goa.
Jakki leases a rice field through Roque, Arius’s agent, but pests destroy the crop before payment is due. When Roque sues, Jakki’s lawyer son Caetano argues the failed harvest voids the obligation, and Arius vanishes through a trapdoor after the case turns against him.
In three acts, Paavali watches Death claim his ill mother, then later travels, meets Elsa, and builds a school with the money he receives. When their home burns, Death returns for Paavali in his mother's form; Elsa and the villagers remember his legacy.
At a cherry-blossom viewing, a rough mountain priest drives away the monks and children except one boy, the orphaned young Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Revealed as the head Tengu, the stranger teaches Yoshitsune martial arts so he can avenge his father's death.
Writer Akshar and his wife Pooja have been married five years without having a child, while Pooja’s mother Vandana repeatedly pressures them about parenthood. Their domestic tension changes when a man known as Paddy enters the household, prompting unexpected comic complications.
Inspired by the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster, Bryony Lavery’s play places a British submarine on a covert mission in the Barents Sea. After its crew detects the Russian submarine’s explosion, the captain must decide whether to offer aid, confronting the crew with ethical and political questions about intervention.
In Kurt Cobain’s greenhouse, Sid Vicious—possibly returned from the dead—interrupts Cobain’s plan to kill himself. The two musicians discuss fame and their personal turmoil as Sid tries to persuade Kurt to live.
After Herbert Palla dies, his widow Martha and brother George dispute where his body should be buried: in the modern home or according to the clan's customs. Their conflict exposes the family's strained ties to its community and the consequences of rejecting tradition for wealth and status.
Kyoto is a play by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, produced and acted by Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Good Chance originally in Swan Theatre in 2024, then @sohoplace in 2025. The play dramatizes how Big Oil, having learned about the risk of climate change, use legal tricks and misinformation through their representative Don Pearlman in an attempt to protect their profits. Through the determination of key representatives, an agreement is reached – the Kyoto Protocol.
At a bridge party, Eva is falsely accused of cheating and expelled by the wealthy Renée, who then tries to seduce Eva’s husband. Though he loves his wife, he is tempted by the flirtation, until the couple reject the circle’s intrigues and emigrate to Java.
In this verse farce, the overworked Körner tries to prepare a manuscript and be shaved, but a stream of visitors and interruptions consumes his morning until he misses a meeting; he ends by explaining that he had himself shaved.
On the anniversary of the king's assassination, his reclusive widow shelters Stanislas, a wounded anarchist poet who resembles the dead king and had entered her room to kill her. An ambiguous love develops as they confront the court's political machinations and struggle to remain true to their ideals.
Napoleon II, held under guard at the Austrian court of his grandfather, dreams of returning to France and restoring his family's power, but Metternich thwarts his escape and failing health ends his ambitions.
Sganarelle refuses his daughter Lucinde’s wish to marry, so she and her maid Lisette pretend that Lucinde is ill. The doctors bicker over treatments and fail to help; Lucinde’s beloved Clitandre disguises himself as a doctor and prescribes marriage as the cure. The lovers marry through a trick that also secures Lucinde’s dowry, while Sganarelle discovers he has been outmaneuvered.
Three young Christians captured by pirates are ransomed by a Venetian merchant and travel to Padua to earn money as beauty consultants. In Ancona, a widow falls for Isotta, who is disguised as a man, and follows the group; in Padua, the travelers become entangled with a courtesan, an elderly married merchant, and their servants, before Isotta and the widow discover they are sisters.
Young Provençal peasant Fréderi loves a woman from Arles, but learns of her infidelity before their wedding. His family tries to save him as he approaches madness, but he ultimately dies by suicide.
Andrei, a visionary misfit, has a promising destiny cut short by a jealous husband.
A six-character combinatorial drama follows the branching bureaucratic obstacles a long-serving employee must navigate to meet the department head and unsuccessfully request a raise. The characters embody the flowchart’s propositions, alternatives, hypotheses, choices and conclusions.
Jean-Claude Brisville imagines a dialogue between René Descartes and Blaise Pascal, inspired by a real conversation the philosophers may have had in 1647, of which no details are known.
The play is about two people who wish to engage in an extramarital affair. They check into a small, discreet Parisian hotel where they wish to spend the night, but complications arise and the couple never manage to exchange as much as a kiss. The play opens in Monsieur Pinglet's office. He is visited by several people, including his neighbour Paillardin's wife Marcelle, whom he persuades to spend the night with him in a hotel in town. Pinglet arranges for his maid Victoire to follow Paillardin's nephew Maxime to philosophy school, as the boy is easily lost on his own. Pinglet's wife Angelique comes on stage to declare to Pinglet that she will not be home for dinner; she has to spend the night out of town. She then shows Pinglet some hotel brochures she has been sent in the mail. She is disgusted by the brochures, but Pinglet is excited and decides to go to the advertised hotel with Marcelle. Mathieu, an old friend of the Pinglets, comes for a visit. Mathieu, who suffers from a speech impediment when it rains, announces that he intends to stay at the Pinglets' house for a month. The Pinglets are horrified, especially at the arrival of Mathieu's four daughters, who also intend to stay there. Angelique initiates an argument with Pinglet in front of Mathieu, which prompts Mathieu to leave. Before leaving, however, he hears Pinglet and Marcelle discussing the hotel they are going to and decides to stay there for the night with his daughters. After this, Pinglet tells Angelique that he intends to eat at a restaurant. Angelique does not want him to eat out alone and so locks him in his office. Pinglet takes out a rope ladder and climbs out of the window. Act Two opens in the Hôtel du Libre Échange, introducing the audience to the hotel owner Bastien and his assistant Boulot. They throw out a guest who has not paid his bill, and he causes trouble by saying he will call the police to ransack the place. Marcelle and Pinglet arrive and order a room. Pinglet tries to persuade Marcelle to get into bed with him but has obviously had too much to drink, and the alcohol and cigar smoke go to his head. He leaves the room to get some fresh air. Paillardin arrives at the hotel, where he is led into a large room. He has been hired by the hotel owner to investigate reports of strange sounds and disturbances which the owner thinks are coming from ghosts. Paillardin leaves the room to get a drink. Mathieu arrives at the hotel with his four daughters, and Boulot, not knowing that Paillardin is already booked into the haunted room, double-books Mathieu into it. Mathieu runs into Marcelle in the corridor. He invites himself into Marcelle's room for tea, and they are doing so when Pinglet comes back. Pinglet manages to make Mathieu leave. Mathieu and his daughters go into their own room, and Mathieu then helps himself to Paillardin's cigars, nightshirt, and slippers, thinking they are gifts from the hotel. When Paillardin arrives back from the café, he is angry to see his belongings gone and concludes that the supposed ghost is just a thief pretending to haunt the place. He goes to sleep in one of the beds. Victoire arrives at the hotel with Maxime, having found one of Angelique's discarded hotel brochures and persuaded Maxime to go to the hotel with her instead of going back to philosophy school. They get a room. The daughters amuse themselves by singing and making "ghost noises", but in the middle of it all Paillardin wakes up and is frightened by them. He goes running through the hotel yelling about ghosts, and the daughters themselves are scared into hysterics by Paillardin unexpectedly appearing in their room. Maxime and Victoire are brought downstairs by the racket and are frightened when they discover Paillardin running around. After trying to hide in Mathieu's room, they exit the hotel. Paillardin tries to get into Pinglet's and Marcelle's room to hide from the "ghosts" and, when he finally succeeds in breaking down the door, Pinglet hides in the fireplace. His face is black from the soot in the fireplace, so Paillardin does not recognise him. At this point the police arrive and arrest everyone. Marcelle, pretending to be married to Pinglet, gives her name to the police as Madame Pinglet. Monsieur Pinglet, on the other hand, tries the same tactic and gives his name as Monsieur Paillardin. Act Three opens in Pinglet's office the next morning, as he climbs in through his window and removes the soot from his face. Paillardin arrives and tells Pinglet of his terrible night and how he now believes in ghosts. He has no suspicion about Pinglet and Marcelle the previous night, but he remembers Marcelle's purple dress. Pinglet quickly tells Marcelle about this, so she can dispose of it. Marcelle gives the dress to Victoire. Angelique is the next to arrive on stage, telling Pinglet in dramatic terms about how terrible a night she has had on a wild carriage journey through the countryside. She is overwhelming in her proclamations of love for Pinglet. Pinglet, however, is unfazed and, when a letter arrives to "Angelique" from the police station, he is quick to use this to his advantage. He confronts Angelique and Paillardin about the letter. Marcelle arrives. At this point Mathieu arrives and tries to talk to the Pinglets about his terrible night. Pinglet, fearing that Mathieu will tell everyone else that they met last night, pushes him into the bedroom. Police inspector Boucard arrives in Pinglet's office, and Angelique and Paillardin try to make him understand that they were not the people in l'Hôtel du Libre Échange. The police inspector does not intend to pursue the case, but is still hesitant to clear their names completely. Mathieu comes into the room and is about to tell everyone about who he met, when Maxime climbs in through the window and sees Mathieu. He does not want to be recognised and so covers his face with Pinglet's soot-stained handkerchief, inadvertently making his face black. When everyone sees his black face, they are convinced he is the man from the hotel. Maxime confesses that he was there with Victoire. Mathieu is then pushed out of the room. Boucard gives 5000 francs to Maxime, money that Pinglet had given the inspector as bail to be released from jail.
Josefa, a maid found unconscious beside her Spanish lover's body and the gun that killed him, repeatedly changes her account while an inexperienced examining magistrate investigates. He discovers that she is trying to protect her other lover, her wealthy employer, and pursues the mystery despite pressure to obtain a quick confession.
Pridamant seeks the magician Alcandre’s help to discover what became of his son Clindor. Alcandre shows him apparent scenes of Clindor’s life, including imprisonment, escape, and a tragic final act, then reveals that Clindor and the others are actors performing a play.
A metatheatrical drama about the theatre itself, set on a theatre stage.
Prince Tartaglia’s mysterious illness can be cured only by laughter. Pantalone brings the comic servant Truffaldino to court while Clarice and Leandro plot to prevent the prince’s recovery and seize the throne. Gozzi turns the fairy-tale conflict into a satire of rival theatrical styles.
In Ephesus, a young widow seals herself in her husband's tomb, intending to die there as an example of fidelity. Her nurse tries to revive her interest in life by drawing her attention to the cemetery guard, while revelations about her late husband unsettle her resolve.
Lucidor, a wealthy Parisian, tests whether Angélique loves him or his money by arranging for his valet, disguised as a rich suitor, to ask for her hand.
On D-Day at Arromanches, a knacker is focused on arranging his daughter’s marriage to a German soldier living in the family home. He invites other children serving as paratroopers in the Red Army and U.S. Army; soldiers from several factions arrive and engage in excess, and most characters end up in the knacker’s yard. The farce satirizes war, militarism, American society, and family.
Servant Mascarille repeatedly devises schemes to help his master Lelio win Celia, a young woman enslaved for her family's debt, while Lelio's impulsive interference keeps undoing the plans. Celia's identity and family ties ultimately resolve the rival courtships.
Eight shipwrecked French newcomers arrive on an island whose reasonable inhabitants grow to ordinary size as they recognize and correct their faults. The play satirizes vanity, deception, and self-interest through the visitors' changing stature.
After a shipwreck, two masters and their enslaved attendants arrive on an island where their social roles are reversed. The servants expose their masters’ conduct; the pairs ultimately reconcile and return to their original roles.
Ten years after leaving school, Laura brings her former English teacher a book she has written about their relationship. The reunion forces both to confront the unequal power behind their shared history.
La Bête is a 1991 comedy play by American playwright David Hirson. Written in rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter, the Molière-inspired story, set in 17th-century France, pits dignified, stuffy Elomire, the head of the royal court-sponsored theatre troupe, against the foppish, frivolous street entertainer Valere, whom the troupe's patron, Prince Conti, wishes them to bring aboard. Despite Elomire's violent objections, the company is forced to perform one of Valere's own plays, which results in dramatic changes to the future of Elomire, Valere, and the company itself.
Georges owns a Saint-Tropez drag nightclub where his partner Albin performs as Zaza. When Georges’s son brings his fiancée’s conservative parents to dinner, Georges and Albin try to conceal their relationship; Georges’s attempts to make Albin appear masculine fail, and Albin must ultimately pass as a woman to protect the couple’s son.
Separated as children, twin siblings Lidio and Santilla each disguise themselves as the other. Their overlapping disguises, Lidio’s affair with the married Fulvia, and a proposed marriage for Santilla drive a comedy of mistaken identities until the twins recognize one another.
A Puerto Rican rural family leaves its farm for San Juan and then the Bronx in search of a better life. Across three acts, the family faces urban poverty and dislocation; Luis embraces industrial work, while his grandfather remains attached to the land. Luis is killed by a factory machine, and the family returns to Puerto Rico for his burial.
Calisto enlists the procuress Celestina to help him pursue Melibea. Celestina and Calisto's servants scheme for money; after the servants kill Celestina, Melibea and Calisto's affair ends in their deaths.
After a conquered group takes refuge on an island, men establish a government that excludes women. The women form their own council and challenge their dependence, though the comedy ends with a promise that their rights and interests will be respected.
Urged on by the Hoopoe, a troubled nation of birds crosses seven valleys to seek its king. As companions abandon the journey or die, the survivors discover that the divine presence they sought is embodied in themselves.
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