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A Parisian Romance

Play · 1882

A Parisian Romance (Un Roman Parisien) is a play written in French by Octave Feuillet and adapted in English by Augustus R. Cazauran. Producer A. M. Palmer staged it at the Union Square Theatre on Broadway, where it debuted on January 11, 1883, with Richard Mansfield starring as Baron Chevrial. Mansfield later purchased the rights to the play and made it part of the repertory of his touring company. The production used sets designed by Richard Marston. In 1932 Allied Pictures produced a film adaptation, also titled A Parisian Romance, directed by Chester M. Franklin. It starred Lew Cody and Marion Shilling.

A Passage to India

Play · 1960

The play begins with two English women, Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested. They travel to 1920s India, where Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny, is working. Ronny is supposed to be engaged to Adela. The women hope to experience India while they are there. Adela and Ronny are unsure if they are meant to be together. While on a hike led by Dr. Aziz, Adela is attacked in the Marabar Caves. She assumes it was Dr. Aziz, but later while testifying in court, which becomes a media sensation, she realizes Dr. Aziz is not the person who attacked her. Dr. Aziz brings up the racial tensions he feels between the English and the Indians.

A Perfect Future

Play · 2011

New York power couple John and Natalie are hosting a dinner for Elliot, a friend from their college days, along with Mark, a strait-laced young man. After drinking too many expensive bottles of wine, the group's past and their long-buried secrets resurface. Over the course of this raucous evening, their basic belief systems are upended, as the four come to terms with what happens when they try to reconcile idealism with reality. This high-society evening turns into a night of sexually charged mind games that could change their lives forever.

A Prayer for My Daughter

Play · 1978

The play is set in the interrogation room of a downtown New York City police station in the early hours of July 5. Two hardened cops (Sergeant Kelly and Jack Delasante) have arrested two suspects for the murder of an old woman. During the interrogations, the police try to get confessions from the two suspects, Sean and Jimmy. As they do, they reveal far more about their own vulnerabilities than they intend. The tension of the play is increased by constant updates, by phone, of the state of mind of one of Kelly's daughters. Lonely and unstable, she becomes increasingly suicidal during the play. Jimmy (Alan Rosenberg) Sgt Kelly (George Dzundza) Jack Delasante (Jeffrey DeMunn) Sean (Laurence Luckinbill)

A Prior Claim

Play · 1805

A Prior Claim is an 1805 comedy play by the English writer and poet laureate Henry James Pye and Samuel James Arnold. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 29 October 1805. The original cast included William Dowton as Sir William Freeman, Vincent De Camp as Young Freeman, Robert William Elliston as Henry Mortimer, William Barrymore as Colonel Raymond, Robert Palmer as Lounger, John Henry Johnstone as Patrick O'Shatter, Maria Rebecca Davison as Maria, Harriet Siddons as Emily and Maria Theresa Kemble as Fanny. It was Pye's third play to be staged and marked a break from his two previous works, the historical tragediesThe Siege of Meaux (1794) and Adelaide (1800).

A Question of Fact

Play · 1953

A Question of Fact is a 1953 play by the British writer Wynyard Browne. A schoolteacher questions his beliefs and his career when he discovers that his father was hanged for murder. It was first staged at the New Theatre, Oxford before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 242 performances between 10 December 1953 and 10 July 1954. The original cast included Pamela Brown, Paul Scofield, Gladys Cooper, Henry Hewitt, Maureen Delany and Edith Sharpe.

A School for Greybeards

Play · 1786

A School for Greybeards is a comedy play by the British writer Hannah Cowley that premiered on November 25, 1786. The original cast included Thomas King as Don Alexis, John Philip Kemble as Don Henry, William Parsons as Don Gasper, John Bannister as Don Sebastian, John Palmer as Don Octavio, Mary Ann Wrighten as Rachel, Ann Maria Crouch as Donna Maria, Sarah Maria Wilson as Carlota, Margaret Cuyler as Donna Clara and Elizabeth Farren as Donna Seraphina.

A Soldier's Play

Play · 1981

In 1944 at the United States Army's Fort Neal in Louisiana, a light-skinned black man Sergeant Vernon Waters is murdered by an unseen shooter. Just before his death, Waters utters the enigmatic cry, "They still hate you!" Captain Richard Davenport is a black Army officer; a rarity. He arrives to investigate the killing. Initially, the primary suspects are local Ku Klux Klansmen. Later, bigoted white soldiers fall under suspicion. Ultimately, Davenport discovers the killer was one of the black soldiers under Waters' command. Waters' men hated him because Waters himself treated Southern black men with disdain and contempt. As Davenport interviews witnesses and suspects, flashbacks show what Sergeant Waters was like, and how he treated his men. The light-skinned Waters was highly intelligent and extremely ambitious. He loathed black men who conformed to old-fashioned racist stereotypes. Waters dreamed of sending his own children to an elite college where they would associate with white students, rather than with other blacks. In Waters' mind, Uncle Toms and "lazy, shiftless Negroes" reflected poorly on him, and made it harder for other African-Americans to succeed. For that reason, Waters persecuted black soldiers like Private C.J. Memphis, whose broad grin and jive talk infuriated Waters. Waters' cruelty and vindictiveness drove Memphis to suicide, which alienated the rest of Waters' men and turned them against him. Shortly before he was murdered, Waters came to realize how futile and foolish his lifelong attempts to behave like a white man had been. His dying words, "They still hate you," reflected his belated understanding that white hatred and disdain of black men like himself had nothing to do with stereotypical black behavior, and that whites would probably always hate him, no matter how hard he tried to emulate "white" ways.

A Steady Rain

Play · 2007

Chicago police officers Joey and Denny are longtime partners and best friends. Joey is single and lonely, and Denny is married with children, but both men have flaws and serious problems. Denny cares deeply for his family, and that provides the justification for his criminal actions. Introverted Joey struggles with a drinking problem and secretly loves Denny's wife, Connie; angry tough-guy Denny can barely disguise his racism and cheats on Connie with a prostitute on his beat. The two men offer contrasting descriptions to Internal Affairs interrogators of their harrowing experiences. They relate how Walter Lorenz, a pimp that Denny has harassed over the years, shoots a bullet through Denny's front window, causing the flying glass to sever an artery in Denny's son's neck. Denny pursues Lorenz relentlessly, drawing Joey into a series of dangerous and incriminating activities. During a domestic disturbance call, the two return a frightened Vietnamese boy to a man who says he is the boy's uncle. The uncle turns out to be a cannibalistic serial killer, who eats the boy.

A Tailor-Made Man

Play · 1917

A Tailor-Made Man is a 1917 American play by Harry James Smith, which ran for 398 performances at the Cohan and Harris Theatre. It debuted on August 27, 1917, and played through August 1918. The play was adapted from the 1908 Hungarian play A Szerencse Fia ("Son of Luck") by Gábor Drégely. The Playbill and press referred to Dregely's play as The Well-Fitting Dress Coat, which derives from the play's German title (Der gutsitzende Frack), so presumably Smith worked from that translation. Grant Mitchell starred in the 1917 Broadway production, which was staged by Sam Forrest, and in an October 1929 revival. The play ran for just shy of an entire year at the Cohan and Harris Theatre in New York. The play was Smith's greatest success, but he did not live to see the full run, as he died in a train and automobile accident in March 1918 while working for the Red Cross. Actor Theodore Friebus, who played Dr. Sonntag, died in the wings during a performance on December 26, 1917, while awaiting his second act cue. The thirty-eight year-old actor succumbed to heart disease; an understudy finished that night's performance. The play later led to a 1922 silent film and 1931 film.

A Taste of Honey

Play · 1958

In the first scene, Helen and her teenage daughter Jo are moving into a shabby flat. Within a few minutes, the audience learns that they have little money, living off Helen's immoral earnings—money given to her by her lovers; she is not a true prostitute, being more of a "good time girl." Helen is a regular drinker, and she and Jo have a confrontational and ambiguously interdependent relationship. As they settle, Helen's surprise at some of Jo's drawings both suggests Jo's talent and originality and shows Helen's lack of interest and knowledge about her daughter. Jo rejects the idea of going to an art school, blaming Helen for having interrupted her training all too often by moving her constantly from one school to another. Jo now only wants to leave school and earn her own money so that she can get away from Helen. After this conversation, Peter (Helen's younger boyfriend) comes in. Jo assumes that Helen has moved here to escape from him, but the audience never is told the reason. Peter had not realised how old Helen was until he sees her daughter. Nonetheless he asks Helen to marry him, first half-jokingly, then more or less in earnest. In the next scene, Jo is walking home in the company of her black boyfriend. During a light-hearted, semi-serious dialogue, he asks her to marry him, and she agrees, but he is in the navy and will be away on his ship for six months before they can marry. He gives Jo a ring that she hangs around her neck under her clothes to hide it from Helen. Jo tells him that she is really leaving school and that she is going to start a part-time job in a pub. At the flat, Helen informs Jo that she is going to marry Peter. Peter enters, and a dialogue ensues among the three. Instead of only Jo and Helen attacking each other, a more complex pattern evolves: Jo attacks the others, the others attack Jo, and Helen attacks both Peter and Jo. Jo is truly upset at the thought of Helen marrying Peter, but pesters and provokes him in an effort to antagonise him. After Helen and Peter leave her on her own for Christmas, Jo weeps, and she is consoled by her boyfriend. She invites him to stay over Christmas, but she has a feeling that she never will see him again. The action moves to the occasion of Helen's wedding, the day after Christmas. Jo has a cold and will not be able to attend at the wedding. Because she is in her pyjamas, Helen catches a glimpse of the ring around her neck and learns the truth. She scolds Jo violently for thinking of marrying so young, one of her occasional bursts of real feeling and concern for her daughter. Asked by Jo about her real father, Helen explains that she had been married to a "Puritan" and that she had to look elsewhere for sexual pleasure. Thus she had her first sexual experience with Jo's father, a "not very bright man," a "bit retarded". She then hurries off to her wedding. Several months later, Jo is living alone in the same shabby flat. She works in a shoe shop by day and in a bar in the evenings to afford the rent. She is pregnant, and her boyfriend has not come back to her. She returns from a funfair to the flat in the company of Geoff, an art student, who has possibly been thrown out from his former lodgings because his landlady suspected he was gay. Jo offends him with insensitive questions about his sexuality, and he in turn maliciously criticises her drawings. She apologises and asks him to stay, sleeping on the couch. Geoff develops genuine concern for Jo's situation, and they develop a friendly, light-hearted relationship. The audience next sees Jo irritable and depressed by her pregnancy, with Geoff patiently consoling her. Then, seeking reassurance, he kisses her and asks her to marry him. Jo says that, although she likes him, she cannot marry him. She makes a sexual pass at him which he fails to recognise, confirming that "it is not marrying love between us". At this point, Helen enters. She has been contacted by Geoff, who wishes to keep this fact secret from Jo. Jo, however, guesses as much, and she is angry with both Helen and Geoff. Geoff tries to interfere in the quarrel between the two women, but each time, he is attacked by one or the other or both. As Helen is offering Jo money, Peter comes in, very drunk, and takes back the money and Helen's offer of a home to Jo. He leaves, insisting that Helen come with him; after a moment's hesitation, she runs after him. In the next scene, the baby is due at any moment. Jo and Geoff seem happy. He reassures her that Helen was probably mistaken about or exaggerating the mental deficiencies of Jo's father. Geoff has bought a doll for Jo to practise handling the baby, but Jo flings it to the ground because it is the wrong colour: Jo assumes that her baby will be as black as its father. Her momentary outburst against the baby, motherhood and womanhood is short-lived, and she and Geoff are about to have tea when Helen enters with all her luggage. Apparently, she has been thrown out by Peter and now plans to move in with her daughter. To get rid of Geoff, she behaves rudely to him while overwhelming Jo with advice and presents. Jo defends Geoff, but while she is asleep, Geoff decides to leave because Helen is determined and he does not want Jo to be pulled between them. Jo wakes, and Helen pretends that Geoff is out doing the shopping. When her mother learns that the baby will be black, she loses her nerve and rushes out for a drink, even though Jo's labour pains have begun. Alone, Jo comforts herself by humming a tune Geoff used to sing, still not realising that he has in fact gone.

A Touch of the Sun

Play · 1958

A Touch of the Sun is a 1958 play by the British writer N.C. Hunter It premiered at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool before moving to the West End, initially at the Saville Theatre before transferring to the Princes Theatre. Its original run lasted for 202 performances between 31 January and 26 July 1958. The cast included Michael Redgrave, Diana Wynyard, Vanessa Redgrave and Ronald Squire Michael Redgrave won the Best Actor award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

A View from the Bridge

Play · 1955

The action is narrated by Alfieri, who was raised in 1900s Italy but is now working as an American lawyer, thereby representing the "Bridge" between the two cultures. In the opening speech, Alfieri describes the violent history of the small Brooklyn community of Red Hook and tells us that the second-generation Sicilians are now more civilized, more American, and are prepared to "settle for half" and let the law handle their disputes. But there are exceptions, and he then begins to narrate the story of Eddie Carbone, an Italian American longshoreman who lives with his wife Beatrice and her orphaned niece Catherine. Eddie is a good man who, although ostensibly protective and fatherly towards Catherine, harbors a growing passion for her as she approaches her 18th birthday. We learn that he has not had sex with his wife for nearly three months. Catherine is studying to become a stenographer and Eddie objects to her taking a job she has been offered until she finishes her coursework, expressing a dislike for the way she dresses and the interest she is beginning to show in men. Beatrice is more supportive of Catherine's ventures and persuades Eddie to let her take the job. Eddie returns home one afternoon with the news that Beatrice's two cousins, brothers Marco and Rodolpho, have safely arrived in New York as illegal immigrants. He has agreed to house them saying that he is honored to be able to help family. Marco is quiet and thoughtful, possessing remarkable strength, whereas Rodolpho is more unconventional, with plans to make a career singing in America. Marco has a family starving in Italy and plans to return after working illegally for several years, whereas Rodolpho intends to stay. Although Eddie, Beatrice, and Catherine are at first excellent hosts, cracks appear when Rodolpho and Catherine begin dating. Eddie convinces himself that Rodolpho is homosexual and is only expressing interest in Catherine so he can marry her and gain status as a legal citizen. He confronts Catherine with his beliefs and she turns to Beatrice for advice. Beatrice, starting to realize Eddie's true feelings, tells her that she should marry Rodolpho and move out. In the meantime, Eddie turns to Alfieri, hoping for help from the law. However, Alfieri tells him that the only recourse he has is to report Rodolpho and Marco as undocumented. Seeing no solution to his problem, Eddie becomes increasingly desperate and takes his anger out on Rodolpho and, in teaching him to box, "accidentally" injures him. Marco reacts by quietly threatening Eddie, showing his strength by holding a heavy chair above Eddie's head with one hand and "smiling with triumph". A few months have passed and Eddie reaches a breaking point when he discovers that Catherine and Rodolpho have slept together and are intent on marrying. Drunk, he kisses Catherine and then attempts to prove that Rodolpho is gay by suddenly and passionately kissing him. After a violent confrontation, Eddie orders Rodolpho to leave the apartment. Eddie visits Alfieri and insists that the kiss has proved Rodolpho is gay and that he is only marrying Catherine for citizenship, but once again Alfieri says the law cannot help. Out of desperation, Eddie phones immigration services but in the meantime, Beatrice has arranged for Marco and Rodolpho to move in with two other undocumented immigrants in the flat above. Eddie learns that Catherine and Rodolpho have arranged to marry within a week and about the two new immigrants that have moved into the building and, with both anger and fright, frantically urges Catherine and Beatrice to move them out. When immigration officials arrive and arrest Marco, Rodolpho, and the two other immigrants, Eddie pretends that the arrest comes as a complete surprise to him, but Beatrice and Marco see through this. Marco spits in Eddie's face in front of everyone and accuses Eddie of killing his starving children. Eddie tries to convince the neighborhood of his innocence but they turn away from him. Alfieri visits Marco and Rodolpho in custody, obtaining their release on bail until their hearing comes up. Alfieri explains that Rodolpho will be able to stay once he has married Catherine but warns Marco that he will have to return to Italy. Vengeful, Marco confronts Eddie publicly on his release, and Eddie turns on him with a knife, demanding that he take back his accusations and restore his honor. In the ensuing scuffle, Eddie is stabbed with his own knife by Marco and dies, as his stunned family and neighbors stand around. When he witnesses Eddie's death, Alfieri trembles because he realizes that, even though it was wrong, something "perversely pure" calls to him and he is filled with admiration. But, he tells the audience, settling for half-measures is better, it must be, and so he mourns Eddie with a sense of alarm at his own feelings.

A Walk With Mr. Heifetz

Play · 2018

The play revolves around the true-life story in 1926 of a visit by famed violinist Jascha Heifetz to British Mandatory Palestine, where he performed in a stone quarry at the Ein Harod kibbutz. After the concert, Heifetz goes on a long walk with Yehuda Sharett, the kibbutz movement pioneer, composer and brother to Zionist leader (and later first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister of Israel) Moshe Sharett. The play deals with the reverberations of that visit on the Sharett brothers and the implications of Yehuda's conversation with Heifetz on the creation of Israel, as 20 years later the brothers meet as war looms on the horizon.

A Wife to be Lett

Play · 1723

A Wife to be Lett is a 1723 comedy play by the British writer Eliza Haywood. Better known for her novels, it was Haywood's first theatrical play. Staged at the Drury Lane Theatre the cast included Theophilus Cibber as Toywell, William Wilks as Sir Harry Beaumont, Roger Bridgewater as Captain Gaylove, James Oates as Courtly and John Harper as Shamble. Haywood herself played the part of the wife Mrs. Graspall, due to an illness of the original actress.

A Woman's Revenge

Play · 1715

A Woman's Revenge, or a Match in Newgate is a 1715 comedy play by the British writer Christopher Bullock. It was originally performed as an afterpiece to another work The Lucky Prodigal. With its Newgate Prison setting and cynical references to corruption, it could be regarded as a precursor to John Gay's hit The Beggar's Opera of a decade later. The cast included William Bullock as Thinkwell, John Thurmond as Bevil, Christopher Bullock as Vizard and Sarah Thurmond as Corinna. George, Prince of Wales attended the first performance.

A Word to the Ladies

Play · 1818

A Word to the Ladies or A Word for the Ladies is an 1818 comedy play by the British writer James Kenney. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 17 December 1818. The original cast included William Macready as Winterland, Charles Mayne Young as Larum, Charles Kemble as Dorrington, Elizabeth Yates as Miss Singleton, Harriet Faucit as Clara Winterland, Charles Connor as Adamant, William Abbot as Young Bowerscourt, William Farren as Old Bowerscourt, John Liston as Silvertongue and John Emery as Snugg.

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