8284 shows
Clear filtersIn a Midwestern town, an aging Black matriarch experiences visions and communicates with ancestors. Her children see her behavior as senility and try to intervene, while her granddaughter Rosa is drawn into the family's struggle over independence, memory and inherited pain.
Childhood friends reunite in Ghana for a funeral after twenty-five years apart. Conflicting memories draw them back toward the events that separated them, mixing personal history with myth and the desire to reconnect.
Seven schoolgirls perform Macbeth in their free time, a pastime that leads to the murder of a classmate.
A political burlesque of Macbeth transposes the Kennedy assassination and Lyndon Johnson's vice presidency into Shakespearean tragedy, following MacBird from the 1960 convention through the 1968 election.
In a one-person comic adaptation of Macbeth, Rick Miller performs the Shakespearean roles in voices drawn from The Simpsons, rearranging the text and inserting familiar characters and comic asides.
Macadam and Eve is a comedy play by the British writer Roger MacDougall. Adam arrives in modern Scotland still looking for his Eve. It premiered at the Q Theatre near Kew Bridge in London before transferring to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 55 performances between 12 March and 28 April 1951. The original West End cast included John Gregson, John Laurie, Richard Pearson, Sheila Latimer, Beatrice Varley and Patricia Dickson. In 1956 it was adapted for an episode of the ITV Play of the Week.
After three witches prophesy that he will become king, the Scottish general Macbeth murders King Duncan at his wife’s urging. Guilt and fear drive the couple into further violence, until Malcolm’s forces and Macduff overthrow Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth urges her husband to murder Duncan, but Shaw’s Macbeth misunderstands her Shakespearean imagery literally, taking directions such as looking like an innocent flower at face value. The short comic exchange ends when Lady Macbeth’s performer breaks character in frustration.
After generals Macbett and Banco suppress a rebellion, Archduke Duncan reneges on his promised rewards. Spurred by Lady Duncan, Macbett assassinates the Archduke and seizes the throne, then tries to retain power through further violence while haunted by his victims and confronting a new tyrant.
College students confront female ambition and a casting dispute when a freshman is cast as Lady Macbeth.
In Ottoman-ruled Macedonia, Osman Bey kidnaps Cveta, who resists conversion and renunciation of her identity. Her lover Spase and brother Duko seek her release; when the bey attacks her wedding, Duko and Cveta are killed in the confrontation.
A young woman works as a low-level stenographer and lives with her mother. She follows the rituals that society expects of a woman, however resistant she may feel about them. She subsequently marries her boss, whom she finds repulsive. After having a baby with him, she has an affair with a younger man who fuels her lust for life. Driven to murder her husband, she is convicted of the crime and is executed in the electric chair.
Thirteen-year-old Mackenzie lands a small role on a children’s television show. When a make-up artist predicts she will become the world’s biggest pop star, Mackenzie and her ruthless stage mother pursue fame with increasingly destructive ambition.
Three acts follow a Romanian family and community shortly before, during, and after the 1989 revolution. The first and third acts are dramatic fictions; the middle act draws on interviews and shifts among witnesses to the events in Bucharest.
In rural Pennsylvania, Michael struggles to care for his dying, tyrannical father. A hospice nurse arrives, but his brother and sister soon appear, intent on securing their inheritance.
In 1993 Algeria, the deceased Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir return from the afterlife to attend Tahar Djaout’s funeral. Islamists abduct them and try to convert them, while the captives challenge the kidnappers’ ideas and defend intellectual freedom amid the civil war.
Madam Fickle; Or, The Witty False One is a 1676 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It was first staged at the Dorset Garden Theatre by the Duke's Company. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Lord Bellamore, William Smith as Manley, Samuel Sandford as Sir Arthur Oldlove, Matthew Medbourne as Captain Tilbury, Anthony Leigh as Zechiel, James Nokes as Toby, Cave Underhill as Old Jollyman, Thomas Jevon as Harry, John Richards as Flaile, Henry Norris as Dorrel, Mary Lee as Madam Fickle, Elizabeth Barry as Constantia and Anne Shadwell as Arbella. The published version of the play was dedicated to the Duke of Ormonde.
In her home overlooking a Japanese harbor, Cho-Cho-San waits for Lieutenant Pinkerton to return. Pressured to accept another suitor, she clings to her marriage as an American consul struggles to tell her that Pinkerton has a new wife.
Madame Louise is a 1945 comedy play by the British writer Vernon Sylvaine. It premiered at His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen and then went on to a long West End run at the Garrick Theatre, lasting for 410 performances between February 1945 and February 1946. The original cast included Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Paul Demel.
Set in Paris in 1966, the play follows American student Carl, who finds himself alone in his teacher Claudie’s flat. Their encounter leads them to explore art, life, love, and themselves.
In three episodic acts, George Sand pursues Alfred de Musset in Paris, Pietro Pagello in Venice and then Frédéric Chopin in Paris. Witty literary figures surround the affairs, while Sand records her declarations and steers former lovers and rivals into new pairings.
Catherine, an outspoken laundress engaged to Sergeant Lefebvre, shelters Count Neipperg during the Revolution. Years later, as Duchess of Danzig, she faces pressure from Napoleon to divorce Lefebvre, but reminds the emperor of her earlier help and preserves her marriage. When Neipperg is accused of an affair with the empress, Catherine and Lefebvre help clear his name and foil Savary’s efforts to disgrace them.
After her jealous husband casts her out and separates her from their son, a woman falls into poverty and becomes the mistress of a criminal. She kills him when he plans to blackmail her husband, now the attorney general, then faces trial before the son who does not recognize her and dies after protecting him from the truth.
Across three periods of imprisonment, Renée de Sade tries to free her husband Alphonse despite his betrayals and her family’s opposition. Her mother exposes Renée’s own participation in his sadism, while her sister Anne urges escape; after reflecting on de Sade’s novel Justine, Renée rejects her former devotion and chooses a convent, refusing to see him when he returns.
Set in 1980s Bangkok, the play explores sex tourism and its ramifications.
After a quarrel following a party, a husband leaves his wife and moves into a city hotel. His lonely attempt at bachelor life leads to a compromising encounter just as his wife arrives hoping to reconcile.
In 1970s Jasper, a teenage son of Italian immigrants dreams of a life inspired by Rocky Balboa and John Travolta. His ambitions collide with his father’s expectations in a solo coming-of-age story shaped by family, food, and popular music.
In Sheffield, three brothers and their mother struggle with grief after the father’s death. Gary feels bound to his family, racist Miles loses his building job and is later defrauded by Errol, while unstable Pete begins a relationship with Carol and reenacts masculine rituals associated with his father.
After legal trouble and probation force Madea out of retirement, she performs community service at a nursing home, where her outspoken advice changes residents' and staff members' outlooks and relationships.
Madea is jailed after refusing to pay for gas and befriends Katie, who is serving time for stabbing her abusive ex-husband. Outside prison, Katie's daughter Toni is taken in by Madea, while Sonny's marriage collapses after his wife's affair and their child is endangered. Madea helps Toni and Katie reconcile, while Sonny moves on and adopts the child.
When Shirley learns her cancer is active, she gathers her adult children with help from Madea and Aunt Bam. Family conflicts surface, and after Shirley dies, Madea urges the family to reconcile and support one another.
At the Pandora Hotel's 50-year class reunion, Madea and the hotel staff become embroiled in a series of personal crises. Madea helps a couple confront infidelity, encourages Stephanie to escape an abusive marriage and reconcile with her mother, and exposes the hotel's manager's mistreatment of employees.
Josette loves a man whose plans to leave the country are opposed by her parents. To deter other suitors while preserving her attachment, she persuades her elderly bachelor godfather to become her nominal husband; their shared life and the affection between them unsettle that arrangement.
Yayati gives his daughter Madhavi to Galav to help fulfill the young man’s obligation to his teacher. Her miraculous youth and promise of bearing great kings make her useful to men who control her, until she rejects their claims over her life.
In the forest where the Pandavas are in exile, Ghatotkacha captures a Brahmin family for his mother Hidimba, who wants a human meal. Each family member volunteers to die in the others’ place, until the priest’s middle son goes to fetch water. When Ghatotkacha calls for the “middle one,” Bhima mistakes the call for himself and arrives. The ensuing dispute and wrestling match reveal that Ghatotkacha is Bhima’s son; Hidimba recognizes her husband, and both families part in peace.
Set in Nigeria in 1969, the play contrasts “madmen” and “specialists” amid war and political oppression. Corrupt Dr. Bero imprisons and torments his physician father, exposing the human cost of authority detached from reality.
After killing a prince in a duel, Floriano feigns madness and takes refuge in a Valencian asylum. There he meets Erifila, who has fled an arranged marriage; their romance becomes entangled with jealous patients, a staged wedding, Floriano’s pursuit and his arrest before an unexpected resolution brings the couples together.
Five notorious high-school students have spent more than a decade failing and repeating their final year, driving previous teachers to breakdowns. The principal hires a new teacher, Effat, to change their behavior, but her efforts meet with little early success as the students and teacher clash.
A historical drama about the relationship between illusionist Harry Houdini and author Arthur Conan Doyle.
Magic Goes Wrong is a comedy play by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields (of Mischief Theatre Company) and Penn & Teller. It follows the series of Mischief's Goes Wrong series of plays following The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
Magic/Bird (stylized sometimes as Magic-Bird and Magic Bird) is a play by Eric Simonson about basketball stars Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics throughout their careers. The play premiered on Broadway in 2012, where it ran for 61 total performances.
Patricia believes a conjurer is truly magical, while her rationalist brother Morris explains away his tricks. When one apparently impossible effect drives Morris toward madness, the conjurer's account of real demons and Patricia's faith unsettle the household's certainty about truth and belief.
Five far-left revolutionaries squat in an empty London house while a Conservative cabinet MP loses faith in himself. Their stories converge when revolutionary Jed accidentally kills both himself and the MP with plastic explosive.
A Sanskrit drama of Rama's early life, from his defense of Vishvamitra's sacrifice and marriage to Sita through exile, Sita's abduction, and Rama's campaign against Ravana. The surviving seven-act text includes disputed later extensions beyond Bhavabhuti's original portion.
During a truce amid the siege of Mecca, Mahomet manipulates captive siblings Seid and Palmira, who are secretly the children of Meccan leader Zopir. He sends Seid to assassinate Zopir, who is killed before the siblings learn he was their father. Palmira discovers Mahomet's deception and kills herself rather than submit to him.
In an unfinished prose tragedy, Ibrahim tells captive Greek princess Irène that Mahomet intends to marry her. Irène rejects the sultan’s offer and despises Ibrahim for serving the Turks; Mahomet then arranges her marriage to Lascaris, while Roxane and Lascaris profess love.
Mahomet the Imposter is a 1744 tragedy by the British writer James Miller. His final play, it was inspired by the 1736 French work Mahomet by Voltaire. It was Miller's only tragedy, as his other works were sentimental comedies. The title is sometimes spelt as Mahomet the Impostor. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Zaphna, Dennis Delane as Mahomet, Henry Giffard as Alcanor, Richard Winstone as Pharon and Anna Marcella Giffard as Palmira.
After his wife Princess Libuše dies, Prince Přemysl grieves; Vlasta flirts with him. The play is inspired by the Czech legend of the Maidens' War.
This Buddhist drama concerns Maitreya, the future Buddha and savior of the world. It was composed in a mixed prose-and-verse style in 27 acts; surviving Tocharian fragments include stage directions, while the text was also intended to be read.
Major Barbara Undershaft, a Salvation Army officer in London, is disillusioned when the Army accepts donations from her estranged father, Andrew Undershaft, a wealthy munitions maker, and a whisky distiller. She visits his factory and sees the wages and stability it provides to workers, while he visits her shelter and observes her work with its visitors. Barbara ultimately decides that bringing salvation to those with material plenty may be more meaningful than feeding the starving; her fiancé Adolphus Cusins becomes heir to the factory.
Blind Major Chandrakanth shelters a fugitive who killed the man responsible for his sister’s suicide. Chandrakanth’s police-officer son pursues the murderer, unaware that the victim was Chandrakanth’s own younger son; the fugitive and Chandrakanth are also unaware of each other’s identities.
In an English small town between the wars, pretentious newcomer Lucia clashes with local queen bee Miss Mapp.
The play presents Hugh O'Neill's leadership of an Irish-Spanish alliance against England during the Nine Years' War and his ill-fated marriage to Mabel Bagenal, daughter of an English enemy. Set before and after Kinsale, it explores Irish nationalism and how historical narratives shape a national hero's legacy.
Teenagers Connor and Hannah plan how to make a first date succeed, each seeking advice from a best friend. Three parallel conversations—before the date, between Connor and Stan, and between Hannah and Charlotte—lead into the date and first kiss, exploring teenage friendship, romance, and the friend zone.
Renaissance ruler Sigismondo Malatesta is offered other cities in exchange for Rimini, travels to Rome intending to kill the pope, accepts an honorary Vatican office, then returns home and is poisoned.
A fallen woman from Málaga is eventually redeemed; Malvaloca is the name of the leading character.
A Macbeth adaptation that recasts the struggle as a battle to take over a powerful corporation in Ghana.
In an Italian-Canadian family in Quebec, Angelo’s relationship with Nino overturns his parents’ expectations. Both men face pressure from their families and must decide whether they can acknowledge their love openly.
A 70-year-old former partisan nurse recalls confronting a politician at a rally in a village where fascists had killed partisans, then being arrested and tried. She recounts losing her husband and son in the war and declares herself the mother of the younger generation, urging them to resist fascism.
During a weekend visit, childless friends Phil and Lorna join Jane and Kev, parents of two young girls, in a family kitchen where adulteries and confessions disrupt their apparently settled lives. The children are played by adult performers.
Linguistics professor Ivan Antonov, his wife Martha and their son Bozhidar see a mammoth's shadow appear on their wall; said to mark an unsolved crime, it spreads from their building across the neighborhood and city.
Man Alive! is a comedy play by the British writer John Dighton. In a strange turnaround at a department store in Oxford Street, a shop window mannequin comes to life and takes over the store while the unpopular manager is temporarily turned into a dummy. After premiering at the Pleasure Gardens Theatre in Folkestone it transferred to the Aldwych Theatre where it ran for 84 performances from 14 June to 25 August 1956. The cast included Robertson Hare, Brian Reece, Wendy Craig, Joan Hickson and Joan Sims.
In colonial India, Irish civilian Galy Gay is forcibly transformed into an ideal soldier. Brecht's epic comedy treats personality as something that can be dismantled and reassembled, using military collective action to explore war, identity, and the replaceability of individuals.
The play is a study of a ruthless, sociopathic businessman: his inability to love and the impact of this on others (notably, his son and his wife). The central character Gregor Antonescu was based on the lives of Ivar Kreuger, the Swedish Match King, and Samuel Insull the Anglo-American investor.
Ann Whitefield is placed under the guardianship of the revolutionary John Tanner, who resists her persistent efforts to marry him. Their romantic comedy is paired with a philosophical debate about human evolution and the Life Force; the third-act Don Juan in Hell sequence stages that debate directly.
Ken Carpenter, a devoted Baptist from Nebraska, abruptly loses his faith and leaves his wife for a solitary trip to London. There he befriends bartender Tamyra and her flatmate Harry, while confronting unfamiliar desires and the death of his mother. Returning home, Ken says he has recovered his faith and asks his hurt, uncertain wife to accept him again.
Celebrity bank robber Vic Parks has become a television personality and lives in a Mediterranean villa. His fame is entangled with the life of Douglas Beechey, the former hero who stopped Parks’s bank robbery but lost his future wife when she was shot during it.
Management is a 1799 comedy play by the British writer Frederick Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 31 October 1799. The original cast included William Thomas Lewis as Captain Lavish, John Fawcett as Mist, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Worry, Alexander Pope as Sir Hervey Sutherland, Charles Farley as Alltrade, Charles Klanert as Frank, Samuel Simmons as Stopgap, George Davenport as Geoffrey, Mary Ann Davenport as Mrs Dazzle and Maria Ann Pope as Juliana. The Dublin premiere was at the Crow Street Theatre on 13 February 1800.
A cross-dressing Australian Rules football player faces the influence of managers in a sport increasingly shaped by money and professional representation.
The play interweaves Jane Snake’s rise at Lehman Brothers before and during the 2008 financial crisis with her family’s financial troubles and a 17th-century story of Dutch colonization, land seizure and violence against the Lenape, drawing parallels between colonialism and capitalism.
An African slave is trained to fight other slaves on an antebellum Southern plantation.
A guilt-ridden nobleman in the Bernese Alps summons supernatural spirits and seeks relief from his remorse over Astarte’s death. Unable to escape his past, he rejects the religious redemption offered to him and chooses death.
The Jataka-derived story follows Suthanu, prince of Varanasi, and Manikhet, a magical flying horse with emerald eyes. The complete dramatic text combines dialogue, song lyrics and stage directions.
In this morality play, the farmer Mankind resolves to live virtuously but is tempted by the vices and the devil Titivillus. He falls into sin, then struggles to accept Mercy's offer of redemption, while the play implicates its audience through direct address and participation.
In the World of the Marvelous, Carabossa attempts to colonize the Caribbean with Greco-Latin magic, while Manman Dlo and other indigenous spirits and goddesses resist. The two-act play uses Caribbean characters and Antillean Creole language.
Manuel is an 1817 tragedy by the Irish writer Charles Maturin. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 8 March 1817. The original cast included Edmund Kean as Manuel, Count Valdi, Alexander Rae as De Zelos, James William Wallack as Torrismond, Charles Holland as Mendizabel, Thomas Cooke as Almorad, John Powell as Guide and Margaret Somerville as Victoria. The published work is dedicated to the writer Walter Scott. It takes place in the wake of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Spain. It failed to recapture the success of his debut play Bertram of the previous year, despite both starring Kean.
Many Waters is a play by the Irish writer Monckton Hoffe. It was first performed in 1926 under the title The Unnamed Play lasting for one performance at the Stand Theatre in London. Revised and under its new title it enjoyed a much longer West End run at the Ambassadors Theatre, lasting for 313 performances between 18 July 1928 and 20 April 1929. The 1928 cast included Nicholas Hannen, Marda Vanne, Milton Rosmer, Reginald Denham, Aubrey Dexter and Robert Douglas in his West End debut. The title is from the expression "Many waters cannot quench love" (Song of Solomon 8:7).
Aboard a corsair ship in the seventeenth-century Mediterranean, Muslim pirate captain Saïd falls in love with Blanca, a Christian captive on her way to become a nun. Their romance is condemned by both communities and ends in their deaths together.
Set in the historical Charenton Asylum, Marat/Sade is almost entirely a "play within a play". The main story takes place on 13 July 1808; the play directed by the Marquis de Sade within the story takes place 15 years earlier, during the French Revolution, culminating in the assassination (13 July 1793) of Jean-Paul Marat, then quickly brings the audience up to date (1808). The actors are the inmates of the asylum; the nurses and supervisors occasionally step in to restore order. The bourgeois director of the hospital, Coulmier, supervises the performance, accompanied by his wife and daughter. He is a supporter of the post-revolutionary government led by Napoleon, in place at the time of the production, and believes the play he has organised to be an endorsement of his patriotic views. His patients, however, have other ideas, and they make a habit of speaking lines he had attempted to suppress, or deviating entirely into personal opinion. Having come out of the revolution no better than they went in, the inmates are not entirely pleased with the course of events as they occurred. The Marquis de Sade, the man after whom sadism is named, did indeed direct performances in Charenton with other inmates there, encouraged by Coulmier. De Sade is a main character in the play, conducting many philosophical dialogues with Marat and observing the proceedings with sardonic amusement. He remains detached and cares little for practical politics and the inmates' talk of right and justice; he simply stands by as an observer and an advocate of his own nihilistic and individualist beliefs.
Set during the Depression-era dance-marathon craze, June and her partner Patsy enter contests where desperate participants dance for food, fame, or entertainment. The production frames the action as a documentary-like glimpse into marathoners' lives.
A dramatization of Marcel Marceau’s life, set in occupied France in 1943.
Marcella is a 1789 tragedy by the British writer William Hayley. The original Drury Lane cast included John Philip Kemble as Hernandez, William Barrymore as Alonzo, John Whitfield as Lupercio, Robert Benson as Lopez, Richard Wroughton as Governor of Barcelona and Jane Powell as Marcella.
A historical drama about abolitionist John Brown and his effort to organize a slave revolt in 1859, framed through a journalist piecing together his life from contradictory recollections.
In an office that may be purgatory, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus addresses the audience about his life, from his Chicago youth and priesthood to his role at the Vatican Bank and service to two popes.
Marco Millions is a play by Eugene O'Neill about Marco Polo.
According to Samuel French's website, the play is set in "...1999, the place an island off the coast of Norway. Stony McBride, a young movie director and adopted son of an aging Hollywood star, is writing a film about Marco Polo, in which, it is hoped, his father will make a comeback. Stony is also attempting to deal with his attractive wife, a former concert pianist whose lover, a dynamic young politician who has gotten hold of the cure for cancer, is also on hand. Adding to the rapidly multiplying complications are Stony's mother (a transsexual, as she later confesses); a friend named Frank (who has been in space orbit for the past five years); a maid (who is impregnated astrally by Frank); and another friend, Larry (who is fitted with a set of mechanical legs). There is also an earthquake; the discovery of a planet; and the birth of a new hero (Stony himself?); all coming together, within the bizarre action of the play, to yield some chilling, albeit very funny, glimpses of the future that may await us all."
A biographical play tracing the life of mid-twentieth-century Gujarati poet Mareez through different phases.
After learning her husband fathered a child with a young immigrant woman who later dies, Margaret faces the revelation while caring for the baby. Though she tells her husband their marriage is over, she supports his effort to rebuild his life.
Officer Finkelstein, a Jewish policeman, is assigned to protect Karl Baumer, the consul for Nazi Germany in an American city. While hosting a group of people listening to a radio broadcast of a speech by Adolf Hitler, Baumer is apparently murdered. Finkelstein's investigation discovers that each of the others present has a motive for murdering Baumer. Dr. Jennings paid to get relatives out of Germany, only to discover Baumer has cheated him. Sophie Baumer hated her husband's cruelty and amorality. Baumer threatened to expose the Jewish ancestry of Baron Max von Alvenstor, and planned to kill Otto Horst. Thomas Denny, an American journalist, hates Baumer's Nazi ideology. All the suspects are found to be innocent; Baumer accidentally drank poison that he had prepared to murder one of his guests.
Set in post-revolutionary Saint Petersburg, Babel’s nonlinear play follows the Mukovnin family and those around them as war communism disrupts their lives; the absent Maria is an idealistic Communist officer at the front, while her aristocratic relatives confront the new order’s violence and upheaval.
During a birthday gathering for Ruthie, a grandmother with a day pass from her nursing home, her unhappy family confronts its shared past. Ruthie’s daughters, their children, and eccentric Aunt Sylvia are thrown into turmoil when a German-speaking, soda-drinking shapeshifter appears, awakening the family’s buried secrets. The play reshapes Schiller’s story of rival queens into a supernatural family drama.
Mariamne is a 1723 tragedy play by the British writer Elijah Fenton. It is based on the biblical Mariamne, wife of Herod the Great of Judea. The following year Voltaire produced a French play of the same title. Staged at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre the original cast included Anna Maria Seymour as Mariamne, Anthony Boheme as Herod, Jane Egleton as Salome, Thomas Walker as Pheroras, Jane Rogers as Arsinoe, James Quin as Sohemus, Lacy Ryan as Flaminius and John Leigh as the High Priest.
A French tragedy drawing on the Herodian dynasty and events around Herod the Great; its premiere became the subject of a public rivalry with Voltaire’s separate play on the same story.
Lorca’s play dramatizes the life of Mariana de Pineda Muñoz, whose opposition to Ferdinand VII and public execution for treason in 1831 had become part of Granada’s folklore.
Mary I of England imprisons her fictional favorite Fabiano Fabiani in the Tower of London. Though she later wants to spare his life, she cannot prevent his execution.
Near Port Elizabeth, Daan, a black township resident working as a gardener at a whites-only resort, argues with the unemployed Melton and worries that Melton’s presence will expose his invalid passbook. Paulus, a white snake catcher, catalyzes the conflict; Daan recognizes how apartheid fuels violence between black people and the need for solidarity.
A one-woman play with music set in a photographer's studio on what might be the last day of Marilyn Monroe's life. Dialogue is assembled from documented quotations by Monroe and pivotal figures in her life and career, with songs Monroe sang in her films.
Marina is a 1738 tragedy by the British writer George Lillo. It is a reworking of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, produced at a time when Covent Garden was experimenting with a summer season. The original Covent Garden cast included Lewis Hallam as Lysimachus, Sarah Hamilton as Philoten and William Hallam as Mother Coupler.
In 1355 Venice, doge Marino Faliero is enraged when Michele Steno receives only a month’s imprisonment for an insulting libel against Faliero’s wife. Faliero joins a conspiracy to overthrow Venice’s constitution in revenge, but the plot is discovered and he is executed.
In 1638, courtesan Marion de Lorme falls in love with Didier, a foundling who does not know her identity. After a duel gets Didier arrested, Marion seeks a royal pardon, but Cardinal Richelieu revokes it; Didier ultimately refuses the price Marion paid to save him, and they are taken to execution.
Marisol, a Puerto Rican copy editor in the Bronx, learns from her guardian angel that a revolution is underway against a dying God. As cosmic disorder turns New York into a wasteland, she journeys among displaced people and joins the struggle to save the universe.
In Marseille, café worker Marius dreams of going to sea, putting his growing romance with his childhood friend Fanny at risk.
An elderly widow at the end of her life embraces technology to potentially preserve her memory. The plays deals with the topic of digital footprints and their effect on future generations as technology continues to advance.
Radio journalist Mark Colvin reaches out on Twitter to Mary-Ellen Field, a woman whose privacy was violated through phone hacking. They become pen pals, and Field eventually saves his life by donating a kidney.
Mark Twain Tonight! is a one-man play devised by Hal Holbrook, in which he depicted Mark Twain giving a dramatic recitation selected from several of Twain's writings, with an emphasis on the comic ones.
On the set of a fictional long-running medical television drama, its writer Nick Chase tussles with the show's star Will Swift and director Alex.
Civil servant Podkolyosin hires a matchmaker to find him a bride, but his indecision gives his friend Kochkaryov the chance to take over the courtship. Although Podkolyosin becomes engaged to Agafya, he panics on the wedding day and escapes by jumping out a window.
After thirty years of marriage, Jack announces he intends to leave Gillian. Their confrontation and repeated attempts to stage the conversation expose frustration, insecurity and infidelity; they fight, then revisit memories and return to their grievances.
The setting is in Sicily. The plot concerns two separate storylines, one a romance between Palmyra and Leonidas, who were separated from their parents as babies and who were raised together by Hermogenes, who has kept their past a secret. When Hermogenes is recognized by the usurper-king Polydamas, he declares that Leonidas is Polydamas's son. However, as Leonidas's new position of prince then forbids him to marry Palmyra, much misery is brought to the couple. When the lovers refuse to stop seeing each other, Palmyra is sentenced to death. Hermogenes then steps forward and reveals that he was lying before: in fact Leonidas is his own son, he says, and he had lied in the hopes of bettering the boy by making him prince, whereas Palmyra is the real child of Polydamas. After offering proof of this new claim, Palmyra is established as princess, but again this prevents her and Leonidas from marrying. Hermogenes eventually admits that he once again was withholding information, and reveals the whole truth to Leonidas—Leonidas is the son of the rightful king, whose throne was usurped by Polydamas. As soon as he learns this, Leonidas forms a rebellion against Polydamas, wins, and establishes himself the new king, finally allowing himself and Palmyra to be married. The second storyline, which intertwines with the first, concerns Rhodophil and his friend Palamede. Palamede has fallen in love with Rhodophil's wife Doralice, and Rhodophil is in love with Palamede's fiancée Melantha. Each of the women seem to find their pursuers agreeable, and great care is taken by all parties to keep their meetings secret from each other, with disastrous results as the two couples seem to always choose the same locations and tactics for meeting. When finally the actions of everyone are discovered, Palamede and Rhodophil decide that since their tastes in women are so similar, each would be best sticking to his rightful claim. Palamede then manages to win the heart of Melantha, and amicably break off his relationship with Doralice.
Married for Money is a 1939 comedy play by the British author Will Scott. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham before transferring to the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End where it ran for performances between 17 November and 26 December 1939, in the early months of the Second World War. The West End cast included Bryan Coleman, Ronald Simpson, Mackenzie Ward, Eliot Makeham, Nora Swinburne, Dinah Sheridan and Viola Lyel. It is a farce revolving around a put-upon husband who conceals a secret stash of money from his wife.
Wally Gibbs hopes to marry Jane Elliott, but Doris Chattaway's mother threatens a breach-of-promise suit over Wally's past courtship of Doris. Wally enlists his friend Hugh to divert Doris's affections; a stolen car and overnight trip intensify suspicion, and Hugh is later forced to prosecute Wally in court. During the trial Wally proposes to Doris, while Hugh reveals he has married Jane.
Marry, or Do Worse is a 1703 comedy play by William Walker. It premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The original cast is not known.
Marseilles is play in three acts by Sidney Howard that was adapted from Marcel Pagnol's Marius (1929). Produced and directed by Gilbert Miller, it premiered at Parsons Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut on November 3, 1930, with a cast led by Alexander Kirkland as Marius. It transferred to Broadway's Henry Miller's Theatre on November 17, 1930. It ran for 16 performances. Helene Pons designed the gowns worn by the women in the production. Others in the cast included Guy Kibbee as Panisse, Douglas Wood as Monsieur Brun, and Alison Skipworth as Honorine.
A stage adaptation of Neil Baldwin's life story, written by Baldwin, Malcolm Clarke, and Theresa Heskins.
Bessie, a strong-willed woman, takes care of her bedridden father and eccentric Aunt Ruth. After Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia, her estranged sister, Lee, comes to visit and to be tested as a possible bone marrow donor for her sister. The reunion between the sisters is initially uncomfortable, aggravated by the difficult behavior of Lee's two sons. The two women eventually confront their shortcomings as sisters, reach out to each other, and arrive at an understanding about the importance of family.
Karl Marx is resurrected in New York’s Soho to defend communism against its dehumanized Soviet practice and to challenge capitalism. In a seamless monologue, he argues about modern economic inequality while recalling his devoted marriage to Jenny, his love for their children and his debates with fellow radical Mikhail Bakunin.
As Mary Jane navigates both the mundane and the unfathomable realities of caring for Alex, her chronically ill young son, she finds herself building a community of women from many walks of life.
The play takes place over the course of several weeks in September during the early 1900's, in Gosport, Indiana. Act I (Interior of the Perkins home. Afternoon.) Lucille is studying when Ivy comes in the back door, her hair in rollers. She wants to borrow something, but hides when Barrett calls. He and Lucille discuss Portia's antipathy to their seeing each other. Star drops by, then Claud Whitcomb comes in, followed by Miss Faxon. Joel Skinner is next and Ivy's nerve finally breaks. She dashes from the house, hands covering her hair, shouting "Don't look!". The others are startled but Lucille shrugs and says "Ivy". Miss Faxon wants her ad in the Clarion changed, while Claud has a load of firewood for sale and some local news for the newspaper. Joel Skinner is cagy about his business with Portia. Linc arrives next, also with some tidbits for the Clarion. He takes Miss Faxon to the depot, while Portia quizzes Skinner. He wants her to stop the political attacks in the Clarion, accusing her of favoring his rival Rome Preston for personal reasons. Later, Mary Jane and Lucille voice their distress to Portia about rumors she is a "suffragist" and too friendly with Rome. Mary Jane also wonders why Portia has no photos of and never talks about her father. As Portia sits alone, a knock is heard and in walks Hiram after eleven years. Portia is astounded. Hiram recounts his years wandering the world; he has little money and looks like a tramp. Portia excoriates Hiram for his abandonment, but allows him to stay on condition he does the cooking and housework and tells no one of his identity. Hiram agrees and picks the alias "Nabal". As he goes upstairs, Rome Preston calls out "good night" to Portia from the street. (Curtain) Act II (Perkins Print Shop and office of the Clarion. Friday morning, three weeks later.) Barrett Sheridan and his troupe have returned. He has hired a brass band to parade down Main Street. They can be seen through the windows and open doors of the print shop, where Gene Merryfield and Lewellyn are working. Ivy flirts with Gene until Star shows up. Star and Ivy go out when Nabal enters. He irritates Gene by pointing out a misspelt word in his type. Barrett asks about his show's advertising fliers, but is delighted to see Nabal, whom he knew as "Evans" when both worked at a big city paper. Nabal says he has written a book for Barrett's father, a wealthy publisher. Portia asks Lewellyn to fetch a buggy from the livery stable, so she can take Jenny Miller's affidavit at the factory. She spies Lucille and Barrett talking in front of the shop, oblivious to all. She sends Lucille away then argues with Barrett about his suitability for her daughter, not wanting Lucille to make the same mistake she did. At this, Nabal excuses himself. Preston tries to dissuade Portia from printing the Miller story, fearful Skinner will retaliate against her. Preston and Linc are surprised when Miss Faxon pulls her ad from the Clarion; she advises them not to associate with it, because of Nabal. Gene, also afraid for Portia, leaves so Preston can sabotage the Miller story by disabling the big press. Preston attempts to patronize Nabal, is defeated by his erudition, but asks him to leave town for Portia's sake. Mary Jane accepts a note from Sheridan at the shop front. She comes in and watches Nabal resetting the type for the Miller story. She admires how he learned so many things, and says how much she likes him. When Lucille returns she receives Barrett's note from Mary Jane. Portia returns; Lucille and her spar over the Skinner fight, and Barrett. Lucille and Mary Jane leave. Portia then begs help from Hiram to get the paper ready. They recondition a smaller press since Preston removed a piece from the larger one. Skinner and Whipple come in to bribe or browbeat Portia, but get the worst of it. Hiram prints the Clarion for the nominating convention that afternoon. (Curtain) Act III (Perkins yard, with side and back porches. Evening of the next day.) Mary Jane and Portia are in the yard, when Ivy comes to borrow spoons and napkins for a party to which none of the Perkins are invited. Ivy explains she wanted to, but other folks said they wouldn't come otherwise. Nabal consoles Mary Jane by showing her a cake he baked. He also hands her an envelope with money he received from Barrett's father for completing his book. Lucille returns from school carrying her textbooks. She tells Portia she isn't going back because of the gossip, but doesn't mention her planned elopement. But Star has found the note from Barrett she dropped, and threatens to expose her as being like her mother. Lucille gives him a roundhouse slap that staggers him. He teeters into Ivy's house, mumbling threats. Rome accepts Portia's congratulations on winning the nomination, and confesses to sabotaging the big printer. Nabal stops Lucille from eloping; he insists Barrett take her for a walk then come back. Gene and Lewellyn run over to Portia: a mob led by Skinner and Miss Faxon are wrecking the print shop. Linc hurries over to warn the mob is headed this way. Skinner and Miss Faxon incite the mob to tar and feather Nabal. Rome, Linc, and the printers stand by Portia, who in turn protects Nabal. She shouts that Nabal is her husband of 17 years, Hiram Perkins. The crowd is dumbfounded and starts melting away; Skinner insults Portia and Hiram decks him. Portia and Rome have a bittersweet parting. Hiram, planning to depart, is told by Portia to stay. Hiram in turn reconciles her to Barrett as a son-in-law, as Lucille and him stroll back into view. (Curtain)
In a three-act retelling of the Passion story, Mary Magdalene turns away from her former life and seeks to save Jesus from crucifixion, while the Roman general Lucius Verus makes his aid conditional on her surrender.
Told out of chronological order, the play follows accountant Mary Page Marlowe through different ages of her life, from a divorce and move with her children to conflicts with her mother and the consequences of three DUI convictions. Six actresses and a doll portray her at different ages.
Showing 3,385–3,504 of 8,284 shows
Load more shows