8284 shows
Clear filtersGentleman jewel thief Raffles bets amateur detective Captain Bedford that he cannot catch him, then steals Lady Melrose's necklace before a professional burglar can. As Raffles helps the burglar escape and pursues a romance, Bedford eventually lets him take the gentleman's way out, allowing him to escape arrest.
Rafta, Rafta... is a comedy by British Pakistani playwright Ayub Khan-Din adapted from the 1963 Bill Naughton play, All in Good Time. The play is set in the working class English town of Bolton, and examines a story of marital difficulties within an immigrant Indian family. Ishwar Dutt is a first-generation immigrant and patriarch of the family. He has a troubled relationship with his newlywed son Atul, whose married life with Vina Patel has got off to a rocky start. The play deals with setting out and resolving these various conflicts.
A domestic drama follows the obsessive-compulsive Hetty, her soldier husband Leo and their neighbour Neil, a survivor of childhood abuse. When Leo and Neil uncover an underground lake beneath London, its waters flood the world and the group takes to a raft.
An old family must leave its ancestral home, confronting the resulting conflict and strain among its members.
Set against Aberdeen’s oil-fuelled boom, the play depicts the bleak lives of marginalized people and the damage a money-driven, materialist culture does to society.
After King Parvatrai is accidentally killed, gardener Rai reveals himself as Jagdeep, the rightful heir, and is asked to impersonate the dead king. He rejects inheriting the crown through deception, then falls in love with the late king's widowed daughter Vinavati; he is ultimately elected successor and marries her.
In this autobiographical solo play, Keith Barker recalls growing up in Northern Ontario, the women who raised him and his relationship with an often absent father. Humour and personal stories explore family, inheritance and adulthood.
A struggling Women’s Institute branch welcomes a publicity expert as its membership dwindles. Her attempt to rebrand the group triggers a fight over its identity, traditions and future.
A historical depiction of Jayavarman VII's legendary construction of the Bayon against the rapid decline of the Khmer Empire.
A symbolic, mystic play about God's secret dealings with the human heart, loosely drawing on the Buddhist story of King Kush from the Mahāvastu.
In a kingdom where a greedy ruler forces his subjects to mine gold, Nandini—who wears red oleander flowers for her beloved Ranjan—stands apart from the machinery of extraction and power.
The wealthy widow Christian Custance is betrothed to merchant Gawyn Goodluck. Encouraged by trickster Matthew Merrygreeke, boastful Ralph Roister Doister attempts to woo her and ultimately tries to take her by force, but Custance's maids defeat his party. Gawyn returns and the play ends in reconciliation.
This eight-play Ramayana cycle follows Rama’s story from his incarnation through the war with Ravana and his coronation at Ayodhya. Its poetic sections were designed for enactment over successive days.
A historical drama about the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Spinster Belinda Pryde buys a run-down New England inn hoping for an interesting retreat. Its guests include a liquor-cutting gang, kidnappers and undercover FBI agents; amid false clues and a growing pile of corpses, Belinda traps the criminals and proves the previous owner's son innocent. The 1943 revised version replaces Nazi spies with a black-market liquor racket.
The forger Randall blackmails Buckthorpe into courting heiress Edith, claiming he can expose Buckthorpe for a killing that was actually a staged deception. As Buckthorpe rejects the scheme and falls in love with Edith, Joe Bangles investigates; the truth reveals Randall’s fraud and clears Buckthorpe, while Bangles and Miss Spinn reconcile.
Penelope and other women set out for Troy to intervene in the war and imagine another ending to the conflict.
A melodrama based on the 1863 raid by Ben Hall's gang on the Keightley homestead at Dunn's Plains, New South Wales.
In Rantoul, Illinois, Debbie wants her marriage with Rallis to end, while he clings to their shared past. The play presents their deteriorating relationship as a darkly comic account of personal growth, love, and hostility.
A comic love plot involving Hilaret and Constant unfolds alongside a corrupt justice system: both Constant and Hilaret are accused of rape, and Hilaret devises a scheme to expose Justice Squeezum. The play uses these farcical events to address abuses of power and virtue in public and private life.
In this expressionist satire, an entire world’s life is compressed into twenty-four hours: children mature in minutes, meals take seconds and losing half a minute is serious. The play expands this hectic machine-age tempo into a rapid-fire view of war, justice, taxation and public opinion.
An account of Saint Francis reshapes Jacopa of Settesoli as Jacopa da Roma, linking the saint’s circle with figures resembling Pulci’s own family.
Domitilla, betrothed to Aureliano, defends her Christian faith and commitment to virginity. Her resistance places religious conviction and personal resolve against pagan belief and the expectation of marriage.
While her husband is away, Queen Guglielma rejects his brother’s advances and is falsely accused and condemned. Escaping death, she finds refuge and becomes a miraculous healer, eventually confronting the man responsible for her persecution.
After a samurai is killed and his wife assaulted by a bandit, the bandit, wife and dead husband give conflicting accounts of the crime at trial, each claiming a different truth.
Princess Ratnavali is shipwrecked en route to marry King Udayana and reaches his court disguised as the maid Sagarika. She and Udayana fall in love amid mistaken identities and the jealousy of his first wife, Vasavadatta, before Ratnavali's identity is revealed and Vasavadatta consents to the marriage.
Set over a week in September 1987 at a small East Los Angeles sewing factory, the play follows Ana, a recent high-school graduate who hopes to attend college, and the women working alongside her as they discuss their lives and try to meet production deadlines. The group faces immigration fears, relationship troubles, and tensions around gender, body image, and the women’s ambitions.
A comedy about fear and embarrassment surrounding old age, exploring how society balances practical demands with compassion for older people.
Reasons to Be Pretty (stylized in all-lowercase) is a play by Neil LaBute, his first to be staged on Broadway. The plot centers on four young working class friends and lovers who become increasingly dissatisfied with their dead-end lives and each other. Following The Shape of Things and Fat Pig, it is the final installment of a trilogy that focuses on modern-day obsession with physical appearance.
Orphan Rebecca Rowena Randall is sent to live with her dour aunts, Jane and Miranda Sawyer. She has trouble adjusting to her new home at first, and tries to run away. Eventually her light-hearted optimism wins over her aunts and attracts the interest of local boy Adam Ladd.
Retired Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a cold murder case when the victim’s daughter appears at his Edinburgh flat. He enlists Siobhan Clarke, whose own worries about an old case strain their relationship, and turns to longtime adversary Big Ger Cafferty for help.
An English clergyman falls in love with an American woman he takes for a gold digger. Her self-sacrificing nature unsettles his assumptions.
Two rival merchant families join to buy land from a local aristocrat for a timber factory. At the Prince's railway-station reception, the locals' admiration gives way to dismay when they learn the land has already been sold to his German companion.
"There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend... One day the black will swallow the red." Mark Rothko is in his New York studio in 1958/59, having been commissioned to paint a group of murals for the expensive and exclusive Four Seasons restaurant. He gives orders to his assistant, Ken, as Ken mixes the paints, makes the frames, and primes the canvases. Ken, however, eventually brashly questions Rothko's theories of art and his acceding to work on such a commercial project. For his part, Rothko dislikes the rise of pop art. Ultimately, Rothko stops working on the project and decides to return the money. He explains to Ken that the Four Seasons is an inappropriate place for his murals to be seen. He then fires Ken and tells him to go make something of his own in the art world.
In a fictional European Communist party, idealist Hugo is sent to kill leader Hoederer but hesitates until he sees his wife Jessica in Hoederer's arms. This American adaptation shifts emphasis toward Hoederer and changes Jessica's relationship and motivation, while cuts reduce Hugo's characterization.
Red Harvest is a play in three acts by Walter Charles Roberts that uses pages from an American Red Cross nurse's diary detailing her experiences working with the Red Cross in France on the Western Front during World War I as its source material. Set in American Red Cross Hospital 111, a field hospital in Jouy-sur-Morin, the play takes place in 1918 at the time of the Battle of Château-Thierry. Produced by Brock Pemberton and The Theatre Foundation of America, Red Harvest premiered on Broadway on March 30, 1937 at the National Theatre.
A solo biographical play about Texas political columnist Molly Ivins.
Tom and Fanny Campbell move from a small town to New York City, where the only people they know are Fanny's stepsister and brother-in-law, Dorothy and Nick Martin. The Martins are criminals who frame Tom for theft. When Tom is sent to prison for three years, Fanny falls prey to cocaine addiction and becomes a prostitute. When Tom is released, Nick attempts to blackmail the Campbells, but Fanny kills him. A sympathetic detective helps her avoid a murder conviction.
In the first act, friends Matt, a writer, and Davis, a book editor, are vacationing in Amsterdam. Matt is lonely and suicidal; he is attempting to hang himself when Davis returns to their shared hotel room with Christina. Christina is a prostitute that Davis has hired as a present for Matt. Christina has sex with Matt, although she is more interested in Davis. In the second act, Matt and Davis have returned home to New York City. Christina goes to New York looking for Davis, but finds Matt, who has been obsessed with her since their earlier encounter.
Red Noses is a comedy about the black death by Peter Barnes, first staged at Barbican Theatre in 1985. It depicted a sprightly priest, originally played by Antony Sher, who travelled around the plague-affected villages of 14th century France with a band of fools, known as Floties, offering holy assistance. It was for this play that Barnes won his Olivier award.
A husband-and-wife music-hall double act, George and Lily Pepper, perform comic songs while quarrelling with one another and their colleagues. Their dressing-room disputes interrupt the numbers, and the final tap dance descends into a fight with the musical director.
Red Roses for Me is a four-act play written by Irish playwright Seán O'Casey which premiered at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin in 1943. The story is set against the backdrop of the Dublin Lockout of 1913, events in which O'Casey himself had participated.
Set in New South Wales in 1812, Alicia is unhappily married to a brutal officer. She falls in love with Irish convict Michael, and they decide to flee together.
The play begins with Aldrige in later life, nearing the end of a brilliant career. A young Polish journalist, Halina Wozniak, sneaks into his dressing room to interview him about his success, and especially to find out why he has steadfastly refused to play Covent Garden Theatre since playing the lead in a production of Othello decades before. The play revisists crucial moments in Aldridge's past, especially the Othello performance, in which he stepped in for an ailing Kean, hoping to bring some authenticity to the part, but is viciously treated by critics.
Set over a year in seventeen-year-old Lucy’s Sheffield council flat, the play follows her through a series of disastrous choices. Its dark, often humorous social drama presents Lucy as constrained by poverty yet persistent, with dreams and a defiant spirit that endure.
In postwar Barstow, Gabriela's strained marriage to soldier Benito is mirrored by a surreal relationship between her pet Cat and a Coyote, while the personified Moon and a teenage neighbor draw her into competing fantasies of love, art, war, and escape.
A tragedy portraying the career of Roman consul Marcus Atilius Regulus during the First Punic War.
Regulus is a 1744 tragedy by the British writer William Havard. It portrays the career of Marcus Atilius Regulus, a Roman Consul at the time of the First Punic War. It ran for seven performances during the season. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Regulus, Havard himself as Decius, Dennis Delane as Corvus, William Mills as Metullus, Edward Berry as Manlius, James Taswell as Attilus Regulus, Edward Woodburn as Emelius, Howard Usher as Second Ambassador, Anne Budgell as Clelia and Anna Marcella Giffard as Martia.
When Princess Gulltopp disappears while seeking the Christmas star, the grieving king curses it away. Years later, Sonja offers to find the star; aided by forest spirits, the north wind and Santa, she discovers she is the lost princess.
When aristocrat Nigel plans to marry Hollywood actress Miranda, his mother Felicity learns that her maid Moxie is Miranda’s elder sister and refuses to lose her indispensable companion. The household disguises Moxie’s changed status, but Miranda’s invented account of her poor childhood and Moxie’s disclosure unsettle the engagement; Miranda ultimately leaves with her former lover Don, restoring the household’s preferred order.
Greg follows his girlfriend Ginny to the country, thinking she is visiting her parents. She is actually ending an affair with married former lover Philip; when Greg arrives before her, he mistakes Philip and Philip's wife Sheila for Ginny's parents, setting off an escalating chain of misunderstandings.
Molecular geneticist Kalima's research contradicts the melanin theory promoted by her late father's work and her mother Claire's forthcoming book. She must decide whether to challenge her family's legacy, while her mentor presses her to make the dispute public.
Reluctant Heroes is a comedy play by the British writer Colin Morris. It premiered at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings before transferring to the Whitehall Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 1,610 performances between 12 September 1950 and 24 July 1954. The original West End cast included Brian Rix, Larry Noble, Dermot Walsh, Wally Patch, Bruce Belfrage and Elspet Gray. Other actors who appeared during the run included John Slater, Peter Hammond, Darcy Conyers, Bernard Fox and Gene Anderson. It was the first of the Whitehall farces, and concerns a group of National Service recruits.
Remains to Be Seen is a play written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Producer Leland Hayward opened it on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on October 3, 1951. Bretaigne Windust directed the production, which ran for 199 performances. The play is a comedy about the investigation of the murder of an anti-pornography crusader. Following his death, various characters gather at his Park Avenue apartment, including his niece Jody, his attorney, his butler, the apartment building's young janitor, and a doctor. In the process, the attorney falls in love with Jody, but she chooses to leave with the janitor instead.
In a chain of short, sometimes overlapping scenes, Marcel grows from a boy into a writer as memories of childhood and Parisian society form his view of experience. The play also follows Charles Swann’s troubled attachment to Odette, using their stories as part of Marcel’s recollection and gradual understanding of art.
A substantial stage recasting of Osorio intensifies the Gothic tragedy of a younger brother's attempted murder of his elder brother; the revelation is reshaped through rearranged scenes, stage effects and Ordonio's onstage death.
A three-act tragedy dramatizing an episode concerning Renaud and Armide from Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered.
Joseph suspects Mary’s pregnancy until an angel rebukes his doubt. The play moves through prayers, the Nativity and the shepherds’ adoration, then sets instruments of the future Passion beside the newborn child before ending with Mary’s lullaby.
A middle-aged woman alone in her apartment moves silently through her evening routine of cooking and cleaning, then turns to the radio for distraction. Her solitude and melancholy deepen as the evening progresses.
Former boxer Mountain McClintock, punch-drunk and trusting, is pushed by his conniving manager into a comic-relief wrestling act. After discovering the manager’s treachery, Mountain’s drunken rampage brings him to a decision that lets him recover some damaged pride and self-respect.
In Mississippi, Nancy, an African American domestic worker, faces execution for killing Temple Drake’s infant child. Temple’s effort to save her forces a reckoning with concealed events from her own past, exposing questions of guilt, responsibility and redemption.
Nancy is condemned to death for killing Temple’s child. On the eve of the execution, Temple seeks a pardon and is forced to expose her own past, confronting the limits of mercy, punishment and redemption.
In a newly elected government, civil servant Sarika Chatterjee and scientist Will Paxton compete for influence with Colin Jenks, a former colleague of Will's father. As weather threatens mass coastal flooding, the climate and resilience ministers receive conflicting advice and must decide whether to order evacuations.
A comic parody of Restoration comedy and an examination of class privilege and social hierarchy in Restoration-era England.
In an unnamed Latin American country, a prisoner who may or may not be Christ is sentenced to crucifixion by a dictator. The order draws in the prisoner’s friend, a wealthy landowner’s daughter, and an American television crew preparing to broadcast the event, raising questions about belief, power, and spectacle.
In Florida, a young woman is pursued by three very different men: a pleasure-seeking playboy, a valve manufacturer and an itinerant liberal. Their competing courtships bring their ambitions and beliefs into conflict, but she chooses none of them.
Retribution is an 1818 British tragedy by the writer John Dillon. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 1 January 1818. The original London cast included Charles Mayne Young as Veranes, King of Persia, William Macready as Chosroo, Charles Kemble as Hamed, Daniel Egerton as Abdas, William Abbot as Hafiz, Daniel Terry as Suthes, Charles Connor as Sohrab and Elizabeth O'Neill as Zimra.
In 1950s New York, rising actor Sidney Poitier expects to sign a contract before filming A Man Is Ten Feet Tall. Instead, a screenwriter and NBC lawyer demand that he sign a loyalty oath and denounce Paul Robeson, threatening his role and career if he refuses.
Return to Tyassi is a 1950 play by the British writer Benn Levy. The plot concerns a woman with a shady past who attempts to redeem herself. Levy directed the play, which featured his wife Constance Cummings in the lead role. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 29 performances between 29 November and 23 December 1950. The original cast included Constance Cummings, Alexander Knox, Helen Haye and John Justin. Poorly received, it was noted "some critics have knocked this play about severely, and may have done it irreparable damage".
Prince Abilqualit pursues Caropia, the wife of Mura, while his half-brother Abrahen schemes to seize the throne. A false rape accusation and the caliph's brutal punishment trigger a chain of betrayals, apparent deaths and shifting claims to power, ending with the empire passing to Tarifa.
Oakleaf, a worker beaver, leads a revolt against the Chief Beaver, who exploits the workers in this children's fantasy fable.
Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. presents thirteen stand-alone scenes or vignettes over four acts. The scenes begin with a dialogue between a man and woman discussing sex as she takes control of his education. Then, another couple discuss marriage after a rejected proposal. A woman and her employer discuss work obligations as the woman wishes to take Mondays off. Then a shopper strips naked in a grocery store after a sexual assault. A woman and her non-verbal daughter address the woman's mother's absence from their lives. Following this scene, the play becomes more abstract as scenes blend into each other, including critiques of pornography, a salesperson selling T-shirts with feminist slogans, and a person selling hymens. The final scene discusses the future, overthrowing systems and eradicating all men.
Sylvia Pankhurst campaigns for women’s suffrage alongside working women in London’s East End. Her encounter with Lettie carries their struggle toward Parliament through friendship, political argument and satire.
Bulbul opens with a lecture and demonstrations about how sand moves, until she coughs and her son Misha interrupts to restage her apparent death. Their ensuing exchange shifts among mother and son, performer and director, and teacher and student as they explore grief, scientific inquiry, and the fear of losing one another.
During the Trojan War, Hector sends Dolon to spy on the Greek camp. Odysseus and Diomedes kill Dolon, then Athena directs them to the sleeping Rhesus; Diomedes kills the Thracian king and Odysseus takes his horses. Rhesus's mother, a Muse, blames the attackers and announces his eventual resurrection and immortality.
A romance develops between two middle-aged people.
In a small French town, residents begin transforming into rhinoceroses. As colleagues and friends justify or accept the change, Bérenger resists the growing conformity and ultimately remains alone, determined not to capitulate.
Ma Lu, a rhinoceros feeder, pursues Ming Ming's love despite her rejection. His futile effort to win her over becomes a struggle against stereotypical expectations and commercialization as he searches for an individual identity.
The play consists of a single act. It starts with Rhoda having visions. The visions are sexual and bizarre; they include potatoes, dances and nightmares. Rhoda meets friends, strangers and a lover in these dreams. The play starts as a regular conversation between Rhoda and her friend Sophia, and Max who becomes Rhoda's lover enters sitting on a throne, and that is when Rhoda's dreams begin, going through salons, bathrooms and woods. It all ends with her being punished for dreaming.
In this contemporary reworking of Washington Square, insecure Claudine is courted by Henry, an indebted avant-garde theatre director, while her wealthy mother Eve grooms her to lead a philanthropic foundation. Eve threatens to disinherit Claudine if she marries Henry; after he leaves, Claudine is heartbroken but more self-confident.
The play depicts the wealthy WASP Orr family and the damage that passes from parent to child, with religious overtones.
Bing Ringling is an old "promising" playwright, finally about to have a play produced—play number 844.
Cibber reworks Shakespeare’s history of Richard III for a five-act Williamite audience, adding a new opening that shows Henry VI’s murder and making Richard’s rise and fall more violent on stage. Richard courts Lady Anne, imprisons and kills the princes, plots against his rivals, and is haunted by his victims before the Battle of Bosworth, where Richmond defeats and kills him and becomes Henry VII.
A romanticized portrait of Richard II emphasizes his relationship with Anne of Bohemia and presents him as a gentle, refined figure seeking peace within a brutal militaristic culture, in contrast to Shakespeare's self-dramatizing king.
A Latin-language play about King Richard III of England.
A five-act historical drama portraying the life of 17th-century French statesman Cardinal Richelieu, framed as a conspiracy. It includes the scene in which Richelieu declares that the pen is mightier than the sword.
On Inishmaan, grieving widow Maurya fears her son Bartley will also be lost to the sea after it has taken her husband and five sons. Her daughters identify the body of Michael, and Bartley later drowns after leaving to sell a horse. The play presents the sea as both livelihood and relentless threat.
Rienzi is an 1828 historical tragedy by the British writer Mary Russell Mitford. It is based on the fourteenth century Italian political leader Cola di Rienzo. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 9 October 1828. The original cast included Charles Mayne Young as Cola di Rienzi, John Cooper as Angelo Colonna, George Yarnold as Paolo, and Harriet Faucit as Lady Colonna. It was Mitford's most successful play and for 34 nights from October to December 1828, and then appeared frequently in the United States.
After an earthquake, provincial townspeople investigate the guarded Ponza family: Mrs. Frola says her daughter is alive and married to Ponza, while Ponza insists his mother-in-law is deluded and that his current wife is a second woman. Their contradictory explanations fuel the town’s demand for proof, but the veiled woman at the end claims to be both—and neither—of the identities they seek.
A stage show celebrating comic actor Rikki Fulton, with Gerard Kelly and Tony Roper portraying Fulton and his comedy partner Jack Milroy.
Rinaldo and Armida is a 1698 tragedy by the English writer John Dennis. A semi-opera it featured music composed by John Eccles. It is inspired by the 1560 epic poem Jerusalem Delivered by the Italian writer Torquato Tasso, particularly the characters of Rinaldo and Armida. It was performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London by Thomas Betterton's company. The original cast included Betterton as Rinaldo, John Thurmond as Ubaldo, Elizabeth Barry as Armida, Elizabeth Bowman as Urania and Elinor Leigh as Phenissa.
Hugo tries to save his shy twin Frederic from an unhappy marriage by bringing a beautiful dancer to a lavish ball. Her arrival disrupts the wealthy guests’ romantic schemes and entangles her own feelings.
In a pastor's Los Angeles office, Henry Donner is visited by Alexandra Riverton, his former lover from New York. An old song they shared prompts a tense pursuit of the truth about their separation.
Herbert Eulenberg’s five-act play about Knight Bluebeard was performed at Berlin’s Lessing Theater in 1906, where it was unsuccessful. Eulenberg later revised the text with Reznicek for the three-act opera.
Ritzy is a 1930 comedy play by Sidney Toler and Viva Tattersall. It ran for 32 performances at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway with a cast that included Miriam Hopkins and Ernest Truex. A financially struggling couple living in a cheap hotel believe they have inherited a huge sum of money, until the discovery of closer relatives means they will not receive the fortune.
On a busy night in a deprived Lancashire working-class neighbourhood under Thatcher, the audience encounters residents inside their homes and sees their lives marked by unemployment, desperation and humour. The play is often staged as a promenade, with narrator Scullery leading audiences along the street.
Road House is a British play by Walter Hackett. It ran for 341 performances at the Whitehall Theatre between 6 October 1932 and 5 August 1933. The original cast included Gordon Harker, Ronald Shiner, Godfrey Tearle, Marion Lorne and Jeanne Stuart, who was later replaced in her role by Sunday Wilshin.
Rob Roy (Rob Roy, the Gregarach) is an 1818 play by English playwright George Soane, based on the 1817 novel Rob Roy by Walter Scott. The play was first performed 25 March 1818 at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Another popular stage version of Rob Roy, by Isaac Pocock, performed with traditional Scottish songs, was also premiered in 1818 and frequently revived thereafter.
Dampier and Walch's stage version changes the novel so Dick Marston and Captain Starlight survive and can be pardoned. The villain Dan Moran holds Sir Ferdinand captive at Terrible Hollow; Starlight rescues him, and Moran later attempts to stab Dick, but Kate Morrison is killed saving him. The adaptation also gives Inspector Goring a more villainous role in harassing Aileen.
A comedy depicting the adventures of two wandering vagrants.
An outdoor pageant play based on a traditional ballad about Robin Hood’s encounter with a cleric at a stream near Fountains Abbey, designed with little dialogue and much singing.
Across Prague and Cambridge from 1968 to 1990, a Czech student and a British Marxist professor hold sharply different views of Communism. Rock music, underground Czech musicians, and the memory of Syd Barrett frame the changing political landscape through the Velvet Revolution.
A teenager tells of her drug-dealing brother, an ill-fated family vacation, and her mother’s refusal to face the facts.
An isolated woman sits in a rocking chair and listens to a recorded voice recounting her own life and her dead mother’s. Across four sections she searches for another living soul, withdraws from the outside world, and finally stops the rocking as the voice and her life fade.
In 1938 New York, dentist Ben Stark’s business and marriage are deteriorating as he begins a love affair with young dental assistant Cleo Singer.
Roger Guenveur Smith performs a range of voices for and against Rodney King's plight, turning King's story and the 1992 Los Angeles riots into a solo theatrical monologue.
At the Seleucian court, Queen Cleopatra’s twin sons Antiochus and Seleucus both love the captive Parthian princess Rodogune, whose marriage is bound to the succession and the royal family’s struggle for power.
Edward Rogers fights for control of his family's telecommunications business as the company pursues a takeover of Shaw Communications. The dispute draws in his relatives, corporate leaders and Canada's competition regulator.
On the Emperor’s birthday in 1886, a ball is planned at Tokyo’s Rokumeikan hall with foreign dignitaries among the guests. Anti-government extremists plan to break into the event.
During an engagement party, Julie-Ann's parents, Justin's drunken mother, and an escaped dancer with her minder collide in Justin's flat. As the guests' prejudices and secrets unravel, Julie-Ann's relationship with Justin breaks down; he leaves with the dancer to escape his own life.
Nick and Tyler face the final session of their Dungeons & Dragons campaign before Nick moves away. When the other players fail to arrive, Tyler’s younger sister joins them, and audience choices help determine how their shared adventure ends.
Rollo's Wild Oat is a 1920 comedic play by Clare Kummer.
Rollo struggles with his brother Otto for power and murders him, then commits further violence before Edith and Hamond plot against him. After Rollo and Hamond die, Aubrey takes the dukedom and punishes the conspirators.
This six-hour stage adaptation condenses Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra to examine how political leaders make decisions and mistakes. Set in modern dress, it uses live video, audience seating onstage, surtitles and a news ticker to connect Roman politics with contemporary political life.
In a courtroom, a drowsy then manic judge presides over a volatile trial involving the prosecutor and his boyfriend, a defense attorney and his client, and a defendant who proposes a solution to the problems in the Middle East.
In his library in Washington Square, New York, Bishop Armstrong learns with disquiet that his grandson Harry is engaged to be married to Lucille Anderson, an actress. Harry says that the bishop has never felt the way he does; in response, the bishop finds a box of mementos (a handkerchief and dried violets) from an affair of long ago, and starts to tell Harry a story. The following scenes are a representation of the story. About 1867, there is an evening reception at the house of Cornelius van Tuyl, a wealthy banker. The guests include Madame Margherita Cavallini, an Italian opera star. Tom, the rector of St Giles (the bishop in younger days) is a friend of van Tuyl, who supports his church work. Van Tuyl expects Tom to say he wants to marry his niece Susan; instead, Tom says he disapproves of his association with Mme Cavallini, who has a bad reputation. When Mme Cavallini (Rita) enters with her admirers, she and Tom immediately notice each other. Tom awkwardly introduces himself to her, and she is interested in him. She says their moment together is like her bouquet of violets, to enjoy before they die. He wants to see her again, and she asks him to come to her hotel apartment. All this time he does not know who she is; as she leaves, she asks van Tuyl to tell him. The scene is the study of St Giles' rectory, on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, a few weeks later. Miss Armstrong, Tom's aunt, is anxious about Tom's affair with Rita, and asks van Tuyl to "save him from that dreadful woman". When Rita arrives, van Tuyl tells her she is amusing herself at Tom's expense. Tom arrives and the others go to tea; he talks to Rita. He says that love is finding the woman you want to live with all your life; she says it is like a little light in all the darkness. He asks her to marry him, but she says there is a reason she cannot. He tells her it will be all right if she repents of her sinful past. He is alarmed when he learns she had a relationship with van Tuyl, but she says it was not serious. Tom announces to van Tuyl that they are engaged, and he congratulates them. But Rita says she was van Tuyl's mistress until she met Tom. Tom is appalled, and Rita leaves. In her apartment later that evening, Rita is triumphant after her performance, and speaks from her balcony to the crowd below. Van Tuyl congratulates her. He tries to get her to eat the meal that has been prepared, but she is not hungry. She is going away the next day; he suggests that he goes away with her. She has a pistol, saying she will kill herself: that in the last weeks she has found something good in the world, but now cannot change. Van Tuyl leaves by a back way as Tom arrives. Tom, seeing van Tuyl's card and two glasses, thinks they have had a passionate meeting. Tom passionately says he wants to save Rita from her sinful life, but then declares his love. Rita says she will kill herself if he touches her. Finally he hears the chimes of midnight and the church procession which he has organized; his manner changes and he leaves to join them. The scene is as for the prologue; the bishop has finished his story. Harry, misunderstanding that the bishop's purpose was to sympathize with youthful impetuousness rather than encourage it, says he has been an ass to hesitate, and will marry Lucille. Harry's sister Suzette comes in; she sees in the paper an obituary of Mme Cavallini, and unaware of the connection with her grandfather, she reads it out; the opera singer never married.
Romanoff and Juliet is a play by Peter Ustinov. A comic spoof of the Cold War, it is set in the small mythical mid-European country of Concordia, whose leader is wooed by the United States and the Soviet Union, each one wanting him as an ally. Russia's ambassador, a member of the Romanoff family, has a son Igor who falls in love with Juliet, the daughter of the US diplomat. The two opposing families, one communist, the other capitalist, represent the warring Capulets and Montagues of Romeo and Juliet. The play premiered in Manchester, England on 2 April 1956. The Broadway production, produced by David Merrick and directed by George S. Kaufman, opened on 10 October 1957 at the Plymouth Theatre and ran for 389 performances. The opening night cast included Peter Ustinov as the General, Gerald Sarracini as Igor, and Elizabeth Allen as Juliet, with Fred Clark, Natalie Schafer, and Jack Gilford in supporting roles. Ustinov was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor in Play. In 1961 Ustinov directed and starred in the film adaptation Romanoff and Juliet of the play.
Romantic Comedy is a play by Bernard Slade, author of Same Time, Next Year.
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love despite their families' feud and secretly marry. After a fatal street fight and Romeo's banishment, a failed message causes each to believe the other dead; their suicides bring the families' reconciliation.
When a basket containing an abandoned baby appears at astronomer Célestus's home, he and his philosopher friend Wolf debate what to do. A town mayor's accusations and the child's true parentage unsettle their household and lead the friends toward an unexpected family bond.
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