Selimus
Selimus plots against his father Bajazet to seize the Ottoman crown, then wages a succession struggle against his brothers. Through deception, poisoning and murder, he eradicates his family rivals and claims the throne.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersSelling Kabul
Selling Kabul is a 2019 American play by Sylvia Khoury. Set in 2013, the play centers a former interpreter for the U.S. Military during the War in Afghanistan forced to choose between witnessing the birth of his child or staying in hiding as a target of the Taliban. The play was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Semar Gugat
After Arjuna cuts off a lock of his hair at the demand of the demon queen Durga, the wayang figure Semar seeks redress from the gods and gains a kingdom of his own. He later challenges Arjuna and the possessed Srikandi as their rule brings suffering to the people. The play’s 30 scenes use this conflict to criticize abuses of power.
Semi-Detached
In the Midlands, Fred Midway devotes himself to climbing the social ladder. His plans to gain acceptance in the local community initially backfire before ultimately succeeding.
Semi-Monde
In the public rooms of a Paris hotel from 1925 to 1927, a changing group of socialites engage in rendezvous, affairs, quarrels and reconciliations. The play includes queer couples and exposes hypocrisy and sexual repression amid its decadent social world. In the second act, entangled affairs culminate in a shooting before the turmoil settles into a restoration of heterosexual order.
Seminar
Set in present-day New York City, Seminar follows four young writers — Kate, Martin, Douglas, and Izzy — and their professor, Leonard. Each student has paid Leonard $5,000 for a ten-week writing seminar to be held in Kate's Upper West Side apartment. As tensions arise and romance falls, they clash over their writing, their relations, and their futures.
Sensation
Sensation is a 1931 thriller play by the British writer Charles Bennett. It ran for 59 performances at the Lyceum Theatre in London's West End. The cast included Eve Gray, Sam Livesey, Roger Livesey, Henry Cass and Edgar Norfolk.
Sense and Sensibility
Elinor and Marianne Dashwood navigate family obligations, money and romance in Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel.
Separate Tables
A pair of one-act plays set in the same Bournemouth hotel: Table by the Window follows a disgraced politician and his ex-wife as they cautiously reconcile; Table Number Seven follows a repressed young woman who befriends and falls in love with a man hiding sexual harassment allegations.
Septima
An adulating political intriguer lives off a politician and quickly denounces him once his influence wanes.
Serenading Louie
The story involves two couples, appearing to live well in identical houses in the suburbs. However, neither couple is happy in their marriage. An affair is being carried on secretly within this foursome, leading to a very violent conclusion.
Serious Money
The plot follows Scilla and Jake who are enjoying the pleasures and the comforts of the upper class. But the story climaxes when Jake Todd turns up murdered during the first few scenes due to his underground trading. Scilla takes it upon herself to find her brother's killer and the money he was dealing. She later finds out that he was being investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry. Though she does not find the killer, she finds the American business woman Marylou Banes with whom Jake was dealing. Marylou Banes offers her a fresh start. The story takes place around the stock market troubles in Britain. Aside from that a second story follows Billy Corman's and Zac Zackerman's attempt to take over the Albion company from Duckett. In between this takeover Corman attempts to get Jacinta Condor and Nigel Ajibala [who are the foreigners with an interest in his takeover] to buy shares in his company. They support Corman but decide to give their bid to Duckett in the end. The plot ends with Greville Todd in jail, Corman appointed as a Lord, and Scilla happily working for Marylou Banes.
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance
A deserter sergeant and three soldiers arrive in a northern English mining town in 1879, pretending to recruit workers while intending to denounce colonial violence after the death of their comrade Billy Hicks. Musgrave prepares a public demonstration that escalates toward mass retaliation, but a death among the soldiers and Annie's intervention disrupt the plan; the dragoons arrest the survivors.
Sertorius
A historical drama about the revolt of Quintus Sertorius, with Sertorius, Aristie and Viriate as its central figures.
Service
The fortunes of the Service family, owners of a department store, are affected by the Great Depression.
Sesostris
Sesostris is a 1728 tragedy by the British writer John Sturmy. It is based on the life of the Ancient Egyptian ruler Sesostris. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Anthony Boheme as Omar, Lacy Ryan as Sesostris, William Milward as Phanes and Thomas Chapman as Dion, John Ogden as Ammon, Anne Berriman as Nitocris and Elizabeth Younger as Ariaspe.
Sethona
In the temple of Osiris, Sethona, former fiancée of Menes, is distraught by Amasis usurping the Egyptian throne and potentially having killed Menes and Seraphis and trying to forcefully marry her. Orus, high priest of Osiris comforts her by telling her that a vision tells him that Egypt would be rightfully restored by Menes and his followers. Myrtaeus tries to comfort Sethona, but she persists. Orus warns Amasis for trying to make the nuptial happen when invasion from Ethiopia might be near, yet Amasis dismisses his supposed divine oracles. Amasis tries to woo Sethona, making many promises, but Sethona rejects his advances. Meanwhile, Menes is revealed to be alive and well in the temple, and he plans a scheme to take back Egypt from Amasis. At Sethona's apartment, Sethona meets Menes. Menes tells Sethona what happened, that when he was arrested during their wedding ceremony, he was against his will locked in a cell, but was rescued by Orus. Knowing it was an escape unknown to Amasis, Sethona tries to hide Menes, but he is almost caught by an officer. Otanes, having seen this, suggests to Menes to abandon Sethona to the king for a greater cause, the abolition of tyranny of Amasis and restoring Seraphis to the throne. Otanes also reveals that Seraphis, contrary to the rumours, is alive and well in Ethiopia. But Menes vehemently refuses the offer, and he is at risk of being executed. Otanes also suggests that Sethona marry Amasis, but she again refuses. She pledges to get Amasis to retract his execution order, but Amasis refuses. Soon, Amasis chooses to instead banish Menes from the palace. Back in Sethona's apartment, Menes is joined by Orus, who tries to proceed on his plan against Amasis during Amasis's nuptial ceremony. He is then joined by Seraphis. Seraphis soon meets Sethona and the two comforts each other and Seraphis tries to reveal his secrets to her. However, a sudden interruption by Amasis and Otanes breaks off the conversation. Amasis is soon informed by Myrtaeus of a revolt against him led by Menes and Amasis suspects the father of sethona was actually seraphis and is actually alive. Meanwhile, Sethona hears that Seraphis is slain during the conflict, which makes her worry that Menes is also slain, leading to her distress. Menes is rejoined with Sethona. In the catacombs, Seraphis is again revealed to be alive; however, mortally wounded. He is joined by Otanes, while Seraphis delivers his dying message. Seraphis is antagonized by Myrtaeus but he soon joins Seraphis's side. Seraphis is found by Sethona in a tomb and Seraphis reveals that when the rebellion succeeds he wish to make Menes the king of Egypt. While Sethona confesses her love of Menes, it is revealed by her father Seraphis that Menes is his son, which means he is her brother. Sethona faints from the shock that her love was incestuous this whole time. Sethona's heart grows cold after knowing the truth. However, she refuses to part ways with her father. Sethona, even after knowing the truth, lives happily ever after now that Amasis has been put away and Egypt being restored.
Settled Out of Court
Settled Out of Court is a 1960 comedy thriller play by William Saroyan and Henry Cecil. It appeared at the Strand Theatre in London's West End with a cast including Nigel Patrick, Maxine Audley, Charles Heslop, Eric Pohlmann, John Stratton, Philip Guard and Mary Hignett. Patrick also directed the work. Adapted from Cecil's own 1959 novel Settled Out of Court, the whole play takes place in the study of a high court judge Sir George Halliday. Although it received very poor reviews from critics, it was a popular success and ran for nearly a year.
Seven
Seven dramatic monologues, developed from interviews with women activists in seven countries, present their struggles for women’s and girls’ rights and well-being. The playwrights shaped the accounts into a unified documentary script.
Seven Against Thebes
As the Argive army led by seven champions attacks Thebes, King Eteocles consults with the city's women and assigns defenders to the gates. When he learns that his brother Polynices commands the assault at the seventh gate, Eteocles resolves to fight him; the brothers kill each other, and the chorus mourns them.
Seven Chances
Jimmie Shannon stands to inherit twelve million dollars if he marries before his thirtieth birthday. When he learns of the condition one day before the deadline, his seven attempts to find a bride become the play's central comic predicament.
Seven Days
Seven Days is a three-act play written in 1909 by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart. It is a farce based on Rinehart's 1908 novella of the same name, which had been expanded into a bestselling 1909 novel titled When a Man Marries. Producers Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper asked Rinehart to adapt the novella for the stage. Since she had not written a play before, she agreed to work with Avery Hopwood, a young playwright with just one produced play, to create the script. Wagenhals and Kemper staged the play at the Astor Theatre on Broadway, where it premiered on November 10, 1909. The production was a hit that played for 397 performances. The play's success led Hopwood to a highly successful career as an author of comedies and enabled Wagenhals and Kemper to retire. Rinehart and Hopwood would later collaborate on two other hit plays, Spanish Love and The Bat, both also produced by Wagenhals and Kemper, who came out of retirement. In 1925 the play was adapted into a silent film of the same name starring Lillian Rich and Creighton Hale.
Seven Deadly Sins Four Deadly Sinners
An anthology evening built around the seven deadly sins from a female perspective, mixing comedy, drama, tall tales, poetry and stories performed by four actresses drawn from a rotating company.
Seven Doors
Eleven darkly comic sketches trace personal desperation and social decline, portraying people whose lives are stripped of dignity against a shared sense of approaching destruction.
Seven Guitars
The play begins with the characters mourning the death of their friend, blues singer Floyd "Schoolboy" Barton in the backyard of Vera's split-level apartment, where she, Louise, and Hedley live. After the first scene, the play proceeds with the events of the previous week. Just released from 90 days in a workhouse (on a trumped-up charge of vagrancy), Floyd returns to his former lover Vera's apartment. Vera distrusts Floyd after his relationship with another woman during a recording session in Chicago. That recording session—with guitarist Canewell and drummer Red Carter—resulted in Floyd's first hit song, "That's All Right", which plays throughout the play. Vera rejects Floyd's invitation to come to Chicago with him as he records a follow-up song. Louise receives a letter from her niece Ruby, who writes that she's moving north from Alabama after relationship issues. Hedley, who raises and slaughters fowl in the backyard, has an advanced tuberculosis infection. He reproaches Louise for recommending he go to the local, newly integrated, sanitarium, believing that he'll be a "big man" when an angelic Buddy Bolden grants him a promised family fortune. Canewell—resenting Floyd for his budding stardom and fearing Chicago's over-zealous police—rebuffs Floyd's invitation to record more music in Chicago. The next day, Louise talks with Vera, and supports her suspicions of Floyd, recounting her own relationship with a flighty man. Red Carter arrives with cigars to celebrate the birth of his son with Canewell and Floyd. They sing and discuss women, going to Chicago, and guns, with Hedley intermittently joining the conversation, including to argue—against Red Carter and Floyd's notion of self-advancement in the absence of an active God—that the Bible foretells a black vengeance against oppressive whites a la the Lion of Judah. Later, the characters gather to listen to a Joe Louis fight on the radio. As the characters are chatting and playing whist following the fight, Ruby unexpectedly arrives, drawing both Canewell and Red Carter's flirtation. They discuss the neighbor's rooster, noting how out of place and annoying its crowing is in the city environment. Despite saying that the rooster is the king of the barnyard, like the black man, Hedley suddenly retrieves the rooster and slits its throat with his tools. The first act ends with his monologue about how the group's complaining about the rooster and its antiquated role meant that they no longer deserved it, drawing comparisons to black men in toto. Ruby and Hedley talk, with Hedley recounting how he killed a man for not calling him "King", a name—based on Buddy Bolden—that his father called him. He propositions Ruby to give him a child, but she declines due to the age gap. Floyd faces down bureaucratic intransigence from the workhouse—which owes him $0.30 pay for each day there, but which requires a specific form—and the pawnshop—where he sold his good guitar. Though his song became a hit, Floyd didn't negotiate a contract that would reward him for its success, so he lacks enough money for the guitar, the bus fare to Chicago, and a gravestone for his mother. Ruby reveals that she came north after her ex-partner Elmore—who she left for his possessive behavior—killed her new partner Leroy in cold blood. She is also pregnant, but doesn't know by which man. Floyd negotiates an advance with his white manager, T.L. Hall, who promises to meet with him the next morning to help him buy back his guitar. When he fails to appear, Floyd learns from Red Carter that Hall has abandoned the city after being found out for a long-term insurance fraud scheme. In despair, Floyd leaves the yard, declaring that he will make it to Chicago. The next day, no one knows where he went, despite Vera, Canewell, and Red Carter's attempts to find him. Hedley delivers a long monologue about his father, recounting how he once beat Hedley when he asked why his father wasn't a "big man" who fought the system like Toussaint Louverture. After Hedley apologized to his father on his deathbed, he learned that he had already passed. Later, his father came to him in a dream to apologize for dying before forgiving him and promise that Buddy Bolden would bestow Hedley a fortune. Still fearing the sanitarium and that white men would involuntarily commit him to it, Hedley goes to his boss, who gifts him a machete. Later, Hedley is riven with paroxysms of paranoia and despair over the treatment of black men until Ruby, hearing the noise, comes and soothes him, before succumbing to his sexual advances. Floyd returns after two days, showing Vera a new guitar and telling of his planned performance for Mother's Day at the local club. He also shows her how he bought them both bus tickets to Chicago, expressing his need for her and asking that she accompany him. Vera reveals that she herself had gone to the station earlier to buy her own one-way ticket from Chicago to Pittsburgh, as an expression of her conditional re-commitment to Floyd. As the women ready for the band's Mother's Day performance, Ruby confides to the others that she plans to have Hedley father her child, as the only man who wanted to provide for, rather than possess, her. She had also accompanied him to church and convinced him to go to the sanitarium the next week. Canewell enters, and reads aloud a newspaper story about the neighbor's son Poochie, who was arrested for robbing the local convenience store. When left alone, Vera tells Canewell of her reconciliation with Floyd, to which he responds with a bittersweet monologue about his own unrequited love for her. The band's performance is a major success, with the club crowded with patrons. Afterward, Canewell notices an uprooted goldenseal plant in the garden and finds $1,200 buried underneath. Floyd demands it from him and they fight over it briefly, before Floyd pulls his gun. Canewell realizes that this was his score from Poochie's convenience store robbery and relents. A drunk Hedley discovers Floyd with the money and thinks that he's Buddy Bolden. Floyd pushes Hedley to the ground after he tries to take the money. Hedley leaves and returns to slash Floyd's throat with his machete. The last scene of the play continues the first, with the characters after Floyd's burial. The police had questioned Canewell and Louise on his murder, but didn't know who committed the crime. The play ends with Hedley repeatedly singing Jelly Roll Morton's "I Heard Buddy Bolden Say".
Seven Jewish Children
In a seven-scene litany spanning roughly seventy years, adults debate what to tell children about the Holocaust and the Israeli–Arab conflict, culminating in the 2008–09 Gaza war. Repeated commands to “tell her” and “don’t tell her” frame a struggle to protect children while confronting violence.
Seven Keys to Baldpate
Novelist Billy Magee bets he can write a 10,000-word story in 24 hours and isolates himself in a winter resort, believing he has its only key. A parade of unexpected visitors disrupts him as he uncovers a plan to steal money; at midnight he discovers his friend hired actors to stage a hoax, and realizes the entire episode has become his story.
Seven Minutes in Heaven
Six high-school freshmen gather on a Friday night for party games, awkward first kisses and tentative romance amid the exhilaration and pain of adolescence.
Seven Other Children
Nine actors discuss Palestinian children across scenes set in periods of recent history. Stirling wrote the play as a response to Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children, aiming to provide context to a debate and to show Palestinian children as victims of distorted education about Israel.
Seventeen
In a small Indiana town, seventeen-year-old Willie Baxter falls for visiting Lola Pratt and tries to impress her as an adult. His schemes, including borrowing his father's dress suit, are repeatedly thwarted by his family and friends, and he eventually recognizes that his infatuation is one-sided.
Seventh Heaven
During World War I in France, young Diane falls in love with Chico; the play's setting spans Paris and Heaven.
Sevil
In 1918–19, Sevil is abandoned by her husband Balash, who despises her after she bears a daughter and takes up with a singer. After Balash's new household rejects her, Sevil joins the revolutionary movement; years later, she returns from study in Moscow and is reunited with her daughter as Balash is left behind.
Sex
Montreal sex worker Margy tries to escape her pimp and later travels with naval officer Gregg. She becomes engaged to Jimmy, but his mother Clara is the society woman Margy once rescued; when Margy’s past is exposed, she leaves Jimmy and chooses to travel with Gregg.
Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man
At a book forum, gay author Dan uses advice from his book to try to open moderator Robyn to her sexuality and her attraction to Stefan, the seductive model assisting onstage.
Sex in the ’80s
Two architects meet again decades after a shared history in the 1980s while preparing for a professional competition in Toronto. As they revisit the past, their younger colleagues challenge their assumptions about work, relationships and the rules that govern them.
Sexo, pudor y lágrimas
A relationship comedy conceived around the sexual and emotional barriers among adults of Serrano’s generation, including machismo, miscommunication and the need for intimacy. Its minimalist staging places two apartments in one shared theatrical space.
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes
After his third divorce, a novelist and star lecturer develops an attraction to a pupil, a major fan who lives nearby. The play examines their teacher-student relationship and the narrator’s self-loathing.
Sexual Perversity in Chicago
Two Chicago men and two women trade caustic views about sex and relationships; the romance between Danny and Deborah deteriorates under their inability to communicate.
Señora Carrar's Rifles
During the Spanish Civil War, Teresa Carrar tries to keep her sons from joining the fighting, but the pressure of the conflict ultimately draws her to the side of the oppressed.
Shabash Anarkali
Surinder Gulati’s Hindustani parody turns the Mughal-era romance of Prince Salim and Anarkali into comedy. The play’s irreverent treatment of Emperor Akbar drew criticism in Parliament, while the work was staged across India and broadcast on Doordarshan.
Shadow Play
Vicky Gayforth takes sleeping tablets after she and her husband Simon agree to divorce. In a drug-induced dream she revisits their courtship and marriage through shifting scenes, dances and songs; when she wakes, Simon’s concern rekindles their affection and they reconcile.
Shadow and Substance
In Ireland, a young caretaker’s sincere, unselfish Catholic faith brings the people around her back to first principles, challenging the institutional and personal distortions of religious belief.
Shadow of Heroes
Beginning in 1944, the play follows László Rajk and his wife Julia through anti-Nazi resistance, political imprisonment, a coerced false confession, Rajk’s execution and Julia’s later arrest after the Hungarian uprising.
Shadowlands
The story follows Lewis as he meets an American fan, Joy Gresham, whom he befriends and eventually marries. The story also focuses on his relationship with his brother, Warren Lewis and deals with his personal struggle: Lewis preaches that one should endure suffering with patience, but finds that the simple answers he had preached no longer apply when Joy becomes afflicted with cancer and eventually dies.
Shadows of a Great City
An orphan heiress is targeted by a cousin who plots to have her drowned and claim her fortune. After a sailor rescues and raises her, the cousin engineers the sailor’s imprisonment; a burglary and escape lead to the heiress’s rescue and the villain’s arrest.
Shadows of the Evening
In a Swiss hotel suite, Linda and Anne discuss the terminal cancer of George, Anne’s estranged husband and Linda’s lover. George reveals that he already knows he is dying and plans to spend his remaining time with both women, moving between Linda and his family with Anne.
Shahed Ma Shafsh Haga
Sarhan, a naive children's television presenter who fears women and avoids relationships, becomes the suspect in his neighbor's murder. As a witness at the trial, his fearful answers prompt him to change his life, but he rejects his new persona after the inspector reminds him of the children who enjoy his program.
Shakes versus Shav
In a ten-minute puppet comedy, Shakespeare and Shaw bicker over whose writing is superior, trade blows and compare their works; Shaw stages a mock contest between Macbeth and Rob Roy before the two writers debate the value of their art.
Shakespeare for My Father
In a memory play, Lynn Redgrave revisits her relationship with her imposing actor father, Michael Redgrave, using Shakespearean roles and characters from her childhood daydreams to follow his life through his death and to forgive his failures as a parent.
Shakespeare in Love
A stage dramatization of Shakespeare in London in 1593, adapted from the film by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.
Shakespeare's Villains
Shakespeare's Villains is a one-man play, created and performed by Steven Berkoff. Following its first run at London's Theatre Royal, Haymarket (7 July – 8 August 1998) where it was produced by Berkoff's East Productions and Marc Sinden (who also co-directed), it was nominated for The Society of London Theatre Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. Performed around the world by Berkoff since 1998, the piece explores and analyses Shakespeare's most villainous characters, including Iago, the Macbeths, Shylock and Richard III – characters who are inherently evil and whose situation leads them to do evil deeds, or who are at the mercy of an evil society.
Shakespeare's Will
On the day of William Shakespeare’s funeral, Anne Hathaway receives and resists reading his will. She recalls their private marriage, his life in London, and her struggle to protect their children during plague; the bequest of the second-best bed turns her grief into anger and a decision to make a life of her own.
Shallow Cups
Friends and relations of a dead girl are offered the chance to resurrect her, but fail.
Sham
A cultured thief breaks into Clara and Charles’s home expecting valuable art, but finds poor-quality objects. When the couple return, he warns that their lack of genuine artworks will disgrace them.
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
A group of teachers rehearsing a mock trial asks a local stagehand to fill in for an absent actor. The improvised courtroom game turns accusatory when the group charges Miss Benare with infanticide and exposes her pregnancy by a missing professor.
Shartiya Mithay
Two blind brothers hope to marry but are repeatedly rejected. Their strict father wants them to become beggars, while their flirtatious grandfather pursues a fourth marriage; a journalism student interested in writing about beggars seeks to interview one of the brothers.
She Follows Me About
She Follows Me About is a comedy play by the British writer Ben Travers. A farce, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham before transferring to the Garrick Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 196 performances between 15 October 1943 and 18 March 1944. The West End cast included Robertson Hare, Basil Radford, Joyce Heron, Percy Parsons, Gordon James, Aubrey Mallalieu, Pauline Tennant and Catherine Lacey. The plot revolved around a Vicar who unwittingly discovers that his camera has photographs of two nude WAAFS on it, taken as part of a mischievous dare. In 1970 it was adapted by the BBC for an episode of Ben Travers' Farces featuring Arthur Lowe. It was the only one of seven episodes not be based on one of the playwright's pre-war Aldwych Farces.
She Has a Name
Canadian lawyer Jason leaves his family to work with an anti-trafficking NGO in Thailand. He believes Number 18, a young girl enslaved in a Bangkok brothel, may have survived a deadly trafficking incident and could testify against the ring. As Jason tries to win her trust and rescue her, the brothel’s operators close in, and his efforts end in tragedy.
She Kills Monsters
Agnes Evans is a completely average woman who strives to be nothing but average until the day she wishes her life were a little less boring. Her wish unfortunately comes true when her family, including her younger sister Tilly, dies in a car crash. Agnes was never close to Tilly because they were interested in completely different things; Agnes loved mainstream pop culture, while Tilly had a passion for everything classified as nerdy or geeky, with a special love for Dungeons & Dragons. As Agnes is cleaning and packing Tilly's room in order to move everything to her place, she finds a module Tilly had written for D&D. In order to get closer to the sister she never really knew, Agnes embarks on her own adventure with the help of Dungeon Master Chuck to play the game as Tilly designed. As she delves deeper into her quest, the fantasy world and reality begin to collide and mix as Agnes searches to connect with Tilly and realizes how much of her sister she never knew.
She Stoops to Conquer
Kate Hardcastle learns that the shy Charles Marlow mistakes her family home for an inn. She disguises herself as a barmaid so he can speak freely with her, while Tony Lumpkin’s deception and a separate elopement plot involving Constance Neville and George Hastings drive a night of misunderstandings toward two marriages.
She Ventures and He Wins
Charlotte and Juliana disguise themselves as men to test potential suitors. Charlotte, a wealthy heiress seeking love beyond her fortune, falls for Lovewell, while Urania and her husband devise a scheme to punish Squire Wouldbe for pursuing her. A tangle of disguises and mistaken identities leads to several reconciliations.
She Wanted a Cream Front Door
She Wanted a Cream Front Door is a 1947 comedy play by the British writer A.R. Whatmore. It ran for 129 performances at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End between 6 February and 31 June 1947. The cast included Robertson Hare, Peter Haddon, Sidney Vivian and Ian Carmichael. It was produced by Austin Melford.
She Would If She Could
Act One opens as Mr Courtall and his friend, Mr Freeman, are discussing the wickedness of London. A servant arrives to announce that Courtall has a female visitor. To protect the lady's honour he hides Freeman in a cupboard. The female visitor is Mrs Sentry, the maid of the middle-aged Lady Cockwood. She has come to announce the arrival in town of her mistress and master, Sir Oliver Cockwood, and to arrange a tryst between her mistress and Courtall. She (falsely) claims that she is there without Lady Cockwood's knowledge. Sentry is thrown into a panic when Sir Oliver comes to call on Courtall. The latter hides Sentry in a different cupboard. Sir Oliver has come to town for wine, women and pleasure after finding the country too dull. Courtall is not surprised but chastises him for breaking the heart of his “innocent” wife. Sir Oliver admits that she loves him too much, but it's OK as he will carry on behind her back, so she won't know. He then asks Courtall to try to persuade his wife to love him “a little less”. Courtall refuses to do so but agrees to dine with him and his friend Sir Joslin Jolley that evening. After he leaves, Sentry comes out of her cupboard. She is shocked at her master's falseness in cheating on his wife, before returning to arranging the meeting of Lady Cockwood and Courtall for the same evening. After she leaves, Freeman comes out of his cupboard. He is shocked that Courtall is going to meet both husband and wife on the same evening, before Courtall reveals that he has been repeatedly avoiding the advances of Lady Cockwood the whole time. He does not want to upset her, but not man above 16 is safe from her attempted advances. The scene then changes to the Cockwood's home, where Lady Cockwood is overdramatically regretting sending Sentry to arrange it all. When Sentry returns she begins to tell her mistress of all that has occurred, before she can finish Lady Cockwood begins to wail at her misfortune at being discovered. Sentry then finishes her tale and Lady Cockwood reveals she knows all about Sir Oliver's carrying on with younger women, and is happy enough as it allows her time to chase younger men. When Sir Oliver and Sir Joslin appear, Lady Cockwood feigns innocence and upset that her husband is going out for the evening without her. Sir Joslin tells her that they will not be out drinking. Sir Joslin's nieces, Ariana and Gatty arrive as Sir Oliver and their uncle depart. They notice that Lady Cockwood and Sentry are up to something. They agree they are both bored with being demure ladies and want to have some fun of their own. They agree to go in disguise to The Mulberry Gardens to find some young men to flirt with and break the hearts of. Act Two opens with the arrival of Courtall and Freeman at The Mulberry Gardens, having left Sir Oliver too drunk to notice their absence. They are there to delay Courtall's unwanted liaison with Lady Cockwood. Ariana and Gatty, disguised, enter the gardens, and repeatedly pass the men trying to get them to follow them. Some confused chasing amongst the bushes occurs between various combinations of the 4 young people. The men also disguise their true identities. Eventually some flirty banter ensues, the two girls giving as good as they get in witty repartee. With much teasing, the girls arrange to meet the men the next day. Meanwhile, Lady Cockwood is upset about Courtall's absence at the agreed time, and swears off him. When he appears this plan is swiftly abandoned for the original one of feigning knowledge of the meeting arranged by Mrs Sentry, who she sends out of the room. He continues to fend off her advances as he hasn't the time but agrees meeting the next day. Lady Cockwood then reprimands Sentry for leaving her alone with a man and risking her honour. Sentry (in aside to the audience) reveals that if she leaves the room she gets told off, but if she stays in the room she doesn't get spoken to for a week. Ariana and Gatty arrive to be told off by Lady Cockwood for walking in The Mulberry Gardens without a chaperone and risking their honour. This is quickly overtaken by the drunken arrival of Sir Oliver, Sir Joslin, Courtall and Freeman. The latter two recognising the young women's clothing. Courtall is worried they will tell Lady Cockwood of his flirting. A very drunk Sir Oliver rejects his wife's kiss, saying that he'd rather find himself a wench. Lady Cockwood goes into hysterics and the company sympathises with her as the innocent spouse. She whispers to Courtall that this scene will be very helpful in being free to sneak out to cheat on her husband with him. The four young people discuss their earlier meeting in The Mulberry Gardens. Act Three begins the next day at The New Exchange (Britain's Bourse). Freeman offers to help Courtall avoid Lady Cockwood, whilst they pursue Ariana & Gatty. They agree that settling down is too boring. Freeman leaves and Lady Cockwood and Mrs Sentry arrive. Courtall asks her why she has brought her maid to their assignation. Hypocritically she says that she never goes anywhere without her and would deny herself all pleasures if it risked her reputation. She doesn't mind doing naughty things, but no one must suspect she does them. Ariana & Gatty arrive, the other two pretend to have met by chance. Courtall again postpones his meeting with Lady Cockwood until the next day. The young women tease him about their meeting at The Mulberry Garden. The party heads off to The Bear Inn. Elsewhere Sir Joslin comes to call on Sir Oliver to take him to a party. However, Lady Cockwood has locked away all of his fine clothes except his Sunday church outfit, so he cannot go out to be seen by the young women of the town. Sir Joslin persuades him to come along to the party at The Bear Inn, which Lady Cockwood will never find out about. On arriving at The Bear, Courtall assures Lady Cockwood that her husband will never know of their trip there. As they are shown to a room, the waiter mentions that Sir Joslin and Sir Oliver will be next door looking enjoying drinks and female company. Lady Cockwood doesn't want to be discovered, but also doesn't want her husband to get up to his tricks. Sir Joslin and Sir Oliver arrive and head to their room to await the arrival of Sir Joslin's friend, Mr Rakehell, who is bringing the girls of easy virtue. When he arrives, Rakehell laughs at Sir Oliver's outfit. They swap clothes, for a moderate sum. Music and dancing begin and both parties end up mixed together, the ladies all in masks. When Lady Cockwood hears her husband boasting of him impending success with Rakehell's harlots, she feigns a fit and collapses. Sir Oliver realises who the women are, and his wife comes out of her fictitious faint and goes into an overly dramatic portrayal of the wronged wife and victim of all these goings on. She then reveals all her secret behaviours, but hypothetically, in her arguments towards her husband. She again relapses into a fake faint. Sir Oliver apologizes, whilst secretly arranging to meet the harlots the next day at the new Spring Gardens (the original name for Vauxhall Gardens). Act Four opens with Lady Cockwood revealing a new plan to Sentry. She has sent fake letters from Ariana and Gatty to Courtall and Freeman arranging meetings. This is to test how true Courtall's affections are for her, based on whether he accepts the young girls invitation or not. Sir Oliver enters the room, and his wife feigns yet more innocence and devotion to him. He also feigns unfailing devotion to her. She tells him that she is only civil to Courtall because he is a friend of her husband but believes (or so she tells her husband) that he has misconstrued her politeness towards him as something more scandalous. This transpires to be a plan to keep him away from meeting Ariana and Gatty at the Cockwood home. The girls arrive on their way to Spring Gardens when Lady Cockwood tricks them into revealing that Courtall was with them in The Mulberry Garden the previous night, whilst damaging their opinion of him. After they leave, Lady Cockwood also heads to Spring Gardens to see whether Courtall will accept the fake invitation. At Spring Gardens Sir Joslin, Sir Oliver and Rakehell are up to no good, drinking, singing and attempting to go wenching. Courtall and Freeman arrive and discover that the letters they both received are identical. They discuss his continued avoidance of Lady Cockwood, until interrupted by the arrival of Ariana and Gatty. When they meet, the men believe (as they have arrived together) that the letters are genuine invites to meet. The girls on the other hand believe Lady Cockwood's version that the men are dishonourably in the gardens looking for fun with other women. A conversation of cross purposes ensues, that increasingly convinces and entrenches all parties in their assumptions, until one of them mentions the letters. Lady Cockwood and Sentry arrive, the discovery of their involvement with the letters is only avoided by the appearance of a drunk Sir Oliver attempting to fight Courtall to defend his wife's honour. Act Five begins at the Cockwood home. Lady Cockwood is attempting to salvage the situation by obtaining the letters. Freeman comes to call, but in the middle of his visit Courtall arrives, so Freeman has to hide in the cupboard. When Courtall asks what he has done to offend her and Sir Oliver, she flies into vague and overly dramatic denunciations of him and the harms he has done her. He is confused by her sudden change of heart towards him, but in the middle of his visit Sir Oliver returns home, so Courtall has to hide under the table. Sir Oliver is very apologetic. His wife is more concerned that he may discover that she has two men hidden in the room. Whilst his back is turned, Courtall moves from under the table to the wardrobe with Freeman.
She Would and She Would Not
She Would and She Would Not is a 1702 comedy play by the English actor-writer Colley Cibber. The original Drury Lane cast included Cibber as Don Manuel, Benjamin Husband as Don Philip, John Mills as Octavio, William Pinkethman as Trappanti, William Bullock as Soto, Susanna Verbruggen as Hypolita, Mary Hook as Rosara, Henrietta Moore as Flora and Frances Maria Knight as Viletta. Incidental music was composed by Jacques Paisible. Cibber dedicated the play to the Duke of Ormonde, attributing the play's success to the delirious public mood following the recent victory at Vigo. The play was revived frequently. In 1800 during a performance at Drury Lane James Hadfield attempted to assassinate George III.
She was Seventeen
After her seventeen-year-old daughter is killed while volunteering in Tiananmen Square, a mother hides the truth as friends and colleagues withdraw. Twenty-five years later, visiting Hong Kong, she meets a student supporting Occupy Central and the Umbrella Movement and fears he will suffer the same fate; contact with the Tiananmen Mothers forces her to face the crackdown again.
She's Done It Again
She's Done It Again is a 1969 comedy play by the British writer Michael Pertwee. A farce, it ran at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End from 15 October 1969 to 23 May 1970. This marked a shorter run than any of the Whitehall farces that star Brian Rix had appeared in, although it received considerably better reviews. Aside from Rix the London cast included Margaret Nolan, Anna Dawson, Leo Franklyn, Derek Royle, Robert Dorning, Michael Kilgarriff, Hazel Douglas and Anthony Sharp. A subsequent UK tour (31 August to 28 November 1970) involved some cast changes, including Valerie Leon replacing Margaret Nolan and Leonard Trolley substituting for Anthony Sharp.
Shear Madness
In a hair salon, an audience participates in investigating the murder of the landlady, questioning characters and voting on the killer. The ending varies by performance, with actors improvising the reveal.
Sheerluck Jones, or Why D'Gillette Him Off
A burlesque of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, the play renames and caricatures its characters as Sheerluck Jones and Professor MacGillicuddy. Failed detective deductions, an egg-whisk safecracking gag and a gas-chamber scheme turn the original's melodramatic incidents into comic set pieces.
Sheikh Sanan
Sheikh Sanan, a Muslim scholar, falls in love with Khumar, a Georgian Christian woman. Their love drives him to reject religious divisions and defy the fanatics who persecute them; the pair finally find salvation in death. The verse tragedy sets ideal love and humanity against dogma and violence.
Shenandoah: A Military Comedy
A Union officer and a Southern woman are separated by the outbreak of the Civil War, then meet again as she is captured after carrying dispatches for the Confederacy. Their story intersects with a disgraced colonel’s son, who undertakes a dangerous mission behind enemy lines and dies without his father learning his identity; the final act reunites the surviving lovers after the war.
Sheppey
Sheppey (1933) was William Somerset Maugham's last play, written at the age of 59 and after he had reached distinction as a novelist and playwright. Maugham dedicated the book to Sir John Gielgud. It is the story about the change of fortune of hairdresser Joseph Miller who was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent and nicknamed "Sheppey." The play is set in the 1930s. Sheppey, a hard worker at the same establishment for 15 years, wins a subsidiary prize in the Irish Lottery of £8,500 but does not take to his win with the same style that most others would – and to which most, including his boss, his wife or his daughter and her fiancé (a teacher given to believing that he is more educated than most) – expect him to. The play was written in 1932 and first produced at the Wyndham's Theatre London on 14 September 1933 with a cast that included Ralph Richardson, then aged 31, and Laura Cowie who had been a star of the silent movies. Following the production of Sheppey, Maugham publicly declared that he would write no more plays, a promise he kept until his death in 1965. Nevertheless, he continued to write numerous short stories, novels, articles, and other works.
Sherlock Holmes
Alice Faulkner is held by the Larrabees, who want to sell letters proving her late sister’s affair with Sir Edward Leighton. Leighton hires Holmes to recover them, while Professor Moriarty joins the scheme to seize the papers and capture his rival. Holmes frees Alice and leaves the documents with her, leading to their engagement.
Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas
When performers begin dying during West End shows at Christmas, Sherlock Holmes finds a connection to the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. He races to stop the killer with help from Dr. Watson and rival detective Athena Faversham.
Shibaraku
In the modern version, a warrior called Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa interrupts the execution of imperial prisoners by an usurping lord. He defeats the lord's forces and secures the prisoners' release through a display of theatrical bravado, speech, and swordplay.
Shifters
The play follows the years-long love story between Dre and Des (short for Destiny), who first met at high school in South London and brought together by the school's debating club. while his estranged mother lives in Nigeria. Des goes on to become a conceptual artist based in America while Dre remains in England, working as a restauranteur. Over a decade later, the two protagonists reconnect at Dre's grandmother's funeral back in England, bringing up sparks of the past and thoughts of the future.
Shimmer
A solo performer tells of two boys who befriend each other in a harsh Midwestern juvenile detention center in 1956. They invent a fantasy language called shimmer to endure the institution, but are eventually confined and plan an escape; the play draws partly on O’Keefe’s own experiences.
Shining City
Widower John visits Ian, a therapist, claiming he has seen his dead wife in their home. Ian, a former priest struggling with lost faith, leaves his partner and child as both men try to understand their experiences and find another life.
Shirley Valentine
Wondering what has happened to her youth and feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley feels as if her family treats her more like a servant and she finds herself regularly alone and talking to the wall while preparing an evening meal of "chips and egg" for her emotionally distant husband. When her best friend wins a competition for two to Greece, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen, and heads for a fortnight of rest and relaxation. In Greece, with just a little effort on her part, she rediscovers everything she had been missing about her existence in England. She finds so much happiness, in fact, that when the vacation is over she decides not to return, ditching her friend at the airport and going back to the hotel where she'd been staying to ask for a job and to live a newly self-confident life in which she is at last true to herself.
Shirleymander
A stage biographical portrait of Shirley Porter, adapted from the radio drama, with Jessica Martin playing Porter.
Shit. Meet. Fan.
The show is a domestic comedic drama, and exploration into the relationships between three couples and the secrets they have behind their phones. One night at a party to watch an eclipse, they play a game in which they place their phones on the table and have to read aloud or show every text or message that comes in on their phone.
Shivered
In the fictional Essex new town of Draylingstowe, two families’ lives unfold across roughly twelve years through 17 scenes presented out of chronological order. The nonlinear fragments expose fractures in families, friendships and community, and blur reality with fantasy.
Shlemiel the First
A non-musical stage adaptation of Singer’s Chelm stories about the supposedly wise men of the legendary town and the fool Shlemiel.
Shmendrik, oder di komishe Chaseneh
Shmendrik is a clueless, poor student whose mother arranges his marriage to a young woman who is already in love with someone else. The play follows her efforts to evade the match and reunite with her beloved.
Shopping and Fucking
In consumerist London, a group of young people treat sex, drugs, violence and even intimacy as transactions, testing what remains of human attachment when buying and selling become their moral code.
Shore Acres
Shore Acres is four-act a play written by James A. Herne. The play debuted at McVicker's Theater in Chicago on May 23, 1892, initially under the title Shore Acres Subdivision. Later in the Chicago run, it was retitled Uncle Nat. In February 1893, the play opened as Shore Acres at the Boston Museum, where it ran for several months. Following the play's success in Boston, Henry C. Miner staged it on Broadway, where it opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre on October 30, 1893.
Short Circuit
A comedy about a group of adulterous lovers facing complications.
Short Eyes
The play is set in an unnamed House of Detention in New York City, the inmates of which are predominantly black or Latino. One day, a new prisoner is brought in: Clark Davis, a young, middle-class white man accused of raping a young girl. His fellow prisoners immediately turn on him — child molesters are considered the lowest form of prison life — except for Juan, one of the institution's older prisoners, who treats him with dignity. While Davis insists he doesn't remember raping the girl, he admits that he has molested several other children. It is eventually revealed that the police's case against Davis is weak, and he will likely be released. This puts Juan in a difficult position: on one hand, he feels a grudging pity for Davis, and "snitching" on another prisoner, even one as despised as Davis, could get him killed; on the other, there is no doubt in his mind that Davis will "scar up some more little girls' minds" if released. Before he can decide what to do, however, Davis is attacked and killed by the other prisoners. The play also revolves around other features of prison life, such as the day-to-day attempts to accumulate privileges from the guards and "rap sessions" in which prisoners joke, flirt, and threaten each other.
Shout Across the River
On the edge of London, the play follows troubled teenager Christine and her mother Mrs Forsythe as they struggle to survive together under the pressure of unemployment and recession. Suspended from school and facing possible detention, Christine’s defiance intensifies the conflict at home.
Show Us Your Tiddas!
In this autobiographical performance, Lou Bennett recounts her life, including coming out to her family, her first live performance, moving to the city and her time with the band Tiddas.
Shyamchi Mummy
Yashoda Borkar, a bank employee, presses her teenage son Shyam to focus on school because she wants him to become a doctor. Her husband Anand is an unsuccessful singer and music director, and Shyam's neighbor consistently earns better grades despite taking part in sports.
Shylock
During a post-show discussion after controversy forces a production of The Merchant of Venice to close early, Jewish actor Jon Davies explains why he played Shylock as a villain. As he removes his costume piece by piece, he argues that theatre should remain provocative even when it challenges audiences.
Side Man
The play starts in the 1950s and follows the family through the next 35 years. The play's narrator is Clifford Glimmer, the only son of Gene, a talented but self-absorbed jazz trumpeter, and his alcoholic wife Terry, who describes the tumultuous relationship his parents shared and the haphazard career journey Gene followed over the course of three decades. Dedicated more to his music than his family, he refuses to accept a regular job to support them, and their home life gradually unravels. Clifford eventually assumes the role of breadwinner his father has forsaken and offers his mother the emotional support Gene cannot. Scenes alternate between the family's Spartan New York City apartment and the smoke-filled nightclubs and cabarets of another era.
Side by Side
An idealistic pawnbroker is caught up in Germany's hyperinflation. Kaiser shifts from his earlier Expressionism toward rounded characterization, realistic clipped dialogue and a light-hearted story of the crisis.
Siebenstein
War veteran Feuerstaak’s return to civilian life is disrupted when his former orderly Philipp gathers surviving comrades for a march back to Siebenstein, where their company’s dead lie. The summons sets loyalty to fallen comrades against remaining at home with family.
Siege
During the Spanish Civil War, a band of loyalists holds out in a mountain fortress near Madrid. Their resistance reimagines the historical siege of the Alcázar with the political loyalties reversed.
Siegfried
An amnesiac French soldier and writer becomes a celebrated German national hero after a nurse raises him as German. A French lover and a defender of German traditions try to restore his memory, exposing competing ideas of identity and belonging.
Sight Unseen
Sight Unseen is a play by Donald Margulies. The play premiered at South Coast Repertory in 1991, and then was produced Off-Broadway in 1992 and on Broadway in 2004.
Significant Other
In present-day New York, four friends in their late twenties search for relationships as their lives change. Jordan pines for a partner while the women in his close-knit circle pair off, forcing him to confront the life he hoped to have and the changes beyond his control.
Sigurd Slembe
This three-play cycle follows Sigurd, a 12th-century claimant to the Norwegian throne: he discovers his royal parentage and leaves for the Crusades, returns to Caithness and Orkney where his ambition brings disaster, then comes home to seek recognition, raises a revolt, and dies in defeat.
Sigurd's First Flight
In 1122, the young Sigurd prays to learn who his father is. His mother reveals he is the illegitimate son of King Magnus Barefoot; Sigurd vows to claim his right to the throne and leaves to join the Crusades.
Sigurd's Homecoming
In 1136, Sigurd returns to Stavanger seeking recognition from his half-brother, King Harald Gille. After nobles imprison him and plot his death, Sigurd escapes, kills Harald, and raises a revolt; before his defeat and death in 1139, he bids farewell to his mother.
Sigurd's Second Flight
Five years after leaving Norway, Sigurd serves Harald, Earl of Caithness, and loves Harald’s niece Audhild. Sigurd’s ambition for power brings bloody disaster to the noble families, and he decides to leave on another Crusade.
Silence
A three-character one-act play that uses both spoken language and pauses to suggest an underlying, withheld communication. Pinter describes speech as a means of covering a deeper silence, leaving the characters’ relationships and unspoken meanings to resonate beneath their words.
Silence
Set in Canterbury and Cumbria in a reimagined Dark Ages England, the play follows Silence, Lord of Cumbria, a woman living in disguise, alongside a priest, a king, a Norman princess and her household. Buffini draws on medieval history while engaging concerns of the new millennium.
Silent Disco
Two teenagers, one Aboriginal, attend a Sydney public school.
Silver Birch House
The play follows a peasant family in the Anatolian mountains through the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 1970s in modern Turkish history.
Silver Lining
Five elderly residents of a Gravesend retirement home face the threat of flooding.
Silver Wedding
Sir Robert and Lady Lydia Marlowe have spent many years abroad in the diplomatic service. On the morning of their twenty fifth wedding anniversary she announces that they should go their own separate ways. Her present for the wedding is a series of love letters he had written to different women throughout his career, each of whom she befriended.
Silvertown
Marija and Salih’s love story unfolds against the Srebrenica tragedy, as they become victims of the war’s circumstances. The bilingual play seeks to tell a personal story without reducing its subject to political generalities.
Simpatico
Three young associates rig a horse race and blackmail an official. Twenty years later, the scheme resurfaces as one of them tries to recover the original blackmail material from his former partners.
Simple Spymen
Two street musicians are mistakenly appointed as bodyguards for a scientist carrying a supposedly vital invention. They blunder through disguises and spy threats in Dover, while incompetent army officers and MI5 agents compound the confusion until the invention proves to be a carpet shampoo.
Sin and Sorrow Are Common to All
A tragic incident exposes conflict between petty tradespeople and the nobility, contrasting the upright Krasnov with the weak-willed nobleman Babayev.
Sing Me No Lullaby
At a Christmas reunion, former Illinois college friends confront the consequences of their 1930s political beliefs. A brilliant mathematician who once supported Soviet Russia has become dispossessed and is shut out of jobs, housing and social life because of his associations.
Single Spies
Single Spies is a 1988 double bill written by the English playwright Alan Bennett. It consists of An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution, the former an adaptation of a television play the author had written for the BBC in 1983. Both plays depict members of the Cambridge spy ring and touch on their moral, political and aesthetic beliefs: the first shows Guy Burgess in exile in Moscow in 1958, seven years after absconding from Britain. The second focuses on Sir Anthony Blunt while he still holds high office in the Royal Household although known to the security services as a former Soviet agent. The title comes from a speech in Hamlet: ‘When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.’ The double bill was presented at the National Theatre in December 1988, and transferred to the Queen's Theatre in the West End in February 1989.
Sink the Belgrano!
Steven Berkoff’s verse satire dramatizes Margaret Thatcher’s decision to torpedo the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War, using parodic figures representing British political and military leaders, sailors and farmers.
Sir Anthony Love
Sir Anthony Love; Or, The Rambling Lady is a 1690 comedy play by the Irish writer Thomas Southerne. It was originally staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with a cast that included Susanna Mountfort in a breeches role as Sir Anthony Love, William Mountfort as Valentine, Joseph Williams as Ilford, William Bowen as Sir Gentle Golding, Anthony Leigh as An Abbe, John Hodgson as Count Canaile, Samuel Sandford as Count Verole, George Bright as Waitwell, Colley Cibber as Servant to Sir Gentle, Charlotte Butler as Floriante, Anne Bracegirdle as Charlote and Frances Maria Knight as Volante. The play's incidental music was composed by Henry Purcell.
Sir Barnaby Whigg
Sir Barnaby Whigg; Or, No Wit Like A Womans is a 1681 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It was first staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. A song for the play was composed by Henry Purcell. The original cast included Thomas Clark as Wilding, Cardell Goodman as Townly, Philip Griffin as Porpuss, Martin Powell as Whigg, John Coysh as Swift, Carey Perin as Benedick, Mary Corbett as Gratiana, Sarah Cooke as Livia and Susanna Percival as Winifred. The published version was dedicated to the politician Lord Berkeley.
Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes
Clamydes sets out to kill a dragon to win Juliana, while her brother Clyomon takes his place at knighting and embarks on his own adventures. Clyomon falls for the princess Neronis, who disguises herself as a boy; after magical dangers, mistaken identities and a rivalry between the knights, the two men reconcile and both couples plan to marry.
Sir Courtly Nice
Sir Courtly Nice: Or, It Cannot Be is a 1685 comedy play by the English writer John Crowne. Rehearsals by the United Company were underway when the death of Charles II in February led to the closure of all theatres as a mark of respect. The play was eventually staged on 9 May at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is the tradition of the Restoration Comedy. A popular hit, it became a stock part of the repertoire for more than a century, with Colley Cibber and Anne Oldfield appearing in a celebrated 1709 revival. The original cast included William Mountfort as Sir Courtly, Cave Underhill as Hothead, Thomas Gillow as Testimony, William Mountfort as Lord Beaugard, Philip Griffin as Surly, Anthony Leigh as Sir Nicholas Callico and Elizabeth Barry as Leonora. Crowne made an attempt to balance the politics of the time by creating a Hothead, a hardline Tory character to balance out the Puritan Whig zealot Testimony but the play still revealed the author's underlying support for the Tory position. The published version was dedicated to the Duke of Ormonde.
Sir Giles Goosecap, Knight
The melancholic poet-lover Clarence is helped by Lord Momford to recognize his bond with Countess Eugenia. Around them, humours-comedy figures include the Francophile Captain Foulweather and waggish servants.
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