aftercurtain.
Loading navigation…

Plays

Upcoming shows

8284 shows

Clear filters

Somebody Knows

Play · 1932

Somebody Knows is a 1932 mystery play by the British writer John Van Druten about an entertainer who is accused of strangling a prostitute. Following a court case there is not enough evidence to convict him, leaving the audience unsure of his actual guilt. It was staged at St Martin's Theatre in the West End, running for 43 performances between 12 May and 18 June 1932. The cast included Frank Lawton, Lawrence Hanray, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Cathleen Nesbitt. It was comparatively unsuccessful at a time when many of Van Druten's work's were enjoying commercial success. He attributed this to the fact that audiences expected a standard whodunnit while he was interested in developing a character study.

Someone Waiting

Play · 1953

Someone Waiting is a 1953 thriller play by the British writer Emlyn Williams. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool before transferring to the Globe Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 156 performances between 25 November 1953 and 10 April 1954. The cast included Williams himself as well as Gabrielle Brune, Adrianne Allen, Gladys Henson, Campbell Cotts and John Stratton. It appeared at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway in February 1956 with Leo G. Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis and Norah Howard in the cast, but this lasted for only 15 shows. In 1957 it was adapted into the film Time Without Pity directed by Joseph Losey. In 1965 the play was staged by the Edinburgh Gateway Company, directed by Victor Carin.

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

Play · 1992

Someone Who'll Watch over Me is a play written by Irish dramatist Frank McGuinness. The play focuses on the trials and tribulations of an Irishman, an Englishman and an American (Edward, Michael, and Adam) who are kidnapped and held hostage by unseen Arabs in Lebanon. As the three men strive for survival they also strive to overcome their personal and nationalistic differences. Related to this is each individual's own attempt to maintain sanity under the watchful eye of both captors and supposed comrades. At times the dramatic dialogue reaches a level of Beckettian absurdity, as even the audience is unable to draw a distinction between the characters' insanity and humour. We are made witness and accomplice to a humour based on something apparently ghastly, the loss of rationality.

Sons of the Prophet

Play · 2011

Brothers Joseph Douaihy (29 years old) and Charles Douaihy (18 years old), who live in a run-down area of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, are left alone after their father dies of a heart attack two weeks after a car accident. That accident was caused by a prank by the local football star, Vin, who is sent to a juvenile detention center as punishment. Their family has emigrated from Lebanon and is distantly related to Kahlil Gibran. The brothers are forced to not only take care of themselves but care for their aging uncle, Bill. Joseph, who has mysterious pains, goes to work for Gloria, a book-packager, to get health insurance. Gloria tries to convince Joseph to write a book about his family, thinking this will return her to success in the publishing world. Joseph, who is gay, starts a romance with a reporter named Timothy. The play ends at Vin's trial which is reported on by Timothy. The Douaihy family has chosen to not try to stop Vin from playing football. Which is followed by Vin’s apology and him reciting Gibran’s Prayer to Saint Rafka. The court goes into recess and Timothy asks for photos from the family, where he is then lambasted by Joseph for trying to exploit them. An open mic portion begins and Gloria unexpectedly appears giving an emotional speech empathizing with the Douahiy family, and saying she feels as if she was a part of their family. Gloria then asks Joseph to drive her home in which she yells “Take a fucking taxi!” at her. A video of Joseph yelling at Gloria then goes viral leading to Gloria securing a book deal. The play uses the device of projections with "a title inspired by the chapter headings in Gibran’s The Prophet."

Sophonisba

Play · 1730

Sophonisba is a 1730 verse drama tragedy by the British writer James Thomson. The play is written in blank verse. It is based on the story of the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba who committed suicide rather than be paraded in a Roman triumph at the end of the Second Punic War. The story has been made into a number of plays including Nathaniel Lee's restoration tragedy Sophonisba and Voltaire's later Sophonisbe. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Masinissa, John Mills as Syphax, Charles Williams as Scipio, John Roberts as Narva, Roger Bridgewater as Laelius and Anne Oldfield as Sophonisba.

Spanish Love

Play · 1920

Spanish Love is a three-act play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Rinehart, who adapted an earlier Spanish play, María del Carmen by Josep Feliu i Codina. Producers Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper staged it at the Maxine Elliott Theatre on Broadway, where it opened on August 17, 1920. Although critics had reservations about the play, the production was a success, running for over 300 performances. However, the play's success was overshadowed by the tremendous popularity of The Bat, another collaboration between Hopwood and Rinehart that opened on Broadway the following week. The story focuses on Javier and Pencho, two young Spanish men who are contending for the love of Maria del Carmen. Pencho is arrested after he injures Javier in a fight. Maria agrees to marry Javier to stop the prosecution of Pencho, but Javier dies before the wedding.

Speculation

Play · 1795

Speculation is a 1795 comedy play by the British writer Frederick Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 7 November 1795. The original cast included William Thomas Lewis as Tanjore, John Quick as Alderman Arable, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Project, John Fawcett as Jack Arable, James Middleton as Captain Arable, William Claremont as Sir Fred Faintly, Charles Farley as Vickery, Mary Ann Davenport as Lady Project and Tryphosa Jane Wallis as Emmeline. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 22 February 1796.

Speed the Plough

Play · 1800

Mrs Ashfield is at the market when she is approached by a handsome young nobleman who gives her a letter to deliver to her husband. When Mr Ashfield reads it, he finds that it is from his daughter Susan, and he is astonished to learn that their former servant-girl, the middle-aged woman Nelly, has just married Sir Abel Handy. The gardener Mr Evergreen arrives to tell them that his master, Sir Philip Blandford, has just returned from twenty years abroad to have his daughter marry the son of Sir Abel Handy, Robert. Mr Ashfield starts for Sir Philip's castle to receive Sir Abel and his son. Sir Abel arrives, encumbered by his inventions, and unrolls a plan of the castle, which his son will receive from Sir Philip as a dowry. Mr Ashfield points out the many problems with the tumbledown place, but the enterprising Sir Abel is untroubled, and mentions that he plans to further local agriculture by holding a ploughing match, so that his jack-of-all-trades son Robert can demonstrate his father's newly invented plough. Robert turns up, and his father asks him why he did not meet him in London. Robert says that he did not wish to disturb him on his honeymoon. He then playfully spars with Mr Ashfield. Two strangers, Morrington and Gerald, confer in a grove. The ploughman Henry, who is following them, overhears the sentence "The infant certainly died with its mother" which he has reason to think refers to himself: he has no knowledge of his own ancestry. He asks Mr Evergreen about this, but the gardener responds that he is sworn to silence, and warns him to avoid Sir Philip forever after. Robert Handy soliloquizes about his dilemma: whether to marry Miss Blandford (for money) or Susan Ashfield (for love). He encounters Mrs Ashfield, who is making lace, and wishing to demonstrate his skill at all tasks he sits down to show her the "Mechlin method", causing Sir Abel much embarrassment when he arrives with Miss Blandford. However, she is not bothered, and they are soon happily absorbed in conversation about London. After a few minutes, Mr Ashfield comes to tell his wife that their daughter has returned home with Lady Handy, and also to warn Sir Abel that his wife has "ordered" him to come too. At the house of the Ashfields, the parents embrace Susan and initially overlook Lady Handy, their former servant. They are puzzled by Nelly's makeup, which Mr Ashfield compares to the paint which he uses to identify his sheep. Susan leaves to prepare a room for Lady Handy. When Robert Handy arrives, his new stepmother curtsies to him and he tries to correct her manner of doing so. Sir Abel hands her a fan and, when she fans herself, Robert again tries to demonstrate the correct manner. She storms off. When Susan comes back into the room, Robert privately hands her a letter. A countryman turns up to tell them that the ploughing contest is about to begin. In the parlour, Mr and Mrs Ashfield discuss the letter they saw Robert give Susan. They are interrupted by Henry, who borrows Mr Ashfield's best plough for the contest, in the hope of meeting Sir Philip; then they see Susan crying as she locks away the letter she has received. In her absence, they unlock the box, but cannot bring themselves to read the letter, and put it back. When they ask her about it, she will only say that Robert had previously declared his love for her, and she was not unmoved, but that the letter was disgraceful to him. The contest is won by Henry, as Robert completely loses control of his horses, and Miss Blandford takes Henry's hand for the dance. Inside the castle, Mr Evergreen tells Sir Philip that Henry has agreed never to meet him. But when Sir Philip's daughter talks about the ploughing contest, she accidentally lets slip the fact that she is in love with someone other than Robert and, on meeting him, Sir Philip realizes that it is Henry. He demands Henry leave immediately and never return. Sir Philip tells his daughter some of the story of his past. As a young man on the Continent, he gambled all his possessions away to a masked man named Morrington; he began a new life, marrying a woman of humble birth, but the day after their wedding they received an anonymous packet containing ten thousand pounds. Twenty years later, his wife died, and his daughter received an offer of marriage from Sir Abel; when he returned to England he was surprised to discover that no-one claims his castle, and he wonders whether Morrington has died without claiming it, or simply awaits his return for the sake of inflicting a greater humiliation. Sir Philip meets Mr Ashfield and promises to forgive a 150-pound debt if he will turn out Henry. Mr Ashfield refuses. Morrington and Gerald turn up at the Ashfields' house and present a bond worth one thousand pounds to Henry, asking him to take it to Sir Philip to settle Mr Ashfield's debts, and accept the rest of its value for himself. But when Henry does so, he learns that Morrington was the man who ruined Sir Philip and he tears up the bond in Sir Philip's presence. The old man exclaims "Blandford" and Henry guesses that it is his original surname. Sir Philip says that he will say nothing more, ever, unless Henry leaves immediately. After Henry's departure, Robert comes and tells Sir Philip that his father is busy renovating the east wing of the castle. Sir Philip panics and demands that they leave immediately. He shows Robert a portrait of his brother, and confesses that he stabbed him twenty years before on discovering him kissing his fiancée: this was why he had fled to the Continent. Robert immediately goes to Susan Ashfield and asks for her hand in marriage. Sir Abel is astonished, but then Gerald approaches him and asks if he will pay five thousand pounds to be rid of his own tempestuous wife. Gerald, it turns out, was Lady Handy's first husband, whom she thought dead after his disappearance twenty years ago. Sir Abel accidentally sets fire to the castle during a science experiment. Henry rescues Miss Blandford, then rushes back to the ruins to search the east wing, where he finds a knife and a bloody cloth. He confronts Sir Philip, who confesses that Henry's father was the brother he thinks he murdered. At this point, Morrington enters the scene and uncovers his face to Sir Philip. "Morrington" is in fact Sir Philip's brother, who survived the attempt on his life, and revenged himself at the card table, only to be filled with remorse ever after.

Splendid Mummer

Play · 1985

The play explores the extraordinary life of Ira Frederick Aldridge (1807—1867), the first African American actor to achieve international success as a Shakespearean tragedian. The narrative spans from Aldridge's upbringing in New York City, the racial prejudice that prompted him to emigrate to England in 1824, and his ultimate rise to fame as he toured across Great Britain and continental Europe; earning critical acclaim and high honors for his powerful portrayals of Othello, Aaron the Moor, Macbeth, Shylock, and King Lear.

Spokesong

Play · 1975

Spokesong is set in two time periods. The first time period is 1970s Belfast, which focuses on the character of Frank who runs a bicycle shop founded long ago by his dead grandparents. This time period has a central love triangle between Frank, his girlfriend (the schoolteacher Daisy), and his half-brother (the leftist journalist Julian). Frank believes that the problems of the world he lives in are all connected to the automobile and that if man would return to exclusively using the bicycle to travel the world would be a better place. The second time period takes place 80 years in the past and is focused on Frank's grandparents, Francis and Kitty, while they are young. The Trick Cyclist floats between both time periods and acts as a master of ceremonies.

Spring Cleaning

Play · 1923

Spring Cleaning is a 1923 comedy play by the British writer Frederick Lonsdale. A man becomes convinced his wife is about to have an affair, and in order to shock her he hires a prostitute to come and live in their house. It premiered at the Eltinge Theatre in New York City on 9 November 1923 and at St Martin's Theatre in the West End on 19 January 1925. In 1932 the play was adapted into a British film Women Who Play directed by Arthur Rosson and starring Mary Newcomb, Benita Hume and George Barraud. The film generally followed the play with certain changes, largely due to censorship issues such as the prostitute being replaced by an actress.

Squire Trelooby

Play · 1704

Squire Trelooby is a 1704 farce by the writers William Congreve, John Vanbrugh and William Walsh. All were members of the Kit-Cat Club, and another member, Samuel Garth, wrote a prologue. The farce was inspired by the French play Monsieur de Pourceaugnac by Molière. In 1734 James Ralph wrote The Cornish Squire, a reworking of the play which was staged at the Drury Lane Theatre. It was considered a great success, and was followed by another version The Brave Irishman by Thomas Sheridan at Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre in 1744.

St Helena

Play · 1936

St Helena: a play in twelve scenes is a play by the English author R. C. Sherriff (notable as the author of the First World War drama Journey's End) and Jeanne de Casalis (who also researched it). It deals with the exile of Napoleon I on Saint Helena. In a production by Henry Cass, it premiered at the Old Vic on 4 February 1936 to poor reviews, but was rescued by a letter to The Times by Winston Churchill, calling it "a remarkable play" and "a work of art of a very high order"; though a West End transfer also proved unsuccessful.

Staircase

Play · 1966

Staircase is a two-character play by Charles Dyer about an ageing gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. One of them is a part-time actor about to go on trial for propositioning a police officer. The action takes place over the course of one night as they discuss their loving but often volatile past together and possible future without each other. Dyer began writing the play in the summer of 1963, while another of his plays, Rattle of a Simple Man, was enjoying a long West End run. He named his two characters Charles Dyer (after himself) and Harry C Leeds, which is an anagram of his name. The play was premiered on 2 November 1966 at London's Aldwych Theatre. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it was directed by Peter Hall and starred Paul Scofield and Patrick Magee. The Broadway production, directed by Barry Morse, opened on 10 January 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre, where it played for 12 previews and 61 performances. It starred Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea. O'Shea was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. In June 2021, Two’s Company revived the play at Southwark Playhouse, London. Reviewing it for Everything Theatre, Darren Luke Mawdsley called it "the perfect reminder that the freedoms enjoyed today can never be taken for granted". The play was profiled in William Goldman's book The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway.

Stanley

Play · 1996

The play explores the complicated life of British painter Stanley Spencer, who was played by Antony Sher in the play's London and Broadway debuts. Spencer was a twentieth-century painter whose work attempted to combine the sexual with the divine in contemporary English settings. His paintings frequently showed biblical scenes taking place in ordinary English villages, particularly Cookham, and often depicted or used figures inspired by his friends, relatives and lovers. Spencer married two different women; he left his first wife, Hilda Carline, an artist who put her ambition aside to make a home for him, to marry Patricia Preece, a defiantly unconventional lesbian who made her reputation as an artist by passing off the works of her lover, Dorothy Hepworth, as her own, and who was incapable of loving him. Much of the play revolves around his passionate attachment to both women.

Star Spangled

Play · 1936

Brooks Atkinson, writing for The New York Times, gave this description of the play: Somewhere in the northwest side of Chicago in the Polish district live the Dzieszienewskis, the mother being an immigrant, the children being assimilated Americans and ambitious. She is an unprincipled strumpet whose blood boils in the Spring. Taking America as they have learned it from notorious Americans, her children are versatile nincompoops. One son is a melancholy baseball player in the Texas League, another is studying to be a cheap politician, a third is president of the Killers Club in the State penitentiary, and the daughter is a chorus girl who dreams of Hollywood. The plot of the play revolves around the imprisoned son, who has escaped for a weekend in order to see his family, and incidentally, to kill the Polish politician who set him up eight years earlier. He plans on returning to prison before he is known to be missing.

State of the Union

Play · 1945

In 1946, several friends gather in the house of James Conover in Washington, DC. James is about 60; with him are Spike MacManus, a long-time political reporter and Grant Matthews, in his 40s, a businessman and Katherine (Kay) Thorndike, late 30s. The Republicans have chosen Grant Matthews to run for President. Grant is estranged from his wife Mary, and he has become romantically involved with Kay Thorndike, a newspaper publisher. According to journalist-playwright Sidney Blumenthal "The play's events... allude to Wendell Willkie, the utility company head who became the surprise Republican candidate for president in 1940. 'This is a play about a businessman who is a dark-horse candidate.' " According to Gerald Bordman, "Many critics and playgoers saw more than a touch of the late Wendell Willkie in Matthews".

Steambath

Play · 1970

Steambath is the second play by American author Bruce Jay Friedman. It was first performed Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theater where it opened on June 30, 1970, closing on October 18, 1970, after 128 performances. This play presents the afterlife as a steam bath, in which recently deceased souls (who may not in every case realize that they are dead) continue to obsess about the same petty concerns that obsessed them in their lives. Ultimately, they are cast into another room offstage, which is represented by a dark void, by God, the steam bath's Puerto Rican attendant, with the help of his assistant Gottlieb. The new arrival Tandy at first refuses to accept what's happened, and when he finally does he pleads to be allowed to return to his life. Steambath was controversial when first produced for its obscene language (which was softened for its television version), its satirical take on religion, and some brief nudity. Friedman claims to have been inspired to write the play in part because of a "bad experience with the food at a Chinese restaurant" that had him contemplating mortality.

Steaming

Play · 1981

Steaming is a 1981 play written by English playwright Nell Dunn first staged at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, in London. It won the 1981 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy (at the time known as the Society of West End Theatre Award for Best New Comedy). The play opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 12 December 1983, running for 65 performances and ten previews. The cast included Judith Ivey, Pauline Flanagan, Lisa Jane Persky, Linda Thorson, and Margaret Whitton. Reviewing the production in The New York Times, Frank Rich praised Ivey's performance, and wrote "Though in no way an accomplished play, Steaming is still lightly enjoyable when it isn't preaching. The talk is often amusing and seemingly authentic... The American Steaming contains far more nudity than the London version, but it's handled un-self-consciously and adds verisimilitude where once there was prurient coyness." During 2010, Jally Entertainment toured Australia with the play, starring Val Lehman (best known for her role in TV serial Prisoner) and Alli Pope.

Steel Magnolias

Play · 1987

The entire play takes place in the late 1980s, at Truvy's in-home beauty parlor in the fictional northwestern Louisiana parish of Chinquapin, where a group of women regularly gather. Act 1, Scene 1 Truvy Jones hires a young new stylist, Annelle Dupuy, who won't talk much about herself. Truvy and Annelle do the hair of Shelby Eatenton, a young nurse who is to be married that day, and her mother, M'Lynn Eatenton, a mental health counselor. They are joined by Clairee Belcher, the widow of the town's former mayor, and local grouch Ouiser Boudreaux. Shelby and M'Lynn bicker over the wedding preparations. Shelby, who has Type 1 diabetes, talks of how disappointed she is that she should not have children due to her health, and that she and her husband, Jackson, plan to adopt. Ouiser rails against M'Lynn's husband, Drum, and their disputes over their property line. Annelle breaks down and admits that her common law husband has abandoned her, taking most of her possessions. Truvy offers to rent out her garage apartment, as her twin sons will soon be leaving home. Act 1, Scene 2 It's Christmastime, and Shelby returns home for a visit. She informs M'Lynn that she is pregnant. M'Lynn can't bring herself to be joyful as she knows a pregnancy could be devastating to Shelby's health. She accuses Shelby of ignoring her doctor's advice and Jackson of caring more about having a son than his wife's well-being. Shelby insists everything will be fine. Meanwhile, Clairee has purchased the local radio station; Annelle, after a brief period as a party girl, has started attending church and making gaudy arts and crafts; and Shelby attempts to set Ouiser up with Owen Jenkins, an old flame. Act 2, Scene 1 Shelby's son, Jackson Jr., was born three months premature, but is thriving. Clairee relates how her brother has become estranged from her nephew after he came out as gay. Ouiser is seeing Owen, but insists that they are only friends. Annelle has become a fundamentalist Christian, much to the consternation of her new boyfriend, Sammy DeSoto. Shelby and M'Lynn, to the horror of the other ladies, relate how the stress of pregnancy has caused Shelby's kidneys to shut down and she is now on dialysis. M'Lynn will be donating a kidney to her daughter the next day. Act 2, Scene 2 The organ transplant failed and Shelby fell into a coma during reparative surgery. M'Lynn relates how they were forced to disconnect Shelby's life support, and how Jackson and Drum couldn't stand to be in the room as she passed, even though 'men are supposed to be made of steel.' M'Lynn becomes furious at Annelle’s religious explanation. She breaks down screaming and crying for her daughter, wishing she had something to hit. Clairee grabs Ouiser, instructing M'Lynn to 'slap her!' This causes everyone to start laughing and breaks the tension. Annelle, who is pregnant, asks permission to name her child Shelby.

Stereophonic

Play · 2023

In 1976, a famous British-American rock band composed of drummer Simon, married couple bassist Reg and keyboardist/vocalist Holly, and longtime partners guitarist/vocalist Peter and vocalist/tambourinist Diana are in the early stages of recording their next album in a recording studio in Sausalito, California. They are assisted by two sound engineers, Grover and Charlie. Despite the significant - and scarcely precedented - studio support, the members' individual conflicts coupled with mounting tensions among the group, and eventually the engineers, causes the recording process to take around a year.

Stones in His Pockets

Play · 1996

The drama is set in a rural town in County Kerry, Ireland, that is overrun by a Hollywood film crew. The play centres around two friends, Charlie Conlon and Jake Quinn, employed as extras on the film. Charlie has aspirations to get his script made into a movie. Jake has recently returned from New York and is mesmerised, along with everyone else, by the star of the movie, Caroline. Caroline is a famous, beautiful American movie star that fails to ever successfully conquer the Irish accent. Caroline and the other American crew members do not attempt to accurately portray the town and people and only care about finishing the movie on time. Most of the locals are initially excited at the opportunity to be a part of a major film and distracted by the novelty. However, as the film continues they begin to feel abused and the glamour begins to wear off. After a night in the pub, a local teenager, Sean Harkin, is humiliated by Caroline and thrown out into the street for trying to socialise with her. The first act ends when Sean commits suicide by drowning himself with stones in his pockets. The second act continues the story with the town devastated by the loss. Jake begins to blame himself for not reaching out to the boy and Charlie tries to console him and let him not lose hope. Conflict arises when the film crew is hesitant about letting the extras have a break for Sean's funeral. It becomes even more apparent to the town that the film crew has their own agenda and no concern for the people. Jake and Charlie decide to rewrite Charlie's script and make it about Sean's story instead. They present their idea to the American director who in turn tells them the story is not romantic or commercial enough.

Strafford

Play · 1837

Strafford is an 1837 tragedy by the British writer Robert Browning. It portrays the downfall and execution of Lord Strafford, the advisor to Charles I shortly before the English Civil War. The play was first staged at the Covent Garden Theatre in London's West End. The original cast included William Macready as Strafford, William Harries Tilbury as Lord Savile, John Vandenhoff as John Pym, George John Bennett as Denzil Hollis, John Langford Pritchard as Benjamin Rudyard and Helena Faucit as Lucy Percy, Countess of Carlisle. It was one of the last plays to premiere in the pre-Victorian era when William IV was still on the throne.

Showing 4,897–5,016 of 8,284 shows

Load more shows