8284 shows
Clear filtersDuring the Christmas holidays, three brothers return to their Midwestern family home to keep their widowed father company. Their discussion turns to Matt, the oldest, who has moved back in with their father and appears to lack ambition despite insisting he is content.
The setting is the parlor of Senator Cromwell's mansion on Nob Hill, San Francisco, during October 1896. The storyline takes place amidst the election campaign for that year, in which William McKinley was elected president. Act I Scene 1 (Afternoon of a sunny October day.) The residents of the Senator's mansion, the Cromwells, the Hamptons, and the two servants, appear one-by-one to introduce the audience to their personalities. Lillian says Vincent has asked her to ride on a tandem bicycle with him. The Senator forbids it unless a chaperone is there. When Mrs. Gimble and Mrs. Worley arrive, the Senator mistakes them for suffragettes and rails at them. But they have come because Addie is a leader in their anti-suffrage group. Vincent also visits, as the household scurries about awaiting Matthew's return from Washington, D.C. to campaign. When Matthew does appear, he brings a surprise: his wife of two weeks, the famous suffragette, Clarissa Blynn. (Curtain) Act I Scene 2 (The following Sunday morning.) Ling stops Lillian from pedaling off to distribute fliers for a suffrage meeting. Her parents are horrified at the bloomers she wears, given to her by Clarissa. "Bifurcated abominations" bellows the senator, who blames Matt for not controlling his wife. Clarissa upsets Addie by revealing her anti-suffrage group is partly funded by a liquor ring and the Barbary Coast brothels, who fear being shut down if women could vote. Julia is less surprised, and Clarissa asks why she does not support suffrage? (Curtain) Act II Scene 1 (Tuesday afternoon.) Mrs. Gimble, Mrs. Worley, and Addie hold a meeting of their anti-suffrage group in the parlor, which Julia also attends. They are surprised when another woman comes to join them: a Mrs. Sparker. A businesswoman of sorts, the other women are flummoxed as they gradually begin to comprehend the nature of her industry. Big Tillie, as her gals call her, is opposed to suffrage for practical economic reasons. As she explains, Addie and her friends grow more dismayed with their new ally, while Julia is almost amused. After the meeting breaks up, Addie and Julia are ready to switch sides, but fear their husbands' wrath. Clarissa tells them about the old Greek play Lysistrata, and suggests a modern revival right there in the Senator's home. (Curtain) Act II Scene 2 (Some hours later.) Gifford and Matthew commiserate with each other over the unpredictability of female behavior down through the ages. Addie attempts to entice Gifford in order to refuse him, but eventually finds it more effective to withhold his racing news and cocktails. Julia, wiser from the start, serves up the Senator a meager supper of unappetizing plainness, "for his health". Lillian, given an adulterated version of the strategy, torments Vincent, while Matthew gets the full carrot-and-stick approach from Clarissa. The situation comes to a crisis when the bumbling Mayor Tibbett pays a call and inadvertently lets slip the Senator's unwitting financial involvement in the Barbary Coast businesses. (Curtain) Act III (Still later.) (Curtain)
In a small Georgia town, a Black woman becomes pregnant by a white boy; the drama also includes the lynching of a Black man. The production places racial violence and interracial relationships at the center of its stage story.
The plot centers on Nina Leeds, the daughter of a classics professor at a college in New England, who is devastated when her adored fiancé is killed in World War I, before they have a chance to consummate their passion. Ignoring the unconditional love of the novelist Charles Marsden, Nina embarks on a series of sordid affairs before determining to marry an amiable fool, Sam Evans. While Nina is pregnant with Sam's child, she learns a horrifying secret known only to Sam's mother: insanity runs in the Evans family and could be inherited by any child of Sam's. Realizing that a child is essential to her own and to Sam's happiness, Nina decides on a "scientific" solution. She will abort Sam's child and conceive a child with the physician Ned Darrell, letting Sam believe that it is his. The plan backfires when Nina and Ned's intimacy leads to their falling passionately in love. Twenty years later, Sam and Nina's son Gordon Evans is approaching manhood, with only Nina and Ned aware of the boy's true parentage. In the final act, Sam dies of a stroke without learning the truth. This leaves Nina free to marry Ned Darrell, but she declines, choosing instead to marry the long-suffering Charlie Marsden, who proclaims that he now has "all the luck at last." The meaning of the title is suggested by the aging Nina in a speech near the end of the play: "Our lives are merely strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father!"
In 1943, the United States holds secret experiments involving the USS Eldridge, hoping to use a force field to turn the ship invisible and undetectable to the Germans. However, the ship is instead transported to the Abyss, where most of the crew are killed by strange humanoid creatures. In 1959, the Creel family – consisting of Victor, his wife Virginia, and their children: older son, Henry, and younger daughter, Alice – move to a new home in Hawkins, Indiana. Henry is tormented, mentally disturbed and in possession of remarkable psychokinetic abilities. Henry struggles to make friends upon joining Hawkins High School; despite that, he quickly forms a connection with Patty Newby, daughter of the school principal. Patty convinces Henry that his powers are not evil, and that he should be able to control them and use them for good. Henry creates a "vision" for Patty, where she can express herself through song while being supported by everyone around her. They form a romantic bond, meeting each other every day after school, and eventually kiss. Meanwhile, Joyce Maldonado attempts to put on a school production of Dark of the Moon. While in the attic alone, Henry is overcome by the influence of a shadowy presence – his mind enters what he calls "the battlefield", from where he proceeds to kill several animals, including Claudia Yount's cat Prancer. Henry becomes haunted by visions of a humanoid monster; he is terrified that he will be made to kill Patty. Following this, Patty's adoptive brother Bob teams up with Joyce and her friend James Hopper Jr. to investigate the animal killings. Patty convinces Henry to use his powers to track down her biological mother. As he does this, and while inside the void, he loses control and is once again visited by the monster. This frightens Patty, and when her father walks in and witnesses the scene, he is attacked and almost killed (by Henry controlled by the presence). Patty is able to encourage Henry to fight back by telling him that she believes he is good and that she loves him. Henry responds that he loves her too and is able to end the situation, but not before Patty's father is blinded and seriously injured. Mr. Newby is sent to the hospital, and Henry's mother Virginia sends Henry to Dr. Martin Brenner. It is revealed that she was supplied with drugs by Brenner; under the influence of these drugs, Virginia told Brenner everything about her son. When Mr. Newby wakes up, he tells Patty that Henry saved him from the monster. Mr. Newby draws a picture of the shadowy entity on a piece of paper and gives it to his daughter: it's the Mind Flayer. Brenner takes Henry to Hawkins National Laboratory, where the two discuss the past: It is explained that Brenner's father was the captain and sole survivor of the USS Eldridge experiment, who returned to the normal world with significant injuries and a unique blood type; the elder Brenner later revealed the truth about these events on his deathbed. Dr. Brenner later established the Nevada Experiment, an attempt to reproduce what had happened to the Eldridge. One of Brenner's fellow scientists defected and became a spy for the Soviet Union and stole key technology and transported it to a Nevada cave. At this time, a very young Henry and the Creels lived nearby, in Rachel, Nevada. While exploring the Nevadan caves and playing with a spyglass, Henry stumbled across the stolen technology when it unexpectedly activated, transporting him and the defecting scientist to Abyss. In Abyss, Henry was exposed to the influence of the shadowy entity. Though Henry returned home after 12 hours, he now possessed a unique blood type and had a changed personality. Brenner was later able to track Henry down thanks to Henry dropping his spyglass in the caves. Henry, using a sensory deprivation chamber, shows Brenner a humanoid creature through the Void. Brenner sees this creature displayed on a screen, and Henry convulses. Brenner then tries to force Henry to kill a prisoner, but Henry breaks down and ends up stabbing two guards. After this, Henry tells Brenner that he can let him go. Brenner understands that the boy is devoted to someone and therefore cannot kill; later Brenner realizes that this person is Patty and vows to find and kill her. Henry returns home, but senses that his family is not happy about his return. Using his powers, he reads his mother's thoughts and understands that she wants to send him back to Brenner. Henry gives in to the shadowy entity's influence; while possessed, he kills Virginia and Alice before falling unconscious, with Victor also falling unconscious. Awakening in dazed confusion some hours later, Henry walks to Hawkins High School to save Patty from Brenner, where the performance of Dark of the Moon is about to begin. Atop the stage rafters, Henry reunites with Patty only to be interrupted by Brenner, who appears on the other side of the stage. Brenner says that Patty is his weakness, and Patty tells Henry not to listen to him. As Henry struggles for control, he informs Patty that he managed to find her birth mother, a singer at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. Feeling overwhelmed, the shadowy entity once again takes control of Henry, and Henry throws Patty off the rafters, seemingly killing her. Brenner takes Henry back to Hawkins Lab, Patty is taken to the hospital, and Victor Creel is accused of the murder of Virginia and Alice based on Joyce, Bob, and Jim's assumptions about the animal killings. In 1963, Joyce and Jim bid farewell to each other as the latter is shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Some years later, an older Henry is back at Hawkins Lab and is restrained. Using the Void, Henry discovers that Patty survived her fall and was discharged from the hospital, though now needing to walk with a cane. Henry observes her in Las Vegas, where she meets her mother backstage after a performance at the Stardust. Patty and her mother recognize each other and embrace. Brenner informs Henry that the blood transfusions administered to the test subjects have been successful, with Brenner freeing Henry from his restraints as a reward. In the Rainbow Room, Henry is introduced to Eleven, one of the children. Lightning flashes and the silhouette of Vecna appears on the back wall.
Shane flees his family in Goulburn for Sydney’s Kings Cross and tries to build a surrogate family. His attachment to a city lover becomes entangled with his fear of his brother, while the older Peter, facing his mother’s imminent death, becomes a maternal protector to Shane.
Christine visits British Malaya to see her fiancé, then suffers a breakdown after hearing of atrocities committed by British forces during the Malayan Emergency. Set entirely in his house, the play unfolds through conversations and shared accounts.
Strangers on a Train is a play written by Craig Warner and is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. The show made its West End and world premiere at the Gielgud Theatre on 19 November 2013, following previews from 2 November.
Strathmore is an 1849 historical tragedy by the British writer John Westland Marston. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 20 June 1849. The original cast included Charles Kean as Halbert Strathmore, Henry Hughes as Sir Rupert Lorn, Henry Howe as Bycefield, John Baldwin Buckstone as Roland, Ellen Kean as Katharine Lorn and Fanny Fitzwilliam as Janet. It is set during The Killing Time amidst repression of the Scottish Covenanter religious movement in the seventeenth century.
A group of characters with little in common unite around a cause. Their journey play examines how seemingly harmless people can be drawn, in particular social and historical circumstances, into extreme beliefs and violent action.
Strawhead is a play by American writers Norman Mailer and Richard Hannum about Marilyn Monroe. The play is an adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book Of Women and Their Elegance, an imagined memoir told in Monroe's voice. Strawhead takes place in New York City during the last few days of Monroe's life in August 1962. During this period, she is alone with her memories, most of which revolve around her time living in New York City. The play is primarily composed of a collection of imagined interviews, that never took place, between Monroe and Mailer during Monroe's last hours. The play made its off-Broadway debut in January 1986, with Mailer's wife Norris Church in the cast and his daughter Kate Mailer in the role of Monroe.
The last in his Vietnam War trilogy that began with The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Sticks and Bones, it focuses on the interactions and personal conflicts of a group of soldiers preparing to ship out to fight in the Vietnam War in 1965. Among them are middle class African American Roger, upper class Manhattanite Richie, who is struggling with his sexual orientation, conservative Wisconsin country boy Billy, and fearful loose cannon Carlyle, a streetwise Black man. In charge of their barracks are abrasive alcoholic Sgt. Cokes, who already has served overseas, and aggressive Sgt. Rooney, who is anxious to get into combat.
Street Scene is a 1929 American play by Elmer Rice. It opened January 10, 1929, at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City. After a total of 601 performances on Broadway, the production toured the United States and ran for six months in London. The action of the play takes place entirely on the front stoop of a New York City brownstone and in the adjacent street in the early part of the 20th century. It studies the complex daily lives of the people living in the building (and surrounding neighborhood) and the sense of despair that hovers over their interactions. Street Scene received the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Saikat, a second-generation Bangladeshi English boy, navigates school in Birmingham and trips to Bangladesh while caught between family expectations and competing cultural identities, trying to understand where he belongs.
After her fiancé abandons her in a speakeasy for accepting an Italian opera singer’s attention, a young woman spends the night in the singer’s upstairs apartment. His attempted seduction turns into an unexpectedly tender comedy of manners, and she later breaks with her fiancé.
During a prolonged factory strike, trade-union representatives and company directors clash over demands and the workers’ hardship. Company chairman John Anthony and strike leader David Roberts refuse to yield, while their families and the board are drawn into the dispute.
Act I (The Columbia dorm room of Frank and Dick. Afternoon.) Ralph Thorne meets Frank Skinner at the empty room. Thorne has bet $3000 with Skinner that Columbia will lose the upcoming game. He based the bet on Strongheart being sidelined due to injury, but now Strongheart has recovered enough to play. Thorne assures Skinner the bet will hold, because he will pass Columbia's signals to the opposing coach, Farley. Skinner asks why Dick Livingston bet $3000 on Columbia to win. Thorne explains it was because he had beaten Dick in poker for that amount, then suggested the bet as a way to recoup his losses before his father found out. Thorne liked the same girl as Dick, and wanted to nobble his rival. Skinner hightails it when Dick, Frank Nelson, and other students come back to the room to prepare for entertaining. Billy tells Reade he needs to keep his class notes a little longer. Strongheart arrives, to be mockingly salaamed by the others as their great chief. Strongheart is undisturbed; he knows this is the boys' way of compensating for their secret admiration of his academic and athletic prowess. Dorothy Nelson, Mollie Livingston, and their friends arrive for afternoon tea. With Mrs. Nelson to chaperone and remedy the amateur attempt to make tea, the get together is a success. Meanwhile, Thorne has switched the list of signals Dick wrote out with his own copy. Excited to meet the exotic Strongheart at last, Maud Weston flusteredly asks him how he likes America. Strongheart replies that his people like it just fine. (Curtain) Act II (Columbia football team's locker room at the Polo Grounds. Two days later.) At halftime in the big game, the Columbia players straggle into the locker room, having failed to score. Their coach Buckley encourages and excoriates them, pitching his speech to the team as a whole, while tailoring asides to individual players. At Strongheart's suggestion he blisters the freshman Ross. Strongheart knows that righteous anger will stimulate Ross to inspired effort. Their conference is interrupted by Farley's entrance, holding the list of signals he was given anonymously. Farley wants a fair game, so he has brought the list to Buckley. Strongheart sees the list is in Dick's handwriting, but he himself is accused of the treachery by Thorne. Frank as captain decides to bench him for the second half. Strongheart stays in the locker room with Tommy Nash, who has been injured. He looks out the window to follow the game, describing it for Nash, until at last his triumphantly exclaims "We win! We Win!". (Curtain) Act III (The library of the Nelson family home. Evening of the same day.) At a formal victory celebration, the boys dance with the girls in the Nelson's ballroom, while the library serves for more clandestine rendezvous. Molly advises a worried Dorothy to marry Strongheart if he asks, and don't let his race stop her. Dick asks Frank's permission to propose to his sister Dorothy, since their father is dead. Frank readily gives it. Billy accuses Molly of having sent the signals list he gave her to Farley. Strongheart clears up that misconception, but Molly will not accept Bill's apology yet. Strongheart asks Dorothy for the next dance, but explains they will have to sit it out, since the government won't allow him to dance. Strongheart tells Dorothy of his love for her, and she asks him to come back tomorrow for her answer. Strongheart confronts Thorne over the signals list, but is distracted by his asserting Frank and Dick will deny him a chance with Dorothy. Thorne is right; Frank and Dick are incensed when Strongheart says he has proposed to Dorothy. The call him a traitor, and Dick further accuses him of betraying the team. Even when Strongheart reveals the list is in Dick's handwriting, Dick says he stole it. When Dorothy chides her brother for discourtesy, he holds her back as Strongheart leaves their house, saying he will return for her answer tomorrow. (Curtain) Act IV (Same as Act III. Afternoon of the next day.) Billy and Molly make up and he proposes. The team has gathered and Strongheart proves that Thorne sent the list to Farley, then prevents the others from attacking him. Thorne exits, ostracized from the team. The other team members congratulate Strongheart then go with Frank to have some dinner, but Dick hangs back. He apologizes to Strongheart for his harsh words of last night, but says they cannot be friends. Even so, they shake hands. Billy returns to hear Strongheart softly say "And I thought I was one of them". The Butler now announces a visitor to see Strongheart. Black Eagle has come from the West: Strongheart's father has died, and his people now require him to return home. As they have paid for his post-graduate work, he feels obligated to obey their wishes. He informs Black Eagle that he may be bringing Dorothy as his wife, but is startled when the elder reacts as negatively as Frank and Dick. Black Eagle is angry that Soangataha would choose a woman not of his own people for a wife. He says how can you ask a white woman to live as we do? Dorothy has overheard his words. She proclaims her love for Strongheart and will go with him, but he realizes he cannot ask this of her. They agree to part, despite their love. Left alone, Strongheart raises his hands overhead and prays for help from the Great Spirit of his people, saying he is alone in a desert. (Curtain)
An experimental dramatic poem abstracting plot into structure and archetypal characters, designed to address existential pain and fate associated with Euripides.
An experimental dramatic poem abstracting plot into structure and archetypal characters, designed to foreground the austerity associated with Aeschylus.
An experimental dramatic poem abstracting plot into structure and archetypal characters, designed to address the ironic and psychological elements associated with Sophocles.
A stage adaptation of Terry Trueman's young adult novel about Shawn McDaniel, a fourteen-year-old with severe cerebral palsy whose inner life is unknown to those around him. The story centers on his family's response to his condition and his fear that his father may try to end his life.
Three fathers send their sons to university: Philomates attends lectures, while Acolastus and Acrates drink and gamble. Acrates is injured in a brawl, and Acolastus impregnates the innkeeper’s daughter and must marry her. The five-act comedy presents temptations of student life.
A documentary-style history play follows the political and diplomatic events leading to the 2003 Iraq War, mixing verbatim speeches and meetings with imagined private conversations. An ensemble portrays more than 40 public figures across events from George W. Bush’s election in 2000 through the war’s aftermath in 2004.
Stunning is a dramatic stage play written by American playwright David Adjmi. The play tells the story of sixteen-year-old Lily, who lives in a Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn with her much older husband. Her worldview changes after an unlikely friendship with her African-American maid.
In a contemporary reimagining of The Seagull, struggling playwright Con stages a new work at his mother's country home as tangled attractions link his aspiring-actress girlfriend Nina, his actress mother Emma and novelist Trig. After Nina leaves with Trig, Con and their friends confront grief, art and the ending of the play itself.
At Joe McCarthy High, Jim and Judy pursue one another while their queer friends Neechee and Kimberly fall in love with them; the teenagers' pursuit of conformity deepens their alienation.
Wild, a young man traveling to America with two friends, meets Jenny Caroline at an inn and hides that he is the son of her family's enemy. The arrival of Captain Boyet, whose father and family are bound up in an old feud, sets off duels and revelations before reconciliation allows the couples to pair off. The play's impassioned individualism helped give its name to the Sturm und Drang movement.
A ceremonial allegorical drama honoring Saint Wenceslaus and Bohemia. It opens with a dispute between Prince Václav and the Prince of Kouřim, resolved by Václav through wisdom rather than force; the three-act work chiefly praises religious devotion and fortitude.
A group of aimless twenty-somethings in their New Jersey hometown spend the night together after the return of Pony, a former classmate who has become a successful musician. His visit strips away their excuses and exposes the dead-end quality of their lives.
A solitary urban wanderer delivers songs, stories, and spoken-word reflections drawn from encounters around Toronto. Biblical imagery and popular culture intersect in a portrait of isolation, belief, and the search for human connection.
In 1928 young Sol Ginsberg joins a Madison Avenue advertising agency. Formerly a radical idealist his philosophy changes to money as being the culmination of the American Dream. He starts to compromise his former ideals to advance his career, risking losing the faith of his childhood sweetheart and in himself.
Such Things Are is a 1787 comedy play by the British writer and former actress Elizabeth Inchbald. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 10 February 1787. The original Covent Garden cast included William Farren as Sultan, John Quick as Sir Luke Tremor, William Thomas Lewis as Mr Twineall, Alexander Pope as Mr Haswell, Joseph George Holman as Elvirus, William Macready as Mr Meanright, James Fearon as Zedan, James Thompson as First Keeper, William Cubitt as Second Keeper, Isabella Mattocks as Lady Tremor. The Irish premiere took place at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin on 16 April 1787.
A contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet follows two teenagers from rival families in a small British town. Six actors improvised from a prepared story grid, presenting the story through Twitter posts and supporting online media.
In a run-down 1980s London boxing gym, trainer Charlie develops two young Black boxers, Leon and Troy. Troy rebels, moves to the United States and returns with a manipulative manager; meanwhile Charlie's racism forces Leon to choose between boxing and a relationship with Charlie's daughter. Their paths finally meet in the ring.
In 1936, in the Garden District of New Orleans, Mrs. Violet Venable, an elderly socialite widow from a prominent local family, has invited a doctor to her home. She talks nostalgically about her son Sebastian, a poet who died under mysterious circumstances on the fictional island of Cabeza de Lobo, not (as it is sometimes assumed) in South America, by referring to Catharine's return "from Europe" aboard the Berengaria, an Atlantic liner. During the course of their conversation, she offers to make a generous donation to support the doctor's psychiatric research if he will perform a lobotomy on Catharine, her niece, who has been confined to St. Mary, a private mental institution, at her expense since returning to America. Mrs. Venable is eager to "make her peaceful" once and for all by erasing her memories of Sebastian's violent death and his homosexuality; Mrs. Venable is especially adamant that Catharine stop talking about the latter, in order to preserve her late son's reputation. Catharine arrives, followed by her mother and brother. They are also eager to suppress her version of events, since Mrs. Venable is threatening to keep Sebastian's will in probate until she is satisfied, something Catharine's family can't afford to challenge. But the doctor injects Catharine with a truth serum and she proceeds to give a scandalous account of Sebastian's moral dissolution and the events leading up to his death, how he used her to procure young men for his sexual exploitation, and how he was set upon, mutilated, and partially devoured by a mob of starving children in the street. Mrs. Venable lunges at Catharine but is prevented from striking her with her cane. She is taken off stage, screaming "cut this hideous story from her brain!" Far from being convinced of Catharine's insanity, however, the doctor concludes the play by stating he believes her story could be true.
Student Sasha befriends Val, a wealthy man whose gifts and apparent generosity conceal a past as a gangster and pimp. Her sister Chloe and Val's nemesis Ashley warn her, but Sasha's self-delusion allows the relationship to grow until a crisis forces her to acknowledge the danger and end it.
A jōruri and kabuki historical drama follows Sugawara no Michizane, renamed Kan Shōjō, after a rival’s false treason accusation leads to his exile. His loyal retainers protect his family and resist the schemer Fujiwara no Shihei, making sacrifices to preserve the minister’s line and honor.
In an enigmatic one-act, two detectives investigate a possible suicide at the home of jazz musician Niles, whose body is represented by a chalk outline with its face and fingerprints removed. The investigation overlaps with silent, ritualized actions between Niles and Paulette; the detectives ultimately arrest Niles for faking his suicide, while two musicians produce discordant music.
A trilogy set in a luxury Swiss hotel suite, where British, American, and German guests encounter the same Italian waiter across A Song at Twilight and the double bill of Shadows of the Evening and Come Into the Garden, Maud.
In Yoshiwara, Sukeroku provokes people to draw their swords in search of the blade belonging to his father's killer. The pursuit reveals the identity of his enemy and the brothers' connection to the vendetta.
A three-act comedy based on the story Garrick Médecin. Rather than portray David Garrick historically, the play takes the then-contemporary Shakespearean actor Barry Sullivan as its subject, renaming him George.
A mother searches eastern Japan for her kidnapped son. At the Sumida River, a ferryman tells her of a child’s death and the memorial prayers being held for him. Recognizing her son’s story, she joins the prayers and briefly sees his ghost.
Summer Brave is a play by William Inge, a revision of his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1953 play Picnic. Set in Independence, Kansas, a small town in Kansas in the early 1950s, it focuses on Hal Carter, an attractive young stranger who drifts into town just before the annual Labor Day celebration and sets off a chain of events that prompts various residents to reflect on the present and contemplate an unpromising future.
After a nuclear world war, Britain has reverted to a barter-based rural society. An elderly man and his family receive American, Soviet, and Indian visitors who plan an industrial plant using local chalk, but the visitors become captivated by the peaceful community and abandon the project.
Summer and Smoke is set in Glorious Hill, Mississippi, from the "turn of the century through 1916", and centers on Alma Winemiller, a highly strung, unmarried minister's daughter, and the spiritual romance that nearly blossoms between her and John Buchanan Jr., a young doctor who grew up next door. She, ineffably refined, identifies with the Gothic cathedral, "reaching up to something beyond attainment"; her name, as Williams makes clear during the play, means "soul" in Spanish; by contrast Buchanan, a doctor and sensualist, defies her with the soulless anatomy chart. By the play's end, Buchanan and Alma have traded places philosophically. She has been transformed. She throws herself at him, saying "she doesn't exist any more, she died last summer — suffocated in smoke from something on fire inside her". But he has changed, he is engaged to marry a respectable, younger girl, and as he tries to convince Alma that their relationship was indeed a "spiritual bond", she realizes that it is too late to rescue it. In the final scene, Alma accosts a young traveling salesman in the park and follows him to enjoy the entertainment at Moon Lake Casino.
Sensitive teenager Donald Fenway feels trapped by his self-absorbed Southern mother and his shoe-company executive father, who wants him to abandon college plans for menial work.
In a Melbourne housing estate in 1962, fourteen-year-old Lewis uses fantasies of alien invasion to make sense of adolescence and the changes around him. His father’s return and his friend Dulcie’s secret unsettle the family, while Lewis’s memories frame a three-act coming-of-age story about identity, sexuality, prejudice and change.
After seventeen summers working as sugar-cane cutters, Roo and Barney return to Melbourne for their annual layover with Olive and Nancy. With Nancy married and a strained friendship, financial troubles and a new suitor reshaping the group, Roo asks Olive to settle down; she rejects marriage, and the men leave before the season can continue.
The aging personification of Summer summons the officers of his realm to account before making his will. Personified seasons and figures from pastoral and court life frame a morality-play allegory with satire, song and spectacle, bridging the interlude and masque traditions.
Summer, 1976 is a Broadway play written by David Auburn. The story follows two women living in Ohio who become unlikely friends over playdates with their respective young daughters during the summer of 1976, the American Bicentennial. It began previews at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on April 4, 2023, with an opening date set for April 25.
A portrait of Russia’s bourgeois summer residents, the play depicts a society at leisure while social changes gather around it. Its ensemble of characters inhabits a world reminiscent of Chekhov’s.
Summertime is a comedy play by the British writer Louis N. Parker. It ran for 52 performances at the Royalty Theatre in London's West End between 30 October and 13 December 1919. The original cast included Fay Compton, C. Aubrey Smith, Cyril Raymond, Arthur Pusey, Mary Brough and Madge Stuart. Compton plays an Australian woman visiting Devon who manages to arrange four different marriages. One review criticised the "stagey and artificial" Devon depicted in the play, comparing it unfavourably to the portrayals of the county in the works of Eden Phillpotts.
A play for voices follows people of varied ethnic and social backgrounds in a South London community as their lives intersect and sometimes come into conflict. Inspired by Under Milk Wood and by de Bernières’s years living above a shop in Earlsfield.
A young woman from Albany visits her brother in New York, determined to protect her virtue. After an encounter on a crowded bus, a small lie about her new friend grows into a tangle involving her fiancé, brother and friend.
In a Florida island saloon beside a hospital for convalescent air-force crews, battle-stressed fliers and the women connected to them face psychiatric treatment and troubled relationships. The two-act drama unfolds through intersecting vignettes about the effects of war and the men's lives before service.
In Shanghai, Chen Bailu—a student who became a courtesan—lives in a luxury hotel supported by a wealthy banker. People from bankers and clerks to students, workers, prostitutes and underworld figures revolve around her. When her benefactor faces bankruptcy, Chen takes her own life; the play depicts a society marked by exploitation and suffering.
The play starred Ralph Bellamy as Roosevelt. Others in the cast included Henry Jones as Louis Howe, Mary Fickett as Eleanor Roosevelt; Anne Seymour as Sara Delano Roosevelt and, in his Broadway debut, James Earl Jones. Bellamy repeated his role in the film version of the play. Campobello Island was Roosevelt's summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. Early scenes in the play's actions take place there, where we see Roosevelt afflicted with paralysis of his legs, before the play's story shifts to Roosevelt's home in New York City, where he struggles to overcome the paralysis. The play ends with the 1924 Democratic National Convention speech, which catapulted him back into politics after an absence of several years. The Scenic and Lighting Design were by Ralph Alswang; the costumes by Virginia Volland.
In Odessa’s Jewish quarter, mob boss Benya Krik confronts his philandering father Mendel, whose affair and threat to disinherit his family provoke his sons to violence. The family arranges a dowry for Dvoira and an abortion for Mendel’s pregnant mistress, then celebrates her engagement as if order has been restored.
A grotesque black comedy about Pope Celestine V’s brief reign, revisiting motifs from Peter Barnes’s earlier plays.
A kabuki adaptation of One Piece’s Paramount War saga follows Luffy’s attempt to rescue his sworn brother Ace from execution, joining Whitebeard’s battle against the Navy at Marineford.
The play focuses on the relationship between despondent Arthur Przybyszewski, a former 1960s radical who owns a rundown donut shop in Chicago's Uptown, and Franco, his energetic but troubled young African American assistant, who wants to update the establishment with lively music and healthy menu options. Dialogue scenes are separated by soliloquies in which Arthur discusses his past and reminisces about the city as it was in his younger years.
After twenty years together, Sam and Tusker take a road trip following Tusker’s diagnosis of early-onset dementia. They revisit loved ones and shared memories while confronting the changes ahead in their relationship.
A satirical drama about Captain James Cook's visit to Tahiti.
In a café, Bill and Betty's conversation repeatedly restarts whenever one responds negatively and a bell rings. Through successive attempts, they revise their views and become compatible companions.
Three members of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry travel from Cornwall’s mines to the fields of Flanders, where South African troops teach them to surf.
A tragedy loosely based on the life of the Parthian general Surena, who defeated the Romans at Carrhae.
Suspect is a 1937 mystery thriller play by the British authors Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, written under the pen name Rex Judd. It ran at the St Martin's Theatre in London's West End for 84 performances between 16 February and 1 May 1937. The West End cast included Peter Murray-Hill, Campbell Gullan, David Horne, Mary Morris, Jean Cadell and Doris Lytton. It is a murder mystery set at a country house in Cornwall. It first appeared on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre in 1940. It was adapted several times for television. In 1939 it was adapted by the BBC for a television film of the same title and featuring a number of the original cast. Further BBC television films followed in 1946 and 1958. In addition a 1952 episode of the American show Broadway Television Theatre was based on the play.
Suspense is a 1930 play by the Irish writer Patrick MacGill. Set during the First World War it focuses on a small group of soldiers who are aware that the Germans are building a mine under their trench and have to sit waiting for the enemy to detonate it. It ran for 64 performances at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End. The cast included Robert Douglas, Roland Culver and Gordon Harker. It was produced by Reginald Denham. The same year it was adapted into a film Suspense directed by Walter Summers and starring Cyril McLaglen, Jack Raine and Hay Petrie.
In the surviving first-act scenes, poet Falk asks the young Svanhild to serve as his muse for a summer of eroticism and poetry; she refuses his increasingly disturbing advances. The unfinished comedy explores love as an inspiration for poetry and marriage as an end to creativity.
Two sisters, the dominant Constance and frail Amy, live in a derelict house in the Australian bush; Amy's son Christian returns after disappearing as a teenager. Seymour conceived the nightmare drama amid fears that radioactivity could produce mutations, as a warning about science creating monsters that destroy themselves.
A short drama about an elderly actor, extending Chekhov’s interest in theatrical life.
The play portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood friends and had worked in the same factory. in Reading, Pennsylvania. There are a group of friends that work for the steel factory, named Tracey, Cynthia and Jessie. Tracey is a middle-aged white woman. She loves to hang out at the bar with her friends and she has a gruff kind of humor. She cannot stand the way Reading has been changing over the years. Her friend Cynthia is a black woman who also loves to hang out with her friends at the bar and is a hardworking woman in the factory. She is on and off with her husband, Brucie, who is addicted to drugs. During the play, Cynthia applies and is hired for a managing job at the plant which causes tension. Jessie, another worker at the factory, is not so happy with how her life has turned out and has a problem with alcohol abuse. This is shown in many of the bar scenes. Stan, the bartender, used to work at the plant, but he was injured in a factory accident. Oscar, the busboy at the bar, is Colombian and is not acknowledged often by the patrons. Some characters use xenophobic slurs towards Latinos and show him that he isn't welcome in the Olstead factory. Jason is a white man who is Tracey's son. His best friend is Chris, Cynthia’s son. They both work at the factory and worry that they will be laid off. They both are arrested for assault and are released eight years later. Nottage shifts in time, switching scenes and showing events of eight years earlier. Variety quotes the bartender, Stan, as warning the other characters that "You could wake up tomorrow and all your jobs are in Mexico", to which the characters respond with lethargy and disbelief. Variety described Nottage as going into "the heart of working-class America". Reviews of the play have described the characters as representing blue-collar workers who voted in Donald Trump as president. The play also examines the disintegration of a friendship, after two of the women – one white, one black – apply for the same management job. The latter character gets the position, but soon the company moves jobs to Mexico. The trade union goes on strike, and company management locks out the workers. The management/worker division begins to separate the friends, and racial tensions separate them further.
The play is set in Gotland during the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, where Swedish Colonel Walstein leads a patriotic uprising against Danish forces.
An unfinished verse drama in two scenes, set in Doris’s London flat. Its characters include prostitutes, a former soldier, businessmen and Sweeney, who becomes the central speaker in the second scene; Eliot conceived it as rhythmic drama of modern furnished-flat life.
Chance Wayne, a failed actor who has become a gigolo, returns to his Southern hometown escorting faded film star Alexandra del Lago, whom he hopes will help him launch a movie career. He also seeks to reunite with Heavenly Finley, but her family holds him responsible for the disease that left her unable to have children. Alexandra learns that her comeback film has succeeded and declines to advance Chance's career; Chance stays in town to face the punishment her family intends for him.
A disturbed young man kidnaps a stranger and confines her at his country home, explaining his fantasies and ruminating on love while trying to force her submission.
In Georgian Bath, Kitty Bellairs helps Lady Standish provoke her indifferent husband into jealousy. A misdirected love letter and an impending duel entangle Kitty in the scheme, and her attempt to protect her friend threatens her own reputation.
The play is set in the Chambers of Mr Phenyl and Mr Hale, No 3, Brain Court, Temple. Springtime. The present day. Act 1 – Morning – "Nobody's business" Act 2 – Evening of the next day – "Somebody's business" Act 3 – A Week afterwards – "Everybody's business" Ruth Rolt, a housekeeper, has a daughter, Lavender, who is in love with Clement Hale, who is studying for the bar under a disreputable but lovable barrister, Dick Phenyl. Clement is the adopted son of Geoffrey Wedderburn, a banker, who wants him to marry his niece, Minnie. Minnie has another suitor, Horace, an American. Mrs. Rolt discovers that Wedderburn is not only Clement's adoptive father but also Lavender's real father. She is very angry and breaks off the relationship between Clement and Lavender. Wedderburn's bank is threatened with failure; he takes ill and learns humility. Mrs. Rolt forgives and nurses him, while Lavender flies back into Clement's arms to console him after the financial ruin. Phenyl unexpectedly offers his own fortune to save the bank and Wedderburn's reputation, and all ends happily.
Sweet Madness is a 1952 comedy play written by the British actor Peter Jones. It premiered at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge before transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End where it ran for 125 performances between 21 May and 6 September 1952. The cast featured Richard Attenborough, Laurence Naismith, Robin Bailey, Martin Miller, Sheila Burrell and Geraldine McEwan. It was originally known as The Song of the Centipede before being renamed for its West End transfer.
Deaf teacher Laura and her hearing husband Dan struggle to decide whether their deaf son Adam should receive a cochlear implant. Their family conflict examines deaf pride, language, communication and the preservation of deaf culture; dialogue blends spoken English and American Sign Language.
When pet dog Phoebe goes missing, her minders Helen and Frazer search the city streets and encounter unexpected events that irrevocably change them.
Sweet Sue is a play by A. R. Gurney. It premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and later enjoyed a Broadway production at the Music Box Theatre during the 1986-87 season.
Pauline, raised by the thief Carlos under a false identity, becomes entangled in a family’s deception, a murder accusation, prison escape, and a search for her mother. After years of separation and disguise, she and Earle uncover their histories and reconcile.
Before leaving for India in 1844, Henry's childhood friend Jane rebuffs his marriage proposal while concealing her love. Thirty years later, they meet again, and Jane remembers their farewell in detail while Henry has largely forgotten it; their exchange exposes contrasting ideas of romance between the sexes.
In Sicily, Princess Leonida and Prince Lisandro are condemned after defying the king’s orders, while the misogynist Swetnam is brought before a women’s court and forced to recant. A romantic court intrigue and a debate over the moral character of men and women culminate in a staged masque that prompts the king’s repentance.
The place is New York City, the time is the 1990s. Middle-aged, upper-middle-class Greg finds Sylvia, a dog (played by a human), in the park and takes a liking to her. He brings her back to the empty nest he shares with Kate. When Kate gets home, she reacts very negatively to Sylvia and wants her gone. They eventually decide that Sylvia will stay for a few days before they decide whether she can stay longer, but Greg and Sylvia have already bonded. Over the next few days, Greg spends more and more time with Sylvia and less time at his job. Greg and Sylvia go on long walks; they discuss life and astronomy. Already dissatisfied with his job, Greg now has another reason to avoid work. Tension increases between Greg and Kate, who still does not like Sylvia, nicknaming her Saliva. Eventually, Greg becomes completely obsessed with Sylvia, and Kate fears their marriage is falling apart. Kate and Sylvia are at odds with each other, each committed to seeing the other defeated. Greg meets a strange character at the dog run, who gives Greg tips on how to manage Sylvia and his predicament involving Kate. Greg has Sylvia spayed. Sylvia is angry and in pain, but she still loves him completely. Kate's friend pays a visit and is repulsed by Greg and Sylvia. Greg, Kate, and Sylvia sing "Every Time We Say Goodbye". Greg and Kate visit a therapist, Leslie, who is ambiguously male and female depending on her patients' state of mind. After a session with Greg, Leslie tells Kate to get a gun and shoot Sylvia: "I hope you get her right between the eyes." Kate is asked to teach abroad, in London, and tells Greg that the English have a six-month quarantine for any dogs coming into the country. Greg is unwilling, but eventually, he succumbs and gives the news to Sylvia, that he must give her away, to a family who have a farm in Westchester County. Greg and Sylvia have a heated and tender moment. Kate and Sylvia say goodbye; but, before Greg and Sylvia leave for Westchester, Sylvia returns the annotated and slightly chewed version of "Alls Well That Ends Well" that Kate has been looking for, and Kate has a change of heart. The last scene is directed toward the audience. Sylvia has died, and Greg and Kate still hold her memory in all fondness.
After poisoning her husband Ninus, Queen Sémiramis rules Babylon while haunted by his ghost. She plans to marry Assur, but falls for Arsace, who is revealed as Ninus’s son Ninias. When Ninias learns his mother’s guilt, he tries to spare her; in a struggle at the mausoleum he fatally wounds her, unknowingly avenging his father.
The dining-room view of the Norman Conquests weekend follows the same six characters as family members gather at Annie's house to care for their mother, while Annie hopes for a private meeting with her brother-in-law Norman.
At the Beauregard Private Hotel, Major Pollock tries to hide a newspaper report of his sexual harassment of women. A repressed young woman takes his side and falls in love with him, while hotel manager Miss Cooper encourages the guests to face their feelings honestly.
At the Beauregard Private Hotel, a disgraced politician, Martin, dines with his ex-wife, who seeks reconciliation after divorcing a second husband. Miss Cooper, Martin's mistress and the hotel manager, helps the former couple cautiously reunite.
A supernatural curse tied to mixed ancestry leaves a young Louisiana child unable to speak, in a fantasy that brings together African religious rites and the antebellum South.
Set inside a human body, the stage work personifies the cells that transport oxygen and defend the body against bacteria, viruses and foreign substances. Its theatrical conception makes the auditorium part of the body, drawing the audience into the cells' encounters with invading threats and bodily disturbances.
A Shinto priest asks an elderly couple about the paired pines of Takasago and Suminoe. They reveal themselves as the trees’ spirits, reunite with him at Sumiyoshi, and the local deity dances in a celebration of peace and imperial longevity.
Much of the play is set in the locker room of a professional baseball team, and as such has an all-male cast that explores themes of homophobia, racism, class, and masculinity in sports. Darren Lemming, a star mixed-race center fielder for the fictional Empires Major League Baseball team, comes out as gay. His friend and teammate Kippy Sunderstrom warns Darren that the team will feel uncomfortable about his sexual orientation, but is brushed off by Darren. As Kippy wonders why Darren chose that particular moment in time to come out, a flashback to a week earlier shows Darren having drinks with his best friend Davey Battle, a religious player on a rival team. Davey tells Darren that he should want his true nature known to the world. Later, Darren meets with his new accountant Mason Marzac, a gay man uninterested in baseball until Darren's coming out. The Empires fall into a slump, prompting relief pitcher Shane Mungitt to be brought up from the minor leagues. Shane tells the team that as a child, he was raised in orphanages after his father killed his mother and then himself in a murder-suicide. The team begins winning games again, but in a television interview, Mungitt expresses his discomfort with "colored people" on the team, and that he has to shower every night with a "faggot." Shane is suspended due to the interview, causing the team to fall back into its slump. He writes an apology letter that is leaked to the public, which combined with the details about his tragic childhood, causes public sympathy to shift in his favor. Shane returns to the team, despite Darren's threat to retire in protest. In the locker room showers, Darren derides Shane for his racism and homophobia, and mockingly kisses him. In the game, Shane is sent to pitch against Davey Battle; the ball hits Davey's head, killing him. In a flashback to Darren and Davey's final encounter, Davey angrily accuses Darren of using his straight-and-narrow public reputation to conceal his sexuality. Shane is permanently suspended from major league baseball, and arrested for questioning after players say they heard him muttering about wanting to "kill someone" before the game. He refuses to speak to the police, stating that he will only talk to Kippy. Kippy is joined by Darren, and as Kippy attempts to determine whether the pitch that killed Davey was intentional, Shane discloses that the apology letter was written by Kippy on Shane's behalf. In narration, Kippy states to the audience that the Empires went on to win the World Series, and no charges were ever filed against Shane. Kippy expresses to Darren his desire to again be friends, and Darren invites Mason to the end-of-season party.
Take a Chance is a comedy play by the British-American writer Walter Hackett, with a plot revolving around gambling on a horseracing. It was performed at the Whitehall Theatre, running for 93 performances between 28 July and 17 October 1931. It followed closely on the heels of another of Hackett's plays at the theatre Good Losers. The original cast of Take a Chance included Ian Hunter, Ronald Shiner, Charles Quatermaine, Anthony Holles, Francis Lister, Hugh Wakefield, Barbara Hoffe and Marion Lorne.
The play follows lawyer Hans Litten, known for cross-examining Hitler in court in 1931, and his mother Irmgard’s efforts to secure his release after the Nazis arrest him in 1933.
In a postwar denazification investigation, German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler faces charges that he served the Nazi regime; the play draws in part on his diary of interrogation sessions and ends with his clearance by the tribunal.
In a reputedly haunted, dilapidated house, Elizabeth tries to leave her husband Roland while her brother Mark and his fiancée Kitty struggle with their relationship and house plans. The farce uses a single-level stage arrangement to represent all three floors, so characters can appear side by side while occupying different levels.
Set in twelfth-century Kalyan, the play depicts Basavanna’s reform movement opposing idolatry and caste and advocating gender equality, and the bloodshed that follows a Brahmin girl’s marriage to a cobbler’s son.
Julie enters a talent contest at a run-down nightclub, with her awkward friend Maureen supporting her. Julie’s hopes of show-business glamour collide with domestic expectations and an encounter with the former boyfriend who abandoned her when she became pregnant; an oily compere exploits both women. The stage play combines dialogue and songs.
Negina, a popular but poor provincial actress, receives lessons from her fiancé Meluzov while resisting a wealthy prince's attempt to exploit her financial need. After her benefit performance succeeds, the theatre entrepreneur refuses to renew her contract. Negina leaves the honest but dull Meluzov for rich Velikatov, choosing the chance to keep working on stage, her true passion.
Narrated by Ödön von Horváth, the play portrays German literary refugees in Hollywood from 1938 to 1950. It follows von Horváth's relationship with Jewish writer Helen Schwartz and introduces historical figures including Brecht and the Mann brothers.
In late-1920s Austria, Marianne breaks her engagement to the conventional butcher Oskar for the charming but indifferent Alfred. Her choice leads to poverty and hardship, while the play exposes the cruelty and hypocrisy beneath Viennese bourgeois coziness.
Peter, a bachelor in his mid-thirties, tries to win back his girlfriend Jana with help from his equally lonely friend Midge. Their effort unfolds amid Peter's eccentric parents and a neighbor-composer fighting for royalties from elevator music performances.
A panel discussion in a museum of Greek antiquities investigates the enigmatic identity of novelist and experimental filmmaker Archer Aymes. Conflicting accounts from people who claim to have known him turn the debate into an exploration of art, race, memory and power.
The story follows Barry Champlain, a Cleveland-area shock jock, on the eve of his radio show's national syndication.
An unnamed man and woman are bound together in an endless cycle by hopeless poverty. The small-scale, bare-room play gives both characters monologues, with the woman’s substantially longer.
Talking Heads is a stage adaptation of the BBC series of the same title created by Alan Bennett. It consists of six monologues presented in alternating programmes of three each.
Eleven ten-minute monologues present different women speaking about their lives, spanning subjects from an aging rodeo star to an aspiring actress and combining comedy with personal hardship.
In verbatim-theatre form, interview-derived dialogues bring together former members of armed groups, people affected by terrorism, political figures and a British ambassador. The play presents negotiation and listening as alternatives to violence.
Talley & Son is a play by Lanford Wilson, the third in his trilogy focusing on the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri. It is set on July 4, 1944, the same day as Talley's Folly and thirty-three years prior to the events in Fifth of July.
Talley's Folly depicts one night in the lives of two unlikely sweethearts, Matt Friedman and Sally Talley. The one-act play takes place in a boathouse on the Talley farm in Missouri on the Fourth of July, 1944. The play opens with Matt directly addressing the audience, telling them that the play will take ninety-seven minutes and he hopes to relay his story properly in that time. Taking the time to point out some staging elements, he tells the audience that the gazebo-like structure next to him is a Victorian boathouse, which has fallen into disrepair. While on vacation in Lebanon, Missouri the previous summer, Matt met Sally and has sent her a letter every day since. Though the single reply from Sally gave him no hope for romantic encouragement, he has returned to ask her to marry him. Sally arrives at the boathouse and is in disbelief that Matt has shown up uninvited, even though he had written her that he planned to come for the holiday. Matt's arrival has created a stir in Sally's conservative Protestant household, where a Jewish man is not welcomed, especially when his intentions are to court their daughter, who is eleven years younger than he. Matt's interest in Sally had never waned. He once drove from his home in St. Louis to the hospital where she worked and waited hours for her, even after being informed that she was not available. The conversation turns to the boathouse structure. Sally tells him it was constructed by her uncle, who built follies all over town. Her uncle did only what he wanted to do, and Sally considers him the healthiest member of the family for his courage. Eventually, the couple begins to reminisce about the night they met and the time they spent together the previous summer. Matt takes it as a positive sign that she has changed into a nice dress before coming to see him tonight. Sally's protests do not match her behavior and he pushes forward. She is the most intriguing woman he has ever met, and he is determined to make her his wife. Admitting that he has called Sally's aunt every two weeks during the past year, Matt reveals that he knows Sally was fired from a Sunday school teaching job. Apparently, she had been encouraging the students to read Thortstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class in addition to the Methodist reader. The rise of labor unions was affecting the families of the children in her class and she felt obligated to help educate them. Her unorthodox methods earned her the consternation of the church elders as well as her own family, who own the garment factory on which the labor issue centered. Sally then tries to glean some information about Matt's background, a subject about which he is very guarded. He finally admits to Sally that he was probably born in Kaunas, Lithuania. His father had been an engineer. In 1911, his father was overheard in a French cafe discussing his work with nitrogen, a reference to the Haber process developed in 1909 by a Jewish-German chemist, Fritz Haber, to extract nitrogen from the air, which made the manufacture of gunpowder and fertilizer inexpensive. The family was later detained as they were attempting to cross the border. Matt's father and older sister were tortured until the French realized that the father had no information of any value to them. In the meantime, the sister had fallen into a coma from which she never awoke. They later went to the German authorities and were again detained. Matt escaped to America through the help of some relatives. Haunted by his childhood grief, Matt vowed never to bring another child into the world. He was content with his life until he met Sally. He now feels forever changed and hopeful for the first time in his life. Having risked the vulnerability of revealing his background, Matt presses Sally to share why she, a beautiful 31-year-old woman, has never married. She diverts the conversation to economics, which frustrates Matt. Sally finally reveals her disappointment in love many years ago, which makes her reluctant to fall in love again. Her family had partnered her with Harley Campbell, whose family was also wealthy. The match was supposedly made in heaven, especially for the business interests of the two families. Sally had been a cheerleader and Harley had been a basketball star. Unfortunately, the families' fortunes waned during the Depression. In addition, Sally was struck with tuberculosis and sequestered for a long time. A pelvic infection left her infertile, and Harley's family no longer condoned their marriage. Matt comments on the irony of their situation, that he'd been lamenting over the fact that he was in love with a woman but could never have children and now this woman presents him with the same situation. He believes that an angel has guided his path to her. Sally agrees to marry him and move to St. Louis, and they vow to return to the boathouse every year so they don't forget where they fell in love.
Set in Gabriele d'Annunzio's Italian villa, the play reimagines his historical meeting with painter Tamara de Lempicka, who hopes he will commission her portrait. Ten actors perform simultaneous scenes across many rooms of a large house; spectators choose which characters and sequences to follow, creating distinct experiences of the story.
In two parts, Tamburlaine rises from Scythian shepherd to conqueror, defeats rival rulers, and pursues further dominion as his sons inherit his ambition.
Tamerlane is a 1701 history play by the English writer Nicholas Rowe. A tragedy, it portrays the life of the Timur, the fourteenth century conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire. Rowe, a staunch Whig, used the historical story as an allegory for the life of William III who resembles his portrayal of Tamerlane while his opponent the Ottoman leader Bayezid I was equivalent to William's longstanding opponent Louis XIV of France. An earlier version of the story Tamburlaine was written by Christopher Marlowe during the Elizabethan era with a very different focus in the context of the English Renaissance. It was first performed in December 1701 at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London, one of the two patent theatres of the era, and was published the following year by Jacob Tonson. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Tamerlane, John Verbruggen as Bajazet, Barton Booth as Axalla, William Powell as Moneses, George Pack as Stratocles, William Fieldhouse as Prince of Tanais, John Freeman as Omar, John Corey as Mirvan, Benjamin Husband as Zama, Elizabeth Barry as Arpasia and Anne Bracegirdle as Selima. Betterton spoke the prologue and the play was dedicated to the Whig politician Lord Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. Rowe's play was partly framed as a riposte to the Tory-supporting work about Timur The Generous Conqueror by Bevil Higgons, which endorsed direct hereditary monarchy. It was first performed following the death of the deposed James II and the succession of his French-backed young son James as the Jacobite claimant to the throne, and in this context Rowe arguably used it to suggest that the coming war with France was "an obligation, not a choice". In addition the character of the Italian Prince Axalla was modelled on Prince Eugene of Savoy, an Austrian commander who had come to fame in the Great Turkish War and would subsequently become a popular figure in Britain fighting alongside the Duke of Marlborough.
King Tancred’s widowed daughter Gismund falls in love with his courtier Guiszard. Tancred has Guiszard killed and sends Gismund his heart in a golden cup; she drinks poison, and her grief-stricken father kills himself.
Tancred and Sigismunda is a 1745 tragedy by the British writer James Thomson. It is inspired by one of the story's from Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron. The original cast included David Garrick as Tancred, Thomas Sheridan as Siffredi, Dennis Delane as Osmond, William Havard as Rodolpho and Susannah Arne as Sigismunda.
In Norman-ruled Syracuse, Aménaïde loves Tancrède but is betrothed to Orbassan. When a letter to Tancrède is falsely said to be meant for Saracen Solamir, she is imprisoned; Tancrède, believing her faithless, attacks and kills Solamir. As he dies, Aménaïde proclaims her innocence and love, then dies beside him.
In a disordered household without rules or shared values, student Artur tries to restore order and tradition, including through a conventional wedding. His plans fail amid his parents' hypocrisy, his fiancée's affair with Edek, and his grandmother's death. Edek kills Artur, then takes control of the home; the final tango signals the triumph of force and conformity.
A tragedy on a mythological subject, written in the dramatic structure of Aeschylean tragedy and in obscure, archaic language.
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