8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Ballad of the Sad Café is a dramatic stage play with music written by American playwright Edward Albee, based on the 1951 novella of the same name written by Carson McCullers. The play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1963. The play follows a woman named Amelia and her tumultuous relationship with her husband. The play was nominated for six Tony Awards including the Tony Award for Best Play.
Anna imagines a European trip with her brother Carl, seeking a cure for her fictitious terminal illness as they encounter farcical episodes and dangers. The fantasy masks the reality that they never took the trip: Carl, who had AIDS, has died, and Anna is grieving in a Baltimore hospital.
When a newcomer to the Vernon Point Neighborhood Association suggests installing a stop sign on a picturesque block, chaos ensues.
The Banditti is a 1686 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It is also known by the longer title The Banditti: or, a Lady's Distress. It was originally staged by the United Company at the Drury Lane Theatre. The original cast included Edward Kynaston as Don Antonio, Joseph Williams as Don Fernand, Anthony Leigh as Don Ariell, Cave Underhill as Don Diego, Thomas Gillow as Don Garcia, Thomas Percival as Lopez, Thomas Jevon as Frisco, Philip Griffin as Leon, Sarah Cooke as Dona Elvira, Katherine Corey as Eugenia and James Nokes as Megaera.
A tragedy following the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero’s downfall and death.
The Bank Note: Or Lessons for Ladies is a 1795 comedy play by the Irish writer and actor William Macready the Elder. Its plot draws inspiration from William Taverner's The Artful Husband as well as other earlier plays. Macready's play premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 1 May 1795. The play is notable for including the first known printed use of the word 'smithereens':I join you with all my heart,—and wish he was hang'd, shot, cut in smithereens.
Fashionable gambling and extravagant pleasures threaten domestic happiness while money obstructs courtship. Lieutenant Selby’s poverty keeps him from marrying Emma, and Sir Charles Leslie considers a wealthy widow as a way to rescue his mortgaged estate.
Count Almaviva disguises himself as a poor student to court Rosine, who is kept confined by her guardian Dr. Bartholo. With Figaro's help, he evades Bartholo's schemes and marries Rosine before the doctor can force her to marry him.
The Bare Idea is a 1938 comedy play by the British writer Gordon Sherry. A farce debuting in Hull in 1938, the West End appearance was produced during the Phoney War period of the Second World War. It revolves around a nudist camp being turned into a centre of financial scheming. It ran for 31 performances at the Comedy Theatre between 10 and 27 January 1940. The cast included Ellen Pollock, Gerald Case, Oliver Gordon and Roddy Hughes. The theatre was under the control of Archibald Nettlefold. The sets were designed by Hal Burton.
The play dramatizes Elizabeth Barrett's romance with Robert Browning and her father Edward Moulton-Barrett's opposition to his daughters' marriages. Elizabeth, an invalid, recovers enough to elope secretly with Browning for Italy after her father forbids the match.
A three-act detective mystery with an epilogue, mixing whodunit elements and farce; its central cast includes a psychic medium, bringing psychic research seriously onto the English stage.
In a basement flat, Law and Stott compete for control of the space and their mutual girlfriend Jane. Their roles and apparent possession of both the room and Jane repeatedly reverse, with changing furnishings reflecting shifting power among the three.
In Renaissance Mantua, the bashful courtier Hortensio serves in war to prove himself to Princess Matilda; the military conflict and the intertwined histories of a disguised page and a wounded Florentine officer resolve in restored rule, reconciliations, and marriages.
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel is a play by David Rabe. Rabe's first play in his Vietnam War trilogy that continued with Sticks and Bones and Streamers, its story is bracketed by scenes depicting the death of the everyman-like title character, who mindlessly grabs at a live hand grenade tossed into the Saigon brothel he is visiting. A born loser who is drafted into the United States Army, Hummel immediately encounters difficulties with both his sergeants and fellow recruits, none of whom trust him. As he stumbles through basic training and comes ever closer to the battlefield, he is guided by Ardell, a mysteriously ambiguous character who seemingly is an officer but serves as Hummel's conscience and a Greek chorus-like figure as well. Although injured repeatedly, Hummel is so determined to be a soldier he passes up a chance to go home, a decision that ultimately proves fatal.
Two pairs of lovers—Lord Worthy and Lady Reveller, and Lady Lucy and Sir James Courtly—move through a comedy designed to make gambling and luxury both comic and contemptible. The title refers to the card table where basset was played.
On a farm near the Victorian–New South Wales border, Nick Diargos arrives to avenge his wife, whom John Willy raped and murdered in Greece. Nick instead falls in love with Willy’s daughter Mary.
Elderly, single Cornelia Van Gorder is renting an old, isolated Long Island mansion owned by the estate of Courtleigh Fleming, a bank president who had reportedly died several months before. On a stormy evening, the electricity flickers on and off. Most of the servants, convinced that the house is haunted, have made excuses and fled. According to a news report, a mysterious criminal known as "the Bat" has eluded police in the area. Cornelia is in the house with her maid, Lizzie, and Billy, a Japanese butler who is part of Fleming's household staff. They are joined by Brooks, a gardener recently hired by Cornelia's niece, Dale Ogden. Dale and Dr. Wells, the local coroner and an old friend of Fleming's, arrive for a visit. They tell Cornelia that Jack Bailey, a cashier at Fleming's bank, has disappeared and is suspected of stealing over a million dollars. Cornelia tells Lizzie and Dale that she has invited a police detective to visit because someone has been trying to break into the house at night. Wells leaves, and Detective Anderson arrives. Cornelia tells Anderson that she suspects Fleming embezzled from the bank and hid the money in the house. While Cornelia shows Anderson to his room, Dale warns Brooks (who is actually Jack Bailey, and Dale's fiancé) that Anderson is a detective. Brooks also believes that Fleming hid the money, and wants to clear himself by finding it. Dale summons Fleming's nephew, Richard (who rented the house to Cornelia), to learn about possible hiding places. Richard shows her a blueprint of the house, with a hidden room where the money might be. While they fight over the blueprint, a figure appears in the darkness and shoots Richard, ending the first act. Cornelia calls Dr. Wells back to the house to examine Richard's body. Dale asks Wells to hide the blueprint she took from Richard because the others might think that she killed him for it. Reginald Beresford, a lawyer waiting in his car after he drove Richard to the house, comes inside. Reginald recognizes Jack, and the exposure of her fiancé makes Dale admit that she gave Wells the blueprint with the hidden room. Wells claims that he does not have the blueprint; Cornelia reveals other evidence incriminating him, and Anderson asks to question him alone. Wells knocks Anderson unconscious during the interrogation and drags him into another room. Before Wells can go to the hidden room, a stranger claiming to have lost his memory after he was attacked and tied up in the garage appears at the terrace door. When the guests try to identify the unknown man, they discover that they have been locked in the house. At the end of the second act, Cornelia finds the Bat's calling card, a black paper bat, tacked to a door. The third act begins on the upper floor of the house, where a masked man is seen in the previously-hidden room taking a money bag from a safe. When Dale finds the room, the man flees, leaving her and the money locked inside. The others find her there, unconscious. Anderson reappears and accuses Wells of stealing the money and killing Richard. Cornelia begins to present an alternative theory, but is interrupted when the unknown man comes upstairs and Anderson asks him about his amnesia. Cornelia says that she sees a man on the roof, and most of the group leaves to look for him. Cornelia uses the distraction to tell Dale, Jack and the unknown man that she thinks the money is still in the room. When they search for the money, Jack finds the body of Courtleigh Fleming, who was killed only recently. As Cornelia, Dale and Jack argue about what has happened, the unknown man locks the door and orders them to be quiet. When the masked man sneaks in through a window, the unknown man apprehends him and reveals that he, the unknown man, is the real Detective Anderson; the Bat (the masked man) had pretended to be Anderson.
The Bath; or, The Western Lass is a 1701 comedy play by the English writer Thomas d'Urfey. The original Drury Lane cast included Philip Griffin as Lord Lovechace, Henry Norris as Sir Oliver Oldgame, Benjamin Johnson as Sir Carolus Codshead, John Mills as Colonel Philip, William Pinkethman as Charles, William Bullock as Harry, Colley Cibber as Crab, Frances Maria Knight as Lydia, Jane Rogers as Sophronia, Mary Kent as Delia, Susanna Verbruggen as Gillian and Henrietta Moore as Combrush.
The Bath Unmasked is a 1725 comedy play by the British writer Gabriel Odingsells. The action takes place in the fashionable spa town of Bath. Staged at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London it lasted for six performances, considered a reasonable run for a comedy at the time. The original cast included Lacy Ryan as Sprightly, Anthony Boheme as Wiseman, John Egleton as Pander, John Hippisley as Sir Captious, Richard Diggs as Sharper, Jane Egleton as Lady Ambsace, Jane Rogers as Liberia, Henrietta Morgan as Tippet, Anne Parker as Cleora and Thomas Walker as Frippou.
In 1930, inventor Chudakov builds a time machine while battling Soviet bureaucracy. A visitor from 2030 invites virtuous people to the Communist future, but officials including Pobedonosikov are thrown off the machine.
A comedy about the rivalry between Britpop bands Oasis and Blur, set in London in 1995.
After usurper Muly Mahamet seizes the Moroccan throne, his uncle Abdelmelec returns from exile with Ottoman support. Muly Mahamet enlists Portugal’s King Sebastian to regain power, leading to a proxy war and the Battle of Alcazar, where three kings die and the rightful succession is restored.
The Battle of Eddington: Or, British Liberty is a 1796 historical tragedy play written by the English author John Penn. It first appeared at Richmond Theatre before its West End premier at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 28 March 1796. It featured songs by the composer John Wall Callcott. It is inspired by the Battle of Edington in 874 when the English forces of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated a Viking army. Penn dedicated the play to the prime minister of the United Kingdom William Pitt.
The Battle of Hastings is a 1778 play by the English writer Richard Cumberland. It is a tragedy set around the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in October 1778 by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Sheridan later mocked Cumberland's sensitivity to criticism by modelling the character Sir Fretful Plagiary, in his 1779 play The Critic, after him. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Bensley as Harold Godwinson, John Henderson as Edgar Atheling, John Palmer as Earl Edwin, William Brereton as Prince Waltheof, James Aickin as Earl of Northumberland, Richard Hurst as Raymond, Elizabeth Younge as Matilda and Mary Ann Yates as Edwina.
The Battle of Hexham is a 1789 history play by the British writer George Colman the Younger. It is based around the 1464 Battle of Hexham, a decisive Yorkist victory during the War of the Roses. It revived Colman's career after the disappointment of his works following his earlier hit Inkle and Yarico. It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 11 August 1789 with a cast that included John Edwin and Maria Theresa Kemble. It helped reinvigorate the history genre. It combined a mixture of comedy, pathos and mystery and owned a great deal of its inspiration to Shakespeare's histories.
After Tartars overthrow the Ming emperor, loyalist Go Sankei saves the infant heir. In Japan, Watōnai learns of the crisis and sets out for China with his family; after gathering allies and overcoming betrayal, he becomes Coxinga and leads a campaign to restore the dynasty.
A four-act play about modern London life, moving from Lord Clivebrook’s home to a Westminster toy bazaar, then a private room in the House of Commons, and back to Clivebrook’s home.
A grieving widow confronts a creditor demanding her late husband’s debt. Their argument escalates into a duel challenge, but the creditor falls in love with her, and she wavers between rejecting him and asking him to stay.
Moscow, Spring 1930. Two OGPU officers search the room of Father Anton Kirillitch, who has been banned from his church and ordered to stop preaching. He shares the room with Grigori Orlov, ejected from his chair at the university for a "reactionary" refusal to give a Marxist slant to his literature lectures. Both live in poverty, in half a room of Grigori's former house, now seized by the State. To visit Grigori come his son, Andrey, and his son's wife, Elizaveta, both 35, who eloped to England in 1914 and are now naturalised British. Andrey, a left-wing writer in London, is horrified by his father's treatment and by the workings of the Soviet régime. Elizaveta, a doctor in London, has tried the West and found it wanting. She is more open-minded about the USSR, and finds a non-sentimental attraction in the work to be done. Their marriage is in trouble: she no longer loves Andrey. Vera Levine, 19, Elizaveta's sister whom she last saw before the War, arrives, an "agricultural expert" full of youthful enthusiasm for the New Russia, along with Leonti Levine, their father, a former antiques-dealer now Inspector of Collective Farms in northern Ukraine. With the Levines is Vladimir Blok, 30, an OGPU official and Revolutionary Judge. Vera suggests that the returned émigrés visit "her" collective farm in Ukraine. Vladimir gives permission (Orlov son might perhaps be pressured to write positively about the USSR when he returns to London) and allows Grigori to accompany them. Act One closes with the arrest by the OGPU of Father Anton, who knows this means the Lubyanka and liquidation. Act Two takes place three days later at a railway station in western Russia, where the travelling party are waiting for a connection. Behind the political arguments, Elizaveta and Vladimir are sexually attracted; Andrey and Vera are falling in love. Leonti loathes Grigori from pre-Revolution days (they quarrelled over their children's elopement). When Leonti briefly leaves his luggage unattended, Grigori glances at Levine's pocket-book, finds something compromising inside, darts to the cloakroom to make a copy, then returns the book to the frantic Leonti, who thought it had been stolen. On the collective farm in Act Three, in the Soviet House, Vera is in her element and full of pride. We witness a workers' wedding where the Soviet girls dance with spirit. Elizaveta tells Andrey their marriage is over: she has chosen Vladimir and will stay on in the USSR. The atmosphere darkens with a series of peremptory trials presided over by Vladimir: crimes against the individual are punished leniently, crimes against property (and therefore the State) with terrible vengeance. When some peasants are accused of being kulaks and sentenced to the Gulag for "hoarding" small quantities of grain, Andrey, watching, can take no more. He snatches Blok's pistol and shoots him dead. He is seized and knows he will be executed. Grigori, to save his son, tells Elizaveta what he found in her father's pocket-book: Leonti has been smuggling goods across the nearby Polish frontier (an "anti-Soviet" activity). Elizaveta, he insists, must blackmail her father with the threat of telling the fanatical Vera, to smuggle Andrey across the frontier. Andrey, however, will only attempt the escape if his father comes too. Elizaveta confronts Levine, who, terrified of Vera, caves in. The telephone line is cut. After delivering Vladimir's funeral oration offstage (which we hear), a tearful Vera enters to say goodbye to Andrey before he is carried off to Kiev. After a minute or two, she realises that the muffled figure in the dark room she has been addressing is not Andrey, but Elizaveta. The Orlovs have escaped. Elizaveta hints at what has happened; we guess Levine will not return. Vera raises the alarm – in vain. The play ends with Elizaveta attempting to console her weeping sister.
A farce about the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship: William Shakspere and Anne Hathaway become entangled with Edward de Vere and help present works by several concealed authors under Shakespeare's name, including Queen Elizabeth I. Set in sixteenth-century Stratford-upon-Avon and London.
In a Lagos shopping plaza preparing for an elite wedding, security officer Sanda faces upheaval when the bride Miseyi chooses him over her intended groom, provoking conflict among the families and the military governor.
Two wealthy widows seek new husbands: the banker’s widow wants a titled spouse, while the aristocratic Lady Landsworth seeks an educated gentleman interested in the arts.
The Beau's Duel; or, A Soldier for the Ladies is a 1702 comedy play by the English writer Susanna Centlivre. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included John Corey as Colonel Manly, Barton Booth as Bellmein, George Powell as Toper, John Bowman as Mode, George Pack as Ogle, William Fieldhouse as Careful, Mary Porter as Emilia and Elinor Leigh as Mrs Plotwell.
A teenage writer of one-word novels, his sister and their philosophising father preserve an unconventional household built around love. Birthday gifts supposedly arranged by mice and pension cheques cashed for a dead stranger blur innocence, imagination and illegality.
A tragic romance in Jatra style, set in nineteenth-century rural Bangladesh.
The Beauty Part is a 1962 stage play by S. J. Perelman.
Maureen Folan, a 40-year-old spinster, lives in the Irish village of Leenane, Connemara, in the early 1990s with her 70-year-old mother Mag, for whom she acts as caretaker. While Maureen is out, the Folan home is visited by Ray Dooley, a young man, who invites both women to a farewell party for his visiting American uncle. When it seems Mag is incapable of remembering this message, Ray writes it down for Maureen. As soon as he leaves, Mag destroys the note in the furnace. Upon Maureen's return, she admonishes her mother for depending on her as if she were an invalid; despite her bad back and burnt hand, Maureen thinks Mag is capable of doing more for herself. Maureen has already learnt of the party from Ray, whom she passed on her way in, so she punishes Mag for her dishonesty by forcing her to drink lumpy Complan. Maureen, a virgin who has only ever kissed two men, buys a new dress and attends the party. She brings Ray's older brother, Pato, home with her. Pato is a construction worker who lives primarily in London, though he is unhappy both there and in Leenane. He reveals that, although he has barely spoken to Maureen in 20 years of acquaintance, he has secretly thought of her as "the beauty queen of Leenane" for a long time. She brings him to her bedroom. In the morning, Mag empties her bedpan into the kitchen sink, a daily habit that disgusts Maureen. Pato emerges from the bedroom and prepares breakfast for a shocked Mag, revealing that Maureen insisted he not sneak out. Maureen then emerges, dressed only in her underwear, and flaunts her intimacy with Pato in front of Mag. Incensed, Mag accuses Maureen of having deliberately burnt her hand by pouring hot oil over it, and then reveals that it is actually she who is legally responsible for Maureen after having signed her out of an English "loony bin." After Mag goes to find the papers that prove this, Maureen tells Pato that Mag burnt herself trying to cook unsupervised, but she admits that she truly did suffer a nervous breakdown while working as a cleaner in England, 15 years earlier, when she was unable to endure the teasing of her English coworkers. She claims Mag sometimes tries to tell lies about the past, thinking Maureen is unable to discern them from reality. Pato is sympathetic, telling her that his opinion of her is unchanged. However, when he urges her to dress herself for warmth, she becomes insecure about her appearance and throws a tantrum. Mag returns with the documents, but Pato ignores her, departing after telling an upset Maureen that he will write to her. Some time later, Pato writes from London, telling Maureen that he is going to work for his American uncle in Boston, and he wants Maureen to come with him as soon as she can. The letter also reveals that he was unable to perform sexually when they were together, but he tells her that it was only because he had drunk too much. He also tells her that there will be a going away party for him. He sends the letter to Ray, with explicit instructions to put it directly into Maureen's hands. However, when Ray comes to the house, Maureen is out and Mag persuades him to leave the letter with her, playing on his resentment of Maureen for failing to return his swingball that fell in the Folan yard when he was a child and for snubbing him recently in the street. After Ray leaves, Mag reads and burns the letter. On the night of Pato's farewell party, Maureen is aware of Pato's plans but assumes he is uninterested in pursuing a relationship. However, she tells Mag that it was she who ended things with him. When she continues to talk about the sexual encounter, Mag teases her and accidentally lets slip that she is aware of Pato's impotence. Seizing on it, Maureen tortures Mag with hot oil until she confesses the letter's existence and contents. Leaving Mag writhing on the floor, Maureen quickly puts on her dress and rushes out to the party. She returns home after midnight, telling an unmoving Mag that she caught Pato at the train station before he left, and they recommitted themselves to one another. At the end of the scene, Mag slumps to the floor, dead. Maureen has bashed her head in with the poker. A month later, Mag's funeral is held following an inquest that exonerated Maureen. Ray visits, bringing word from Pato. However, it soon becomes clear that Maureen imagined her reunion with Pato; he actually left by taxi without ever seeing Maureen, and is now engaged to a woman with whom he danced at the party. Maureen asks Ray to send Pato a message, "The beauty queen of Leenane says 'Goodbye.'" Ray leaves after discovering and seizing his lost swingball. Left alone in the house, Maureen puts on Mag's sweater, sits in her rocking chair, and adopts her mannerisms.
Aimwell and Archer are two fashionable beaux, on the lookout for an heiress to marry so they can repair their fortunes. To help their scheme, Archer poses as Aimwell's servant when they arrive in the city of Lichfield. Aimwell insinuates himself into friendship with the beautiful Dorinda, daughter of Lady Bountiful. Meanwhile, Archer strikes up an extremely worldly friendship with Kate, Dorinda's sister-in-law. She is unhappily married to Sullen, a parody of a country squire, mad for hunting and eating and (especially) drinking. Obstacles to a happy ending include the fact that Kate's husband despises her; that the innkeeper's saucy daughter, Cherry, has fallen in love with Archer; that Lady Bountiful, who is extremely over-protective of Dorinda's virtue, mistakenly believes herself to be a great healer of the sick, while a band of brigands plans to rob Lady Bountiful that very night.
In this adaptation of Farquhar's comedy, two financially troubled gentlemen pose as master and servant while pursuing heiresses. The adaptation removes Count Bellair and Gibbet and replaces them with Gloss, a highwayman disguised as a priest.
Berlin cleaner Mother Wolff steals a valuable beaver coat to relieve her debts, after already selling a poached roebuck. When the coat’s owner reports the theft, a politically preoccupied police official ignores the evidence, and Wolff escapes suspicion. The naturalistic thief’s comedy uses everyday Berlin dialect.
On his wedding day in 1929, Ivan Prisypkin is frozen with a bedbug and revived fifty years later in a utopian Soviet society that has eliminated poverty and familiar vices. Treated as a relic, he becomes a human exhibit at a zoo.
In post-apocalyptic London after a brief nuclear war, radiation causes bizarre mutations. Lord Fortnum fears he is turning into a bedsitting room, while the story follows the fate of the first child born after the war. A doctor moves in with Fortnum's fiancée to treat him, creating the dilemma that curing the condition would leave the doctor homeless.
A radically theatrical Expressionist drama in which the Poet and Friend speak before a closed curtain while voices suggest an imagined audience beyond it; the protagonist tests and rejects classes of people as unfit for his ideals.
The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green is a five-act comedy play by the Irish writer James Sheridan Knowles. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1828 in London. It takes its name from a traditional popular song of the same name. On its opening night the audience began heckling in the second act, and by the third act, their dissatisfaction had become so tumultuous that the stage manager "implored a patient hearing, pledging himself that if the opinion of the audience was so decidedly against the piece at its conclusion, it should be withdrawn". The play was harshly criticised by the press for its weakness, lack of action, thinly sketched characters and lack of originality. In 1834 a revised version entitled The Beggar of Bethnal Green was staged at the Victoria Theatre. The action takes place in London and Romford, then in Essex. The original Drury Lane cast included Charles Mayne Young, William Farren, John Pritt Harley, John Liston, Henry Gattie, Paul Bedford, Harriet Elizabeth Savill and Mary Ann Knight. Knowles dedicated the published version to the Scottish politician Kirkman Finlay.
The Belle of Amherst is a one-woman play by William Luce. Based on the life of poet Emily Dickinson from 1830 to 1886, and set in her Amherst, Massachusetts, home, the 1976 play makes use of her work, diaries, and letters to recollect her encounters with the significant people in her life – family, close friends, and acquaintances. It balances the agony of her seclusion with the brief bright moments when she was able to experience some joy. After one preview, the original Broadway production, directed by Charles Nelson Reilly and starring Julie Harris, opened on April 28, 1976, at the Longacre Theatre, where it ran for 116 performances. The Wall Street Journal reviewer wrote "With her technical ability and her emotional range, Miss Harris can convey profound inner turmoil at the same time that she displays irrepressible gaiety of spirit." Harris, who portrayed 15 different characters in the play, won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience, and won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Recording. She appeared in a televised PBS production and extensively toured the country with the play for a number of years. Dickinson biographer Lyndall Gordon criticized the play for perpetuating Mabel Loomis Todd's chaste, hermit-like image of Dickinson, as opposed to the lively, witty, provocative, and sometimes erotic Dickinson present in her work and known to those who knew her more personally. The Spanish translation of the play was done by Argentinean poet Silvina Ocampo for the Buenos Aires premiere starring China Zorrilla in January 1981. The production ran for more than 500 performances and Zorrilla embarked on a Latin American tour that ended at New York's Hunter College in 1983 and Washington's Kennedy Center. With Emily, the Uruguayan actress made a triumphant comeback to her country after 10 years of proscription for political reasons. In 1999, the play was presented by Cesear's Forum at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio. The production presented Dickinson in the attic of her home as a kind of apparition. Keith Joseph of Cleveland Scene found the work bizarre, mysterious and poignant. Of Cleveland actress Sheila E. Maloney, he writes: "Her poetess, instead of suggesting the usual fragility of one of the world's most famous recluses, has the mad glee of Arsenic and Old Lace's Brewster Sisters. Her approach is hearty and hale."
The play's double plotline concerns the romance between Letitia Hardy and Doricourt, as well as the relationship between Sir George Touchwood and his wife, Lady Frances Touchwood. The story comes to a dénouement at the masquerade ball of the last act. As described by the press office of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, "Set in 1780s London, The Belle's Stratagem is the tale of Letitia Hardy, promised to the charming Doricourt whom she hasn't seen since childhood. Her plan to enchant him with her wit and charm is turned upside-down when she discovers she's fallen madly in love with him, and he seems quite unmoved by her. Desiring to marry a man who adores her equally, she plans a bold deception--to have love as she likes it. Interwoven with Letitia's scheme to trick Doricourt into passion is the story of the newly married Touchwoods. Sir George is wildly jealous of his lovely country-bred wife and his fear of her being corrupted by fashionable life encourages plots by his acquaintance to turn Lady Frances into a fine lady in order to spite Sir George." The role of the ingenue heroine, Letitia Hardy, proved to be a successful vehicle in Paris for Harriet Smithson, who infatuated Hector Berlioz. It was also "a favorite role" for Ellen Terry, who was both photographed and engraved in her character's costume. Characters include... Kitty Willis, Tony, Saville, Courtall, Doricourt, Flutter, Villers, Mrs. Racket, Letitia Hardy, Old Hardy, Sir George Touchwood, Miss Ogle, Lady Frances Touchwood
Tony Cownie relocates Cowley’s comedy to Enlightenment Edinburgh during the development of the city’s New Town.
Set in Alsace in 1833, the play follows Mathias, a burgomaster who years earlier robbed and murdered a Polish Jewish merchant to pay his mortgage. Haunted by guilt and visions of his victim, Mathias dreams that he is tried and condemned, then dies after waking and trying to remove an imaginary noose.
The Berg is a 1929 play by the British writer Ernest Raymond. It is based on the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. It premiered at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge before transferring to His Majesty's Theatre in the West End where it ran for 29 performances between 12 March and 6 April 1929. The original West End cast included Godfrey Tearle, George Relph, Ian Fleming, Edgar Norfolk, Robert Mawdesley, Wallace Geoffrey, Marion Fawcett and Beatrix Thomson.
At the Presidential nominating convention in the summer of 1960 in Philadelphia, Secretary of State William Russell lives by his principles, but is haunted by recent health problems that threaten his career and vote-winning potential. Senator Joe Cantwell presents himself as the people's candidate; his determination to win at all costs is also his great flaw. Cantwell is faced with the revelation of sexual indiscretions, threatening both his marriage and his career. These two frontrunners for their party's presidential nomination fight for the support of the outgoing president and resort to mudslinging in a very public contest.
In twelfth-century Galicia, Sancho plans to marry Elvira, but his lord Tello abducts her after falling in love with her. Sancho seeks King Alfonso VII's help; the king discovers Tello's crime, compels him to marry Elvira, executes him and restores her honor.
Through a long correspondence spanning more than twenty-five years, George Bernard Shaw, Sydney Cockerell and Dame Laurentia McLachlan sustain a friendship across their differing lives and vocations.
Alice, disillusioned with her self-satisfied husband David, proposes that he marry her friend Marion after Marion’s failed attempt to seduce him; Alice then plans a scandalous affair to satisfy divorce law, leaving the other two bewildered.
After waking blackout-drunk from a party celebrating creation and the Bible, God discovers that the world has changed and is nearing destruction. With the Professor, Lucifer (Lucy) and a newly Buddhist Jesus, he tries to write a new Bible and put the world back on track.
An open house for an affordable property becomes a contest of desperation. Buyers and real-estate agents abandon restraint as competing bids expose the absurdity and ruthlessness of the housing market.
Wade Barnett moves with his family from Nebraska to a Florida farm, where a land swindle and hostility from local residents leave him at odds with Carney Jelks. When Carney's mob pursues Celie and Clay, they take refuge in Wade's cabin; a hurricane forces Wade to shelter the mob too, and the crowd ultimately turns against Carney.
The stuffy and elitist Lucretia Cawallader is intent on seeing that her daughter, Eugenia, should be properly married to someone of sufficiently high position in society. She becomes irate when she learns that Eugenia was seen in public with an unknown disheveled-looking young man. Her husband, the Wall Street investor Jonathan Cadwallader, further adds to her distress by his incessant arguing with Lucretia's visiting cousin, Professor Agassiz. Jonathan makes a $30,000 wager with Agassiz betting that the professor, if given the opportunity to invest that money, could not successfully net a positive return in a month's time. Agassiz makes the attempt, and fails. However, it is revealed that the wager was not fair, as Jonathan's clerk had purposefully disobeyed Agassiz's instructions regarding how to invest the funds. The mysterious you man returns, and it is revealed he is Bob Ruggles, Jonathan's nephew. Reconciliation are made, and Bob and Eugenia are given the family's blessing to marry.
In 1972 New York, young firefighter Michael Doyle joins the IRA to affirm his Irish heritage. The Big Fellah recruits him and plans to use his Bronx apartment as a safe house for an escaped killer; suspicion grows that someone in their circle is leaking information.
Garfield played major movie star Charlie Castle, whose idealistic wife Marion has left him. She has warned him not to sign a new contract with studio boss Marcus Hoff, or she will not return to him. Hoff has covered up a fatal hit-and-run committed by Castle, and he threatens Castle with the revelation of his secret if he does not sign the contract. Castle signs the contract, but subsequently commits suicide with the knowledge that he can never reclaim his lost idealism that he had sacrificed for success.
The Big Tickle is a 1958 comedy play by the British writer Ronald Millar. A respectable woman who finds herself short of money, turns to robbery. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before beginning a 27 performance run at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End between 23 May and 14 June 1958. The cast included Jack Hulbert, Yvonne Arnaud, Bernard Cribbins and Peter Bayliss.
Two former drama-school classmates have taken different paths: Celia is a wealthy soap star, while Vicki works in independent theatre. Vicki proposes a film collaboration that could become a major opportunity for both.
Rosita falls in love with the poor Cocoliche but is forced to marry the rich, old Don Cristóbal, a Punch-like figure with a billy club. The six-scene puppet farce includes bar fights and smugglers as Fígaro and Wearisome uncover Don Cristóbal’s secret.
The Duke of Mantua confines his daughter Eugenia in a tower to force an arranged marriage. Her suitor Philenzo returns disguised and accepts a deadly challenge to reach her; he hides inside a cage of rare birds sent to the princess. After the Duke rejects their marriage and condemns Philenzo, a letter cancels the rival match, and the apparently poisoned suitor revives when he learns he may wed Eugenia.
Hawaiian princess Luana loves a beachcomber doctor who dies after identifying the bacterium that causes leprosy and isolating himself to save Hawaiians; Luana then sacrifices herself to Pele to save her people.
Two Athenians, Pisthetaerus and Euelpides, leave Athens and persuade the birds to build a fortified city in the sky, Cloudcuckooland. The new city redirects sacrifices from the Olympian gods and attracts a succession of visitors; Pisthetaerus defeats or dismisses them, negotiates with Zeus's delegation, and is proclaimed ruler of the heavens.
A comic Arthurian romance follows Joan's search for the father of her child, the devil, and Merlin's birth and emergence as a prophet who aids the Britons against the Saxons.
A peasant tells how a landowner took the land he had cultivated and raped his wife. When he attempts to hang himself, Christ intervenes and gives him the power of a jester’s speech, turning his suffering into satire against the powerful.
The Birth Day or The Birth-day is a 1799 comedy play by the British author Thomas John Dibdin. It was based on the work Die Versöhnung by the German author August von Kotzebue, which Dibdin translated and rewrote for the English stage. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 8 April 1799. The Covent Garden cast included Joseph Shepherd Munden as Captain Bertram, John Fawcett as Jack Junk, John Henry Johnstone as Harry Bertram, Charles Murray as Mr. Bertram, John Waddy as Lawyer Circuit, Jane Pope as Emma and Mary Ann Davenport as Mrs Moral. Fawcett's character Jack Junk, a sailor, was a reprisal from the popular 1798 musical The Mouth of the Nile by Dibdin. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 25 November 1799.
In a rundown seaside boarding house, Stanley Webber's birthday celebration becomes a nightmare after two strangers, Goldberg and McCann, arrive looking for him. Their interrogation leaves Stanley broken and they take him away, while Meg and Petey's marriage and their knowledge of his fate remain unsettled.
An avid reader of detective fiction, the Bishop of Broadminster, is accidentally drawn into a mysterious case near his cathedral.
Narrated by Petko Slaveykov, the comedy recounts the struggle for independence of the Bulgarian Church.
At a country fair taking place near Croydon, the wealthy merchant Sir Timothy Tallapoy has arranged marriages for both himself and his daughter Angelica. However Angelica is really in love with another man, who also arrives at the fair pursued by Lady Stale an amorous, older widow.
Shahid, a British-Pakistani student newly arrived in London after his father's death, searches for an independent identity amid competing modern and traditional influences. Kureishi's stage adaptation retains the novel's episodic movement through London, shifting between realism and the absurd.
In a 1930s Alberta town, shoemaker and curler Wullie MacCrimmon bargains with the Devil for a chance to compete in the Brier. Their agreement leads to a curling match between Wullie’s friends and the Devil’s team.
Remi, the first man from his tribe to attend university, leaves for the city after his brother's death makes him responsible for marrying Thoni under tribal custom. Elders and a Christian priest persuade him to return and lead the tribe, but he rejects its demands and his marriage; after Thoni dies, he recognizes the depth of her love and his loss. The tragedy explores the pull between tribalism and nationalism in a newly independent country.
In the cattle country, a father and mother clash over the life and future of their young son, in a one-act family tragedy.
A stage dramatization of the Haitian Revolution, revised from C. L. R. James’s earlier play about the revolt and its leader Toussaint Louverture.
In 1825 Amsterdam, Balthazar discovers that valuables, including a locket he needs to win Sara’s agreement to marry him, have vanished. A detective accuses Christiane, but Cornelius determines that a bolt of lightning caused the theft, clearing her and allowing her to marry him.
As its title indicates, the play deals with the historical career of Edward, the Black Prince and his defeat and capture of King John II of France at the Battle of Poitiers (1356).
A woman leaves her children for an evening at a nightclub. Hesitating and glancing back, she slips into a surreal world where money, desire and dreams converge in haunting colors and lyrical distortions.
A review of the Theatre Royal Stratford East production (2007) states:
In a dry rural Australian town, a mother and her daughters have killed the man of the house, and must decide how to dispose of his body. This darkly comic revenge drama is shaped like a murder ballad.
This Symbolist one-act play presents twelve unnamed, depersonalized blind figures as a study of the human condition and the effects of hope, leaving their condition open to interpretation.
After being banished by Queen Aegiale, swindler Cleanthes returns to Alexandria disguised as a blind beggar and fortune-teller, then assumes other identities to seduce the queen, manipulate events, and ultimately become king of Egypt.
A political drama examining how power corrupts individuals and society.
The Blind Goddess is a 1947 play by the British barrister and writer Patrick Hastings. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before beginning a 133 performance West End run at the Apollo Theatre. The cast included Basil Radford, Honor Blackman, Joan Haythorne and William Mervyn.
Seven characters each offer a perspective on the events that lead suburban housewife Rhonda Russell to go berserk in a shopping mall. The eight monologues complicate competing accounts involving her husband, a neighbour, a friend, and a victim’s family, with one performer playing every role.
When a prince is killed in a road accident on his way to a politically important wedding, officials recruit Russell, an Australian photographer who resembles him, to take his place. Russell is reluctant until he learns of the role's privileges and the princess he would marry.
A tyrant seizes Lydia's throne and has Prince Tymethes killed after a web of courtly desire and betrayal. He forces Tymethes's lover, the Young Queen, to eat his remains at a banquet; the exiled king and Lapyrus return in disguise and overthrow the tyrant.
In a rural Kagoshima household near the end of the Second World War, bereaved Etsuko lives with her brother and sister-in-law and quietly loves her brother’s junior, Akashi. Her brother arranges her introduction to Akashi’s friend Nagayo; as the two men’s affection and Akashi’s impending kamikaze mission emerge, the family’s ordinary conversations carry the shadow of loss.
A girl, Mytyl, and her brother, Tyltyl, search for happiness, represented by the Blue Bird of Happiness, with the aid of the fairy Bérylune.
A Canadian artist living in Shanghai is visited by a former lover who hopes to adopt a child. His relationship with a young Chinese artist complicates their reunion, bringing questions of parenthood, migration, and cultural belonging into conflict.
In the first act, irreligious scientist John Varnum has developed a device to bring the recently dead back to life. His sweet, religious fiancée, Ruth Gordon, does not approve of his experiments and hopes to reform him. When she is struck by lightning and killed, she becomes the first person to be revived by his machine. Before she is reanimated, the audience sees her soul visibly leave her body as the "blue flame" of the title. With no soul, the revived Ruth has an entirely different personality. Upon waking, she asks John for a kiss, then suggests they marry immediately so they can begin having sex. In the second and third acts, Ruth seduces a young man named Larry Winston and steals him away from his fiancée. She takes Larry to New York's Chinatown, where she gets him hooked on cocaine and steals an emerald from an idol. She meets another young man, Ned Maddox, whom she seduces and kills for insurance money, framing another man for the murder. In the final act, Ruth's death and revival is revealed to be a dream John was having. Upon waking he understands the importance of the soul; he embraces religion and destroys his life-restoration device.
The Blue Goose is a comedy play by the British writer Peter Blackmore. It was first staged at Richmond Theatre on 8 April 1940. The following year it transferred to the Comedy Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 68 performances between 23 January and 15 March 1941. The West End cast included Viola Lyel, Ian Fleming, Iris Hoey, Billy Merson, Davina Craig and John Warwick who was replaced during the run by Ballard Berkeley. In 1951 Blackmore produced a novelisation of the play, published by Ward Lock. The play is set in the small coastal town of Weymouth Regis, where the annual operatic society's performance of The Mikado is taking place. The lead role is played, as always by Mrs Portal the wife of a council official. Meanwhile, one of her daughters plans to elope with the captain of the yacht The Blue Goose. However, when the captain falls overboard and she drifts out to sea, the lifeboat crew are called out still wearing their costumes from the performance.
In a contemporary great city, ten linked scenes trace a chain of sexual encounters among ten people. Each scene pairs one character from the preceding encounter with a new partner, until the final scene closes the circle.
In a school, a crude symbol appears on the blackboard and prompts an investigation by the director. The inquiry sets off absurd reversals that expose the director's abuse of authority and the shifting balance between power and its victims.
Inspired by the Brighton bombing and the later meeting between Jo Berry, whose father was killed in the attack, and Patrick Magee, who planted the bomb, the play examines how the two affected one another. It draws on interviews, research, and a mixture of real and imagined dialogue rather than verbatim transcription.
As Timoleon leads Syracuse's defense against Carthage, its abused slaves revolt under Pisander, who is disguised as a slave while pursuing Cleora. After the citizens regain control, Cleora defends Pisander; his identity and her servant's are revealed, couples are reunited, and the slaves return to a more humane social order.
Set twelve years before His Dark Materials, two young people and their dæmons find themselves in a terrifying manhunt while caring for the infant Lyra Belacqua. As floodwaters rise, powerful adversaries pursue control of Dust, which some regard as salvation and others as a source of corruption.
Suicidal Maggie travels to a lonely beach intending to end her life, but is visited by Judas Iscariot, who hopes to enter Heaven, and Pontius Pilate, who was sent without any promise of redemption. Joan later washes ashore as the night unfolds.
Four conservative Venetian merchants represent an older, puritanical middle-class tradition and clash with the city's new frivolity.
Writer and performer Paul Dwyer recounts his father's visits to Bougainville in the 1960s, where orthopaedic surgeon Allan Dwyer treated children with disabilities.
Mike Leigh’s first stage play was developed through improvisation and collaboration with its cast, a process that became characteristic of his later work.
Schoolboy Kay Harker becomes the guardian of a wooden box with extraordinary powers. Drawn into a conflict between magicians Cole and Abner, he must protect the people he loves and keep Christmas from being destroyed.
The Box-Lobby Challenge is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Haymarket Theatre in February 1794. It is a farcical comedy of manners set amongst the working class. The original cast included Thomas Caulfield as George Waterland, William Barrymore as Captain Waterland, James Aickin as Sir Toby Grampus, Richard Suett as Squire Robert, Robert Baddeley as Old Crochet, John Bannister as Jack Crotchet, George Bland as Fulsome Walter Maddocks as Jones, Robert Benson as Joe, Maria Gibbs as Lady Jane Danvers, Sarah Harlowe as Diana Grampus, Charlotte Goodall as Laetitia, Elizabeth Hopkins as Theodosia and Maria De Camp as Lindamira. The prologue was authored by Francis North.
Inspired by J. M. Barrie’s life and work, the play follows a boy awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood and escaping them by traveling in his mind back to Neverland.
Kevin finds himself alongside fictional detective Rockfist Slim on a journey through the books on his shelves.
A blind beggar hides a hoard of coins from his servant boy, who tricks the money away, robs and beats him. The farce turns on the deceiver becoming deceived and was suited to performance by two actors with no props.
The Boys Next Door is a play by Tom Griffin, first produced in the 1988/89 season. Set in the Boston area, it deals with four men with various mental disabilities who live in a group home. It takes place over roughly a two-month period and consists of brief vignettes about the men's lives. The play provides a humorous commentary on the men's lives, taking a surprising turn as Barry's father comes to visit and as Jack (their caretaker) accepts a new job. It was adapted into a television film in 1996 by Hallmark Entertainment starring Tony Goldwyn, Courtney Vance, Nathan Lane, Robert Sean Leonard, and Mare Winningham.
The play is set in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, "a smartly appointed duplex apartment in the East Fifties", and the backgrounds of characters are revealed in the course of a birthday party. Harold celebrates his birthday. In the character's own words an "ugly, pock-marked Jew fairy", he becomes increasingly morose about losing his youthful looks and claims that he no longer can attract cute young men. In the dramatis personae, he is described as being "dark" with an "unusual Semitic face". "Cowboy", an attractive blond hustler who is "not too bright" and "too pretty", is one of Harold's birthday presents. Alan McCarthy, Michael's married college friend and roommate, is an unexpected party guest. He is visiting New York and anxious to tell Michael something, but hesitant to do so in front of the others. It is suggested that he once had homosexual affairs while in college, but his sexual orientation is never explicitly stated, leaving it to audience interpretation. The dramatis personae describes him as "aristocratic" and "Anglo-Saxon". The party is given by Harold's six closest friends: Michael is Harold's "smartly groomed" "frenemy", the host, and a lapsed Catholic as well as an alcoholic. He is the catalyst for most of the drama of the play. Donald is Michael's ex-boyfriend, current friend (though the exact nature of their relationship is ambiguous) who has moved from the city to the Hamptons to spurn the homosexual "lifestyle", and is undergoing psychoanalysis. He has "wholesome American good looks". Bernard is an African-American librarian who still pines for the wealthy white boy in whose house his mother worked as a maid. In the dramatis personae, he is "Twenty-eight, Negro, nice-looking". Emory is a flamboyant and effeminate interior decorator. He is often campy in his sense of humor, which serves to irritate others. Larry is a commercial artist who prefers multiple sex partners and is "extremely handsome". Hank is Larry's live-in boyfriend who has been married to a woman from whom he is separated and is divorcing. He "passes" as straight and disagrees with Larry on the issue of monogamy. Physically, he is described as "solid, athletic, attractive". During the party, the humor takes a nasty turn, as the nine men become increasingly inebriated. The party culminates in a "game", where each man must call someone whom he has loved and tell them about it. Michael, believing that Alan has finally "outed" himself when he makes his call, grabs the phone from him and discovers Alan has called his wife. The audience never learns what Alan intended to discuss with Michael in the end.
Set in Donegal in 1970, Sinner Courtney comes to terms with his father's death; his father had delivered bread.
Ten-year-old Gregory is estranged from his mother and trapped in a brutal relationship with his older brother, while growing intensely attached to the family’s housekeeper. Five people seeking solace and companionship collide in an escalating struggle of desperation and violence as a bitter winter rages.
Charles Battle has been badly hit by losses on the London Stock Exchange and may face bankruptcy. The play follows the Battle family and their friend Alfred Granger's family at the Battles' home, delaying the reveal of how Charles's financial disaster will affect both households.
Laura Masters is preparing for the return of her ex-husband Raoul, who wants to take their son Terry away. Raoul’s lies about Laura’s doctor friend and the relationship between Terry and his friend Peter trigger Laura’s relapse into drinking and a family confrontation.
The Breaking Point was a 1923 Broadway three-act drama written by Mary Roberts Rinehart, produced by Wagenhals and Collin Kemper and staged by Kemper. The play ran for 68 performances from August 16, 1923 to October 1923 at the Klaw Theatre, and was based on Rinehart's 1922 novel of the same name.
A surrealist two-act play in which Thérèse rejects procreation and changes sex to gain power among men, while her husband is made to bear 40,050 children; she later reconsiders.
A woman is confronted by the wife of her lover. Over one day and night, the two women reflect on their lives and their relationship with the man, who remains offstage, as they consider a long past and the future ahead.
The Bridal is an 1837 tragedy by the Irish writer James Sheridan Knowles. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London's West End on 26 June 1837 with a cast that included William Macready as Melantius, Edward William Elton as Amintor, Charles Selby as Calianaz and Mary Huddart as Evadne. It is inspired by the Jacobean play The Maid's Tragedy by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. In 1843 it appeared at the Park Theatre in New York with Macready reprising his role.
The Bride and the Bachelor is a 1956 comedy play by the British writer Ronald Millar. After premiering at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, it transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 589 performances between 19 December 1956 and 24 June 1958. The cast included Cicely Courtneidge, Robertson Hare, Naunton Wayne and Viola Lyel. It then went on a tour round Britain with Henry Kendall in the male lead.
Dimond expands Byron’s short poem into a three-act romantic drama, replacing its gloomy catastrophic ending with an incident from Byron’s The Corsair.
Showing 5,281–5,400 of 8,284 shows
Load more shows