aftercurtain.
Loading navigation…

Plays

Upcoming shows

8284 shows

Clear filters

The Battle of Hexham

Play · 1789

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.

The Bear Dances

Play · 1932

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.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Play · 1996

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.

The Beaux' Stratagem

Play · 1707

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.

The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green

Play · 1828

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

Play · 1976

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 Belle's Stratagem

Play · 1780

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

The Best Man

Play · 1960

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.

The Big Bonanza

Play · 1875

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.

The Big Knife

Play · 1949

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 Birth-day

Play · 1799

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.

The Blue Flame

Play · 1920

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

Play · 1940

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.

The Box-Lobby Challenge

Play · 1794

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.

The Boys Next Door

Play · 1986

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 Boys in the Band

Play · 1968

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.

The Bridal

Play · 1837

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

Play · 1956

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.

The Broken Wing

Play · 1920

This synopsis is compiled from contemporaneous newspaper reviews and the novelization published in The Brooklyn Daily Times. The dialogue is sprinkled with the term "greaser", which the Mexican characters use in reference to themselves when speaking English. Act I (Scene 1:Living room of Farley's home in Mexico. Late afternoon.) Inez Villera has grown into a beautiful young woman, attracting young men in the area of Luther Farley's hacienda. Farley has raised the girl from infancy. He taught Inez to know the Bible and to love cleanliness. This has spoiled her for the local swains, who regard soap as effeminate. However, Captain Santos decides Inez is worth the sacrifice, so he bathes and brushes his teeth regularly to win her. But Inez is aware of Santos' predilection for "little loves" and violence. Santos presses Inez to marry him in Farley's presence. Knowing her foster father will suffer if she refuses outright, Inez excuses herself. She and Quechita decide Inez should stall in hopes of another suitor appearing. Inez tells Santos she will answer him in thirty days, as a storm is heard in the distance. Quechita excitedly tells Inez the storm will bring her a gringo lover. (Blackout) (Scene 2:The sky over Farley's home, amidst an electrical storm.) Far overhead, Philip and Jerry in a Curtiss JN-4 have lost their bearings in the storm; driving rain and hail destroy the support for their left wing. They spiral down but Philip is able to flatten their dive just above the treetops. (Blackout) (Scene 3: Same as Scene 1) The plane crashes into the adobe home of Farley. Jerry is ejected from the plane's second seat and lies crippled on Farley's floor. Philip, unconscious at first, is still in the cockpit. Jerry's voice rouses him for a short while, but silence falls as Jerry dies. Santos' soldier Marco lifts Philip out of the cockpit, then rifles his pockets. Inez finds a dog, Babe Sundance, in the cargo area behind the pilot's seat. (Curtain) Act II (The patio of Farley's home. Next morning.) Inez has tended Philip all night. Aside from Jerry and the plane, he can remember nothing of his former life. Farley says he may recover his memory from some unexpected source. Inez is convinced God has sent him to be her husband. Santos has had his men free the aircraft from the house and move it to the broad patio. Farley and Santos are both alarmed at the devotion Inez shows the wounded aviator. General Aquilar arrives with Basilio and attempts to relieve Santos of command. But Santos is unbudging, knowing the general is escaping from his own troubles. They allow Farley to persuade them to make peace for now, but agree privately that they must have a shootout later. Santos has his men fetch Sylvester Cross, who protests at being arrested, but soon reaches an agreement. From Philip's platinum cigarette case they deduce his name. The General tries to seize both Philip and the plane, but meets his end offstage in a pistol duel with Santos. Inez and Santos quarrel over Philip, but Cross returns to say the aviator is from a wealthy family. Santos sends Cross to New York to get a $100,000 ransom; Cross may keep any amount over that. No longer annoyed with Philip, Santos sets Basilio, who has transferred allegiance, to take over tending him from Inez. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act II. One month later, in afternoon.) Santos has left to mend political fences with Mexico City. Santos' men had started repairing the airplane, reattaching the wings and replacing the ruined propeller with a spare found in the fuselage. As Farley healed, he found his fingers remembered better than his mind how the parts of the plane were supposed to be attached. Inez discouraged this work, fearing he would fly away and not return, but Farley encouraged it, saying it would help him heal. Basilio, under orders from Santos, watches over Philip, smothering him with tender care and making it difficult for Inez to be alone with him. Basilio sings a tender serenade, Adelai, as he works with Farley and Philip on the plane, trying to soften Quechita's heart. The song of the whippoorwills disturbs Philip; the three-note sequence stirs something in his mind. Basilio relaxes his vigilance, allowing Inez and Philip to escape the hacienda briefly. Santos is upset with Basilio when he finds the couple gone, but they soon return. Santos tells them Cross is coming. He shows Philip the cigarette case, allowing him to see the name. Philip understands now he is a prisoner held for ransom. (Curtain) Act IV (Same as Act III. Later that day.) Cross returns with Cecelia, whom he introduces as Mrs. Marvin. Philip is suspicious of both Cross and her. Santos eyes Cecelia's jewelry, until Inez appears. Inez announces that she and Philip were married by the padre that afternoon. Farley explains the marriage cannot be valid, as Philip is already wed. When Inez understands Cecelia means to take Philip away, she draws a stiletto but is stopped from stabbing her rival by Santos. After much argument, she finally goes to her room at Farley's order. Again the whippoorwills sing, and Philip finds an echo in the opening notes of Over There; his memory comes flooding back, and he starts towards Cecelia, but stops short. Cecelia says it will be much better if she and Philip fly back, so he goes to start the plane. Santos gets Cross aside and asks about the ransom. Cross explains the jewels are worth much more than $100,000. Cecelia gives Santos the jewels in return for Philip. Inez, now reconciled to losing Philip, makes her peace with Cecelia, who hands her a note. Philip then secretly instructs Inez to fetch the dog, and to climb into the airplane with it. The plane takes off, puzzling Farley and Santos, since Cecelia is leaving with Cross in his old Ford. Not knowing Inez is in the plane, they are startled when her slipper comes tumbling down from the sky. Inside it is a note saying the jewels are fake, and signed "Cecelia Lane, US Secret Service". Santos laments what is an honest greaser to do in the face of such gringo perfidy. (Curtain)

The Brother

Play · 1769

The Brothers is a 1769 comedy play by Richard Cumberland. The play was Cumberland's breakthrough work. Its complicated plot involved a villain with a virtuous young brother and was set partly in Cornwall. He dedicated the play to the prime minister of the United Kingdom the Duke of Grafton. Two years later Cumberland went on to write his most successful work The West Indian. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 2 December 1769. The original cast included Richard Yates as Sir Benjamin Dove, Henry Woodward as Captain Ironsides, John Quick as Skiff, Thomas Hull as Old Goodwin, Robert Bensley as Philip, John Dunstall as Jonathan, James Perry as Francis, Jane Green as Lady Dove, Mary Ann Yates as Sophia, Mary Bulkley as Violetta and Isabella Mattocks as Lucy Waters. The Irish premiere took place at the Capel Street Theatre on 7 May 1770.

The Brothers

Play · 1753

The Brothers is a tragedy by the British writer Edward Young. Written in 1728, the play was about to be staged and was in rehearsals when Young was appointed chaplain to George II and withdrew it in case his playwrighting might offend the King. It was not performed until 1753, when David Garrick produced it at the Drury Lane Theatre. The cast included Garrick as Demetrius, Henry Mossop as Perseus, Edward Berry as Philip, Richard Winstone as Posthumius, George Anne Bellamy as Erixine, Jane Green as the Attendant and Thomas Mozeen as Curtius. The epilogue was by Kitty Clive.

The Browning Version

Play · 1948

Andrew Crocker-Harris is a classics teacher at an English boys' school. After eighteen years of teaching there, today is his last day before moving on to a position at another school. The students speculate on why he is leaving, but do not much care since despite being academically brilliant, he is generally despised as being strict, stern and humourless. They have nicknamed him "The Crock". Even the school administrators treat him poorly regardless of his long tenure. Millie Crocker-Harris, his wife, is younger and vivacious and quite different from her husband. She no longer loves him but instead loves Frank Hunter, another teacher, yet despite having an affair with him she knows that he is not in love with her. On this last day, one student named Taplow, who does not hate Crocker-Harris but feels sorry for him, gives him a small going-away gift – a copy of the translation by Robert Browning of Aeschylus's ancient play Agamemnon. The gift brings about a series of actions which make Crocker-Harris reflect on his past, contemplate his future, and evaluate how he is going to finish his tenure at the school.

Showing 5,305–5,424 of 8,284 shows

Load more shows