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Clear filtersThe 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.
A tragedy set in Sicily where paganism and Christianity meet. Schiller combines elements of ancient Greek tragedy with modern theatre.
The play depicts a typical day inside a U.S. Marine Corps brig, following the rigid routines and treatment of imprisoned Marines. It draws on Kenneth H. Brown’s own experience of spending 30 days in a brig while serving in Japan.
A farce about twins born in Brighton who are separated at birth and do not meet again for several decades.
A satirical mini-drama in two conversations: William III and the Earl of Sunderland devise party politics to control Parliament, then twenty-five years later Walpole and the younger Sunderland debate the balance of power between the king and the Lords.
The Briton is a 1722 tragedy by the British writer Ambrose Philips. The play is set in pre-Roman Celtic Britain. Performed at Drury Lane the original cast included Barton Booth as Vanoc, Robert Wilks as Ivor, John Thurmond as Didius, John Bowman as Ebranc, John Mills as Valens, Charles Williams as Alan, William Mills as Idwall, John Roberts as Messenger, Mary Porter as Cartismande and Hester Santlow as Gwendolen.
In Sparta, general Ithocles forces his sister Penthea to abandon her intended marriage to Orgilus and marry the jealous, tyrannical Bassanes. After Ithocles relents and seeks to marry Calantha, Orgilus murders him; Calantha dances through news of the deaths of her father, Penthea, and Ithocles, then condemns Orgilus and dies of a broken heart.
Judge Adam presides over a trial to determine who broke a jug in the room of Eve, a young woman, while concealing that he himself was there the night it happened. His attempted influence over the witnesses and a trail leading back to his house expose his guilt; Ruprecht and Eve reconcile.
In famine-stricken Ballybog in August 1846, a corrupt judge presides over a case that threatens to expose his own misconduct. Those seeking justice confront a legal system more concerned with protecting its reputation than the people before it.
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)
In this Middle English mystery play, Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command. An angel stops him at the last moment, and a doctor delivers an epilogue urging obedience to God.
In a near-future Harlem uprising, Charles and fellow revolutionaries prepare to burn their tenements after residents evacuate. When they find a white police officer visiting his Black mistress, they stage a role reversal that exposes his treatment of Black residents before the buildings are set alight.
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.
This triptych links three plays set across decades in the Louisiana bayou: Oya sacrifices a running scholarship to care for her mother and later struggles with infertility and love; the brothers Ogun and Oshoosi face prison and escape; and Elegba's son Marcus explores his identity and sexuality as a hurricane approaches.
Fernando and Francisco love Felisarda and Jacinta, but Jacinta’s father Don Carlos prefers wealthy suitors. The brothers exchange the appearances of their affections to outmaneuver him. As disguises, feigned death, and a substitution at the wedding complicate the courtships, both brothers eventually marry the women they love, with their father’s blessing.
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.
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.
In an authoritarian state, a playwright seeks to stage his work before a theatre manager who demands changes, while a waiter serves as the manager’s instrument of force. The three figures embody power, resistance and coercion.
A commedia dell'arte troupe in Edinburgh is interrupted by a corrupt city burgher who condemns its performance as subversive. A self-appointed noble patron then commissions the actors to expose the burgher's hypocrisy in a new play, while a subplot follows a poor educated girl taken on as a maid in a brothel.
A linguistically dense play with emotive monologues, marked by Nietzschean ideas and the Expressionist call for individuals to transcend mediocrity through extraordinary action.
The Burglar and the Lady is a 1905 play written by Langdon McCormick that features the characters Sherlock Holmes and A. J. Raffles, which were originally created by other authors. The play was a commercial success, and a film adaptation was made in 1914.
On the coast of Normandy, Viking chieftain Gandalf seeks revenge for his father's death. His love for Blanka and her Christian ideal of forgiveness challenge his oath, until an unexpected family revelation removes the need for vengeance.
After Creon forbids burial of Polyneices, Antigone argues that divine law requires it and performs the rites despite her sister's warning. Creon seals her in a tomb; after Tiresias warns him, Creon relents too late. Antigone, Haemon and Creon's wife die by suicide, leaving Creon isolated.
During the reign of James VI of Scotland, a power struggle between the king and his cousin, the Earl of Bothwell, exposes the brutality of religious and political persecution. The drama also addresses witchcraft and superstition amid a contest between authority and anarchy.
Scientist Christopher Terriford discovers a way to harness solar energy that could also destroy distant targets. He withholds the formula from the government, dividing it between a bank and his wife’s memory; after he is kidnapped, his wife and associate attempt to recreate it, while the associate’s guilt, fear and love for her lead him to suicide.
A group of strangers wait at a rural bus stop as buses repeatedly pass without stopping. As time stretches from hours into years, each reveals a reason for going to the city and confronts the cost of waiting; the stranded group eventually sets out on foot. The play combines absurdist action and inaction with polyphonic dialogue and actors who step outside their characters.
Dampier’s rewrite moves the bushranger drama entirely to Australia and changes the hero to Edgar, son of a wealthy station owner, who becomes Captain Midnight. The play ends with Edgar marrying Thelma, leaving Elsa alone.
Young English officer Roger Dalmore leaves after an argument with his father and emigrates to Australia, where he is accused of murdering and robbing him. He escapes into the bush and becomes leader of a band of bushrangers as Captain Dart; amid romantic rivalry and a cousin’s criminal schemes, Dart exposes the cousin’s crimes.
Set in 1820s Tasmania, the melodrama follows escaped convicts, one of whom becomes a bushranger. The play combines an adventure story with observation of colonial life and the pressures facing settlers.
A group of bushrangers plans an attack on settler Norwood’s bush home. Norwood is saved by his daughter Marian’s lover, Frederick Seymour, whom Norwood had previously rejected, and by Murrahwa, an Aboriginal man.
Scene 1. The play opens in St James's Park. Charles and Sir George Airy meet. Charles complains of his father's stinginess, and the way his foster-sister Miranda acts like his 'mother-in-law'. Sir George Airy is in love with two women: Miranda herself, and a mysterious 'incognita' who regularly meets him in disguise. Marplot arrives. He begs Charles, his foster-brother, to introduce him to Sir George. They discuss several of Marplot's foolish escapades. Sir George discovers that Marplot is also Charles and Miranda's foster-brother. Charles tries to have a private conversation with Sir George, but Sir George leaves to meet Sir Francis. These exchanges pique Marplot's curiosity. Whisper arrives, and tells Charles that Isabinda cannot meet him in the Park, but invites him to a clandestine rendezvous at her house when Sir Jealous is due to be out. They all exit. Meanwhile, Miranda arrives in a sedan chair. She meets Patch, the servant of her friend Isabinda, Charles's lover. They discuss Isabinda's impending marriage to Seignior Diego Babinetto, a man she has never met. As they are talking, Sir George re-enters with Sir Francis Gripe, Miranda's guardian. It is revealed that Miranda herself is George's 'incognita'. She overhears Sir George and Sir Francis come to an arrangement: Sir George will pay Sir Francis 100 guineas for one hour's conversation with Miranda, with Sir Francis at the other end of the room. After Sir Francis leaves, Miranda and Sir George have a witty conversation about love and marriage. Scene 1. At Sir Francis Gripe's house, Sir Francis and Miranda, his ward, discuss the arrangement with Sir George. Miranda pretends to have contempt for Sir George, and says she will marry Sir Francis tomorrow if only he will give her control of her estate. Sir Francis says he will settle the estate on her after their wedding. Miranda tells Sir Francis her plan for Sir George's visit: she will refuse to speak to him, no matter what he says. Sir Francis is delighted, believing that Miranda is slighting Sir George out of loyalty to him. In reality, she wishes to sound out Sir George, and conceal that she is his 'incognita'. Charles enters, and begs Sir Francis for money. Miranda leaves, and Sir Francis berates his son for his extravagance. Charles denies he is a spendthrift, observing that his miserly father doesn't give him any money to waste. He also points out that he is entitled to his dead uncle's estate, which Sir Francis refuses to relinquish. Marplot enters, begging £100 from Sir Francis (his guardian). Charles leaves, and Marplot runs off to try and follow him. Sir George enters, then Miranda. The famous 'dumb scene' ensues. Sir George tries to address Miranda, but she refuses to speak. He tells her to speak using sign-language, but she deliberately uses the wrong signs. He then impersonates her, pretending to answer his questions on her behalf. As she does not speak, he fails to realise that Miranda is the same person as his 'incognita'. Miranda leaves, and Sir Francis laughs at Sir George for thinking that Miranda would be interested in him. Scene 2. At Sir Jealous Traffick's house, Sir Jealous is berating his daughter Isabinda for standing out on the balcony. He praises the more modest customs of Spain, where ladies are veiled and don't display themselves in public. Patch, Isabinda's servant, pretends to agree with him. Isabinda puts up a spirited defence of English customs. Sir Jealous and Isabinda leave, and Whisper enters. Whisper is the servant of Charles, Isabinda's secret lover, and tells Patch that Charles is on the way to meet Isabinda secretly. Sir Jealous re-enters, and Whisper tries to cover by claiming he has entered the house in search of a lap-dog. Scene 3. At Charles's lodging, Marplot gives Charles the £100. Charles promises to pay him back, as Sir George enters, greatly disappointed by his conversation with Miranda. Marplot insists there must have been a 'trick' in the case, and offers to bring 'intelligence' from her to Sir George. Sir George engages him to do so. Scene 1. Charles waits anxiously outside Sir Jealous's house. Patch invites him in. Marplot sees everything, and decides to stay and watch what happens. Scene 2. Inside, Charles and Isabinda declare their love for one another. Patch rushes in—Sir Jealous has returned! Charles escapes to the balcony. Scene 3. Outside the house, Sir Jealous is accosted by Marplot, who foolishly reveals that an 'honest gentleman' (i.e. Charles) has entered the house. Sir Jealous is furious, beats Marplot, and rushes inside. Charles drops down from the balcony, and Marplot tells him what has happened. Charles rushes off in a rage. Marplot decides to go and see Miranda. Sir Jealous comes out of the house again, with his servants. Isabinda and Patch follow shortly after, and Sir Jealous berates Isabinda. Patch again pretends to be on Sir Jealous's side. Sir Jealous heads off to try and catch the intruder with his servants. Isabinda and Patch wonder who it was that betrayed Charles's presence in the house. Scene 4. Sir Francis and Miranda laugh about the 'dumb scene' with Sir George. Marplot enters, and criticises Sir Francis for duping Sir George, whom he describes as his 'friend'. Miranda sees an opening. She tells Sir Francis that Sir George has been loitering by the garden gate, hoping to see her, and instructs Marplot to tell Sir George that she is devoted to Sir Francis, and will have the men fire on Sir George if he is ever seen at the garden gate again. In an aside, she reveals her true motives: Sir George has in fact never loitered by the gate, but she hopes he will take the hint and come to her. Sir Francis is convinced by Miranda's act. Believing she will marry him tomorrow, he agrees to sign a document giving his consent for her to marry, thus freeing her from the conditions of her father's will. Scene 5. In a tavern, Sir George and Charles bewail their complicated love lives. Marplot enters with Miranda's message. Catching on, Sir George decides to go to the garden-gate tonight. Marplot suspects something, and decides to secretly follow him there. Scene 1. Outside Sir Jealous Traffick's house, Whisper gives Patch a letter for Isabinda from Charles, which is written in code. Charles is on the way to meet Isabinda. Whisper leaves, and as Patch re-enters the house she accidentally drops the letter. Sir Jealous arrives, happy with the news that Seignior Diego Babinetto has arrived in London to marry Isabinda. He is less happy when he finds the letter Patch has dropped, and storms inside. Scene 2. Inside, Patch and Isabinda confer, and Patch realises she has dropped the letter. Sir Jealous enters in a rage, accusing Isabinda of keeping up a secret correspondence, and demanding that she decipher the strange code. But Patch pretends the letter is actually a 'charm for the toothache' that she bought from a local wise woman. Isabinda desperately plays for time, knowing that Charles will arrive any minute. She takes the opportunity of the letter to berate her father for suspecting her. He tells her the Seignior has arrived and will wed her tomorrow. She plays a tune on the spinet, while Charles enters the house through the balcony and opens the door from Isabinda's room. Seeing Sir Jealous is there, he retreats, but not before Sir Jealous sees him. Seeing the truth, he dismisses Patch from her post, and tells Isabinda he will move her into the back of the house, where there is no balcony. Scene 3. Outside, Sir Jealous sends Patch away. He goes back inside, and Charles enters. He comforts Patch, saying he will look after her now she has been fired, and they hatch a plan together: Charles will impersonate Seignior Diego Babinetto, and marry Isabinda in his stead tomorrow. Scene 4. Sir George arrives at the garden gate of Sir Francis's house, and is admitted by Scentwell, Miranda's servant. Scene 5. Sir George and Miranda meet and declare their love for one another. Now that Miranda has secured written consent from Sir Francis, they plan to elope and marry immediately. Sir Francis returns unexpectedly with Marplot, and Sir George hides behind the chimney-board. Sir Francis is eating an orange, and tries to throw the peel behind the chimney-board, so Miranda pretends she is keeping a pet monkey there. Marplot begs to see the monkey, but Miranda protests and Sir Francis prevents it. Sir Francis decides to leave on his errand, and leaves with Miranda and the others, leaving only Marplot behind. Marplot lifts the chimney-board, and discovers Sir George. Marplot tells him to flee through a certain door, and to smash some china on the way out. Sir Francis, Miranda and Scentwell re-enter, and Marplot claims that the monkey escaped. Sir Francis finally leaves, Sir George emerges again, and Patch enters with news that Charles has a scheme, and needs Sir George's help. They all leave together. Scene 1. In Sir Francis's house, Miranda, Patch and Scentwell discuss Miranda's new condition: she has just married Sir George. She orders Scentwell to pack her things so she can leave the house before Sir Francis returns. Unexpectedly, he returns. To get him out of the house, Miranda and Patch tell him about Isabinda's impending nuptials, which he agrees to go and witness with them. Scene 2. In Sir Jealous's house, Charles arrives in his Spanish disguise. Sir George pretends to be 'Mr Meanwell', his English agent. They persuade Sir Jealous that Charles is the real Seignior Diego. Isabinda protests that she does not wish to marry this stranger against her will, but when Sir Jealous steps away, she is told by Sir George that this 'Seignior Diego' is actually her lover Charles. They all go into the next room to perform the wedding. Scene 3. Outside Sir Jealous's house, Marplot is hunting for Charles. He knows that Charles is in a Spanish costume, and when he discovers that a man in Spanish clothes has entered Sir Jealous's house, he demands admission. Scene 4.
Stone, a humourless and dour man, invites Dee, a television playwright, over to his flat on the premise of discussing a script. Once there, she is surprised when Superintendent Hallett, the man with whom she is having an affair, also arrives for an entirely different reason. But nothing is as it seems and as the plot twists and turns, the motive of their host Stone gradually becomes clear. They are all, it would seem, in the same business... The Business of Murder.
A 1920s slang term popularized by Texas Guinan,—someone wealthy and unwary. A souvenir booklet for the original production of The Butter and Egg Man devoted an entire page to the various claims of origin for the phrase. Peter Jones is a young man who arrives on Broadway from Chillicothe, Ohio, hoping to invest $20,000 in a play and turn a profit sufficient to buy a local hotel back home. He is conned by Joe Lehman and Jack McClure into backing their play with a 49-percent stake. The play opens out-of-town in Syracuse and bombs. Lehman and McClure want out, and Jones buys them out, and revamps the play into a huge hit. Jones then sells back to them at a huge profit after learning of claims that the play was stolen, and returns home to get his hotel. Kaufman's comedy may be seen as a precursor to Mel Brooks' The Producers.
The Butterflies is an American play. It was featured on Broadway in 1894 and starred Maude Adams. Olive May was also in the cast.
A young goatherd fears women. A priest whose affair with a young woman her mother wants stopped arranges for the goatherd to marry her so he can continue the affair. Instead, the young couple fall in love.
An injured butterfly is stranded among other insects, where a cockroach falls in love with her; she eventually flies away. The symbolist play explores frustrated love and the imminence of death.
Bulgakov casts Molière as an artist crushed by censorship and political-religious pressure under Louis XIV, using the suppression of his work to evoke the oppression of writers under dictatorship.
A cabinet minister spends far beyond his means and accumulates massive debts.
A Navy court-martial tries Lieutenant Stephen Maryk for relieving Captain Queeg during a typhoon. Through testimony and cross-examination, the witnesses' accounts reveal disputed judgments about Queeg's fitness, Maryk's actions, and the influence of fellow officer Tom Keefer.
The play opens with a missionary giving an Aboriginal woman a Bible after a soldier has shot her husband. It then follows Sweet William, his wife Ruby, and their children living on a mission in contemporary Sydney. Their son Pumpkinhead has lost respect for his father, while the mythical Cake Man, sent with gifts of love for Aboriginal children but unable to see them, embodies Ruby’s hope in Christian love.
The Calendar is a 1929 play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is a crime thriller set in the world of horse racing world, the sport being among Wallace's interests. The protagonist is a financially struggling racehorse owner with a shady reputation. It premiered at the Palace Theatre in Manchester before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End. It was revived for a 42 performance run at the Lyceum Theatre the following year. That year Wallace also adapted it into a novel.
The Camp: A Musical Entertainment is a 1778 play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, with assistance from John Burgoyne and David Garrick. The set designs were by Philip James de Loutherbourg. The play gently satirised the preparations of the British to organise home defences during the American War of Independence when an invasion of the British Isles by France, and later Spain, seemed imminent. It focuses on Coxheath Camp,, a military camp placed near Coxheath in Southern England. It premiered on 15 October 1778 at the Drury Lane Theatre. The play was produced at a time when a genuine sense of crisis swept the country following France's entry into the war which culminated in the failed Armada of 1779. Because of his death while working on the play, Garrick is sometimes said to be the only casualty of the French invasion. The play proved to be a hit. It was the most performed work at the Drury Lane Theatre during the 1778-1779 season, comfortably beating School for Scandal.
In an Argentine concentration camp disguised as a corporation, new accountant Martin encounters Frank, who wears a Gestapo uniform, and Emma, who imagines her prison smock as a ball gown; after Martin leaves with her, an Official and nurses arrive at his home to brand him.
The Campaign: or, Love in the East Indies is a 1784 comedy play with songs by the Irish writer Robert Jephson. It premiered at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1784, before transferring to Covent Garden where it first appeared in May 1785. The original London cast included John Quick as General Howitzer, John Edwin as Gregory, John Henry Johnstone as Captain Farquhar, Ralph Wewitzer as Squad, William Cubitt as Ensign Flag, Margaret Kennedy as Saib, Sarah Maria Wilson as Susan and Elizabeth Bannister as Miss Lucy Seymour. In 1787 John O'Keeffe adapted the work into a two-act afterpiece Love and War.
The Campaigners; Or, The Pleasant Adventures At Brussels is a 1698 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by Christopher Rich's Company. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas Simpson as Don Leon, Benjamin Johnson as The Sieur Bondevelt, John Mills as Colonel Darange, Tobias Thomas as Kinglove, William Pinkethman as Min Heer Tomas, Colley Cibber as Marqui Bertran, William Bullock as Mascarillo, Frances Maria Knight as Angellica, Susanna Verbruggen as Madam la Marquise, Mary Powell as Anniky and Mary Kent as Gusset.
The Canterbury Guests; or, A Bargain Broken is a 1694 comedy play by the English writer Edward Ravenscroft. It was the only new work performed by the United Company that autumn, amidst tensions that eventually led to a split. The original cast included Cave Underhill as Sir Barnaby Buffler, William Bowen as Justice Greedy, John Verbruggen as Lovell, George Powell as Carless, Thomas Dogget as Dash, William Pinkethman as Jack Sawce, Thomas Kent as Toby, George Bright as Durzo, Jane Rogers as Jacinta, Susanna Verbruggen as Hillaria, Abigail Lawson as Mrs Dazie, Frances Maria Knight as Arabella and Mary Kent as Mrs Breeder. The incidental music was composed by Henry Purcell.
The Capricious Lovers is a 1725 comedy play by the British writer Gabriel Odingsells. The play revolves around a vain militia colonel. The original cast at Lincoln's Inn Fields included John Hippisley as Colonel Mockyouth, Thomas Walker as Beaumine, Lacy Ryan as Galliard, William Bullock as Roger, James Spiller as Trusty, Elizabeth Younger as Graciana, Anne Parker as Mrs Fading, Jane Rogers as Mrs Mincemode and Jane Egleton as Frizle.
Jacomo, a misogynist, is reformed and won by Frank, while Julio and Angelo pursue the widow Lelia. The comedy also plays with audience expectations through an abrupt marriage between Julio and Frank's friend Clora.
In the militarized German Empire, an unemployed former shoemaker, Wilhelm Voigt, obtains a captain’s uniform and uses its authority to recruit soldiers and seize Köpenick’s town hall and treasury while trying to secure a passport.
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