The Great Theater of the World
God acts as the Author who assigns people roles in the world’s play: kings, the poor and the rich perform their parts, then receive reward or punishment according to how they lived.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Great White Hope
The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same title. The play was first produced by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in October 1968, directed by Edwin Sherin with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in the lead roles. The play won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with the only singing role as Barbara Johnson Tucker. Subsequent touring companies of the play featured Brock Peters and Claudette Nevins in the lead roles. The play is based on the true story of Jack Johnson (fictionalized under the character name "Jack Jefferson") and his fight against Jim Jeffries, and also covers the controversy over his marriage to first wife, Etta Terry Duryea, and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912.
The Greater Love
The Greater Love is a 1927 play by the Irish writer James Bernard Fagan. It ran for 53 performances at the Prince's Theatre in London's West End between 23 February and 9 April 1927. The original cast included Sybil Thorndike, Charles Laughton, Basil Gill, Lawrence Hanray, Lewis Casson, Colin Keith-Johnston and Brember Wills.
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth is a comedy in three acts by Vincent Duffey and Irene Alexander. Set in a circus, the actors in this show portray animals longing to escape into the wild natural world. It premiered on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on January 5, 1938. It ran there for a total of 29 performances; closing on January 29, 1938. The cast included Edgar Stehli as Slimy the snake, Margaret Perry as Kitty, Dorothy Patten as Princess, John Alexander as Rajah the elephant, Anthony Ross as Leo the lion, Frank Lovejoy as Laddie, Alice Belmore Cliffe as Scheherazade the elephant, and Alan Handley as Adonis. The production was produced by Helen Bonfils and her husband George Somnes. Somnes also staged the production.
The Grecian Daughter
The play, set in ancient Sicily, opens with the King of Syracuse Evander having been imprisoned by a usurper, Dionysius. Evander's daughter, Euphrasia, is dedicated to his rescue. Euphrasia's husband and infant son have escaped the city, but Euphrasia remains, and at night climbs a mountain to reach the cave in which her father is being held with no food or drink. She persuades his guards to allow her to see him. Finding her father weak from starvation, Euphrasia breast-feeds him to save his life. As military aid approaches to free Syracuse from Dionysius, Euphrasia helps her father escape his prison and hides him in her mother's tomb. Dionysius schemes to kill the soldiers of the opposing army during a false truce, and tells Euphrasia that he will make her watch him murder Evander. Euphrasia draws a concealed dagger, and stabs Dionysius. His death serves to rescue Evander and the city. Euphrasia is happily reunited with her husband and son, and Evander names her his heir for the throne.
The Greeks Had a Word for It
Because the play was never published, this synopsis was compiled from contemporary newspaper reviews and articles. Act I (Scene 1: A private backroom in a New York City nightclub) Schatze, Polaire, and Jean meet up after the latter's return from Paris. Polaire suggests Jean take up with Dey Emery, who has been plaguing her with his attentions. Louis Small and Dey Emery join the trio, introducing Boris Feldman who is with them. (Scene 2: Boris Feldman's Apartment) Polaire, Jean, and Dey join Boris at his apartment. Boris is interested in Jean, who at first isn't. He bets her $5000 that she will be in love with him by the next morning. Meanwhile, an ignored Polaire has gone over to Boris' piano and begins playing. At once Boris forgets Jean and goes straight to Polaire. He likes her music and brags he can make her a concert sensation, but Polaire demurs. Now Jean wants Boris seeing Polaire's interest. Jean sneaks into Boris' bedroom and removes most of her clothes, letting the others think she had departed. Seeing Boris and Polaire are now clicking, Dey volunteers to leave. However, Polaire decides to leave too. Outside the apartment she stops to think things over, then turns back. But Boris, having decided to go to bed, doesn't answer the door, being now quite busy. Act II The storyline here involved a stolen necklace. Act III After proposing to Polaire, Dey Emery seeks his father Justin's approval. Justin gives it, but then steals Polaire away with his own proposal. Jean swoops in to capture the banker's attention. Jean and Justin become engaged and are at the Ambassador Hotel for the ceremony, when Polaire and Schatze sweep in to ply Jean with some drinks and their new-found friends, three French aviators. Soon Jean pulls off her wedding dress, throws a coat on, and abandons her groom to go to Paris with Polaire, Schatze and the fly-boys. (Curtain)
The Green Bay Tree
The Green Bay Tree is a 1933 three-act drama written by Mordaunt Shairp that explores a "half-suggested homosexual relationship" between a man and his protégé or, in the words of one critic "a rich hot-house sybarite" and someone "he adopted at a tender age and has reared in emasculating luxury". It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1933-1934. The play premiered at St Martin's Theatre in London's West End on 25 January 1933 and had a highly successful run of 217 performances, closing on 19 August 1933. It was directed by Marguerite Rea and the cast included Hugh Williams (the author's stepson) as Julian, Catherine Lacey as Leonora, Frank Vosper as Mr. Dulcimer, Herbert Lomas as Mr. Owen and Henry Hewitt as Trump. Its Broadway premiere was produced and staged by Jed Harris with scenic design by Robert Edmond Jones. The play was a hit, running for 166 performances from 20 October 1933 to March 1934 at the Cort Theatre. Laurence Olivier appeared as Julian, Jill Esmond as Leonora, James Dale as Mr. Dulcimer, O. P. Heggie as Mr Owen and Leo G. Carroll as Trump. It was Heggie's final Broadway role. Harris's direction was lauded for its subtlety. Decades later, Olivier described the play as "a wonderful piece of work... brilliantly done and sensationally successful". In the New York Times, Brooks Atkinson wrote: "When the curtain rings down after a long, tense evening, you feel that the entire story has been brilliantly and forcefully told.... The theater has unleashed one of its thunderbolts." The play was revived in the West End at the Playhouse Theatre on 24 April 1950, directed by Anthony Pelissier. The cast included Jack Watling as Julian, Brenda Bruce as Leonora, Hugh Williams this time playing Mr. Dulcimer, Walter Fitzgerald as Mr. Owen and Henry Hewitt reprising his 1933 performance as Trump. Its Broadway revival at the John Golden Theatre on 20 January 1951 ran for only 20 performances. It was directed by Shepard Traube (1907–1983) and the cast included Denholm Elliott as Julian, Anne Crawford as Leonora, Joseph Schildkraut as Mr. Dulcimer, Mercer McLeod as Mr. Owen and Francis Compton as Trump. Atkinson again praised it as a "thoroughly absorbing drama" but found the performance could not compare with the 1933 production in "craft and tone". He noted the production minimized the homosexual overtones: "You can read his association with his ward as an abnormal attraction but Mr. Schildkraut does not put it there.... [He] has proved there it more than one way to play it and still preserve the horror and the tragedy."
The Green Bird
After Queen Tartagliona orders her daughter-in-law buried and her twin children killed, the twins survive and grow up with a butcher. They are cast out when they learn they are not his children; their search for their true parents is shaped by Renzo’s cynical philosophy, Barberina’s attraction to the speaking Green Bird, and a magical quest for the singing apple and dancing waters. The twins ultimately restore their family and defeat Tartagliona.
The Green Cockatoo
On 14 July 1789, actors at a Paris tavern called the Green Cockatoo entertain aristocratic customers by pretending to be violent criminals. When the real turmoil of the French Revolution enters the tavern, the line between their performance and reality becomes increasingly uncertain.
The Green Goddess
The Green Goddess was a popular stage play of 1921 by William Archer. In the three years after its publication, the play toured in both America and England. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1920-1921. The 1921 Broadway production four-act melodrama was produced and staged by Winthrop Ames. It ran for 175 performances from January 18, 1921, to June 1921 at the Booth Theatre.
The Green Hat
Act I (Third floor suite at Hotel Vendome, Deauville. Summer 1913, late afternoon.) "Boy" Fenwick fell to his death on his wedding night with Iris. The next day, Dr. Conrad Masters remonstrates with Monsieur Cavelle. The doctor was on vacation in the hotel; his practice is in Paris, and he has never seen Fenwick or Iris before. Gerald March bursts in, behaving wildly, full of questions and accusations. He is followed by Napier and Sir Maurice Harpenden, and Hilary Townshend. Dr. Masters tries to paint Fenwick's death as accident, but Iris says it was suicide. When Gerald demands to know why, Iris says he died for purity. Gerald thinks she refers to her own lack, and agrees Fenwick would have died for that principle. Napier is deeply disillusioned with Iris; it is just two years since they sought to marry and were stymied by Sir Maurice, but it appears she has already taken lovers. Gerald accuses his sister of harlotry, but when Dr. Masters, who has examined Fenwick's body tries to speak, she stops him. When the others leave, Napier and Masters remain with Iris. Napier tries to understand Iris' behavior. She explains it is for decency, not the sort he understands, but the "decency when no one is watching". Later, alone with Dr. Masters, she acknowledges his reproach: the marriage was not, could not, have been consummated. When he asks why she has ruined herself by lying, she again repeats for decency. (Curtain) Act II (Napier's Mayfair bachelor apartment. 1923, evening.) Napier earned a DSO during the Great War, and is now at the Foreign Office. A small dinner party to celebrate the engagement of Napier and Venice Pollen is just ending. Hilary Townshend and Sir Maurice are there with others. Venice presses Napier for some assurance of the depth of his love for her. The other guests speak of Gerald March, rumored to be dying of drink in squalid circumstances. Of Iris Fenwick they whisper about her rumored affairs in Paris and on the Riviera, racing about in her yellow Hispano-Suiza. When all have left except Hilary Townshend, Turner announces a lady who gives no name, but came in a yellow car and wears a green hat. Iris has heard of Gerald's illness, but he refuses to see her. Napier too, is banned from Gerald's presence, so Hilary is sent out. He is reluctant to leave them, but goes. Alone, Iris and Napier speak of their love since they were playmates. Napier is ashamed of desiring her still, while Iris confesses her indulgences in desire without love. Unable to resist, they embrace and turn out the light. (Quick curtain, to denote passage of two hours.) Hilary returns and turns on the light. As Napier comes into the room, Hilary tells him of Gerald's death. He sees the green hat lying on the sofa and knows what has happened. He excoriates Napier for his loss of honor in betraying Venice. Iris has heard and comes in, saddened about Gerald but wondering if he has now escaped the family curse. Hilary argues with both of them: they must part and never see each other, for the sake of Venice. Iris sadly goes. (Curtain) Act III (Convent-nursing home, Paris. Nine months later.) Dr. Masters discusses Iris Fenwick's condition with Sister Virginia. Iris needs sleep, but will not sleep; she waits for someone and hugs a newly-arrived bunch of roses. Dr. Masters tells Hilary he cannot see Iris, who is recovering from septic poisoning following the death of her newborn child. The doctor laments she does not want to live, so he wired Napier in London to come over, for he is all she talks about. Hilary is stunned; he explains Napier has been married for many months, but the doctor is only concerned for his patient. Napier arrives with Venice, who is confused by his concern. "Who is Mrs. Fenwick to him?" she asks Hilary. From Hilary's evasiveness she realizes Napier and Iris are more than old friends. Iris staggers out of her room, dressed in hospital robes. A nun has taken her roses and she wants them back. Seeing Napier she gives a glad cry, but halts when she sees Venice behind him. Despite her disheveled condition, Venice can sense the power of her attraction for Napier. Iris and Napier make a show of being old childhood playmates for Venice. Dr. Masters is complicit with Iris, telling Napier her trouble is ptomaine poisoning. Iris tells Venice she will have children for Napier, but breaks down sobbing. Sister Virginia and Venice help Iris back to her room, with Dr. Masters following. Alone with Napier, Hilary asks him "Why did you bring her?" Napier explains he will not do anything behind her back, to which Hilary says "You're too noble, boy-- at the wrong moment." But Dr. Masters is satisfied; the flare-up has restored Iris' will to live. (Curtain) Act IV (Library at Sutton-Marle, the Harpenden country house. Four months later.) Sir Maurice has invited Guy De Travest and Hilary to join him in speaking with Iris. Rumor says she is about to run away with Napier, who has confirmed it. They will go to South America the next day. Venice has acquiesced to the scheme, having no desire to keep Napier against his will. Sir Maurice and the other two men, who have known Iris from childhood, will appeal to her to let Napier go. Iris arrives unannounced through the French window of the library, courtesy of Truble. She parries their arguments and tells them of her dead child who was also Napier's. But she does not want Napier out of obligation so she suggests they do not tell him. Sir Maurice appeals to her on their shared family background, an argument she rejects though it frays her nerves. She blames Sir Maurice for her unhappiness, and despises his idea of success for Napier: "The kind of success you respect is like a murky sponge wiping out the lines of a man's character". Sir Maurice hurls Boy Fenwick's death at Iris, but Napier enters to defend her. He reveals Fenwick committed suicide because he suffered from a venereal disease that rendered him impotent, a disease he caught from patronizing whores. Iris is aghast that Napier has revealed the secret, destroying her act of decency, even though Gerald, who adored Fenwick, is already dead. Iris and Napier hurry out to the cars, while Venice, who has come down with Napier enters the library. Napier comes back and tells Venice he will not desert her now. Venice is puzzled until Napier explains Iris has revealed Venice's pregnancy. But she is not pregnant; Iris has lied, to stop Napier from going with her. From the library window they all watch as Iris drives her sports car straight into a large oak tree and dies. Venice and Napier must now reconcile themselves to the shadow that hangs between them. (Curtain)
The Green Pastures
A young African-American child imagines Old Testament episodes in familiar terms, relocating them to New Orleans and an all-Black community. The play expands the role of De Lawd and incorporates spirituals.
The Green Ring
Finochka, a troubled teenager, joins her father’s circle of school-age idealists after a family crisis. When the group learns of her distress, its members devise a marriage of convenience to keep her with her father while allowing her mother to join them.
The Greyhound
The play may have been published as The Greyhound: A Play in Four Acts, date and publisher unknown. This synopsis is compiled from 1912 newspaper reviews. Act I (A room in a lodging house at San Francisco, March 15.) J. Crawford Alexander, Kitty Doyle, and Jack Fay meet at the room of their leader, Louis Fellman. He tells them that wealthy Mrs. Allen will be sailing with her children on the Mauretania. They will make excellent targets for a variety of sly approaches. The gang plans to make their way across country to New York and board the vessel. Just outside, McSherry has been sent by "The Eye", which suspected Louis of backsliding. The three henchmen having departed, Louis is confronted by his wife Claire. She reproaches him for returning to crime. Worried she will shop him to police, he agrees to a joint suicide pact by poison. Louis fakes drinking while Claire collapses to the floor. He leaves, but McSherry enters and saves Claire by summoning an ambulance. (Curtain) Act II (Hurricane deck of the steamship Mauretania, just underway from New York, June 5.) Passengers, stewards, and others mill about the deck. The gang covertly scouts their intended victims. Henry Watkins attracts attention for his obvious wealth and by calling the Hurricane deck the "roof" of the ship. The Allen matriarch and her brood come in for close scrutiny: they note Mrs. Allen's dissatisfaction with Bob Kirk as a suitor for Bess, and Percival's naive fascination with fashionable women. Among many other passengers, though, they miss seeing McSherry bring aboard Claire with a nurse to tend her. (Curtain) Act III (Scene 1:Promenade deck of the Mauretania, mid-ocean, on June 9.) Kitty in her role of Baroness has bewitched young Percival, to the consternation of his mother. Later, Louis Fellman approaches Mrs. Allen with a note, supposedly from Bob Kirk but forged by Whispering Alex, suggesting he can be bought off for $50,000. (Two minutes intermission) (Scene 2:The Smoking Room, mid-ocean, on June 9.) Jack Fay induces McSherry and Henry Watkins into a card game, under the misapprehension the former is a rich rube. Bob Kirk is also in the game, trying to win enough to marry Bess. When the deal comes around to McSherry, he deals Jack four aces, but gives Bob a Queen-high straight flush. Jack bets everything, but with the pot at $10,000 is busted by Bob's hand. (Two minutes intermission) (Scene 3:The Grand Salon, mid-ocean, on June 9.) Mrs. Allen has given Louis a check for $50,000, unaware of Bob's new fortune. He promises not to cash it until the ship reaches France. She then catches Percival with the "Baroness" and sends him to his stateroom. The "Baroness" and her "attorney" Alex demand a settlement for "alienation", a subtle hint of blackmail to prevent a scandal. But Steve the wireless operator brings a radiogram at McSherry's behest, confirming there is no Baroness Von Hilde. (Curtain) Act IV (Off the Irish coast, the hurricane deck at night, June 9.) Distraught by repeated glimpses of his "dead" wife, Louis has been drinking heavily. He still has the check for $50,000, but his confederates have been defeated and are penniless. Now Claire approaches Louis in the moonlight, appearing ghostly in all white. Louis backs away, then jumps over the railing into the ocean. With the ship's alarm sounding and cries of "Man overboard!", the play ends. (Curtain)
The Guardian
In Naples, Durazzo tries to guide his nephew Caldoro toward worldly pleasures while Caldoro loves Calista, who favors the rakish Adorio. Disguises and mistaken identities entangle their families: Iolante pursues a visiting Frenchman, her husband Severino returns as a bandit, and a series of errors is resolved when the supposed stranger is revealed to be the man Severino thought he had killed.
The Guardian of the Threshold
Johannes refuses an invitation to the Mystic League, while Strader confronts visions after his wife’s death. Their paths lead toward encounters with spiritual powers.
The Guardsman
An actor who suspects his wife of infidelity disguises himself as a guardsman and attempts to seduce her. His experiment becomes a contest over jealousy, performance, and whether either spouse can know what the other believes.
The Guilty Mother
Twenty years after The Marriage of Figaro, Bégearss exploits the Countess's secret relationship with Chérubin to manipulate the Almaviva family and pursue the Count's fortune through marriage to Florestine. Figaro and Suzanne expose his scheme, allowing Léon and Florestine to marry.
The Guinea Pig
A novice woman playwright experiments on a young man while researching a seduction scene; he later realizes he has been used as her subject and resents it, creating the misunderstanding that must be resolved in the final act.
The Guinea Pig (Chetham-Strode)
The Guinea Pig is a three-act play by Warren Chetham-Strode. The work premiered in London's West End at the Criterion Theatre in 1946, starring Rachel Gurney as Lynne Hartley. Following its successful sixteen month run, the play was adapted into a 1948 film, starring Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim.
The Gulf
On a summer evening in Alabama's Delta, Kendra and Betty fish from a boat; when Betty challenges Kendra's stalled life, their routine outing turns violent.
The Gusher
The Gusher is a 1937 mystery adventure play by the British writer Ian Hay. It is set during a gold rush. It ran for a 137 performances at the Prince's Theatre in London's West End. The large cast included Alastair Sim, Coral Browne, Edward Sinclair, Percy Parsons, Bernard Lee, Jack Livesey and Joan Hickson, and the production featured a revolving stage.
The Gut Girls
In a Deptford cattle-market gutting shed at the turn of the twentieth century, working-class women find pay and solidarity despite dangerous, stigmatized labor. When Lady Helena seeks to reform them into domestic servants and the sheds close, the women lose their independence and are scattered into less autonomous lives.
The Guys
Joan, an editor, helps Nick, a New York fire captain, prepare eulogies for eight firefighters who died under his command during the World Trade Center collapse.
The Gypsies Metamorphosed
A company of fortune-telling gypsies sing, dance and pick pockets at court before their complexions transform under King James’s influence and they return the stolen goods. The masque blends comic criminal tricks with flattering fortunes for nobles, including Buckingham, who speaks to the King.
The Gypsy Girl
Daisy Dean, known as the Gypsy Girl, and her friends try to recover treasure stolen from the gypsies and thwart assassins threatening her life.
The Habit of Art
Actors rehearse Caliban’s Day, a fictional 1972 meeting between W. H. Auden and Benjamin Britten. Britten, composing Death in Venice, wants to discuss the opera’s troubling themes, while Auden assumes he has come for a libretto; the rehearsal’s actors and stage manager repeatedly break character to debate the play, artistic craft and the failings of its famous subjects.
The Hairy Ape
Stoker Yank feels powerful while working below deck on an ocean liner until industrialist's daughter Mildred calls him a beast. He tries to avenge the insult and find a place among the wealthy and labor organizers, but feels alienated everywhere. He ultimately approaches a gorilla at the zoo as a kindred being; it kills him.
The Half-Pay Officers
The Half-Pay Officers is a 1720 comedy play by the Irish writer Charles Molloy. The play included popular scenes from Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Love and Honour. It proved popular with audiences and was revived on a number of occasions. It premiered with the farce Hob's Wedding as an afterpiece. The original cast at Lincoln's Inn Fields included Lacy Ryan as Bellayr, Benjamin Griffin as Fluellin, Christopher Bullock as Meagre, Anthony Boheme as Jaspar and John Harper as Loadham. The premiere was attended by George Prince of Wales.
The Ham Funeral
In a shabby London rooming house after the war, a young poet is pursued by his landlady, Mrs Lusty. The second act centers on a feast mourning the sudden death of her husband; the tragicomic drama explores desire and social constraint.
The Happiest Days of Your Life
A bureaucratic error forces a boys’ school to share premises with a girls’ school, and their staffs scramble to hide the mistake from two sets of parents; relationships among teachers add to the chaos.
The Happy Capsize
In Holberg’s satirical comedy, a love intrigue unfolds amid servants’ schemes and conflicts among the household, while the candid Philemon’s literary criticism draws opposition from its targets.
The Happy Ending
The Happy Ending is a 1922 play by the British writer Ian Hay. A man believed to have died a heroic wartime death returns home alive, and blackmails his wife into supplying him with money. Before the truth is revealed to their children, he redeems himself by a genuinely brave death. It premiered at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne before beginning its run in the West End. It ran for 43 performances at St James's Theatre between 30 November 1922 and 13 January 1923. The cast included Adele Dixon, Robert Loraine and Jean Cadell, Ethel Irving and Miles Malleson.
The Happy Family
When they found that their shop on the South Bank is required to be demolished in order to make way for the Festival of Britain the Lord family refuse to vacate the premises. After their protests to authorities fail they barricade themselves inside and prepare to defend it, gaining popular support in the process.
The Happy Husband
The Happy Husband is a comedy play by the British-based Australian author Harrison Owen. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Portsmouth before transferring to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 109 performances between 15 June and 17 September 1927. The London cast included Madge Titheradge, Stella Arbenina, A.E. Matthews, Charles Laughton, Lawrence Grossmith, David Hawthorne, Carl Harbord in his West End debut, Marda Vanne and Ann Trevor. It was produced by Basil Dean. It was staged at the Empire Theatre on Broadway the following year, running for 72 performances.
The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden
On a bare stage, the Kirby family drives from Newark to Camden to visit a daughter who recently lost a baby in childbirth. Their reminiscences, jokes and sightseeing turn an uneventful trip into a meditation on ordinary life's joys and sorrows, with Ma Kirby as its emotional center.
The Happy Marriage
The Happy Marriage is a 1952 comedy play written by the British actor John Clements. Inspired by Jean Bernard-Luc's French play Le Complexe de Philémon, it premiered at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 367 performances from 7 August 1952 to 27 June 1953. The West End cast included Clements, Kay Hammond, Charles Lloyd-Pack, Michael Shepley and Frances Rowe.
The Hard Problem
Psychology student Hilary, who prays for the daughter she gave up for adoption, debates consciousness and altruism with her tutor Spike and fellow researcher Amal. At a brain-science institute, Hilary and her assistant Bo test children's compassion, but Bo's manipulated data complicates Hilary's belief that goodness can be objectively demonstrated. Hilary later discovers that the institute founder's adopted daughter is her own child.
The Harefield Entertainment
A multi-day court entertainment for Elizabeth I combines welcoming dialogues, speeches, a lottery of humorous gift verses for court ladies, and a farewell allegory in which Place asks the queen to remain.
The Hasty Heart
A dying Scottish soldier in an Asian military hospital resists the friendship offered by the other patients. Their efforts to reach him, and his bond with a nurse, challenge his fierce isolation.
The Hat and the Prophet
A man accused of harming an alien being is examined by two judges as his pregnant lover and her mother seek to exploit the creature. Their encounters expose the gulf between human feeling and the Thing’s emotional indifference; the man becomes consumed by its possible meaning and prophecy.
The Haunted
A year after their return from abroad, Orin and Lavinia have taken on the traits of their dead parents. Orin writes a record of the family's crimes and tries to control Lavinia, then shoots himself. Lavinia breaks off her engagement to Peter and chooses to live alone in the Mannon house, shutting herself away with the family dead.
The Haunted Inn
The Haunted Inn is an 1828 melodrama by the British writer Richard Brinsley Peake. It was first acted at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and was part of a group of plays that used a country inn as a setting for sinister or threatening events.
The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda
A fictionalized Lin-Manuel Miranda is visited by spirits omitted from Hamilton, including enslaved people, Native Americans and Harriet Tubman, who confront him with the musical’s historical omissions; he consults historian Ron Chernow before confronting him.
The Haves and the Have Nots
When housekeeper Hattie asks the wealthy Willis family for help as her own family faces eviction, her daughter Rose and son-in-law Frank join the household. Tensions rise when Mrs. Willis tries to buy Frank’s affections.
The Headmaster
A clergyman who is a school headmaster tries to persuade his daughter to marry the foolish son of an influential figure in hopes of being promoted to bishop.
The Heart Is Highland
Written for Lennox Milne as a one-person show, the play has a single performer portray all fourteen characters.
The Heart of Maryland
A four-act Civil War melodrama built around a woman's love and heroism, inspired by the image of a young woman clinging to a church bell's clapper to keep it from ringing.
The Heart of Robin Hood
Robin Hood’s outlaws rob the rich without sharing their gains. When Prince John threatens the kingdom, Marion enters Sherwood Forest and challenges Robin to become the defender of the poor that the legend remembers.
The Hebrew
The Hebrew is an 1820 historical play by the British author George Soane. It was premièred at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 2 March 1820. It is inspired by the 1819 novel Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, with a number of the characters and plot elements removed. The original cast included Edmund Kean as Isaac, Alexander Pope as Prince Aymer, Thomas S. Hamblin as Brian de Bois Guilbert, Charles Holland as Cedric, William Penley as Ivanhoe, William Oxberry as Friar Tuck, Margaret Carew as Miriam and Sarah West as Rebecca. He dedicated the published version of the play to his father the architect Sir John Soane. The rival Theatre Royal, Covent Garden put on its own version of the novel, Ivanhoe by Samuel Beazley, the same year.
The Heidi Chronicles
The plot follows Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than twenty years later. The play's main themes deal with the changing role of women during this time period, describing both Heidi's ardent feminism during the 1970s and her eventual sense of betrayal during the 1980s. Though most of the characters are women, there are two important male characters; Peter Patrone, a gay pediatrician who is arguably Heidi's best friend, and Scoop Rosenbaum, a magazine editor who marries and has many affairs, and with whom Heidi has a tense friendship. Heidi meets Scoop at a Eugene McCarthy rally where he tries to woo her with knowledge and wit. She seems unenthused, but she realizes Scoop is a very intelligent, attractive man despite his egotistical ways. Although their romantic relationship is unsuccessful, the chemistry between Scoop and Heidi is undeniable, and they become lifelong friends. Heidi realizes that remaining unmarried does not mean she cannot be a mother, and she chooses to adopt a child on her own.
The Height of the Storm
The Height of the Storm is a play by Florian Zeller which follows a couple looking back at 50 years of marriage and realising their relationship may not be as perfect as they expected.
The Heir at Law
The Heir at Law (1797) is a comedic play in five acts by the English dramatist George Colman the Younger that remained popular through the 19th century. It and John Bull (1803) were Colman's best known comedies. The piece debuted at the Haymarket in London on 15 July 1797, with John Fawcett playing Dr. Pangloss, and ran for 27 performances. It was first performed in the United States at the Park Theatre in New York in April 1799. Many American actors played the role of Pangloss to success, including comedian Joseph Jefferson starting in 1857 at the Olympic Theatre in New York.
The Heir of Morocco, with the Death of Gayland
Altemira, the Princess of Algiers, is overjoyed when her lover, Admiral Altomar, tells her that the king of Algiers, Albuzeiden, has allowed him to marry her. However, the pair's happiness is short lived, as Albuzeiden has a change of heart and decides to marry his daughter off to the arrogant usurper Gayland, who has just arrived in Algiers. The scheming courtier Meroin hatches a plot to murder Altemira and her father, but is prevented from doing so by Altomar, who saves Albuzeiden and Altemira by stabbing Meroin. Because Altemira refuses to wed Gayland, Albuzeiden places Altomar in prison, where he is confronted by Gayland, who desires to challenge him. After Altomar kills Gayland in self defense, he is brutally tortured and executed. As Altomar dies, Albuzeiden finds out that the man he has sentenced to death is a natural born heir to the seat of Morocco, but was sent out of the country as an infant in order to avoid being murdered by the woman who occupied the throne at that time, the titular villainess in The Empress of Morocco. Altomar was brought up without being aware of his true heritage. Albuzeiden laments Altomar's death, as he could have married Altemira to a potential emperor. Shortly there afterwards, a mad Altemira commits suicide before Albuzeiden. An anguished Albuzeiden then kills himself as well.
The Heir to the Hoorah
Western gold-mine owner Joe Lacy's new wife is dominated by her mother, who disparages Joe and his friends. After Joe returns from Europe, he fights to regain his home and family, and the couple reconciles as they welcome their child and heir to the Hoorah mine.
The Heiress
Lord Gayville becomes engaged to fashionable Miss Alscrip, believing her to be an heiress, but discovers that the fortune will pass to his true love, Miss Clifford.
The Heiress
In New York City, sometime in the 1850s, Catherine Sloper is a plain, painfully shy woman whose father, Dr. Austin Sloper, makes no secret of his disappointment in her. Catherine, as her father painfully reminds her, has limited talent and cannot "hold a candle" to her deceased mother. Catherine's gregarious Aunt Lavinia Penniman moves into the household after becoming widowed and attempts to prod Catherine into being more social and finding a husband. When she meets the handsome Morris Townsend at a ball, Catherine is taken by the attention he lavishes upon her. Catherine falls madly in love with Morris and they plan to marry. Dr. Sloper believes Morris, being far more attractive and charming than Catherine, but poor and with few prospects after he wasted his own inheritance, is courting Catherine only to get her sizable income. Aunt Lavinia favors the match regardless, being both romantic and pragmatic enough to view this as Catherine's chance at a happy married life. Morris is genuinely fond of Catherine's honesty and kindness despite his largely monetary motivations, and treats her with respect, unlike her father. A frank discussion with Morris's sister confirms Dr. Sloper's opinion of Morris as a gold digger. The doctor takes his daughter to Europe for an extended time to separate them. When they return to New York, Dr. Sloper threatens to disinherit his daughter if she marries Morris and they have a bitter argument in which Catherine realizes how poorly he views her. Catherine and Morris make plans to elope with the help of Aunt Lavinia. Catherine packs her bags and waits all night for Morris to come and take her away, but he never does. Catherine is heartbroken and grows cold. Soon afterward, Dr. Sloper reveals he is dying. He tells Catherine that he is proud she resisted Morris, but Catherine tells her father she still loves Morris and dares him to change his will if he is afraid they will waste his money after he dies. He does not alter the will and dies, leaving her his entire estate. Catherine refuses to see him on his deathbed. A few years later, Morris returns from California having made nothing of himself and having even fewer prospects. Aunt Lavinia arranges for Morris to visit Catherine, thinking this is Catherine's last chance. Catherine gives Morris a gift of ruby buttons that she had bought for him in Paris. Morris eagerly promises to come back for her that night and she tells him she will start packing her bags. After Morris leaves, Catherine informs her aunt that she has no intention of offering her love to him. Her aunt asks her if she can be so cruel, and Catherine coldly responds "Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters." When Morris arrives later that night with the promised carriage, he rings the bell, and Catherine orders the maid to bolt the door, leaving Morris locked outside, shouting her name and banging on the door. Catherine Sloper Dr Austin Sloper Morris Townsend Lavinia Penniman, Catherine's widowed aunt Maria, the Slopers' maid Mrs Montgomery, Morris Townsend's widowed sister Marian Almond, Catherine's cousin Elizabeth Almond, Catherine's aunt Arthur Townsend, Marian's fiancé and Morris' distant cousin
The Herbal Bed
Set in 1613, Peter Whelan's play imagines Susanna Hall's response to a slander accusation that she committed adultery with Rafe Smith. As John Hall pursues the case in ecclesiastical court, the household navigates secrecy, loyalty and the threat to the family's reputation.
The Heresy of Love
A biographical drama based on the life of the 17th-century Mexican poet and nun Juana Inés de la Cruz.
The Heretic
At a university, climate researcher Diane Cassell faces pressure to suppress sea-level findings that challenge accepted views on global warming. Her relationship with her daughter, an environmentalist student, and a colleague is tested by threats and a disputed research project.
The High Road
The High Road is a comedy play by the British writer Frederick Lonsdale which was first staged in 1927. It opened in the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and ran for 234 performances. The following year, it opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre, where ran for 144 performances, with Alfred Drayton and Frederick Kerr from the London cast. In 1930 it was adapted into the American film The Lady of Scandal directed by Sidney Franklin and starring Ruth Chatterton and Basil Rathbone.
The Hills of California
According to the play's press release:
The Historical Register for the Year 1736
A satirical play framed as a rehearsal: author Medley presents a sequence of loosely connected episodes to the critic Sourwit and Lord Dapper. The episodes expose political corruption, fashionable society's false values, and the theatre world of the period.
The History Boys
The play opens in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the mid-late 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin, and Lintott) with contrasting styles. Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake but his ambitious headmaster wants the school to move up the academic league table and hires Irwin, a supply teacher, to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching. Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwin's latent homosexual inclinations emerge.
The History of Cardenio
A lost play likely drawn from Cardenio’s story in Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Its dramatic plot has not survived.
The History of King Lear
Tate reshapes Lear’s story around a love between Cordelia and Edgar. Cordelia remains in Britain as her sisters take the kingdom, while Edmund’s schemes threaten her and Lear; after the battle and imprisonment, Lear is rescued, regains his throne and gives Cordelia to Edgar, who declares that truth and virtue will succeed.
The History of Timon of Athens the Man-hater
After Timon exhausts his wealth through generosity, his false friends refuse to help him and he retreats to the forest. Shadwell's version adds the lover Evandra and a jealous fiancée, Melissa; Timon rejects Evandra, burns his house, finds gold in the forest, funds Alcibiades' war, and ultimately dies.
The Hitch-Hiker
Ronald Adams drives from Brooklyn toward California but keeps encountering the same mysterious hitchhiker ahead of him. His attempts to understand and escape the figure turn the cross-country journey into a disturbing confrontation with the unknown.
The Hobbit
Bilbo Baggins joins a company of dwarves on a journey to reclaim their home from a dragon in Kim Selody’s stage adaptation.
The Hole
A man waits beside a road hole where workmen are at work. Onlookers gather, each interpreting the unseen activity differently and trying to persuade the others of a contradictory theory.
The Hollow
The action of the play passes in the garden room of Sir Henry Angkatell's house, The Hollow, about eighteen miles from London. Time: the present. ACT I A Friday afternoon in early September The play begins with Henrietta Angkatell (Henry's younger cousin, in her 30s) working on a sculpture and Sir Henry Angkatell reading a newspaper. Lucy Angkatell, Henry's wife, soon enters and makes some characteristically disjointed statements about moles in the garden. Discussion reveals that a number of guests will be arriving to spend the weekend at The Hollow. The first guest to arrive is Midge Hardcastle, another cousin to the Angkatells. The group reflects on a portrait of Ainswick, an estate once inhabited by Lucy Angkatell. Midge and Henrietta remember Ainswick fondly as well, having spent a part of their childhood or adolescence there. Gudgeon, the butler, soon shows in the next guest, Edward Angkatell, yet another cousin and the current owner and resident of Ainswick. It is made clear that Midge is in love with Edward, but Edward is in love with Henrietta. The Angkatell clan briefly leaves the stage, and Gudgeon returns with a maid in training, the working-class Doris. A car is heard, and Gudgeon greets the final guests, John and Gerda Cristow, a successful but condescending doctor and his slow-witted wife. After establishing that John doesn't think much of Gerda's intelligence, he departs, and Henrietta enters and warmly greets Gerda. Henrietta gives Gerda a statuette for which she had previously posed. John, Sir Henry, and Midge return from the garden, and John expresses disdain for the statuette. To break the tension, Henry mentions that film star Veronica Craye is currently residing nearby, in a cottage called Dovecotes. John and Henrietta find themselves alone on stage, and after John reveals that he and Veronica Craye were once lovers, it becomes apparent that he and Henrietta are currently having an affair. Edward walks in on an intimate moment between the two, and John leaves. Edward tries to convince Henrietta to return with him to Ainswick, but is rebuffed. Henrietta leaves to get dressed for a formal dinner, and Sir Henry and Midge come onstage. Midge discusses her employment at a dress shop, rejecting her cousins' pleas to accept their financial support and aristocratic lifestyle. As the Angkatells and Cristows all return to the stage, Veronica Craye makes a surprise appearance. She complains that her cottage has lost power, and her lighter is not working, and so is in need of matches. While waiting for Gudgeon to return with the matches, Veronica notices John, and reveals their past to the group. She asks John, dazed by her appearance, to come over after dinner. He assents, and the act ends as Veronica departs and the rest of the cast goes to dinner. ACT II Scene 1 – Saturday morning John Cristow enters, quickly followed by Gudgeon who bears a note that displeases John. Midge enters, and John goes off in search of Henrietta. Lucy enters, and reveals to Midge that she saw John return to the house at three in the morning. Sir Henry then passes through the room with a pair of revolvers on his way to the shooting range, revealing that Lucy is an accomplished markswoman while convincing Midge to join him at the targets. Henrietta enters as shots are heard from off-stage, quickly followed by Gerda who is alarmed by the gunfire. Henrietta convinces Gerda to try shooting, and the two leave for the target alley. John enters and begins to write letters as Lucy leaves with a basket of eggs. Veronica enters, interrupting John and revealing that she sent the note delivered by Gudgeon at the top of the act. Veronica's lighter is now working, and she reveals that her residence at Dovecotes was part of a plot to reunite with John. She expresses an interest in leaving her current husband and marrying John, but John rebuffs her, expressing a newfound satisfaction with his marriage and regret over the romantic activities of his overnight visit to Dovecotes. Veronica leaves in a rage, but not before threatening John with the telling line, "If I can't have you, no one shall." John finds himself alone, hears a noise from offstage, and goes to investigate. Gunshots are heard, and as John staggers and collapses, a revolver is thrown onstage. Gerda is the first to enter, and picks up the revolver. The entire cast quickly enters, and John musters the strength to call the name "Henrietta." Henrietta wrests the revolver from Gerda, and Gudgeon calls for a doctor as the curtain falls. Scene 2 – Later the same day The curtain rises on Lucy, Edward, Henrietta, and Midge, sitting in an uncomfortable silence. Lucy expresses admiration for Inspector Colquhoun, the Scotland Yard detective investigating the murder. Gudgeon enters with lunch, and he and Lucy exchange clandestine comments about Lucy's basket of eggs. Lucy and Edward express the opinion that Gerda, having been discovered holding a gun near John after the shooting, is his murderer, while Henrietta insists that Gerda deserves a chance to defend herself. Gerda enters, soon followed by Sir Henry and Inspector Colquohoun. Colquohoun recommends that Gerda hire a solicitor before making a statement, but she declines, and describes her entrance as the audience observed immediately after the shooting. Gerda states that there was no disagreement between her and John in response to Colquohoun's queries. Colquohoun then asks to question Lucy who, delighted with the intrigue, readily complies. They leave with Sir Henry, leaving Edward and Henrietta alone. It becomes apparent that both knew about John and Veronica's rendezvous, Edward expresses sympathy for Henrietta's loss, and Henrietta has an emotional breakdown over John's death. Henrietta leaves as Midge enters. Edward pines for Henrietta while comforting Midge in fatherly way. She attempts to overcome his preconceptions, pointing out that she is "not a child" any more. Edward is called away to be questioned by the inspector, and Henrietta returns from a walk. She and Midge discuss Edward's misplaced affections, and Henrietta recommends that Midge be more bold with her advances. Lucy replaces Henrietta onstage, and expresses a desire for Henrietta and Edward to marry, ensuring that the Ainswick estate will remain in the family. The inspector enters with Police Sergeant Penny. They question Midge, who conceals her knowledge of John's affair with Henrietta, but acknowledges that John's final words were Henrietta's name. The police are left alone on stage. They note that Edward denies Cristow having any final words, while Sir Henry backs Midge's version of events. Henrietta returns, responds frankly to the inspector that she and John were romantically involved, and asserts that Gerda remains oblivious to the affair. Upon her departure, Colquohoun confides to Penny that the identity of the murderer is still unclear. Gudgeon enters, and hypothesizes that a mysterious handbag found on the sofa may belong to Veronica Craye. Fortuitously, Veronica appears, having heard about the murder. She claims John was obsessed with her, and that she had to rebuff his offer of reconciliation. She claims ownership of the handbag, but becomes irate when Colquohoun reveals a gun he found in the bag. Veronica storms out, refusing to comment further without a lawyer. ACT III (The lights are lowered during the act to denote the passing of one hour.) The following Monday morning The curtain rises on Inspector Colquohoun and Sergeant Penny looking at the portrait of Ainswick, and discussing the estate's inheritance. Doris enters, reveals that she saw Gudgeon carrying a revolver the day of the murder, and quickly leaves. Sir Henry enters, and upon being questioned about his firearm collection, says that the gun Gerda was holding at the time of the murder was among them, and that he had brought it to the target alley but had subsequently found it missing. Coulqouhoun states that ballistics evidence prove it was not the murder weapon after all. At Coulqouhoun's request, Henry checks his collection again, and discovers that a second gun of the same calibre is missing. Colquohoun shows him the gun found in Veronica's handbag, and Henry confirms that it is one and the same gun. Colquohoun then questions Gudgeon about Doris' earlier statement; Gudgeon confirms the event, saying he was simply up (having found the gun laying out), and had simply forgotten the incident. Lucy enters, dismisses Gudgeon, and reveals that the butler has been attempting to cover for her – the gun had been in her basket of eggs, though she claims not to remember why. When the detectives are gone, she confides to Henry that she had thought John might have an accident involving the basket, but that she would never actually go so far as to commit murder. Edward and Midge soon find themselves alone on stage. Edward's affections have changed, and he and Midge become engaged. Lucy enters, and is delighted by the news. Midge and Henrietta have a private conversation, and Midge begins to suspect that Edward has only proposed to create the illusion that he is not in love with Henrietta, which might be a motive for him to have murdered John. By the time Edward returns, Midge is convinced of this motivation, and calls off their engagement. Edward is distraught, and returns to the stage with a gun, clearly contemplating suicide. Midge finds him, confesses her fears, and the two reconcile. All depart for the formal inquest into the murder, and the lights fade. An hour later Gerda and Henrietta enter. Henrietta asks Gerda what she has done with the holster of the murder weapon, stating that if they can get rid of that, there will be no evidence, and no one will be convicted of the murder. Gerda feigns ignorance, but Henrietta is persistent.
The Hollow Crown
A four-speaker, three-singer stage anthology dramatizes material associated with British monarchs from William the Conqueror to Queen Victoria. It combines royal speeches and letters with chronicles, songs, poems and excerpts from historical and literary accounts.
The Holly and the Ivy
The Holly and the Ivy is a 1950 play by the British writer Wynyard Browne. A vicar attempts to deal with the various problems of his family as they gather for the Christmas period. It originally premiered at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff before transferring to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith where it ran for 37 performances. It then began a West End run of 412 performances at the Duchess Theatre between 10 May 1950 and 5 May 1951. The West End cast included Herbert Lomas, Jane Baxter, Bryan Forbes, Patrick Waddington, Andrew Crawford, Maureen Delany and Margaret Halstan.
The Home Place
In 1878 Ballybeg, an English landowner and his son both love their housekeeper while an anthropologist’s racist claims about local people inflame tensions after the murder of a despised landlord. The play follows the village’s reaction amid the Irish Home Rule movement.
The Home Secretary
Trendel and his wife, Rhoda, have drifted apart: she is disillusioned by his change from idealist to party careerist and cabinet minister. She is attracted to Lecaile, who is in fact a dangerous anarchist whose real name, well known to the police, is Dangerfield. He is betrayed by a colleague, and resorts to burglary of Trendel's house to recover an incriminating document. Unknown to him, Rhoda is asleep in an armchair in the room he is searching. She wakes and confronts him. Trendel discovers the two together and jumps to the conclusion that they are carrying on behind his back. To save her reputation, Dangerfield admits his identity and his reason for being in the house. Trendel, touched by Dangerfield's gallant conduct, allows him to depart, but having let an anarchist go, he feels obliged to write to the prime minister resigning his office. Rhoda, moved by this evidence of humanity and scruple on her husband's part, is reconciled with him. The main plot is interwoven with the romance of Trendel's nephew (and secretary) and the ingénue Esme in the face of her family's attempts to marry her off to an elderly peer. The action includes the comings of goings of friends and colleagues of varying degrees of eccentricity.
The Homecoming
After having lived in the United States for six years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up, and which she finds more familiar than their academic life in America. The two married in London before moving to the United States. Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father, and the men taunt one another in a game of one-upmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to their three sons in America without her. The play begins in the midst of what becomes an ongoing power struggle between the two more dominant men: the father, Max, and his middle son, Lenny. Max and the other men put down one another, expressing their "feelings of resentment", with Max feminising his brother Sam, who he intimates is homosexual, while himself claiming to have himself "given birth" to his three sons. Teddy arrives with his wife, Ruth. He reveals that he married Ruth in London six years earlier and that the couple subsequently moved to the U.S. and had three sons prior to this visit to the family home ("homecoming") to introduce her. The couple's mutual discomfort with each other, marked by her restless desire to go out exploring after he has gone to sleep, followed by her sexually suggestive first-time encounter with her dangerous, and somewhat misogynistic, brother-in-law Lenny, begin to expose problems in the marriage. She strikes a nerve when she calls him "Leonard"; he tells her that no one, aside from his late mother, has ever called him that. After a sexually charged conversation between Lenny and Ruth, she exits. Awakened by their voices, the patriarch Max comes downstairs. Lenny does not tell Max about Teddy and Ruth's arrival at the house and engages in more verbal sparring with Max. The scene ends in a blackout. When the lights come up the scene has changed to the following morning. Max comes down to make breakfast. When Teddy and Ruth appear and Max discovers they have been there all night without his knowledge, Max is initially enraged, assuming that Ruth is a prostitute. After being told that Ruth is his daughter-in-law, Max appears to make some effort to reconcile with Teddy. This act opens with the men's ritual of sharing the lighting of cigars after lunch. Teddy's cigar goes out prematurely, the symbolism of which is clear. Max's subsequent sentimental pseudo-reminiscences of family life with his late wife, Jessie, and their "boys" and his experiences as a butcher also end abruptly with a cynical twist. After Teddy's marriage to Ruth receives Max's blessing, she relaxes and, focusing their attention on her ("Look at me"), she reveals some details about her previous life before meeting Teddy and how she views America. After Max and his brother, Sam, exit, Teddy abruptly suggests to Ruth that they return home immediately. Apparently, he knows about her history as "a photographic model for the body" about which she reminisces when talking to Lenny alone after Teddy has gone upstairs to pack for their return trip to the United States. When he returns with the suitcases and Ruth's coat, he expresses concern about what else Lenny may have got Ruth to reveal. As Teddy looks on, Lenny initiates dancing "slowly" with Ruth. With Teddy, Max, and Joey all looking on, Lenny kisses Ruth and then turns her over to Joey, who asserts that "she's wide open"; "Old Lenny's got a tart in here". Joey begins making out with Ruth on the sofa, telling Lenny that she is "Just up my street". Max asks Teddy if he is "going" so soon. He tells Teddy, "Look, next time you come over, don't forget to let us know beforehand whether you're married or not. I'll always be glad to meet the wife." He says that he knows that Teddy had not told him that he was married because he was "ashamed" that he had "married a woman beneath him", just before peering to look at Ruth, who is literally still lying under Joey. Max adds that Teddy doesn't need to be "ashamed" of Ruth's social status, assuring Teddy that he is a "broadminded man", and "she's a lovely girl. A beautiful woman", as well as "a mother too. A mother of three." Contrary to the concurrent action, even more ironically, Max observes that Teddy has "made a happy woman out of her. It's something to be proud of". Right after Max further asserts that Ruth is "a woman of quality" and "a woman of feeling", Joey and Ruth, clasped in their ongoing embrace, literally roll off the sofa on to the floor. Suddenly pushing Joey away and standing up, Ruth appears to take command, demanding food and drink, and Joey and Lenny attempt to satisfy her demands. After Ruth questions whether or not his family has read Teddy's "critical works" — a seemingly absurdist non sequitur, or perhaps just a jibe at her academic spouse (the answer to which, in either event, is a foregone conclusion) — Teddy defends his own "intellectual equilibrium" and professional turf. Ruth and Joey go upstairs for two hours but Joey, who comes down alone without her, complains that Ruth refused to go "the whole hog". With Ruth still upstairs, Lenny and the others reminisce about Lenny's and Joey's sexual exploits. Lenny, who the family considers an expert in sexual matters, labels Ruth a "tease", to which Teddy replies, "Perhaps he hasn't got the right touch." Lenny retorts that Joey has "had more dolly than you've had cream cakes", is "irresistible" to the ladies, "one of the few and far between". Lenny relates anecdotes about Joey's sexual prowess with other "birds". When Lenny asks Joey, "Don't tell me you're satisfied without going the whole hog?", Joey tentatively replies that "sometimes" a man can be "happy" without "going any hog". Lenny stares at him. Joey seems to be suggesting that Ruth is so good at "the game" that Lenny ultimately gets the "idea [to] take her up with me to Greek Street". Max volunteers that Ruth could come to live with the family, suggesting that they "should keep her" while she works for them part-time (as a prostitute). The men discuss this proposal in considerable detail, seemingly half-joking to irritate Teddy and half-serious. Sam declares the whole idea "silly" and "rubbish". Teddy adamantly refuses to "put" anything "in the kitty", as Max asks, and Lenny suggests that Teddy could hand out business cards and refer Americans he knows to Ruth when they visit London, for "a little percentage". Teddy does not decline outright but neither does he affirmatively agree to the idea. Teddy also says, in the play's only poignant turn of phrase, "She'd get old... very quickly", which concern Max dismisses, citing the new National Health Service. Ruth comes downstairs, dressed. Teddy is still waiting with his coat on and their packed suitcases. Teddy informs her of the family's proposal, without going into explicit detail about their intention to engage her in prostitution, saying euphemistically that she will "have to pull [her] weight" financially because they are not "very well off"; then he offers her a choice to stay in London with the family or to return to America with him. Ruth understands exactly what is being proposed and appears very open to the proposal. She inflexibly negotiates her demands, including a three-room flat and a maid as the terms of a "contract" with Lenny, all of which must be finalised in writing with signatures and witnesses, leaving Lenny nonplussed but hapless. Ruth clearly is adept at getting what she wants and Teddy prepares to return to America without her. Having spoken up a few times earlier to voice his objections, Sam blurts out a long-kept secret about Jessie and Max's friend MacGregor, then "croaks and collapses" and "lies still" on the floor. Briefly considering the possibility that Sam has "dropped dead" and become a "corpse", the others ascertain that he is still breathing ("not even dead"), dismiss his revelation as the product of "a diseased imagination", and ignore him thereafter. After a pause, Ruth conditionally accepts their proposal. Teddy focuses on the inconvenience that Sam's unavailability poses for him: "I was going to ask him to drive me to London airport". Instead, he gets directions to the Underground, before saying goodbye to the others and leaving to return home to his three sons, alone. As he moves towards the front door, Ruth calls Teddy "Eddie"; after he turns around, she cryptically tells him, "Don't become a stranger". He goes out the front door, leaving his wife with the other four men in the house. The final tableau vivant depicts Ruth sitting, "relaxed in her chair", as if on a throne. Sam lies motionless on the floor; Joey, who has walked over to Ruth, places his head in her lap, which she gently caresses. Lenny stands looking on and observing. After repeatedly insisting he is not an old man, and getting no reply from Ruth, who remains, as usual, tactically silent, Max beseeches her, "Kiss me" – the final words of the play. Ruth sits and "continues to touch Joey's head, lightly", while Lenny "stands, watching". In this "resolution" of the play (its dénouement), what might happen later remains unresolved. Such lack of plot resolution and other ambiguities are features of most of Pinter's dramas.
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son
After the Battle of Maldon, two retainers, Tída and Totta, search for and recover their lord Beorhtnoth's body. Their disagreement about his decision to let the Vikings cross the causeway contrasts practical judgment with romantic ideals of heroic honor.
The Honest Man’s Fortune
In France, Montague loses his lands through a corrupt lawsuit and is reduced to poverty, while his devoted page Veramour enters service with Lamira. The Duke of Orleans schemes against Montague and his wife, but an abortive duel and a staged death force a change of heart, restoring Montague’s estate and bringing reconciliation.
The Honest Whore, Part 1
In Milan, Bellafront, a prostitute, resolves to leave that life after Hippolito rebukes her. In a parallel comic plot, Viola repeatedly tries to provoke her patient husband Candido into anger. The plots converge at Bethlem, where Bellafront helps reconcile Hippolito and Infelice and Candido is released.
The Honest Whore, Part 2
In the second part, Hippolito develops a violent desire for Bellafront, who refuses to give up her renewed virtue despite hardship. Parallel actions by Hippolito's wife and Bellafront's father bring the story to a happy ending.
The Honey Moon
The action is set in Spain in the early 17th century. The Duke of Aranza, pretending to be a peasant who has tricked his new bride, Juliana, into marriage, takes her to their supposed new home, a modest country cottage. There he subjects her to a regime to reform her "proud spirit". When she submits to his will, he reveals his true identity and installs her in her rightful place in his palace.
The Honeys
Two sisters decide to murder their husbands in a comedy based on stories from Roald Dahl’s collection Someone Like You.
The Hooligan
On the morning of his execution, young cockney Nat Solly, raised among thieves and convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, protests that he did not intend to kill her. When the governor arrives to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, Solly dies of a heart attack from the shock.
The Horatians and the Curiatians
A Lehrstück retells the story of the Horatii and Curiaces; its two choruses are the main characters. The play was originally printed without a musical score.
The Horse of Jenin
In a solo show combining mime, masks, and stand-up, Alaa Shehada recounts his childhood and memories surrounding the Horse of Jenin, reflecting on life in Israeli-occupied Jenin.
The Hostage
In a Dublin brothel, Leslie Williams, a young British soldier held hostage, forms a bond with Teresa as the characters await the execution of an IRA prisoner in Belfast. News of the hanging prompts a Garda raid in which Leslie is killed; his corpse then rises and sings.
The Hot L Baltimore
The Hot L Baltimore is a 1973 American play by Lanford Wilson set in the lobby of the Hotel Baltimore. The plot focuses on the residents of the decaying property, who are faced with eviction when the structure is condemned. The play draws its title from the hotel's neon marquee with a burned-out "e" that was never replaced.
The Hot Wing King
In Memphis, Cordell Crutchfield and his boyfriend Dwayne join their friends in preparing the New Wing Order's entry for the annual Hot Wang Festival, where Cordell hopes to reclaim the title of Hot Wing King.
The Hothouse
In an institution whose patients are known only by numbers, director Roote and his staff respond to a death and a birth with an investigation that becomes coercive and confused. After Roote’s Christmas address, patients break free and kill the staff, while Lamb remains missing.
The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other
In a bright, empty town square, hundreds of silent figures pass through fragments of an ordinary day. The play’s conception comes from Handke’s observation of people in a Muggia square, where a hearse and funeral briefly altered the meaning of what followed for the observer, though the passersby knew nothing of one another.
The House by the Lake
The House by the Lake is a 1956 British stage thriller in three acts, by Hugh Mills. The main characters are Maurice and Stella, a brother and sister who plot to murder their unlikeable brother, Colin. The other characters include Maurice's wife, Janet, Colin's long-suffering wife, Iris, and Colonel Forbes, a neighbour. It premiered at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff before transferring to London's West End, where it ran for two years, starring Flora Robson and Andrew Cruickshank; and has since become a staple of amateur dramatics.
The House in Montevideo
A strict father learns that his estranged sister became a wealthy opera singer after bearing a child outside marriage. To secure her inheritance for his household, he tries to induce a similar “tragedy” before his eldest daughter turns nineteen, entangling the family in questions of marriage and respectability.
The House of Bernarda Alba
After her second husband dies, Bernarda Alba imposes an eight-year mourning period and strict control over her five daughters. Their confinement and competing desires create mounting conflict around Angustias’s suitor Pepe; when Bernarda’s youngest daughter Adela dies by suicide, Bernarda insists on preserving the family’s reputation.
The House of Blue Leaves
The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the Obie Award for Best American Play in 1971. The play is set in 1965, when Pope Paul VI visited New York City.
The House of Colberg
The House of Colberg is an 1832 tragedy by the British writer Thomas James Serle. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 1 October 1832. The original cast included William Macready as Colberg, John Cooper as Prince of Eisbach, Thomas Cooke as the Chaplain, and Robert William Honner as Steinfeldt. The play was dedicated to the writer Thomas Talfourd.
The House of Connelly
The House of Connelly is a 1931 Broadway two-act drama written by Paul Green, produced by the Group Theatre in association with The Theatre Guild and staged by Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. It ran for 91 performances from September 28, 1931 to November 14, 1931 at the Martin Beck Theatre and then from November 16, 1931 to January 2, 1932 at the Mansfield Theatre. It was the inaugural production of the Group Theatre. It was adapted into the 1934 film Carolina directed by Henry King and starring Janet Gaynor, Lionel Barrymore and Robert Young.
The House of Sleeping Beauties
A fictionalized portrait imagines how Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata might have come to write his novella The House of the Sleeping Beauties.
The House of Yes
Marty Pascal and his fiancée Lesly return to his family's home in McLean, Virginia for Thanksgiving. He is received by his mother, younger brother Anthony, and twin sister "Jackie-O", who adopted her nickname and manner of dress as a result of her obsession with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The news of Marty's sudden relationship and engagement shocks the family and destabilizes Jackie-O, who has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital. As the play progresses, it transpires that Marty and Jackie-O are involved in an incestuous relationship; their father left the family the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, and as teenagers Jackie-O and Marty would re-enact the assassination as a form of ritualistic foreplay. The play concludes with Marty and Jackie-O again re-enacting the assassination, though Jackie-O intentionally uses a gun loaded with real bullets instead of the previously used blank cartridges, killing Marty.
The How and the Why
Two women biologists meet for the first time: an older scientist known for her work on the grandmother hypothesis and a younger researcher proposing a new explanation for menstruation. Their scientific exchange intersects with the personal lives of women in science.
The Hue and Cry After Cupid
A court masque celebrating the marriage of Lord Haddington and Lady Elizabeth Radclyffe. Twelve courtiers appear as the Zodiac signs; Cupid, Venus and other mythic figures feature as the Sphinx's prison opens to reveal a silver sphere and the masquers perform four dances.
The Human Touch
The Human Touch is a play by Dudley Leslie and J. Lee Thompson. After premiering at the Liverpool Playhouse in May 1948, it later had a West End run of 113 performances at the Savoy Theatre between February and June 1949. The cast included Alec Guinness, John Gregson, John Laurie, Milton Rosmer, Kynaston Reeves, Sophie Stewart and Adrienne Corri. Guinness starred as a doctor who pioneers the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic during operations, but meets with huge resistance from established medical figures. Variety called it "an interesting study". A TV version with James Donald was shot at Elstree in 1952. On April 15, 1956, a televised adaptation was shown on Front Row Center on CBS.
The Human Voice
Alone onstage in Paris, a woman speaks by telephone with her departing lover, who is to marry another woman the next day; the monologue exposes her despair and the strain of communication.
The Humans
The entire play takes place during a single evening in a sparsely furnished, somewhat shabby basement duplex apartment in New York City’s Chinatown. Brigid Blake, a young aspiring composer, and her boyfriend Richard Saad, who is completing his social work degree, have just moved in together and are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Brigid’s family. The guests are Brigid’s working-class, Irish-American parents, Erik and Deirdre Blake, her sister Aimee, a Philadelphia lawyer suffering from ulcerative colitis and a recent breakup with her girlfriend, and Fiona “Momo” Blake, Brigid’s grandmother, who suffers from severe dementia. Momo frequently mumbles incoherently throughout the evening, requiring constant care and attention. As the family settles in, old patterns of conversation, teasing, and tension quickly reemerge. Erik and Deirdre disapprove of Brigid living with Richard before marriage and are skeptical of her career ambitions. Deirdre, who works an unglamorous office job, also expresses resentment about how she feels mocked for her lack of sophistication. Erik, meanwhile, is distracted and uneasy the whole night, increasingly frayed and preoccupied. Richard, whose family is wealthy, tries to make polite conversation but feels somewhat alienated from the Blakes’ dynamic. He mentions that he’s about to inherit a trust fund when he turns forty, suggesting a different kind of future stability that Brigid’s parents can’t guarantee. Brigid resents her parents for not supporting her financially after grad school. Deirdre feels increasingly marginalized and left out of her daughters’ lives. Underlying all of this is Erik’s growing anxiety. Eventually, he reveals the real reason for his unease: he has been fired from his job as a janitor at a Catholic school after an incident that, while not fully detailed, involved inappropriate behavior — possibly being caught sleeping overnight at the school. Compounding the situation, Erik and Deirdre had invested heavily in a lake house in Scranton for retirement, but they were forced to sell it at a loss after Erik’s firing. Now they are facing serious financial insecurity. Meanwhile, Momo has a sudden, violent outburst, needing to be restrained and comforted. The family members scramble to soothe her, exposing their vulnerabilities and their love for her despite everything. The play also carries an almost horror-movie-like atmosphere: strange thumps are heard from the apartment above, lights flicker and buzz, mysterious stains appear on the ceiling, and the apartment feels unsettlingly dark and oppressive. These eerie details create a haunting metaphor for the emotional and existential dread the family is experiencing. In the final moments, after the family leaves and Richard goes downstairs to do laundry, Erik, left alone in the darkening apartment, becomes overwhelmed by fear and grief. Terrified and paralyzed by his failures, the loss of security, and the disintegration of his life as he knew it, Erik collapses emotionally as the lights go out completely.
The Humorous Courtier
When the Duke of Parma disappears from the Duchess of Mantua’s court, she says she will choose a husband from among her courtiers. The men compete for her favor through flattery and absurd schemes, while the newcomer Giotto and her attendant Laura guide the confusion. The Duchess eventually mocks her would-be suitors and reveals that Giotto is the Duke in disguise.
The Humorous Lieutenant
After Alexander the Great’s death, Prince Demetrius falls in love with Celia, who is revealed to be King Seleucus’s daughter Enanthe. The comic lieutenant fights fiercely in battle but spends ordinary life as a hypochondriac.
The Humorous Magistrate
Justice of the Peace Thrifty abuses his office while his daughter Constance courts Christopher Spruce. Their romance is paired with comic subplots and satire of judicial corruption, ineptitude, and the political and social disorder of the period.
The Humour of the Age
The Humour of the Age is a 1701 comedy play by the English writer Thomas Baker. It was staged at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.
The Humours of Oxford
The Humours of Oxford is a 1730 comedy play by the British writer James Miller. It was Miller's debut play, inspired by his time at Wadham College, and proved popular. The plot is set around Oxford University and portrays the academics as overindulging in port wine. William Hogarth designed the frontispiece of the published version of the play. The original cast included John Mills as Colonel Truelove, Robert Wilks as Gainlove, Roger Bridgewater as Shamwell, John Harper as Haughty, Benjamin Griffin as Conundrum, Colley Cibber as Appeall, William Mills as Vice Chancellor, James Oates as Dash, Henry Norris as Timothy, John Roberts as Old Appeall and Mary Porter as Lady Science, Anne Oldfield as Clarinda and, Kitty Clive as Kitty, Hester Santlow as Victoria. The published version of the play was dedicated to the diplomat and politician Lord Chesterfield.
The Hunchback
The Hunchback is an 1832 comedy play by the Irish writer James Sheridan Knowles. Knowles wrote it in the wake of the disastrous reception of his previous comedy The Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green in 1828. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London's West End on 5 April 1832. The cast included Sheridan Knowles himself as Master Walter, Fanny Kemble as Julia, Hariette Taylor as Helen, Charles Kemble as Sir Thomas Clifford, Benjamin Wrench as Lord Tinsel, William Abbot as Modus, Drinkwater Meadows as Fathom and William Payne as Stephen. It was Fanny Kemble's last performance in England before embarking on a tour of the United States with her father, where she married and retired from the stage. The Hunchback was staged on Broadway at the Garrick Theatre in 1902 with a cast led by Eben Plympton as Master Walter, Viola Allen as Julia, Adelaide Prince as Helen, Aubrey Boucicault as Sir Thomas Clifford, J. Harry Benrimo as Lord Tinsel, Jameson Lee Finney as Modus, and C. Leslie Allen as Fathom.
The Hunger Games: On Stage
In dystopian Panem, Katniss Everdeen competes in a televised battle royale. The adaptation adds original scenes and gives names to some characters unnamed in the source novel.
The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea
In a post-apocalyptic future, a revolution has divided North America into racial territories and driven homosexuals from conservative regimes. Exiled in the borderlands, Medea lives with her son and girlfriend Luna; when her husband Jasón seeks to take their son back to Aztlán, Medea confronts questions of motherhood, heritage, and belonging.
The Hunt
In a small Danish town, a popular schoolteacher going through a divorce is falsely accused of sexual abuse, and the community turns against him.
The Hunted
After Ezra's death, Orin returns from the war and Lavinia tells him of Christine's affair with Brant. Lavinia and Orin follow Christine to Brant's ship, where Orin shoots Brant. When they tell Christine, she goes into Ezra's study and kills herself.
The Hyacinth Macaw
Raymond and Dora’s family life is disrupted by a mysterious visitor who tells Raymond that he is a duplicate and must be replaced.
The Hypochondriac
Nikolai Durnopechin, a wealthy hypochondriac, believes he is dying just as his former sweetheart Nadya returns seeking marriage. His opportunistic relatives flatter him and maneuver for an inheritance, while his imagined illness and their schemes fuel the comedy.
The Hypocrite
The Hypocrite is a 1768 comic play by the Irish writer Isaac Bickerstaffe. It is a reworking of the 1717 play The Non-Juror by Colley Cibber, itself inspired by Molière's Tartuffe. The original play had derived much of its humour from the politics of the era, and revolved around the intrigues of Doctor Wolf, a nonjuring clergyman with strong ties to the underground Jacobite movement. Bickerstaffe altered the role to that of Doctor Cantwell, a hypocritical Methodist. The first Drury Lane cast included Thomas King as Doctor Cantwell, John Hayman Packer as Sir John Lambert, Samuel Reddish as Darnley, Samuel Cautherley as Charles, Thomas Weston as Mawworm, Mary Bradshaw as Old Lady Lambert, Ann Street Barry as Lady Lambert and Frances Abington as Charlotte. It premiered in Bickerstaffe's native Dublin in 1772, and was revived in London on several occasions. A 1814 revival featured William Dowton, Benjamin Wrench and William Oxberry amongst others.
The Iceman Cometh
The Iceman Cometh is set in New York in 1912 in Harry Hope's downmarket Greenwich Village saloon and rooming house. The patrons, twelve men and three prostitutes, are dead-end alcoholics who spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in one another's company and trying to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders. They drift purposelessly from day to day, coming fully alive only during the semi-annual visits of salesman Theodore "Hickey" Hickman. When Hickey finishes a tour of his business territory, which is apparently a wide expanse of the East Coast, he typically turns up at the saloon and starts the party. As the play opens, the regulars are expecting Hickey to arrive in time for Harry's birthday party. The first act introduces the various characters as they bicker among themselves, showing how drunk and delusional they are, all the while awaiting Hickey. Joe Mott insists that he will soon re-open his gambling casino. The English Cecil "The Captain" Lewis and South African Boer Piet "The General" Wetjoen, who fought each other during the Boer War, are now good friends, and both insist that they'll soon return to their nations of origin. Harry Hope has not left the bar since his wife Bess's death 20 years ago. He promises that he'll walk around the neighborhood on his birthday, which is the next day. Pat McGloin says he hopes to be reinstated into the police force, but is waiting for the right moment. Ed Mosher prides himself on his ability to give incorrect change, but he kept too much of his illegitimate profits to himself and was fired from the circus; he says he will get his job back someday. Hugo Kalmar, a former anarchist, is drunk and passed out for most of the play; when he is conscious, he pesters the other patrons to buy him a drink. Chuck Morello says that he will marry Cora tomorrow. Larry Slade is a former syndicalist-anarchist who looks pityingly on the rest. Don Parritt is the son of a former anarchist who shows up early in the play to talk about his mother (Larry's ex-girlfriend) to Larry; specifically her arrest due to her involvement in the anarchist movement. When Hickey finally arrives, his changed behavior throws the characters into turmoil. With as much charisma as ever, he insists that he sees life clearly now as never before because he no longer drinks. Hickey wants the characters to cast away their delusions and accept that their heavy drinking and inaction mean that their hopes will never be fulfilled. He takes on this task with a near-maniacal fervor. How he goes about his mission, how the other characters respond, and their efforts to find out what has wrought this change in him, take over four hours to resolve. During and after Harry's birthday party, most seem to have been affected by Hickey's ramblings. Larry who says he's done with active participation in life and is content to be a spectator "in the grandstand" pretends to be unaffected, but when Don reveals he was the informant responsible for the arrest of his own mother (Larry's former girlfriend), Larry angrily insists he doesn't want to hear it. Willie the former lawyer proposes that he'll represent McGloin in his appeal to get his old police job back as a way to brush up his own lawyering skills before he tries to get back his old job with the district attorney, and Rocky admits he is a pimp, not a bartender. Most of the men Hickey talked with do go out into the world—dressed up, hopeful of turning their lives around—but they fail to make any progress. Eventually, they return and are jolted by a sudden revelation. Hickey, who had earlier told the other characters first that his wife had died and then that she was shot and then that she was murdered, admits that he is the one who killed her. The police arrive, called by Hickey himself, to arrest Hickey. Hickey tries to explain his murder of the woman he loved so deeply in a long dramatic monologue, saying that he did it out of love for her. He relates that his father was a preacher in the backwoods of Indiana. Evidently he was both charismatic and persuasive, and it was his inheriting these traits which led Hickey to become a salesman. An angry kid trapped in a small town, Hickey had no use for anyone but his sweetheart, Evelyn. Evelyn's family forbade her to associate with Hickey, but she ignored them. After Hickey left to become a salesman, he promised he would marry Evelyn as soon as he was able. He became a successful salesman, then sent for her and the two were very happy until Hickey became increasingly guilty following his wife's constant forgiveness of his infidelities and drinking. He then recounts how he murdered her to free her from the pain of his persistent philandering and drinking because she loved him too much to live apart from him. But, in retelling the murder, he laughs and tells Evelyn, "Well, you know what you can do with that pipe dream now, don't you?" In realizing he said this, Hickey breaks down completely. He says that he must have been insane and that people need their empty dreams to keep existing. The others are now relieved that what Hickey had been telling them all throughout the play, which had made them all face the truth about themselves, was just the ravings of a lunatic, and so they could now safely resume believing their old "pipe dreams" and excuses about themselves and resume drinking and their old lives hanging out in Harry Hope's bar. They reaffirm their solidarity with Hickey and pledge to testify to his insanity at his murder trial, despite Hickey's desire for a death sentence. He no longer wishes to live now that he has no illusions about life. They return to their empty promises and pipe dreams except for Parritt, who runs to his room and jumps off the fire escape, unable to live with the knowledge of what he has done to his mother after discarding the last of his lies about his action and motivation for it. He first claims that he did it due to patriotism and then for money, but finally admits he did it because he hated his mother, who was so obsessed with her own freedom of action that she became self-centered and alternately ignored or dominated him. Despite witnessing the young man's fatal leap, and acknowledging the futility of his own situation, as Larry says at the end, "Be God, there's no hope! I'll never be a success in the grandstand— or anywhere else! Life is too much for me! I'll be a weak fool looking with pity at the two sides of everything till the day I die!"
The Ik
Adapted from ethnologist Colin Turnbull's account, the play depicts the disintegration of the Ik community after government restrictions on hunting and gathering and forced resettlement. As hunger and social structures collapse, an ethnologist watches the community's struggle and the limits of outside intervention.
The Illusion
A contrite father asks the sorcerer Alcandre for news of his estranged son. Alcandre conjures three episodes from the son's life, each in a shifting world with altered names and loyalties, before the father learns the truth.
The Imaginary Cuckold
Célie loses a miniature portrait of her beloved Lélie, setting off a chain of jealous misunderstandings: Sganarelle and his wife each suspect the other of infidelity, while Célie and Lélie misread the others’ relationships. The confusion ends when it is revealed that Célie’s intended husband has secretly married someone else.
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