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The Holly and the Ivy

Play · 1950

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 Secretary

Play · 1895

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

Play · 1965

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 House by the Lake

Play · 1956

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 of Connelly

Play · 1931

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 Yes

Play · 1990

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 Human Touch

Play · 1948

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 Humans

Play · 2014

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 Humours of Oxford

Play · 1730

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

Play · 1832

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 Hypocrite

Play · 1768

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

Play · 1946

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 Impertinent Lovers

Play · 1723

The Impertinent Lovers: or, A Coquet at her Wit's End is a 1723 comedy play by the British writer Francis Hawling. It was submitted to Sir Richard Steele and three gentlemen as patentees and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick Lane, A. Dodd at the Peacock without Temple Bar, and the booksellers of London and Westminster. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas Chapman as Meanwell, William Wilks as Freelove, Theophilus Cibber as Pert, John Harper as Blunt, Elizabeth Willis as Abigail. The play is set in Greenwich.

The Impostors

Play · 1789

The Impostors is a comedy play by Richard Cumberland. It was first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in January 1789. The plot closely resembled that of The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar. The original Drury Lane Cast included John Palmer as Lord Janus, Robert Baddeley as Sir Solomon Sapient, James Aickin as Captain George Sapient, William Barrymore as Sir Charles Freemantle, Richard Suett as Oliver and Richard Wroughton as Polycarp, Jane Pope as Mrs Dorothy and Dorothea Jordan as Eleanor.

The Incomparable Max

Play · 1969

The Incomparable Max is a play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. It is based on the stories "Enoch Soames" and "A.V. Laider" in Seven Men by Max Beerbohm. Enoch Soames is a minor poet who makes a pact with the devil to spend a few hours in the library of the British Museum one hundred years in the future to learn how history will regard him. There he finds the only mention of his name is in a short story written by Max Beerbohm. A.V. Laider is a palmist who foretells the death of four people riding on a train - or does he? The play had its premiere at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia in 1969. The Broadway production, directed by Gerald Freedman, began the first of ten previews on October 9, 1971 at the Royale Theatre. It opened on October 19 and closed on November 6 after 23 performances. The cast included Richard Kiley in the dual roles of Soames and Laider and Clive Revill as Beerbohm. Constance Carpenter and Fionnula Flanagan appeared in supporting roles. The creative team included costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge and lighting designer Martin Aronstein. T.E. Kalem of Time observed, "The work is a glue job rather than an organic entity. The authors... awkwardly mixed Beerbohm in as a character among his own creations. In passages that are almost unrelated asides, they have Max as drama critic quoting himself on plays, players and playgoers. These comments lack the pithy bite of aphorisms, and as out-of-context fragments, they lose much of the slyly inflected wit that is one of the special pleasures of reading Beerbohm... The deeper problem lies with Max himself, who was too much the fastidious dandy, too much the meticulous stylist, to serve as a vehicle for the broad, boisterous traffic of the stage."

The Inconstant

Play · 1702

The Inconstant, or the Way to Win Him is a 1702 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar. It was a reworking of the Jacobean comedy The Wild Goose Chase by John Fletcher. A success, the play was revived a number of times during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Despite its popularity, the play was later criticised for its similarities to Fletcher's earlier work with Leigh Hunt commenting it was "neither more or less Fletcher's play, with the poetry taken out".

The Injured Lovers

Play · 1688

The Injured Lovers; Or, The Ambitious Father is a 1688 tragedy by the English writer William Mountfort. It was premiered by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Rheusanes, Joseph Williams as King of Sicily, Philip Griffin as Ghinotto, William Mountfort as Dorenalus, Samuel Sandford as Old Colonel, Cave Underhill as Soldier, Thomas Jevon as Soldier, Elizabeth Barry as Princess Oryala and Anne Bracegirdle as Antelina.

The Innkeeper's Daughter

Play · 1817

The Innkeeper's Daughter is an 1817 stage melodrama by the British writer George Soane. It was loosely based on the ballad Mary the Maid of the Inn by Robert Southey. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 7 April 1817. The original cast included Henry Gattie as Frankland, James William Wallack as Richard, Thomas Cooke as Hans Ketzler, Frances Maria Kelly as Mary and Sarah Harlowe as Marian. The music was composed by Thomas Simpson Cooke. Its Irish debut was at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 19 January 1818.

The Innocent Party

Play · 1938

The Innocent Party is a 1938 comedy play by the British writers H.M. Harwood and Laurence Kirk. A woman has to decide whether she is needed more by her husband or her lover. It premiered at the Opera House, Manchester before transferring to the St James's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 52 performances between 27 January and 12 March 1938. The original London cast included Basil Radford, Cecil Parker, Elizabeth Allan, Mary Ellis and Jack Lambert.

The Inquisitor

Play · 1798

The Inquisitor is a 1798 play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. It was inspired by the 1775 play Diego und Leonore by Johann August Unzer. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 23 June 1798. The original cast included James Aickin as The Patriarch, Henry Erskine Johnston as Alberto, William Barrymore as Francisco, Charles Kemble as Fernando, Robert Palmer as Lelio, Thomas Caulfield as Alguazil, Maria Theresa Kemble as Leonora, Elizabeth Heard as Violante and Sarah Harlowe as Licia.

The Intimate Strangers

Play · 1921

The humor revolves around the complicated family relationship, which is only partially revealed during the course of the play, and the competition between Isabel and Florence. William Ames was on a vacation when he was stranded at an isolated station north of Utica, New York, by a storm that washed out a bridge and communication lines. Also stranded is Isabel Stuart. Though they noticed each other on the train, they didn't speak until marooned at the station. When the play begins, they had been at the station for ten hours, with their only company the station master's brother-in-law, who has since departed. Act I (Interior of a railway station in upstate New York. A night in April.) The Station Master enters the darkened station to find Ames sleeping on a bench. Through exposition, it appears Ames and Isabel, who is sitting on a trunk on the platform, haven't spoken for hours. Isabel shared her lunch with Ames, but the Station Master confirms there is no prospect of further food, nor any information on when the railway will resume operation. During their isolation Ames had told Isabel of his dislike for flighty young women. The more experienced Isabel found it easy to lead Ames on by feigning an older age, and eventually Ames confesses an attraction for her. But Florence arrives in a burst of energy; she had Johnnie drive her forty miles at night to pick up Isabel at the station. Naturally, she fixates on Ames, who despite his aversion to flappers, finds her fascinating. The foursome depart the station for Isabel's home. (Curtain) Act II (Living room of Isabel's farm home, the next morning.) Aunt Ellen questions Henry about everyone's whereabouts. Florence comes in from an early morning horseback ride, while Mattie announces Johnnie. Florence tries to get Ames to stay another day with a fake telegram scheme, while Isabel gives Johnnie some pointers on women. Florence maneuvers Ames into changing her slippers for tennis shoes, then leaves to play tennis with Johnnie. Isabel uses the break to buffalo Ames by showing him a lot of old family daguerrotypes and implying she knew the folks in them personally. Florence later asks Ames to put the slippers back on her. She then seizes Ames and makes him dance to music from a vocalion. But Johnnie has gotten wise, and when Isabel feigns a lame foot, he pointedly puts slippers on her feet. The scene ends as Florence whirls Ames, amazed that both he and Johnnie are so concerned about Isabel. (Curtain) Act III (Same, late afternoon to early evening.) Mattie pretends to search for the family bible for Aunt Ellen, but Isabel had given her instructions not to find it. Mattie also wipes off the year on an inscription dedicating a cabinet to Isabel on her 15th birthday. Isabel enters and spars with Aunt Ellen over the missing bible, which has all of their birthdates in it. The latter leaves after being told another bible is upstairs. Ames wanders in from searching, having been primed by Mattie about the missing bible, but not where it can be found. Mattie also obligingly leaves ajar the cabinet door with the inscription inside. Isabel resumes her limp upon Ames' entrance, eventually drawing his attention to the antique cabinet, which she claims was new when given to her. Aunt Ellen plays a waltz on the piano, to which Johnnie and Isabel dance. When Ames comes in, he sweeps Isabel away from Johnnie, as Ellen continues playing. Ames accuses Isabel of mocking him, but she points to the family bible which she had brought into the room. It is open to the page that discloses her father married his second wife at age 65, after which Isabel was born. They are joined in the waltz by Johnnie and Florence, as Ames mutters to Isabel, "You infant". (Curtain)

The Invader of His Country

Play · 1719

The Invader of His Country, or The Fatal Resentment is a 1719 tragedy by the British writer John Dennis. It is based on Coriolanus by William Shakespeare, portraying the life of the Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus. Written in the wake of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, it was intended by the Whig Dennis as a patriotic defence of the Hanoverian Succession by drawing parallels with Coriolanus's shift from loyal commander to rebel leader to the contemporary situation. Originally scheduled to be staged in late 1718, it was delayed for almost a year partly due to a desire not to compete with a run of Shakespeare's Coriolanus at the rival Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. When it finally opened it lasted just three nights and was not a success. The leading role of Coriolanus was played by Barton Booth with John Mills, Thomas Walker, John Corey, William Wilks and Mary Porter also in the cast. Dennis was furious with what he considered the mishandling of the play by the managers of the Drury Lane Theatre. When he published it shortly afterwards he dedicated it to the Lord Chamberlain the Duke of Newcastle who was also critical of the leadership at Drury Lane, which had supported the opposition Whigs against the Stanhope government, Dennis also made reference to both the 1717 Swedish Jacobite plot and the 1719 Rebellion in Scotland, and suggested a "conspiracy" to prevent his play's performance.

The Irishman in London

Play · 1792

The Irishman in London is a 1792 comedy play by the Irish writer and actor William Macready the Elder. A farce, it premiered as an afterpiece at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on the 21 April 1792. The original cast included George Davies Harley as Captain Seymour, Macready as Colloony, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Frost, John Henry Johnstone as Murtoch Delany, John Fawcett as Edward, Thomas Blanchard as Cymon, Isabella Mattocks as Louisa and Charlotte Chapman as Caroline. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 19 July 1792.

The Island

Play · 1973

John and Winston share a prison cell on an unnamed Island. After another day of hard labour and having been forced to run while shackled and then beaten, they return to their cell. They tend each other's wounds, share memories of times at the beach and rehearse for the prisoner-performed concert which is imminent. They are going to perform a scene from an abridged version of Antigone by Sophocles. John will play Creon and Winston will play Antigone. When he sees himself in his costume, Winston tries to pull out of playing a female role, fearing he will be humiliated. John is called to the governor's office. He returns with news that his appeal was successful and his ten-year sentence has been commuted to three years: he will be free in three months. Winston is happy for him. As they imagine what leaving prison and returning home will be like, Winston begins to unravel. He doubts why he ever made a stand against the regime, why he even exists. Having said it, he experiences a catharsis, and accepts that he must endure. The final scene is their performance of Antigone. After John-as-Creon sentences Winston-as-Antigone to be walled up in a cave for having defied him and done her duty towards her dead brother, Winston pulls off Antigone's wig and yells "Gods of Our Fathers! My Land! My Home! Time waits no longer. I go now to my living death, because I honored those things to which honour belongs". The final image is of John and Winston, chained together once more, running hard as the siren wails.

The Jazz Singer

Play · 1925

Jakie Rabinowitz, the son of Jewish immigrants, has launched a career as a jazz singer, performing in blackface under the name Jack Robin. His father, a cantor for an Orthodox synagogue on the East Side of Manhattan, disapproves of Jack's choices. In the first act, Jack visits on his father's 60th birthday. They argue, and Jack is thrown out. In the second act, Jack is preparing for his Broadway debut, which he expects to be a breakthrough for his career. Jack learns that father is seriously ill, but he first refuses to leave his rehearsals. In the third act, Jack visits his parents' home before his show, but his father has been taken to a hospital, where he dies. Rather than returning to the show, Jack goes to the synagogue to take his father's place for the Yom Kippur services.

The Jew

Play · 1794

Charles, a young clerk employed in the counting house of the merchant Sir Stephen Bertram is fired because his sister Eliza is romantically involved with Sir Stephen's son, Frederick (who is also Charles's best friend). Unknown to both Sir Stephen and Charles, Frederick and Eliza have already been secretly married. To help his now unemployed friend financially, Frederick seeks to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender named Sheva, who Frederick assumes is a merciless and stingy miser. Sheva is actually a very kind man and a sympathetic listener. When he realises that Charles is the son of "Don Carlos", a soldier who once rescued him from an angry mob in Cádiz, Spain, he decides to give Frederick the money to help his friend, and secretly invests money in Eliza's name to demonstrate to Sir Stephen that Eliza is a worthy wife for his son. Charles, however, is stubbornly proud and, when he learns that Frederick has secretly married his sister, he challenges his friend to a duel. Their sword fight ends quickly when Charles receives a minor cut on his wrist and, after the truth about Sheva's generous gift is revealed, everything ends happily.

The Journalists

Play · 1852

Professor Oldendorf, editor of the Union newspaper, hopes to marry Ida, the daughter of retired Colonel Berg, but Berg distrusts journalists. Rival editor Blumenberg and landowner Senden manipulate the colonel into running against Oldendorf, while Bolz and Kämpe court influential elector Piepenbrink. Oldendorf wins the election; Adelheid exposes Senden's scheme and buys the Union for Bolz, whom she agrees to marry. Berg reconciles with Oldendorf, allowing him to marry Ida.

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