8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Iron Chest is a melodrama. The villain is Sir Edward Mortimer, a head-keeper of the New Forest, who has been acquitted on a charge of murder some years previously. The secret of his guilt is learnt by Wilford, the hero, who is consequently hounded by Mortimer and is accused of robbery. In an old iron chest the documentary evidence of Mortimer's guilt is discovered.
The Iron Duchess is a 1957 comedy play by the British writer William Douglas Home. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Fortune Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 83 performances from the 14 March to 25 June 1957. The London cast featured Richard Pearson, Ronald Squire, Olaf Pooley, David Hutcheson, William Mervyn, Geoffrey Lumsden, Gladys Henson, Athene Seyler, Jane Downs and Rosamund Greenwood.
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.
Portuguese adventurer Armusia rescues the captured King of Tidore and claims Princess Quisara's promised hand. Their courtship is tested by rivalry, political intrigue, and religious demands as the Governor of Ternate turns the court against the Europeans; Quisara ultimately converts and marries Armusia.
A lost satirical comedy performed at the Swan Theatre in 1597 and rapidly suppressed by authorities for allegedly seditious and slanderous matter. Its surviving historical record does not establish the precise targets or plot.
A political satire models England and Scotland through Arcadian and Lacedemonian characters. Its ruler wastes public funds, keeps corrupt advisers and raises unworthy favorites, leaving the state in disorder.
The Italian Husband is a 1697 tragedy by the English writer Edward Ravenscroft. It was first staged by Thomas Betterton's company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The original cast included John Verbruggen as Frederico, Elizabeth Bowman as Alouisia, John Hodgson as Alfonso, John Thurmond as Rodrigo, Marmaduke Watson as Fidalbo and John Bowman as Haynes.
On his wedding day, Fadinard's horse eats the straw hat of a married former lover. To prevent her jealous husband from discovering her tryst, she demands an identical replacement; Fadinard's search is followed by the wedding party through Paris until his uncle produces the matching hat.
In a fictional kingdom, young King Perivale and his betrothed pass through a feared ivory door and return to find themselves branded as demons; their account that the passage is ordinary threatens the people’s cherished belief in the legend.
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.
Mrs. Oakly intercepts a letter and mistakes a family elopement for her husband’s affair, while Harriet Russet resists the coercive Lord Trinket and seeks to marry Charles Oakly. The Major helps Mr. Oakly stand up to his jealous wife as the two plots resolve in reconciliation and marriage.
A historical drama of violent rivalry in Florence during the rule of Lorenzo the Magnificent, adapted from Sem Benelli's play The Jester's Supper.
A historical comedy of violent, cruel rivalry in Renaissance Florence during the rule of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Set in seventeenth-century Scotland, Donald Campbell's play follows Catholic priest John Ogilvie, smuggled into Protestant territory, and his imprisonment and conflict with Archbishop Spottiswoode. It also examines the reactions of the soldiers guarding him.
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.
After Malta’s governor confiscates Jewish wealth to pay the Turks, merchant Barabas pursues revenge through deception and murder. His schemes shift between alliances with the Turks and Christians, until the former governor betrays him and he falls into his own trap.
A tragedy based on the love affair between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Rahel la Fermosa, a Jewish woman.
A German-language play advocating religious tolerance and expressing sympathy for Jewish people.
A Caroline historical drama about Jewish society and its defeat by the Roman forces of Vespasian and Titus, using an unusually full cast of Jewish characters rather than focusing on one or two individuals.
At Billy Jollie’s seventh birthday party, a magic trick goes wrong, making Billy 25 years older and his mother, Jilly, 25 years younger; his sister Polly is at the center of the children’s story.
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.
A theatrical pageant with music, adapted from Garrick’s Shakespeare Pageant originally planned for the 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon.
In London in 1895, Bosie persuades Oscar Wilde to sue Bosie's father, exposing Wilde to criminal prosecution; though he can flee, Bosie insists he stay. In Naples in 1897, after Wilde's imprisonment and exile, Wilde reunites with the selfish Bosie.
After the United States threatens to bombard Shimoda in 1854, Japanese officials ask geisha Okichi to serve the American consul to protect the city. Celebrated as a patriot, Okichi later faces the collapse of her marriage, public abuse, and poverty. Brecht and Wuolijoki's adaptation frames her story through interludes in which international guests discuss its political meaning.
A multimedia verbatim-theatre piece built from Judy Garland's recorded voice tapes for an autobiography she never completed. The original staging used three male performers and vintage Garland film clips as a tribute to her influence on gay audiences.
The play follows the lives of characters living in the Calais Jungle migrant camp.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, a group of Socialist Revolutionary terrorists plan to assassinate Grand Duke Sergei. Kaliayev aborts his first attempt when the Grand Duke's children are present, then carries out the assassination and faces imprisonment and execution.
A downed airman's spirit returns to his home in Lichfield, where he learns the meaning of atonement, undergoes religious conversion and enters heaven.
In an Ohio town during a hot August, teenager Charlotte stops speaking after her twin brother Jamie is killed by a reckless driver; she may have acquired a dangerous gift from his dying kiss. One performer portrays sixteen characters.
Aeschylus's lost tragedy appears to have shown Jason and the Argonauts arriving on Lemnos and undergoing initiation into the Kabeiroi mystery cult.
The Kaffir Diamond is an 1888 play. It had its New York City debut at the former Broadway Theatre on September 11, 1888. Though the audience provided "unbounded applause" on opening night, reviews of the play were negative, and it played unsuccessfully for only five weeks, concluding on October 13, 1888. The play was intended as a starring vehicle for Louis Aldrich. Edward J. Swartz, a Philadelphia newspaperman with the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph wrote the play, and David Belasco worked on revising it and assisted in getting the play staged.
An Australian melodrama about Ned Kelly and his gang defying the government. It builds toward their last stand at Glenrowan, with sensational outlaw episodes and a theatrical variety scene at the Glenrowan Hotel.
The Kentucky Cycle is a series of nine one-act plays by Robert Schenkkan that explores American mythology, particularly the mythology of the West, through the intertwined histories of three fictional families struggling over a portion of land in the Cumberland Plateau. The play won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Berenger discovers an ideal radiant city, then learns that a killer drowns people in a pool after luring them with an offer to see a picture of the colonel. After Dany is murdered, Berenger tracks down the killer and tries to dissuade him, eventually concluding that there is no hope.
The Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was later adapted into a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.
A contemporary theatre company explores the men who translated the King James Bible and the choices involved in translation.
A thinly veiled satire on contemporary royalty, the comedy was considered unlikely to be staged when it appeared.
The story is set in 1787, in Ireland, where a young woman, Una Brehony, is rescued by an aged man, Bartley Dowd, from an Anglo-Irish landlord, Caesar French, who sought her "for the first night" before she was marry her future husband, which was disturbing and frightful. Dowd, although an elderly man, is capable of fighting with the shillelagh or wooden walking stick in the process of rescuing her. The story has twist and turns as Brehony has actually used Dowd to rescue the man she actually loves, her future husband. The play brings up the issue of claims that feudal lords had Droit du seigneur or lus primae noctis (right to the first night) from serfs in medieval Europe. Dowd beings to see himself a servant of the Christian messiah, one of the men of "The King of Friday's Men". An ancient prayer in Ireland refers to Jesus as "The King of Friday" due to his death on Good Friday.
A bushranger melodrama drawing on episodes from Ben Hall’s, Frank Gardiner’s and their gangs’ careers, culminating in Hall’s death.
A court masque for Charles I at Welbeck opens with personified Passions and Affections singing, then presents a dialogue between a schoolmaster and herald followed by a quintain display. A gentleman concludes by praising the King.
While attending the theatre Charles II takes a fancy to one of the actresses, Frances Stewart, and pursues her. However, she is in love with the Duke of Richmond, leading to an awkward rejection. However, Nell Gwyn manages to resolve matters, leading to a happy ending.
The King's Speech is a 2012 play written by David Seidler and based on the 2010 Academy Award-winning film of the same name. The play was staged at the Wyndham's Theatre on London's West End and opened on 27 March 2012 and closed on 12 May 2012.
Five Irish men in their late forties or early fifties gather in a Kilburn pub for an informal wake for the sixth of their generation to die. They had emigrated to London in the early 1970s expecting to return home successful, but after decades of manual labour and drinking only one established a successful business.
The staff of a café kitchen work through a busy morning.
Amir, a well-off boy in 1970s Kabul, betrays his friend Hassan during a violent attack. Years later, settled in America, Amir is called back toward Taliban-controlled Kabul by the possibility of making amends.
On Malta, Mountferrat, a knight who has abandoned his vows, plots against Oriana after she rejects him. Forged accusations and a staged death lead to combat and attempted abduction; Miranda and Gomera expose the schemes, Oriana survives, and Mountferrat is expelled while the lovers are reunited.
A Citizen and his Wife interrupt a performance of The London Merchant and demand a chivalric play featuring their apprentice Rafe as a Grocer Errant. His comic adventures alternate with the interrupted play’s story of apprentice Jasper and Luce, who outwit her father’s preferred suitor and win permission to marry.
A sausage seller challenges the demagogue Cleon for the favor of Demos, a personification of the Athenian people. After competing in boasts, political claims, and acts of flattery, the seller wins and restores Demos to his former glory.
A man recounts the marriage that drove him into obsessive jealousy. His account of intimacy, suspicion, and a musical performance exposes the destructive beliefs beneath his claim to have been betrayed.
In 1942, Grenadine Purdy wins a pageant promoting kudzu; by 1968, the Purdy family has built a profitable business around the plant.
At a construction site for a new theatre in Delphi, laborers build the orchestra while a chorus becomes trapped in cement and Herakles rises from the site. Tony Harrison uses Herakles’s madness and the persecuted dramatist Phrynichos to confront genocide, ethnic cleansing and the limits of art in the face of the Bosnian War.
The Ladies Visiting Day is a 1701 comedy play by the English writer William Burnaby. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Thomas Betterton as Courtine, John Verbruggen as Polidore, Thomas Doggett as Sir Testy Dolt, George Pack as Ned, George Bright as Strut, John Bowman as Saunter, Francis Leigh as Sir Thrifty Gripe, Elizabeth Barry as Lady Lovetoy, Anne Bracegirdle as Fulvia, Elizabeth Bowman as Lady Dolt, Elinor Leigh as Lady Autumn, Abigail Lawson as Lady Weepwell, Elizabeth Willis as Mrs Ruffly and Mary Porter as Lettice.
In a modern hospital room, Lady Aoi lies ill as her husband Hikaru encounters the aging Mrs. Rokujo, whose unrequited love and ghostly presence torment Aoi.
Lady Marlove and her daughters navigate courtship and marriage while Lady Marlove and her son face execution for an alleged murder. A concluding death masque is dispelled by Hymen, and the supposedly dead Thurston is revealed to be alive and married to Clariana.
During a party, Jo’s terminal illness and bitterness unsettle the group of young couples. After guests leave, the mysterious Elizabeth and her companion Oscar arrive. Elizabeth claims to be Jo’s mother, though Sam knows that cannot be true; Jo accepts her, and Elizabeth and Oscar become figures of death as Jo dies.
In a provincial town, members of the Guasa Club wager on seducing Flora de Trevelez. Their cruel joke ensnares both Flora and her brother Gonzalo.
Ellida Wangel, raised by a lighthouse and drawn to the sea, is restless in her marriage to Dr. Wangel. A former sailor-lover returns to claim her, forcing her to choose between him and her husband. Wangel finally recognizes Ellida's freedom to choose; she chooses to stay, and they begin their life together again.
Ellida questions the comfortable marriage she has made with a wealthy doctor. When a former lover arrives at their secluded country home, she must decide whether to remain with her family or return to the life she abandoned.
In late-1960s Ontario, Ellida struggles with life in a new country and distance from her stepdaughters. An old friend offers comfort, but a secret from her past deepens the fears that isolate her.
A dreamy, delusional heroine clashes with her brusque, practical landlady, who wants to evict her from her apartment.
Pauline rejects Marquis Beauséant, but he persuades gardener’s son Claude Melnotte to disguise himself as a foreign prince and win her. When she discovers the deception, their marriage is annulled and Melnotte enlists to atone. Later, as Pauline’s father faces bankruptcy and Beauséant demands her hand, Melnotte returns a war hero and Pauline recognizes her love for him.
At Wanstead, a woman asks Queen Elizabeth to choose which of her daughter’s two suitors should win her hand. Foresters and shepherds stage a singing contest and debate, with the Queen ultimately judging the shepherd Espilus the winner. The one-act pastoral masque also carries allegorical references to Elizabeth’s suitors.
Lady Bornwell pursues courtly pleasures and spends her husband’s money; Sir Thomas tries to reform her by feigning interest in a young widow, but his scheme fails. The prospect of bankruptcy and a humiliating mistaken encounter shock Aretina into restraint. A parallel plot follows Celestina’s effort to reform Lord A’s misogyny, with a comic subplot around the scholar-turned-drunken Master Frederick.
Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan with tuberculosis, and Armand Duval fall in love and leave Paris for the countryside. Armand’s father persuades Marguerite to leave to protect his daughter’s marriage prospects; Armand wrongly believes she chose another man until he reaches her on her deathbed.
Miss Smith investigates a murder in a small town.
A war-weary soldier who wants to die and a woman accused of witchcraft who wants to live are caught in a medieval town's witch-hunt and a household's romantic entanglements.
The Lady's Revenge, or the Rover Reclaim'd is a 1734 comedy play by the British writer William Popple. The original Covent Garden cast included Lacy Ryan as Sir Harry Lovejoy, Thomas Walker as Heartly, Thomas Chapman as Sir Lively Brainless, Jane Rogers as Laetitia Lovejoy, Anne Hallam as Lady Traffick and Elizabeth Younger as Betty. The prologue and epilogue were written by Aaron Hill. The play was dedicated to Frederick, Prince of Wales and according to Popple this led to criticism of the work by those opposed to the government.
Five criminals posing as amateur musicians rent rooms from Mrs Wilberforce and involve her unknowingly in a robbery. When she discovers their scheme, the gang decides to silence her, turning her house into a battle between their plans and her stubborn resolve.
In Genoa, nobleman Auria leaves his low-born wife Spinella while he goes to war. When Adurni’s attempted seduction of her becomes a public scandal, a formal trial lets Spinella prove her honor. Auria rejects violent revenge, Adurni marries Spinella’s sister, and interwoven plots of disguise, reform and comic courtship end in four marriages.
Stella leaves an affair with a married man to marry the wealthy John Clayne, then discovers she truly loves her new husband. Their happiness ends when their car plunges into a garden lake and John drowns.
The Lame Lover is a 1770 comedy play by the British writer Samuel Foote. Foote wrote the play while he was recovering from the amputation of his leg, following a riding accident. The original Haymarket cast starred Foote himself as Sir Luke Limp. The cast also included Thomas Robson as Colonel Secret, Thomas Weston as Jack and Sarah Gardner as Mrs Circuit.
An anticipated Shakespeare performance gives way to an extended land acknowledgement. Cliff Cardinal uses humour, direct address, and confrontation to question reconciliation, settler comfort, and the relationship between Indigenous communities and Canadian audiences.
Across three generations, the Kincaid family rises from a railroad worker’s dubious fortune into New York society. The final generation rejects the pursuit of wealth for public service and military duty as the United States approaches war.
The Land We Live In is an 1804 comedy play by the British writer Francis Ludlow Holt. It appeared at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 29 December 1804. The cast included Dorothea Jordan as Lady Lovelace, Richard Wroughton as Sir Rowland English, William Powell as Sir Edward Melville, Robert William Elliston as Young Melville, William Barrymore as Sir Harry Lovelace, Vincent De Camp as Harcourt, John Bannister as Dexter, Ralph Wewitzer as Peter, Charles Mathews as Robert, John Henry Johnstone as Larry MacBoof, William Chatterley as Waiter, Maria Kemble as Miss Betty, Sarah Sparks as Mrs Doublecharge, Harriet Mellon as Polly, Charlotte Tidswell as Susan.
A faery child visits newlyweds Maire and Shawn Bruin in their family home and entices Maire toward an otherworld of eternal youth and joy. Maire dies in Shawn's arms as she gives herself to the faery world.
Drawing on interviews with Laramie residents, company members' journals, and news reports, the play presents community reactions to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard through short scenes in which eight actors portray more than sixty people.
During her trial, Joan of Arc reenacts key events from her life and is condemned to death. At the stake, Cauchon realizes the judges have not allowed her to relive Charles VII’s coronation; the fire is extinguished and Joan receives a reprieve, leaving the outcome open.
Joan reenacts her life during trial and faces condemnation. In Hellman's version, the play's account of the trial, execution, and reprieve presents Joan's story through multiple viewpoints and leaves the final historical outcome unresolved.
During his final confession, Cardinal Giovanni Benelli recounts engineering Albino Luciani’s election as pope, then investigating the death of Pope John Paul I. He abandons the inquiry to protect the Church and tries to become pope himself, but the conclave elects Karol Wojtyła.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot tells the story of a court case over the ultimate fate of Judas Iscariot. The play uses flashbacks to an imagined childhood and lawyers who call for the testimonies of such witnesses as Mother Teresa, Caiaphas, Saint Monica, Sigmund Freud, and Satan.
A vast grotesque drama of World War I, arranged in more than 200 scenes and partly drawn from documentary sources. It exposes the war’s absurdity through political delusion, press disinformation and public indifference.
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly loses his wealth and marriage after an investigation into his father’s fortune and his own affair with the family nanny. Left alone as the boom collapses, he looks for a way back to the life he once took for granted.
Two explorers die in the Antarctic but live on as spiritual guides to their children.
The Last Hour is a 1928 comedy thriller play by the British writer Charles Bennett. At an inn on the coast of Devon, a secret agent battles a foreign prince trying to smuggle a stolen death ray out of the country. Bennett was in his mid 20s and a working actor in Ben Greet Repertory, Paris, at the time he wrote The Last Hour, which was one of his earliest plays; it followed the unsuccessful The Return, and Blackmail (which starred Tallulah Bankhead in a 1928 production). Bennett called it "very successful". The Last Hour was a success, running for 111 performances at the Comedy Theatre in the West End between 20 December 1928 and 23 March 1929. The cast included Cyril Raymond, Lydia Sherwood, Edward O'Neill and Franklin Dyall.
In 1962 Bradleyville, Texas, seven members of the Knights of the White Magnolia, a Ku Klux Klan-like group, gather in the meeting room of the Cattleman’s Hotel.
In an Oklahoma prison death house, a condemned inmate is prepared for execution while the other prisoners watch. A rebellion follows, as inmates seize hostages and struggle to escape, ending in a bleak confrontation with the prison authorities.
The play is set in the upper class German-Jewish community living in Atlanta, Georgia in December 1939. Hitler has recently conquered Poland, Gone with the Wind is about to premiere, and Adolph Freitag (owner of the Dixie Bedding Company), his sister Boo, and sister-in-law Reba, along with nieces Lala and Sunny – a Jewish family so highly assimilated they have a Christmas tree in the front parlor – are looking forward to Ballyhoo, a lavish cotillion ball sponsored by their restrictive country club. Adolph's employee Joe Farkas is an attractive eligible bachelor and an Eastern European Jew, familiar with prejudice but unable to fathom its existence within his own religious community. His presence prompts college student Sunny to examine intra-ethnic bias, her Jewish identity (or lack thereof), and the beliefs with which she has been raised.
A realistic four-act drama about the decline and fall of a Russian middle-class family, set in the home of Kolomiytsev, the town police chief.
The Last Straw is a 1937 comedy play by the British writers Reginald Denham and Edward Percy. Its London premiere was at the Comedy Theatre in the West End, running for 52 performances between 29 September 13 November 1937. The original cast included Richard Haydn, Marius Goring, Andre Morell, Tom Gill, Arthur Hambling, Lucie Mannheim and Anna Konstam.
Katherine Parr becomes Henry VIII's sixth wife and negotiates a dangerous royal household. Her efforts to protect the children, pursue her own desires, and exercise political influence bring her into conflict with the king.
At a New England mental hospital, two visiting husbands meet: Leroy Hamilton, a working-class descendant of a founding family, and successful businessman John Frick. Their wives, Patricia and Karen, are patients and friends; through the two couples' encounters, the play explores illness, marriage, social class and the uneasy equation of success with failure.
Mrs Cheyney presents herself as a wealthy Australian widow, but she and her domestic staff are a gang of thieves targeting a valuable necklace. At a country-house party, two aristocrats pursue her; she resists blackmail and later tears up a marriage offer and incriminating letter, then chooses to marry one suitor and abandon her criminal past.
Mary Todd Lincoln's life in the seventeen years after her husband's assassination.
Mississippi shoe salesman Charlie Colton realizes that his time has passed and pathetically echoes himself; Williams is thought to have drawn on his own traveling-salesman father.
The Last of the Family is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1797 as a benefit performance for the actor John Bannister. The original cast included William Dowton as Sir John Manfred, John Bannister as Sir Adam ap Origen, Ralph Wewitzer as Squire Abel, Charles Kemble as Peregrine, Richard Suett as Beau Tiffany, Robert Palmer as Ned Flexible, Thomas Caulfield as George Ivey, John Hayman Packer as David Duncan, Jane Pope as Lady Manfred, Charlotte Tidswell as Lucy and Dorothea Jordan as Letitia Manfred.
Recovering from an operation in her decaying Devon home, Judy Haussman gathers her children, granddaughter and other visitors around her. Her attachment to the ideals of the 1960s collides with family resentments, new infatuations and the consequences of an unsettled past.
Through the eyes of Grand Duke Michael, the drama follows the Romanov family and Russia from the years before the 1917 Revolution through the family's assassination, including Nicholas II's abdication and Michael's brief succession and abdication.
(From Howard's version of the text) The story opens on a Thursday morning in a small village outside of Boston. Dr Haggett arrives home after delivering a baby and has his breakfast. He is reminded by his daughter Susan that that day is the last day that their maid, Abby, will be working for them before going to Chicago to help her recently widowed brother with his children. He then receives a telegram that an "admirer of the late Christopher Bean" will visit him that day at noon, signed by an art critic from New York named Maxwell Davenport. Putting it out of his mind, he is forced to cope with the petty quarrels of his family, including the desire of his older daughter Ada and Mrs Haggett for their traditional annual pilgrimage to Florida, a trip that seems unlikely thanks to their dwindling finances. The morning is interrupted when the village paper hanger Warren Creamer visits, showing off his recently completed paintings and offering to paint Susan and Ada. Meanwhile, Dr Haggett goes upstairs to shave, followed shortly by Mrs Haggett and Ada exiting to greet the new maid from Boston. While the family is out, Warren proclaims his love for Susan and asks her to elope with him, but is caught kissing her by Ada. Outraged, Ada calls the rest of the family back in, evoking a tidal wave of fury from Mrs Haggett, who throws Warren out of the house. Dr Haggett comforts Susan while Ada and his wife storm off, and finds himself rather unable to offer a solution to Susan's need to decide between staying and running off. He soon leads Susan upstairs so he can make his calls and so she can relax. Meanwhile, Tallant arrives at the house and is let in by Abby. His treatment of her appears friendly enough, but some of his comments rub her the wrong way. Dr Haggett comes downstairs, and Tallant begins to explain that he has come to pay off the debt to the doctor left behind by his late friend, Chris Bean. Mistaking Tallant for Davenport, the doctor shows Tallant the telegram he received that morning, which gives Tallant the idea to pose as Davenport. Tallant then pretends that Bean's work is of limited value, as the Haggetts previously believed, but requests to take the paintings away as "souvenirs." Dr Haggett readily agrees, and gives Tallant two paintings that are in questionable condition. He also asks Abby to examine the attic for any other paintings, explaining to her that Tallant is Davenport, a friend of Bean's. This statement strikes her as suspicious, but she reluctantly agrees to search. She returns empty-handed, so Tallant decides to leave with what he has, mentioning briefly that he and Dr Haggett might go into business together. Dr Haggett becomes very excited by the small debt that Tallant paid him and the prospective business, but Abby warns him to keep an eye on Tallant, whose extensive knowledge of Bean she finds disturbing. Realizing his need to fool Abby as well lest she blow his cover, Tallant quickly returns to the Haggett home in the hopes of having a private conversation with her. She confronts him about his claim to be a friend of Chris Bean's, stating that the only friend Bean ever mentioned was Bert Davis. Thinking quickly, Tallant says that he is indeed Davis, using Davenport as a professional name. Abby then lightens up, and expresses the close relationship she shared with Chris and the things about art that he taught her. Pretending to be sympathetic, Tallant gently coaxes her into revealing that she still possesses a life-size portrait of herself, painted by Chris and whose existence is unknown to the world at large. He asks that she visit him that night at the hotel he's staying at and that she bring the portrait. She shoos him away, afraid the Haggetts will find them talking, and promises to contemplate his offer to buy the portrait from her. Susan then rushes in and confesses her dilemma to Abby, followed shortly by the arrival of Warren. The three conspire to leave that afternoon, Abby to go to Chicago and Susan and Warren to elope. Warren says that they must meet at four-thirty that day in order to catch Abby's five o'clock train, then leaves. Warren's departure is followed almost immediately by the arrival of Rosen who, like Tallant, succeeds in making Abby uncomfortable with his knowledge of her and the household. He greets Dr Haggett by insisting on paying Chris Bean's debts, and asking if he could buy all of Bean's paintings for $1000. Stunned, Dr Haggett admits that he gave the paintings away to Davenport. Rosen is dissatisfied with this story, knowing Davenport to be more honest than to take any painting without paying the proper price. They go into the doctor's office to discuss this problem, while the real Davenport arrives right on time at noon. He too knows a lot about Abby, who has now reached a breaking point in light of all the suspicious visitors of that day. Davenport quickly introduces himself to Dr Haggett, who has now returned with Rosen. Rosen confirms that this is indeed the real Davenport, which frightens Dr Haggett, who has no idea now who the first man was. Davenport explains that he is there to collect information on Bean for a biography. He explains that Bean is a revered artist in New York and that his letters have been published the latest issue of the "Atlantic Monthly." Dr Haggett, finally realizing the meaning of the day's prior events, confesses that a third man simply took away the paintings of which he knew. Stressed considerably now, he requests that Davenport and Rosen return later. As Abby prepares lunch for the Haggetts, the doctor learns from his wife that she burned the other paintings left there by Bean. They also recall the portrait of Abby in her room and conspire on how to steal it, but to their dismay fail. Dr Haggett's anger and stress are exacerbated by numerous phone calls from New York requesting that he sell the Beans that he has. A confused Abby finally serves the distraught family their lunch. Act 3 opens with Davenport returning and Dr Haggett having left to investigate the whereabouts of Tallant. Susie explains to Davenport her plans to elope and asks his opinion of Warren's paintings, afraid that, if she marries him, they will run into financial trouble. She then offers to show Davenport around the village and give him details on Bean's life there. Dr Haggett finally returns, having learned Tallant's name and that he's placed the stolen paintings in a bank vault. Desperate, he, Mrs Haggett, and Ada try to fool Abby into selling them her portrait. She brings it into the living room, but still refuses to part with it. Tallant finally returns to talk to Abby, who quickly brushes him off and goes upstairs to pack. Dr Haggett now confronts Tallant, who requests that Mrs Haggett and Ada leave them alone. Tallant explains that the business he had in mind was the forgery of paintings by dead artists, and reveals that he himself is an accomplished artist and forger. Dr Haggett agrees to join Tallant's scheme, but Rosen then arrives looking to purchase real Christopher Bean works. Ditching Tallant, Dr Haggett single-handedly haggles with Rosen and sells him Abby's portrait. Meanwhile, Davenport returns to verify the authenticity of Abby's portrait and to try and deter Rosen from scamming the Haggetts. Warren arrives to help Abby pack, but Abby is distracted by the apparent sale of her painting, which Dr Haggett tries to claim she had sold to him. Her strong protests make him feel ashamed, but when she now reveals that she had saved the paintings that Mrs Haggett thought she had burned, he demands that she show them to him. Tallant, realizing his scheme to forge Chris Beans is now at an end, quickly leaves. Rosen and Davenport assess the paintings, while Abby miserably tries to say goodbye. Susie and Warren take her things out to Warren's truck, and Abby turns to go. Davenport catches her and begs her to consider loaning her portrait to an art museum, where it'll be safe and near her so she can visit it. She confesses to him that she married Christopher Bean, which quickly ends Dr Haggett's and Rosen's business dealings. Rosen, realizing that the portraits are rightfully hers and thus impossible to purchase (considering her attachment to them), gives up. Dr Haggett, realizing that Abby now has legal claim to the paintings and her portrait, gives them to her and sits miserably in his chair, with Mrs Haggett and Ada mourning their lost chances and Davenport smiling widely at Abby's triumph.
When paintings left to a modest English family by the neglected artist Christopher Bean become valuable, the family grows avaricious. The maid, Gwenny, refuses to part with the portrait she owns; her personal connection to Bean changes the family’s claims to his work.
The Haggett family faces greed and deception after the late artist Christopher Bean's paintings become valuable; the English version relocates the action to the countryside and renames two characters.
In Lancashire during the 1633 witchcraft panic, supernatural disturbances overturn social order in local households. A sisterhood of witches disrupts a wedding, bewilders and humiliates the men, and attacks a mill; after evidence implicates the wife of the skeptical Master Generous, the women are arrested and the households are restored.
A tax adviser persuades a successful writer who identifies as homosexual to marry a prostitute for financial advantage. The play follows the marriage's unexpected turn and the writer's growing absorption in corporate and tax schemes as his mental state deteriorates.
Sculptor Rene Latour and philosopher Ingrid Rydman live as brother and sister in poverty in London. Their quarrels coexist with their mutual dependence; as war begins, Rene returns to France, where an epilogue says he dies on active service.
In a Rio de Janeiro expat club, Henry Holland recounts the gold robbery that changed his life. Mistaking a visitor for a film director, the club’s patrons and staff act out the caper, turning his account of an unlikely criminal partnership into a play within the play.
William Davenant reshapes Measure for Measure by adding Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, making Angelo and Benedick brothers and introducing Beatrice’s singing, dancing younger sister Viola.
The Law of Lombardy is a 1779 tragedy by the Irish writer Robert Jephson. The original Drury Lane cast included William Smith as Paladore, Robert Bensley as King, John Hayman Packer as Rinaldo, Richard Hurst as Asciano, James Wrighten as Forester, John Henderson as Bireno, Mary Robinson as Alinda and Elizabeth Younge as Princess. It was dedicated by Jephson to George III.
A nonlinear, multimedia fantasia juxtaposes police reports on Jeffrey Dahmer’s murders with a fictionalized killer to confront violence and governmental indifference to the AIDS crisis. Sound and live and electronic imagery create an intentionally shocking, physically visceral experience.
The play tells the story of Margaret, a woman whose poor financial circumstances force her to marry Robert Harding in order to save her family from ruin. Harding is physically and verbally abusive towards her. She endures, but finds escape through an extramarital affair with the young man Geoffrey who is kind to her. Margaret becomes pregnant, but it is Geoffrey who is the father and not Robert. Initially, Robert believes Bennie is his son but five years after his birth he learns the truth. Robert attacks Bennie with a whip and Margaret intervenes to protect her son, killing her husband with a revolver. The Harding household rallies around Margaret to conceal the crime, with Chetwood the Butler and Arthur Brockland, Robert Harding's secretary, devising a scheme to make the death look like a suicide. Inspector Cochrane, Doctor Whittridge, and three policemen investigate the death and uncover truth that Margaret killed her husband and the suicide was faked. She is initially charged with murder with Geoffrey also accused as her accomplice. Ultimately Margaret is successful in convincing the police that she killed her husband in an act of self defense and the charges are dropped.
In fictional Candy, a law punishes ingratitude and another lets victorious soldiers choose the most deserving. After Cassilanes's son Antinous wins the soldiers' acclaim, their conflict over recognition and money becomes entangled with Venetian lord Gonzalo's bid for power and the loves of Erota, Antinous and their suitors.
Political opportunist Stensgaard poses as an idealist and builds a youth party to displace the old guard. His election ambitions collapse amid social and romantic intrigue, and the town drives him out.
The Leather Patch is an 1886 comedic play by Edward Harrigan with songs by David Braham. It debuted at Harrigan's Park Theatre in New York City on February 15, 1886, and ran through May.
A Druid Theatre bill joining Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara and The Lonesome West, with audiences able to see all three plays in a single day. The collective record describes the shared theatrical presentation and does not combine the plays' separate plots.
Casey, a struggling Elvis impersonator in a small-town Florida bar, loses his job just as his wife becomes pregnant. When the owner replaces his act with a drag show, Casey learns to perform as a drag queen and finds a new path in show business.
At a dinner party Leonora is presented as a chameleon who embodies seven women. The comic court proceeding that follows concerns a man she pushed from a train after he refused to close a window for her sick daughter; she is ultimately acquitted.
Across three acts, the play follows three immigrant brothers from their arrival in America and founding of a business in Alabama through the growth of Lehman Brothers and its 2008 bankruptcy, using a small ensemble to portray multiple generations and other figures.
During an increasingly nonsensical lesson in a French flat, the Professor becomes angry at his Pupil’s perceived ignorance as she grows quiet and ill; he eventually stabs her, and the Maid greets a new Pupil, repeating the cycle.
On a Malayan plantation, Leslie Crosbie claims she shot her husband’s friend in self-defence. Her lawyer tries to secure her acquittal after an incriminating letter is discovered, but the play reveals the victim was Leslie’s lover and that he had rejected her for another woman.
Two merchants fear their young wives will take lovers and send threatening letters in an attempt to keep them faithful. The wives' affairs with officer Rakel lead to hiding places, elaborate deceptions and eventual discovery.
In Paris, Dorante’s false stories about travel, romance and marriage entangle Clarice, Lucrece, his father Géronte and his friend Alcippe. Mistaken identities and escalating fabrications provoke jealousy and a duel before Dorante finally confesses and the situation resolves happily.
Lelio returns to Venice and courts Beatrice and Rosaura without revealing which he loves. His invented claims keep Rosaura from Florindo, while his servant Arlecchino pursues Columbina; Lelio's deceptions unravel when it is revealed that he has already married a Roman woman.
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