8284 shows
Clear filtersA wayward nun leaves her convent with a knight after being influenced by an evil minstrel. A living statue takes her place as she faces hardship and an accusation of witchcraft; the nun eventually returns with her dying infant and is forgiven.
In Tuscumbia, Alabama, an illness renders infant Helen Keller blind, deaf, and consequently mute (deaf-mute). Pitied and badly spoiled by her parents, Helen is taught no discipline and, by the age of six, grows into a wild, angry, tantrum-throwing child in control of the household. Desperate, the Kellers hire Annie Sullivan to serve as governess and teacher for their daughter. After several fierce battles with Helen, Annie convinces the Kellers that she needs two weeks alone with Helen in order to achieve any progress in the girl's education. In this time, Annie teaches Helen discipline through persistence and consistency, and language through hand signals, a double breakthrough that changes Helen's life and has a direct effect on the lives of everyone in the family.
Burns Mantle summarized the plot as follows in his 1920-21 Best Plays annual: "Irene Martin of Erie, Pa., comes to New York in search of work and a broader life. Falling in with the wrong crowd, she gives up the fight to be respectable and for seven years permits a traction magnate to maintain an apartment for her and help her care for the folks at home. By putting a Mrs. before her name she first convinces her family she is married, and later writes them she is a widow. Her Erie sweetheart, having got on in the world, comes to New York to get her. By this time she is tired of the life she is living and eager to return to Erie and respectability, but her sweetheart finds her out. She convinces him, however, that her reformation is complete and he is willing to overlook her past, but her traction magnate succeeds in planting a doubt in her mind that she will ever be able to stand Erie and its group after the magnificence and freedom she has been used to in New York. So she sends the Erie boy home to wait until she feels she is worthy to come to him." In response to those questioning the plausibility of the plot, Selwyn said it was based on "not at all uncommon" situations in New York.
The Mirror and the Light is a play by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles based on Mantel's 2020 book of the same name. It is the third part to Wolf Hall Parts One & Two which is a double-bill play based on Mantel's novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.
Alceste condemns the social hypocrisy around him yet loves Célimène, whose flirtatious conduct embodies the courtly manners he rejects. After she is revealed to have written similar love letters to several suitors, he asks her to leave society with him; she refuses, and he chooses exile.
Harpagon’s obsession with his hidden gold drives him to arrange marriages for his children while courting Mariane, who loves his son Cléante. When his cash box is stolen, the family’s competing romances and a mistaken confession lead to the discovery of long-lost relatives; Harpagon’s main concern remains recovering his money.
The Miser is a 1733 comedy play by the British writer Henry Fielding. It is an English-language adaptation of Molière's The Miser. It was a success, running for twenty five performances by May 1733. The original Drury Lane cast included Benjamin Griffin as Lovegold, Roger Bridgewater as Frederick, William Mills as Clerimont, Theophilus Cibber Ramilie, James Oates as Decoy, Edward Berry as Sparke and Christiana Horton as Mariana.
A fictionalized drama based on Walter Calverley's forced marriage traces the protagonist's descent into debauchery, ending before the murders Calverley committed in 1605.
The Misery of Civil War is a 1680 tragedy by the English writer John Crowne. It was originally staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. The play was staged at the height of the Popish Plot, something Crowne addressed in his prologue. Although he states that "by his feeble skill 'tis built alone, The Divine Shakespeare did not lay one Stone" the plot in fact drew heavily on Henry VI, Part 2 and Part 3 The original cast included Joseph Williams as Henry VI of England, William Smith as Edward, John Bowman as Duke of Clarence, Thomas Gillow as Richard, Thomas Betterton as Earl of Warwick, Thomas Percival as Old Lord Clifford, John Wiltshire as Young Clifford, Mary Lee as Queen Margaret, Mary Betterton as Lady Grey and Elizabeth Currer as Lady Eleanor Butler.
Hughes's Senecan tragedy recounts Mordred's treachery and King Arthur's death through offstage action related by a chorus and messenger. Gorlois's ghost opens the play, and the dramatic method draws heavily on Seneca.
As they had done in The Ghost Breaker, the playwrights inserted a number of silent tableau after each act, where the curtain would open on a slightly changed scene, without any dialogue. The instructions for these are omitted here. Act I (The country home of John Cannell on the upper Hudson River. Just before 10pm.) Amy, Grace, Jane, and Helen insist Parker keeps his side of their wager; Helen has spent five days enticing Jack into proposing. Offstage, Mrs. Cannell is singing and playing a piano. When Stephen dances in they scold him: he was supposed to keep Mrs. Cannell occupied. Shortly before 10pm, Helen sits while the others hide. Jack appears to ask Helen for her answer. She feigns confusion; he confesses his feelings. But Babe and Spider interrupt by knocking at the French doors. The tipsy duo are lost; Jack sets them straight, but is also asked by Babe whether any islands are for sale? They depart, and impatient Jack presses Helen, saying he loves her. He proposes and the others suddenly appear, the girls exclaiming Helen won the wager. Jack learns that Helen wanted a part in Parker's new play. He will now cast her as she has proven her male-luring skill. Outwardly, Jack maintains a cool demeanor. Their host, John W. Connell arrives with Helen's fiancé, Henry Tracey, who becomes upset at hearing what happened. Stephen exacerbates the situation by claiming everyone proposes to Helen. Uninvited reporter Keen Fitzpatrick, who has been covering a strike at Tracey's coal fields, adds to the confusion. The Connells apologize to Jack as he prepares to leave in his car. Helen asks everyone to wait while she speaks to him. They quarrel, and she suggests he should put a woman under a bell-jar and study her carefully, to repair his ignorance. Jack throws his overcoat over Helen's head and drags her away. Everyone is confused, having heard Helen's screams and the sound of Jack's car driving away. Tracey runs for his own car. Keen telephones in the story then drags Stephen out to pursue the couple. (Curtain) Act II (Jack's bungalow, "Eagle Lodge", in the Adirondacks, that night.) The society scene is followed by a two-person duel, between Helen and Jack. They tussle as he tries to wash her face and hands. The lodge has a telephone, with which Helen tries to summon help. Jack justifies kidnapping her by saying she committed larceny. She obtained property under false pretenses, by taking his heart. When she smashes a window with a chair, he unchains Bobbie and fastens the collar around Helen's ankle. Their verbal sparring is interrupted by Boney peeking in from a trap door in the ceiling. He is a harmless crank, suffering from a delusion he is Napoleon. Jack locks him in the upstairs bedroom then phones Sunny Vale to come get their ward. But while on the phone Keen cuts in on the party line to warn Jack of Tracey coming with a gun. When a motor car is heard approaching, Helen urges Jack to flee before Tracey comes. Jack locks her in a cabinet, only to find the visitors are Babe and Spider, going around in circles, and still looking for an island for Babe's uncle. Sending them off, Jack releases Helen from the cabinet. He claims she loves him, because she tried to get him to leave before Tracey arrived. He kisses her, but when Jack turns his back, Helen hits his head with the telephone. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act II, a few hours later.) Jack enters the bungalow, his head bandaged with Helen's scarf. He reads a note she left on the door. He has Bobbie sniff her slipper then he and the dog set out to find her. Boney peeks through the trap door, and uses a fishing pole to retrieve the keys from the table. He is then heard unlocking the upstairs bedroom door. He comes downstairs, and spends some time trying to tie a rope to two different door knobs. It's too short, so he cuts it in two and tries again. He hides when Keen arrives. Keen hangs up the off-hook phone, only to find Boney has joined him. Assuming he is Jack, Keen tries to question him, but gets nowhere. Keen then places a call to his newspaper. Suddenly the sound of men singing La Marseillaise is heard outside. Tim and Bill enter the bungalow, saluting Boney. Confused, Keen hangs up. Jack now reappears. Tim tells Keen and Jack about Boney's mania, and how his college-age nephew inherited a fortune on the provision he buy his uncle an island for his "St. Helena". Jack asks Keen and the two orderlies to go into the bedroom so he can question Boney about Helen. He learns nothing and goes outside. Boney then ties the bedroom door knob to the nearby gun rack, trapping the three men inside. Stephen enters to behold Boney, who turns off the only lamp. Stephen yells for help, Bony disappears. Freed from the bedroom, Tim and Bill march off singing to attract Boney, while Keen and Stephen search for Helen. Tracey surprises Jack at gunpoint. He claims Helen is his wife, and accuses Jack of being a philanderer. Jack guesses he is lying and that Tracey thinks Helen is in earshot. Jack disarms Tracey, who also leaves to look for Helen. Tim and Bill return and take Boney away. Helen stumbles in, led by Bobbie, and is comforted by Jack. Stephen rushes in, but is rebuffed by Helen saying "I don't want to be rescued". (Curtain)
In Brookhaven, Mississippi, Carnelle Scott enters the Fourth of July Miss Firecracker pageant to escape her tarnished reputation and prove she is worthy of acceptance. Her cousins Elain and Delmount, shy seamstress Popeye, and former lover Mac Sam complicate the contest and her efforts to remake herself. Carnelle loses the pageant but finds support in her family and Popeye as they watch the fireworks.
At a mining homestead, overseer Barry Graham lets Alma Carleton's mother believe he saved Alma, then steals her jewels and frames the mysterious 'Unknown.' Graham later robs a coach in the Unknown's disguise; a swagman called Old Mat eventually clears up the mystery.
A three-hour pageant portrays the history of the California missions and was staged across from the San Gabriel Mission.
Müller constructs a collage-like drama of revolutionary action across historical periods, interweaving theatrical scenes with lyric and narrative passages. A dreamlike, first-person sequence follows a man awaiting a mission from a powerful “No. 1,” drawing on Müller’s memory of visiting Erich Honecker in a guarded political building.
After Manley flees England before consummating his marriage, the scheming Hazard impersonates him and wins his father-in-law’s confidence, then robs the household and plans to flee with Manley’s wife. The real Manley returns, and an unexpected family revelation resolves the marriage and inheritance conflict.
The Mistakes is a 1690 tragicomedy by the English writer Joseph Harris. It was originally staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane by the United Company. The original Drury Lane cast included John Hodgson as Don Juan de Mendoza, George Powell as Alberto, John Verbruggen as Antonio, William Mountfort as Ricardo, William Bowen as Lopez, Anne Bracegirdle as Miranda and Charlotte Butler as Astella. The prologue was written by John Dryden. An afterword was written by Nahum Tate, and the work is dedicated to the court painter Godfrey Kneller.
Based on a real couple’s arrangement, the woman, known as She, agrees to provide mistress services to the man, known as He, in return for income and a home.
A cardiologist's wife receives two unexpected visitors at home on the same afternoon: her husband's mistress and a social worker vetting her for adoption.
At her Florence inn, Mirandolina is courted by an impoverished marquis and a newly rich count, both of whom believe they can win her. When the misogynistic knight Ripafratta arrives, she sets out to make him fall in love, but her scheme risks turning the suitors against one another before she chooses the inn's servant Fabrizio.
Jan returns from abroad to his family’s boarding house but registers under a false name, hoping to observe his mother and sister before revealing himself. They murder wealthy lodgers, and after they drug and drown Jan for his money, his identity comes to light. His mother takes her own life, leaving his sister in despair; Jan’s wife Maria seeks help from the taciturn Old Man, who refuses.
Woodcutter Gregory is pushed by his wife into impersonating a French doctor to treat Charlotte, who feigns muteness to avoid her father's forced marriage and marry Leander. Gregory's disguise also entangles him in pursuit of his own wife.
Duffet's Mock Tempest is set not in any exotic location, but securely in the London familiar to its audience, specifically the lower reaches of contemporaneous London society. The storm that opens the play, in both the Shakespeare and Dryden–Davenant versions, is replaced in Duffet's by a riot in a brothel. Mother Stephania, a bawd, leads her cohort of pimps, prostitutes, and aristocratic customers in a valiant but vain effort to drive off an assault from the town's apprentices. The local watch carries off all the participants to Bridewell prison (the "enchanted castle"); there, the jailkeeper Prospero Whiffe reveals that the raid on the brothel was inspired by his ethereal spirit Ariel, a pickpocket. The parody goes on to mangle the romances of Prospero's two daughters (called Dorinda and Miranda, in Dryden and Davenant's adaptation). Dryden and Davenant made Miranda and Dorinda ignorant of the opposite sex; Duffet's "Dorinda and Miranda" are very familiar with men, but get confused by the concept of a "husband": Dorinda: Husband, what's that? Miranda: Why that's a thing like a man (for aught I know) with a great pair of horns upon his head, and my father said 'twas made for women, look ye. Dorinda: What, must we ride to water upon't, sister? Miranda: No, no, it must be our slave, and give us golden clothes, pray, that other men may lie with us in a civil way, and then it must father our children and keep them. Dorinda: And when we are so old and ugly that nobody else will lie with us, must it lie with us itself? Miranda: Aye, that it must, sister. Along the way, Duffet mocks Davenant's musical adaptation of Macbeth, staged in 1664 but first printed in 1674. (Duffet also ridicules Davenent's Macbeth in his Epilogue to his burlesque of Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco, another work of 1674.) The Duke of Mantua has a son who is a member of the Religious Society of Friends, satirically named "Quakero." The play is wide in scope, touching on "drunkenness, violence, mutilation, cannibalism; of pimping, prostitution, adultery, incest; of hypocrisy, cowardice, torture, execution; of urine, vermin, venereal disease; of deviance, dissolution, and death". The last act of Duffet's play features a parody of Ariel's song "Where the bee sucks, there suck I" from the final scene of The Tempest. Duffet's version is "Where good ale is, there suck I". The parody version was sung by Betty Mackerel, an orange vender who was promoted to the stage. The Mock Tempest may have been revived in 1682.
A historical drama about John Christie founding Glyndebourne Opera and his romance and marriage with soprano Audrey Mildmay.
Mr. Modern sells his wife for money, then sues Lord Richly for adultery damages when the payment proves insufficient; the attempted suit is undermined by testimony that he himself arranged the transaction. The play follows the Bellamant family’s parallel affairs and marriages while criticizing the law that allowed husbands to claim damages for a wife’s adultery.
The Modish Couple is a 1732 comedy play by the British writer James Miller, under the pen name Charles Boaden. A virtuous wife reforms her rakish husband. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Lord Modely, John Mills as Claremont, Colley Cibber as Grinly, John Harper as Sir Lubbardly Block, Theophilus Cibber as Squire Chip, Mary Heron as Lady Modely and Jane Cibber as Clarissa. The epilogue was written by Henry Fielding.
The Modish Husband is a 1702 comedy play by the English writer William Burnaby. It is in the Restoration-style comedy of manners. Staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London, the cast included Robert Wilks as Lionel, Colley Cibber as Lord Promise, Anne Oldfield as Camilla, Susanna Verbruggen as Lady Cringe, Jane Rogers as Lady Promise, William Bullock as Harry and William Pinkethman as Will Fanlove.
Act One The play opens with the anonymous Prime Minister, his Foreign Minister and General inside the cabinet office, their country on the verge of defeat as they wait for the Victor to arrive to accept their surrender. When the Victor arrives, instead of surrendering to him, they negotiate a deal to form a puppet government, where both the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister remain in power. To give legitimacy to this new government, the Prime Minister and his co-conspirators use a highly revered military hero, the retired Marshal, as the dictator of the country behind which they hide and use him as a puppet. Act Two Four years later, the General overthrows the Marshal and his puppet government, eventually liberating the Republic from foreign rule. Following a brief trial, the Marshal is sent to a remote prison. His daughter (The Girl), a Nurse and a Photographer stand by him.
In a fictional Hunnic empire, Archug Khan struggles to preserve the state from unworthy leadership. The verse tragedy places personal ambition against the obligations of rule and the survival of a nomadic state.
At a Beverly Hills elementary school, teacher Michael Dori embarrasses Kai, a ten-year-old student with a learning disability, over multiplication tables. When Kai brings an old, inoperable Civil War gun to school, Dori and the boy disagree over his motive; the principal and Kai’s adoptive parents must address the incident amid conflicts over race, schooling and parental involvement.
Coelio seeks to win Marianne's love through his friend Octave, who acts as a go-between in the courtship.
The young and imaginative Valentin is a supervisor at a private school. Although he is in love with the secretary Sylvie, he is still in the midst of a miserable, joyless human world. Egoism and malice, greed and avarice, lust for pleasure and uncontrolled instinct, mendacity and jealousy characterize the life of the directorate family related to him; Chabert and Valentin themselves are haplessly married, their marriages a pointless formality: parents and children are at war; Old Chabert suffers from the agony of work, his daughter Elisa from her ugliness, his sons-in-law are professional wretches who only know how to bring forth an excess of unwanted children, while his wife leads her unfulfilled life through the luxury of flashy hats and more amorous ones Seeks to enhance escapades. Poverty and quarrels in the school management's family are unpleasantly punctuated by the rebelliousness, stupidity and instinctiveness of the students, by the cruelty and dissolute lifestyle of their parents. In view of this overall less than human existence, Valentin decides to transform humanity all around into birds, which he typically calls a "spiritual operation", i.e. no magic, no trick game. In this way, on the spur of the moment and without much fuss, Valentin enchants everyone who "embarrasses him (!)", As he calls it. The lustful math teacher Bobignot, the lewd and untalented students Duperrier and Arbelin, the arrest-mad and "rough" inspectors Malfrin and Grindet, the sadistic Papa Périsson, the humorless bureaucratic representatives of the school authorities and finally almost everyone around him. The transformed, however, by no means turn out to be cast out and subject to an evil curse, but rather as liberated and happy. After all, the moonbirds, which become humans again at the new moon, testify to the higher moral quality of their bird existence, because they have finally gained an eye for the essentials.
After meeting architect Don Gresham atop the Empire State Building, Patty O’Neill goes to his apartment and offers to make dinner. The evening grows complicated when Don’s neighbor becomes interested in her and her suspicious father arrives, forcing everyone to confront their assumptions about her intentions.
The Moonraker is a historical play by the British writer Arthur Watkyn. It premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre and in June 1952 had a brief run at the Saville Theatre in London's West End. The cast included Jean Kent, Griffith Jones, Henry Oscar, Paul Whitsun-Jones, William Moore and Julian Somers. It was directed by Terence De Marney.
Landlady Aniela Dulska tolerates her son Zbyszko's affair with their maid Hanka until Hanka becomes pregnant and he proposes marriage; fearing scandal and damage to the family's standing, Dulska pays Hanka to leave, while her daughters reveal sharply different responses to the family's double standards.
The Morning Ramble also known as The Mourning Ramble; Or, The Town-humours is a 1672 comedy play by the English writer Henry Nevil Payne. It was staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre with a cast that included Thomas Betterton as Townlove, Henry Harris as Merry, William Smith as Ruffle, Matthew Medbourne as Muchland, John Crosby as Rash, Cave Underhill as Fullam, Henry Norris as Breef, Jane Long as Betty Rash, Margaret Osborne as Lady Turnup and Anne Shadwell as Rose.
The Morning Star is a 1941 play by the British actor and writer Emlyn Williams. It portrayed life in wartime London during The Blitz and featured the simulation of an air raid. It take place in a drawing room of a house in Chelsea. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool before transferring to the Globe Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 475 performances between 10 December 1941 and 12 December 1942. The London cast included Williams, Frederick Lloyd, Roddy Hughes, Gladys Henson, Elliott Mason, Angela Baddeley, Ambrosine Phillpotts and Betty Ann Davies. In 1942 it appeared at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. The Broadway version starred Gregory Peck alongside Gladys Cooper, Jill Esmond, Wendy Barrie and Rhys Williams.
The Mortimer Touch is a comedy play by the British writer Eric Linklater. It was developed out of an earlier work of his The Atom Doctor which appeared at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival and drew inspiration from Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End where it ran for 45 performances between 30 April and 7 June 1952. The original West End cast included Mervyn Johns, Roger Livesey, Richard Pearson, George Relph, William Mervyn, Harry Towb, Vincent Holman, Mona Washbourne, Pamela Brown, Esma Cannon, Glen Alyn and Molly Urquhart. It was published the same year by Samuel French.
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is a metaphysical/existentialist comedy written in 1998 by Paul Rudnick.
A three-act play developed from Clyde Fitch’s one-act The Harvest, whose wedding-day revelation that the bridegroom fathered a child with another woman became the new play’s second act.
Pelagea Vlassova, mother of a revolutionary, undertakes a difficult path toward political and personal liberation. She confronts illiteracy, illness, her son's death, and material hardship, and comes to understand that improving family life requires collective struggle.
In a family living room, Dolores speaks with her dead husband and sons as each explains the wartime or other cause of his death. When her last surviving son wants to leave, she resists until a radio report of an attack on a school leads her to give him a weapon.
A lonely mother’s sense of identity unravels as her children leave home and her husband grows distant, forcing her to confront maternal obsession and the loss of a role in family life.
The Mother-in-Law is a 1734 comedy play by the British writer James Miller. Also known by the longer title The Mother-in-Law, or the Doctor the Disease it debuted at the Haymarket Theatre in London. The original Haymarket cast included Benjamin Griffin as Sir Credulous Hippish, John Mills as Heartwell, William Mills as Beaumont, Benjamin Johnson as Doctor Mummy, Joe Miller as Doctor Discordiam, Theophilus Cibber as Looby Headpiece, John Harper as Galleypot, James Oates as Poet, Hannah Pritchard as Belina and Mary Heron as Primrose.
Jackie is a former drug dealer who has just been released from prison to join the American workforce. His girlfriend Veronica, however, still uses cocaine and other drugs. The play begins with an intense and comic phone conversation between Veronica and her mother, who's also an addict. Jackie arrives shortly thereafter. Just as Jackie and Veronica are jumping into bed, he sees a hat in her apartment. Realizing it is not his, he accuses her of cheating, going to his drug and parole counselor, Ralph D., for help. Meanwhile, Ralph's wife, Victoria, has "had it up to here with his helium." Jackie obtains a gun. Ralph insists that he not keep it, so he gives it to his cousin Julio for safekeeping. Jackie reveals that he had slept with his previous Alcoholics Anonymous counselor, which may be part of the reason Veronica mistrusts him. Later, Veronica is entertaining a lover, which is revealed to be Ralph. They had slept together a handful of times while Jackie was in prison. Meanwhile, Jackie gets the gun back and returns the hat to a man in their building who he thinks is its owner. He then throws it on the floor and shoots it. Jackie talks about this with Victoria, who is tired of Ralph's cheating and begs Jackie to sleep with her. She reveals to him that Veronica and Ralph have slept together—Ralph was really "the motherfucker with the hat." Jackie shows up at Veronica's apartment drunk, hurt because they have been in love since high school. When he gets loud, she hits him with a bat. Julio takes Jackie in. He reveals that he is grateful because, years ago, Jackie showed unexpected kindness to him. Jackie wants to confront Ralph, and Julio is willing to cover his back, claiming to be a "Van Damme". Jackie goes to Ralph's. The two men try to fight it out but end up futilely wrestling on the floor. Ralph admits he slept with Veronica and explains that she will never love him until she chooses to sober up. In spite of everything, he would like to be friends with Jackie. Jackie refuses to accept his friendship and returns to the apartment to pick up his things. He has broken parole by shooting the gun and is heading off to prison for a short stint. He tries to tell Veronica he loves her, but she runs out of the room, unwilling to listen. He leaves. A few moments later, Veronica comes out of hiding and calls his name.
The play revolves around the dynamic and tense relationship between a young, enthusiastic Richard Burton and an aging John Gielgud during the 1964 modern-dress Broadway production of Hamlet.
A verse drama set in 18th-century Montenegro, framed around Metropolitan Danilo's struggle amid conflict between Montenegrin tribes and Ottoman power. Through dialogues, monologues and epic scenes of communal life, it explores freedom, political identity and religious conflict. Its representation of the alleged persecution and killing of converts to Islam has remained deeply contested.
The Mountaintop begins with Martin Luther King Jr. returning to the Lorraine Motel after his sermon, I've Been To The Mountaintop. King sends his friend to fetch him cigarettes, ultimately leaving him alone in Room 306 as a storm rages outside. Ordering room service, King comes into contact with Camae (Carrie Mae), the mysterious and beautiful maid who strikes King's attention immediately. The beginning interactions between the two are filled with flirtation and humor but through the night it slowly progresses to something much deeper. King and Camae begin to discuss the hopes and fears that Martin Luther King Jr. has been feeling, forming a connection and understanding between the two. The conversation focuses on the fight for civil rights and reaches the climax when Camae reveals her true intentions for walking into King's motel room that night. Camae is an angel sent by God to collect King and bring him to heaven; Camae reveals that King will die tomorrow, April 4, by being assassinated. Forced to confront his fears, King tries to bargain and plead with Camae to give him more time, explaining that he needs to continue his work in the civil rights movement before he can go. Camae, with a great sense of sadness, reasons with King, describing how the "baton", a reference of the ever passing responsibility for the civil rights cause, will continue to be passed on even when he is gone. King still denying his future forces Camae to call God with the hopes that he can convince God to give him more time. However, the call ends with King understanding his fate is set in stone and that his death is arriving shortly. With this realization King makes one last wish, to see his legacy and how it will affect the future to come. In the last minutes, King has a vision filled with significant names that grab the "baton" to continue the fight for civil rights, events that further the cause, as well as accomplishments that have been made in the future. Martin Luther King Jr. finishes his vision with a monologue to motivate people to continue the fight for civil rights in the hope that one day we will reach the Promised Land on Earth, ending the play with him handing on the baton to whoever is willing to take it next. The Mountaintop is full of symbols that a multitude of readers skip over thinking they are "extra details" included in the play. These symbols help further develop the themes throughout the play, as well as give a hidden meaning to some of the most simplistic things. Katori Hall explains that she has created the image of Martin Luther King Jr. with "warts and all". This can be seen in her description of his "smelly feet", socks with holes in them, a sense of being vain as he debated whether he should shave his mustache or not, and his flirtatiousness and infidelities with other women despite being married. This representation of King is made to challenge readers to see Martin Luther King Jr. as more of an average human instead of placing him on top of a pedestal. Immediately, Hall received backlash from readers and the Black community, but she did not back down stating, "A warts-and-all portrayal of Dr. King is important because there's this extraordinary human being who is actually quite ordinary. I feel as though by portraying him with his flaws and foibles, we, too, can see—as human beings who have these flaws—that we, too, can be Kings; we, too, can carry on that baton that he has passed down to us."
Almeria, daughter of Granada’s King Manuel, and Alphonso, son of his enemy, are secretly married. Separated by a shipwreck, Almeria believes Alphonso dead; he returns disguised as Osmyn, while Queen Zara falls in love with him. He ultimately escapes the rulers’ dangers and reunites with Almeria, and they become the kingdom’s rulers.
The play is set in the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor, Berkshire, in what Christie described as "the present". Monkswell Manor is a recently converted guesthouse run by a young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston. Mollie listens to a radio report about the murder of a woman named Maureen Lyon in Paddington, London; police are looking for a man in a dark overcoat. Their first four guests arrive: Christopher Wren, Mrs Boyle, Major Metcalf, and Miss Casewell. Christopher is an unkempt, flighty young man; Mrs Boyle is a constant complainer; Metcalf is an amiable ex-military man; and Miss Casewell is a mannish young woman. An unexpected fifth guest, Mr Paravicini, says his car has overturned in a snowdrift and the denizens of the house are snowed in. Uneasy, Mollie nevertheless places Paravicini in the last remaining room. The next afternoon, Sergeant Trotter of the Berkshire Police arrives at the guesthouse on skis, while Metcalf discovers that the phone has stopped working. Trotter explains he has been sent regarding the murder of Maureen Lyon. The dead woman and her husband had mistreated their three foster children, the Corrigans, which resulted in the youngest's death. Police suspect the killer is the elder Corrigan boy, who would now be twenty-two. A notebook at the murder scene contained the address of Monkswell Manor and the words "Three Blind Mice", while a note reading "This is the First" was pinned to the woman's body. Giles, Mollie, and all five guests deny a connection to the case. Afterward, Metcalf confronts Mrs Boyle, revealing that she was one of the magistrates who had assigned the children to the foster parents. Later in the evening, Mrs Boyle wanders back into the now-empty room. The opening notes of "Three Blind Mice" are heard whistled by an unknown party and the lights go out. Moments later, Mollie finds Mrs Boyle dead on the floor. Sergeant Trotter takes charge of the household, gathering the remaining residents together. Mollie cannot provide him with any useful clues. As each person recounts their whereabouts, Trotter observes various weaknesses in their stories, declaring that everyone had the opportunity to commit the murder. Giles counters that only one person fits the suspect's description: Christopher Wren, who insists that it is all a frame-up. Trotter adds that the dead boy had other relatives and loved ones who might be interested in revenge, meaning that anyone in the guesthouse could be the killer. He also notes that both Giles and Mollie had secretly been in London on the day of the first murder. Trotter forces the aghast Mollie to admit that the couple knows little about each other's pasts. Christopher Wren later confesses to Mollie that he is actually an army deserter under a false name, and Mollie acknowledges that she, too, is running away from her past. Again calling the household together, Trotter declares that he intends to check everyone's alibis. They will re-enact the murder; each person will act out another's alibi, with the hope that one alibi will be proved impossible. The household obediently disperses, leaving Trotter alone onstage. Trotter calls for Mollie and reveals he knows she was the schoolteacher of the Corrigan children. She failed to answer a letter the younger boy sent her, begging to be rescued from foster care. Due to illness, Mollie did not read the letter until after the boy's death; she is haunted by her failure to help. Trotter points a gun at Mollie, telling her that he is not a real policeman and that he cut the house's telephone wires. He is actually Georgie, the elder Corrigan brother. He begins to strangle Mollie, but is stopped by the sudden appearance of Miss Casewell. She calls him by name and reveals that she is his long-lost sister Kathy, come to take him somewhere safe. Metcalf discloses that he himself is an undercover policeman; he arranged to replace the real Metcalf at the guesthouse to investigate and hid Trotter's skis after growing suspicious, preventing Trotter from escaping. Giles and Mollie admit that they were both secretly in London buying presents, as today is their first wedding anniversary.
The Mouthpiece is a 1930 crime play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It was one of several theatrical failures written by Wallace following the enormous success of On the Spot, with a plot described as "flimsy". It ran for twelve performances at Wyndham's Theatre in the West End. The cast included Emlyn Williams, Douglas Payne, Mabel Terry-Lewis and Margaret Bannerman. In 1935 it was posthumously novelised by Robert Curtis. A gang of criminals discover that a young woman is unaware that she is about to inherit a fortune, and scheme to marry one of their members to her to get their hands on the money.
The Moving Finger is a 1928 play by the British writer and barrister Patrick Hastings. It is a murder mystery. It ran in the West End for 30 performances at the Garrick Theatre. The cast included Sebastian Shaw, George Curzon, Ernest Milton and Lilian Braithwaite. It was produced by Basil Dean.
A split-plot Restoration tragicomedy interweaves a heroic romance, a witty couple’s pursuit of an independent marriage, and satire of Puritans, gallants and a lecherous old man. After obstacles impede the aristocratic lovers Althea and Eugenio and Diana and Philander, a deus ex machina brings their marriages about; Olivia and Wildish’s more independent union anchors the middle plot.
At Bondi Beach, bookmaker family members Joe and Ben Donnelly both desire Joe’s new wife, Kate. Joe’s business spending and sexual difficulties strain his marriage, while Ben’s attraction to Kate leads the brothers into conflict.
In an English public house, Tom vows revenge for his murdered brother while his friend Bill grows uneasy. A stranger draws a confession from Bill, confronting Tom with his companion’s guilt.
After an investment scandal leaves a politician nervously oversensitive, his doctor hires a celebrated pianist to soothe him. Her music sends him through alternating distress and exhilaration until he falls in love with her domineering style.
Once-renowned conductor Anton von Barwig is impoverished in New York and searches for his lost wife and daughter. When his daughter comes to him for music lessons without knowing who he is, he must confront the man who raised her while protecting her happiness.
The play takes place in a mansion in Chappaqua, New York in December 1940, specifically, the library. The mansion is owned by Elsa Von Grossenknueten, who is there with her maid, Helsa Wenzel. In the opening scene, we see Helsa is killed by a masked figure. We also see Elsa talking to a police officer, Michael Kelly, about some sort of undercover scheme. Both are unaware of the maid's murder. The next morning, we see Helsa again, and her personality seems to have changed. The guests Elsa has invited soon begin to arrive. They have been invited for a backer's audition to the Musical White House Merry-Go-Round. The first of the invited guests is an Irish tenor named Patrick O'Reilly. He's quickly followed by a bombastic theatre director named Ken De La Maize, and a beautiful young singer/dancer named Nikki Crandall. Nikki is followed in by a young (and bad) comedian named Eddie McCuen, who takes an instant liking to Nikki. While talking with Nikki, Eddie realizes that everyone (including Marjorie Baverstock, the producer, and Roger Hopewell and Bernice Roth, the writers) were all part of the creative team that made Manhattan Holiday, in which The Stage Door Slasher murdered three women. Eddie instantly wants to leave, and tells Nikki that she should leave as well, but he decides to stay after Marjorie and Elsa enter and woo him into staying. Roger Hopewell and Bernice Roth arrive and meet the performers, and the group gets started with their work. After things get underway, Marjorie is murdered and the body of Helsa is discovered. After a series of dizzy conversations, multiple trips through secret doorways leading to a labyrinth of hidden passageways, a power outage in the mansion, multiple crimes, and criminals are revealed. Eventually after much murderous mayhem the Stage Door Slasher is revealed and captured through deciphering Bebe's coded notebook.
A political fable imagines the social and economic consequences of Muslims vanishing from India.
A promenade cycle of three medieval mystery plays—Nativity, The Passion and Doomsday—retells the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Tony Harrison adapts medieval cycle material as plays within plays, with craftsmen and guild members acting sacred stories in a contemporary setting.
The Mysterious Husband is a play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It is a Domestic drama with a tragic ending, first performed in 1783. Along with several other Cumberland plays it was influenced by the 1768 gothic play The Mysterious Mother by Horace Walpole. The original Covent Garden cast included John Henderson as Lord Davenant (a part written for him), William Thomas Lewis as Charles Davenant, Richard Wroughton as Captain Dorner, Richard Yates as Sir Edmund Travers, Elizabeth Satchell as Marianne and Elizabeth Younge as Lady Davenant.
At Mandacrest Estate, Lord Edgar and Lady Enid confront vampires, a resurrected Egyptian mummy, a werewolf and the mystery of Edgar's first wife, Irma Vep. After discovering that the supposed prisoner is actually the vampire Jane, Enid reveals that the Egyptian adventure was an elaborate sham, and she and Edgar reconcile.
Barry Pree reshaped Fergus Hume's mystery novel as a farcical spoof of old-time melodramas. The stage production's audience cheered the hero and booed the villain, with mockingly theatrical histrionics and music-hall performance.
At a celebration in the Maharaja’s palace, Tintin discovers that a celebrated blue diamond has been stolen and concludes that the thief is among the guests. He and detectives Durant and Durand question them aboard a ship to Syldavia, where Tintin uses a telegram to catch the culprit in the castle’s medieval hall.
A revised and enlarged Passion play retelling the Passion of Christ.
Wealthy Sir Matthew Mite returns from India and uses his fortune to pursue entry into British political society, seeking an aristocratic marriage and a parliamentary seat through bribery.
The Naked Genius is a 1943 American play written by Gypsy Rose Lee. The work premiered on Broadway on October 21, 1943, at the Plymouth Theatre where it ran until November 20, 1943, for a total of 36 performances. The work was produced by Mike Todd, used sets designed by Frederick Fox, and costumes designed by Billy Livingston. The play was staged by George S. Kaufman, and starred Joan Blondell as Honey Bee Carroll, Pauline Myers as Angela, Millard Mitchell as Stuart Tracy, Rex O'Malley as Fred-Eric, Byron Russell as Williams, Bertha Belmore as Lollie Adams, Doro Merande as Myrtle McGuire, Donald Randolph as Charles Goodwin, Lewis Charles as Sam Hinkle, Rosemary Rice as Emily, Georgia Sothern as Alibassi, Phyllis Povah as Pansy, John Souther as Judge Taylor, Bernice Maison as Sally Martin, and Gil Maison as Teddy Martin. Fox bought the film rights for $150,000. The play was later adapted into the 1946 film Doll Face directed by Lewis Seiler and starring Carmen Miranda and Vivian Blaine.
A young couple expecting a child move in with the woman’s parents, and their stay is marked by failures of communication.
The play alternates between the scenes of the characters' real lives, and sketches played at the Irving Place Theater, which serve as comment on the play itself. The play opens at an automat in Greenwich Village in 1937 where gay men congregate and arrange meetings. Chauncey Miles is a star at the Irving Place Theater, a burlesque house in New York City. He specializes in playing the "nance", a "stock character who was a flamingly effeminate homosexual". In fact, Chauncey is gay and looks for men at the automat, but he must be careful or risk being arrested. There he meets Ned, newly arrived in New York and homeless. Chauncey invites him to his apartment for a sexual encounter, assuming him to be a curious heterosexual. In the morning, however, Ned confesses that he is also gay and has recently left his wife hoping to find out more about himself. Though Chauncey is hesitant to begin a serious relationship, they become lovers. At this time, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia is attempting to end burlesque in New York (during this period the gay population was often persecuted). Ephraim, the manager and top comic of the Irving Place Theater, warns Chauncey that the knowledge of his sexuality is attracting gay men to the theater, a fact of which the police may become aware. However, Chauncey, a passionate Republican supporter of La Guardia, believes that the attacks on burlesque and gays will stop after the election. When another of the performers suddenly quits the Irving Place to work elsewhere, Chauncey brings Ned on as a last-minute replacement. In spite of an awkward beginning, Chauncey guides him through the sketch, and Ned is given a job at the theater as a stooge in Chauncey's sketches. Ned and Chauncey's relationship becomes known and accepted by Ephraim and the theater's strippers, who become part of their regular circle of friends. Before one performance, word reaches the troupe that the commissioner of licenses, Paul Moss, is in the audience with a number of policemen. Ephraim tells Chauncey not to play the nance character for fear of a police raid. However, unable to think of other dialogue, Chauncey plays his trademark character, kisses Ephraim onstage, and the theater is raided. Act two begins with Chauncey in court. He defends burlesque and free expression, but serves two nights in jail. On being released, he is embarrassed to find the other members of his company are treating him as a hero. Under the new restrictions on burlesque, Chauncey is limited to performing one "nance" sketch played in drag, which he finds demeaning. The jokes in his routines turn increasingly derogatory. The other members of the company urge Chauncey to participate in a planned walkout by all the entertainment unions in the city. The conservative Chauncey is reluctant to join in. Eventually, the walkout is canceled when the unions agree to LaGuardia's restrictions. Chauncey's relationship with Ned begins to suffer as he starts resorting to anonymous sexual encounters in parks. He starts turning away from Ned, who is now more open about his own sexuality. Ned asks Chauncey to be monogamous for him, and Chauncey initially agrees. Several weeks later, however, Ned finds Chauncey again at the automat, looking for one-night stands. Chauncey rejects Ned, telling him he has lost interest in him, and that he prefers "to be used and discarded." Ned, sensing the imminent shutdown of burlesque, tells Chauncey he has taken a job as an ensemble member in a tour of Red, Hot and Blue and asks Chauncey to join him as a last try at a monogamous relationship. Chauncey insists the crackdown on burlesque is temporary, and that he will stay where he is. Confessing his self-hatred, he rejects the offer of a monogamous relationship, telling Ned, "This is not what I should be having." He kisses Ned goodbye, but is (ironically) seen by a policeman who arrests him for deviant behavior in public after Ned has left. Finally, Chauncey appears on stage in complete drag, playing an old prostitute. In the middle of the sketch, his loss hits him and he breaks down, alternating between grief and professional composure. Shortly after, the Irving Place Theater is closed down. Ephraim and the girls leave to perform out of state. It is revealed that Chauncey, as a repeat offender and banned from leaving New York, was offered leniency if he named the other party, (i.e., Ned), but refused to do so. The other company members sadly tell him goodbye. Chauncey stands alone on the stage of the Irving Place. As he softly sings a verse of his trademark song, a piece of the ceiling falls, narrowly missing him, and Chauncey remains center stage under a broken spotlight as the curtain falls.
The National Health is a 1969 British play by Peter Nichols. Reminiscent of the Carry On film series, this black comedy with tragic overtones focuses on the appalling conditions in an under-funded National Health Service hospital, which are contrasted comically with a Dr. Kildare-style soap opera airing on the ward television.
The National Lampoon Show, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1974–1976 stage show that helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis. The show was produced by Ivan Reitman. ("overlooked" by National Lampoon writer/editor Sean Kelly). After closing in New York, it went on a second, nine-month-long, national tour. Ramis, meanwhile, used some of the sketches from the show in the script of National Lampoon's first film production, Animal House, released in 1978.
Near Mount Kosciuszko in early colonial New South Wales, land speculator Neal Blackmore tries to seize a gold deposit on John Hillgrove’s property. Blackmore’s henchman murders fossicker Kosciusko Joe and frames Hillgrove’s son Jack, who must clear his name and rescue Lily from Blackmore’s men during a snowstorm.
Eugenia, the Duke’s illegitimate daughter, is offered formal recognition at court in exchange for her father’s support against a rumored republican conspiracy. Political conspirators abduct her and force her toward exile; after failed attempts to secure protection, she accepts the Advocate’s proposal and chooses to remain in her homeland.
The Natural Son is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in December 1784. The play is notable for the return of the popular character Major O'Flaherty from Cumberland's 1771 play The West Indian. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas King as Jack Hustings, William Parsons as Dumps, Robert Bensley as Ruefull, John Moody as Major O'Flaherty, Sophia Baddeley as Sir Jeffrey Latimer, James Wrighten as David, John Palmer as Blushenly, Jane Pope as Miss Phoebe Latimer, Charlotte Tidswell as Penelope and Elizabeth Farren as Lady Paragon.
Two agents of God use a suburban New Jersey family to explain the universe’s nature and purpose. Eleanor, an unhappy housewife mistreated by her family and others, endures escalating trials that test the religious doctrine that she should accept her suffering.
The Naughty Wife, originally titled Losing Eloise, is a farce in 3 acts by Fred Jackson. It was adapted into the 1919 silent film Let's Elope.
A murder mystery set in a seedy Baltimore burlesque house run by a retired stripper, written as a vehicle for Divine.
Architect Willum feels indebted to Rick Steadman, the Vietnam veteran who once saved his life, and cannot refuse when Rick arrives as an intrusive houseguest. Willum’s friends try to make the unbearable guest leave, only to reveal that he is an actor recruited to teach Willum to stand up for himself and pursue Tansy.
In a near-future virtual reality network, Detective Morris investigates The Hideaway, where users enact forbidden fantasies; her interrogation of its creator raises questions about attachment and ethical responsibility in virtual and physical worlds.
After merchant Matchill disowns his spendthrift half-brother Strigood, Strigood recruits Matchill’s apprentice Cash and the merchant’s displaced daughter Gabriella into a sham academy teaching fashionable accomplishments. The scheme entangles two families in mistaken identities, attempted exploitation and cross-generational marriage plots before their children’s true identities are revealed and couples are properly matched.
At the Light Heart inn, Lord Lovel's description of love wins Lady Frampul's affection. A mock court of love and mistaken identities bring secret romances and a series of revelations: the adopted son Franck is a woman, Lady Frampul's lost sister, and the innkeeper is their father in disguise.
The New Peerage is a 1787 comedy play by the British writer Harriet Lee. The original cast included Thomas King as Mr Vandercrap, John Bannister as Lord Melville, Richard Suett as Sir John Lovelace, John Hayman Packer as Medley, John Phillimore as Allen, Richard Wroughton as Charles, Anna Maria Crouch as Miss Harley and Elizabeth Farren as Lady Charlotte Courteney. The prologue was written by Richard Cumberland.
A new tenant directs two movers as they bring furniture into his room without end. The accumulating furniture becomes an overwhelming stage image, while the caretaker speaks with the tenant.
After Maud leaves him, Jeffery Rollestone becomes a vagabond and later reunites with his old school friend Gerard. Though he and Maud still love each other, Jeffery tries to help Gerard marry her for the family’s financial security. A stolen love letter and mistaken assumptions complicate their sacrifice before Jeffery and Maud are reunited.
At Worms, Siegfried agrees to win Brunhild for King Gunther in exchange for marrying Gunther's sister Kriemhild. When the pact is broken, Hagen murders Siegfried, and Kriemhild pursues revenge against Hagen, Gunther and the Nibelungs.
Three plays follow May and Raleigh, a young Kentucky couple whose relationship develops from their 1940 meeting through marriage and family life in 1950s Florida.
At the Duke of Genoa’s court, the hypersensitive Shamont becomes jealous of his brother and is insulted by the Duke, while the Duke’s volatile cousin has seduced a young woman without marrying her. A plan involving her disguise as Cupid, a swordfight, and Shamont’s return drives the intertwined comic plots toward reconciliation and marriage.
The Nigger is a play by American playwright Edward Sheldon (1886–1946). It explores the relationship between blacks and whites in the melodrama of a politician faced with a sudden, personal dilemma. The play was first performed on Broadway in New York City at the New Theatre on December 4, 1909. The play was adapted to a novel, and a film adaptation, directed by Edgar Lewis and starring William Farnum, was made in 1915. Because the title was controversial, the film was released in some markets as The Governor or The New Governor.
A white professor risks his life for social justice, then is schooled by Freckles and Creampuff, two African Americans.
In a cluttered Dublin bedsit, fifty-something Tommy scrapes by with his friend Doc and his uncle Maurice. After Tommy rescues Aimee, a young sex worker, from a street beating, she stays in the house and forms tentative bonds with its men; her ex-boyfriend Kenneth soon arrives looking for her.
Across linked autobiographical stories, a gay performer recalls coming of age, desire, and the AIDS crisis: seeing The Normal Heart at 22 sparks his activism, while a later vigil honors those lost and imagines a future of open queer life.
A celebrated embalmer returns to her hometown after her mother’s death and reunites with her three brothers. An unexpected bequest reopens the family’s memories of a night involving her childhood neighbour Logan and the secret that has shaped their lives.
In a non-linear portrait of Thoreau's early life, he refuses a poll tax tied to the Mexican-American War and lands in jail, where he meets Bailey, a man falsely accused of arson. The play also recalls Thoreau's teaching, his brother's death, and his efforts to live by his beliefs in civil disobedience and nonconformity.
To escape a marriage imposed on her, Maria pretends to be dead after being caught with her lover. A thief and his disguised apprentice accidentally steal her coffin, while the apprentice’s frightening tricks expose the greedy Justice Algrip’s past, undo the marriage and restore the other characters’ fortunes.
After the September 11 attacks and American intervention in Afghanistan, an Afghan widow tries to reopen her husband's school.
Tour guide and defrocked Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon brings a group of women to a hotel in coastal Mexico, where he is drawn into a fraught relationship with the hotelkeeper Maxine and the traveling artist Hannah Jelkes. Hannah and Shannon form the play's central human bond amid emotional turmoil and the hotel guests' conflicts.
Leona will date men for only ninety days. She chooses Danny without knowing he is a private investigator hired to investigate her mother, Judith.
The Ninth Man is a 1931 thriller play in three acts by Frederick Jackson. A crime drama, the plot focuses on a gang of opium dealers in New York City.
Maggie runs an outback pub with her hapless husband, but begins a romance with travelling commercial salesman Joe.
A French gentleman, Mount-Marine, is fooled by his sensible wife and friends into believing that the king promotes him rapidly from knight to duke, while his wealth collapses just as quickly. Meanwhile, Chatillion imagines himself a claimant to the French throne and believes himself surrounded by dangers.
After the Spanish king repudiates Onaelia and their son to marry Paulina, the soldier Balthazar tries to make him restore Onaelia. Court factions plot against her and the child, but the conspiracies unravel at a wedding banquet, where the king dies and leaves the crown to Sebastian.
The Nobleman is a 1736 comedy play by Elizabeth Cooper. It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, and is also known by the longer title The Nobleman, or, The Family Quarrel.
The Non-Juror is a 1717 comedy play by the British writer Colley Cibber. It is inspired by Molière's 1664 work Tartuffe. The original Drury Lane Theatre cast featured John Mills as Sir John Woodvil, Barton Booth as Colonel Woodvil, Robert Wilks as Hearty, Cibber himself as Doctor Wolf, Thomas Walker as Charles, Mary Porter as Lady Woodvil and Anne Oldfield as Maria. Produced three years after the Hanoverian Succession and two after the outbreak of the 1715 Rebellion, the play was sharply critical of Jacobites and their Tory allies. It mockingly exaggerated the position of those who refused to swear allegiance to George I. Cibber himself played the title role of Doctor Wolf, a nonjuring Church of England clergyman who claims that "a Protestant Church can never be secure, till it has a Popish Prince to defend it". The play was a hit, and George I himself commended Cibber with a reward of two hundred pounds. The anti-Catholic tone of the work offended Alexander Pope, himself a nonjuring Catholic, who lamented "the great success of so damn'd a play". It contributed to the growing rivalry between the two writers. The prologue by Nicholas Rowe contained jibes against Catholics currently buying up property in Urbino, the Italian residence of the Jacobite pretender James III. When it was published in 1718, Cibber dedicated the play to King George. In 1768 a rewritten version The Hypocrite by Isaac Bickerstaffe appeared at Drury Lane. This removed many of the political caricatures of Cibber's play which had by now lost their relevance in the changed context, and the principal character was changed to be a Methodist.
Act I (Governor Bancroft's official residence, evening) Nickie Elkins has been condemned for the murder of bootlegger Buck Gordon. He offered no defense or explanation for his action, even to his attorney Bill Chase. Chase, with the assistance of Stella Bancroft who is strangely moved by the young man's plight, persuades the Governor to see Elkins. Chase hopes the youthful appearance of his client will move the Governor to pardon him. Craig escorts Warden Hughes and Elkins into the Governor's office. There Chase recounts the boy's background: no known parents, raised by criminals including Buck Gordon, he'd recently gotten a bank clerk's position. Stella tries to encourage the boy to talk, but he merely asks her not to worry about him. He covertly hands her a sealed letter. To the others, Elkins doesn't deny the killing, but will only say "the man was no good". Warden Hughes then returns Elkins to the nearby state prison. Act II (The Back Stall Night Club, two months earlier, evening. This flashback is only for the audience, there is no suggestion characters from Act I are aware of it.) The bootlegging gang operates out of the night club. Elkins is seen associating there with other members of the gang, such as Buck Gordon and Come-On Conley. Phyllis is at the night club with Mrs. Anderson. Elkins knows her, and they have a mutual interest in each other. The night club's chorus girls do a dance number. Dot is in love with Elkins, but accepts that he only feels friendship for her. Elkins sneaks Phyllis into the back office where they confess their love and kiss. Dot warns them that Buck is coming and escorts Phyllis back to Mrs. Anderson. Elkins tells Buck he's leaving the gang. Buck becomes enraged; he reveals to Elkins that he is his father. His mother is a woman whose politically well-connected husband will have to help him beat an indictment or he'll make the old liaison public. Elkins draws his gun and shoots Buck dead. Act III (Same place and time as Act I) The Governor has still not made up his mind about Elkins' fate. As the Governor ponders his decision, a telephone call is made to the state prison, cancelling the execution by order of the Governor. The Governor is puzzled, and so is the audience, for the playwright never explains what happened. Craig then lets Dot into the office, where she pleads to be allowed Elkins' body, since he has no relatives. The Governor discerns her love and tells her Elkins is still alive. He arranges for Dot to see him. Hughes brings Elkins back to the Governor's office, where Stella hands him back his envelope, still sealed. They depart and the Governor asks his wife for something to eat. (Curtain)
During the early AIDS epidemic in New York, activist Ned Weeks tries to organize a response while the illness remains poorly understood and public attention is limited. His confrontational style clashes with cautious fellow activists, and the group expels him. As his lover Felix becomes ill and dies, Ned's estrangement from his brother Ben begins to heal.
An authored trilogy follows the same six characters through one weekend in three parts of a house: Table Manners in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden outdoors. Annie's hoped-for weekend with her sister's husband Norman becomes a farcical gathering involving family and neighbors.
The Northern Heiress is a 1716 comedy by the Irish-born writer Mary Davys. Its fuller title is The Northern Heiress, or, The Humours of York. The play satirizes the contemporary marriage market. It was dedicated to Princess Anne, daughter of George, Prince of Wales. Because of this it has been inferred that Davys was a strong Whig supporter of the Hanoverian Succession. However, the dedication may have been the attempt of a struggling author to try to secure patronage in the wake of the recent Jacobite rebellion. The original cast featured John Leigh as Gamont, Christopher Bullock as Welby, William Bullock as Sir Loobily Joddrell, Sarah Thurmond as Isabella, Jane Rogers as Louisa, Mary Kent as Lady Cardivant and Frances Maria Knight as Lady Ample.
Sir Philip Luckless mistakenly believes a letter from the northern Constance is from his former lover and marries wealthy widow Audrey Fitchow. Intrigue, disguises and a wedding masque expose the confusion and lead to a divorce, the proper match between Luckless and Constance, and comic pairings for the other characters.
The Note of Hand, or Trip to Newmarket is a 1774 comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. A farce it was the final play performed by David Garrick at the Drury Lane Theatre in London before his retirement. The Irish premiere took place at the Capel Street Theatre in Dublin on 10 March 1774. The original London cast included John Palmer as Revell, Samuel Cautherley as Rivers, Thomas Jefferson as Elder Rivers, John Moody as O'Connor MacCormuck, William Palmer as Francis, James William Dodd as Sapling, James Wrighten as Putty and Susan Greville as Mrs Cheveley. It is set against the backdrop of Newmarket Racecourse. The play mocked some of the leading Whig politicians of the era such as Charles Fox and the Duke of Devonshire. This may have been the cause of Cumberland's dispute with Richard Brinsley Sheridan who was a Whig. Sheridan went on to create a comedy character Sir Fretful Plagiary closely based on Cumberland in the 1779 play The Critic.
An aspiring writer presents his new play at his uncle’s country estate and faces his actress mother’s contempt. His love for Nina is frustrated as she becomes drawn to the established writer Trigorin.
Agnes, a 33-year-old widow, is staying in Venice with Lucas, to whom she is not married, though the servants and her friend Gertrude have assumed so. Lucas was a rising young Conservative politician who abandoned his wife and career for Agnes. They met when she was sent to Italy to nurse him through a bout of malaria contracted in Rome. She had been married unhappily, and after her husband died became a prominent radical lecturer, and then a nurse to earn a living. Lucas was also unhappy in his marriage and they fell in love. Now they (or at least she) envision a future of writing passionate essays against marriage, lecturing and campaigning. His relatives do not accept his decision. His uncle, the Duke, comes to Venice to "arrange" matters. He suggests a sham reconciliation between Lucas and his wife, and for Agnes, "The suburban villa, the little garden, a couple of discreet servants—everything à la mode." Agnes sneers at this, of course, but is horrified to discover that Lucas actually considers it. She reluctantly agrees. Gertrude, though shocked by Agnes' open "immorality", has come to appreciate her philosophy. She now urges Agnes to reject this hypocritical arrangement, and instead to come with her and Amos to their home in Yorkshire. Amos also appeals to her, urging her to pray for guidance. Agnes agrees to go with them. Lucas now rejects the Duke's proposal, and the Duke asks Gertrude and Amos to stop interfering. Sybil Lucas now appears. She confronts Agnes, and bizarrely asks her to return to Lucas and get him to return to London. She despises Lucas, but she loved him once, and doesn't want to see him "utterly wasted". She implies that her apparent reconciliation with Lucas would relieve her of a great humiliation, even though he made her as miserable as Agnes' husband did her. Agnes breaks down and agrees. However, Gertrude intervenes, fearing that this path will corrupt and destroy Agnes. Sybil breaks down and repudiates the deal. Lucas makes a last effort to join with Agnes, and resume their "free love" life, but Agnes has had enough; she thought she was a leader, a moral example, who would show the world "how men and woman may live independent and noble lives without rule, guidance or sacrament", but she proved weak and corruptible. She feels that she cannot sit in judgment of Sybil any longer; she will go with Amos and Gertrude; and she urges Lucas to learn to pray.
In Venice, two young couples seek to escape arranged marriages. Fabritio’s search for Victoria intersects with the courtesan Novella’s disguise, while Flavia and Francisco plot to elope; servants and senators’ schemes culminate in a maze of mistaken identities and the couples’ reunions.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a 2019 play based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and adapted for the stage by Joel Horwood.
The Octette Bridge Club is a play by P.J. Barry. Set in Providence, Rhode Island, it focuses on eight sisters of Irish descent who meet on alternate Friday evenings to play bridge and gossip. The first act, which opens with the women posing for a photograph for the Sunday rotogravure section of the local newspaper, takes place in October 1934, and the second act is set just prior to Halloween ten years later. Ann Conroy, married to a man who drinks too much, is a no-nonsense schoolteacher who hosts the bridge nights. Martha McDermitt, the widowed eldest sister, is known for her sense of responsibility and stern personality. Mary Margaret Donovan is a spinster who lives with younger sister Alice Monahan and her husband Walter, who have no children. In the second act, Mary Margaret uses a wheelchair and has a slight speech impediment due to a stroke. Nora Hiller is an easy-going woman devoted to her husband Lawrence and their children. Connie Emerson is always quick with a wisecrack. Lil Carmody is a free spirit who plays piano, and Betsy Bailey is the youngest, a melancholy married woman with two children who is struggling to find her own identity. The play premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, an annual event presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, in 1984. The Broadway production, directed by Tom Moore, opened at the Music Box Theatre on March 5, 1985 following eight previews and closed after 24 performances. The cast included Elizabeth Huddle as Ann, Anne Pitoniak as Martha, Bette Henritze as Mary Margaret, Lois De Banzie as Alice, Elizabeth Franz as Nora, Nancy Marchand as Connie, Peggy Cass as Lil, and Gisela Caldwell as Betsy. In his review for The New York Times, Frank Rich observed, "This synthetic play... has not so much been written as mechanically mapped out according to an open-and-shut formula. The exposition of each character's one or two stereotypical traits is accomplished by the photographer's rapid-fire journalistic questions in the opening scene; then the author slowly rolls out the skeleton in each sister's closet. Complexities of emotion and dramatic structure are neatly avoided by keeping all the menfolk offstage... Although the evening runs less than two hours, most of it is padding designed to space out the delayed plot revelations. There is plenty of gratuitous nostalgia... as well as an extremely tedious intrafamily talent contest performed after intermission." Pitoniak and Marchand were nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play but lost to Judith Ivey in Hurlyburly. John Lee Beatty was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design but lost to Heidi Ettinger for Big River. Carrie Robbins was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design but lost to Alexander Reid for Much Ado About Nothing.
On a Louisiana plantation facing foreclosure, George Peyton loves Zoe, his enslaved mixed-race cousin, but law and slavery prevent their marriage. Debt-holder McClosky seeks to own Zoe and murders a young enslaved boy; photographic evidence exposes him. After McClosky’s escape and death, Zoe takes poison, unable to imagine a life with George.
The Odd Couple is a play by Neil Simon. Following its premiere on Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful 1968 film and 1970s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feature a pair of female roommates (Florence Ungar and Olive Madison) in The Female Odd Couple. An updated version of the 1965 show appeared in 2002 with the title Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple.
A merchant and his apprentice advertise dubious ointments to three women named Mary seeking balm for Jesus. The merchant stages a mock resurrection for Abraham’s son in exchange for payment, while quarrels erupt among the merchant, his wife, and the assistant.
Heartwell, a misanthropic bachelor, falls for Silvia without knowing she was Vainlove’s mistress and agrees to marry her. Bellmour, disguised as a parson, makes the marriage a pretence while pursuing Laetitia; meanwhile the foolish Sir Joseph Wittol is truly married to Silvia under a mistaken belief about her identity.
Hilary, a former English spy living in exile in Russia, receives visits from two English couples who discuss England, friendship, art, and his life in Russia. One visitor tries to persuade him to return, and a prisoner exchange enables his departure.
Father Martin tries to manipulate Jourdain into seducing his own daughter Isabel, who intends to marry Young Laroon. Others exploit Jourdain's guilt through disguises, while Isabel recognizes Martin's intentions and sets a trap to expose him.
Showing 6,601–6,720 of 8,284 shows
Load more shows