The Old Familiar Juice
In a prison cell, an experienced inmate uses intoxicating prison brew to seduce a newcomer, while an older prisoner tries to protect the young man.
Plays
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Clear filtersThe Old Glory
This trilogy of dramatic pieces explores political conflict and violence in American history: Endecott and the Red Cross depicts a Puritan leader confronting the royalist settlement at Merrymount; My Kinsman, Major Molineux follows two youths seeking their British cousin in revolutionary Boston; Benito Cereno recounts an American captain’s discovery that enslaved people have taken control of a Spanish ship.
The Old Homestead
Between rural New Hampshire and New York City, family ties are tested when sons leave home and fall into drinking. Repentance and reunion offer a way back to the security of home.
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals
Mrs. Dowey pretends to her fellow charwomen that she has a son serving in the army, using a name she saw in a newspaper. When Private Kenneth Dowey returns on leave, his lack of family and her invented motherhood draw the lonely soldier and charwoman into a tender bond.
The Old Law, or A New Way to Please You
In Epire, a duke imposes a law sentencing men over eighty and women over sixty to death. The law exposes greed and virtue in two families: one son welcomes his inheritance, while another fakes his father's death to save him. The trial reveals the law as a test of character and the supposed victims alive.
The Old Maid
The play as published has a program facsimile from the premiere that shows a different timeline from later programs, though the time intervals between scenes are the same. Charlotte stops them and sends them home. Bridget takes Tina away for her supper, while Charlotte offers Jennie Meade work in the day-nursery since she has been dismissed from her position. Dr. Lanskell arrives, bringing Mrs. Mingott, just arrived from Paris. Delia, James, and Joseph arrive as well. Mrs. Mingott asks to see Charlotte's waifs, but only Tina remains. Tina is shy, responding only to Delia, which alarms Charlotte. After the others leave, Joseph tries to persuade Charlotte to leave running the day-nursery to someone else. He is afraid for her health, remembering she spent a year in the South to recoup from illness. Act II Later that same evening in the drawing room at Delia Ralston's home, Charlotte tells Delia the wedding is off because Joseph wants to separate her from the day-nursery. She confesses that Clementina is her own daughter. Delia is sympathetic until she learns that Clem Spender is the father. Charlotte pleads for her help, but Delia says she will do what she thinks best. She sends Charlotte away, then joins Dr. Lanskell, Mrs. Mingott, James, and Joseph. She tells them that Charlotte cannot marry Joseph because her illness has returned. Joseph is distraught, but James persuades him it is for the best. When the others leave, Dr. Lanskell confronts Delia with her lie. She says she'll adopt Tina, but the doctor persuades her not to separate Charlotte and Tina. Instead, Delia will convince her husband to buy a house for Chatty and Tina to live together. Act III The first scene occurs in 1853, again at the Ralston drawing-room. James Ralston died twelve years previously, so Charlotte and Tina now live with Delia, whose own daughter Dee is married to John Halsey. Delia, Dee, Tina, John, and Lanning Halsey are singing in the parlor (off-stage). Dr. Lanskell sits with Charlotte, who complains Delia is spoiling Tina. Tina still has no idea that Charlotte is her real mother, which is how Charlotte wants it. When the others join them in the drawing-room (on stage), Charlotte scolds Tina for being late to a party, but Tina and Lanning poke fun at her severity. The second scene opens later that evening, with just Delia and Charlotte. Charlotte confronts her cousin over the romance between Tina and Lanning, which Delia is encouraging. The two women argue forcefully over the past and what's best for Tina. Delia finally begins to comprehend Charlotte's true concern for her daughter. The final scene occurs in June 1854, the night before Tina's marriage to Lanning Halsey. Delia tells Tina, that after the ceremony, be sure to kiss Charlotte the last of all, before she enters the carriage to depart for her honeymoon. Tina is startled at the request; she seems to be wondering about her old maid Aunt Chatty. But she promises Delia to do so as the play ends.
The Old Man
A philosophical drama opposing humanism to the joy of tormenting.
The Old Man
The Old Man is a 1931 mystery play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Its original production was staged at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End for a ninety performance run. It is set entirely in the "Coat of Arms" tavern where a mysterious old man lurks in the background, reputedly an escapee from a lunatic asylum. The original cast included Alfred Drayton, Jack Melford, Harold Warrender and Finlay Currie.
The Old Man and the Old Moon
The company of storytellers perform "Song from the Stone" to greet the audience. Matheson, the play's narrator, offers to the audience the tale of why the Moon changes shape: there once was an Old Man whose job it was to fill the moon with liquid light. He lived a peaceful life with his wife, but they had lived so long they forgot why they needed to fill the moon. One day, the Old Woman hears a mysterious melody she associates with their forgotten past, and runs away to find its source. The Old Man chases after her ("The Rain Will Fall"). Learning she is heading west in a boat, the Old Man fails to charter a boat: the shop owner gives him the hat of his clerk Mickey, despite Mickey's protests that the hat belonged to his grandfather. The Old Man manages to board a warship when he is mistaken for the legendary First Naval Lieutenant Pericles Llewellyn McWallander by the ship's quartermaster Llewellyn, due to the hat ("The Sailor's Anthem"). However, the ship is actually headed south for war. He soon notices that, due to abandoning his duty, the moon is continuing to lose its light. Matheson, who is also the ship's first mate, tells the crew the tale of Pericles Llewellyn McWallander, claiming he sailed west in search of a mysterious city at the end of the world, and was last seen at the port of Malefria, before his crew allegedly mutinied and threw him overboard. Continuing his charade, the Old Man proposes the crew follow him to the infamous city, but they are interrupted when a rebel ship attacks, and their captain is killed in the skirmish ("The Rain Will Fall (Reprise)"). Facing either certain death in war or returning home to be charged with desertion, the Old Man proposes a third option: they head west in search of the city. At first lying about what is there, the Old Man is struck by a strange memory and tells them that the city is filled with light. He rallies the crew and they sail westward ("Sail for Love"), but encounter several obstacles that cause the crew to lose faith in him, and grow concerned at the fact the moon is continuing to lose its light. Matheson privately reveals to the Old Man he knows he is lying and warns him not to take his crew for granted like McWallander. At the port of Malefria, the Old Man encounters two men who recognize his hat, revealing they were part of McWallander's mutinous crew. He learns they recently met his wife, who has continued west. The Old Man forces the crew to re-board the ship, and ends up sailing them straight through a field of volcanoes, severely damaging the ship and leading the ship's cook to flee ("Sail for Love (Reprise)"). The crew finally confront the Old Man, and Matheson finally reveals he is not McWallander, having himself served as McWallander's cabin boy as a child. Just as the crew is ready to throw the Old Man overboard, the moon finally loses all of its light and a sudden storm destroys the ship, sending everyone into the sea. As the Old Man sinks ("Just Like the Sea") he is swallowed by a giant fish. Awakening in its stomach, he encounters a strange man named Perry, who claims to have been swallowed by the fish a long time ago and has given up hope of rescue ("Prison Fish Interlude #1"). Perry reveals he ended up in the fish while he was on a quest to find the city of the light, only to be thrown overboard by his crew ("Prison Fish Interlude #2"). The Old Man finally realizes they can tear the fish apart from the inside by pulling at two ends of a particular bone, something he learned from his wife. Perry initially refuses to help, revealing to the stunned Old Man he is actually a ghost, and he has nothing to go home to. Realizing Perry is the real Pericles Llewellyn McWallander, the Old Man reveals he got his hat from Perry's grandson Mickey, and convinces Perry there are people still out there waiting for him. Perry elects to help the Old Man, but knowing he cannot really return home, he gives the Old Man the hat and instructs him to bring it back to his grandson ("Prison Fish Interlude #3"). After destroying the fish, the Old Man awakens alone on a deserted island. He encounters a dog―which once belonged to Mabelu, a member of the ship's crew. With the dog's help, the Old Man builds a raft that they use to sail away. The water around them dissolves into vapor, until they are left in a desert ("I Crash"). Continuing on but lacking drinking water, the Old Man passes out after drinking the moisture from a psychedelic weed. He and the dog are picked up in a hot air balloon flown by Solomon and Bartley Montgolfier, two scientists studying the change in weather since the moon ran out of light. They encounter the rest of the Old Man's former crew and pick them up, but the added weight causes the balloon to spin out of control. The Old Man leaps out in order to save weight. He lands in what he realizes is the city of the light, unearthed due to the disappearance of the ocean, and his memories of the past finally come back: he was once a resident of the city, which tapped into a well spring of liquid light. But the residents' use of the light brought on a massive thunderstorm, flooding the city. The Old Man saved a bucket of light but was nearly swept away himself, saved at the last second by a young woman. The two decided to keep it safe by hanging it in the sky from a lantern, which became the moon, and was able to calm the storm. The two decided to go exploring the world after saving the light, only to notice there was a leak in the lantern, and so they elected to stay so the Old Man could keep refilling it. The Old Man climbs the cliffs with a bucket of liquid light and refills the moon ("Bremen"). Realizing he has gone so far around the world he has made it back home, he goes to his house to find his wife waiting for him, and the two decide to go exploring as they pledged to years ago. Before they leave, the Old Man reunites with Llewellyn, who reveals the entire crew made it home safely as well. The Old Man convinces Llewellyn to take up his old duty of refilling the moon, but assures him it is alright for the moon to not always be full. He also gives Llewellyn the hat, telling him to return it to Mickey, before boarding a boat with the Old Woman and sailing off to parts unknown.
The Old Masters
The play opens on the garden of Villa I Tatti near Florence. The famous art critic Bernard Berenson, referred to as ‘BB’, is fearful of the rising power of Mussolini, who he refers to as ‘the Duck’, and increasingly anxious about the state of his finances. His wife, Mary, is in poor health while he continues having an affair with his secretary, Nicky. Duveen's assistant Fowles arrives to deliver a copy of a painting, and to tell Berenson that Duveen would like him to reconsider his attribution of a painting, The Adoration of the Shepherds. Berenson has already declared it to be by Titian, but Duveen would like him to change his mind and attribute it to Giorgione, and so increase its value considerably. Duveen is keen to sell the painting to the art collector, Mellon. Other art critics have already decided it is a Giorgione, but Berenson, whose reputation is pre-eminent, refuses to change his mind. Fowles leaves. Later that evening Duveen arrives, unannounced, to convince Berenson to change his mind in person. From there the intense and turbulent nature of their long working relationship unfolds.
The Old Mode and the New
The Old Mode and the New is a 1703 comedy play by the English writer Thomas d'Urfey. The original Drury Lane cast included Benjamin Johnson as Sir Fumbler Oldmode, Robert Wilks as Frederick, John Mills as William Queenlove, William Bowen as Monsieur de Pistole, Colley Cibber as Tom Pistole, William Pinkethman as Misterious Maggothead, Richard Cross as Major Bombard, William Bullock as Abram, Henrietta Moore as Lady Oldmode, Frances Maria Knight as Probleme and Anne Oldfield as Lucia. The play was dedicated to Duke of Richmond, a son of Charles II.
The Old Neighborhood
In three linked playlets, middle-aged Bobby Gould returns to Chicago and revisits old relationships: two school friends argue over their shared past, siblings confront the effects of their parents’ divorce, and Bobby reconnects with a former love while his marriage falters.
The Old Soak
Retired garage owner Clem Hawley laments Prohibition but rallies to help his family when his son Clemmie embezzles money and loses Matilda’s stock investment. Clem confronts the corrupt banker Webster and helps restore the family’s finances while keeping his son’s wrongdoing from them.
The Old Tune
Two elderly Dubliners, Gorman and Cream, meet in the street and struggle to sustain a conversation as they dispute details of their pasts, family histories, and a changing world. Street noise repeatedly interrupts them, and Gorman's barrel organ closes the play.
The Old Wives' Tale
Three young men lost in the woods take shelter with a blacksmith and his wife, whose fairy tale comes to life as a play within the play. Peele turns romantic and fairy-tale conventions into an ironic, fantastical comic romance.
The Oldest Living Graduate
Colonel Kinkaid, a wheelchair-bound veteran, resists plans to celebrate him as his military academy’s oldest living graduate. His son hopes to turn the occasion into publicity and a property deal, bringing their conflicting values into open confrontation.
The One Day of the Year
On Anzac Day, Hughie and his girlfriend Jan plan to document the drinking for their university newspaper. Hughie refuses to attend the dawn service with his ex-serviceman father, Alf, then watches the march on television, torn between anger at the display and love for his father.
The One My Soul Loves
After her 17-year-old son is injured in the Tel Aviv gay-centre shooting, a Modern Orthodox mother learns that he is gay and pressures him to undergo conversion therapy, while his father accepts him.
The Only Game in Town
Fran, who lives just off the Las Vegas Strip, takes home Joe, who is a near compulsive gambler, and they decided to live together, no strings attached. He finds out that she is waiting for Thomas to return. Fran has a decision to make, does she stay and leave with Joe or leave with Thomas?
The Open Book
A dramatic episode includes a woman fighting with an unbalanced woman and then committing suicide in a club; the work began as a vaudeville sketch before being reworked into a three-act drama.
The Open Couple
A husband persuades his suicidal wife that an open marriage is politically correct, then pursues younger women. When she decides to live independently and falls for another man, her husband becomes suicidal instead.
The Opportunity
Aurelio, visiting Urbino, is mistaken for the banished Borgia and lets the confusion continue. He falls for Cornelia, Borgia’s sister, while Ursini also seeks her and the Duchess becomes enamored of Aurelio. A balcony scene of mistaken identities and overheard conversation deepens the confusion until Cornelia admits the deception; further mix-ups resolve in the Duchess marrying the Duke of Ferrara and Cornelia marrying Ursini, while Aurelio leaves.
The Orchard Walls
The Orchard Walls is a play by the British writer R.F. Delderfield. A drama, it examines the relationship between the daughter of wealthy parents and the car mechanic with whom she falls in love and attempts to elope with. It was first staged at Aldershot in October 1953 and later moved to the St Martin's Theatre in London.
The Order of Vladimir, Third Class
In four surviving fragments, official Barsukov pursues his dream of receiving the Order of Vladimir. His ambition leads through a morning of official business, an inheritance lawsuit, servants' quarters, and another fragment; a reported lost scene has him mistake himself for the decoration.
The Originalist
As Antonin Scalia interviews and hires Cat, a liberal law-school graduate, as his clerk, their clashes over law and politics gradually give way to mutual understanding. Personal crises challenge their assumptions about one another and their differing views.
The Orphan of China
The Orphan of China is a 1759 tragedy by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy, based on the traditional Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao with the setting moved forwards from the twelfth to the seventeenth century. Although his work, written from 1756, was on a similar topic to Voltaire's play L'Orphelin de la Chine, Murphy asserted that he had written his before he became aware of Voltaire's adaptation. Substantial rewrites took place, including with assistance from Horace Walpole and William Whitehead before Garrick was satisfied and ready to stage it. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Zamti, Henry Mossop as Etan, Charles Holland as Hamet, Astley Bransby as Octar, William Havard as Timurkan and Mary Ann Yates as Mandane. In his preface to the play Murphy criticised Voltaire for adding a romance to his version to play. The play was met with "great applause" and ran for nine performances in total and was revived a number of times over the next two decades.
The Orphan of Zhao
James Fenton adapts the Zhao family revenge tragedy for the stage, in an RSC production that includes four additional songs written by Fenton.
The Orphan or The Unhappy Marriage
At Acasto's country home, twin brothers Castalio and Polydore both love their ward Monimia. Polydore gains access to Monimia's chamber by using Castalio's wedding-night signal, setting off a chain of mistaken identity, a fatal duel, and the deaths of all three.
The Orphans’ Home Cycle
Horton Foote’s theatrical cycle comprises three plays, each made of three one-act plays, following Horace Robedaux from 1902 through 1928 and the Depression’s beginning. Across three generations of Texas families, the cycle traces his childhood, marriage and family life.
The Other Place
Juliana is fifty two years old and a brilliant drug-company scientist. She is giving a speech to a neurological convention. As she speaks we cut away to scenes with her doctor, phone calls from her estranged daughter, and arguments with her husband who may or may not be divorcing her. Through it all she constantly refers to "the other place", a cottage on Cape Cod that the family once owned, and a place where Juliana feels she may reunite with her missing daughter and find some peace of mind. Juliana becomes argumentative with everyone around her and appears increasingly confused. The phone calls from the missing daughter may be a delusion. Juliana believes that she has a brain tumor and says that her mother and other relatives all died of brain tumors at an early age. Eventually Juliana actually visits the other place and encounters the current owner whom she mistakenly believes to be her daughter. The woman is initially hostile and has problems of her own. But soon the two women find mutual comfort as Juliana's husband arrives to take her home. In a poignant closing monologue she finally confronts what is really going on.
The Other Shore
Set on a deliberately non-existent 'other shore,' the experimental play turns the Buddhist image of reaching enlightenment into an unrealized pursuit. It can be staged in many kinds of spaces, with actors among the audience or the audience among the actors.
The Outcasts
Bulgarian emigrants in Wallachia live in poverty while seeking the means to fight for Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule.
The Outlaw
In medieval Iceland, Gunlöd loves Gunnar, a Christian who returns from the Crusades and asks her to leave for Sweden. Her pagan father Thorfinn returns during a storm, learns that she is Christian, and is then told he has been banished for theft and murder. He fights his accusers, dies of his wounds, and in his final moments accepts Christianity and blesses Gunlöd and Gunnar’s union.
The Outside
At an abandoned life-saving station in Provincetown, Mrs. Patrick and Allie Mayo have withdrawn from the world after painful losses. When rescuers bring a drowned man to the place, their repeated rescue work prompts Allie to try to save Mrs. Patrick from her chosen isolation.
The Outsider
The Outsider is a play by the British writer Dorothy Brandon. It portrays the struggle of an unorthodox medical practitioner to gain acceptance by the medical establishment. It was subsequently revised to show the unconventional triumphing over the conventional, whereas the play had originally had the opposite ending. It premiered at the Pleasure Gardens Theatre in Folkestone in April 1923, before transferring to the St James's Theatre for a West End run lasting for 107 performances between May and September the same year. The cast included Leslie Faber, Charles Kenyon and Isobel Elsom. A New York run in 1924 played at the 49th Street Theatre, produced by William Harris Jr. The cast included Lionel Atwill as Anton, Katharine Cornell as Lalage, Fernanda Eliscu as Madame Klost, Whitford Kane as Frederick and Pat Somerset as Basil. It has had a number of revivals. In 1931 a run at London's Apollo Theatre lasted for 66 performances. The cast featured Harold Huth in the title role along with Annie Esmond and Sebastian Shaw. Isobel Elsom reprised her role from the original production.
The Overcoat
A clerk’s life revolves around the acquisition and loss of a new coat. Without spoken dialogue, movement and music depict a rigid social world in which a small gain in status can be abruptly taken away.
The Owl Answers
A Black girl dreams of establishing her heritage and imagines seeking permission to bury her father in Westminster Cathedral. Historical figures challenge the possibility of her claiming that lineage as she recounts that her white father was a family employer and her mother his cook.
The Oxonian in Town
A satire, the work depicts a naive student of Oxford University travelling south to London where he becomes mixed up with shady company, only to be rescued by a fellow undergraduate from Oxford.
The Pageant and Masque of Saint Louis
A five-hour civic spectacle commemorating St. Louis's 150th anniversary combines a pageant surveying three centuries of local history with an allegorical masque presenting a symbolic sweep through the city's history.
The Pageant of the Italian Renaissance
A theatrical pageant presenting the Italian Renaissance, written and produced at the Chicago Art Institute.
The Painkiller
In a Belfast hotel, a suicidal photographer in one room and a professional hitman in the adjoining room disrupt each other’s plans, leading to an uneasy partnership.
The Painter
A biographical drama about J. M. W. Turner, focusing on the painter’s life and relationships, including those with his model Jenny Cole, his mother Mary Marshall, and his mistress Sarah Danby.
The Palace of Truth
At an enchanted palace where visitors must speak the truth, a king, queen, princess, prince and courtiers expose their hidden desires and jealousies. The revelations unsettle planned marriages and teach the characters to speak and act from the heart.
The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer
On the Provincetown wharfs, young playwright Don struggles with unrequited love for another man. The autobiographical drama draws on Williams’s relationship with Kip Kiernan, while Williams later described Don as unlike Kiernan in life.
The Parisian Woman
Socialite Chloe uses charm and wit as she navigates Washington politics, her past, her marriage and an uncertain future.
The Park
A new play derived from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, moving Shakespeare’s characters into a contemporary German city.
The Parliament of Bees
A series of allegorical dialogues depicts bees debating their actions, births, wars and courtships. Under Prorex, the Master Bee, complaints are made against the humble-bee, wasp, drone and other offenders; Oberon later distributes justice.
The Parliament of Love
At the court of Charles VIII, Bellisant rejects the moral strictures of her guardian while various courtiers pursue adulterous schemes. The king convenes a Parliament of Love to hear the lovers’ grievances; a threatened duel, a staged death, and a bed trick expose the characters’ conduct and lead to pardons and reconciliations.
The Parricide
The Parricide (also spelt The Parracide) is a 1736 tragedy written by the Irish writer James Sterling. The original Goodman's Fields Theatre cast included Benjamin Johnson as Altamar, William Havard as Montesini, Henry Giffard as Mirzabdi, Henry Woodward as Issouf, Anna Marcella Giffard as Beleyda and Sarah Hamilton as Amanthe.
The Parson's Wedding
The Captain and his lover Mrs Wanton scheme to punish the Parson for abandoning his old friends after gaining a church benefice. They trick him into marrying Wanton and humiliate him, while the Captain and other companions manipulate two widows and their suitors into further marriages. The comedy satirizes sexual and religious hypocrisy through bawdy verbal wit.
The Party
Set in Kilburn, the play examines mental illness and its effects on family dynamics, with disturbing suggestions of an incestuous relationship between Ettie and her father Richard.
The Party Spirit
The Party Spirit is a 1954 British comedy play by Peter Jones and John Jowett. It premiered at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 131 performances from 23 September 1954 and 15 January 1955. Starring Robertson Hare and Ralph Lynn, the cast also included Roger Maxwell, Frank Thornton and Vera Pearce.
The Passing of the Third Floor Back
A mysterious stranger takes a room at a shabby Bloomsbury boarding-house and quietly challenges its residents’ selfishness, deceit and bullying. His influence rekindles their better selves, changing their relationships and the atmosphere of the house before he leaves to help others.
The Passion and Resurrection of the Savior
A Paschal mystery play depicting the Passion of Christ and the Resurrection, staged at Valenciennes.
The Passion of Josef D.
Paddy Chayefsky's play dramatizes the life of Josef Stalin, set in Russia from 1917 to 1924 and placing Stalin and Lenin among its central figures.
The Passionate Pianist
Ben, the teenage son of a Sydney bookmaker, would rather play football than practice piano. His mother believes he is a genius and enters him in an eisteddfod.
The Pastoral
In the first part, the farmer Milesio’s love for the nymph Siringa ends in his suicide; two other farmers mistake one another for dead. In the second, Ruzante exploits the confusion to obtain food and a remedy for his father, then returns in time to share a lamb sacrificed at Pan’s altar.
The Patient
After a woman is injured in a fall from her balcony, her relatives gather at her hospital bed while investigators seek to understand what happened.
The Patrician's Daughter
The Patrician's Daughter is an 1842 tragedy by the British writer John Westland Marston. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 10 December 1842. The original cast included William Macready as Mordaunt, Samuel Phelps as the Earl of Lynterne, Edward William Elton as Heartwell, George John Bennett as Lister, Charles Selby as Lord Chatterly, Morris Barnett as Sir Archer Taunton, John Ryder as Physician, George Yarnold as Solicitor, Mary Warner as Lady Lydia Lynterne and Helena Faucit as Lady Mabel Lynterne.
The Patriot
The Patriot, or, The Italian Conspiracy is a 1702 tragedy by the English writer Charles Gildon. Based on the life of Cosimo de' Medici but also inspired by Nathaniel Lee's 1680 work Lucius Junius Brutus set during the Roman Republic. The original Drury Lane cast included John Mills as Cosimo De Medici, Benjamin Husband as Lorenzo, Thomas Simpson as Uberto, Thomas Kent as Donato, Philip Griffin as Rimini, Jane Rogers as Teraminta and Mary Kent as Honoria. The prologue was by John Dennis and the epilogue by George Farquhar. Incidental music was composed by Daniel Purcell.
The Patriots
Returning from France, Thomas Jefferson hopes to spend time with his daughters at Monticello, but George Washington asks him to become Secretary of State amid political opposition and fears of rising monarchist strength. Jefferson reluctantly accepts and soon confronts rival Alexander Hamilton in the period before the 1800 election.
The Paymaster
The Paymaster is an American military melodrama by, and originally starring, Duncan B. Harrison. Adams had briefly been cast in the part of the heroine in an earlier part of the play's run, but was re-cast as in a minor role as a maidservant,.
The Peach Season
On a peach farm, a desperate brother and sister arrive looking for harvest work, stirring strong feelings, dangerous decisions, and conflict between a protective mother and her teenage daughter. Celia's daughter Zoe longs for more independence after years sheltered from the world.
The Pee-wee Herman Show
In Puppetland, Pee-wee spends a day with his friends, gives his magical wish to Miss Yvonne, then learns that Jambi can still grant his wish to fly. The stage show parodies low-budget children's television and includes songs, puppets, and audience participation.
The Penitent
A psychiatrist, Charles (Chris Bauer), has his career and life become derailed after he refuses to testify on behalf of a former patient who had become clinically violent and unstable, resulting in the deaths of multiple people following a tragic breakdown of his mental complications. The patient then claims that Charles will not testify in court or to the police because the patient is openly part of the LGBT community. Further, the patient claims that Charles has recently gone through a religious conversion in his own personal identity which has resulted in a fully prejudiced reassessment of the gay community as a whole. Charles claims that the basis of these accusations are false and due to a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding resulted from an innocent mistyping of the title of an article that Charles wrote years ago about homosexuality where the title was "Homosexuality as an Adaptation," though the published version was released by the editor as the mistyped "Homosexuality as an Aberration." The resulting recriminations put Charles's entire career at risk and threaten to end his practice permanently.
The Perfect Cure
The Perfect Cure is a 1913 comedy play by the British writer Stanley Houghton. A father is cured of his selfish habits by a charming widow. His final play, premiering several months before his death, it was not a success unlike other recent hits Hindle Wakes and The Younger Generation. It ran for four performances at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End before being withdrawn. Houghton was present on opening night. The original cast included Cathleen Nesbitt and Charles Hawtrey.It was produced by Henry Lowenfeld.
The Perfectionist
An academic working on a PhD and his wife hire a Danish student to babysit their children, setting the play's domestic and academic tensions in motion.
The Perfidious Brother
The Perfidious Brother is a 1716 tragedy by the British writer Lewis Theobald. A dispute rose of the authorship of the play when a watchmaker and aspiring playwright Henry Meystayer claimed that Theobald had stolen it from him. Meystayer published his own version of the play presenting it as the work of the "original author". Theobald was later to be involved in a much more controversial dispute in 1727 when he presented Double Falsehood as being based on a lost work of William Shakespeare. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included John Corey as Gonsalvo, Theophilus Keene as Sebastian, Thomas Smith as Roderick, John Leigh as Beaufort, Jane Rogers as Luciana and Jane Bullock as Selinda.
The Performers
The Performers is a comedy play written by David West Read and directed by Evan Cabnet. It premiered on Broadway on November 14, 2012.
The Perjur'd Husband: or, The Adventures of Venice
At the Venetian Carnival, rake Count Bassino is married to Placentia but loves Aurelia, who believes he is free to marry her. Placentia disguises herself to warn Aurelia, but the confrontation ends with all three mortally wounded. In the comic subplot, maid Lucy maneuvers her employer and mistress into silence about their affairs.
The Permanent Way
Through verbatim accounts of passengers, railway staff, and government figures, the play traces Britain's railway privatization and the consequences of mismanagement, including bereavement and injury from major crashes.
The Perplexed Couple
The Perplexed Couple is a 1715 comedy play by the Irish writer Charles Molloy. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included George Pack as Sir Anthony Thinwit, William Bullock as Morecraft, Benjamin Griffin as Sterling, John Leigh as Octavio, James Spiller as Crispin, Letitia Cross as Leonora, Frances Maria Knight as Lady Thinwit and Elizabeth Spiller as Isbel.
The Perplexities
The Perplexities is a 1767 comedy play by the British actor and writer Thomas Hull. It was a reworking of an earlier Restoration-era play Adventures of Five Hours by Samuel Tuke, itself based on an original Spanish work. The original Covent Garden cast included Hull himself as Don Juan, William Smith as Don Antonio, David Ross as Don Henriquez, George Mattocks as Don Florio, John Cushing as Ernesto, Maria Macklin as Honoria, Mary Bulkley as Felicia and Jane Green as Rosa.
The Persian Princess
The Persian Princess is a 1708 tragedy by the British writer Lewis Theobald. It was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. It is also written as The Persian Princess: or, The Royal Villain. The play was not a great success and Theobald himself wrote disparagingly of it, although its acceptance to be staged at a major theatre suggests that it was seen as having merit. Along with his later work The Perfidious Brother, it has been examined for textual clues in light of the authorship of Double Falsehood a play that Theobald claimed to be based on a lost William Shakespeare work. The original Drury Lane cast included Theophilus Keene as Memnon, Robert Wilks as Artaban, John Mills as Oxartes, Barton Booth as Mirvan, John Corey as Barzanes and Thomas Smith as High Priest.
The Persians
In Susa, Queen Atossa and the Persian elders await news of Xerxes's campaign against Greece. A messenger reports the Persian defeat at Salamis; the ghost of Darius condemns Xerxes's hubris, and Xerxes returns in grief to lament the losses with the chorus.
The Petrified Forest
Act I The play opens inside the Black Mesa Bar-B-Q cafe, with two telegraph linemen eating lunch. Boze Hertzlinger sits with the linemen, while one of them discusses the advantages of Russian communism. Gramp Maple sits in his rocking chair, half-listening to the talk. When the word "pioneer" is used, Gramp perks up and the second lineman draws him into the conversation, hoping to divert it. A car horn is heard; Jason Maples enters and orders Boze outside to fill a customer's gas tank. Paula brings the linemen their dessert. When the linemen leave Jason scolds Gramp for boring the customers, and says he'll report them for being pinkos. Jason argues with Gramp about selling the business to Dana Trimble, so they can relocate to Los Angeles and open a garage. Gabby enters and agrees with Jason, but she wants to use some of the proceeds to live with her mother in France and study art. After Jason leaves for his American Legion meeting, Boze romances Gabby, is rebuffed at first but is making progress when Alan Squier enters. Squier orders a meal; while eating, he and Gabby tell each other their stories. She is fascinated with his conversation. She shows him the book she is reading, poetry by François Villon, with which Squier is familiar. Squier asks where the road outside leads and is told about the petrified forest. He feels that maybe this is his destination. Gabby confesses her dream of painting in France; he counters by musing about French artists yearning to paint the Arizona desert. Herb enters the cafe to pick up some food and beer. He mentions to Boze the Duke Mantee gang seems to be heading their way. Gabby shows Squier some of her watercolor paintings, which he says are in the "Dufy manner". Squier confesses he can't pay for the meal; Boze is angry but Gabby shrugs it off. The Chisholms now enter with Joseph, having arrived in their Duesenberg touring car. Joseph orders gas and oil, which Boze exits to fulfill. Gabby asks them to take Squier in their car to Phoenix. Mr. Chisholm reluctantly agrees, after Joseph searches Squier for weapons. They depart, and Boze now makes the big play for Gabby. Thinking Squier is out of her life, she agrees to go outside with Boze just to see what it's like. But before they can leave, Duke Mantee and his gang enter the cafe, having arrived in the Chisholm's hijacked Duesenberg. Jackie and Ruby carry tommy guns, with Jackie also carrying a sawed-off shotgun. Pyles stays outside in the Duesenberg, watching the road. When Duke takes off his suit coat he has two shoulder holsters with revolvers. The gang brings Gramp and Paula into the lunchroom. Paula is sent to the kitchen to cook food for the gang. Having been abandoned on the road, Squier returns to the cafe to get help, but is re-captured by the gang. Duke is gracious, allowing Squiers to have a drink. (Curtain) Act II (Thirty minutes later) Boze and Squier sit at one table, Gramps and Paula at the other. Only Gabby is free to move around. Duke and Jackie are finishing eating, while Ruby watches the captives. Gramp regales the gangsters with his memories. Boze calls the gangsters yellow. Jackie scares Boze by having him stand up and move away from the others until Duke tells them both to sit down. From the radio they hear that one of the gang's cars with a woman in it has knocked over a police station in a small Texas town, seizing arms and ammo. Duke reacts to Jackie or Ruby mentioning Doris by saying shut up. Ruby is sent to relieve Pyles in the car, so he can come in and eat. Duke tells Paula to cook Pyles some hamburger and sends him along to the kitchen to keep an eye on her and find some rope. Pyles asks when they were going to get moving again; Duke replies when it's time. Jackie winks at Pyles and says the boss has got a heavy date. Pyles suggests getting out of range is more important than a dame. Gramp asks Squier to pass the bottle over, which Gabby nixes. Jackie challenges Gramp when he reaches for his pipe, but Duke tells him to go ahead and smoke. Boze yells at Squier for drinking when can't pay for it, but Squier admits to having a dollar Gabby gave him. Stung, Boze replies that she was going to give him something else, causing Gabby to erupt with fury at Boze. He backs down immediately, begging her forgiveness. Gabby tells Squier about her near fall, who in turns consoles Boze. Jackie is amused and wishes Boze good luck. He goes into the kitchen with the map, leaving the shot gun on the table. Duke Mantee is affable with the philosophical musings of a slightly tipsy Squier, who suggests they both belong in the petrified forest along with the other obsolete detritus of civilization. Gabby in turn declares she's in love with Squier, but knows he doesn't reciprocate the feeling. She tells Boze that's why she was willing to go with him. Squier scolds Gramp for hanging onto his money when it might be better for him to die and let his granddaughter make use of it. This draws a stern rebuke from Duke for talking to an old man that way. With Jackie and Pyles in the kitchen, Boze seizes the shotgun when Duke is distracted. Boze holds Duke at bay, but just then the Chisholms and Joseph enter. Mrs. Chisholm screams, and as Boze swerves the shotgun to cover them, Duke draws a revolver and wounds Boze. Jackie and Pyles burst in; Boze is taken into the kitchen for bandaging by Gabby and to be tied up by Jackie and Pyles. Squier now takes out his life insurance policy, and changes the beneficiary to Gabby. He asks the Chisholms to witness it, and hands it to Gramp for holding. Squier then asks Duke to kill him just before the gang leaves, but admonishes the Chisholms and Gramp to not let Gabby know it wasn't in cold-blood. Duke agrees, and when Pyles comes in they all have a drink. Pyles is ready to hand one to Gramp, but Duke stops him, saying the girl didn't want that. So Pyles hands it to Joseph instead, then gets irked when he looks to Mr. Chisholm for permission to drink it. Pyles again urges Duke to leave now, that Doris and the others must have got lost in the panhandle. Duke says she was the one to pick this rendezvous. Gramp calls Squier a fool, saying no woman was worth $5000. Squier refutes him by pointing out that Duke could have left already but is risking death waiting for Doris. When Gabby returns, Mrs Chisholm urges her to go to France and not sacrifice herself. Her self-confessions are interrupted by the arrival of Jason and two other legionnaires, escorted by Ruby and his tommy gun. The three legionnaires are seated on the floor. Duke smirks at their "pansy uniforms" but is surprised to learn they were hunting the gang here. Hendy tells the gang that the cops caught the other car and the dame in it squealed, so the whole manhunt is shifting this way. Another car stops well short of the cafe; Sheriff and his deputies start flanking the cafe. Duke sends Jackie to cover the rear entrance and has Ruby get the Dusenberg ready. Pyles and Duke begin exchanging shots with the deputies in front. Duke has the three legionnaires, Joseph, and the Chisholms mount the running boards of the Dusenberg as human shields. He sends Pyles to fetch Jackie, but the latter is already dead, gunned down by the Sheriff. Duke sends Pyles to the Dusenberg, and upon Squier's insistence, shoots him just before he leaves, saying they'll be meeting again soon. The Sheriff and two deputies, guns drawn come in through the back entrance. Gabby has moved Squier to a chair at a table where he soon dies. Duke and his gang make their escape, letting their hostages go a mile down the road. Gabby recites Villon's poetry over Squier's body, as Gramp holds the insurance policy.(Curtain)
The Petty Demon
A stage dramatization of Sologub’s novel about provincial schoolteacher Peredonov, whose pursuit of promotion is distorted by corruption and paranoia.
The Phantom
The first act begins with two owners of an inn, Janet and Davy, on their wedding night. There is a big storm when the landlord's daughter Lucy Peveryl asks Davy to accompany her to the treacherous Raby Castle to see her love, Roland. The Ruins of the Raby, as the castle is commonly referred as, are abandoned and there is a legend that some sort of demon is there and anyone who goes inside is horrified to death. Davy agrees cautiously to lead Lucy to the ruins of the Raby. They are joined by Lord Albert Clavering, Neville, Guy, Ellen, and Maude, who had all been staying at the inn. When the bridge that leads them to the castle is knocked down by the storm, they have to take shelter in the castle. There they meet a man who identifies as a puritan living in the castle. This is Alan Raby, who is the phantom demon described in the legends. Davy is suspicious, but the others are unbothered by his presence. After discovering Roland is dead, everyone is terrified as a scream is heard from Lucy's room. Lucy runs out of her room into Lord Clavering's arms and dies, appearing to have been murdered. Alan then comes out and is shot by Lord Clavering in the heart. Lord Clavering believes he has mistakenly shot a good puritan and obeys Alan's request to place his body in the moonlight. After the group leaves to return to the inn, Alan is seen resurrecting by the power of the moon. The second act is set many years later and introduces Colonel Raby, Edgar, Dr. Reese and Ada Raby. Outside the castle, Colonel Raby announces that the village citizens will assemble in the castle, where he will wed Ada Raby. Stump and Jenny are introduced as lovers who reveal that Ada had died, but was brought back to life by a mysterious creature. When she was brought back to life, she never had the same personality as before. A will from Alan Raby is discovered and there is a case of Alan Raby being caught living longer than normal under different pen names. Alan forces Ada into a marriage ceremony, but Edgar challenges him to a duel. Alan is killed in the duel, and his body is cast into a dark abyss so the moon will never bring him back to life.
The Phantom Lady
In Madrid, Doña Ángela seeks to win Don Manuel while avoiding the notice of her brothers, who confine and watch over her. Using an ingenious hidden means of communication that gives him the impression of an invisible woman, she draws him into a mysterious courtship.
The Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story is a 1939 American comic play by Philip Barry. It tells the story of a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist.
The Philanderer
Leonard Charteris juggles the affections of Grace Tranfield and Julia Craven while insisting he will marry neither. At the Ibsen Club, medical and romantic entanglements complicate their relationships; Julia ultimately accepts a proposal from Dr. Paramore, and she and Grace congratulate each other on escaping Charteris.
The Philanthropist
At an English university, don Philip and his fiancée Celia host a dinner for fellow lecturer Donald, writer Braham, Araminta, Liz and student John. After a tutorial in which Philip and Donald critique John’s implausible play, the guests pair off; the next morning reveals the emotional and sexual consequences of their awkward encounters.
The Philistines
In the Bessemenov household, a once-commanding father struggles to control his adult children as they try to break away from his authority. Their arguments and family dramas unfold within the home, against the tension of a generational shift.
The Phlebotomist
In a society where everyone's DNA is mapped and ranked, people are judged by the quality of their genes. Bea, Aaron and their friend Char navigate this genetic hierarchy and its social consequences.
The Phoenician Women
Jocasta tries to reconcile her sons Eteocles and Polynices, who dispute the throne of Thebes. As war approaches, Teiresias says Creon must sacrifice his son Menoeceus to save the city. Menoeceus does so, but the brothers kill each other in a duel and Jocasta takes her life. Antigone defies Creon's burial order and accompanies her exiled father Oedipus.
The Phoenix
Prince Phoenix disguises himself to investigate abuses in his father’s kingdom. With Fidelio, he exposes corrupt courtiers, a predatory justice and a scheming captain, then reveals the conspiracies and assumes power.
The Phoney Civilization
In a small Bulgarian town, storekeeper Hadzhi Kosta objects to his wife’s and daughter’s spending on foreign clothes and accessories. He also worries that his family is abandoning its traditions and adopting fashionable behavior promoted by foreign brands and local snobs.
The Physicists
In a psychiatric sanatorium, three physicists who claim to be Newton, Einstein, and in contact with King Solomon are revealed as spies or as Möbius, who feigned madness to contain dangerous scientific discoveries. They agree to remain imprisoned to protect humanity, but the director has secretly copied Möbius's work and plans to build an empire.
The Piano Lesson
Scene 1: Boy Willie and Lymon arrive in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Mississippi and enter the Charles' household at five in the morning. They have brought a truck of watermelons to sell. Against Doaker's advice, Boy Willie wakes his sister Berniece, and tells her of Sutter's death. Berniece accuses Boy Willie of shoving Sutter down a well, and she asks him to leave. Instead, Boy Willie wakes Berniece's daughter, Maretha, causing Berniece to run back up the stairs where she sees Sutter's ghost. Lymon notices the piano which Willie intends to sell to buy Sutter's land. Doaker insists that Berniece will not sell the piano, because she refused to sell when Avery brought a buyer to the house. Willie insists that he will convince her. Maretha comes downstairs, and Willie asks her to play the piano. She plays the beginning of a few simple tunes, and he answers her song with a boogie-woogie. Berniece enters with Avery, and Willie asks whether she still has the prospective buyer's name, explaining he came to Pittsburgh to sell the piano. Berniece refuses to listen and walks out. Scene 2: Wining Boy and Doaker talk in the kitchen when Boy Willie and Lymon enter and claim to have located the piano buyer. Willie's uncles warn him that Sutter will cheat him but Boy Willie refuses to listen. The story behind Lymon and Boy Willie's term in Parchman Prison Farm is revealed. Lymon and Willie both gather different perspectives from their experiences. Lymon wants to flee to the North where he will be better treated, while Willie feels that whites only treat blacks badly if the blacks do not try to stop them. They ask Wining Boy to play the piano, but instead he explains that being seen as nothing more than a piano player became a burden. Doaker then tells the story of the piano's history. Generations earlier, Sutter, their family's slave-owner, broke up a family by selling a mother and child to pay for the piano which he bought for his wife as an anniversary present. The wife was happy with the piano but missed having the slaves, so Sutter had that family's husband/father (who was a carpenter and too valuable to sell), carve their likenesses on the piano. He carved likenesses of his entire history on the piano. In 1911, Boy Willie's father stole the piano from the Sutters; in retaliation he was killed. Willie declares that these are stories of the past and that the piano should now be put to good use. Willie and Lymon attempt to move the piano to test its weight. As soon as they try to move it, Sutter's ghost is heard. Berniece tells Willie to stop and informs him that he is selling his soul for money. Willie refutes her, Berniece blames Crawley's death on Willie, and the two engage in a fight. Upstairs, Maretha is confronted by the ghosts, and she screams in terror. Scene 1: Doaker and Wining Boy are again together in the house alone. Doaker confesses that he saw Sutter's ghost playing the piano and feels that Berniece should discard the piano so as to prevent spirits from traumatizing the Charles family. Wining Boy disagrees. Lymon and Willie walk into the room after a watermelon sale. Wining Boy sells his suit and shoes to Lymon, promising its swooning effects on women. Both Lymon and Willie leave the house in hot pursuit of women. Scene 2: Later that day as Berniece is preparing for her bath, Avery enters and proposes that Berniece should open up and let go. He tells her that she cannot continue to live her life with Crawley's memory shut inside her. Berniece changes the topic and asks Avery to bless the house, hoping to destroy the spirit of the Sutter ghost. Avery then brings up the piano and tells Berniece she should learn to not be afraid of her family's spirits and play it again. Berniece breaks down her story of her mother's tears and blood mingled with her father's soul on the piano and refuses to open her wounds for everyone to see. Scenes 3–5: Boy Willie enters the Charles house with Grace and begins to fool around on the couch. Berniece orders them out and opens the door to see Lymon. Lymon is upset over his inability to woo women and begins to talk about women's virtues to Berniece. The two kiss, breaking Berniece's discomfort over Crawley's death, and Berniece heads back upstairs. The next morning, Lymon and Willie try to move the piano out and are stopped by Uncle Doaker. Willie, frustrated, demands that he will sell the piano no matter what. The day to move the piano draws closer. Excited to sell the piano, Willie quickly partakes on his actions without a care of his sister's words. Berniece appears with Crawley's gun, leading Doaker and Avery to urge them to talk it through first. Sutter's presence as a ghost is suddenly revived. Avery attempts to drive the ghost away with his blessings but is not successful. Suddenly, Berniece knows that she must play the piano again as a plea to her ancestors. Finally, the house is led to a calm aura, and Willie leaves to head back to Mississippi. Before leaving however, he reminds Berniece to keep playing on the piano, or he and Sutter will return.
The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key
After her husband and son die, celebrated pianist Erin avoids the piano for two years. Piano teacher Elaine helps her return to music and hope, while the arrival of renovator Tom brings a new relationship and prompts Elaine to question her own choice to teach rather than perform.
The Piccadilly Bushman
An expatriate Australian actor returns from England to Australia to star in a film adaptation of a successful Australian novel.
The Picture
Before leaving for war, the Bohemian knight Mathias receives a portrait that changes color if his wife Sophia is tempted or unfaithful. When Queen Honoria and two courtiers manipulate the couple, the portrait fuels jealousy and desire, until Sophia turns the seducers’ plan against them and the royal pair confronts its own conduct.
The Picture
A painter tries to sell a picture to a shrewd businessman, whose sister later dominates him; after he shoots her, she and the neighbor transform, and the painter returns as Prince Charming.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a stage play written by Australian writer Kip Williams, based on the 1891 novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde. The play has one performer portraying 26 roles from the original novel.
The Pig, or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig
A comic story based on Havel’s effort to hold a pig roast for his friends. For the stage version, Morávek expanded Havel’s 1987 dialogue with roles for characters previously mentioned in passing and incorporated sections from the Czech work The Bartered Bride.
The Pilgrim
Alinda flees her father’s attempt to force her into marriage and disguises herself as a boy while seeking Pedro, who is travelling in pilgrim’s garb. Their journeys cross with outlaw Roderigo and the madhouse at Segovia; after several disguises and misadventures, Pedro and Alinda reunite and Roderigo seeks royal pardon.
The Pilgrim Woman
Girolamo Bargagli's court play was staged for the 1589 Medici-Lorraine wedding with six elaborate musical interludes and scenic designs by Bernardo Buontalenti.
The Pilgrimage to Parnassus
Two students, Philomusus and Studioso, travel allegorically through stages of university learning toward Parnassus. They encounter figures who tempt them away from scholarship before they resume their journey.
The Pillars of Society
Businessman Karsten Bernick's concealed misconduct resurfaces when his brother-in-law returns, while Bernick risks a ship and its crew to protect his reputation and plans.
The Pillowman
Katurian, a writer of short stories that often depict violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of his stories resemble recent child murders. When he hears that his brother Michal has confessed to the murders and implicated Katurian, he resigns himself to being executed but attempts to save his stories from destruction. The play contains both narrations and reenactments of several of Katurian's stories, including the autobiographical "The Writer and the Writer's Brother", which tells how Katurian developed his disturbed imagination by hearing the sounds of Michal being tortured by their parents.
The Pink Dominos
Two wives test their husbands' fidelity by sending them invitations to a masked ball. Their husbands accept, but a mischievous maid in a similar pink domino gown creates a tangle of mistaken identities, secret suppers, and misplaced blame.
The Pitchfork Disney
Presley and his sister Haley live in an isolated, childish world in London's East End. They let in Cosmo Disney, an insect-eating showman, and his masked partner Pitchfork Cavalier; Cosmo sexually assaults Haley, and Presley drives him away, leaving the siblings frightened by the encounter.
The Pitmen Painters
Set in Ashington in 1934, Lee Hall’s play dramatizes the Ashington Group, the community of painters whose story inspired the work.
The Plain Dealer
Captain Manly, a sailor who distrusts nearly everyone, seeks revenge after Olivia leaves him for his friend Vernish. He sends a disguised page to seduce Olivia, then discovers the page is Fidelia, who loves him, and marries her.
The Platonick Lady
The Platonick Lady is a 1706 comedy play by the British writer Susanna Centlivre. Staged at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket in November 1706, it was published the following year and is sometimes dated as 1707. In the play's preface the author defended the right of woman to write plays. The plot revolves around the question of platonic friendship. The cast included Thomas Betterton as Sir Thomas Beaumont, Barton Booth as Sir Charles Richley, Robert Wilks as Captain Beaumont, Colley Cibber as Sharper, George Pack as Robin, Henry Norris as Equipage, Anne Bracegirdle as Lucinda, Anne Oldfield as Isabella, Margaret Bicknell as Toylet, William Bullock as Mrs Brazen, Elizabeth Willis as Mrs Dowdy, Margaret Mills as Betty and Elinor Leigh as Peeper.
The Platonick Lovers
Theander and Eurithea begin with idealized intellectual love, while their siblings Phylomont and Ariola represent a more physical romance. When medicine changes Theander's view of women, his courtly equality with Eurithea gives way to a controlling marriage, exposing the pretensions of platonic love.
The Play About the Baby
The Play About the Baby is a play by Edward Albee.
The Play That Goes Wrong
The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, after being forced by a lack of personnel to stage scaled-down productions such as Two Sisters, The Lion and The Wardrobe, Cat, and James and the Peach, has received a substantial bequest and is putting on a performance of The Murder at Haversham Manor – a 1920s murder mystery play, similar to The Mousetrap, which has the right number of parts for its members. The cast is headed by Chris Bean, who plays Inspector Carter and serves as the show's director, set designer, costume designer, props maker, box office manager, press and PR person, voice and dialect coach, and fight choreographer. Before the play starts the backstage staff makes last-minute adjustments to the set, including trying to mend a broken mantelpiece and find a dog that has run off. During the performance, a plethora of disasters befalls the actors, including doors sticking or failing to stay closed, loose floorboards, set pieces falling, and platforms collapsing. Cast members fall down, are struck by set pieces, misplace and break props, forget lines, miss cues, break character, drink white spirit instead of Scotch whisky, mispronounce words, step on fingers, are hidden in a grandfather clock, and are manhandled off stage. One cast member is knocked unconscious, and her replacement (the group's technician reading the lines from a script) refuses to yield when the actress returns. An actor repeats an earlier line of dialogue, cuing the other actors to repeat the whole dialogue sequence, ever more frenetically, several times. During intermission, a few of the actors will interact directly with patrons in the lobby as Bean desperately tries to corral them back into the dressing room. In the climax, virtually the whole of the remaining set collapses.
The Play What I Wrote
Its title is drawn from one of Morecambe and Wise's catchphrases, as is "A Tight Squeeze for the Scarlet Pimple", the "play within a play" (with a cameo by a mystery guest star) which formed the play's second half. It is named after the "play wot I wrote", a series of inept plays, supposedly written by a proud Ernie Wise, and featuring a celebrity guest which formed the finale to each Morecambe and Wise show. In The Play What I Wrote, "Sean" writes a similarly inept play and is humoured by "Hamish" in the first half by having it performed. As in the Morecambe and Wise antecedent, the celebrity would play him or herself set up to appear, rather foolishly, as the title character of this play within a play. Celebrities who appeared as the mystery guest during the show's London run included Ralph Fiennes (who appeared on opening night), Ewan McGregor, Bob Geldof, Cilla Black and Sue Johnston. Kevin Kline, Roger Moore (who suffered a heart attack onstage during a performance), Alan Alda, Al Roker, Jeff Goldblum and Daniel Radcliffe were among those who appeared in the Broadway run.
The Play is the Plot
The Play is the Plot is a 1718 comedy play by the British writer John Durant Breval. Originally staged at the Drury Lane Theatre the cast featured Benjamin Johnson as Sir Barnaby Bindover, Thomas Walker as Captain Carbine, William Pinkethman as Colonel Ringwood, Henry Norris as Buskin, William Bowen as Truncheon, Colley Cibber as Peter Pirate, James Oates as Jeremy, Joe Miller as Machone, Margaret Saunders as Prudentia and Susanna Mountfort as Fidelia. In 1723 Breval rewrote his work as an afterpiece retitled The Strollers which enjoyed considerable success.
The Play of Everyman
When God sends Death to summon the wealthy Everyman, he has one hour to find someone to accompany him. Friends and riches refuse; Good Deeds and Faith join him as his journey confronts his treatment of the poor and his spiritual neglect. Sterling's reworking adds War and Workman and reshapes the medieval morality story through modern social themes.
The Play of Lights
A two-act stage adaptation of Potok's novel, created at the request of Philadelphia Festival of New Plays producer/director Carol Rocamora. The adaptation reshapes the book into a play about its central character, a young rabbi and military chaplain whose encounter with other faiths unsettles his beliefs.
The Play of Wyt and Science
Wit falls in love with Lady Science and sets out to defeat her enemy, Tediousness. After disregarding advice and suffering setbacks involving Idleness and Ignorance, he learns to use reason and instruction, reunites with his companions, and joins them to defeat Tediousness before agreeing to marry Science.
The Play of the Weather
Jupiter descends from a divine parliament to hear people’s competing requests for weather. After a series of petitioners—including a hunter, merchant, millers, gentlewoman, laundress and boy—argue for conditions suited to their work or pleasure, Jupiter concludes that no one group matters more than another and leaves the weather unchanged.
The Play's the Thing
When composer Albert overhears his fiancée Ilona's suggestive conversation with the actor Almady, playwright Turai devises a plan to save their engagement: he writes a play incorporating their words and persuades them to perform it as a rehearsal. The performance persuades Albert that the earlier conversation was only acting.
The Playboy of the Western World
Christy Mahon arrives at an Irish pub claiming to have killed his father and becomes a local hero. When his father appears alive, the villagers turn on Christy; his second attack leads them to try to hang him, until the father survives again and leaves with his son.
The Playhouse to be Let
A five-act theatrical anthology begins with actors auditioning for a vacant playhouse, then links a translation of Molière’s Sganarelle, two earlier Davenant dramatic tableaux, and a final burlesque of tragedy. The pieces range across comedy, historical spectacle and parody, while the framing act comments on the theatre and its performers.
The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus
Fortunatus chooses wealth over wisdom when Fortune offers him gifts and receives a purse that supplies gold. After his death, his sons inherit the purse and a magical travel hat, but their pursuit of pleasure and power brings deception, transformation and ruin; the play ends by asking Elizabeth I to judge whether Vice or Virtue has triumphed.
The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising
Günter Grass criticizes Bertolt Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble for their inaction during the 1953 East German uprising.
The Pledge
The Pledge; Or, Castilian Honour is an 1831 tragedy by the British writer James Kenney. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 8 April 1831. It is inspired by the play Hernani by French writer Victor Hugo. The original London cast included William Macready as Don Leo, Henry John Wallack as Hernani, John Cooper as Don Carlos and George Yarnold as Don Ricardo.
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