The Romance of Magno Rubio
Told largely in rhymed couplets and using Filipino performance traditions, the play follows lovesick migrant farmworker Magno Rubio, who becomes entranced by a white woman in Arkansas who seeks to exploit him.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Romans in Britain
Howard Brenton's play links Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in 54 BCE, Britain in 515 CE and Ireland in 1980 to comment on imperialism and abuses of power, drawing a direct parallel between Roman conquest and the contemporary British presence in Northern Ireland.
The Romantic Young Lady
A comedy of manners following Rosario, a 23-year-old heroine, with a sophisticated suitor and a thrice-married grandmother; the action spans one August evening to the next and examines women’s place in Spanish society.
The Romany Rye
A five-act melodrama built around jealousy between two half-brothers, one of them half Romani.
The Romp
A comic afterpiece derived from Love in the City, centered on the earlier play's popular character Priscilla Tomboy, also known as Miss Prissy.
The Room
Rose tries to preserve the comfort and safety of her bedsit while discussing the weather with her silent husband Bert and evading the landlord's questions. A young couple arrive looking for a flat; then Riley, a blind man with a message from Rose's father, appears. Bert returns, attacks Riley and leaves Rose crying that she cannot see.
The Roommate
Sharon is recently divorced and lives in Iowa and invites Robyn, relocating from New York City, to be her roommate. As the two get to know each other better, secrets are revealed and they learn more about themselves in the process.
The Rope Dancers
The Rope Dancers is a dramatic stage play written by American playwright Morton Wishengrad (1913–1963). The play premiered on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 1957. The play was a critical and commercial success, and transferred to the Henry Miller Theatre beginning January 27, 1958 for an extended run. The play was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. The plays tells the story of Margaret and James Hyland, who have a daughter born with six fingers and suffers from Saint Vitus' dance.
The Rose Tattoo
The Rose Tattoo is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1949 and 1950; after its Chicago premiere on December 29, 1950, he made further revisions to the play for its Broadway premiere on February 2, 1951, and its publication by New Directions the following month. A film adaptation was released in 1955. The Rose Tattoo tells the story of an Italian-American widow in Mississippi who has withdrawn from the world after her husband's death and expects her daughter to do the same. The setting is a place in proximity to Biloxi. Jacob Adler stated that the story is disconnected from the culture of the Southern United States as the plot "has almost no Southern connections".
The Rose Without a Thorn
The Rose Without a Thorn is a 1933 historical play by the British writer Clifford Bax. It portrays the courtship and marriage of Henry VIII and his fifth wife Catherine Howard. It ran in the West End for 128 performances, debuting at the Duke of York's Theatre before transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre. The cast was headed by Frank Vosper as Henry VIII and also included Joan Maude, Alastair Sim, Lawrence Hanray and Fabia Drake. In 1947 it was adapted by the BBC into a television film of the same title starring Arthur Young and Victoria Hopper as Henry and Catherine.
The Rose of Arragon
The Rose of Arragon is an 1842 tragedy by the Irish-born writer James Sheridan Knowles. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 4 June 1842. The cast included Ellen Kean as Olivia, Charles Kean as Alasco, Henry Howe as the King of Arragon, Samuel Phelps as Almargo and Frederick Vining as Velasquez. It was similar in style to Knowles' earlier work The Wife of Mantua. In 1849 William Creswick opened his actor-management of the Surrey Theatre by playing Alasco in a revival.
The Roses of Eyam
During the 1665–66 plague in Eyam, Reverend William Mompesson and former Puritan rector Thomas Stanley set aside their differences and persuade villagers to remain in quarantine. As deaths empty the village, the community sustains isolation until the outbreak ends without spreading to the county.
The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause
Set shortly before the Restoration, the play portrays members of the Committee of Safety as they plot against one another for power. Two aristocratic women fall for Royalist Cavaliers as the king's forces retake London, bringing imprisonment and romantic reunions.
The Rover
During Carnival in Naples, Hellena, destined for a convent, pursues the naval captain Willmore, while Florinda tries to escape her brother's marriage plans and wed the English colonel Belville. Their entangled romantic and comic schemes culminate in marriages, as Willmore agrees to marry Hellena.
The Royal Convert
The Royal Convert is a 1707 tragedy by the British writer Nicholas Rowe. The play is set in England during the Saxon era featuring two brothers in a love triangle with a young Christian woman. It was staged at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket enjoying a compartiviely successful run for the era of five consecutive nights, followed later by two request performances. Barton Booth played the role of Hengist, King of Kent with Robert Wilks as his brother Aribert. John Mills was Seofrid, Benjamin Husband was Offa, Theophilus Keene was Rodogune, Elizabeth Barry appeared as Rodogune and Anne Oldfield as Ethelinda. Many of the actors in the play had appeared in Rowe's previous tragedy Ulysses. Rowe dedicated the play to the Whig Junto member Lord Halifax. As with many of his works, the plot was in line with his Whig views and supported the prospect of a Hanoverian Succession rather than their rival Jacobites.
The Royal Family
The exploits of the Barrymore-Drew family are parodied in this George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber comedy.
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
In Peter Shaffer's dramatization of Pizarro's conquest of Peru, young Martin joins an expedition driven by gold and Christian conversion. After the Spaniards massacre Incas and capture Atahualpa, Pizarro bargains for a room filled with gold and grows close to the Inca ruler. Despite Pizarro's change of faith, Atahualpa is executed; his promised rebirth does not occur, and Pizarro grieves.
The Royal Master
In Naples, royal favorite Montalto seeks to marry Theodosia, the king’s sister, by breaking up her proposed match with the Duke of Florence and arranging for the duke to fall for Domitilla. His deceptions create a scandal around Theodosia, but the king’s apparent defense of Montalto becomes a trap that exposes the favorite’s crimes. A presumed murder victim, the secretary Riviero, is revealed alive, and Montalto’s death sentence is commuted to banishment.
The Royal Suppliants
The Royal Suppliants is a 1781 tragedy by John Delap. The original Drury Lane cast included William 'Gentleman' Smith as Acamas, John Bannister as Hyllus, James Aickin as Iolaus, William Farren as Alcander, John Hayman Packer as Thestor, Robert Palmer as Officer, Robert Bensley as Demophon, Ann Crawford as Dienira and Elizabeth Farren as Macaria. It was dedicated to Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston.
The Royale
A Black heavyweight boxer pursues a championship bout against a white opponent in the Jim Crow era. As the contest approaches, his ambition collides with the consequences that a historic victory could carry for his family and community.
The Royalist
The Royalist is a 1682 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It was staged at the Dorset Garden Theatre by the Duke's Company, shortly before the merger that created the United Company. It is set during the Commonwealth Era following the English Civil War. The original cast featured William Smith as Sir Charles Kinglove, Joseph Williams as Heartall, John Bowman as Broom, Anthony Leigh as Sir Oliver Oldcut, Thomas Jevon as Sir Paul Eitherside, Thomas Percival as Captain Jonas, Cave Underhill as Copyhold, George Bright as Slouch and Mary Betterton as Camilla.
The Rubenstein Kiss
Inspired by an iconic photograph of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, this play moves between the 1950s and 1970s and takes its conception from the story of nuclear spies.
The Ruckus at Machias
In the sea-bound Maine community of Machias, townspeople confront the first naval engagement of the American Revolutionary War: the 1775 capture of the British ship Margaretta.
The Ruffian on the Stair
In a London bedsit, Joyce and Mike's uneasy life is disrupted by Wilson, a young man seeking revenge for his brother Frank's murder. Wilson goads Mike into jealousy and violence, and the couple's shocking indifference to Wilson's death is underscored by their grief over a dead goldfish.
The Rugged Path
After a newspaper editor backs an employee’s editorial supporting aid to the Soviet Union and is forced out, he joins the Navy, transfers from publicity to combat duty as a destroyer cook, survives a sinking, and leads a Pacific island garrison’s delaying action against Japanese forces.
The Rules of Charity
The Rules of Charity focuses on a middle-aged man named Monty, and his daughter Loretta. Monty has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, and Loretta, a grown woman, cares for him. The play focuses around their relationship, the anger and resentment that lives within their connection, as well as the love between them. The play also focuses on how one navigates our world when one is an outsider, whether that is because of one's ability or disability, sexuality, religion, or social class. Structurally, The Rules of Charity is in a standard two-act dramatic structure with Act I taking place in the present day, and Act II taking place one year later. The play is also split up by named sections that divide up the action further, framed by a prologue and an epilogue. The play opens with Loretta at the end of her rope, in the apartment that she and her father share, having just slapped her father, knocking over his wheelchair. "Cruelty is a form of goodness", she tells him. Menacingly, but laced with the love that she has for her father, she tells him that she will only treat him with cruelty from that moment on. The next morning, Loretta and Monty are at home, things are normal again. LH, the superintendent of the building comes in with a bottle of scotch, celebrating his recent raise. Monty invites him to stay for dinner, and LH encourages Monty to try and leave his apartment in order to look for a job. Monty refuses, and it is revealed that Monty and LH are secret lovers. LH tells Monty that he has invited over the daughter of the building owner Paz, who is a documentary filmmaker. She wants to talk to Monty. Monty is unsure, but LH assures him that everything will be fine. Later that evening, Loretta meets a dull man named Horace by a street corner. They flirt and he asks her out on a date, which she refuses. The next morning, Paz arrives with LH at Monty and Loretta's apartment. Paz pitches her documentary to Monty - she wants to write about what she perceives as the enormous and dramatic struggle of disabled people. Monty is clearly far superior to her in intelligence, and does not take to her well. However, she offers him a large sum of money to be a part of her documentary, and so Monty promises LH that he will consider it. Monty and Loretta are left alone and share a brief moment of tenderness, it is also revealed that Loretta's mother, Monty's wife, is no longer living and that that day would have been her birthday. Loretta returns to the street corner to invite Horace over to her apartment for dinner. Initially he is nervous about going to dinner, and says that he usually works until late at the fish factory. She promises him that she will give her father pills to fall asleep so that he can come over without Monty bothering them. He accepts, and she kisses him. LH and Monty are alone, drinking in Loretta and Monty's apartment. They recount the tales of Greek Mythology that LH read about in books that Monty lent him. Monty describes to LH what the Apothetai was in ancient Greece - the place where disabled babies were left to die. LH is very moved, and asks Monty if he knew he was gay, even when he was married. Monty says that yes, he did. Loretta then enters and puts Monty to bed, giving him his pill that helps him sleep. Monty whispers to himself that he wants to go away with LH and let her live on her own, and in doing so, he throws himself from his bed and lands on the floor. Angry and exasperated, Loretta tells him that he can sleep on the floor. The following morning. Monty is sitting on the couch of his apartment while Paz prepares to begin shooting the documentary. LH and Loretta, one after the other, enter the apartment. They watch as Paz begins to interview Monty for the camera. Her questions offend Monty, as they obsess over what Paz determines to be the 'grotesque' aspect of Monty's disabled existence. She suggests that he ask her some questions in order to make them more comfortable around one another. When he is asking questions about her personal life, Paz reveals that she and LH are together. Monty did not know this and is blindsided. Unaware of Monty and LH's relationship, Paz continues to question Monty, pressing him on his sexuality and financial situation. Turning the questions once more back on her, Monty suggests to Paz that she make her film more about the overall concept of charity. He suggests that she structure her film around the origins of how disability caused societal isolation. She is disappointed, and when she once again asks to hear about his life story, he is enraged and asks her to leave his house. She does. Once Paz leaves, Monty tells LH that he wants them to be together. LH responds saying that he doesn't want to be with Monty, both because he doesn't want to be gay and because he doesn't want to have to take care of him. LH breaks it off between them, leaving Monty in the apartment alone. LH and Paz stand outside of the apartment building under a lamppost. LH has moved out of the building and is no longer the janitor there. He proposes marriage to Paz. She accepts. Back in the apartment, Loretta has fed Monty four of his pills to make him sleep while she and Horace have dinner. They talk about their families and Loretta admits, while Horace sleeps, that she both loves and hates her father. Monty groggily hears her say all of this. Loretta and Horace exit to her bedroom to make love. Monty takes the pill bottle from his bedside table and slowly eats every pill. One year after the events of Act I, Loretta and Horace, and Monty are back in the apartment. Loretta has developed a habit of pretending to be pregnant by sticking a balloon under her shirt, but she tells Horace that they can't afford a real baby. Later, on a street corner, Loretta, wearing the balloon as a fake pregnant belly, runs into Paz. Paz introduces herself by her real name, Joyce. She tells Loretta that she and LH (now known as Mr. Millicent) are married and are born-again Christians. Seemingly relieved to see Loretta, she asks if a publisher has published her father's journal. Loretta is surprised by this and answers that the journal is not published, that it is not even finished. Joyce offers Loretta money in exchange for her father's journal, for his story. Back at the apartment, Loretta tries to convince Monty to give her his journal for money. He refuses, especially refusing to give his journal to LH. LH is seen desperately trying to read, but since he can't without Monty, he despairs. At the apartment once again, Horace comes home very drunk after having gotten in a bar fight. Loretta approaches him and tells him that they are going to pretend to be a happily married, pregnant couple in order to sell her father's journal to Joyce. She tells him that after they do so, he is going to leave the apartment and never come back, calling him a cripple who has made her life even worse. Loretta and Horace set up dinner at the apartment, nervous that everything will go well for the dinner with LH (now Mr. Millicent) where they will try to sell Monty's journal. Mr. Millicent arrives at dinner, appearing much changed from the last time Loretta, Horace, and Monty saw him. Monty arrives as well, and begins grilling Mr. Millicent on his latest reading material. Mr. Millicent has trouble keeping up with Monty, which makes Monty smug. Angry, Mr. Millicent reveals that he has come to dinner to ask for the pages in Monty's journal in which he wrote about their romantic relationship, claiming that those stories are lies. Loretta begs for charity, for money in exchange for the journal. Mr. Millicent declares that they are unworthy of charity and refuses Monty's journal, violently flipping over Monty's wheelchair in the process. In response, Horace slits Mr. Millicent's throat, killing him. He apologizes profusely as Mr. Millicent dies, with Monty and Loretta looking on. Loretta and Monty sit on the floor, Loretta cradling Monty, who is hurt from his fall from his wheelchair. Horace has put Mr. Millicent's body in his car, and tells Loretta that he will drive away with it forever. He tells her to blame the murder all on him, and she agrees. Horace leaves, and Monty hands Loretta the last pages of his journal to read. She reads out loud the last passage from his journal, where he describes telling her, as a baby, that she will have to learn to swallow her pain. Monty dies in Loretta's arms. She smiles.
The Rules of the Game
Leone, estranged from his wife Silia, responds to her affair by trying to empty himself of emotion. He manipulates her lover Guido into taking his place in a duel, where Guido is killed.
The Ruling Class
After the 13th Earl of Gurney dies in an autoerotic accident, his heir Jack inherits the title while in an asylum, believing himself to be Jesus. His relatives try to cure him and produce a sane heir so they can reclaim the estate. When Jack appears cured, he has instead become a violent figure who believes he is God and Jack the Ripper, murders his allies and claims his place in the House of Lords.
The Rumour
An anti-war satire about the financial interests and manipulation behind the starting of wars.
The Runaway
George Hargrave, who is home from college, is overjoyed to learn that Emily, the mysterious runaway whom his godfather, Mr. Drummond, has taken in, is the same young lady he fell in love with at a recent masquerade. Meanwhile, George's spirited cousin, Bella, helps George's sister, Harriet, and George's friend Sir Charles fall in love. George's designs are threatened when he learns that his father wants George to marry Lady Dinah, a pretentious older lady who is also very rich. When Emily's father arrives to take Emily back to London, George gives chase and snatches Emily back. Mr. Drummond saves the day by offering the young lovers some of his land so that they can have a fortune of their own.
The Russian People
In a Russian town under German occupation, civilians and Red Army soldiers face the invasion from different positions. A Russian emissary volunteers to mislead the Germans about an attack on a bridge, while the drama follows the sacrifices and divided loyalties of people resisting the occupation.
The Sacrament of Judas
During the French Revolution, a fugitive count takes shelter with a Breton farmer and his granddaughter. His host’s lodger defends the republican cause, while their arguments over faith and the validity of a compromised priest’s sacraments foreshadow a crisis of conscience.
The Sacred Flame
When Maurice Tabret, a disabled former soldier, is found dead, Nurse Wayland suspects murder and the household examines several explanations. After suspicion falls on Maurice's wife Stella, his mother reveals that she gave him an overdose to spare him the pain of discovering Stella's affair and pregnancy.
The Sacred Place
A debt dispute draws a British constable into the affairs of Muslim hawkers in Melbourne. One man appeals to British law, while his opponent demands that they settle the matter through an oath at their mosque.
The Sad Shepherd
At a feast in Sherwood Forest, the melancholy shepherd Æglamour mourns Earine, believed drowned. The witch Maudlin impersonates Marian, sows suspicion among Robin Hood and his guests, and keeps Earine captive in a tree while Puck and the huntsmen frustrate her schemes. Jonson left the play unfinished after Act III.
The Sailor's Daughter
After a young woman, Julia, is orphaned following the Battle of Copenhagen she enjoys a series of adventures until settling down with her long-lost guardian Captain Sentamore. The play is set in Bath.
The Saint and the Sow
A miser mistakes Colonel Eudoro’s wish to take his ‘most precious treasure’ as a threat to his pig-shaped money coffer, while his resourceful household conspires to reunite Eudoro with his former love and arrange his marriage to Eurico’s daughter.
The Same Sky
During the Blitz in 1940, Jewish Esther Brodsky and non-Jewish Jeff Smith fall in love despite their families’ opposition. Their families reconcile only after Jeff is killed in the war.
The Sanctuary Lamp
After being dismissed from a circus, Jewish strongman Harry takes refuge in a church and befriends Maudie, a girl seeking forgiveness. When fellow performer Francisco arrives, buried betrayals emerge, and the three confront guilt and loss before moving back into the world with a fragile sense of redemption.
The Sandbox
At a beach sandbox, a wealthy couple leave Grandma to wait while a young man exercises nearby. As Grandma converses with him, the play’s direct address and stage cues expose the family’s neglect and reveal the young man as the angel of death.
The Sandstorm
An eleven-character dramatic mosaic about the experiences of Marines serving in Iraq, presenting the human impact of the war through firsthand perspectives.
The Santaland Diaries
A solo stage adaptation of David Sedaris’s humorous account of working as a Christmas elf at Macy’s Santaland in New York.
The Sapphires
Inspired by the true story of Tony Briggs's mother and aunt, four Yorta Yorta women form a singing group and tour Vietnam during the war, while the play addresses Aboriginal rights with humor.
The Satin Slipper
Set during the Renaissance and the age of the conquistadors, this long love story explores sin and redemption through divine and comic characters who speak as if in dialogue between Heaven and Earth.
The Scarecrow
The play takes place in seventeenth-century Massachusetts. It is in four acts. Years ago, Justice Gilead Merton deserted his mistress Goody Rickby after she gave birth to a son. The child later died because Goody was unable to obtain medical help for him. In the years following, Goody has learned witchcraft from Dickon, the Devil himself. To avenge herself on Merton, she and Dickon manufacture a scarecrow, bring it to life so that it resembles a human, and take him to Merton's house, with the intention of having the Scarecrow seduce Merton's niece, Rachel, away from her fiancé just before their wedding. The Scarecrow is introduced into society as Lord Ravensbane, with Dickon as his tutor. Ravensbane seems to enjoy smoking a corncob pipe, but the truth is that the pipe actually keeps him alive. Unfortunately for Goody and Dickon's sinister plan, the Scarecrow soon develops kind-hearted feelings of his own. His true identity is revealed at a party, when his reflection in the Mirror of Truth, which Rachel has bought from Goody, reveals a scarecrow, rather than a man. The other guests panic and flee, all except Rachel and her fiancé Richard Talbot, who are the only ones that return. The Scarecrow, horrified, and finally realizing the true meaning of his "mission", breaks his corncob pipe and collapses, only to momentarily revive and see in the mirror that his sacrifice for Rachel has transformed him into a real human being. With a look of wonder and happiness on his face, he falls back dead. When Talbot examines him and says, "He's dead", Rachel triumphantly, yet sadly, answers, "But - a man!" The curtain falls. The play's language is a sort of cross between seventeenth-century and what was considered modern English in 1908.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
During the French Revolution, English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney secretly leads a league rescuing French nobles from execution. His wife Marguerite, pressured by the French envoy Chauvelin, discovers Percy's identity and follows him to France to warn him, where the couple reconciles after a rescue mission.
The Scene
At a Manhattan party, aspiring actress Clea meets middle-aged actor Charlie and his friend Lewis. After dating Lewis, she begins an affair with Charlie, destabilizing his marriage to Stella; the relationships fracture in a comedy about sex, celebrity and show business.
The School for Arrogance
The School for Arrogance is a 1791 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. The original Covent Garden cast included William Thomas Lewis as Count Conolly Villars, John Henry Johnstone as MacDermot, Francis Aickin as Mr Dorimont, William Farren as Edmund, Richard Wilson as Sir Paul Peckham, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Sir Samuel Sheepy, James Thompson as Exempt, Charles Farley as Footmen, Mary Wells as Lucy and Isabella Mattocks as Lady Peckham.
The School for Coquettes
The School for Coquettes is an 1831 comedy play by the British writer Catherine Gore, best known for her silver fork novels, for whom it was her theatrical debut. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 14 July 1831. The original cast included John Cooper as Lord Marston, William Farren as General Lumley, Frederick Vining as Frederick Lumley, Henry John Wallack as Howard, Benjamin Nottingham Webster as Ralph, Julia Glover as Lady Hampton and Harriette Taylor as Lady Honoria Howard. The play was a great success, running for 37 performances and being revived the following year.
The School for Friends
The School for Friends is an 1805 comedy play by the British writer Marianne Chambers. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 10 December 1805. The Drury Lane cast featured Robert William Elliston as Lord Belmour, Richard Wroughton as Sir Felix Mordant, William Barrymore as Sir Edward Epworth, William Dowton as Mr. Hardy, Charles Mathews as Matthew Daw, Walter Maddocks as Landlord, Jane Pope as Lady Courtland, Dorothea Jordan as Mrs. Hamilton, Harriet Siddons as Miss Emily, Harriet Mellon as Lucy and Charlotte Tidswell as Sarah. The prologue was written by James Kenney. It appeared for 25 performances on its initial run.
The School for Guardians
The School for Guardians is a 1767 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 10 January 1767. The original cast included John Walker as Sir Theodore Brumpton, Henry Woodward as Young Brumpton, William Smith as Bellford, Edward Shuter as Oldcastle, John Dunstall as Lovibond, Mary Wilford as Harriet and Ann Elliot as Mary Ann. In 1777 Thomas Hull adapted it into a comic opera Love finds the Way with music composed for the production by Thomas Arne.
The School for Husbands
Two brothers court the sisters in their care. The older Ariste treats Léonor as an equal and wins her affection, while controlling Sganarelle tries to govern Isabella's choice and is outmaneuvered as she pursues Valère.
The School for Lovers
The School for Lovers is a 1762 comedy play by the British writer William Whitehead. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Sir John Dorilant, John Palmer as Modely, William O'Brien as Belmour, Mary Ann Yates as Araminta, Kitty Clive as Lady Beverly and Susannah Maria Cibber as Celia.
The School for Prejudice
The School for Prejudice is an 1801 comedy play by the English writer Thomas John Dibdin. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 3 January 1801. The original cast included Joseph Shepherd Munden as Old Liberal, William Thomas Lewis as Frank Liberal, John Fawcett as Ephraim, Charles Murray as Counsellor Friendly, Henry Erskine Johnston as Mildmay, John Emery as John Grouse, Charles Farley as Chevy Chase, Samuel Simmons as Parchment, George Davenport as Landlord, Frances Chapman as Mrs Howard, Harriet Siddons as Marian and Mary Ann Davenport as Miss Liberal. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 19 February 1802.
The School for Rakes
The School for Rakes is a 1769 comedy play by the British writer Elizabeth Griffith. It was inspired by the 1767 French play Eugénie by Pierre Beaumarchais. The original Drury Lane cast included Samuel Reddish as Frampton, Samuel Cautherley as Lord Eustace, Charles Holland as Sir William Evans, James William Dodd as Willis, Thomas King as Captain Lloyd, John Palmer as Colonel Evans, Robert Baddeley as Robert, Kitty Clive as Mrs Winifred and Sophia Baddeley as Harriet.
The School for Scandal
Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling Snake discuss her various scandal-spreading plots. Snake asks why she is so involved in the affairs of Sir Peter Teazle, his ward Maria, and Charles and Joseph Surface, two young men under Sir Peter's informal guardianship, and why she has not yielded to the attentions of Joseph, who is highly respectable. Lady Sneerwell confides that Joseph desires Maria, who is an heiress, and that Maria desires Charles. Thus she and Joseph are plotting to alienate Maria from Charles by putting out rumours of an affair between Charles and Sir Peter's new young wife, Lady Teazle. Joseph arrives to confer with Lady Sneerwell. Maria herself then enters, fleeing the attentions of Sir Benjamin Backbite and his uncle, Crabtree. Mrs. Candour enters and ironically talks about how "tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers." Soon after that, Sir Benjamin and Crabtree also enter, bringing a good deal of gossip with them. One item is the imminent return of the Surface brothers' rich uncle Sir Oliver from the East Indies, where he has been for sixteen years; another is Charles' dire financial situation. Scene II: Sir Peter complains of Lady Teazle's spendthrift ways. Rowley, the former steward of the Surfaces' late father, arrives, and Sir Peter gives him an earful on the subject. He also complains that Maria has refused Joseph, whom he calls "a model for the young men of the age," and seems attached to Charles, whom he denounces as a profligate. Rowley defends Charles, and then announces that Sir Oliver has just arrived from the East Indies. Oliver has instructed them not to tell his nephews of his arrival so that he may "make some trial of their dispositions". Scene I: Sir Peter argues with his wife, Lady Teazle, refusing to be "ruined by [her] extravagance." He reminds her of her recent and far humbler country origins. Lady Teazle excuses herself by appealing to "the fashion", and departs to visit Lady Sneerwell. Despite their quarrel, Sir Peter still finds himself charmed by his wife even when she is arguing with him. Scene II: At Lady Sneerwell's, the scandal-mongers have great fun at the expense of friends not present. Lady Teazle and Maria arrive; Lady Teazle joins in, but Maria is disgusted. So is Sir Peter, when he arrives, and rather breaks up the party with his comments. He departs, the others retire to the next room, and Joseph seizes the opportunity to court Maria, who rejects him again. Lady Teazle returns and dismisses Maria, and it is revealed that Lady Teazle is seriously flirting with Joseph – who doesn't want her, but cannot afford to alienate her. Scene III: Sir Oliver calls on his old friend Sir Peter. He is amused by Sir Peter's marriage to a young wife. Their talk turns to the Surface brothers. Sir Peter praises Joseph's high morals but Sir Oliver suspects that he might be a hypocrite. Scene I: Rowley describes his plan for Sir Oliver to visit each of the brothers incognito to test their characters. Sir Oliver will disguise himself as their needy relative Mr. Stanley, and ask each for his help. Rowley also brings in the "friendly Jew" Moses, a moneylender who has tried to help Charles, to explain Charles' position. Moses mentions that he is to introduce Charles to yet another moneylender ("Mr. Premium") that very evening. Sir Oliver decides (at Sir Peter's suggestion) that with Moses' assistance, he will pose as Premium when visiting Charles while still intending to visit Joseph as Stanley. Sir Peter is left alone and when Maria enters, he tries to convince her to marry Joseph expressing him as a worthier match than Charles, whom she favours. When she is not persuaded, he threatens her with "the authority of a guardian". She goes, and Lady Teazle enters asking her husband for two hundred pounds. Sir Peter and Lady Teazle argue again, and conclude that they should separate. Scene II: Sir Oliver (as Mr. Premium) arrives with Moses at Charles' house. While they are waiting in the hall, Trip, the servant, tries to negotiate a loan on his own account from Moses. Sir Oliver concludes that "this is the temple of dissipation indeed!" Scene III: Charles and his raucous guests drink heavily and sing merry songs, as they prepare for a night of gambling. Charles raises a toast to Maria. Moses and "Premium" enter, and Sir Oliver is dismayed at the scene. Charles does not recognise his long-lost uncle. Charles frankly asks "Premium" for credit, noting that Sir Oliver (whom he believes is in India) will soon leave him a fortune. "Premium" discounts this possibility, noting that Sir Oliver could live many years, or disinherit his nephew. He asks if Charles has any valuables of his own to sell for immediate cash. Charles admits that he has sold the family silver and his late father's library, and offers to sell "Premium" the family portrait collection. "Premium" accepts, but Sir Oliver is silently outraged. Scene I: Charles goes on to sell all of the family portraits to "Premium", using the rolled-up family tree as a gavel. However, he refuses to sell the last portrait, which is of Sir Oliver, out of respect for his benefactor; Charles will not sell it even when "Premium" offers as much for it as for all the rest. Moved, Sir Oliver inwardly forgives Charles. Sir Oliver and Moses leave with Rowley entering shortly after, and Charles sends a hundred pounds of the proceeds for the relief of "Mr. Stanley", despite Rowley's objection. Scene II: Sir Oliver, reflecting on Charles's character with Moses, is met by Rowley, who has brought him the hundred pounds sent to "Stanley." Declaring "I’ll pay his debts, and his benevolence too", Sir Oliver plans to go meet his other nephew in the person of Stanley. Scene III: Joseph, anxiously awaiting a visit from Lady Teazle, is told by a servant that she has just left "her chair at the milliner's next door" and so has the servant draw a screen across the window (his reason: "my opposite neighbour is a maiden lady of so curious a temper"). On her entrance, Joseph forswears any interest in Maria, and flirts in earnest with Lady Teazle, perversely suggesting that she should make a "faux pas" for the benefit of her reputation. The servant returns to announce Sir Peter, and Lady Teazle hides in panic behind the screen. Sir Peter enters and tells Joseph that he suspects an affair between Charles and Lady Teazle (due to the rumours spread by Joseph and Lady Sneerwell). Joseph hypocritically professes confidence in Charles' and Lady Teazle's honour. Sir Peter confides his intention to give his wife a generous separate maintenance during his life and the bulk of his fortune on his demise. He also urges Joseph to pursue his suit with Maria (much to Joseph's annoyance, as Lady Teazle is listening behind the screen). Charles's arrival is announced. Sir Peter decides to hide, and have Joseph sound Charles out about his relationship with Lady Teazle. He starts behind the screen, but sees the corner of Lady Teazle's petticoat there already. Joseph "confesses" that he is not as virtuous as he seems: "a little French milliner, a silly rogue that plagues me" is hiding there to preserve her own reputation. Sir Peter then hides in the closet. Charles now enters and Joseph questions him about Lady Teazle. Charles disclaims any designs on her, noting that Joseph and the lady seem to be intimate. To stop Charles, Joseph whispers to him that Sir Peter is hiding in the closet, and Charles hauls him forth. Sir Peter tells Charles he now regrets his suspicions about him. Charles passes off his comments about Joseph and Lady Teazle as a joke. When Lady Sneerwell is announced, Joseph rushes out to stop her from coming up. Meanwhile, Sir Peter tells Charles about the "French milliner". Charles insists on having a look at her and flings down the screen as Joseph returns, discovering Lady Teazle. Charles, very amused, leaves the other three dumbstruck individuals. Joseph concocts an explanation for Sir Peter of why he and Lady Teazle are together. But she refuses to endorse it and admits that she came to pursue an affair with Joseph; however, having learned of Sir Peter's generosity, she has repented. She denounces Joseph and exits, and the enraged Sir Peter follows as Joseph continues trying to pretend innocence. Scene I: Sir Oliver (as Mr. Stanley) now visits Joseph. Joseph, like Charles, does not recognise his long-lost uncle. He greets "Stanley" with effusive professions of goodwill, but refuses to give "Stanley" any financial assistance, saying he has donated all his money to support Charles. "Stanley" suggests that Sir Oliver would help him if he were here, and that Joseph might pass on some of what Sir Oliver has given him. But Joseph tells "Stanley" that Sir Oliver is in fact very stingy, and has given him nothing except trinkets such as tea, shawls, birds and "Indian crackers". Furthermore, Joseph has lent a great deal to his brother, so that he has nothing left for "Stanley". Sir Oliver is enraged, as he knows both statements are flat lies – he sent Joseph 12,000 pounds from India. He stifles his anger, and departs amid further effusions. Rowley arrives with a letter for Joseph announcing that Sir Oliver has arrived in town. Scene II: At Sir Peter's house, Lady Sneerwell, Mrs. Candour, Sir Benjamin, and Crabtree exchange confused rumours about the Teazle affair. Sir Benjamin says Sir Peter was wounded in a swordfight with Joseph Surface, while Crabtree insists it was a pistol duel with Charles. When Sir Oliver enters, they take him for a doctor and demand news of the wounded man. At that moment Sir Peter arrives to prove the report wrong, and orders the scandalmongers out of his house, with Rowley entering shortly after at hearing Sir Peter's raised voice.
The School for Vanity
The School for Vanity is a 1783 comedy play by the British writer Samuel Jackson Pratt. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 29 January 1783. The original Drury Lane cast included Thomas King as Sir Hercules Caustic, John Palmer as Sighwell, James William Dodd as Lord Frolic, William Brereton as Valentine Onslow, Robert Baddeley as Secondhand, William Parsons as Alderman Ingot, Elizabeth Hopkins as Lady Blaze, Mary Bulkley as Widow Wherett and Elizabeth Farren as Ophelia Wyndham.
The School for Widows
The School for Widows is a 1789 comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 8 May 1789. The original Covent Garden cast included William Thomas Lewis as Jack Marmoset, Thomas Ryder as Mr Wordly, John Quick as Sir Wilful Wayward, Alexander Pope as Frederick, Isabella Mattocks as Mrs Wordly, Sarah Wewitzer as Mrs Gayless and Frances Abington as Lady Charlotte Richmore. It was never published.
The School for Wives
Arnolphe has raised his young ward Agnès in ignorance so she will be a compliant wife. His plan falters when she falls in love with Horace, and a revelation about Agnès’s family defeats Arnolphe’s attempts to control her future.
The School of Night
Set in 1592–93, Peter Whelan’s play follows Christopher Marlowe and his circle as they flirt with heresy and republican ideas under the watch of England’s political and religious authorities. Marlowe befriends the actor Tom Stone, who reveals himself as Shakespeare; as spies arrest Thomas Kyd and Marlowe is accused of blasphemy, the group’s escape plan ends in Marlowe’s death at Deptford.
The School of Reform
The School of Reform is an 1805 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Morton. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 15 January 1805. The original cast included George Frederick Cooke as Lord Avondale, Joseph Shepherd Munden as General Tarragan, John Emery as Tyke, Charles Murray as Old Man, Charles Klanert as Peter, Maria Gibbs as Mrs St. Clair, Harriett Litchfield as Mrs Ferment and Mary Ann Davenport as Mrs Nicely. It was later staged at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin.
The Schoolmistress
At a girls' boarding school, the feckless husband of its absent headmistress spends the money intended for household bills on a supper party, while pupils and a secretly married couple bring further complications. A fire leads to chaotic escapes and reconciliations.
The Scornful Lady
In this Jacobean comedy, a woman wants her beloved to duel with and kill his closest friend, a dramatic premise the play shares with several contemporary works.
The Scottish Play
Michael, an actor in an amateur theatre society, dreams of directing Macbeth. As his wife and best friend take the leading roles, he wonders whether his determination to direct is causing the production's problems or whether the play's curse is at work.
The Scottish Play
At a Shakespeare festival in Bannockburn, Michigan, the play examines the superstition surrounding the curse attached to saying Macbeth in a theatre.
The Scout
Set in the American West, this melodrama was built to feature showman W. F. Carver and his Wild America Troupe in a dramatic story. Its production included a large water tank, live ducks, canoe stunts, and horses.
The Screens
In a stylized series of seventeen episodes set in an unspecified Arab land, an insurrection confronts a blundering colonial power. Saïd, a poor social outcast who betrays the rebels, links the non-narrative scenes. Movable screens serve as symbolic barriers and as visible stage properties, shifting the performance’s images of war and authority.
The Sea
In a 1907 East Anglian village, a storm drowns a beloved local man. As two young lovers try to escape the constraints of their hierarchical community, draper Hatch is bullied by Mrs. Rafi and becomes convinced that aliens are invading after he refused to help rescue the drowning man's friend; he descends into madness.
The Sea Voyage
A storm strands French pirate Albert, his love Aminta, and their crew on an island where they encounter Portuguese castaways. After the Portuguese escape in the French ship, hunger and conflict threaten the crew. Albert reaches a nearby island inhabited by Amazons, whose leader’s daughter falls in love with him; family reunions and new relationships ultimately reconcile the French and Portuguese groups.
The Sea of Ice
After mutineers strand a ship’s captain and his family on a frozen sea, the ice breaks apart. The English melodrama adapts the French play La Prière des Naufragés.
The Seafarer
On Christmas Eve in Dublin, alcoholic Sharky tries to stay sober while caring for his blind brother Richard. A poker game with their visitors turns into a supernatural contest for Sharky’s soul against Mr Lockhart, a figure from Sharky’s past.
The Seagull
At a country estate, the aspiring writer Konstantin stages an experimental play featuring Nina, whom he loves. Nina instead becomes involved with writer Trigorin; over two years her acting hopes falter and Trigorin abandons her, while Konstantin's despair culminates in suicide.
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
A one-woman show in which a performer moves among different characters, unified by the sensibility of an opening bag-lady persona; its second act includes a compressed history of the feminist movement.
The Season at Sarsaparilla
A two-act suburban charade centered on the Pogson, Boyle, and Knott households in the fictional suburb of Sarsaparilla.
The Second Maiden's Tragedy
The usurping Tyrant seeks to marry the Lady, who is engaged to the deposed king Govianus, and confines them when she refuses. The Lady kills herself rather than be taken by force; the Tyrant removes and preserves her body, but Govianus returns in disguise and poisons its painted lips, killing him. In a subplot, suspicion and deception around Anselmus, his wife, and Votarius lead to their deaths. The nobles restore Govianus, who crowns the Lady's body before returning it to her tomb.
The Second Man
Writer Clark Storey prefers a wealthy widow, Kendall, to Monica, the young woman he loves. When Monica falsely claims to be pregnant, Clark’s friend Austin and Kendall believe her; the ensuing revelations reshape the relationships among the four.
The Second Mrs Tanqueray
The play opens with a late night dinner between the widower Mr Tanqueray and some of his longtime professional friends. All are upper class members of British society, and the friends are disturbed when they learn of the forthcoming second marriage of Tanqueray to a Mrs Paula Jarman, a woman with a "bad reputation". As the play progresses we see the misery of the mismatched couple and their shared efforts to foster a bond between Tanqueray's young and impeccably proper daughter Ellean and her young unhappy stepmother. This is compromised when Mrs Tanqueray learns the identity of her stepdaughter's fiancé; he is the man who ruined her, years ago. She reveals her knowledge to her husband, who prevents the marriage and alienates his daughter. This spreads and husband and wife, father and daughter, step-parent and child are all angered and alienated. When the daughter learns the reasons behind her disappointment she is struck with pity and makes a speech about trying again with her stepmother, only to go to her and find her dead, evidently by suicide.
The Second Shepherds' Play
A farcical theft plot mirrors the Nativity: shepherds catch Mak and Gill hiding a stolen sheep in a cradle, then hear an angel announce Christ’s birth and visit the manger. The play joins the shepherds’ complaints about hardship with the biblical story of redemption.
The Second Woman
Over 24 hours, a performer plays Virginia in a short scene repeated 100 times with 100 different male-identifying performers playing Marty. The dialogue is largely drawn from John Cassavetes’s film Opening Night, and the repetition examines gendered conventions of emotion and intimacy.
The Secret
The Secret is a 1799 comedy play by the British writer Edward Morris. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 2 March 1799 and enjoyed a run of seventeen performances that season. The original cast included William Barrymore as Mr Dorville, Robert Palmer as Sir Harry Fleetly, Richard Suett as Mr Lizard, Charles Bannister as Jack Lizard, William Dowton as Mr Torrid, Charles Kemble as Henry Torrid, George Wathen as Ralph, Walter Maddocks as Steward, Jane Powell as Mrs Esther Dorville, Dorothea Jordan as Rosa and Jane Pope as Susannah Lizard. The prologue was written by Charles Morris and the epilogue by George Colman the Younger.
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
Baba Segi, a wealthy but unlettered patriarch, has four wives and seven children. When he marries Bolanle, a young university graduate, rivalry among the wives and Bolanle's arrival bring long-hidden household secrets to light.
The Secret Mine: An Equestrian Melo-Drama, in Two Acts
A two-act equestrian melodrama built around horses performing alongside the human cast; contemporary reviews remarked on the horses acting their parts.
The Secret Rapture
After their father's death, estranged sisters Isobel and Marion clash over the future of their alcoholic stepmother Katherine, who has been left their childhood home. Katherine joins Isobel's struggling design business, and Marion and her husband invest in its expansion; tensions among the sisters, Katherine, and Isobel's lover Irwin deepen as the venture fails and Katherine's mental health deteriorates.
The Secret River
Narrated by Dhirrumbin, the play follows William Thornhill, exiled from eighteenth-century London with his family to the Hawkesbury River penal colony. He hopes to begin again there, but the Dharug people resist surrendering their land to the settlers.
The Secret of Chimneys
A young drifter carrying a parcel to the Brent family’s country estate becomes entangled in a murder conspiracy involving diamonds, exiled royalty and a plan to restore a foreign monarchy.
The Secret of Polichinelle
A respectable middle-class couple each tries to conceal from the other that their adult son has had an illegitimate child with his mistress, while each assumes the other remains unaware.
The Secretaries
This satirical play opens with a rhyming prolog recited in unison by Dawn, Ashley, Peaches, and Patty. They explain that they are part of a cult that, once a month, gathers to murder one of the lumberjacks employed by the logging mill they work for, and blame it on a logging accident. Scene one starts on the day Patty is promoted from being a receptionist to a secretary and starts on her path to join the cult, referred to in more public circles as the Big Bone Women's Association. Patty quickly learns that the office hierarchy circles around whoever currently holds the award of secretary of the month, an award that it seems is best won by being sexually pliable towards Susan, the office manager, and by maintaining an unrealistically thin figure. As Patty works her way into the tightly knit clique of secretaries, she is introduced to some of the strange rituals and rules practiced by their cult. At the first meeting she attends, she is puzzled as to why Susan collects the women's used tampons, and why she is required to sign a pledge of celibacy to join. Despite signing the pledge, Patty quickly finds herself in a sexual relationship with Buzz, one of the company lumberjacks, and shortly after, she also hooks up with Dawn, the "Office Lesbian". Despite Patty's pleading, neither secret remain so for long; soon the entire office knows. As the end of the month approaches, Patty becomes stressed as she watches Susan and the rest of the secretaries become more and more manic. Susan starts drinking and driving, Peaches begins to binge eat, Dawn becomes more sexually aggressive, and Ashley becomes violently jealous over the fact that Patty wins secretary of the month. On the last night of the month, Susan gathers the secretaries in the woods to kill a lumberjack, in this case, Buzz, and to steal his jacket for Patty, the newest member of the cult, to wear. While Patty resists at first, she quickly breaks down and admits that she wants to join in with the plan. After the women take turns chain sawing Buzz to death, the play ends with another short and chilling rhyme: "Patty's got her jacket now. She fits in with the rest. She cut her boyfriend into bits, and so she passed the test. Save? No. We’re way beyond saving. We’re at the end. We should provide a moral for this story, but this is not a moral tale or complex allegory. No, we prefer you think of this as purely cautionary. Remember, sitting next to you could be a secretary!".
The Secretary
The Secretary is a play by the Irish writer James Sheridan Knowles. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 24 April 1843. The cast included John Ryder as the King, George John Bennett as Duke of Gaveston, Samuel Phelps as Lord Byerdale, William Macready as Colonel Green, Charles Selby as Armstrong, Helena Faucit as Lady Laura Gaveston and Leonora Wigan as Emmeline.
The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539
During the dissolution of the English monasteries, the arrival of the novice Loftus, whose belief is unsullied, challenges the corrupt practices of the abbey's priests.
The Select (The Sun Also Rises)
The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is a stage adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises by Elevator Repair Service theater ensemble. It has been performed in several venues. It premiered at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Off-Broadway production, which ran from September 11 – October 23, 2011 at the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), earned awards for its sound design. The show directed by John Collins and produced by Ariana Smart Truman and Lindsay Hockaday received the Lucille Lortel Award for being outstanding.
The Senator
The Senator was a popular 1890 comedic play by David D. Lloyd and Sydney Rosenfeld, also made into a 1915 silent film.
The Serfs
A political satire condemning the servility of people after a clerical-conservative election victory in Austria-Hungary.
The Servant of Two Masters
Truffaldino secretly becomes servant to both Beatrice, disguised as her dead brother, and her lover Florindo. His attempts to serve both masters at once create confusion over letters, money and identity, while the lovers search for each other and Truffaldino pursues Smeraldina.
The Seven Deadly Sins
A two-part morality play built around the seven deadly sins. The surviving plot for Part 2 shows episodes representing Envy, Sloth and Lechery; Part 1 is inferred to have treated Greed, Gluttony, Wrath and Pride.
The Seven Descents of Myrtle
Tubercular Lot returns to his decaying ancestral home with his new bride Myrtle, a former showgirl hoping to nurse him back to health. Lot instead wants Myrtle to help him steal the property deed from his half-brother Chicken, who has farmed the land for years. Lot reveals his hidden identity before dying, as Chicken and Myrtle face the rising flood.
The Seven Sacraments of Nicolas Poussin
A spoken meditation connects Poussin’s sacramental paintings with moments of birth, love and death in modern life. Projected images and live blackboard drawings accompany Bartlett’s changing roles, ending with the audience contemplating an empty hospital bed.
The Seven Year Itch
An American husband, married for seven years, fantasises about his adventurous past, and future, particularly with "the girl" who moves into his apartment block.
The Seventh Veil
The Seventh Veil is a 1951 play by Muriel Box and Sydney Box, based on the hit 1945 film of the same title that they had produced. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Prince's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 68 performances between 14 March and 12 June 1951. The cast included Ann Todd, Herbert Lom, Leo Genn, Ralph Michael, Douglas Jefferies, Derek Blomfield, Dino Galvani and Daphne Anderson. It marked Lom's West End debut.
The Shadow Box
The play takes place over 24 hours in three separate cottages on the grounds of a large hospital in the United States. Within the three cabins are three patients: Joe, Brian and Felicity, who are to live with their respective families as they have reached the end of their treatment. They have agreed to be part of a psychological program where they live within the hospital grounds and have interviews with a psychiatrist. Act One It is morning, and Joe is sitting in the interview area talking to the interviewer. and Steve has no idea of his father’s impending death. Brian takes an aloof approach to his illness; he wants to live each day until the last. Rather than skirt the issues, he confronts them with a dark humor. His young gay lover Mark is with him at the camp. The third family is Felicity and her daughter Agnes. Felicity is "an old woman who drifts between senility and combative lucidness." Her daughter Agnes is "a mousy, browbeaten spinster who tries to keep her mother happy with fictional letters from a daughter who in fact is long dead." It is a normal day for each of these characters; getting to learn their individuality is the heart of the play. The act flows between the serious and the humorous. The first act reveals that each of the three characters is radically different. They are connected by their futures, whether they are terminal or not. As the act ends, Joe and Maggie are beginning to talk, Agnes is struggling to connect to her mother, and Brian and Beverly are dancing. Act Two It is nearing evening. Joe is still coaxing Maggie to come into the cabin, Brian and Beverly are reminiscing, Mark is becoming frustrated by his lover's jollity, and Agnes is beginning to talk to the interviewer. As the act continues, cracks are shown in Brian’s brutal forthrightness about his illness and Mark's feelings about his impending death. Beverly provides some raw insight within her seemingly scattered exterior. Joe and Maggie continue to struggle to have a deeper conversation about their future. Agnes reveals a secret about her sister Claire. We learn that she died some years ago in an accident in Louisiana. Over the past two years, Agnes has been writing letters to her mother from her sister, and the interviewer presents her with some hard questions. More is learned about the characters' lives before they became ill, material that makes their current situation more poignant. By the end of the act, no moral conclusions have been drawn, no one has died, and no one is going to live forever. The audience thinks not about each person's impending death but what to do with this "moment" that each has to live.
The Shadow of Doubt
A nuclear physicist, recently released after five years in prison for breaching the Official Secrets Act, tries to return to his laboratory. Disgraced and friendless, he can find only clerical work and is followed by MI5.
The Shadow of a Gunman
In a Dublin tenement during the War of Independence, poet Donal Davoren lets residents believe he is an IRA gunman, winning the affection of Minnie Powell. After an ambush, a bag of bombs is hidden in Minnie’s room; she is arrested and killed when her captors’ lorry is ambushed.
The Shadow of the Hummingbird
An elderly writer in Southern California, loosely based on Fugard, is visited by his ten-year-old grandson. Their encounter frames Fugard’s personal reflections on childhood, memory and the notebooks that inform the play’s opening scene.
The Sham Lawyer
The Sham Lawyer is a 1697 comedy play by the English writer James Drake. It is also known by the longer title The Sham Lawyer, or, the Lucky Extravagant. The original Drury Lane cast included Colley Cibber as Careless, William Bullock as Sergeant Wrangle, Benjamin Johnson as Homily, Joseph Haines as Spade, William Pinkethman as Famine, Frances Maria Knight as Olympia, Jane Rogers as Florella and Mary Powell as Mrs Vernish.
The Shannons of Broadway
The locale of the play is a small-town hotel with a dining room and barber shop attached, in Sutton, New England. Act I (A shabby old-fashioned hotel lobby. An early spring evening.) The "railroad trade" relaxes in the hotel lobby after their dinner on a snowy day. The railroad supplies its workers with meal tickets to the hotel dining room. Oscar greets Charley, Vance, and Pa Swanzey, while taking down a theater bill: the vaudeville show just folded. Bert comes in late and Minerva blocks him from entering the dining room, but promises he can eat after she goes to the pictures. Emma and Mickey Shannon come in from the cold, but Pa Swanzey will not let them stay because they are "actors". Mrs. Swanzey intervenes to allow the Shannons to warm themselves at the pot-bellied stove. Emma forestalls Nez Davis from getting Chuck Bradford any drunker. The Shannons overhear how Charles Bradford Sr is pressuring Pa Swanzey to sell the hotel and his other property outside town. Bradford shows up to take Chuck home and threaten Nez Davis and Pa Swanzey over the bootleg hooch. Tessie confronts Bradford and Newt Eddy over the invalid lien against the hotel, and a general fracas ensues when Bradford insults her. Emma and Mickey persuade Pa Swanzey to sell them the hotel for $6000, which they had been saving for a farm. Minerva, whom Emma had slapped down earlier for sassing her, is dismayed but the Swanzeys are elated. (Curtain) Act II (Same as Act I, with refurbished lobby. A few weeks later.) Mickey is manning the front desk when hotel guests Eddie and Alice Allen admit they can't pay the room bill. They offer to demonstrate their vaudeville act to establish credit worthiness. It is dismal and the Shannons tell them so. But instead of ejecting the Allens and confiscating their luggage, they offer them jobs as night clerk and seamstress with free room and board. Vance Atkins, impressed with the Shannons generosity, tells them about the planned railroad expansion and new "government flying field" planned for outside of town. He learned from his brother the construction would be north of the river, which is just where Bradford is buying land options. Emma charms Newt and sends him out with a $3000 check to buy up options before Bradford does. Chuck, who has stopped drinking and opposes his father over Tessie, is also sent out to buy options with another $3000 check. The Melody Boys arrive, and are given a corner suite and invited to practice their saxophones in the hotel. Emma, however, has forgotten to get Mickey's buy-in for the land options. When he learns she has given the last of their savings to comparative strangers, he explodes and threatens to leave. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act II. Next day, early afternoon.) Emma and Mickey have reconciled. Minerva comes crying to Emma; Bert is ignoring her since she is now "in trouble". Emma assures her she won't lose her job or room. Mickey is just phoning Bradford to offer the hotel for sale, as he's convinced their savings are lost. Just then Mr. Albee comes into the lobby. After some initial confusion over his identity, the deflated Shannons perk up when he offers to pay $25,000 for the hotel. He further informs them that all the new projects are going south of the river. Now Vance enters, dragging a fearful Newt, who admits buying the options north of the river with Emma's check, but recording them in Bradford's name. Chuck then comes to confess he second-guessed Emma, and bought south of the river instead of north. Elated, Mickey gleefully pounces on Bradford when he comes to buy the hotel. Mickey scares him with jail for sub-borning Newt, while Chuck threatens him for again insulting Tessie. Bradford repays the money Newt spent for him, and yields to his son about marrying Tessie. Now Bert arrives and is confronted by Emma, who demands he marry Minerva. He refuses until Mickey knocks him down, then relents. With the Melody Boys providing the music, the entire cast goes into a song and dance number: the Shannons are returning to Broadway. (Curtain)
The Shape of Things
A young student’s changing relationship with an art major unfolds as his best friend’s engagement deteriorates, exposing tensions in two contemporary relationships.
The Shape of the Table
A fictional Eastern European nation negotiates a transition from communist leadership toward Western-style democracy. The play makes regional political change personal and centers on the contentious process of negotiation.
The Shark Is Broken
The Shark Is Broken is a comedic stage play written by British playwrights Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon. The play is a comedic exploration of the behind-the-scenes drama that took place during the filming of the 1975 film Jaws, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Shaw's father, Robert Shaw, as well as Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss.
The Shaughraun
Fenian fugitive Robert Ffolliott returns to Ireland to marry Arte O’Neale, but a land-seeking schemer and his police informant plot to send him back to Australia. Conn, the comic poacher known as the Shaughraun, helps Robert evade arrest and expose the villains, while the family’s other romances resolve alongside the political conflict.
The Shawl
Miss A seeks advice from John, an amateur psychic, about her late mother’s inheritance. John and his ambitious protégé Charles plan a séance to deceive her, but Miss A exposes their tricks; John then reveals an unexplained detail about her childhood and a red shawl that may be genuine psychic insight.
The She-Gallants
The She-Gallants is a 1695 comedy play by the English writer George Granville. It was first staged by Thomas Betterton's Company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Bellamour, John Hodgson as Philabel, John Thurmond as Frederick, Cave Underhill as Sir Toby Cusifle, William Bowen as Sir John Aery, Thomas Doggett as Vaunter, Samuel Bailey as Courtall, Elizabeth Barry as Lady Dorimen, Anne Bracegirdle as Angelica, Elizabeth Boutell as Constantia, Elizabeth Bowman as Lucinda and Elinor Leigh as Plackett.
The Shepherd's Paradise
A long pastoral court masque set in a community devoted to Platonic love, where the unrequited find refuge. A debate over ideal love and marriage accompanies tangled identities, a lost heir's discovery and marriages that favor union over Platonic ideals.
The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet
In a frontier town, the disreputable Blanco Posnet faces trial for stealing a horse. A prostitute's testimony nearly condemns him, but a woman refuses to identify him as the man who lent her the horse to save her dying child. Shaw frames the one-act courtroom melodrama as a religious tract on morality, mercy, and the nature of God.
The Shifting Heart
Set on Christmas Eve in a 1950s Melbourne neighborhood, the play examines racism and its effects through an Italian immigrant family and nearby neighbors; a fence separates hostile neighbors from those who stand with the Bianchis.
The Shining Hour
The Shining Hour is a 1934 Broadway three-act drama written by Keith Winter, produced by Max Gordon and staged by Raymond Massey with scenic design created by Aubrey Hammond. It ran for 121 performances from February 13, 1934, to May 1934 at the Booth Theatre. This was Gladys Cooper's Broadway debut. Raymond Massey and Adrianne Allen were a married couple at this time. The play was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1933–1934. It was adapted into the 1938 film The Shining Hour directed by Frank Borzage and starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Margaret Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas.
The Ship That Never Was
A stage pantomime based on the 1834 Frederick escape, a convict-era Australian escape story.
The Shock of Recognition
In this one-act comedy, playwright Jack Barnstable auditions Richard Pawling for a role requiring nudity. The overeager actor’s willingness to strip transforms the audition into an awkward comic encounter.
The Shoe-Horn Sonata
A war drama about Australian nurses during the Second World War.
The Shoemaker
The Shoemaker is a play written by Susan Charlotte, first staged at the off-Broadway Acorn Theater on 24 July 2011. The play was directed by Antony Marsellis and starred Danny Aiello as The Shoemaker, Alma Cuervo as Hilary, Lucy Devito as Louise and Michael Twaine providing Offstage Voices.
The Shoemaker's Holiday
Aristocrat Rowland Lacy disguises himself as a shoemaker to remain in London and pursue Rose Otley, while shoemaker Simon Eyre rises to become Lord Mayor. Meanwhile, returned soldier Ralph reunites with Jane after she is misled into believing he died, and the King pardons Lacy and blesses the marriages.
The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife
After her much older shoemaker husband leaves, his young wife withstands attention from the mayor and other suitors, remains loyal, and opens a café to support herself. The shoemaker returns disguised as a puppeteer and asks her forgiveness.
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