8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Tuscan Treaty is a 1733 tragedy by the British writer William Bond also known by the longer title The Tuscan Treaty: or, Tarquin's overthrow. It is set during the time of the Overthrow of the Roman monarchy. The original Covent Garden cast included Thomas Walker as Porsenna and Jane Rogers as Valeria. The prologue was written by Aaron Hill. It was not considered successful on its debut, and was never revived.
Private tutor Läuffer enters a dependent position in a wealthy household and falls in love with his employer’s daughter. After compromising her, he flees and tries to build a life of extreme self-denial.
Tutor Lauffer teaches the children of a retired major. After an affair with his student Gussie leaves her pregnant, he flees and later castrates himself to avoid repeating the scandal; he is then accepted as a model teacher and entrusted with Germany’s youth.
The controversial dramedy tackles the issue of fictional genetic testing that would determine the sexual orientation of an unborn child. When Suzanne Gold-Stein discovers her son is destined to be gay, she considers aborting the fetus, much to the dismay of her gay brother David, whose sexual orientation has never been fully accepted by his conservative family. In the stage version, she has the abortion late in the pregnancy, resulting in her inability to bear any more children, as well as David's estrangement from the family. In the film version, Suzanne chooses to have the baby, though this leads to a break-up with her husband, who does not wish to raise a gay son.
The Twin Rivals is a 1702 comedy play by the Irish writer George Farquhar. It was one of the author's least successful plays. A younger son schemes to cheat his elder brother out of the family estate. The original Drury Lane cast featured Robert Wilks as Elder Woudbee, Colley Cibber as younger Woudbee, Benjamin Husband as Richemore, John Mills as Trueman, William Pinkethman as Subtleman, Benjamin Johnson as Balderdash, William Bowen as Teague, Jane Rogers as Constance, Mary Hook as Aurelia, William Bullock as Mandrake and Henrietta Moore as Steward's wife. The prologue was written by Peter Anthony Motteux. In 1981 it was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In fifteenth-century Venice, Jacopo Foscari is tortured and banished for life to Crete. His wife Marina and father, Doge Francesco Foscari, are bound by the city’s laws and cannot prevent his exile; Jacopo dies before leaving. The Council then forces the aged Doge from office, and he dies as the bells announce his successor.
Proteus leaves his betrothed Julia for Milan, where he and his friend Valentine both love Silvia. Proteus betrays Valentine and pursues Silvia, while Julia disguises herself as a page to follow him. After Proteus threatens Silvia, Valentine intervenes; Proteus repents, Julia is revealed, and the two couples reunite.
After Theseus defeats Thebes, imprisoned cousins Palamon and Arcite both fall in love with Emilia, turning their friendship into rivalry. A tournament determines which will marry her; Arcite wins but dies after a fall from his horse, and Palamon marries Emilia. A parallel subplot follows the jailer's daughter, who loves Palamon and is driven to madness when he rejects her.
Rural sisters Mary and Martha Howard come to New York seeking a better life. Mary finds work and marries Hiram Pepper, while Martha becomes involved with Harry Horton, whose deceptions end in murder and suicide; Mary and Hiram help save Martha’s reputation and situation.
A four-part cycle for two actors: a young couple on holiday with a new baby; an inebriated older woman visited by a younger suitor; an Englishman whose twitching foot seems to have a better relationship with him than his wife does; and a catastrophic dinner party in which the two performers play all the guests.
Two actors, siblings Felice and Clare, find themselves abandoned by their touring company in a decaying state theatre. They perform a play within the play about siblings isolated after witnessing their parents' murder-suicide, while the performers' own reality and their characters' story become increasingly difficult to distinguish.
King and Queen arrange for Princess Camilla to marry Prince Simon without telling him she appears plain under a spell. Each disguises themself as a servant, and the servants exchange places with them. Simon and Camilla meet in disguise, recognize one another, and Simon reveals the spell's origin.
In the Russian winter of 1924, Leo Kovalensky returns to his apartment in Petrograd after spending two months in jail. The Soviet government has executed his father and expropriated his family's property, including the apartment building. Leo's lover, Kira Argounova, welcomes him home and moves in with him, despite his status as a suspected counter-revolutionary. A few months later, a panel led by Pavel Syerov questions Kira. They are evaluating the ideological suitability of students at the college where she studies engineering. She admits her bourgeois heritage and refuses to become an informant against Leo. Andrei Taganov, a GPU officer, expels her. After the meeting, Andrei tells Kira that he admires the bravery she showed in defying the panel. He hopes that in a future world everyone can express themselves openly, but until then people like her must suffer. Since she will lose her ration card for being expelled, he offers to get her a job in a railroad office. Kira begs officials in the railroad office to help Leo go to a sanatorium in Crimea for treatment of tuberculosis he contracted while in jail. They refuse to help a former aristocrat. Andrei comes to the office with Stepan Timoshenko to confront Andrei's old friend Syerov with evidence that he helps smuggle black market goods. Syerov promises to end his involvement. Kira asks Andrei for his help with Leo. He refuses, but when Kira becomes upset, he kisses her and admits he has been thinking about her since their previous meeting. Kira tells Andrei she loves him, but no one must know of their affair. The second act begins six months later. Syerov is in charge of the railroad office and conspires with another official, Karp Morozov, to divert food shipments for the black market. They arrange for Leo, who has just returned from his treatment in Crimea (secretly funded by Andrei's gifts to Kira), to open a store that will sell the stolen goods. Kira warns Leo that his involvement could lead him to a firing squad. Andrei, who has supported Kira as his mistress, proposes marriage. In response, she suggests they should break up. He tells her it is too late for them to separate, because she has changed his view of life. Timoshenko brings Andrei evidence of Syerov and Morozov's ongoing black market activities. Kira realizes this will implicate Leo as well. She asks Andrei to drop the case, but he refuses. Syerov and Morozov are arrested, but are not charged because they have influence with the local GPU chief. The chief orders Andrei to arrest Leo for a show trial and execution. Andrei is disillusioned by the corruption he has witnessed. When he goes to Leo's home to make the arrest, he discovers that Kira also lives there. In the third act, after Leo's arrest, Kira finds Andrei preparing for a speech to a Communist Party meeting. She declares she is proud that she did what was necessary to save Leo from tuberculosis, and she expresses contempt for the Communist ideology that would have let him die. Andrei says he understands and accepts responsibility for making her suffer. When she leaves, Andrei confronts Syerov and insists that he use his influence to secure Leo's release. When Andrei gives his speech, he deviates from his prepared remarks to speak in favor of freedom and individualism. Andrei commits suicide, and afterwards Kira admits to Leo that she was Andrei's mistress. Leo tells her that he is leaving town with Antonina Pavlovna, Morozov's former mistress, to be her gigolo. Kira says she will also leave to attempt an escape across the border. Leo warns that she will be killed, but she says she has already lost everything that matters, except her human spirit.
Set during the Second World War, the play follows a bookish schoolgirl and her parents, whose protected domestic life is disrupted by revolution and invasion. After an invading soldier rapes the girl, her parents accommodate the restored old order while she resists, with tragic consequences.
A farcical send-up of bourgeois snobbery and conformity, adapted from Carl Sternheim's Die Hose.
In a near-future Europe, poet Count Henry leads aristocrats defending the Holy Trinity castle against a democratic, atheist revolution commanded by Pancras. The revolutionaries take the castle, but their leader doubts the cause as Henry’s story moves from private family life to social conflict; the drama ends with Pancras seeing a vision of Christianity’s triumph.
On a foggy night, Michael Starkwedder enters a house and finds Richard Warwick dead, with Warwick’s wife Laura holding the gun. Michael doubts her guilt, and they try to shift suspicion to a man with a grievance against Richard as the mystery reveals their hidden connections.
On a Paris-to-Frankfurt train, a woman carrying a famous author’s latest novel debates whether to read it in front of him. Their separate interior monologues explore their pasts and philosophies before they finally speak, and she reveals that she knew his identity all along.
After a polite invitation to a stranger they meet on holiday, suburban couple Peter and Debbie face consequences that disrupt their home life.
The Unguarded Hour is a 1935 play by Bernard Merivale, inspired by a Hungarian work by Ladislas Fodor. It ran for 140 performances in the West End between 31 July and 30 November 1935, originally at Daly's Theatre before transferring first to the Phoenix Theatre and then to the Playhouse. The cast included Godfrey Tearle and Malcolm Keen. In 1939 it was staged at the Pasadena Playhouse.
The Unhappy Favourite; Or, The Earl Of Essex is a 1681 tragedy by the English writer John Banks. It was originally staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. It portrays the downfall of the Earl of Essex, favourite of Elizabeth I, and his subsequent execution following Essex's Rebellion. The first Drury Lane cast included Thomas Clark as The Earl of Essex, Philip Griffin as Earl of Southampton, Michael Mohun as Burleigh, Thomas Disney as Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Marshall as Queen Elizabeth, Sarah Cooke as Countess of Rutland and Mary Corbett as Countess of Nottingham. John Dryden wrote a special prologue for a performance attended by Charles II and his wife Catherine of Braganza. Banks dedicated the published version of 1682 to Princess Anne, niece of the king, who herself later came to the throne. The play was revived numerous times during the following century. In 1731 James Ralph wrote The Fall of the Earl of Essex, borrowing heavily from Banks.
The Unhappy Penitent is a 1701 tragedy by the English writer Catherine Trotter. It is set at the French court of the late fifteenth century where Charles VIII plans to break his marriage agreement with Margaret of Austria so that he can make a dynastic union with Anne of Brittany acquiring the Duchy of Brittany for France. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as the Duke of Lorraine, John Mills as Charles VIII, Joseph Williams as the Archduke of Austria, Thomas Smith as Brisson, Philip Griffin as the Duke of Brittanie, Thomas Simpson as Du Law, Henry Fairbank as Neapolitan Lord, Jane Rogers as Margarita, Anne Oldfield as Anne and Mary Powell as Madame de Bourboun.
The Uninvited Guest is a 1953 play by the British writer Mary Hayley Bell. It premiered at the Kings Theatre, Southsea before transferring to St James's Theatre in the West End where it ran for 21 performances between 27 May and 13 June 1953. The West End cast included John Mills, Joan Greenwood, Cathleen Nesbitt, Clive Morton, and Lyndon Brook. Mills, who was married to the playwright, played a son returning home after some time spent in an insane asylum. A review in The Spectator described it as a "modern and much diminished version of Oedipus emerging out of a background suggestive of Lady Chatterley's Lover".
The Universal Gallant, or The Different Husbands is a 1735 comedy play by the British writer Henry Fielding. The original Drury Lane cast included James Quin as Mondish, William Mills as Gaylove, Theophilus Cibber as Captain Spark, Benjamin Griffin as Sir Simon Raffler, John Harper as Colonel Raffler and Mary Heron as Mrs Raffler. Fielding dedicated the work to Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough. It was not a success and met a hostile reception its opening night, and lasted for only three performances.
Shy Dawn enters Don's office to learn Unamunda, a language he invented to con students. As she becomes fluent and loses her stutter, Don abandons the fraud; they fall in love and welcome another prospective student.
The Universal Passion is a 1737 comedy play by the British writer James Miller. It is a reworking of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The original Drury Lane cast included William Milward as Gratiano, William Mills as Bellario, James Quin as Protheus, Theophilus Cibber as Joculo, Edward Berry as Byron, Richard Winstone as Gremio, John Harper as Porco, Charles Macklin as Asino, Kitty Clive as Liberia and Hannah Pritchard as Delia.
As an unknown soldier is prepared for an honored burial, he and his wife emerge as recurring victims of war throughout history. Generals and priests change eras but repeat the same conflict and ceremonial burial.
In a rural household, Raimunda tries to uncover who killed Faustino, who had been engaged to her daughter Acacia. Her investigation exposes a forbidden passion between Acacia and her stepfather Esteban, and the truth drives the family toward a violent tragedy.
In Marseille, Governor Beaufort's son loves Theocrine, daughter of Admiral Malefort, whose pirate son blockades the harbor and challenges him to single combat. After killing his son, Malefort develops an incestuous desire for Theocrine; his former friend Montreville abducts and rapes her, revealing that Malefort had poisoned his first wife to marry Montreville's mistress, Theocrine's mother. Theocrine dies and Malefort is killed by lightning.
Across a nonlinear timeline, Indigenous women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside speak about their hopes and lives in the days before their deaths, caused by Gilbert Paul Jordan. Through a daughter searching for answers about her mother’s disappearance, the women’s experiences and voices are brought forward.
After a beanbag accident appears to kill his wife, a murder-mystery playwright and his army-friend policeman try to conceal the body. A cascade of further apparent deaths traps them in increasingly tangled explanations until the women revive and the household erupts again.
Courtesan Azuma loves the merchant Yojibei, but his wife and family prevent him from buying out her contract. Poor laborer Yohei, who also loves Azuma, vows to make a fortune and free her; after a fight puts Yojibei under threat of execution, Yohei returns from Edo to ransom Azuma and reunite her with Yojibei.
In 1605, grieving William Shakespeare faces writer's block and pressure to produce a hit. His landlady's aspiring-actress daughter Kate supplies the plot for King Lear, while other characters and comic episodes inspire ideas for Twelfth Night and Othello.
A parody of contemporary events in China that adapts both Macbeth and Hamlet.
An episodic series of personal monologues presents diverse women's experiences of sexuality, body image, menstruation, childbirth, sexual violence, and identity, combining humor with accounts of harm and empowerment.
A condemned murderer awaiting execution refuses to reveal his identity. On the final night, a young woman who may be his sister arrives seeking the truth about his past.
A family on a farm faces the threat of flooding from a newly built dam.
Lord Ruthven, believed dead, returns disguised as the Earl of Marsden and is arranged to marry Lady Margaret, whom he intends to kill for her blood. After Ruthven also targets Effie, Margaret's father and Robert confront him; the vampire is destroyed at sunrise. Planché recasts the vampire as an elegant aristocrat and uses a stage trapdoor for his entrances and exits.
A comedy about young Australian, New Zealand and South African expatriates sharing a flat in Hammersmith, London, as they navigate shared-house life, cultural differences and whether to return home.
Railroad clerk Jerry Frost, a middle-class striver in a dull marriage, dreams of becoming a postman and later of reaching the presidency. The comedy satirizes his ambition to rise in the world.
The Venetian is a 1931 historical play by Clifford Bax based on the story of Renaissance Italian noblewoman Bianca Cappello. "The Venetian" opened February 25, 1931 on the West End for an 86 performance run which transferred from the Little Theatre to the Apollo. Headlined by Margaret Rawlings as Bianca Cappello, Alastair Sim as Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici, and Wilfred Walter as Francisco de Medici, the production's cast also included Ivan Brandt, John Clements, Esme Hubbard, and Catherine Lacey. The play would transfer to Broadway in the autumn of 1931 subsequent to a tryout engagement at the Chicago Little Theatre: however its run at the Theatre Masque (Manhattan) would end after nine performances. The play was the first starring role for Alastair Sim and would remain his sole American theatrical credit. "The Venetian" had a limited-run West End revival in 1940, playing February 14–24 at St Martin's Theatre with headliners Sylvia Coleridge as Bianca Cappello and Wilfred Walter who reprised his 1931 role of Francesco de Medici. The production's cast also included Gerald Cross, Helen Goss and - in his evident West End debut - Hugh Griffith.
The Venetian Outlaw is an 1805 play by the British writer and actor Robert William Elliston. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 26 April 1805. The cast included James Grant Raymond as The Doge, William Barrymore as Count Orsono, Robert William Elliston as Vivaldi, William Powell as Alfieri, William Dowton as Calcagno, George Bartley as Carnevaro, George Cooke as Spalatro and Nannette Johnston as Rosara. The published play was dedicated by Elliston to George III. It was based on an 1801 French play L'Homme à Trois Visages by René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt, which also inspired Rugantino by Matthew Lewis.
Carlo Goldoni’s comedy centers on twin brothers Zanetto and Tonino. Its roles include their companions and lovers, a doctor and his supposed daughter (later revealed as the twins’ sister), and several household servants. The play is based on Plautus’s Menaechmi.
A courtroom drama recreates the Nencini trial over Meredith Kercher's murder, staging prosecution and defense arguments about the evidence against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Knox's reflections interrupt the trial scenes, and the epilogue follows the case through her and Sollecito's exoneration.
Yale professor and former war correspondent Nadia Blye visits her English boyfriend's father, a country doctor who opposes the Iraq invasion. Their debate about intervention and national responsibility unfolds alongside family tensions and a growing attraction, while Nadia's student relationships frame her decision to return to war reporting.
A live children's stage show presents Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar together with three additional stories; the original production paired it with The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, Mister Seahorse and The Very Lonely Firefly.
The Vespers of Palermo is an 1823 historical tragedy by the British writer Felicia Hemans. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 12 December 1823. The original cast included Charles Mayne Young as Count Di Procida, Charles Kemble as Raimond Di Procida, George John Bennett as Eribert, Frederick Henry Yates as Montalba, William Chapman as Anselmo, Thomas Comer as De Couci, William Claremont as Villager, Sarah Bartley as Vittoria and Frances Harriet Kelly as Constance. It is set against the backdrop of the Sicilian Vespers uprising of 1282 and, like Mary Russell Mitford's Julian of the same year, is strongly influenced by the early stages of the Risorgimento in Italy. Both draw links between Classic or Medieval repression with the defeat of Sicily's failed 1820 uprising against Bourbon rule.
The Victim is a 1714 tragedy by the British writer Charles Johnson. The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Agamemnon, Barton Booth as Achilles, Theophilus Keene as Ulysses, John Mills as Menelaus, Lacy Ryan as Arcas, Christopher Bullock as Euribartes, Frances Maria Knight as Clytemnestra, Mary Porter as Iphigenia and Anne Oldfield as Eriphile. The epilogue was written by Colley Cibber.
A parody of Vietnam-era war drama and 1950s family television, set in a middle-class New Jersey home. A blind, traumatized son returns from Vietnam with a wife whose identity is concealed, and the family's responses expose violence, racial injustice and political hypocrisy.
Set in tenth-century Norway, the play follows Ørnulf as he seeks his abducted daughter Dagny and foster-daughter Hjørdis, now married to Sigurd and Gunnar. Conflicting ideas of honor and duty lead to the deaths of Ørnulf's sons, Sigurd and Hjørdis.
Newly pregnant Becky moves to the countryside with her husband, whose focus on parenthood leaves her sexually frustrated. She begins an affair with a neighbor, becomes emotionally attached, and her attempt to manage the consequences ends in a misunderstanding with her husband. The play examines sexual desire, marriage and responsibility.
The Village Lawyer is a 1787 comedy play by the British writer George Colman the Elder, although it has also been mistakenly attributed to William Macready. A farce, it premiered as an afterpiece at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 28 August 1787. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 5 August 1794 It was also staged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The original Haymarket cast included John Edwin as Sheepface, John Bannister as Scout, William Henry Moss as Justice Mittimus, William Parsons as Snarl and Lydia Webb as Mrs Scout.
The Villain is a 1662 tragedy by the English writer Thomas Porter. It was originally staged by the Duke's Company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The first cast included Thomas Betterton as Monsieur Brisac, Henry Harris as Monsieur Beaupre, John Young as Bontefeu, Samuel Sandford as Maligni and Mary Betterton as Bellmont. William Davenant wrote the epilogue. It has been described as the only genuine tragedy of the decade, given the fashion for tragicomedy. Sandford was acclaimed for his role of the villain, and the play was a popular success.
The Vindictive Man is an 1806 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The original cast included Robert William Elliston as Anson, William Barrymore as Colonel Anson, Henry Siddons as Frederick, George Bartley as Charles, William Dowton as Cheshire John, Ralph Wewitzer as Abrahams, Charles Mathews as Blunt, Alexander Webb as Servant, Sarah Harlowe as Harriet and Harriet Siddons as Emily.
A light comedy of manners whose misunderstandings are shaped by Osborn's polished construction and comic observation.
In 1919, publisher John Seavering must choose between publishing a friend's enormous novel and the memoirs of his singer lover. A mysterious machine delivers books from the publishing house's future, revealing the consequences of his choices.
In Diocletian’s Rome, Christian Dorothea is arrested by the persecutor Theophilus, whose aide Harpax is a devil in disguise. Dorothea’s faith converts Theophilus’s daughters, but he kills them and Dorothea is executed; an angel’s gift of heavenly fruit later converts Theophilus, who is himself tortured and dies in a state of bliss.
The Virgin Prophetess, or The Fate of Troy is a 1701 tragedy by Elkanah Settle featuring music by Gottfried Finger. It is a semi-opera with masque-like elements breaking up the scenes. The original cast included John Mills as Menelaus, Philip Griffin as Ulysses, Thomas Simpson as Neoptolemus, Robert Wilks as Paris, Anne Oldfield as Helen and Jane Rogers as Cassandra.
The Virgin Queen is a 1728 tragedy by the British writer Richard Barford. The original cast featured Lacy Ryan as Pallantus, James Quin as Artaxerses, William Milward as Eumenes, Anthony Boheme as Phraotes, Thomas Chapman as Mirza, Thomas Walker as Arsamnes and Elizabeth Younger as Artesia.
Teenage Princess Elizabeth is questioned about her connection to a scandal involving her stepfather and a possible attempt to overthrow the government. Her survival depends on navigating the competing stories adults tell about her innocence, ambition, and sexuality.
A cowboy on a northern Wyoming cattle ranch tends cattle, identifies and hangs a rustler, kills an outlaw, and courts and marries an Eastern schoolteacher.
Bruce and Longvil, each in love with one of Sir Nicholas Gimcrack’s nieces, feign interest in the virtuoso’s absurd experiments to enter his house. Their courtships become tangled with the flirtations of Sir Nicholas, his wife and their lovers, while Gimcrack’s scientific pursuits bankrupt him and his schemes collapse.
A burglar hiding in a clock is interrupted by a man and woman having an affair. Their confused phone calls and misunderstandings multiply when the burglar’s wife and the homeowner’s wife arrive, and another burglar eventually walks into the tangled scene.
The Virtuous Wife; Or, Good Luck At Last is a 1679 comedy play by the English writer Thomas D'Urfey. It was originally performed by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. The original cast included Henry Harris as Beverly, William Smith as Beauford, Thomas Jevon as Sir Frolack Whimsey, Anthony Leigh as Sir Lubbery Widgeon, Cave Underhill as Amble, John Bowman as Crotchett, James Nokes as Lady Beardly, Elizabeth Barry as Olivia and Elizabeth Currer as Jenny Wheedle.
Personifications of Delight, Harmony, Grace, Love, Laughter and other pleasures herald spring before comic anti-masques of pantaloons and phantasms. Zephyrus and Aurora join the serious portion, as the aristocratic masquers descend from a springtime bower to dance.
A court masque in which Night awakens Sleep, Iris summons twelve goddesses to a Temple of Peace, and Queen Anne and eleven ladies perform as the goddesses. Its pageant celebrates peace and the union of England and Scotland.
In occupied France in 1940, adolescent Simone works at a gas station as German forces approach. Inspired by a book about Joan of Arc, she imagines people around her in Joan’s story and sets fire to a hidden gasoline supply before the Germans can seize it.
When the wealthy Claire Zachanassian returns to impoverished Güllen, she offers the town one billion francs on condition that someone kill Alfred Ill, her former lover who once used false witnesses to deny her paternity claim. The townspeople gradually accept the bargain, and Ill accepts the judgment before they kill him and conceal the murder as a death from joy.
In Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938, Sigmund Freud struggles over whether to flee with his family and whether a mysterious visitor is God or an escaped asylum patient. As Freud's daughter Anna is detained by a Gestapo officer, the visitor debates divine responsibility, human freedom, and the causes of evil.
A man facing death receives a hospital visit from his middle-aged daughter. She and the nurse exchange upbeat clichés that disregard his actual condition.
An unhappily married woman falls for a handsome religious student and has a brief romance before he dedicates himself to a career in the church.
The Voice of Nature is an 1802 historical play by the British writer James Boaden. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 31 July 1802. It was inspired by the melodrama Le Jugement de Salomon by the French playwright Louis-Charles Caigniez. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 21 January 1806. The original Haymarket cast included William Barrymore as Alphonso, King of Sicily, Charles Kemble as Rinaldo, John Waddy as Gareb, Robert Palmer as Riccardo, Catherine St Ledger as Alzira, Maria Gibbs as Lilla and Mary Ann Davenport as Bendetta.
The story begins on a Friday afternoon in early April as aspiring actress Sally Middleton has just finished moving into her new apartment in the East Sixties. Even though she has just left her home in Joplin, Missouri, for life in the big city, the married Broadway producer she has been seeing is quick to dump her when he begins to feel she is ruining their relationship by falling in love with him. Heartbroken, Sally confides her uncertainties in her friend Olive Lashbrooke, a promiscuous, worldly girl, questioning the practicality of the lessons in chastity she received as a child and wondering if she is alone in her passion, or if other women share these sensations. Unbeknownst to Sally, Olive has a date planned with Bill Page, a sergeant in the United States Army who happens to be on leave for the weekend, and she has arranged for him to meet her at Sally's new apartment. At the last minute, however, Olive is asked on a date by another man, and she decides to stand up Bill for what she considers to be the better offer. Bill, still bitter over a love affair gone wrong from five years past, finds himself yet again hurt by love, and to make matters worse he has no hotel reservation, nor is there a nearby friend with whom he can stay. Devoid of any alternative, the two strangers find themselves bound together in Sally's apartment for the weekend, where they are forced to confront their fears of fidelity and their ever-growing interest in each other.
The Volunteers is a 1692 comedy play by the English writer Thomas Shadwell. Shadwell completed the play shortly before his death and it was performed posthumously at the Drury Lane Theatre by the United Company. It is also known by the long title The Volunteers; or, The Stock-Jobbers. The original Drury Lane cast featured Anthony Leigh as Major General Blunt, Thomas Doggett as Colonel Hackett senior, George Powell as Colonel Hacket junior, John Hodgson as Welford, John Bowman as Sir Nicholas Dainty, William Bowen as Sir Timothy Kastril, John Verbruggen as Nickum, John Freeman as Dingboy, William Pinkethman as Stitchum, Frances Maria Knight as Teresia, Susanna Verbruggen as Eugenia, Jane Rogers as Winifred, Anne Bracegirdle as Clara and Elinor Leigh as Mrs Hackwell. Shadwell dedicated the published version of the play to Queen Mary. It was revived at Drury Lane in 1711.
Nicky Lancaster, a young composer, struggles with cocaine use and resentment of his ageing socialite mother, Florence, whose affairs with younger men fuel society gossip. When Nicky's fiancée discovers Florence's lover is her former fiancé, relationships fracture; mother and son confront each other and agree to try to change.
The Votary of Wealth is a 1799 comedy play by the British writer Joseph George Holman. The original Covent Garden cast included William Thomas Lewis as Drooply, Alexander Pope as Leonard Vizorly, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Oakworth, John Fawcett as Sharpset, Charles Murray as Clevland, John Emery as Old Vizorly, Julia Betterton as Caroline, Nannette Johnston as Gangica and Jane Pope as Julia Cleveland.
Set in a fictional Lambeth polling station during the final 90 minutes of the 2015 general election, the play follows a diverse group of voters and polling-station staff as they cast ballots and handle the evening’s events.
Edward discovers that the family business he is inheriting has long defrauded its clients by speculating with their money. His father and much of the family knew of the fraud, but Edward must decide how to confront its moral and financial consequences.
The Walloons is a comedy play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London in April 1782. The original cast included John Henderson as Father Sullivan, Richard Wroughton as Montgomery, John Quick as Sir Solomon Dangle, Charles Lee Lewes as Davy Dangle, Francis Aickin as Daggerly, Matthew Clarke as Don Vincentio Drclincourt, John Edwin as Pat Carey, James Fearon as Bumboat, James Thompson as Tipple, Sarah Maria Wilson as Kitty Carrington, Ann Pitt as Mrs Partlet, Mrs Webb as Lady Dangle and Elizabeth Satchell as Agnes. The character of Father O'Sullivan was widely believed to be based on Father Thomas Hussey an Irish-born Priest with whom Cumberland conducted secret talks in an attempt to secure a peace agreement between Britain and Spain during the American War of Independence.
Two parallel love intrigues unfold through disguises, duels, and deception. Doña Ana must choose between Don Juan and the slanderous Don Mendo, while Lucrecia discovers Mendo's scheme to marry Ana; both women ultimately choose men they trust.
In an unnamed country, inventor Salvator Waltz claims to wield a weapon capable of destroying cities and seizes power, but the imagined conquest collapses when the supposed machine proves unreal and he is returned to rejection and madness.
In 1910 France, retired General Léon Saint-Pé dwells on an unconsummated flirtation from seventeen years earlier. When Ghislaine returns, his hopes of rekindling it collide with his hypochondriac wife and a younger rival.
In a Walworth Road flat, Dinny and his sons perform a distorted version of their last day in Cork, repeating and revising a story of death and violence. When Sean brings home the wrong groceries, cashier Hayley enters and disrupts the family’s ritual, drawing her into their performance as she tries to escape with Sean.
A staged trilogy of Edward Bond's Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Can People, and Great Peace, with nuclear war as its shared subject. The article treats the three works as separate plays and supplies no combined plot.
A prince considers placing a guard in his ancestors’ tomb. The warden describes his work and his midnight encounters with Duke Friedrich, while a countess seeks to offer the prince her hand.
June Travers, daughter of a parliamentarian, is lured by an impostor to a brothel run by Madam Gourdron. A blackmailed worker helps her understand the trap; June compels a slaver to call police, then signals for help when the gang returns. Police arrive, June is reunited with her family, and her father resolves to address the danger in Parliament.
At a Virginia plantation ball, Ned Burton proposes to Agatha Warren just as the Civil War begins. He joins the Union Army while Agatha’s father commands Confederate forces. Four years later, a Confederate general’s planted orders make Ned appear to be a spy; Agatha helps him escape, and the general’s explanation clears him to marry her.
John Barton's three-play adaptation combines Shakespeare's four history plays about the Wars of the Roses into a trilogy: Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III. It follows the struggle between Lancaster and York for England's throne, presenting political power as a violent cycle that culminates in Richard III's rise and fall.
Bdelycleon tries to break his father Philocleon’s addiction to serving on juries, trapping him at home and debating the value of jury service. When argument fails, he stages a trial at home, where Philocleon mistakenly acquits a dog. Bdelycleon takes his father to a dinner party, but Philocleon gets drunk and causes trouble; the play ends with him competing in a dance against the sons of Carcinus.
American diplomat Metz Strobel investigates a German count suspected of corruption, meets Ulrich Steinway and his sister Norma, and helps expose the count's scheme.
At Briony Manor, widowed Hortensia Bavvel seeks a suitable bride for her son Trevor, sole heir to the estate.
Charles Lang works at a menial job at a factory and lives with his blind sister Rita in an apartment in Chicago during the 1934 Century of Progress world's fair. He is also an amateur inventor, and the play centers around a machine he designs that can create electricity from distilled water. Seeking to patent his idea, he finds a lawyer, Morton Gross, in the phone book and shows him the machine, but Gross's motivations seem to differ from Lang's. Gross recruits another lawyer, Lawrence Oberman, and together they menace Lang and eventually his sister. It is heavily implied that the two of them serve the corporate establishment whose profits Lang's engine threatens. By the time Lang realizes he is being taken advantage of, the lawyers have him trapped. He attempts to contact a newspaper reporter, but Gross and Oberman hold his sister hostage to prevent him from telling his story. He then meets a barker at the World's Fair right before it closes for the night who tells him of a chain letter he has just received, which gives him an idea. The lawyers try to force Lang into giving them his plans, but he says he no longer has them; the audience finds out from a scene in the newspaper reporter's office that he and Rita have been killed. The play ends with Bernie, a young friend of the family who has previously shown mechanical aptitude, receiving the plans for the Water Engine in the mail.
The Watering Place is a play written by Lyle Kessler. His first full length, On February 17, 1969, Alan Schneider took over the role as director for The Watering Place. The opening was delayed until March 6. The play closed the first day it opened, but Kessler believed the reason for its lack of success on Broadway had more to do with other variables than the merit of the play itself. "....there were a lot of problems" Kessler said in an interview in 1990, "We'd had a change of directors, some of the casting wasn't right. And at the time, people didn't want to see anything about Vietnam." Kessler, who went on to write Orphans, won a Rockefeller Foundation grant for The Watering Place. The play has had segments published in a number of anthologies including Best Plays of 1969-1970 and Monologues--women: 50 speeches from the contemporary theatre, Volume 1 and memorabilia from the Broadway production are sold on eBay as collector's items. Langham said The Watering Place is one of the most significant plays about America he has ever read.
A playwright investigating Canada’s freshwater research takes her family on a cross-country journey. Interviews and personal encounters connect environmental policy, government secrecy, and the responsibilities of raising children.
When Jane Austen’s unfinished story reaches its stopping point, the dramatist appears onstage and debates with the rebellious characters about how their story should continue, turning the Regency drama into a philosophical comedy.
Eighty-something Gladys Green runs a small Greenwich Village art gallery while showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Her grandson Daniel narrates how the family responds to her decline as a young artist exhibits work and the landlord seeks to replace the gallery with a restaurant.
The play follows the ups and downs in the friendship of Peter and Edward, who were at school together in Birmingham in the 1980s. Edward came out to Peter as gay, and Peter as an ABBA fan. They find each other again after twenty years of estrangement and book a one-off gig at the local theatre as a drag ABBA tribute band. They decide to play Frida and Agnetha, and recruit wannabe actress Jodie and eccentric rehearsal pianist Mrs Campbell as Björn and Benny. Stage manager Sally is the final member of the team. Avid Australian fan, Christian, convinces them to pursue the idea, and they embark on a life on the road. However Christian's romantic involvement with Edward leads to the breakdown of his friendship with Peter.
A wealthy young American woman tries to lure an impoverished British duke into marriage.
Mirabell and Millamant seek Lady Wishfort's consent to marry and secure Millamant's inheritance. Deception involving Lady Wishfort's proposed suitor and a blackmail scheme by Fainall threaten the match, but an earlier property trust thwarts the blackmail and clears the way for the marriage.
The Way to Get Married is a 1796 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Morton. The play was frequently revived well into the nineteenth century. The original cast included William Thomas Lewis as Tangent, John Quick as Toby Allspice, John Henry Johnstone as McQuery, Alexander Pope as Captain Faulkener, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Caustic, John Fawcett as Dick Dashall, Charles Farley as Servant, Charles Holland as Solicitor, Isabella Mattocks as Clementina Allspice, Tryphosa Jane Wallis as Julia Faulkener and Mary Ann Davenport as Lady Sorel.
The Way to Keep Him is a 1760 comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. Originally three-acts in length, it premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre in a double bill with Murphy's The Desert Island. Actor-manager David Garrick appeared in both productions. A great success, the following year it was extended to five acts, with music composed by Thomas Arne to accompany it. It had many revivals well into the nineteenth century. The original 1760 Drury Lane cast included Garrick as Lovemore, John Palmer as Sir Brilliant Fashion, Thomas King as William, Maria Macklin as Widow Bellmour, Mary Ann Yates as Mrs Lovemore, Mary Bradshaw as Mignionet and Kitty Clive as Muslin. Writer Henry Angelo recalls attending an earth-bathing lecture in the early 1790s, during which quack doctor James Graham began reciting "Ye fair married Dames..." from the play at the urging of bored onlookers.
The Wayback family, from rural Australia, visit Sydney and have comic adventures.
A French comedy mocking the schemes of fortune-hunting men seeking wealthy wives.
In a romance set in France, Lodowick is driven from his duchy, while his infant nephew Frederick is lost and raised by another ruler. As French and Spanish forces clash, Frederick and the duke’s daughter fall in love; the young man’s identity is ultimately revealed and the families reconcile.
An ensemble drama portrays Silesian weavers as a collective protagonist in their 1844 uprising against the conditions of industrial change and economic hardship.
After a false accusation makes Beauford doubt his bride Gratiana, disguises and a mistaken identity reveal the truth. A parallel courtship plot among Justice Landby's daughter and her suitors ends in a second wedding; the play concludes with three couples marrying.
A bride’s family pays to have a general attend the wedding reception and impress their guests. The elderly naval captain who arrives exposes the hosts’ social pretensions and the deception behind his invitation.
At a wedding between a Kraków poet and a peasant woman, living guests encounter figures from Polish history who embody national hopes and failures. A golden horn calls the guests to revolt, but its loss leaves them in a trance-like dance as the chance for freedom is squandered.
The Wedding Day is a comedy play by the English writer Elizabeth Inchbald. An afterpiece, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 1 November 1794. The original cast included William Barrymore as Lord Rakeland, Thomas King as Sir Adam Contest, John Hayman Packer as Mr Millden, Charles Kemble as Mr Contest, Charlotte Tidswell as Lady Autumn, Dorothea Jordan as Lady Contest, Elizabeth Hopkins as Mrs Hamford and Elizabeth Heard as Hannah. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 15 February 1797.
Two families gather for a wedding that threatens to unravel under the weight of old tensions and unexpected guests. A small ensemble plays the overlapping characters caught in the celebration’s escalating confusion.
Richard Brome's Caroline comedy satirizes the real-estate development of Covent Garden and Inigo Jones, using a realistic London setting, a justice of the peace, an architect, disguised lovers and a group of hooligans called the Brothers of the Blade.
The play opens in a County Leitrim pub with Brendan, the publican, and Jack, a car mechanic and garage owner. These two begin to discuss their respective days and are soon joined by Jim. The three then discuss Valerie, a pretty young woman from Dublin who has just rented an old house in the area. Finbar, a businessman, arrives with Valerie, and the play revolves around reminiscences and banter. After a few drinks, the group begin telling stories with a supernatural slant, related to their own experience or those of others in the area, and which arise out of the popular preoccupations of Irish folklore: ghosts, fairies and mysterious happenings. After each man (except Brendan) has told a story, Valerie tells her own: the reason why she has left Dublin. Valerie's story is melancholy and undoubtedly true, with a ghostly twist which echoes the earlier tales, and shocks the men who become softer, kinder, and more real. There is the hint that the story may lead to salvation and, eventually, a happy ending for two of the characters. Finbar and Jim leave, and in the last part of the play, Jack's final monologue is a story of personal loss which, he comments, is at least not a ghostly tale but in some ways is nonetheless about a haunting. The building of a hydroelectric dam, or weir, on a local waterway many years before is mentioned early in the conversation.
Lord Melcourt is engaged to marry an heiress for the sake of her money and the naïve and romantic Miss Plinlimmon is puzzled by the fact that his behaviour does not live up to her expectations of the ideal lover. In fact he does not care for the girl's liveliness and eventually breaks off the engagement, whereupon his friend Mr Fashion takes his place. A farcical subplot involves Mr Phrensy, a writer who cannot make the world agree that he is a genius. Even the false news of his death in the papers does not lead to a revival of his reputation and he therefore plans to have a second item published, announcing that he died while visiting Melcourt for the wedding. Meanwhile he masquerades as a friend of Phrensy's, raising subscriptions for an edition of his collected works.
In rural England in 1759, a condemned woman claims she is pregnant. Twelve women are summoned to determine whether she is telling the truth, turning a legal judgment into a struggle over class, authority, and women's bodies.
Two blind beggars, Martin and Mary Doul, are led to believe they are beautiful. After a saint restores their sight, they are repulsed by their appearance and by one another; when they later lose their sight again, Martin refuses another cure, and the couple leave town.
The Duchess of Capablanca thinks her castle is haunted by the spirit of the famous libertine Don Juan. Psychic investigator Eliphas Leone believes this spirit has possessed Paolo Moreira, a young, straight-laced professor at a nearby school, and uses Moreira's astral body to seduce women among the castle's household servants. Rumors about this motivate several young women to approach Moreira in the hope of being seduced. However, when the Duchess attempts to prove the possession by a rendezvous with Moreira, she finds that he is no libertine; instead she discovers that the culprit seducing the servants is her butler, Vincente.
The West Indian is a play by Richard Cumberland first staged at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1771. A comedy, it depicts Belcour, a West Indian plantation owner, travelling to Britain. Belcour tries to overcome his father's lingering disapproval of him and marry his sweetheart Louisa. Its hero, who probably owes much to the suggestion of David Garrick, is a young scapegrace fresh from the tropics, "with rum and sugar enough belonging to him to make all the water in the Thames into punch", a libertine with generous instincts, which prevail in the end. The early example of the modern drama was favorably received. Boden translated it into German, and Goethe acted in it at the Weimar court. The play was a success running for 28 performances in its original run and was Cumberland's most popular comic work. One of the Drury Lane staff observed "the success which has attended the performances of The West Indian has exceeded that of any comedy within the memory of the oldest man living". The original Drury Lane cast included Francis Aickin as Stockwell, Thomas King as Belcour, John Hayman Packer as Captain Dudley, Samuel Cautherley as Charles Dudley, John Moody as Major O'Flaherty, James Aickin as Stukely, Robert Baddeley as Fulmer, William Parsons as Varland, Elizabeth Hopkins as Lady Rusport, Frances Abington as Charlotte Rusport, Sophia Baddeley as Louisa and Mary Bradshaw as Stockwell's Housekeeper. The play proved popular in North America and was staged in the West Indies, British North America and the United States. It was the first English-language play known to have been staged in Jersey (on 5 May 1792). It was staged at Yale on April 13, 1773 by an all-male cast, who were members of the Linonian literary society, which included Nathan Hale and David Bushnell. A popular character was the Irishman Major O'Flaherty, who reappeared in the 1785 play The Natural Son. The play was one of a number written by Cumberland that contained sympathetic depictions of colonists from the British Empire. On 17 April 1804, the play was performed at the Theatre Royal, York. It was attended by Jane Ewbank, who commented as follows in her diary: "Went to the Play, the West Indian; the part of Belcour would have been performed well by Melvin, had he been more the gentleman... " (York Courant, 16 April 1804).
Aging widowed pianist Margaret Mary Elderdice lives in a dreary Upper West Side apartment and forms relationships with a prim violinist neighbor and a young companion who stays with her.
The Whale is a 2012 play written by Samuel D. Hunter. The play, set in Moscow, Idaho, tells the story of a obese man who hides from the world and stays in his apartment. He cannot stop eating to the detriment of everyone around him, including his estranged daughter.
The Whales of August is a play written by American playwright David Berry. The play is about two elderly sisters, both widows, who are living together in 1954 in a summer cottage in Maine. The older sister, Elizabeth "Libby" is being taken care of by her younger sister, Sarah. The sisters sit on their porch and watch the whales in the ocean and discuss the trials and tribulations of their lives. The play was adapted as a feature-film, and released in 1987.
Showing 7,369–7,488 of 8,284 shows
Load more shows