The Universal Language
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.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Universal Passion
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.
The Unknown Soldier and His Wife
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.
The Unloved Woman
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.
The Unnatural Combat
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.
The Unnatural and Accidental Women
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.
The Unvarnished Truth
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.
The Uprooted Pine
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.
The Upstart Crow
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.
The Usurper of State Power
A parody of contemporary events in China that adapts both Macbeth and Hamlet.
The Vagina Monologues
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.
The Valiant
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.
The Valley of Water
A family on a farm faces the threat of flooding from a newly built dam.
The Vampire
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.
The Vegemite Tales
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.
The Vegetable
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
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
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.
The Venetian Twins
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.
The Verdict of Perugia
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.
The Vertical Hour
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.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
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
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
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.
The Vietnamization of New Jersey
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.
The Vikings at Helgeland
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.
The Village Bike
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
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
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
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.
The Vinegar Tree
A light comedy of manners whose misunderstandings are shaped by Osborn's polished construction and comic observation.
The Violet Hour
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.
The Virgin Martyr
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
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
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.
The Virgin Trial
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.
The Virginian
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.
The Virtuoso
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.
The Virtuous Burglar
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
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.
The Vision of Delight
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.
The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses
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.
The Visions of Simone Machard
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.
The Visit
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.
The Visitor
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.
The Visitors
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.
The Voice from the Minaret
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
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 Voice of the Turtle
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
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.
The Vortex
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
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.
The Vote
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.
The Voysey Inheritance
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
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.
The Walls Have Ears
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.
The Waltz Invention
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.
The Waltz of the Toreadors
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.
The Walworth Farce
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.
The War Plays
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.
The Warden of the Tomb
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.
The Warning
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.
The Warrens of Virginia
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.
The Wars of the Roses
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.
The Wasps
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.
The Watch on the Rhine
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.
The Watched Pot
At Briony Manor, widowed Hortensia Bavvel seeks a suitable bride for her son Trevor, sole heir to the estate.
The Water Engine
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
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.
The Watershed
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.
The Watsons
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.
The Waverly Gallery
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 Way Old Friends Do
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.
The Way Things Go
A wealthy young American woman tries to lure an impoverished British duke into marriage.
The Way of the World
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
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
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 Waybacks
The Wayback family, from rural Australia, visit Sydney and have comic adventures.
The Weaker Sex
A French comedy mocking the schemes of fortune-hunting men seeking wealthy wives.
The Weakest Goeth to the Wall
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.
The Weavers
An ensemble drama portrays Silesian weavers as a collective protagonist in their 1844 uprising against the conditions of industrial change and economic hardship.
The Wedding
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.
The Wedding
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.
The Wedding
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
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.
The Wedding Party
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.
The Weeding of Covent Garden
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 Weir
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.
The Welch Heiress
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.
The Welkin
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.
The Well of the Saints
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 Werewolf
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
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).
The West Side Waltz
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
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
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.
The What D'Ye Call It
The What D'Ye Call It is a 1715 farce by the British writer John Gay. It was written as a parody of tragic plays, with particular reference to Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd. It was originally performed as an afterpiece with Nicholas Rowe's tragedy Jane Shore at Drury Lane, the cast including Benjamin Johnson, Henry Norris, Richard Cross, James Quin and Elizabeth Younger and Margaret Bicknell. This was followed by a command performance the next night attended by George, Prince of Wales, possibly due to the influence of Gay's friend Henrietta Howard. A hit, by the end of the season it had been performed seventeen times. It was revived frequently during the eighteenth century and is Gay's second most performed work after The Beggar's Opera. It features a ballad "'Twas When the Seas Were Roaring" (also known as "The Meloncholy Nymph") to music written by George Frideric Handel which achieved popularity in its own right and was soon on sale as a song sheet. Gay and Handel collaborated subsequently on Acis and Galatea (1718).
The Wheel of Fortune
Roderick Penruddock's rural cottage is the location for the first act. The scenes of other four acts are in London. The comic lawyer Timothy Weazel finds Roderick Penruddock, who has been living for twenty years in isolated misanthropy, embittered against Arabella and his enemy Woodville. Weazel informs Penruddock that he is the heir of the deceased Sir George Penruddock, a cousin of Roderick. This unexpected inheritance and Woodville's ruin at the gaming tables create a possibility. Roderick plots his revenge and searches for his enemy Woodville in London, where he encounters Henry Woodville. Arabella and his enemy Woodville's friend Sydenham make appeals to Penruddock. The appeals and his own pangs of conscience cause Penruddock to repent, turn to forgiveness, abandon his plans for revenge, and bestow a fortune upon Henry Woodville and Emily.
The Whim
During a Saturnalia feast at Lord Crotchett’s estate, the lord becomes a servant and actual servants Nell and Fag rule the household. The role reversal culminates in the marriage of head maid Maria and Caesar, a disguised noble, which Crotchett ultimately permits.
The Whip
A spectacular blood-and-thunder melodrama follows heroine Lady Di Sartoris amid a dissolute earl, a villainous marquis, and a hero seeking her hand. The staging featured a horse race and a train wreck with live steam, alongside other sensational scenes.
The Whipping Man
In a looted, burned Richmond mansion just after the Civil War, two recently freed enslaved men encounter their former master. All three identify as Jewish and celebrate Passover in 1865, the day after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
The White Boys
In the Manx Christmas mumming play, a hero and antagonist fight and kill one another; a doctor revives them, after which they resume fighting before being stopped, followed by a song and dance.
The White Carnation
On Christmas Eve 1951, John Greenwood returns to a ruined, deserted house and insists it is his home. He learns that he was killed by a V-1 bomb in 1944 and has returned as a ghost; as officials plan to demolish the house, he reconciles with his wife before disappearing.
The White Countess
The White Countess is a 1954 play by J.B. Priestley and his wife Jacquetta Hawkes. It was first staged at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin before transferring to London's West End. However, it ran for only five performances at the Saville Theatre before closing. The production was savaged by most critics, although the reviewer of the New Statesman defended it. The cast included Maurice Teynac and Viveca Lindfors, making her West End debut.
The White Devil
Count Lodovico is banished from Rome for debauchery and murder; his friends, Gasparo and Antonelli promise to work for the repeal of his sentence. The Duke of Brachiano has conceived a violent passion for Vittoria Corombona, daughter of a noble but impoverished Venetian family, despite the fact they are both married to other people. Vittoria's brother Flamineo, employed as a secretary to Brachiano, has been scheming to bring his sister and the Duke together in the hope of advancing his career, much to the dismay of their mother, Cornelia. The plan is foiled by the arrival of Brachiano's wife Isabella, escorted by her brother and Cardinal Monticelso. They are both outraged by the rumours of Brachiano's infidelity and set out to make the affair public; before that happens Brachiano and Flamineo arrange to have Camillo (Vittoria's husband) and Isabella murdered. Vittoria is put on trial for the murder of her husband and although there is no real evidence against her, she is condemned by the Cardinal to imprisonment in a convent for penitent whores. Flamineo pretends madness to protect himself from awkward suggestions. The banished Count Lodovico is pardoned and returns to Rome; confessing he had been secretly in love with Isabella, he vows to avenge her death. Isabella's brother Francisco also plots revenge. He pens a love letter to Vittoria, intentionally allowing it to fall into the hands of Brachiano, in order to fuel his jealousy. Though at first his plan seems to work, Vittoria manages to convince Brachiano that she is faithful and the two elope. Cardinal Monticelso is elected Pope and as his first act he excommunicates Vittoria and Brachiano, who have fled Rome. Vittoria and Brachiano, now married, hold court in Padua. Three mysterious strangers have arrived to enter Brachiano's service. These are Francisco, disguised as Mulinassar (a Moor), Lodovico and Gasparo (disguised as Capuchin monks), all conspiring to avenge Isabella's death. They begin their revenge by poisoning Brachiano. As he is dying, Lodovico and Gasparo reveal themselves to him, strangling him when he tries to raise the alarm. Next, Zanche, Vittoria's Moorish maid, who has fallen in love with her supposed countryman Mulinassar, reveals to him the murders of Isabella and Camillo and Flamineo's part in them. Flamineo is banished from court for the murder of his brother Marcello by Brachiano's son Giovanni, the new Duke, and sensing that his crimes are catching up with him he goes to see Vittoria. He tries to persuade her and Zanche to a triple suicide by shooting him, then themselves. Vittoria and Zanche shoot Flamineo and, thinking him dead, exult in his death and their escape. Much to their surprise, Flamineo rises from the 'dead' and reveals to them the pistols were not loaded. As he tries to exact his own revenge on Vittoria, Lodovico and Gasparo enter and complete their revenge by killing all three. Giovanni and officers then arrive and the play ends with Giovanni learning of his uncle's participation in the bloody acts and arresting Lodovico and vowing that "All that have hands in this shall taste our justice" (5.6.297).
The White Horse Inn
The White Horse Inn (or White Horse Inn) (German title: Im weißen Rößl) is a play by Oscar Blumenthal and Gustav Kadelburg. Set in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria, the farce humorously juxtaposes the lives and attitudes of urban tourists vacationing in the Northern Limestone Alps and the local inhabitants who reside near the White Horse Inn where the vacationers are staying. The work was popular both in Europe and in theaters serving the German-American community in the United States in the early 20th century. The White Horse Inn premiered in Berlin in 1897. Sydney Rosenfeld translated the work into English. His version of the play, titled At the White Horse Inn, was staged on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre in 1899. The New York cast including Amelia Bingham and Leo Ditrichstein. The play was the basis for Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz's 1930 operetta The White Horse Inn.
The White Liars
The White Liars is a one-act play by Peter Shaffer, first performed in 1967 and originally titled White Lies. It is often performed with another of Shaffer's one-act plays, Black Comedy, to form the double-bill of The White Liars and Black Comedy. The White Liars revolves around Sophie Lemberg, an eccentric and disillusioned fortune teller (who imagines herself to be a baroness of the Holy Roman Empire) living in a decaying seaside resort, and the two young men—Tom, the lead singer in a rock band, and Frank, his business manager—who consult her. It soon becomes clear that their lives are much stranger than the fiction Sophie tries to create in her magic ball.
The White Plague
As a disease kills people over forty-five, Doctor Galén withholds his cure until world peace is declared, treating only the poor. The Marshal chooses war over medicine until he falls ill and accepts Galén's terms, but Galén is killed by a pro-war crowd before he can reach him.
The White Rose
The play depicts the arrest, interrogation and execution of student members of the White Rose, who protested Nazi rule in Munich during World War II. Gestapo officer Robert Mohr tries to persuade Sophie Scholl to recant, but she refuses.
The White Sheep of the Family
The White Sheep of the Family is a 1951 British comedy play by Lawrence du Garde Peach and Ian Hay. A criminal family are distressed when their son wants to go straight. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool before transferring to London's West End. It ran for 273 performances at the Piccadilly Theatre between 11 October 1951 and 7 June 1952. The cast included Jack Hulbert, Joyce Carey, Cyril Chamberlain, Derek Blomfield and Rona Anderson, making her West End debut.
The White Sister
In Italy, Giovanna learns that her lover Giovanni is missing in a war in Africa. After two years she enters a Dominican convent and serves as a supervising nurse; three years later Giovanni arrives as a patient and asks her to leave with him. She remains faithful to her vows, and he dies heartbroken.
The White Steed
In an Irish village, the ailing Canon Matt Lavelle’s tolerant outlook clashes with Father Shaughnessy’s efforts to impose strict religious control. The younger priest campaigns against drinking, dancing, romance and books he considers improper.
The Whole Truth
The Whole Truth is a 1955 thriller play by the British writer Philip Mackie. Originally written and broadcast by the BBC as a television play, it was rewritten for the stage the same year. It premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, before beginning a 145 performance West End run at the Aldwych Theatre. The original cast included Leslie Phillips, Ernest Clark and Sarah Lawson.
The Wicked Earl
The Wicked Earl is a 1927 comedy play by the British-American writer Walter Hackett. A British earl travels to New Mexico to find out more about his heritage. It ran for 31 performances at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End. The original cast included Cyril Maude, Alfred Drayton, Marion Lorne, Joyce Kennedy, Stella Arbenina, George Bellamy, O.B. Clarence and Sam Livesey.
The Wicked World
When two mortals are brought to Fairyland, the immortal fairies experience love, jealousy and anger for the first time. Their passions disrupt the fairies' supposed moral superiority, and after the mortals return to Earth, the fairies reject the gift of mortal love in favor of tranquil virtue.
The Widdow Ranter, or, the History of Bacon in Virginia
A fictionalized account of Bacon's Rebellion, the play presents Nathaniel Bacon as a heroic rebel in love with Semernia, an Indigenous princess. In a parallel plot, the unconventional Widow Ranter disguises herself in men's clothes and fights in several battles.
The Wide Ionian Sea
In Ithaca on Panay Island, the older Mentor seduces 19-year-old Telemachus; after an affair and shared life, Telemachus leaves, and Mentor turns his heartbreak into a book of erotic sonnets before they reunite.
The Wider Earth
A fictionalized account of Charles Darwin's five-year voyage aboard HMS Beagle, presented with puppets and visual-theatre elements.
The Widow
The comedy interweaves Francisco’s pursuit of his employer Brandino’s wife Philippa with Ricardo’s schemes to marry the wealthy widow Valeria. A robbed traveller, Ansaldo, is mistaken for a thief and then disguised as a woman, leading Francisco to court him. The final revelations identify Ansaldo as Valeria’s estranged daughter Martia, reunite her with her father, and expose the thieves.
The Widow from Valencia
Widow Leonarda begins in mourning but changes her mind after seeing a handsome young man. To pursue a clandestine affair without revealing her identity or risking her reputation, she arranges to meet Camilo in darkness; three suitors come to her home disguised as merchants.
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