8284 shows
Clear filtersThe Years is a stage adaptation of the book of the same name by Annie Ernaux. It was adapted for the stage and directed by Eline Arbo. The production premiered in 2022 at the Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, under the name De jaren. An English translation of the play premiered in 2024 at London's Almeida Theatre and subsequently transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End.
When Colonel Michael Wentworth is presumed dead after a 1942 plane crash, his wife Diana takes his parliamentary seat and begins a relationship with neighbour Richard. Three years later Michael returns, revealing that authorities staged his death to conceal his work organizing resistance in occupied Europe; the rest of the play examines the effects of his return.
In tsarist Russia, Anna Mirrel disguises herself as a prostitute to obtain a passport that will let her visit her supposedly ill father. In St. Petersburg she learns he has been killed and tells a young journalist about government abuses hidden from the public.
In Vilna in 1890, wealthy merchant David Moishele divides his business among his daughters and treats himself as a monarch. One daughter warns him with the story of King Lear, but he follows a path toward ruin and madness before reconciling with his children.
In the early 1960s, Yorkshire farm labourer George withdraws from a production of the York Mystery Plays. John, its shy assistant director, tries to bring him back; the two men’s love affair unfolds amid a clash between regional and London culture.
Vittori, admiral to the prince of Naples, competes with him for Cassandra’s hand. After Naples and Sicily go to war, the prince sends Vittori to command the fleet while hoping he will die. Vittori wins, but returns to find the city gates closed and the prince conspiring against him. Captured amid shifting allegiances, he faces a tragicomic choice between saving his father and saving Cassandra; peace ultimately allows both couples to marry.
A community struggles to interpret an unexplained miraculous event that disrupts daily life and hampers creativity; the play explores blocked psychological development and the capacity to act freely.
Two spirited children from George Brent’s first marriage try to separate him from his unsympathetic second wife and reunite him with their mother. Their schemes around an attempted elopement and their mother’s new suitor eventually bring George and Jennifer back together.
An oracle predicts that Orsames will become a tyrant, so his mother keeps him isolated while raising his sister Cleomena as a warrior and possible ruler. Orsames is briefly allowed to govern, acts tyrannically, and returns to confinement; Cleomena later helps restore him to the throne. She and disguised prince Thersander survive a mistaken-belief sequence and are reunited as peace is made between their peoples.
In 1950, Will Kidder, age 64, is at his office at the Sunshine Southern Wholesale Grocery, where he has worked since his early 20s. He and his wife Lily Dale have just moved into their new house in Houston and, in Will's words, "There's no finer house in Houston." He was poor as a child and had a successful career. However, Will is fired. Will talks about his only son, Bill, who had moved to Atlanta. Bill drowned six months ago, and Will suspects Bill actually committed suicide. Lily Dale refuses to consider that he committed suicide, instead believing that his death was an accident. Bill's roommate, Randy Carter, the "Young Man from Atlanta", had been trying to see Will, who believes that all he wants is money. Will learns that Bill had given Randy money, but eventually accepts that he knew Bill and "that's the only Bill I care to know about." A review in The New York Times titled "Nameless Menace in Latest by Foote" points out: "This being 1950, nobody in the play mentions the word 'gay,' or refers even euphemistically to the truth of the relationship between Bill and Randy." Lily Dale Kidder Will Kidder Pete Davenport Carson Tom Jackson Miss Lacey Ted Cleveland Jr. Clara Etta Doris Meneffree
The wealthy Lady Youthly is to marry impoverished younger brother George, while George's father plans to marry her granddaughter Tereisa. Mirtilla, who jilted George for the wealthy Sir Morgan, pursues Prince Frederick and a disguised page; in the end, George marries Tereisa and Mirtilla returns to Sir Morgan.
The Younger Generation is a comedy play by the British writer Stanley Houghton. It takes place in a dining room of a house in the suburbs of Manchester, during a period of twenty four hours. It premiered at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester in 1910. It enjoyed a West End run of 131 performances between 19 November 1912 and 8 March 1913, originally at the Haymarket before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre. The London cast included Nigel Playfair, Norman Page, Allan Jeayes and Kate Bateman.
Growing up in a Potsdam ruled by his domineering father Frederick William of Prussia, the young Prince and future Frederick the Great plans to flee the country in protest at his father's plan for an arranged marriage with a woman he has never met.
Architect William of Sens, rebuilding Canterbury Cathedral's choir after its destruction by fire, is depicted as a prideful craftsman whose intrigue with the choir's benefactress leads to a crippling fall.
In Central Park, isolated Jerry interrogates publishing executive Peter and recounts his life and visit to the zoo; their encounter turns violent when Jerry provokes Peter into a fatal confrontation.
After the Liberation of Paris in 1944, Inspector Clair investigates the death of Jean, a young gay resistance fighter. Jean's lover Bernard, sister Liliane, her German officer lover Eric and an American soldier become entangled in the case and a plan to silence Bernard.
Themistocles, the Lover of His Country is a 1729 tragedy by the Irish writer Samuel Madden. It is based on the life of the Ancient Greek general Themistocles. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included James Quin as Themistocles, Thomas Walker as Xerxes I, Thomas Chapman as Artaban, William Milward as Mardonius, Lacy Ryan as Aristides, John Ogden as Demaratus, Anne Berriman as Artemisia and Elizabeth Buchanan as Nesiptolema.
A Lewis Carroll–inspired immersive production explores the relationship between Carroll and Alice Liddell through memory, obsession, and Victorian institutionalization. In a multi-room asylum setting, small audiences move among one-on-one encounters, group scenes, and interactive environments.
Theodosius; Or, The Force Of Love is a 1680 tragedy by the English writer Nathaniel Lee. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre. It takes place during the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. Incidental music for the play was composed by Henry Purcell. The original cast included Joseph Williams as Theodosius, Thomas Betterton as Varanes, William Smith as Marcian, John Wiltshire as Lucius, John Bowman as Atticus, Mary Betterton as Pulcheria and Elizabeth Barry as Athenais. The published version was dedicated to the Duchess of Richmond. The play remained popular and was revived numerous times over the following century and a half. A 1744 version at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin used fresh compositions from Thomas Arne, the leading English-born composer of the era. Actors who appeared in the title role included Lacy Ryan, Henry Giffard, Thomas Barry and John Philip Kemble.
After losing her minimum-wage job, Beth moves in with her suburban mother Francine and starts feeding the neighborhood crows; one begins speaking to her.
There Shall Be No Night is a three-act play written by the American playwright Robert E. Sherwood.
There's Always Juliet is a 1931 comedy play by the British writer John Van Druten about an American architect who falls in love with an Englishwoman. It ran for 118 performances at the Apollo Theatre in London West End with a cast of Herbert Marshall, Edna Best, May Whitty and Cyril Raymond. It then transferred to Broadway's Empire Theatre with the same cast members. After a fairly lengthy run, however, producer Gilbert Miller was paid by a Hollywood studios to free Marshall for film work. He was eventually replaced by Roger Pryor, but the revived version was less successful. It was adapted for Australian radio in 1940 starring Peter Finch. In 1941, the play was updated into a loosely adapted film One Night in Lisbon starring Fred MacMurray, Madeleine Carroll and Patricia Morison. May Whitty reprised her role from the original play.
When a retirement home for theatrical performers is threatened with closure, its former entertainers decide to kidnap celebrity Jeffrey Archer and demand a ransom to save their grand house. The plan goes wrong.
There's Wisdom in Women is a play written by Joseph Kesselring. Producer D. A. Doran staged it on Broadway in 1935. Walter Pidgeon played Leon Nordoff, a famous pianist who has cheated on his wife, Margalo (Ruth Weston). She must decide whether to stay with him, and seeks advice from her friend, Tony Cooke (Glenn Anders). In his review for The New York Times, Brooks Atkinson said the play was "old hat" produced by "routine playwrighting". Robert Benchley was similarly dismissive in The New Yorker, saying the play need not have been produced at all. The production closed in less than a month, after 46 performances.
There's a Girl in My Soup is a stage comedy written by Terence Frisby. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of a smooth-talking TV chef, Robert Danvers, who falls for a much younger woman, Marion. She leaves her hippie boyfriend, Jimmy, to live with Danvers, but eventually returns to Jimmy, leaving Danvers bereft. It opened on 30 May 1966 at the Golders Green Hippodrome and transferred soon after to the Globe Theatre. There's a Girl in My Soup ran for years until 1973 to become the longest-running comedy in the history of the West End. The play ran at the Globe Theatre for years, from March 1966 until 6 August 1969, when it transferred to the Comedy Theatre, opening there on 18 August 1969 and closing in 1973 after 2,547 performances. It was unprecedented for a comedy to run for such a long time. This record was later broken by No Sex Please, We're British and then Run for Your Wife. The title alludes to the well-known set-up line for a series of popular 20th century Anglo-American jokes about rude or sarcastic food servers: "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup."
A lost satyr play titled Reapers or Harvesters, performed by Euripides at the Dionysia in Athens as part of a tetralogy that included Medea, Philoctetes, and Dictys.
During the Thermidorian Reaction, former actor Labussière secretly destroys records of the condemned while serving as a clerk to the Committee of Public Safety. He helps Fabienne escape a mob and reunites her with Martial, but her arrest and return to religious vows defeat their attempts to save her as Robespierre falls; Fabienne is executed and Martial is shot while trying to reach her.
This synopsis was compiled from contemporaneous newspaper reviews. Scenes: Act I (Sir George's House in Chester Square.) Act II (The same. The next morning.) Act III (Sitting room of Bat and Ball Hotel at Guilford. The same day.) Sir George, long a sponge on friends and acquaintances, has become an MP by the influence of his son-in-law James Berridge, and obtained a large loan from him, secured by his London townhouse. When Berridge comes to tell Sir George of his daughter Julia's rumored adultery, Sir George is alarmed. Berridge is in line for a peerage, and cannot afford any hint of scandal. He threatens to evict Sir George, for he knows how the two daughters dote on their parasite of a father and will listen to him. Desperate to avoid losing his home and even worse his source of easy loans, Sir George starts a campaign to stop Julia's infidelity. But Julia finds her husband insufferably dull, while she dreads the thought of the attention a peerage will focus on their daily life. She is attracted to Geoffrey Allen, who has an engaging mind. Younger sister Pamela, however, prefers her man to be seen and not heard, which Miles Winter fulfills in his dunderheaded way to Sir George's annoyance. As Julia prepares to take the fatal step, she discovers an unpleasant fact: Geoffrey is the son of a cleaning woman and her father's butler Minx. Even more appalling, Minx is firmly against the illicit romance, not wishing his son to be allied with such disreputable nobs. Julia decides to meet with her husband and make a deal; if he will turn down the peerage, she will return to him. He agrees, and the play ends with Sir George hitting up both Berridge and Winter for loans.
Narrated by Catherine Donohue, the play follows four women hired in the 1920s to paint watch dials with radium. As they fall ill and company doctors dismiss their symptoms, the women seek a diagnosis and sue the Radium Dial Company; Catherine’s illness and testimony frame their fight for accountability.
Euripides fears the women gathered at the Thesmophoria will punish him for his plays’ portrayals of women. He sends his elderly in-law Mnesilochus, disguised as a woman, to spy on them; when the women expose and arrest him, Euripides tries several theatrical disguises and plots before negotiating with the chorus and arranging Mnesilochus’s escape.
They Came to a City is a 1943 play by the British writer J.B. Priestley. After premiering at the Princes Theatre, Bradford it transferred to the Globe Theatre in London's West End. It ran for 280 performances between 21 April and 11 December 1943. The cast included John Clements, Googie Withers, Raymond Huntley, A.E. Matthews and Renee Gadd.
A Napa Valley winegrower proposes by letter to a San Francisco waitress, but sends a photograph of his young hired hand in place of his own; when she arrives at the vineyard, the deception entangles the three in conflict.
A decorated former RAAF squadron leader struggles to readjust to civilian life, working as an insurance clerk. When his wife confesses she was unfaithful during his service, he murders her, a tragic case that focuses on the psychological strain faced by returned servicemen.
Arthur Miller reworks the Simon family's struggle over a failing coat business into a broader conflict between small and large manufacturers. The younger brother Arnold becomes the central voice against his father's business, while worker Liebowitz, whose hand is broken after protesting fraud by a major manufacturer, brings the wider labor struggle into the family drama.
They Walk Alone is a 1938 thriller play by the British writer Max Catto. After premiering at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge, it transferred to London's West End where it ran for 156 performances between 19 January and 3 June 1939 initially at the Shaftesbury Theatre before switching to the Comedy Theatre. The cast included Beckett Bould, Jimmy Hanley, Rene Ray, Carol Goodner and Beatrix Lehmann. It was produced by Berthold Viertel. It also ran for 21 performances at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway in 1941.
Adam Tyler, a young man in New York struggling with his sexuality and religious guilt, encounters a street-corner psychic while three guardian angels watch over him. After a hate rally leaves Adam badly beaten, the angels intervene and help him find a message of hope, while the rebellious angel Cyrus proves himself worthy of his role.
Queen Brunhalt schemes to control her sons Thierry and Theodoret, poisoning Thierry's marriage to Ordella and arranging the murder of the upright king. After Theodoret is killed and Thierry poisoned, Brunhalt is exposed and punished, while Ordella dies beside Thierry.
As their twelve-year marriage deteriorates, Martin and Sally Cramer grow apart over their work, values, and ambitions; infidelity, an unwanted pregnancy, and a planned move deepen the conflict.
When Rosie returns from a failed European gap-year romance, the Price family’s long-held fractures surface. Pip plans to leave her husband, Mia comes out as transgender, Ben’s financial fraud is exposed, and parents Fran and Bob confront the losses and disappointments of their marriage before Fran dies in a car crash.
A woman begins an affair with her best friend's fiancé, but the new relationship quickly descends into violence.
A comedy-drama interweaves several relationships in modern Los Angeles around the idea that nothing good happens after midnight.
At a small New England college, professor Laurie Jameson accuses student Woodson Bull III of plagiarism when his work seems beyond his ability. Their clash over academic standards and divergent political and personal outlooks unsettles Laurie’s assumptions, while family and generational questions complicate the conflict.
A widowed mother and her friends negotiate grief, desire, and the discomforts of middle age. A party game and an attractive visitor expose the strains beneath their shared jokes and habitual intimacy.
This Flat Earth is a contemporary play about Julie and Zander, two twelve year olds who try to make sense of the world when the unthinkable - a school shooting - occurs at their middle school.
In the weeks before Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Princip and his associates confront moral and philosophical conflicts as they shape the events that lead toward the First World War.
The Gibbons family’s life in a South London home unfolds from 1919 to 1939 through changes in work, politics, relationships, grief, and family reconciliation, ending as Frank and Ethel prepare to leave for the country.
This House is based on true events that occurred between 1974 and 1979 in the House of Commons. These years involved very tense periods in Parliament, with the Labour and Conservative whips working hard to defend and remove the Government respectively. The February 1974 election had produced a 'hung parliament' (where no party has a majority to govern and pass laws). This deadlock led to the October 1974 general election, where the incumbent Labour government gained a majority of 1 seat – meaning that whips had to ensure every Labour MP voted whenever the Government needed to win a vote (which might have happened multiple times a day). This situation got more difficult between October 1974 and March 1979 as the Labour government lost MPs in by-elections and defections to other parties. The government was finally defeated in a vote of no confidence – by 1 vote – in March 1979. It is the job of parliamentary whips to win votes for their party, by tracking how many of their colleagues are going to vote and convincing (or threatening) reluctant colleagues to vote the way they want. Usually, when one member cannot be present at a division, the whips will attempt to 'pair' them, by striking an informal agreement with the opposition that one of their members will also miss the vote. As happened between 1974 and 1979, throughout the play, these relationships and pairing break down due to the tensions in the government with a small majority, or even none at all. At different times, both parties lost votes in circumstances where they felt that the other party had cheated the pairing (that is, the MP who promised not to vote had voted). Sick members were obliged to attend the House for their votes to be counted, and this was done even in circumstances where this may have contributed to their deaths. It is this tension, and the work it caused the party whips, which the play fictionalises.
A hedonistic countess arrives at an elegant resort hotel in a war-torn Central European country seeking sexual adventures. A chauffeur and his look-alike, a revolutionary leader, help her pursue them in this vaudeville-like farce of old-world decadence.
This Is How It Goes is a play by Neil LaBute set in small town America, about the repercussions of an interracial love triangle. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 2005 and also was produced in the West End in 2005.
In March 1982, 19-year-old Warren, recently expelled from his home, has stolen $15,000 from his abusive father. He and his domineering friend Dennis spend some of it on cocaine, while Warren tries to use the money to attract Jessica, a fashion student. The play examines their adolescence, materialism and uncertain transition to adulthood.
A storyteller moves through an interconnected world of addiction, divorce, absent parents, and competing explanations of life. The shifting characters expose both the comfort and the danger of deciding what happens next.
Three storytellers trap six players in twisted reinterpretations of fairy tales. The play was first presented in two parts on Saturday mornings, which could be watched out of order; the parts were combined into a single event in 1991.
Three young men in a small Irish town narrate their lives: bored schoolboy Joe seeks adventure, his brother Frank works in the family chip shop and devises a plan to solve their troubles, and their friend Ray, a university lecturer, dates their sister Carmel.
Over about six months in early-1950s Redfern, the Dockertys, a working-class extended family, cope with poverty, changing relationships and Laurie’s alcoholism. Their children and partners face pregnancy, marriage, unemployment, theft and loss; a chorus of local older women and a mythic Old Man frame the family’s life.
Portrait painter Edward Churt knows his wife Carol has affairs with other men and treats them lightly until he finally declares he will divorce her. His decision remains comically casual: he leaves for lunch after making it, and the play ends with a joke about suicide.
A forlorn scientist from the future repeatedly returns to one day at the 1939 World’s Fair in a time-travelling quest for true love.
A nonlinear, episodic feminist play responds to Marianne Bachmeier's courtroom killing of her daughter's murderer. Four actors embody different versions of Marianne while connecting her story with a Lucretia retelling, experiences of abuse, media treatment of victims, and a jury's judgment.
Nora, a journalist for a women’s magazine, is in an identity crisis. Her mother, a life coach, and a teenage media figure each try to help her, while the play leaves uncertain whether their efforts occur in Nora’s mind or in the world around her.
Thom Pain (based on nothing) is a 2004 one man show written by Will Eno. It is a rambling monologue in which the protagonist, who has suffered a lot in his life, tells the story of a bee sting, a boy with a dog that died, and his experience with a woman.
An Elizabethan history play about Thomas Cromwell, minister to Henry VIII.
An anonymous, incomplete Elizabethan chronicle play depicting events in Richard II's reign leading to the 1397 murder of Thomas of Woodstock. It juxtaposes court politics with low-life scenes and presents Woodstock as a figure of conscience.
An English Royalist exile in Spain moves through a ten-act sequence of adventures, pursuing a liaison with courtesan Angellica while also forming a more conventional relationship with Serulina. The comedy follows his libertine conduct and contrasts it with the foolish pretensions of Edwardo.
The show uses slam poetry, prose and songs to tell the story of Black life in America through the stories of seven multi generational men living in the same Brooklyn neighborhood.
Set in the 1980s, the play follows characters connected with a failing art gallery and opera house as they try to improve their prestige.
Patrick Marber's stage version of Turgenev's comedy about unrequited love and jealousy among members of a Russian country household.
Walker and his sister Nan met in an unoccupied studio in lower Manhattan in 1995. Walker, who had disappeared the day after his father's funeral, now months later is living in this apartment where his father, Ned Janeway and business partner, Theo Wexler, once lived and worked designing the famous "Janeway House". Walker has found their father's journal and attempts to use it to understand the relationship between Ned and Theo. Nan and Walker's childhood friend Pip (Theo's son) meets with them after the reading of Ned's Will, where the three have learned that Janeway House was left to Pip rather than Ned's children. Walker is furious and accuses Pip of "working on" Ned to bequeath him the house. Pip denies this and protests that he does not understand why the house was not left to Nan and Walker as next of kin. Pip reveals that he doesn't even like the house, which prompts another tirade in Walker. Fed up with Walker's ranting, Pip fights back at Walker verbally. Pip accuses Walker of secretly being in love with him for 18 years and reveals that he (Pip) and Nan were secretly sleeping with one another (behind Walker's back) when they were young. Walker runs off into the night. Pip says he may have gone too far and agrees with Nan to sell Walker the house. Nan tries to find Walker to tell him. Distraught when unable to find him, Nan decides to stay at the studio until he returns. After Walker returns, Nan apologizes and the two of them continue to parse Ned's concise and mysterious journal which opens with the entry: "1960, April 3–5. Three days of rain". Walker believes he's found a confession from Ned, hidden within the pages of the book, to the effect that Ned took credit for Theo's work on the house after Theo's death in 1966. Nan does not accept this interpretation but acquiesces to calm her brother. She tells Walker that Pip would sell him the house, but Walker's new-found "revelation" changes his mind about wanting it. Walker burns the diary, much to Nan's chagrin. Act two is set in April 1960, when Janeway House was designed. The same three actors portray members of the previous generation in the same apartment: the actor portraying Walker plays Ned; the actor portraying Pip plays Theo; and the actor portraying Nan plays Lina, Nan and Walker's mother. The assumptions their children made in the first half are shown to be wildly inaccurate. Rather than a callous, silent patriarch, Ned is a shy stutterer, who, while an immensely talented architect, has trouble making eye contact or holding a conversation with anyone. Theo is revealed to be charismatic, more concerned with fame and the idea of art, than the creation of any original art itself. Lina, a bohemian southern belle, is dating Theo and their arguments are loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. Theo and Ned attempt to design a house commissioned by Ned's parents, but Ned recognizes Theo's design as plagiarizing an existing house. Ned and Theo fight, and Theo leaves for a few days to try to work in solitude. A few days later, Ned runs into Lina during a rainstorm, and they return to the apartment to escape the downpour. Ned invites Lina to stay for dinner, which leads each to reveal issues plaguing them. Lina resolves to leave before succumbing to Ned's unintentional shy sweetness, only to overhear Ned practicing telling Lina that he secretly loves her. Lina confronts Ned, and they spend three days in bed. Theo returns earlier than expected from his work retreat, finding Ned and Lina together in the apartment. He is embarrassed and leaves, with Ned trailing him. Ned attempts to apologize, but learns Theo is upset not about Lina but about failing to return with an original design. Lina persuades Ned that Theo will be okay, and that Ned should apply his emotions to draw the house she knows he imagines. He sits down to draw, suggesting that it was he who designed Janeway House and not Theo, as Walker had concluded.
A lyrical drama set in the late Roman Empire presents three views of life and the conflict between sensuality and spirituality. Maykov described it as a poetic representation of its era rather than strict historical reconstruction.
Doctor Fossil, a pompous older scientist, has just married the much younger Mrs. Townley when two rival suitors try to win her affections. She and the suitors make comic efforts to hide their intentions from him, while a poet and a literary critic complicate the farce.
When Patrick is eight, his absent father returns briefly and gives him the challenge of the Three Kings. Years later, Patrick traces his father's life and the revelations surrounding that encounter, recounting grand plans, disappointments and self-delusion in a solo monologue about fathers, sons and inheritance.
Three soldiers declared dead in World War I return: one Englishman has shell-shock-related memory loss, another learns his mother collected his life insurance, and an American has reasons to stay presumed dead. They try to maintain these false situations while facing complications.
Mild-mannered Erwin Trowbridge, bored with his suburban New Jersey life with his wife and brother-in-law and frustrated by his low-paying job writing greeting card verses, decides to declare his independence by skipping work and spending the day in a local saloon. There he meets three men who make a living by betting on horse races. When they discover Erwin has an almost supernatural ability to go through a racing form and pick the winners, they persuade him to join them at a New York City hotel and regularly give them tips. Complications arise when Erwin begins to miss his wife and job and his cronies insist he put some money on a horse himself, despite his claim he will lose his power if he places a bet.
In 1970 London, Anna Bowers pursues personal and sexual freedom through comic, risqué encounters with her friend Alvin Hanker and brother Maurice, testing the era's changing expectations around relationships and identity.
The Prozorov siblings long to return to Moscow, but their hopes erode as Andrei's marriage to Natasha changes the household, Masha begins an affair with Vershinin, and Irina's intended marriage ends with Tuzenbach's death in a duel. As the soldiers depart, the sisters remain uncertain about their future.
In 1967 Nigeria, three sisters mourn their father and long to return from Owerri to Lagos. As the Biafran War overtakes their lives, private hopes collide with a struggle over independence and the legacy of colonial rule.
The play opens with the three major characters together in A's bedroom. Throughout the scene, A does most of the talking, frequently reminiscing and telling stories about her life. B humors her, while helping her do everyday things that have become difficult to do alone (sitting down, going to the bathroom, getting into bed). C, while getting a rare word in edgewise about the duties she is there to accomplish, is most often deterred by A's slipping into long-winded storytelling. C often challenges A's contradictory and nonsensical statements, but she is discouraged by B, who is clearly used to A and her habits. Act 1 ends when A, in the middle of one of her stories, has a stroke. The play picks up with a mannequin of A lying in a bed. A, B, and C are no longer the separate entities of Act 1, but represent A at different times in her life (their ages corresponding to those of A, B, and C in Act 1). Since A, B, and C in this act are all very coherent (unlike the senile A of Act 1), the audience gets a much clearer insight into the woman's past. At one point, the son comes in to sit by the mannequin. A and B (who are invisible to him) are not happy to see him, because of the rift between them. C (also unseen by the son) is none the wiser, because she is from a period in the woman's life before her marriage. He says nothing throughout, and leaves before the end of the play. The play ends with A, B, and C debating about the happiest moment in their life. A has the last word, saying, "That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop."
Three Weeks after Marriage is a comedy play by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. An afterpiece, it premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 30 March 1776. It was a reworking of an earlier play What We Must All Come To which was staged in 1764, which had a poor reception. The cast included William Thomas Lewis as Sir Charles Racket, John Quick as Drugget, Isabella Mattocks as Lady Racket, Ann Pitt as Mrs Drugget and Jane Green as Dimity. The entire play takes place at a country house about four miles outside London. It was met "with great applause" and became a standard work, being played every year for the remainder of the century. Its performances continued well into the nineteenth century. The role of Lady Racket later became a signature for Frances Abington, and was also played by Dorothea Jordan and Harriet Faucit.
Act I (Living room of the Washington Square home. A Thursday evening.) Theodore Findley and Dr. Richard Gaunt are spending a typical evening in the house they jointly own with Judge Trumbull. The latter stays late at the courthouse on Thursdays, and is not yet home. Findley taxes Gray and Mrs. Saunders with any deviation from established routine, going so far as to time their actions. Used to his finicky ways and having no fear of dismissal, for that would entail disruption of routine, the servants carry on calmly. Dr. Gaunt tweaks Findley over their highly-regulated life, suggesting they are "unburied dead", stuck in their daily ruts. Findley is further disturbed by the attitude of Gordon, who resists taking a sensible job in favor of volunteer work, since he is already wealthy. Gray brings in a police detective named Poole, who says the police are shadowing the Judge. Benny the Duck has escaped prison and sworn to get the judge who sentenced him. When the Judge arrives, a letter is brought in. It is from a dying Rena Fairchild, asking them to take of her child Sidney. The letter is two months old, and Rena has already died. The three old men agree among themselves to offer their home and protection, but are astonished when Sidney proves to be a young lady. Recovering quickly, they still offer her shelter and a chance to study law with the Judge. Gordon, plainly smitten with her, announces he will take up the job Findley offered him. (Curtain) Act II (Same as Act I. Four weeks later.) The three old bachelors have dined with Sidney to celebrate her one-month anniversary of residence. She has kept accounts for Findley, patient appointments for Dr. Gaunt, and helped prepare briefs with the Judge. She is made housekeeper, and given Findley's key ring, which also has a police whistle on it. They present her with a pearl necklace and announce they will take her to the opera. While the old fellows get ready, Gordon gives Sidney a watch he bought with his first month's wages. Sidney learns from him the house is being watched by detectives to protect the judge. As Gray answers the front door, Benny the Duck bursts in, knocking him out. Sidney screams and Benny grabs her; they recognize each other. Sidney pleads with Benny to leave the judge alone, he tries to get past her, and she blows the police whistle on the key ring. Sidney helps Benny escape by unlocking a skylight. Douglas opens the front door to admit Poole, Clancy and a policeman. Sidney is recognized by Clancy as the servant seen leaving the house each night. Questioned by the Judge, Sidney refuses to tell why she let Benny escape. The three old men are dejected at their misplaced trust, and Sidney rushes out. Gordon refuses to believe Sidney is guilty. He finds she has left the house, followed by Poole's men. Gordon accuses the old men of being fools, and goes with Poole to find Sidney. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act I. A half-hour later.) Findley and Dr. Gaunt wait for Judge Trumbull to return from the local police station. Saunders, dismayed at the chaos and upset at Sidney's departure, gives notice. The Judge returns but without any news. Gordon strolls in, giving an apology but insisting he still means what he said. He accuses them of not having faith in Sidney, whom he intends to marry. Gordon explains it was Sidney who blew the police whistle, preventing Benny from attacking the Judge. He then reveals Poole has agreed to not arrest Sidney if the three Musketeers do not press charges. Gordon frankly admits to having bribed Poole, which none of the old men bats an eye at, not even the Judge. Poole enters: he has Sidney outside in the car, but she doesn't want to come in. Clancy brings in Benny, who refuses to say anything. The others leave Gordon alone when Douglas brings in Sidney. Gordon proposes; she thanks him but cannot answer any questions. She knows he bribed Poole for her freedom, but he tells her not to speak of it. They are at an impasse when Douglas brings in another man seeking Poole. John Crawshay and Findley recognize each other. Crawshay has come to give himself up to avoid trouble for Sidney. Seeing him, Benny spills that Crawshay is Sidney's father. Further, he confesses to having forged his signature so Crawshay can be released from custody. The three Musketeers are reconciled with Gordon and Sidney. (Curtain)
Trey and Tina search for ironic vintage tourist-party clothes, then discover the sacrifices each has made for the other.
Uncle Paul, Colonel Stumper and three children enter a dreamlike world where lost toys, vanished hopes and youthful feelings can return. Amid comic encounters and games, a family’s grief is transformed by the reappearance of the child Misty Love.
Using historical figures and imagined circumstances, the play follows reporter Herbert Howe as he is assigned to promote rising film star Ramón Novarro, travels with him to a production in Tunisia and becomes romantically involved with him amid Hollywood’s growing scrutiny.
Lonely butcher Martha and factory worker Otto form an unremarkable relationship in which neither can reach the other. Martha’s diary and their interactions reveal the pain of their intimacy and estrangement.
At an isolated Lake Michigan lighthouse, keeper Charleston retreats into an imagined world of shipwrecked travelers from the past, while his friend Streeter urges him to rejoin society. The travelers' faith in Charleston's courage renews his resolve to help build a better future amid the chaos of war.
A four-act Australian melodrama depicts bushranger Captain Thunderbolt as an outlaw who robs the rich and spares the poor. In the plot, a mysterious figure is blamed for stolen jewels and a coach robbery committed by another man in disguise, while pursuit, local characters and Thunderbolt's eventual sacrifice shape the action.
In the Zhou household, the patriarch’s past relationships and abuse of power entangle two half-siblings, Zhou Ping and Sifeng, in an unwitting romance. As family secrets emerge amid labor conflict and strained relationships, the revelation of their kinship leads to a series of deaths.
The one-man play follows Marshall from his childhood in Baltimore to his work as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, which included arguing Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and serving as the first African-American Supreme Court justice.
A lost Latin tragedy concerning Thyestes, presumed to draw on Euripides’ lost play of the same title.
After Thyestes takes his brother Atreus’s throne and wife, Atreus feigns reconciliation, recalls him from exile, murders his nephews, and serves them to their father at a banquet before revealing the revenge.
Thyestes, A Tragedy is a 1680 tragedy by the English writer John Crowne. It was originally staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The original cast is unknown. It is based on Thyestes by Seneca.
Performed in the harbor at Port Royal, this early colonial pageant presents four speeches by Mi’kmaq chiefs welcoming the French, followed by remarks from Neptune and his court of Tritons and a banquet.
A theatrical adaptation of Peter Sis's children's book, following a boy growing up in Prague through the 1950s.
A forward-thinking Ilonggo playwright stages a sexually charged work that draws successive demands for rewrites from a director, producer, conservative consultant, and test audience. The playwright reluctantly revises it, and the play-within-the-play ends in a literal game of tic-tac-toe.
Spencer, a young Geordie man, loses Gabi, the woman he loves, to an unexplained sudden death and finds himself both chief mourner and a prime suspect. His grief and loneliness expose questions of male identity, aggression and the costs of silence.
High-achieving siblings Jennifer and Albert, now dissatisfied with their careers and relationships, blame their parents’ tiger parenting and travel to China to reinvent themselves. The play examines the pressures of Chinese-American stereotypes and the siblings’ family conflicts.
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright is a dramatic stage play written by American playwright Peter Feibleman. The play premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre in 1962. Claudia McNeil was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the production. Critically acclaimed, the play closed after only 33 performances, which was blamed on the 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike. The play is a stage adaptation of Feibleman's novel A Place Without Twilight, first published in 1958. The title is taken from the poem by William Blake first published in 1794, titled The Tyger.
Till the Day I Die is a play by Clifford Odets performed on Broadway in 1935.
Over one scorching summer day at Sylvia's wedding to Polish immigrant Marek, her working-class family in a former East Midlands mining town confronts buried secrets, strained loyalties, love, and loss.
Tilly Wellwyn, a young woman from Bloomsbury, falls in love with a wealthy aristocrat and pretends to be of noble birth. Her deception initially fools his family, but her attempts to make her own family play along expose the scheme.
Timanthes is a 1770 tragedy by the British writer John Hoole. The original Covent Garden cast included William Smith as Timanthes, Robert Bensley as Demaphoon, Richard Wroughton as Cherinthus, Mary Bulkley as Cephisa and Mary Ann Yates as Ismena.
Time Out for Ginger is a Broadway comedy written by Ronald Alexander, and directed by Shepard Traube (1907–1983), that ran 248 performances at the Lyceum Theatre from November 26, 1952, to June 27, 1953, before becoming hugely popular in regional theatres throughout the 1950s and early 1960s.
Time Stands Still is set in Brooklyn and revolves around Sarah, a photo journalist who has returned from covering the Iraq war after being injured by a roadside bomb, and her reporter boyfriend James who is swamped by guilt after leaving Sarah alone in Iraq. They receive a visit from their friend Richard, a photo editor, who introduces them to his new girlfriend Mandy, who is much younger than he. The play focuses on their relationships and Sarah and James' prospects at a more conventional life.
Personified Fame and the Curious debate Time and reputation before Chronomastix, a satyr who embodies political scandal and libel. After comic anti-masques of mutes, jugglers and tumblers, mythological figures including Saturn, Venus, Cupid and Diana lead into the principal masquers’ dances.
Time and the Conways is in three acts. The first act is set in the Conway house in 1919 on the night of the birthday of one of the daughters, Kay. Act Two moves to the same night in 1937 and is set in the same room in the house. Act Three then returns to 1919, seconds after Act One left off. In the first Act we meet the Conway family, Mrs Conway, her daughters Kay, Hazel, Madge and Carol and her sons Alan and Robin. Three other characters appear: Gerald, a solicitor; Joan, a young woman in love with Robin; and Ernest, a young, ambitious entrepreneur of a lower social class. Act One's atmosphere is one of festivity as the family celebrates the end of the War and look forward to great future of fame, prosperity and fulfilled dreams. In a pensive moment when Kay is left alone on stage she seems to slip into a reverie and has a vision of the future. Act Two plunges us into the shattered lives of the Conways exactly eighteen years later. Gathering in the same room where they were celebrating in Act One we see how their lives have failed in different ways. Robin has become a dissolute travelling salesman, estranged from his wife Joan, Madge has failed to realise her socialist dreams, Carol is dead, Hazel is married to the sadistic but wealthy Ernest. Kay has succeeded to a certain extent as an independent woman but has not realised her dreams of novel writing. Worst of all, Mrs Conway's fortune has been squandered, the family home is to be sold and the children's inheritance is gone. As the Act unfolds resentments and tensions explode and the Conways are split apart by misery and grief. Only Alan, the quietest of the family, seems to possess a quiet calm. In the final scene of the Act, Alan and Kay are left on stage and, as Kay expresses her misery Alan suggests to her that the secret of life is to understand its true reality – that the perception that Time is linear and that we have to grab and take what we can before we die is false. If we can see Time as eternally present, that at any given moment we are seeing only 'a cross section of ourselves,' then we can transcend our suffering and find no need to hurt or have conflict with other people. Act Three returns us to 1919 and we see how the seeds of the downfall of the Conways were being sown even then. Ernest is snubbed by Hazel and Mrs Conway, Gerald's budding love for Madge is destroyed by the snobbery of Mrs Conway in another moment of social arrogance, Alan is rejected by Joan who becomes betrothed to Robin. As the children gather at the end of the play for Mrs. Conway to foretell their future, Kay has a moment of memory of the vision of Act Two we have seen unfold. Disturbed, she steps out of the party and the play ends with Alan promising that he will be able to tell her something in the future which will help her.
Mr. MacPherson, longtime employee of the Snow-Drift Washing Machine Company, receives a gold watch upon his retirement and looks forward to an idyllic life of leisure in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Ed Davis, vice president of the company, is intrigued by Mr. MacPherson's plans. Davis becomes angry with company president Walter P. Schaeffer and quits his job. Davis retires to Florida with his wife Kay, and has to cope with boredom, new neighbors, and living on a retirement income. When Davis loses his nest egg, he can't stand his new life anymore. Fortunately his old boss Schaeffer begs him to come back to the company in New York, at a higher salary.
At a family meal in an Italian restaurant, three timelines unfold at once: Gerry and Laura revisit their marriage in the present, Glyn and Stephanie's reconciliation appears in future scenes, and Adam and Maureen's relationship is shown in reverse chronology.
Timoleon is a 1730 tragedy by the British writer Benjamin Martyn. It is based on the life of the Greek statesman Timoleon, leader of Syracuse during the Sicilian Wars against Carthage. The original Drury Lane cast included John Mills as Timoleon, Roger Bridgewater as Timophanes, William Mills as Olinthus, John Corey as Orthagoras, Charles Williams as Dinarchus, James Rosco as Pheron, John Bowman as Ghost, John Roberts as Aeschylus Mary Porter as Eusensia and Jane Cibber as Cleone. The prologue was spoken by Robert Wilks, and the epilogue by Anne Oldfield.
Timon in Love is a 1733 comedy play by John Kelly. It is an adaptation of a French play based on Timon of Athens and is not related to Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. The original Drury Lane cast included Roger Bridgewater as Pierrot, Kitty Clive as Mercury, Henry Norris as Plutus and Christiana Horton as Eucharis.
The wealthy Athenian Timon gives lavishly to his supposed friends, but when his fortune is gone they refuse to help him. He turns against society, lives in the wilderness, discovers gold, and gives it away while urging Alcibiades to destroy Athens; his loyal steward Flavius is the exception among those around him.
An equestrian drama about Timur, expressly written to feature horses as part of its theatrical spectacle.
Powerful widow Miss Alice and her lawyer offer a generous grant to the church on the condition that the cardinal's naïve secretary be used as a liaison. The play is Edward Albee's look at the corruption involved in mixing religion and money. Julian is the lay brother who is sent to live with "Miss Alice". Miss Alice, her lawyer, and her butler are "representatives of the unseen Tiny Alice, who resides in an altar-like 18-foot model of Miss Alice's baronial mansion."
A stage adaptation conceived as a celebration of sexuality and a formative journey to love and sexual discovery between women, in a period when that relationship is frowned upon.
Tit for Tat is a 1786 comedy play by the British writer George Colman the Elder. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 29 August 1786. The original Haymarket cast included John Palmer as Villamour, Cockran Joseph Booth as Old Meanwell, William Davies as Young Meanwell, Robert Palmer as Skipwell, Elizabeth Farren as Florinda and Mary Bulkley as Letty. The Irish premiere took place at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin on 26 February 1787 It also subsequently appeared at both the Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane theatres.
An outrageous one-act comedy aboard the Titanic follows the Tammurai family and shipboard figures through shifting identities, sexual entanglements, apparent disasters, and reversals of who is controlling events.
Tite is preparing to marry Domitie after Bérénice has been sent away from Rome, but her return renews the conflict between love, succession and public opinion. Bérénice refuses the Senate's offer to make her empress and leaves Rome, while Tite vows not to turn her renunciation into another marriage.
Through a play within a play, the life of street-opera performer Ah Chiam unfolds: she and her sister are sent to an opera troupe, while a staged tale follows servant Titoudao. The drama then turns to Ah Chiam's romance, marriage and in-laws, and her enduring commitment to performing, culminating in her onstage recollection of her wayang life.
Roman general Titus Andronicus returns from war with Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her sons as captives. After Titus sacrifices her eldest son, Tamora and her allies exact revenge, setting off a cycle of violence that destroys both families.
Titus and Berenice is a 1676 tragedy by the English writer Thomas Otway. It portrays the relationship between the Roman Emperor Titus and the Jewish Queen Berenice. It premiered at the Dorset Garden Theatre, staged by the Duke's Company. It was inspired by Jean Racine's 1670 French work Bérénice. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Titus Vespatian, William Smith as Antiochus, Matthew Medbourne as Paulinus, John Crosby as Arsaces, Thomas Gillow as Rutilius, Mary Lee as Berenice and Elizabeth Barry as Phaenice. Another new work by Otway, a farce The Cheats of Scapin was performed as an afterpiece. Both plays were published together the following year and dedicated to the Earl of Rochester.
A biographical stage work assembled from Lorraine Hansberry's letters, interviews and journal entries, tracing her life from childhood in Chicago through her Broadway success with A Raisin in the Sun, her marriage and political commitments, and her final illness.
In Warsaw in 1939, theater troupe leaders Josef and Maria Tura become involved in pre-war intrigue and help catch a spy, with the assistance of fighter pilot Stanislaw Sobinski, who is romantically drawn to Maria.
A three-part cycle traces the Stranger’s spiritual journey through a series of encounters. In Part I, he passes through seven stations on the way to an asylum, then retraces them in reverse to his starting point on a street corner.
To Dorothy, a Son is a 1950 comedy play by the British writer Roger MacDougall. The plot revolves around a complex inheritance in which the American ex-wife of a man tries to prevent his current pregnant wife giving birth before a certain day, in order that she can claim the money. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham before it transferred to London's West End where it ran for 515 performances between 23 November 1950 and 16 February 1952 initially at the Savoy Theatre before moving to the Garrick Theatre. The original London cast included Richard Attenborough, Sheila Sim, Yolande Donlan and Gwenda Wilson. A 1951 Broadway version at the John Golden Theatre, with adaptations by Otis Bigelow and a cast that included Ronald Howard and Glynis Johns, lasted for just 8 performances. It was revived in 1976 with Leslie Phillips and Hilary Pritchard in the cast.
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