8284 shows
Clear filtersTwo Russian aristocrats exiled in Paris take jobs as servants while secretly safeguarding a fortune entrusted to them by the late Tsar. Their new life is threatened when a Soviet official arrives seeking the money and forces them to reconsider loyalty, country and survival.
Young people in drama classrooms across several countries describe their lives and hopes. Their testimonies connect personal struggles with larger questions about education, identity, and the possibility of change.
Towards Zero is a 1956 thriller play by Agatha Christie and Gerald Verner and based on Christie's 1944 novel Towards Zero. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham before transferring to the St James's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 205 performances between 4 September 1956 and 2 March 1957. The London cast featured George Baker, Cyril Raymond, Frederick Leister, William Kendall, Max Brimmell, Michael Nightingale and Gillian Lind. The play features Superintendent Battle one of Christie's recurring characters. Reviews were favourable.
Town and Country, or Which is Best? is an 1807 play by English playwright Thomas Morton. It was regularly performed in England and America during the 19th century.
Ellen expected to end her life in the rundown Dublin flat where it began, but after the building is sold she faces a move to her sister’s suburban home. An unexpected visitor prompts her to revisit her past and lay ghosts to rest.
A stage adaptation of Kōno’s linked stories follows a family of Hiroshima atomic-bomb survivors across generations, from Minami’s life in the postwar city to her brother’s descendants revisiting the family’s history decades later.
Two background townspeople navigate their own lives as their fairy-tale kingdom freezes over, in a parody of musical theatre told from the ensemble's perspective.
Writer Roland Henning's attempt to explain his writer's block to a therapist sends his account between childhood in The Shire and his life as a playwright, centered on a formative primary-school day.
Set in New Orleans following the Great Depression, the play focuses on the Berniers sisters, two middle-aged spinsters who have sacrificed their own ambitions to look after their ne'er-do-well younger brother Julian, whose grandiose dreams repeatedly lead to financial disasters. When he unexpectedly returns home accompanied by his emotionally unstable, childlike young bride Lily, her aloof, aristocratic mother Albertine, and an unexplained large sum of money, Carrie and Anna suddenly find that the position of power they have always held has become unbalanced, leaving their lives in chaos.
A Latin liturgical drama for Epiphany matins follows the three Magi as they speak with Herod, follow the star to Bethlehem, and present gifts to the Christ Child. Its processional songs, dialogue and Te Deum use three playing areas within a church.
Set in a wrestling ring, the play follows Tanzi from a childhood in which her parents expect her to be feminine to her marriage to wrestler Dean Rebel. She supports his career, becomes a champion wrestler herself, and challenges him to a match in which the loser must do the housework.
Gabriel Espinoza, a baker suspected of being the missing King Sebastian of Portugal, is arrested and tortured for impersonating the monarch. Although a Portuguese marquis claims Espinoza is the king, Philip II orders his execution; a note found after his death reveals his identity.
Based on astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil's life, the play follows his obsession with observing the transit of Venus. He leaves Celeste, who loves him, on an expedition, returns six years later without having seen the transit, and prepares to set out again. The play takes artistic license with the timing of Le Gentil's return.
In an 1833 Donegal village, a British Ordnance Survey team maps and anglicizes Irish place names. Their interpreter Owen mediates between the soldiers and local residents, while communication across languages shapes the relationships and tensions surrounding the survey, including Yolland and Máire's romance and Yolland's disappearance.
Newly retired engineer Frank and Frances, a divorced mother of adult daughters, leave Melbourne to settle in a cottage in subtropical New South Wales. Their late-life romance is tested by Frank’s illness, his domineering habits, Frances’s family obligations and their clashing political outlooks; as Frank’s health fails, both reassess how they treat those around them.
The comedy follows two men taking actor Jack Lemmon's black poodle from California to Vancouver, where Lemmon is working.
Travels with My Aunt is a 1989 comedy adapted by Scottish dramatist by Giles Havergal from Graham Greene's novel of the same title. The play was first staged at Citizens Theatre in Glasgow on 10 November 1989 with Havergal, Derwent Watson, Patrick Hannaway, and Christopher Gee, and has been performed in London West End theatres, off-Broadway in New York, and in San Francisco. From 2 May to 29 June 2013, Travels with My Aunt was staged at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, starring David Bamber and Jonathan Hyde. This stage version was reduced to a 50-minute, one-act version (with permission from Havergal) and first presented by the Backwell Playhouse Theatre Company as an entry into the Avon Association of Drama One Act Festival on 21 February 2015. The two-act version was revived at the Citizens Theatre in May 2017.
The play is set in Zürich, Switzerland during the First World War and in the 1970s. In 1917, three historically important figures were living in Zürich: the modernist author James Joyce, the communist revolutionary Lenin, and the Dada founder Tristan Tzara. The play centres on the less notable Henry Carr, a British consular official, as he recalls his encounters with these three. As he reminisces, Carr's memory becomes prone to distraction, and the narrative veers away from historical accuracy. The young Carr spies on Lenin, argues with Tzara about the nature of true art, is persuaded by Joyce to play Algernon and later quarrels over the cost of buying new trousers for the role. The old Carr concludes the first act: After further confused memories and mix-ups in the second act, the old Carr concludes the play:
During the Second World War, German officers who believe defeat is imminent plan to assassinate Hitler and negotiate peace with the Allies. The conspiracy fails, and an officer's involvement is discovered amid conflicting loyalties and coercion.
After pirates threaten an old captain at the Admiral Benbow Inn, Jim Hawkins inherits a treasure map and joins an expedition to find the hidden fortune. Most of the ship’s crew are secretly pirates, and Jim must prove his courage when mutiny leads to a fight on the island.
When Dave breaks into the flat of his former girlfriend Ann and her new partner Patrick, he refuses to accept their relationship and bullies both of them. Dave's persistence ultimately wins Ann back, leaving all three unhappy.
An apocalyptic expressionist drama in nine tableaux, exploring erotic frenzy and rejection of civilization through Nietzschean ideas. Its climax draws on mystery-play form, and the text encloses a poem modeled on Georg Heym.
Trelawny of the "Wells" tells the story of Rose Trelawny, a popular star of melodrama plays at the Barridge Wells Theatre (a thinly disguised Sadler's Wells Theatre). Rose gives up the stage when she decides to marry her sweetheart, Arthur Gower, in order to please his conservative family. She finds life with Arthur's grandfather and great-aunt, Sir William and Lady Trafalgar, unbearably dull, and they detest her loud and unrestrained personality. Rose runs back to the theatre, abandoning Arthur. But her experience of the "real world" has killed her talent for melodrama, and she cannot recapture the liveliness that had made her a star. Meanwhile, Arthur has secretly run away to become an actor at the Bristol Old Vic. The problem is solved when Rose encounters Sir William again, and she reawakens his memory of admiring the great actor Edmund Kean as a young man. Sir William offers to help Rose's friend, Tom Wrench, an aspiring playwright who dreams of staging plays in a more realist style than the melodramas that dominate the stage. Tom stages the play with Rose as the star, and her newfound seriousness fits his style perfectly. Tom secretly arranges for Arthur to play the leading male role, and the lovers are re-united on stage.
Tribes is a play by English playwright Nina Raine that had its world premiere in 2010 at London's Royal Court Theatre and its North American premiere Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre in 2012. The play won the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.
Tribute is a play by Bernard Slade. The play focuses on Scottie Templeton, a popular actor who has spent his life shirking responsibility. When he discovers he is terminally ill with leukemia, he attempts to reconnect with his long-estranged son.
Trick for Trick is a 1735 comedy play by Robert Fabian. Performed at the Drury Lane Theatre as an afterpiece to Cato. It became notorious for the killing of the actor Thomas Hallam by Charles Macklin after a dispute over a costume in the green room during the performance on 10 May. Macklin was subsequently convicted of manslaughter. The playbill listed amongst its cast Edward Berry as Don Lopez, Macklin as Sancho, Hallam as Guzman, Richard Arne as Estifania and Hannah Pritchard as Eugenia.
During the Partition of India in 1947, six women are trapped in a moving truck. Religious conflict and captivity complicate the divisions between those who inflict violence and those who endure it.
At the abandoned farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright, a county attorney and sheriff investigate John’s strangling while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters examine the domestic space. The women discover that John killed Minnie’s pet bird, a clue to her motive for killing him. They hide the evidence, understanding the abuse and isolation the men have dismissed as “trifles.”
In 1850s Paris, artist’s model Trilby becomes engaged to Little Billee, but the hypnotist Svengali breaks up the match and turns her into a celebrated singer under his control. Years later, Billee’s friends confront Svengali; his death briefly frees Trilby before Svengali’s portrait returns her to a trance, and she dies.
A young Athenian has squandered his father's money. His friend Callicles protects the absent father's house and hidden treasure, then secretly arranges for it to fund a marriage dowry by hiring an impostor to pose as a messenger from Syria. The returning father discovers the deception and approves the marriages.
A 26-scene Living Newspaper uses vignettes on crop surpluses, foreclosures, auctions, crop destruction, the Dust Bowl, farmer cooperatives, and the Agricultural Adjustment Act to criticize the AAA and urge farmers and laborers to organize against commercial middlemen.
The lost play probably followed Triptolemos on the mission Demeter gave him: to teach agriculture to peoples across the world. Fragments describe Demeter outlining his journey and the winged, serpent-drawn chariot she provides.
Across eight short acts, characters find themselves in absurd everyday situations and make increasingly absurd decisions.
After Troy's fall, the captive Trojan women await assignment to Greek rulers. Achilles' ghost demands Polyxena's sacrifice, while Calchas says Astyanax must also die; Andromache and Hecuba grieve as the Greeks carry out these demands.
During the Trojan War, Troilus and Cressida pledge their love before she is exchanged to the Greek camp, where he sees her with Diomedes and seeks revenge. Meanwhile, Greek leaders try to bring Achilles back to battle against Hector; Achilles returns after Hector kills Patroclus, and the play ends with Hector's death and Troy's war unresolved.
Troilus And Cressida; Or, Truth Found Too Late is a 1679 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. It was a reworking of William Shakespeare's 1602 play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan Wars. In acknowledgement of this Dryden has the prologue spoken by Shakespeare's ghost, defending the alterations made to the play. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Troilus, William Smith as Hector, Thomas Percival as Priam, Joseph Williams as Aeneas, Anthony Leigh as Pandarus, Thomas Gillow as Agamemnon, Henry Harris as Ulysses, George Bright as Ajax, Henry Norris as Nestor, John Crosby as Diomedes, John Bowman as Patroclus, John Richards as Anthenor, Cave Underhill as Thersites, Mary Lee as Cressida and Mary Betterton as Andromache. The published version of the play was dedicated to the politician Lord Sunderland.
Henri and Sonia’s evening with their son is disrupted when Hubert and Inès, Henri’s employer and his wife, arrive a day early for dinner. A new discovery about Henri’s research undermines his promotion hopes, and the awkward gathering plays out three times, with small changes in how the characters respond producing different outcomes.
A debate team from an elite all-boys school is assigned to argue that feminism has failed women. The students strategize about how to perform that position until an anonymous sexual-assault accusation against a teammate derails their plans.
Trouble in Mind is a play by Alice Childress, which debuted Off-Broadway at the Greenwich Mews Theatre in 1955. It premiered on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre on November 18, 2021. The play focuses on racism and sexism in American theatre as an experienced black actress, cast in a starring role in a Broadway play for the first time, clashes with a white director in rehearsals. It was published in the anthologies Black Theater: a 20th Century Collection of the Work of its Best Playwrights (Dodd, Mead & Co. 1971), the second edition of Black Drama in America: an Anthology (Howard University Press, 1994), Plays by American Women: 1930-1960 (Applause Books, 2001), and Alice Childress: Selected Plays (Northwestern University Press, 2011). It was first published on its own by Theatre Communications Group in 2022.
In an office, Wills explains to manager Mr. Fibbs that workers have turned against the products they make, despite being treated well; asked what they would rather produce, Wills answers, “Brandy balls.”
In a small government house in Canberra’s Waramanga, young people experience love, parties, and the slouching rhythms of shared life; the play also includes a layered exchange between stoned teenagers and a security guard at Parliament House.
Tru is a 1989 play by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from the words and works of Truman Capote.
Set in a beachfront grill shortly after World War II, Anderson’s drama explores emotional damage on the postwar home front through two couples. One is the jealous veteran Sage McRae and his wife Tory, whose relationships with the other people at the café shape the conflict.
Courtesan Phronesium and her maid Astaphium manipulate several men into giving them money. Phronesium pretends to have borne a soldier’s child to extract gifts, while the bad-tempered slave Truculentus, who initially tries to protect his master from her, falls for Astaphium. A hidden baby and a mistaken bargain drive the closing deception.
Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque pursue competing visions of Canada and Quebec. Political allies, spies, family members, and public figures collide in a darkly comic account of the struggle over sovereignty and national identity.
Pierre Trudeau rises to power as Quebec separatist militancy intensifies. This historical satire follows the personalities and political conflicts of the 1960s through the kidnappings and government response of the October Crisis.
Estranged brothers Austin, a screenwriter, and Lee, a drifter, reunite at their mother's house. Their rivalry escalates when a producer favors Lee's story, and the brothers' roles and ambitions begin to reverse.
Brecht recasts Farquhar’s Restoration comedy as an epic comedy: recruiting officer Plume arrives from London to find recruitment failing, while his friend Worthy seeks help in love and offers Plume a commission on boots.
When a failed kidnapping leaves Fiat head Gianni Agnelli disfigured, employee Antonio rescues him. Agnelli is taken to hospital wearing Antonio's jacket and mistakenly receives facial reconstruction in Antonio's likeness, setting off farcical confusion.
Trust the People is a 1913 play by the British writer Stanley Houghton, who had gained popular attention with his hit Hindle Wakes the previous year. It centres around the activities of a group of government officials. It ran for 44 performances at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End between 6 February and 13 March 1913. The original cast included Arthur Bourchier, Clifford Heatherley, Herbert Bunston, Cedric Hardwicke, Barbara Gott and Viva Birkett. A review in The Times felt the play showed Houghton was out of his depth writing works beyond his own personal experience, in contrast to his more successful Lancashire-set works, while another reviewer felt it was "theatrically exciting" if flawed. The play was running in the West End at the same time as Houghton's latest hit The Younger Generation.
In the walled city of Vae, the arrival of a silent woman called Truth unsettles its rulers and priests; while they try to control or destroy her, the poet Egon must choose between her ideal and the beauty of human love.
Trying is a drama by Canadian-born playwright Joanna Glass that premiered at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater on March 29, 2004. The two-act play depicts the final year in the life of Francis Biddlethe United States attorney general under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and chief judge of the Nuremberg trialsas it was seen through the eyes of his then twenty-five-year-old assistant, Sarah Schorr. As the young woman relates to the audience, she is merely the latest and coincidentally the last in a long and unsuccessful line of personal secretaries, all of whom have disappointed Biddle in some way. Much of the story revolves around issues of aging and the breakdown of communication over divisions of age and class. The work is derived from Glass's own experiences as Biddle's assistant from 1967 to 1968.
An Asian street musician challenges a white man who claims Asian-American identity as they meet in Chinatown. The musician does not know that the man was adopted by Asian-American parents and is visiting his deceased father's birthplace.
Tryphon is a 1668 tragedy by the Irish writer Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery. It was originally staged by the Duke's Company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The original cast is unknown. The opening prologue of the play is an interaction between a character named Nokes and a character named Angles where they discuss the merits of including or not including a prologue to the play.
A romantic play set in Edwardian London that subverts the conventions of Edwardian melodrama, using familiar character behaviors to probe the characters' motives and power relationships.
The final drama in Tolstoy’s historical trilogy follows Boris Godunov from his inauguration to his death. Tolstoy frames Boris’s downfall as the consequence of his guilt over an earlier crime and his moral deterioration.
Tolstoy’s historical drama portrays Feodor I of Russia as a good man whose gentle character leaves him a weak and ineffective ruler.
A malicious spirit disguised as a monk attacks the ailing general Raikō with spider webs. A warrior follows the spirit's blood to an old gravesite, where the earth-spider spirit appears and is ultimately defeated.
Over one evening in a New York gay bathhouse, attendant Brian navigates sexual pursuits, mistaken identities and his attraction to Bob, ultimately turning toward a possible romance with Richie.
After a coastal storm, an elderly man looks for his missing daughter while two women seek escape from exploitation. Resourceful slaves steer a comic struggle for freedom in this musical stage reworking of Plautus’s Rudens.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq pursues an ideal of Hindu-Muslim unity and a just kingdom through sweeping policies, including moving his capital to Daulatabad and introducing token currency. Betrayals, violence, famine and the collapse of his schemes turn his ambitious reign into anarchy, while the trickster Aziz repeatedly manipulates the Sultan.
A tragedy about Roman queen Tullia Minor, written as an extreme imitation of classical Greek theatre and featuring a 212-line monologue in which Lucius Tarquinius Superbus reveals himself to her.
Amrita Nigam and Zulfikar Haider exchange letters over 35 years, beginning when Amrita is eight and Zulfi is ten. Their correspondence traces an unrequited love in an Indian adaptation of Love Letters.
Tunbridge Walks, or the Yeoman of Kent is a 1703 comedy play by the English writer Thomas Baker. It starred the droll actor William Pinkethman in a leading role. It was part of a growing trend of British plays set in spa towns. The play features the folk song King John and the Bishop. It was revived numerous times during the eighteenth century at Drury Lane, Covent Garden and Haymarket. The original Drury Lane cast included John Mills as Loveworth, Robert Wilks as Reynard, Benjamin Johnson as Woodcock, William Pinkethman as Squib, William Bullock as Maiden, Jane Rogers as Belinda, Susanna Verbruggen as Hillaria, Mary Powell as Mrs Goodfellow, Henrietta Moore as Penelope and Jane Lucas as Lucy.
Tunbridge Wells; Or, A Day's Courtship is a 1678 comedy play generally attributed to the English writer Thomas Rawlins. It was originally staged at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London by the Duke's Company. The names of the original actors are not known. It did not enjoy the same success as Rawlins' earlier work Tom Essence. It takes place in the spa town Tunbridge Wells. There, a man-about-town, Owmuch, sets up a couple of London prostitutes posing as a rich widow and her maid, in the hope of collecting the courtship gifts offer by gentleman suitors. However, he sees a larger scam in tricking a foppish and idiotic baronet, Sir Lofty Vainman, into marrying her.
Prince Calaf, exiled from his throne, seeks to marry Princess Turandot, who challenges suitors with three riddles and executes those who fail. Calaf solves them but lets Turandot learn his identity; after a chain of deception and sacrifice, she chooses to marry him and frees Adelma.
Schiller's Romantic reworking of Gozzi's tale turns the riddling princess into a figure governed by a firm moral code and Calaf into a devoted lover. It integrates comedy and drama into a symbolic, moralized whole.
At the imperial court, a vast cotton harvest coincides with soaring prices. A contest offers Princess Turandot’s hand to the intellectual who best explains the shortage, while the gangster Gogher Gogh seizes power and the peasant revolutionary Kai Ho’s forces gather outside the palace. The epic comedy satirizes the commoditization of intellect under capitalism.
A comedy centered on Turcaret, a ruthless and dissolute financier, and the equally dissolute people around him, including a marquis, a knavish chevalier, and a coquettish baroness.
On Christmas Eve, Max Wheeler and David Winterton try to help Rose Adair, a concert performer whose manager has fled without paying the cast. A series of mistaken assumptions sends them after Rose to a hotel, while their efforts to free her entangle the Stoatt household, carol singers, and Rose’s romantic pursuer.
Prologue (In Isadore's Pawn Shop. July morning, 6 am.) Joe Bascomb, just released after a year in Sing-Sing, stops by the pawn shop to meet up with his pals Muggs and Gilly, and to exchange his prison-provided suit for a more fashionable second-hand one. While Moses works on altering the suit, Isadore rouses his two overnight guests and cooks some breakfast for them. Muggs and Gilly, who have been out longer, try to get Joe to come in with them on a caper, to get some working capital before going straight. But Joe, though he thinks the world of his pals, is adamant about staying clean. He is walking home to southwest Connecticut from Ossining, a long day's hike. (Curtain) Act I (In Mrs. Bascomb's Kitchen. Same day, 5:45 pm.) Jessie Strong helps Betty Bascomb wash dishes; the Bascombs are losing the farm to the Deacon. Mrs. Bascomb stills their anxiety with her sweet charm. She tells Sam Martin to leave the preserve jars on the porch as she tends the woodshed stove. The girls ignore Sam, until he mentions Lester Morgan is in the village courting Elsie Tillinger, with Deacon Tillinger's approval. Mrs. Bascomb brings some filled preserve jars for Sam to take back to the Deacon. Sam shocks them by implying the Deacon is cheating Mrs. Bascomb on the preserves selling price. Persuaded by Betty, Mrs. Bascomb agrees Sam may sell her preserves, but not in the village, to avoid offending the Deacon. Elated, Sam says he's quitting the Deacon's employ, while Mrs. Bascomb directs the girls in stewing up another batch. Mrs. Bascomb visits a sick neighbor. Deacon Tillinger comes in, sends off Jessie, and has Betty fetch her mother. Alone now, he invites Lester Morgan in to sample the preserves. The Deacon offers Lester a half share in the orchard, but Lester is broke and on the outs with his wealthy father. Lester wants to marry Elsie, but Deacon says he must reconcile with his father first. Later, Betty and Mrs. Bascomb are surprised at Joe's reappearance, after a year of no letters and no money sent home. Without his remittances, Mrs. Bascomb has fallen in debt to the Deacon for $125. Now Muggs and Gilly surprise Joe by showing up, having arrived by boxcar. Mrs. Bascomb feeds the three men from their meager supplies, impressing Muggs and Gilly with her sweet nature, while Betty and Muggs show mutual interest. Joe explains the family situation to his pals. Jessie is introduced; she and Gilly hit it off. Joe awaits Deacon Tillinger, while Betty and Jessie point out his store to Gilly and Muggs. When the Deacon arrives, he and Joe argue over the debt, but the Deacon is stymied when Joe presents him with the money for his mother's debt. Gilly had cracked Deacon's safe, withdrawn $125 and then passed it to Joe. As the flustered Deacon leaves, his pocket is picked by Muggs, who explains Gilly will restore the money to Deacon's safe. They then join the ladies for the evening's Chapel. (Curtain) Act II (Outside Mrs. Bascomb's Kitchen. Next morning.) Exposition between Betty and Mrs. Bascomb reveals the Deacon has missed the money paid him. Muggs and Gilley are picking the peach crop, since they have offered to buy it the previous evening. Joe has borrowed a wagon from a neighbor and gone off. Jessie comes for two baskets of peaches, but runs to the orchard when Gilly falls out of a tree. Jessie and Betty take the peach baskets back to her house, while Mrs. Bascomb tends to a large bruise on Gilly's back. It is an epiphany for him, who was an orphan. He and Muggs are getting worried about disappointing the Bascombs, and hope Joe has found a buyer for the peaches. Betty returns, bringing Elsie, who is introduced to the boys then goes in to see Mrs. Bascomb. Joe returns, and is told by Betty that Elsie loves him. Mrs. Bascomb visits the butcher, and Elsie is alone with Joe at last. He tells her the truth, how he spent a year in Sing-Sing for a robbery he does not remember, and the shenanigans with the Deacon's $125. Elsie is dismayed at first, but rallies and rushes off with an idea to forestall her father's calling in the sheriff. Joe and the boys huddle, and figure out the only solution is to make peach preserves out of the crop, as no one wants the fruit itself. Their scheme is given a boost when Sam Martin reveals he has a buyer lined up in New York. Sam gives the trio $250 in exchange for a commission on sales of the jam then catches the train back to New York. Muggs and Gilly are nervous when Callahan shows up, but he is not looking for them. When Deacon Tillinger shows up with Lester Morgan, he is presented with the missing $125. Lester Morgan recognizes Joe as Peter Turner, who did time for robbing his father's steward, but Joe also remembers now it was Lester who got him drunk just before the robbery. Callahan surprises everyone by clapping handcuffs on Lester, whose own father has sworn a warrant out on him for theft and embezzlement. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act II. Ten months later, around 8:30 pm.) Katie serves coffee to everyone, the men dressed in evening clothes. There has been a dinner to celebrate Joe and Elsie returning from their honeymoon, with Sam Martin presiding over it. Muggs and Betty pair off, while Gilly and Jessie do likewise. The peach jam has been a success and they are all now comparatively well off. Joe, Muggs, and Gilly give credit to Mrs. Bascomb for the turnaround in all their fortunes. (Curtain)
In an autobiographical one-person performance, Angelica Page explores her relationship with her mother, the late actor Geraldine Page, portraying both herself and her mother.
A full-length comedy based on a real meeting between Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw.
Act I (Mrs. Albergone's Antiquity Shop. A Saturday summer afternoon.) Mrs. Ricketts tries to pump Mrs. Albergone about Julian Castlebury's purchase of Bristol glass three weeks ago. Why did he leave his purchase there instead of taking it home? The stoic shopkeeper is not obliging but does admit to having a waitress for the Tea Terrace, her niece Winsora. From her, Mrs. Ricketts learns Julian visits his glass collection daily. When Julian enters the shop, he smiles at Winsora but abruptly tries to leave when Mrs. Ricketts hails him. He has turned down her invitation to go motoring, and doggedly declines to explain his sudden interest in collectible glass. Julian departs; his parents now enter the shop. Mrs. Ricketts draws their attention to the glass collection that Julian purchased. She tricks Winsora into leaving to look up a price. Alone with the Castleburys, Mrs. Ricketts suggests Julian should go motoring rather than hang around a tea room waitress. Mr. Castlebury is concerned, but Mrs. Castlebury recognizes the widow as the greater danger to her son. Later, Julian returns to pester Winsora, speaking aimlessly about the glass, while Winsora expects him to broach another subject. Mrs. Albergone tells Julian to take his glass away, but he cannot until Monday. Constable Philemon Tweedle, who calls the shop's antiques "queeriosities", cautions Julian to stay away from Winsora, his deterrence lessened by a bonhomie fueled by confiscated liquor. Adam Tweedle also warns Julian to stay away; the young man puzzles and alarms Adam by his indifference to local public opinion. (Curtain) Act II (Same as Act I. Sunday, dinner time.) The Tweedles and Mrs. Albergone have just finished dinner. Adam reads a bible passage, aimed at Winsora, about preserving the family name. They are astonished when Julian comes knocking at the closed shop door. He seems impervious to increasingly hostile suggestions to leave, his one and only concern to see Winsora. Challenged to be fair, Adam agrees to let Winsora talk to Julian alone in the shop. Julian is unable to vocalize his feelings, so their conversation goes in circles, both sensing the other's affection. Julian's circumlocution continues when Adam returns, but he finally confesses his intentions. Adam is angry, but he is not prone to physical violence. When Julian's parents arrive, Adam invites them to confer with Julian, his sister and Winsora. Adam misunderstands Mr. Castlebury's talk of family position and social prominence; he assumes the summer visitors are admitting their son is not worthy of an alliance with the exalted Tweedle family. Worse, Mr. Castlebury reveals Julian's struggle at prep school and withdrawal from college after freshman year. Adam is delighted to inform them of Winsora's graduating high school with honors and completing a year at college. Though Adam and the Castleburys hold the same views on the young couple, the latter are too mortified to speak at his assumption of social superiority. They exit, leaving Julian struggling to get Winsora to understand him. When she suggests he cares only for the Bristol glass and not her, he lifts the chest containing it and smashes it on the floor. "It is you I care about" he tells her. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act I. Monday morning.) The industrious Mrs. Albergone is delighted at the arrival of Monday morning after an enforced Sunday idleness. Winsora's mood is less clear; pensive and winsome, certainly, but her aunt wonders will she break into joyful laughter as she did last night? Constable Philemon has confiscated a small picnic basket from Mrs. Ricketts, which clinks when moved. His efforts to "destroy" this contraband render him benign and loquacious towards Julian. He reveals the sharp practitioners and blackguards of Tweedle family history, including a Revolutionary War traitor. Philemon mentions how Mrs. Albergone, after enduring a loveless first marriage, adored her second husband, Capt. Albergone, whose portrait hangs in the shop. Julian uses this information to put Adam on the defensive, and recites a litany of errant Castlebury ancestors to further show how foolish family pride can be. Julian now asks permission to take Winsora for a walk, but she speaks up for herself: "You're asking the wrong person, ask me" she tells Julian. Mr. Castlebury and Adam, now reconciled to the inevitable, confer as the young couple stroll out together. (Curtain)
After a shipwreck separates twins Viola and Sebastian, Viola disguises herself as Cesario and enters Duke Orsino's service. Orsino sends her to woo Olivia, who instead falls for Cesario, while Viola loves Orsino. The twins' eventual reunion resolves the mistaken identities and leads to marriages; a comic subplot centers on a forged letter that tricks Olivia's steward Malvolio.
In a jury room, twelve jurors consider a boy’s life in a courthouse case. Sergel expands Reginald Rose’s teleplay into an evening-length, three-act play, adding further discussion of the evidence and the weakness of the defense.
The story begins after closing arguments have been presented in the capital murder case against a troubled teenager, who stands accused of killing his father with premeditation. The judge, heard but unseen, announces the instructions to an all-male (as traditionally staged) jury. As in most American criminal cases, the twelve men must unanimously decide on a verdict of "guilty" or "not guilty". (In the justice systems of nearly all American states, as in the case of New York State where the case is implied to be tried, failure to reach a unanimous verdict, a so-called "hung jury", results in a mistrial.) The jury is further instructed that a guilty verdict will be accompanied by a mandatory death sentence; the jury is then locked into the room until a verdict is reached. Adding to the tension, the weather is exceptionally hot and the lone fan in the room is broken. As the jurors begin, they take a preliminary vote to assess the room. All the jurors vote guilty except one, Juror 8, who is leaning toward guilty but, acting on a hunch and a desire not to rush to judgment, votes not guilty. The jurors begin explaining why they came to their decisions, and though Juror 8 is unconvinced, he agrees to abstain from the next round of voting and change his vote to guilty if the others remain unanimous. With the next vote, Juror 9 flips, agreeing it should not be rushed. The jurors begin assessing the evidence. The alleged murder weapon, a knife that was testified to be unique, turns out to be identical to one in Juror 8's possession, a common switchblade. One of the witnesses, a downstairs neighbor, claimed to have heard the defendant yell "I am going to kill you," a loud thud, then saw the defendant fleeing down the staircase of their shared apartment complex 15 seconds after the incident; an experiment shows that a man of his age and condition could not have possibly reached the staircase in a comparable amount of time, and furthermore, a passing train would have overwhelmed any sound the witness had heard beyond any clear identification. One by one, Jurors 5, 11, 2 and 6 flip to not guilty. Juror 7 soon follows, solely because he wants to get out in time for the Yankees game that evening; a thunderstorm soon rolls in, raining out the game and rendering that point moot. Juror 4 points out the weakness of the defendant's alibi and failure to remember details during interrogation. Juror 8 quizzes Juror 4 on what he did the past several days to demonstrate that memory is fallible, especially under stress, also noting that the defendant did successfully recall the details at trial (to which the guilty voters point out that he could have been coached). Juror 5, who had a similar upbringing to the defendant and had experience with switchblades, demonstrates that it would have been impractical for a switchblade user, especially one shorter than the victim, to stab in the downward direction the stab wound was. Juror 12 flips along with the foreman. Jurors 3, 4 and 10 remain in the guilty camp. Juror 4 remains convinced of the one remaining witness, a lady who testified seeing the crime by chance from across the street in her bed, temporarily convincing Juror 12 to flip back to guilty. Juror 10, in a tirade, admits he is voting guilty as an act of white supremacy and is ordered to keep silent. Juror 8 is initially unable to rebut this evidence until realizing that the witness normally wore glasses, which she would not have been wearing in bed, making it highly unlikely she actually saw the crime in sufficient detail to identify the perpetrator. Juror 4 flips, Juror 12 returns to not guilty, and Juror 10 begrudgingly casts a not guilty vote. Juror 3, whose temper had increasingly flared throughout deliberations, is the last holdout. In an impassioned final plea, he vows to hang the jury and relates the crime to his own strained relationship with his son, then breaks down in tears. The other jurors remind him that the defendant is not his son, and he finally flips. The foreman delivers the not guilty verdict to the bailiff, the door unlocks and the jurors all leave, with Juror 8 helping Juror 3 with his coat.
Set in 1936-37 in a New England university town, Emma presents her practicing psychiatrist and lecturer father with a Christmas gift, a handwritten collection detailing 12 of her dreams.
The Hecht-MacArthur comedy is set in the observation car of the 20th Century Limited, travelling from Chicago to New York's Grand Central Terminal. Aboard the luxury train are egomaniacal theatre producer Oscar Jaffe, desperately in need of a hit, and his former paramour and protégé, temperamental actress Lily Garland (born Mildred Plotka), who abandoned him for a Hollywood career. Oscar is determined to sign her for his new show, and Lily is just as determined to ignore his advances, both professional and personal.
Ken Ludwig's stage adaptation reworks Hecht and MacArthur's comedy about an egomaniacal theatre producer trying to sign his former star aboard a luxury train.
Twigs is a play by George Furth, which premiered on Broadway in 1971.
A verbatim one-woman play assembled from interviews with more than 300 people connected directly or indirectly to the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. Smith performs monologues representing public officials, victims, instigators, and residents, examining the event through their differing perspectives.
Twin Beds is a 1914 comedic play by Salisbury Field and Margaret Mayo, based on Field's 1913 novel of the same name, which played on Broadway and was also the basis for multiple film adaptations. The play debuted on August 14, 1914, at the Fulton Theatre, and ran on Broadway for 411 performances. The play was not immediately a success upon release despite getting positive reviews, perhaps due to the start of World War I. Producer William Harris Jr. then engaged in a wild marketing scheme where trucks with big ads for the show, pulled by horses, would "break down" at busy intersections. Soon the show was playing to packed houses. Prior to opening, there was a brief controversy over alleged similarities between the play and the play Apartment 12 K which had been rushed to opening to beat it. Though the plays have a similar opening gambit, they were not the same, and Apartment 12 K only had a short unsuccessful run. Four warmup performances of Twin Beds the week before opening on Broadway were done at the Savoy Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey. By June 1915, the play shifted from the Fulton Theatre to the Harris Theatre, where it completed its 411-performance run. Irene Haisman replaced Madge Kennedy and Reginald Denny replaced John Westley for the Harris run. Multiple companies embarked on road tours around August 1915. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre describes the play as "one of the era's most popular comedies."
The youngest star is sent to Earth by the Moon because she is always late. She may return to the sky after learning her lesson; among those she meets is a bandit who plans to steal her golden hair but is changed by her innocence.
Accountant David Woods plans to write a kiss-and-tell biography about his famous actress wife Sarah, then realizes it would sell better if she were murdered first. The comedy parodies theatrical thrillers where appearances and events are unreliable.
A theatrical work loosely based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film version, incorporating the West African deity Legba. Its title describes it as a ritual reality in three quarters, with possible overtime.
Two elderly officials keep the abolished Office of Medicinal Herbs operating, renting rooms and running a parking lot to get by. Reporter Tommy Thurston discovers them and uses practical jokes involving the Armed Forces and State Department to help them, eventually winning back his former wife.
Act I (Scene 1: The Millers' room at Mrs. Gock's. Evening.) Marianna and Sarah Miller earn $37 a week from office work at the Hancock Equipment Company. This covers their weekly rent with little left over. They prepare meals in a large trunk, which they close whenever Mrs. Gock comes into the room, as she forbids cooking. Marianna tells Sarah about Dexter Wright who has helped her. Seeking better work, they search the want ads and find a job offer for two girls, with better wages plus free room and board on a fashionable estate. (Curtain) (Scene 2: The President's office of the Hancock Equipment Company. Next morning.) The efficient Miss Timoney unwittingly reveals her affection for the blustering boss Philip Hancock. Dexter is there trying to secure a higher price for Hancock's buyout of Wonder Equipment, because his boss William Moody has used the trust fund of Mrs. Delafield and Edna to stave off creditors. Dexter Wright tells Marianna he loves her, but Jack Terry reveals Dexter is engaged to Edna Delafield. Sarah, learning of Dexter's apparent perfidy, pushes Marianna to join her in taking the estate jobs. (Curtain) Act II (Scene 1: The living room of Mrs. Delafield's estate. Two days later.) Sarah Miller has been hired as cook, while Marianna is the new parlor maid. Sarah is delighted with her new job, but Marianna is abashed when Dexter calls on his boss William Moody, who is visiting his sister, Mrs. Delafield. Philip Hancock arrives next, with Jack Terry and Mis Timoney, to negotiate the buyout. Philip wants a lower price, and so does Jack. He loves Edna and her mercenary heart, and reasons if her trust fund is depleted she'll turn from Dexter to him. (Curtain) (Scene 2: Same as previous. That evening.) Dexter convinces Marianna that he does love her, but feels obligated to help Moody and the Delafields. Jack Terry is alarmed at Dexter's persuasive estimate of Wonder Equipment sales, and so decides to nobble him from further negotiations. Miss Timoney startles Philip Hancock by saying Dexter is right about the sales estimates. (Curtain) Act III (Scene 1: Same as previous. 4am.) Jack Terry has slipped knockout drops to Dexter Wright, to make him appear incapacitated and prevent him from arguing for a higher buyout. Marianna rolls Dexter under the living room sofa to hide him, while she overhears Philip Hancock confess some personal and business secrets. (Curtain) (Scene 2: Same as previous. 10am.) As the negotiation resumes, Marianna casually drops hints about Hancock's secrets, while Miss Timoney presents a real valuation for the Wonder Equipment buyout. She then threatens to quit if Philip Hancock doesn't accept the estimate. Hancock is alarmed; he knows she is largely responsible for his company's success, so to keep her on, he accepts the estimate and proposes marriage. Convinced of Dexter's sales talent, Hancock offers him a new sales manager's position in Chicago. Dexter will accept if Marianna will marry him, to which she replies that she'd love to live in Chicago. (Curtain)
Two Into One is a farce written by English playwright Ray Cooney, which premiered in Leicester in 1981, then performed at Guildford in 1983, and then had a long run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London from late 1984 to early 1986. Cooney both directed and acted in a 2014 production of the play in London, and it was also translated into Swedish as Hotelliggaren.
An anti-war play by Les Haylen, originally produced at Sydney’s Community Playhouse.
Two boys, Ted and Richard, pursue their ambitions to become classical pianists, enduring demanding parents, eccentric teachers, repetitive practice and stage fright. They compete and audition for music festivals and conservatories while learning the difference between being good and great; the autobiographical comedy features live piano playing by its two performers.
A strip-club hostess is questioned for days by a police lieutenant after her two children disappear and he suspects she murdered them.
In 1969 amidst the civil rights movement, Memphis Lee's restaurant is set to be demolished by the city. While he fights to be paid a fair price for his property, his employees and regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood changes around them.
In Nero’s Rome, the Roman Decius confronts the opposing pagan and Christian worlds. The verse tragedy develops their conflict through his encounters with Christians and the final movement of Christian believers from the catacombs.
Jerry Ryan, a recently divorced middle-aged attorney, moves from Omaha, Nebraska, to New York in order to separate himself from his ex-wife, Tess. Gittel Mosca, eccentric Bronx native, is a freewheeling dancer who struggles with ailments to her stomach. The play opens in September, with Ryan calling Mosca after an off-screen chance meeting. The two arrange a date, and the first act ends with Ryan and Mosca becoming romantically involved. Time has passed. It is now October, and the differences between Ryan and Mosca are becoming more pronounced as the two spend more time together. Mosca, who is characterized as someone who eternally gives and never receives, serves as a direct contrast to Ryan, who eternally leans on others. As Ryan tries to find work as an attorney, Mosca falls victim to a bleeding ulcer. The second act ends in February, with Ryan ushering Mosca off to a hospital. The third act opens in March, with Mosca healing from her bleeding ulcer and Ryan taking care of her. During this act, Ryan's out-of-town calls with his ex-wife Tess become more frequent, leading him to reveal to Mosca that he is still in love with her. Ryan moves back to Nebraska to heal his relationship with Tess, while Mosca remains in New York. The play ends in May, with a final phone call between Ryan and Mosca, thanking each other for a brief, but meaningful, relationship.
At Mount Rushmore, an 18-year-old’s annual ritual involves reciting erotic fantasies about the presidents.
In this rhymed-couplet tragedy, the Roman emperor Maximinus persecutes Catherine of Alexandria after she rejects his sexual advances.
Two fictional noble houses, the Eidams and Yberlands, come into conflict when the Yberlands attack. The Eidams hire two soldiers, who build a cheese cannon called Těžká Barbora; the play’s satire targets the rising Nazi regime.
Young Deaf performers present authentic stories of life in the Deaf community, exploring the clash between the worlds of silence and sound through experiences shared by the performers and their friends.
Peter Brook's experimental performance critiques British metropolitan attitudes toward the Vietnam War: its first half uses comic-strip anti-Americanism, then imagines the conflict arriving in London through a threatened self-immolation. It ends with the symbolic burning of a paper butterfly.
In this one-act monologue, the go-between Viṭa recounts encounters around the city while helping reconcile Nārāyaṇadattā and Kuberadatta, who set out seeking one another and meet at the house of Viśvāsvasudatta.
Egged on by his wife, Père Ubu leads a revolt, murders Poland's king and seizes power. He taxes and kills nobles, then faces a Russian invasion and popular revolt before fleeing France with his wife.
Set after apartheid’s end, Jane Taylor’s reworking of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu legend follows Pa Ubu, a governmental death-squad agent who fears exposure when South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission offers amnesty for truthful testimony. Puppetry, live actors, animation and documentary witness accounts place his burlesque world against the survivors’ testimony.
A university persecutes a left-wing professor, drawing on the political persecution of suspected communists in the United States during the McCarthy era.
A children’s play based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale addresses the rejection of children who are seen as different during the vulnerable years of childhood.
After three tours of military service in Afghanistan, Jess returns to Florida to confront trauma and adjust to changed relationships at home. Through virtual-reality therapy, she builds an imagined world to help repair her life and connections with others.
Two travelling monks meet a cormorant fisher’s ghost, who reenacts the sinful pursuit that binds him to the material world; a priest’s rite brings Yama, King of Hell, to release him.
Ulysses is a 1705 tragedy by the British writer Nicholas Rowe. Rowe turned back to writing tragedies following his unsuccessful comedy The Biter of the previous year. The cast included Thomas Betterton as Ulysses, Barton Booth as Telemachus, Elizabeth Barry as Penelope and Anne Bracegirdle as Semanthe. Many of the actors also appeared in Rowe's following work The Royal Convert. It is set during the reign of Ulysses. Focusing on a succession dispute at the Greek court, the Whig Rowe shows his support for both the proposed Act of Union between England and Scotland and the coming Hanoverian Succession in preference to the Jacobite claimants. SUMMARY The play begins at the time of Ulysses' return to Ithaca; for the preceding twenty years, he has been away from Ithaca and his Queen, Penelope. In his absence a mob of aspiring consorts to Penelope have gradually taken over the Ithacan Court. These rival suitors, increasingly emboldened by Ulysses' absence, cause riot and tumult in the Court and threaten the sovereignty of Ithaca. Chief among the suitors are Eurymachus, King of Samos and Antinous, an Ithacan nobleman and false friend of Penelope and Ulysses' son, Telemachus. Telemachus, meanwhile, is in love with the daughter of the Samian king, Semanthe, who ardently loves him in return, notwithstanding a foreboding dream she has in which Telemachus is replaced with the dead body of her father. Eurymachus attempts to win the Queen's affections, but when he realizes that she isn't to be swayed by routine appeals to love and tenderness, threatens to have his soldiers kill her son, Telemachus. She relents and promises herself to him later that night, not without a great deal of anguish and self-mortification; she even goes so far as to attempt to stab herself, but Aethon (who appears to her to be an agent of Eurymachus, but who is actually Ulysses in disguise) prevents her from accomplishing the deed. By contrast, in the Homeric epic, Ulysses is disguised as a beggar. Shortly afterwards, Ulysses reveals himself to her, and then to Telemachus, who knows him only as Aethon. Once introduced, Ulysses concocts a plan to descend upon and kill the rival suitors -- "send their guilty Souls to howl below"—and asks that Telemachus meanwhile stand guard in Penelope's chambers and slay anyone who dares pass into it. Act three, in which these introductions and plotting take place, closes with a powerful, albeit short speech by Ulysses in which he proclaims his confidence in his scheme. Eventually, Eurymachus comes to the Queen’s chambers, to consummate his desires, but Telemachus is there, guarding his mother. Eurymachus insists that he be permitted to enter, Telemachus refuses, the two draw swords, and Eurymachus is killed. Shortly after this, Telemachus runs for help and in that time away Semanthe arrives and sees her dying father on the floor; Eurymachus tells Semanthe that Telemachus was the one who has mortally wounded him, and, upon his return to the chambers, the two lovers exchange anguished words and part ways. Antinous arrives with help and manages to kidnap the Queen from her chamber and announces plans to turn the town against Ulysses (or possibly discredit his identity as Ulysses). He appears to be gaining success in turning the Ithacans against Ulysses, as well as Mentor, Telemachus, and the small band of faithful, original followers of Ulysses. Meanwhile, the body of Eurymachus is taken into the street; Semanthe is proclaimed Queen of the Samians and the soldiers vow to follow her command. In the closing scenes of the play, Antinous and the Ithacan army (and mob) confront Ulysses and his diminished band of followers. On the verge of victory, Arcas arrives to announce that Telemachus has been fighting the supporters of Antinous because they were told by Semanthe that it was Antinous who killed the Samian king, Eurymachus. Invigorated by the support of the Samian army, Ulysses and his men fight the shocked and unsteady Ithacans, led by Antinous, and defeat him. The play closes with a speech by Ulysses on the inevitability of pain in the life of a man, illustrated best by his twenty year voyage preceding the start of the play.
Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus visit a brothel in Dublin's Nighttown in a stage adaptation of the Circe episode of Joyce's Ulysses.
A short French-language satire of George Bernard Shaw’s uncle Walter Gurly’s household, rearranging autobiographical fragments into absurdly foreign situations.
Mathilde, a young woman married to the libertine Monsieur de Chavigny, discovers that he has bought a purse like one she made for him. Their competition continues after he leaves for a ball, and Madame de Léry arrives to try to reconcile the couple.
Fernand de Bois-d'Enghien tries to break with his mistress, music-hall singer Lucette, before marrying Viviane, but a chain of arrivals and misunderstandings repeatedly exposes him. At Viviane's engagement party and later at his flat, Lucette, a jealous general and the hapless Bouzin entangle Bois-d'Enghien in increasingly physical farce until Viviane decides to marry him.
Fougallas hires Marianne and Falingard as a supposedly married servant couple, while secretly pursuing Marianne. Falingard is actually a stranger using the household to conduct eccentric experiments on animals, including a sick sheep; his deceptions and Fougallas’s affair create a cascade of domestic misunderstandings.
Dhirubhai Thaker’s biographical drama follows the life of writer and philosopher Manilal Dwivedi through a narrator and incorporates Dwivedi’s poems and ghazals.
At Professor Serebryakov's country estate, Astrov and Marina discuss how old Astrov has grown and his boredom with life as a country doctor. Vanya enters and complains of the disruption caused by the visit of Serebryakov and his wife, Yelena. Serebryakov, Yelena, Sonya, and Telegin return from a walk. Out of earshot of Serebryakov, Vanya calls him "a learned old dried mackerel" and belittles his achievements. Vanya's mother, Maria Vasilyevna, who idolizes Serebryakov, objects. Vanya also praises Yelena's beauty, arguing that faithfulness to an old man like Serebryakov is an immoral waste of vitality. Astrov is forced to depart to attend to a patient, after making a speech on the preservation of the forests, a subject he is passionate about. Vanya declares his love to an exasperated Yelena. Several days later. Before going to bed, Serebryakov complains of pain and old age. Astrov arrives but the professor refuses to see him. After Serebryakov falls asleep, Yelena and Vanya talk. She speaks of the discord in the house, and Vanya speaks of dashed hopes. He feels that he has misspent his youth and he associates his unrequited love for Yelena with the disappointment of his life. Yelena refuses to listen. Vanya believed in Serebryakov's greatness and was happy to support Serebryakov's work; he has become disillusioned with the professor and his life feels empty. Astrov returns and the two talk. Sonya chides Vanya for his drinking, and points out that only work is truly fulfilling. A storm starts and Astrov talks to Sonya about the house's suffocating atmosphere; he says Serebryakov is difficult, Vanya is a hypochondriac, and Yelena is charming but idle. Sonya begs Astrov to stop drinking, telling him it is unworthy of him. It becomes clear that Sonya is in love with him and that he is unaware of her feelings. Astrov leaves; Yelena enters and makes peace with Sonya, after mutual antagonism. Yelena reassures Sonya that she had strong feelings for Serebryakov when she married him, though that has proved illusory. Yelena confesses her unhappiness, and Sonya eulogises Astrov. In a happy mood, Sonya goes to ask the professor if Yelena may play the piano. Sonya returns with his negative answer. Vanya, Sonya, and Yelena have been called together by Serebryakov. Vanya urges Yelena, once again, to break free. Sonya complains to Yelena that she has loved Astrov for years but he does not notice her. Yelena volunteers to question Astrov and find out if he is in love with Sonya. Sonya is pleased, but wonders whether uncertainty is better than knowledge. When Yelena asks Astrov about his feelings for Sonya, he says he has none, thinking that Yelena has brought up the subject of love to encourage him to confess his own feelings for her. Astrov kisses Yelena, and Vanya sees them. Upset, Yelena begs Vanya to use his influence to allow her and the professor to leave immediately. Yelena tells Sonya that Astrov does not love her. Serebryakov proposes to solve the family's financial problems by selling the estate and investing the proceeds, which will bring in a significantly higher income (and, he hopes, leave enough over to buy a villa for himself and Yelena in Finland). Angrily, Vanya asks where he, Sonya, and his mother would live, protests that the estate rightly belongs to Sonya, and that Serebryakov has never appreciated his self-sacrifice in managing the property. Vanya begins to rage against the professor, blaming him for his own failures, wildly claiming that, without Serebryakov to hold him back, he could have been a second Schopenhauer or Dostoevsky. He cries out to his mother, but Maria insists that Vanya listen to the professor. Serebryakov insults Vanya, who storms out. Yelena begs to be taken away, and Sonya pleads with her father on Vanya's behalf. Serebryakov exits to confront Vanya further. A shot is heard from offstage and Serebryakov returns, chased by Vanya, wielding a pistol. He fires again at the professor, but misses. He throws the gun down in self-disgust. A few hours later, Marina and Telegin discuss the planned departure of Serebryakov and Yelena. Vanya and Astrov enter, Astrov saying that in this district, only he and Vanya were "decent, cultured men" and that years of "narrow-minded life" have made them vulgar. Vanya has stolen a vial of Astrov's morphine, presumably to commit suicide; Sonya and Astrov beg him to return it, which he eventually does. Yelena and Serebryakov bid farewell. When Yelena says goodbye to Astrov, she embraces him, and takes one of his pencils as a souvenir. Serebryakov and Vanya make their peace, agreeing all will be as it was before. Once the outsiders have departed, Sonya and Vanya settle accounts, Maria reads a pamphlet, and Marina knits. Vanya complains of the heaviness of his heart, and Sonya, in response, speaks of living, working, and the rewards of the afterlife: "And our life will grow peaceful, tender, sweet as a caress…. You've had no joy in your life; but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait…. We shall rest."
Uncommon Women and Others (1977), is the first play by noted 20th-century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
In the fictional Welsh town of Llareggub, an omniscient voice reveals the dreams and private thoughts of its inhabitants, then follows the community through an ordinary day and back into sleep. The work blends poetic narration with the overlapping lives of townspeople.
A journalist investigates a seemingly ordinary suburban couple whose private lives include elaborate role-playing games. When he discovers they are siblings, his story helps fracture their lives, and he comes to regret the tabloid intrusion that helped create their distress.
Set in a New England household from 1864 to 1917, the drama follows Cornelia Thayer, who marries wealthy Ezra Warren after rejecting his brother Gibeon, a would-be pioneer in the American West; the play traces three generations of the family.
Under Two Flags is a play in five acts by Paul M. Potter. It is based on the 1867 English novel of the same name by Ouida. It premiered at Broadway's Garden Theatre on February 5, 1901. It closed in June 1901 after 135 performances. The original production was produced by Charles Frohman and David Belasco. Belasco also directed the play which starred Campbell Gollan as the Marquis of Chateauroy, Francis Carlyle as Bertie Cecil, and Blanche Bates as Cigarette. A. Baldwin Sloane's musical burlesque The King's Carnival, which was mounted at the Olympia Theatre while Under Two Flags was still playing at the Garden Theatre, was a parody of courtly dramas of that period. It spoofed several plays, including Potter's Under Two Flags. Potter's play was the basis for the 1915 silent film Under Two Flags by director Travers Vale for which Potter was a credited screenwriter.
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