8284 shows
Clear filtersAt a convent, Sara refuses to take religious vows and escapes. She later meets Axël in his castle while both seek hidden treasure; after they fall in love, they reject the ordinary life they expect the world to offer and die by suicide together.
An old gardener falls in love with the Imperial Consort, who challenges him to beat a drum made of soundless twill. Realizing he has been mocked, he drowns himself and returns as a ghost to torment her.
György Spiró reworks Molière's Tartuffe for the political conditions of Communist Hungary.
A drunken, dissolute poet rejects bourgeois convention, wanders through the countryside and leaves sexual and violent destruction behind him. After seducing Johanna, abandoning Sophie and murdering Ekart, Baal dies alone while hunted by police.
The play was colored by the then recent passage of the Volstead Act, which lent possession of alcohol an illicit air, and mention of drinking a clandestine glamor. Act I (The library at the Archibald's country house. An afternoon late in May.) Bab's school has shut due to an outbreak of measeles, so she has returned home. A family crisis has occurred over Leila inviting Clinton Beresford, whom her father detests, for the weekend. Carter Brooks and James Archibald are dragged to a tea party with Mrs. Archibald and Leila. While they're gone, Jane Raleigh comes over. Bab opens her suitcase to show Jane a play she wrote at school, but it turns out to be filled with men's clothing and a whisky bottle. Bab realizes she mixed up suitcases with a young man on the train. William brings that young man, holding Bab's suitcase, into the library. He turns out to be Beresford. Bab is incensed when her mother nixes attendance at a party for Beresford. Bab decides to invent a lover named Harold Valentine, to display her maturity, and enlists Eddie Perkins' help in carrying out the deception. (Curtain) Act II (Scene 1:Same as Act I. The next day.) Bab returns home from a store with a postcard photo of a handsome young man. She inscribes the photo as if he had given it to her, and "hides" it in the library. She then writes a letter to "Harold Valentine", including a love poem, and addresses the envelope. She asks Hannah to mail it, knowing the maid will instead give it to her mother. Flowers arrive for Bab from "H" (sent by Eddie). Mrs. Archibald confronts Bab with the missive and burns the letter. She threatens to pack Bab off to Great Aunt Veronica. Carter finds the photo and recognizes the image; he quickly tumbles to Bab's scheme. He intercepts a second letter in which Bab suggests marriage with "Harold", intending to put more pressure on her mother. (Three Minute Curtain) (Scene 2:Same as Act I. That night at 11pm.) Jane and Eddie are surprised to see Bab at the party, wearing Leila's old evening frock. Eddie, trying to act grownup in front of the girls, smokes a cigar and becomes ill. Carter arrives with a new guest: the young man in the photo! Carter tells an astonished Bab he has brought "Harold" just for her, but will tell everyone else he is Guy Grosvenor. Harold invites Bab to dance, pretending they are close, while she denies knowing him. Mr. Archibald, tipped off by Carter, puts his arm around "Harold" and pronounces him a fine young man, fit for joining a good family. Guy then asks to speak alone with Mr. Archibald, as if he were planning to ask for Bab's hand. Thoroughly alarmed, Bab realizes she must get back the letter. (Curtain) Act III (Bachelor's Quarters in the Archibald Boathouse. Just before midnight.) Beresford, having retired to his guest quarters, is surprised to find an armed burglar in his room. Bab, wearing a shabby old cap and coat of her father, has come looking for the letter. She hadn't realized Guy and Beresford shared a room. After a talk, Bab learns Beresford has a contract from the British Government to award to Mr. Archibald's company, but didn't want to seem like he was trying to buy Leila. He helps Bab search Guy's things; the letter is found and destroyed. But Carter and Guy turn up, a bit snockered, and insist on Beresford joining them in a drink. Bab, hiding in a closet, hears the details of Carter's plan. Guy has called it off, afraid Bab might commit suicide if pushed any further. Suddenly there is a gunshot from the closet, shocking the three men. Pulled into the room, Bab is unhurt. She had sneezed, causing her to jerk the trigger. Her parents and Leila, alarmed by the gunshot, rush into the boathouse. Bab sneezes again; she has the measeles. (Curtain) Act IV (Same as Act III. An afternoon, three weeks later.) Recovered from the measeles, Bab has been confined to the family property for her sins. She is determined on another scheme, Leila's elopement. A carefully worded message brings Beresford with the British Government contract options he holds. Bab briefs him on bringing a motorboat to the dock when he sees a signal flag go to half-mast. Jane and Eddie are to lower the flag when Leila enters the boathouse. But Bab's father comes in after Leila, whom Bab hastily conceals behind the door. Bab maneuvers her father so he no longer can see the doorway; Leila slips out unseen as the motorboat horn sounds. Mrs. Archibald now strolls in, guessing what happened. Bab mollifies her father with the contract options signed over to his company by Beresford. Carter comes to say goodbye; he is on his way to Poland, to help with its post-war reconstruction. Bab finally learns Carter loves her, but now must wait for his return. (Curtain)
In a three-act tragicomedy, autocratic ruler Valida Vrana governs the totalitarian state of Ritonia; the play addresses women’s reproductive rights.
A Bengali adaptation of The Father that recasts the Captain as a college teacher researching astrophysics, while retaining the conflict between him and his wife over their daughter.
The married Babio secretly desires his stepdaughter Viola while his servant Fodius has an affair with Babio’s wife Petula. When Babio catches them, Fodius tricks and castrates him; Babio then leaves the household for a monastery.
Goldilocks, Baby Bear, the three pigs, and Hansel and Gretel cross paths with a wolf who is also a witch; Goldilocks and Baby Bear help the children escape and build a shared brick house, while the wolf and witch ultimately destroy each other.
After months of bickering, newlyweds Zoie and Alfred Hardy live apart over their disagreement about having children. Zoie follows her friend Aggie's advice to procure a baby and claim it as theirs to lure Alfred home, but the baby's mother changes her mind just before his return, prompting a frantic search for another child.
Two parents who are completely unprepared for parenthood bring home their newborn baby. The two cannot seem to name the baby. John thinks the baby is a boy, but Helen says the doctors said they could decide later. When the baby cries, the two cannot quite decide what to do. To their rescue comes Nanny – who enters their apartment as if by magic, and is full of abrupt shifts of mood, first cooing at the baby soothingly, then screaming at it. In subsequent scenes, John and Nanny have an affair, Helen takes baby and leaves, only to come back a moment later rain-soaked and unhappy. By the time the baby is a toddler, Daisy has finally been named. At this age Daisy has a penchant for running in front of buses and for lying, depressed, in piles of laundry. The audience hears an alarming essay Daisy has written in school, and the principal, the terrifying Miss Willoughby, is oblivious to the essay’s cry for help, and instead gleefully awards it an "A" for style. Years later, Daisy enters dressed as a girl, but obviously a young man. The audience follows his years of therapy, where he alternates between feelings of depression and anger, and is unable to complete his freshman essay on Gulliver’s Travels despite having been in college for five years. In a scene reminiscent of the beginning of the play, Daisy (who has since chosen a new name) and his young bride fondly regard their own baby, determined not to repeat their parents' calamitous mistakes.
A terminally ill teenager falls in love with a young former addict while her family struggles with her approaching death and the uncontrollable force of love and life.
Two sisters named Bacchis are courtesans in Athens. Mnesilochus and Pistoclerus each fall for one sister, while the clever slave Chrysalus deceives Mnesilochus's father into providing money; the comedy ends with the sisters charming the two fathers as well.
During a Bacchic carnival in a small German town in 1523, a village idiot is declared king for a week and becomes rational, preaching love and freedom. He is sentenced to burn at the stake.
Two government agents confine young Arab American Khaled to his apartment and intensify their questioning, treating ordinary belongings as potential evidence. His girlfriend had reported him as suspicious after recent attacks, and the interrogation reflects the fear and suspicion facing Arab Americans after 9/11.
Shaw's five-play cycle follows humanity from Eden through 31,920 AD. Across successive eras, characters grapple with mortality, politics and the possibility that longer lifespans will allow people to mature enough to govern themselves; the final play imagines humanity evolving beyond bodily life.
Background is a 1950 play by the British writer Warren Chetham-Strode. It examines the effect on the children of a married couple going through a divorce. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Westminster Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 84 performances between 17 May and 29 June 1950. The original West End cast included Colin Douglas, Andre Morell, Lily Kann and Valerie White. It was directed by Norman Marshall.
Wheel-chaired marriage counselor Dr. Jason Pepper treats his patients in a country club setting complete with a clay tennis court and freely flowing cocktails. Roy and April Pitt arrive as the play opens; they are recently married movie stars who are already seeking couples therapy because of their frequent bickering. Anal-retentive Harry Scupp has been at Dunelawn for three months, and on this day his wife Dolly decides to drive up to encourage him to come home. Hiram and Francis are old friends of questionable sexuality who have been at Dunelawn since it opened years ago, content to stay indefinitely courtesy of Francis' family fortune. Meanwhile, manservant Otto mixes the drinks, carries luggage, and keeps the grounds. Over the course of the play the various couples meet, interact, argue, and even wrestle, with Dr. Pepper encouraging them to do whatever feels good. Very little has changed by the end of the day, except that Harry has decided to return home while Dolly is going to check in. A day in a rehab centre that deals with various "bad habits". The three patients that are introduced through the dialogue are an alcoholic, a drag queen and a perverted sadistic deluded man. Doctor Toynbee, the man in charge of the centre, is described throughout as a great man, a saint, revered by everyone in his presence. The doctor has developed a “serum” that is meant to help get rid of his patients' flaws and worries. However, it lasts momentarily and the effects don't seem to eliminate any amount of the patients’ previous bad habits as a sign of gradual elimination of their bad habits. The play takes place over the course of a sunny afternoon at the centre. Bruno, a worker who helps out Ruth Benson and Becky Hedges, the nurses, and tends to the garden, brings the patients out one by one, where the nurses are giving patients serum, some sun and some fresh air. As he goes back and forth, he “leers” at Hedges, attempting to seduce her. As they wait for Bruno to bring along the next patient, we learn about the two nurses, their own bad habits, past lives, regrets and their striving for reformation. We learn of the trigger for their quest: men; at least in Ruth Benson's case, one man: Hugh Gumbs.
After their grandfather’s death, cousins fight over a treasured piece of religious jewelry he hid during the Holocaust. Their dispute also exposes conflict over faith, cultural assimilation, and the validity of their romances.
Interconnected episodes follow women living through war in eastern Ukraine. Encounters shaped by desire, fear, and survival reveal how conflict transforms intimate relationships and everyday moral choices.
Badger's Green is a 1930 British comedy play written by R.C. Sheriff. A company has ambitious plans to redevelop the quiet, picturesque village of Badger's Green. The inhabitants mount a resistance campaign and it is eventually decided to settle the future of the village by playing a cricket match. The play originally opened in June 1930 at London's Prince of Wales Theatre, where it ran for only 35 performances. It has however, been adapted for the screen three times: a 1934 version starring Valerie Hobson, a 1938 version starring Maurice Denham and a 1949 version starring Garry Marsh. It was also adapted for television twice: a now-lost 1938 version on BBC television and a 1958 version as part of ITV Television Playhouse, also lost.
Three Iraqi expatriates return to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and confront the consequences of returning home after exile.
During a family’s Navratri gathering, the street performer Sadaa is mistaken for actor Prashant Damle and welcomed into the Mujumdar home, where relatives plan competing versions of their traditional show. The arrival of the real Damle and Sadaa’s bharud expose the family’s old injustice toward a performer.
A driver, helper and seventeen passengers travel by mini-bus toward Baikuntha, or paradise. As the bus moves through imaginary places, a series of events unfolds among those aboard.
In the Ottoman court, grand vizier Acomat plans to exploit Sultan Murad’s absence and promote Bajazet. Bajazet loves Atalide but feigns affection for Roxane to gain power; when Roxane discovers the truth and learns Murad has prevailed, she orders Bajazet’s death, is herself assassinated, and Atalide takes her own life.
During a hot Montreal summer, three families and a neighbourhood delivery boy sit on balconies in Pointe-Saint-Charles while a politician's broadcast truck airs campaign promises in English and French. The play examines working-class neighbourhood life and the social and linguistic tensions of the Montreal community.
Bali confronts Ravana and humiliates him in a Kathakali drama centered on heroic valor. The conflict culminates in Ravana’s defeat by the vanara king.
A Catalan hagiographic spoken dance dramatizing merchant Josep Nin's rescue of a crucifix from an Algerian merchant. A narrator introduces the legend, actors reenact it, and a closing speech by the devil solicits funds from the audience.
After a raspberry-picking contest, Balladyna murders her sister Alina to win Prince Kirkor’s hand. She rises to power through further crimes, kills her lover and seizes the Polish throne, then is forced to judge the murders she committed; divine punishment ends her reign.
Three adopted sisters, Pauline, Petrova and Posy, grow up in a fossil-filled London house with their guardian Sylvia, Nana and a group of lodgers. As each pursues her own ambitions, the sisters struggle to build their futures and keep their family together.
Two men live in a single room and discuss an imaginary Irish town called Ballyturk. A third man arrives and says one must leave; after the decision, the departing man is replaced by a seven-year-old girl.
Set over three days in a New York café frequented by addicts, prostitutes and thieves, the play follows dealer Joe and newcomer Darlene as they try to imagine a different life. Joe is killed just as he considers leaving drug dealing, and the characters' repeated opening dialogue suggests their lives are trapped in a cycle.
In an alternate-history Britain ruled by a communist revolution, a commune of writers lives in poor conditions at Balmoral. Their uneasy routine is disrupted when a Russian capitalist journalist arrives to interview a missing author.
Jelinek’s protest play addresses the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and depicts physical and sexual violence.
A young man's paternity leaves each of two principal characters worried that he may be the father.
Retainer Asayama Tetsuzan plots to seize power by stealing one of ten heirloom plates and framing Okiku. He tortures and kills her after she refuses to become his lover or help murder the heir; her ghost rises from the well to count the plates while Tetsuzan remains unmoved.
In Edo in 1655, Aoyama and servant Okiku have promised to marry, but a proposed marriage to another woman tests their commitment. Okiku breaks an heirloom plate to test Aoyama's intentions; after her death he sees her ghost as beautiful and kills himself to join her.
In a jail cell, high-school shooter Josh is tormented by apparitions of five classmates he killed. The chorus of five actors also voices rumors and the darkness surrounding him. The play was inspired by the Thurston High School shooting and was intended for performance by young people.
A fast-paced Parisian farce of the 1890s built around extramarital affairs, clandestine assignations, slammed doors and shifting rooms.
Two businessmen recount prostitution rings in Thailand before one confesses he has contracted AIDS; the conversation is interrupted by the story of the Thai prostitute who transmitted the disease.
A Bengali stage adaptation of Satyajit Ray's science-fiction story about schoolteacher Banku Babu and an alien visitor.
A theatrical portrait of Australian football legend Ron Barassi, tracing the figure’s place in the history and character of the game.
Clyde Fitch's four-act Civil War drama centers on Barbara Frietchie, adapting the heroine of Whittier's poem while weaving in a fictionalized love story based on Fitch's grandparents. The production sought historical realism and experimented with confined acting spaces.
In the provincial town of Verkhopolye, railroad engineers arrive claiming to bring civilization but reproduce a new kind of barbarism. Their arrival disrupts the old order and contributes to Nadezhda Monakhova's suicide, official Drobyazgin's departure over embezzlement, and Grisha's alcoholism.
Corie and Paul Bratter are a newlywed couple. For their first home, they live in an apartment on the top floor of a brownstone in New York City. Corie is optimistic about their future together, while Paul, the more anxious and grounded half of the couple, worries about the various flaws in the apartment, such as a hole in the skylight, their leaky closet, and the lack of a bathtub. Shortly after moving in, Corie attempts to set her mother up with their eccentric neighbor Mr. Velasco. During the course of four days, the couple learns to live together while facing the usual daily ups-and-downs. Corie wants Paul to become more easy-going: for example, to run "barefoot in the park".
Algie Packer has been in prison for seven years for committing bank robbery and it is the day of his release. There is only one problem; his mother Emmie and his sister-in-law Chrissie have spent the proceeds of the robbery on luxury items, like around the world cruises and blue Ferraris. What follows is a comedy of errors as the Packer family try to cover their tracks and go on the run, involving a lawyer, the street hit-man and a pair of maracas.
Set in Germany during Hitler's rise to power, the drama follows an engineer, author, artist, and journalist debating whether to remain neutral as a battle rages in their town and they are forced to choose sides.
As John Barrymore rehearses an imagined revival of Richard III shortly before his death, a stage manager prompts him through memories of his career and personal decline, including his alcoholism.
At the London fair, Justice Overdo, the countryman Cokes, the Littlewits, and their companions are swept into pickpocketing, disguise, quarrels, and a puppet show. After their schemes are exposed, Overdo forgives them and invites the company to supper.
A multimedia verbatim theatre work about the effects of war on veterans, families and communities, following a young Marine and his wife through spoken text, live music, photographs and filmed interviews.
A theatrical collection of three dark monologue plays about characters from Mormon backgrounds confronting acts of violence and their rationalizations.
A humorous, suspenseful adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles condenses more than forty roles into five actors, with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as its two principal roles.
After Dick Grayson’s acrobat parents are murdered, he is taken in by Bruce Wayne and Alfred. Batman reveals his identity to Grayson and trains him to seek justice rather than revenge as Gotham’s villains unite against them, with the Joker’s plan to unleash Arkham inmates setting up their final confrontation.
An outdoor historical drama about the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe and its surrounding events, condensing a five-year period into a two-hour performance. Its characters include William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh, their families and soldiers on both sides.
After a devastating war, victorious Yudishtira must become king while grieving its cost. He and the former king Dritarashtra confront their responsibility for the destruction and seek a way to live with its aftermath.
In Batumi in 1901–1902, Stalin organizes workers, formulates demands about long hours, fines, and dismissals, and leads demonstrations after the arrest of labor leaders. The play follows his arrest and the Tsar’s decision to exile him, using the episode to portray revolutionary and state authorities.
At his New Jersey mansion in 1953, painter Rudolf Bauer struggles with the urge to paint after a contract gave Solomon Guggenheim rights to all his work. His wife Louise invites his former lover Hilla Rebay, who helped secure the contract, in a desperate attempt to make him paint again.
An experimental play denouncing violence against women.
In 1970s Chicago, 13-year-old Tracy Fong faces school bullies, social expectations, and conflict with her mother. The ghost of Bruce Lee appears as her mentor, teaching her about strength and the power of water.
In 1964, nineteen-year-old Mary is sent to a religious mother-and-baby home after her pregnancy is discovered. She and the other young women form friendships as they face childbirth and adoption; after Mary gives birth and loses her daughter Lucy to adoption, she leaves the child her teddy bear.
An irascible Scotsman named John and an uptight English woman named Maude, both in their late fifties, are unexpectedly brought together on a journey of a lifetime.
Across one day in the 1950s, a circle of friends modeled on Jack Kerouac and fellow Beat writers explore friendship, tension and karma through their conversations and encounters.
A monologue play drawing on David Hare’s experience of catching COVID-19.
Austin Fryers’s prequel to Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, centered on Beata, the character whose suicide precedes Ibsen’s play.
Harry and Nan's strained marriage is further tested when their adult son Isaac says he has fallen in love with a child and wants to return home. His parents struggle between love for him and horror at his actions, then reach a disturbing compromise.
On a South London council estate, teenager Jamie falls for his classmate Ste, who seeks refuge at Jamie's home from an abusive father. As they begin a relationship, school bullying, neighborhood gossip, and family tensions come to a head; Jamie's mother Sandra ultimately accepts the boys' relationship.
South Pacific missionary Abelard and his wife Mabel are at the center of a play that endorses the minister’s life while challenging his Victorian prudery.
Beauty in Distress is a 1698 tragedy by the English writer Peter Anthony Motteux. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Thomas Betterton as Don Vincentio, John Verbruggen as Ricardo, Edward Kynaston as Duke Ferdinand, John Hodgson as Fabiano, Elizabeth Barry as Laura, Anne Bracegirdle as Placentia and Henrietta Moore as Morella.
After ten years apart, a painter’s daughter tries to rebuild her relationship with him; as they reconnect, they fall for the same person. A ghostly Federico García Lorca helps the father confront his sexuality and his role as a parent.
Albert Gonsalves's alcoholism and gambling impoverish his family. Though his wife Gertrude foresees the damage and remains devoted to him, Albert's vices and gambling companions culminate in the death of his young son and a tragic family crisis.
An after-dinner game of Monopoly between two couples turns into a succession of quarrels and tantrums that threatens their friendships.
A historical play inspired by the 1170 murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by agents of King Henry II.
The play is a re-enactment of the conflicts between King Henry II and Thomas Becket as the latter (Henry's best friend) ascends to power, becoming the king's enemy. Becket begins as a clever, but hedonistic, companion; as a result of being created Archbishop of Canterbury, he is transformed into an ascetic who does his best to preserve the rights of the church against the king's power. Ultimately, Becket is slaughtered by several of the king's nobles; and lastly we find the king thrust into penance for the episcopicide.
Becky Sharp is a play in four acts by Langdon Elwyn Mitchell. The work is based on William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair (1847–1848) and is named for the novel's main character, Becky Sharp. It was first staged on Broadway at the Fifth Avenue Theatre where it opened on September 12, 1899, in a production starring Minnie Maddern Fiske in the title part. It ran for 116 performances. Fiske also co-directed this production with Fred Williams, and Gates and Morange designed the sets for this show. Lyceum Theatre (1911), and the Knickerbocker Theatre (1929). It was the basis for the 1935 film Becky Sharp.
The name of the play is a reference to Thackeray's title character Becky Sharp in his 1847–48 novel Vanity Fair.
A phone-support instructor trains Ghanaian recruits to sound American for the few minutes needed to solve callers’ problems.
On his deathbed, Phil revisits the five most significant lovers of his life. Built from short, cyclically structured scenes, the play gradually reveals how key relationships shaped and changed him.
Brett and Drew leave Toronto to turn an inherited house into a bed and breakfast. As they settle into a small Ontario town, encounters with neighbours and family secrets challenge their expectations of home and acceptance.
Over one night and the next morning, four married couples' plans collide across three bedrooms. A housewarming party, an injured guest, and a former relationship trigger quarrels, departures, and attempted reconciliations.
In Couva, restaurant owner Otto Hogan's refusal to serve highway construction crews or accept a bribe delays a new road through town. He and his neighbors create a folk legend about a mysterious stranger, while a series of schemes and mistaken identities complicates the fight over the highway.
Bees on the Boat Deck is a 1936 comedy drama play by the British writer J.B. Priestley. It ran for 37 performances at the Lyric Theatre in London's West End. The cast included Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Rene Ray and Raymond Huntley. In 1939 the play was made into a television film by the BBC, starring Richardson, James Mason, John Laurie and Meriel Forbes.
Before It Hits Home is a 1991 American play written by Cheryl West.
An actress invites a sculptor into her Greenwich Village apartment. The play is a two-character comedy-drama about the relationship between them.
Seven children perform their lives in fast-forward inside a one-way-mirror “safe room,” looking ahead to imagined adulthood and back at childhood as they confront aging and leaving childhood behind.
Beggar My Neighbour is an 1802 comedy play by the British author Thomas Morton. It premiered in London at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, then under the management of George Colman, on 10 July 1802. It received a poor reception from audiences.
Beggar on Horseback is a 1924 play by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. The play is a parody of the expressionistic parables that were popular at the time; its title derives from the proverb "Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride at a gallop," "Set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to hell," or "Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride to the devil," meaning that if you give wealth to the undeserving, they will be the worse for it. The play rails against the perils of trading one's artistic talents for commercial gain. At its core is Neil McRae, a poor, young classical composer. Concerned about how hard he is working at odd jobs to meet his financial obligations, his friends - a doctor visiting from back home and his neighbor, Cynthia Mason, in whom he has more than a passing interest - urge him to marry Gladys Cady, whose father is a wealthy industrialist. However, the man also favors the Tin Pan Alley school of musical composition, to which McRae is staunchly opposed. Conflict arises when he is offered a job making widgets at a substantial salary if he agrees to give up his "foolish" interest in the classics. The original Broadway production opened on February 12, 1924 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where it ran for 223 performances. The cast included Roland Young, Osgood Perkins, Spring Byington, and Frederic Richard Sullivan. The play was revived with most of the original cast a mere seven months later, opening on March 23, 1925, at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for 16 performances. Forty-five years later, after 13 previews, another revival opened on May 14, 1970, at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, where it ran for 52 performances. The cast included Leonard Frey and Susan Watson.
After usurping the throne of Flanders, General Woolfort faces the exiled royal family, whose members conceal their identities among beggars. Their disguises and romantic plots end in the restoration of the rightful rulers and the reunion of lovers, while the play also explores serious political concerns.
After Laura's housewarming, she and Danny, the last guest, nearly kiss. The two spend the play in real time trying to return to that moment while revealing their loneliness, personal histories and hopes for connection.
Begone Dull Care is an 1808 comedy play by the English writer Frederick Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 9 February 1808. The original Covent Garden cast included Alexander Pope as Sir Arthur St Albyn, Charles Kemble as Algernon St Albyn, William Thomas Lewis as Modern, John Brunton as Danvers, John Fawcett as Lord Blushdale, John Emery as Solace, William Chapman as Trusty, Samuel Simmons as Geoffrey, Sarah Smith as Selina, Mary Ann Davenport as Deborah. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 30 March 1808.
Behold, We Live is a 1932 play by the British writer John Van Druten. It had an original West End run of 158 performances at St James's Theatre in London between 16 August and 31 December 1932. It was produced by Gilbert Miller. The cast included Gerald du Maurier, Gertrude Lawrence, May Whitty, Ronald Ward and Everley Gregg.
Balbir seeks a marriage match for her daughter Min through respected gurdwara figure Mr Sandhu. When Min learns of Sandhu’s affair with her late father and is raped by him in the temple, Balbir kills him; Min later forms a relationship with her mother’s care worker.
In Beijing in 1989, student leader Hong Ming and his girlfriend Hiu Ching join the pro-democracy movement and face a dangerous choice about leaving Tiananmen Square. In Hong Kong in 2010, activists Ken and Chelsea grow apart over political reform and whether to pursue institutional dialogue or direct action. Their parallel stories explore the movement’s impact across generations.
The 1918 published play divides the work into four acts, as does the Boston production synopsis. However, from Broadway reviews, it appears the play was presented there in three acts, with the last act broken into two scenes, separated by a brief curtain. The following synopsis conforms to the published play. Act I (MacFarland's Apartment at Sherry's in NYC. October 5th) Incensed by a burglary at his apartment, George MacFarland tells his friend Thornton Brown that police, detectives, and sheriffs are incapable of catching any crooks but the most incompetent. Brown demurs, but MacFarland insists, offering to bet $10,000 he could avoid arrest for a year. Brown takes him on, and telephones his detective friend Arthur Sole, who upon arrival also agrees to bet $20,000. MacFarland takes one of Brown's blank checks and forges his signature for $100, payable to George E. MacGinniss, the alias he'll adopt in flight. Sole pays him $100 cash for the forged check and offers to try depositing it, so as to trigger the forgery's discovery. The bet is lost if any detective or law enforcement officer within the US arrests MacGinnis within one year's time. The three of them agree that only they should know of the bet and that MacGinnis is really MacFarland. Sole takes detailed physical measurements of MacFarland, and borrows a photo of him. Brown lets Sole know quietly that MacFarland is partial to using the expression "Believe me, Xantippe". Sole cautions MacFarland that upon arrest, he must immediately wire Brown or himself, to avoid being incarcerated. MacFarland, using a ruse, escapes from the apartment unnoticed, taking Sole's hat with him. (Curtain) Act II (Hunting Shack in Southwest Colorado. September 30th, following year.) Buck and Dolly Kammen have been staying at the shack while hunting. Buck has to return to town, but Dolly persuades him to let her stay one more night. While she sees off her father, MacFarland enters from another door. He is surprised by the returning Dolly. Realizing he is a tenderfoot, Dolly coaxes from him the admission that he can neither shoot nor ride. Despite his scruffy appearance, Dolly is at ease with him, until he utters the phrase "Believe me, Xantippe". She disarms him, and forces him to climb into a camp bed, since it is night and she can't take him to jail in the dark. While they converse, Simp Calloway enters quietly, catching Dolly unaware. Recognizing him, she allows him to think she is MacFarland's wife. A series of comical twists and turns ends with MacFarland catching Simp in the dark, and tying him up when Dolly lights a candle. Simp is stowed in the bed. Dolly has no intention of letting MacFarland escape, even though he helped her. At gunpoint, she makes him climb into bed beside Simp. She tells the men she never got a deer while hunting, but has now "bagged two bucks". (Curtain) Act III (Sheriff's office at county jail in Delta, Colorado. Two days later.) Dolly had brought her prisoners into Delta, where they now sat in separate cells (off stage). Buck was so pleased with his daughter that he made her a deputy sheriff. On the jail house wall is a "Wanted" poster for MacGinnis, offering a $5000 reward. Dolly outargues Wrenn Rigley, whose orders were to keep everyone out of the cell block. She visits MacFarland in his cell, while first Buck Kammen and then Martha arrive. They are outraged when Dolly strolls out of the cell block. Later MacFarland strolls into the jail office to give Dolly his cell's key, which she had left in the lock. She learns from him the story of the wager that led to him becoming a fugitive. Dolly then sends the telegrams to Sole and Brown for MacFarland. Meanwhile, Violet tries to get Simp Calloway sprung from jail by accusing MacFarland of being one of their gang, The only result is she winds up in a cell next to Simp. (Curtain) Act IV (Same as Act III. Four days later.) Buck Kammen is summoned by telephone to the scene of holdup near the town. The eastern "lawmen" are due at the railroad station to pick up MacFarland. As a joke, Brown sends a telegram to MacFarland at the jail, falsely claiming the duo were lost at sea. Dolly, realizing MacFarland will now be imprisoned for forgery, releases him and gives him a horse on which to get away. So inept at riding is MacFarland that he falls off the horse at Aunt Martha's house and she recaptures him. Dazed by the fall, he does not resist as she brings him to jail in a wheelbarrow. Buck returns and is impressed with his sister-in-law's resourcefulness. Martha and Buck rebuke Dolly for having let him escape. Dolly is stunned when Sole and Brown are introduced. Buck is upset that the whole fandango was for a prank wager. Sole tells MacFarland he has lost the bet since Dolly is a deputy sheriff, which the latter accepts. However, Dolly corrects Sole: she wasn't made a deputy until after she brought in MacFarland and Simp Calloway. Sole and Brown give MacFarland the checks totaling $30,000. Buck hugs Martha, evidently seeing her in a new light. They all leave quietly as MacFarland woos Dolly. Wrenn comes in, sees the situation, and quickly leaves. MacFarland proposes to Dolly, saying he "will be her prisoner for life", and she accepts. (Curtain)
After losing his throne to Rome, King Antiochus wanders the Mediterranean seeking refuge and allies. The Roman Flaminius uses deception and intimidation to isolate him, while Antiochus endures imprisonment and temptation with dignity.
Belisarius is a 1724 tragedy by the British writer William Phillips. It is based on the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius, sometimes dubbed the "Last of the Romans". The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Anthony Boheme as Belisarius, Lacy Ryan as Justinian I, Richard Diggs as Vitiges, Thomas Walker as Proclus, James Quin as Hermogenes, John Egleton as Macro, Anne Brett as Almira and Anne Parker as Valeria.
Gillian Holroyd is one of the few modern people who can actually cast spells and perform feats of supernaturalism. She casts a spell over an unattached publisher, Shepherd Henderson, partly to keep him away from a rival and partly because she is attracted to him. He falls head over heels in love with her at once and wants to marry her. But witches, unfortunately, cannot fall in love, and this minute imperfection leads into a number of difficulties. Ultimately, the lady breaks off with her companions in witchery, preferring the normal and human love offered her by the attractive publisher. But before the happy conclusion of the romance, Gillian comes very near to losing him—but doesn’t. Regarding the play itself, author Druten stated in an interview: “Originally Bell, Book and Candle was a rather more serious play, but then I asked myself what constitutes witchcraft... and I felt the answer lies in the fact that witches primarily seem to exist for their own self-gratification. However, one has to stop living in terms of ‘self’ if aspects of love are ever to be realized.”
Bellamira is an 1818 historical tragedy by the Irish writer Richard Lalor Sheil. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 22 April 1818. The original cast included Elizabeth O'Neill as Bellamira, William Macready as Amurath, Charles Kemble as Manfredi, Charles Mayne Young as Montalto, Daniel Terry as Salerno, Charles Connor as Kaled, and Thomas Comer as Gonzaga. Sheil dedicated the play to the Whig politician Lord Holland.
Bellamira, a bankrupt merchant's daughter turned courtesan, manipulates her wealthy keeper and male admirers. A plot involving an alleged eunuch's assault of Isabella exposes the play's satire of a profit-seeking, hypocritical society.
In a gothic comedy set in Scotland in 1899, amateur scientist Pearl MacIsaac investigates a family secret after her father's death, amid turn-of-the-century debates about evolution, medicine, and eugenics.
A fragmentary tragedy of Bellerophon’s challenge to the gods, including his fall from Pegasus.
The play follows a young American ex-pat couple living in the up-and-coming Belleville neighbourhood of Paris. Abby is an actor-turned-yoga-instructor, while Zack is doing AIDS research with Doctors Without Borders, but their life abroad is filled with conflict. Belleville examines a marriage fraying at the seams and coming undone with unflinching honesty and truth.
After a failed political campaign in Britain, Kayode returns to his Nigerian hometown to visit his mother and encounters Kunle, a young reform-minded politician. As Kayode tries to enter local politics, his wife and friend clash over heritage and belonging, while the corrupt chief targets Kunle and leaves him gravely injured.
A live stage adaptation of Lew Wallace’s novel, presented as a large-scale arena spectacle with a sea battle, gladiatorial combat and the chariot race.
Ben Nazir, the Saracen is an 1827 historical tragedy by the Irish writer Thomas Colley Grattan. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 21 May 1827. The original cast included Edmund Kean as Ben Nazir, Henry John Wallack as Charles Martel, John Cooper as Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, Alexander Pope as Clotaire, Thomas Archer as Mervan, Henry Southwell as Velid, Thomas Comer as Army officer, Benjamin Webster as a Slave, Harriet Smithson as Bathilda and Sarah West as Emerance. Kean was eager for a new play for his relaunch himself on the London stage after being forced to make a tour of America in the wake of the scandal of his affair with Constance Cox. He turned down Alfred the Great by James Sheridan Knowles and selected Ben Nazir, although its reception was disastrous.
A six-act theatrical adaptation of Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, closely following the novel and built around spectacular staging, including a live-horse chariot race on treadmills against a rotating backdrop.
In Holt, Colorado, hardware-store owner Dad Lewis is dying of cancer and reckons with his life and strained ties to his children. Nearby, eight-year-old Alice, whose mother died of cancer, is being raised by her grandmother and gradually welcomed by women in the community. A renegade minister reassigned to Holt also faces trouble in his family; the storylines converge as the townspeople form new bonds of family.
Benefactors is a 1984 play by Michael Frayn. It is set in the 1960s and concerns an idealistic architect David and his wife Jane and their relationship with the cynical Colin and his wife Sheila. David is attempting to build some new homes to replace the slum housing of Basuto Road and is gradually forced by circumstances into building skyscrapers despite his initial aversion to these. This is set against the backdrop of 1960s new housing projects. Sheila becomes his secretary but it is unclear if she is helping him or the other way around. As the title of the play suggests it is about helping people and explores some of the difficulties inherent in this or in being helped.
A Bengal tiger lives in Baghdad Zoo. He tells the audience that most of the animals have fled to "freedom" because of the Iraq invasion, only to be shot dead by soldiers. That night, United States soldiers come to guard the zoo. Two soldiers are stationed in front of the tiger's den. One soldier, Tom, teases the tiger with food. The tiger, driven by fear and hunger, bites off Tom's hand. Kev, another soldier, shoots the tiger, mortally wounding him. The tiger slowly dies. Kev finds himself haunted by the ghost of the tiger, who wanders about Baghdad. Due to an outburst while searching an Iraqi's home, Kev is sent to the hospital. Kev has seen the tiger's ghost and in turn people think he is going crazy. Back in Baghdad with a prosthetic hand, Tom pays a visit to Kev, less out of compassion for a broken-minded buddy than for a more practical purpose. It is revealed that the gold-plated gun Tom was showing Kev when the tiger bit Tom's hand off was taken from the palace of the late Uday Hussein, the son of overthrown Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Tom contacted Kev after he got his hand fixed because he wants the gold gun back. He can start a new life in the United States by selling not only the gold-plated gun, but also a solid gold toilet seat that was also Uday Hussein's. However, during Kev's episode in the home in Iraq when he saw the tiger's ghost, Kev dropped the gun and it fell into the hands of Uday's former gardener, Musa. Musa is also working as a translator for the United States soldiers. Musa is visited repeatedly by Uday's ghost. This is why Kev can't give Tom the gold gun back even if he wanted to. Kev continues to see the tiger's ghost and he believes that the tiger is haunting him because of his previous actions. Kev tries to cut off his own hand to give to the tiger, believing this action will make the tiger's ghost go away. Instead, Kev ends up killing himself while trying to cut his hand off. He then ends up haunting Tom throughout the rest of the story. The rest of the play goes on with the ghosts of the dead characters haunting and talking to the characters who are still alive.
On Gojō Bridge, the warrior monk Benkei confronts the young Yoshitsune, who defeats him. Their encounter forges a lasting bond, and Benkei becomes Yoshitsune's retainer.
In 1930s Germany, gay man Max and his partner are arrested after the Night of the Long Knives and sent to Dachau, where Max struggles to survive persecution and confront his identity.
After Vespasian's death, Titus is expected to marry Bérénice, queen of Palestine. Facing Roman opposition to the match, he chooses his duty as emperor over love and sends Antiochus to tell her; Bérénice rejects both men's offers and leaves Rome.
A young American is transported to London during the American Revolution, where he meets his ancestors.
A 55-minute monologue on Berlin and its history.
A group of young men in a Western town trade boasts about romance while Beau invents an ideal woman named Bernardine. Eager to impress his friends, the awkward Wormy pursues an older woman.
Bertram; or The Castle of St. Aldobrand is an 1816 Gothic tragedy by the Irish writer Charles Maturin, his first and most successful play. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 9 May 1816. The original cast included Edmund Kean as Bertram, Alexander Pope as St Aldobrand, Charles Holland as Prior of St Anselm, John Powell as Monk, Thomas Cooke as Robber, Margaret Somerville as Imogine and Susan Boyce as Clotilda. The prologue was written by John Hobhouse. The 1827 opera Il pirata composed by Vincenzo Bellini uses a libretto by Felice Romani inspired by Maturin's work. A contemporary discussion of the play is found in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.
During Tunisia’s uprising, a forensic pathologist is ordered to absolve the government of responsibility for Mohamed Bouazizi’s death. His examination becomes a confrontation with his own conscience and the country’s uncertain future.
The family running a run-down pension must deal with Prosper's estranged brother dying at their dinner table and leaving a large inheritance. Their plans are disrupted when his pregnant widow arrives, prompting Prosper to call for the traditional birth-celebration snack beschuit met muisjes.
On holiday at a shabby seaside boarding house, Wilf Pearson placates the grasping landlady, calms a quarrelling honeymoon couple, and tries to stop his daughter Sally from eloping with a philandering married actor performing at the pier.
It's a character study of a neurotic woman disrupting her friend's romance by falsely claiming to have a lesbian relationship with her.
The play features a fictionalised retelling of the 1968 ABC TV debates between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal, which take place during the Republican and Democratic Party conventions. Graham was inspired by a documentary film on the subject by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon. The play also contains other celebrities from the time such as David Brinkley, Andy Warhol, James Baldwin, and Aretha Franklin. They are used to set context and reflect the theme of how TV debates emerged in this period and have developed.
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