Byzantium
On the final day of the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Constantine XI and his Genoese mercenaries attempt to defend Constantinople. Superior Ottoman forces, internal conflict, and betrayals lead to the city's fall.
Plays
8284 shows
Clear filtersBánk bán
Bánk’s effort to fulfill his political duties pulls him away from his wife and children. His tragedy turns on the collision between public responsibility, moral judgment, and the bonds of love that sustain his private world.
Bébé
The indulged Gaston, nicknamed Bébé, pursues affairs while engaged to marry an heiress. His eccentric tutor encourages the exploits, and overlapping infidelities lead to farcical confusion before Gaston’s father forgives him and the marriage is approved.
Bürger Schippel
When a quartet’s tenor dies shortly before a music festival, the members recruit Paul Schippel, a socially disdained clarinet player with an exceptional singing voice. He wins the contest but is cast aside, then faces a duel after revealing the Prince’s affair with Thekla; surviving the duel earns Schippel acceptance into the middle class.
Cactus Flower
Cactus Flower is a farcical play by Abe Burrows. It played for years on Broadway before being adapted by I.A.L. Diamond into a 1969 feature film directed by Gene Saks. Based on the play Fleur de cactus by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy focuses on the relationship between young, wild Toni and her older, married lover Julian, a dentist. Convinced the two have no future together, Toni attempts suicide, and a guilt-ridden Julian rashly proposes he leave his wife so the couple can be together. However, Julian has never revealed to Toni that his "marriage" is actually an elaborate lie concocted to keep Toni at arm's length. Toni refuses to break up his household without first meeting and talking with Julian's soon-to-be-ex, so Julian enlists the aid of his shy spinster assistant Stephanie to pose as his non-existent wife. Complications arise when Toni decides the two must find her a new beau so everyone concerned can live happily ever after. After two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Burrows, opened on December 8, 1965, at the Royale Theatre. There it ran for two years and nine months before transferring to the Longacre, for a total run of 1,234 performances, ending on November 23, 1968. The original cast included Lauren Bacall, Barry Nelson, Brenda Vaccaro, and Burt Brinckerhoff. Lloyd Bridges, Kevin McCarthy, and Betsy Palmer were replacements later in the run. Both Vaccaro and Brinckerhoff were nominated for Tony Awards for their featured performances. The play was adapted for film several times: first in 1969 as the Egyptian movie Half an Hour of Marriage, (Arabic: نص ساعة جواز"); then, the same year, as Cactus Flower with Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn (for which Hawn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress); in 2005 as a Bollywood movie Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya? (Why did I fall in love?) with Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen and Katrina Kaif; and again in 2011, as Just Go With It starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Brooklyn Decker.
Caelia
Caelia, or, The Perjur'd Lover is a 1732 comedy play by the British writer Charles Johnson. The play's epilogue was written by Henry Fielding. The original Drury Lane cast included Jane Cibber as Caelia, John Mills as Meanwell, Thomas Hallam as Bellamy, Roger Bridgewater as Lovemore, William Mills as Wronglove, James Oates as Keeper of Prison, Edward Berry as Gentleman, John Harper as the Constable, Frances Cross as Wag and Charlotte Charke as Mrs Lupine.
Caesar
Welles's modern-dress adaptation recasts Shakespeare's Roman tragedy as an anti-fascist political melodrama. A bare stage and stark lighting evoke contemporary dictatorships, and Cinna the Poet is killed by secret police rather than a mob.
Caesar Antichrist
An apocalyptic sequence of distorted Christian images gives way to Père Ubu, who appears as the new Messiah and Antichrist. The work's symbolic, book-oriented form resists conventional staging, though a student production was mounted in Melbourne in 1978.
Caesar Borgia
Caesar Borgia, Son Of Pope Alexander The Sixth is a 1679 tragedy by the English writer Nathaniel Lee. It was first staged at the Dorset Garden Theatre by the Duke's Company. The prologue was provided by John Dryden. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Cesar Borgia, Joseph Williams as Palante, William Smith as Machiavel, Thomas Gillow as Paul Orsino, Anthony Leigh as Ascanio Sforza, Thomas Percival as Vitellozzo, Mary Lee as Bellamira and Emily Price as Adorna. The published version was dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke.
Caesar and Cleopatra
In Shaw’s fictionalized account of Roman intervention in Egypt, Caesar encounters a young Cleopatra, helps her secure joint rule with her brother, and navigates a palace siege and political intrigues before departing for Rome.
Caesar and Pompey
Chapman’s tragedy depicts the conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey that ended Rome’s First Triumvirate, emphasizing their antagonism and Pompey’s pupil-master relationship with the Stoic Cato.
Caesar in Egypt
Caesar in Egypt is a 1724 tragedy by the British writer Colley Cibber. It is inspired by Pierre Corneille's 1642 French play The Death of Pompey about Julius Caesar's intervention in the Egyptian Civil War between Cleopatra and her brother. Cibber also incorporated elements of Plutarch and John Fletcher's The False One. The Drury Lane company invested lots of resources to make it a particularly extravagant production in the traditional style of a Restoration heroic drama. The cast included Barton Booth as Julius Caesar, Robert Wilks as Antony, Theophilus Cibber as Ptolemy, Charles Williams as Decius, John Mills as Photinus, Colley Cibber as Achoreus, John Roberts as First Centurion, John Thurmond as Second Centurion, Mary Porter as Cornelia and Anne Oldfield as Cleopatra. The play was not well-received, its style increasingly regarded by audiences as old-fashioned. This effectively ended Cibber's career as a playwright.
Caesar's Wife
In Cairo, young Violet is married to the much older British consular agent Sir Arthur Little but falls in love with his secretary, Ronald Parry. As Arthur must decide whether to recommend Parry for a post in Paris, Violet struggles with her feelings and with her husband’s uncompromising sense of public duty.
Cafe Crown
A close-knit group of Yiddish theatre people—amiable squatters and regulars at a Second Avenue restaurant—conducts business in bursts of temperament. Their cafe community is clannish, emotional, cultivated, and loyal to Second Avenue.
Cahoot's Macbeth
Under the watch of a secret-police officer, actors perform a shortened Macbeth in a living-room setting; the play's coded language evokes artistic dissent in communist Czechoslovakia.
Cain
Cain refuses to thank God for life and resents his mortality. Lucifer takes him on a journey through space and a vision of Earth's violent natural history; Cain returns disillusioned and kills Abel, ending in banishment.
Caius Gracchus
Caius Gracchus is a tragedy by the Irish playwright James Sheridan Knowles. It is based on the life of Gaius Gracchus, a politician in Ancient Rome. The play premiered at the Belfast Theatre in 1815 and enjoyed a good reception. It debuted in London's West End at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 18 November 1823, following the success of the author's Virginius. The London cast included William Macready as Caius Gracchus, William Penley as Licinius, Alexander Pope as Drusus, Daniel Terry as Titus, Charles Mayne Young as Vettius, George Yarnold as Fulvius Flaccus, Thomas Archer as Opimius, Mrs. West as Licinia and Margaret Bunn as Cornelia.
Calendar Girls
After Annie’s husband dies of leukaemia, she and Chris persuade fellow Yorkshire Women’s Institute members to pose for a charity calendar to fund a hospital waiting-room settee. Their unexpected publicity brings fame that strains the friends’ relationships.
Caliban by the Yellow Sands
In a community masque loosely inspired by The Tempest, Caliban represents humanity's curious, passionate drive toward knowledge and art. The work alternates scenes from Caliban's symbolic journey with anachronistic vignettes from other Shakespeare plays, combining poetry, pageantry, song and dance.
Caliban: Sequel to The Tempest
After Prospero returns to Milan, a female Ariel follows him, while Caliban leads a coup against his former master. Once the revolt succeeds, Caliban begins imitating Prospero’s virtues, extending Shakespeare’s island conflict into a political sequel.
California Suite
In "Visitor from New York", Hannah Warren is a Manhattan workaholic who flies to Los Angeles to retrieve her teenage daughter Jenny after she leaves home to live with her successful screenwriter father William. The bickering, divorced couple is forced to decide what living arrangements are best for the girl. Conservative, middle-aged businessman Marvin Michaels is the "Visitor from Philadelphia", who awakens to discover a prostitute named Bunny unconscious in his bed after consuming a bottle of vodka. With his wife Millie on her way up to the suite, he must find a way to conceal all traces of his uncharacteristic indiscretion. The "Visitors from London" are British actress Diana Nichols, a first-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and her husband Sidney, a once-closeted antique dealer who increasingly has become indiscreet about his sexual orientation. The Oscar is an honor that could revive her faltering career, but Diana knows she doesn't have a chance of winning. She is in deep denial about the true nature of her marriage of convenience, and as she prepares for her moment in the spotlight, her mood fluctuates from hope to panic to despair. The "Visitors from Chicago" are two affluent couples who are best friends. Stu Franklyn and his wife Gert and Mort Hollender and his wife Beth are taking a much-needed vacation together. Things begin to unravel quickly when Beth is hurt during a tennis match, and Mort accuses Stu of causing her injury.
Caligula
After the death of his sister and lover Drusilla, Emperor Caligula pursues an absolute freedom through murder and the systematic overturning of values, ultimately arranging his own assassination.
Call It a Day
Call It a Day is a play by the British writer Dodie Smith first staged in 1935. Her most successful play, its initial West End run at the Globe Theatre lasted for 509 performances. The original cast included Owen Nares, Fay Compton, Austin Trevor, Muriel George, Patricia Hilliard, Valerie Taylor and Marie Lohr. The play was produced by the impresario Basil Dean. In 1936 it transferred to Broadway where it ran for 194 performances at the Morosco. In 1937 it was adapted into a film of the same title by the Hollywood studio Warner Brothers. Archie Mayo directed a cast featuring Olivia de Havilland, Ian Hunter, Roland Young and Anita Louise. A 1956 German film The First Day of Spring was also inspired by the play.
Call Me By My Cousin’s Name
William plans a surprise in an attempt to save his marriage to Tara, enlisting a colleague who needs a favour of his own. The arrival of Tara’s estranged cousin forces the women to confront the roles expected of them and consider different futures.
Call Me Izzy
The one-woman play follows Izzy, a creative writer in rural Louisiana hiding her passion for poetry from her abusive husband, forced to write on toilet paper in the bathroom with an eyebrow pencil. As she longs for freedom, she remarks on the cost of following your dreams and the barriers that prevent you from doing so.
Call Me Vicky
Based on the writers’ family history, the play follows Vicky’s life from 1980 to 1985: a transgender woman works in Soho’s club and sex-work scenes to save for surgery, faces imprisonment after a client encounter goes wrong, and builds a life with Sid while repairing her relationship with her mother.
Call Me by My Rightful Name
Two Columbia University roommates, one Black and one white, become entangled in a love triangle over a white woman. The three-act play is based on S. F. Pfoutz’s novel The Whipping Boy.
Call Up Your Ghosts
The ghosts of Australian writers return to disrupt a bookshop where their books are being used to prop up table legs, satirizing the publishing industry's neglect of Australian writers.
Calpurnia
Julie, a Black screenwriter living with her Afro-Caribbean judge father, researches a film about Calpurnia from To Kill a Mockingbird. Her conversations with her brother and the family's Filipina housekeeper at dinner raise conflicts over racial identity, prejudice, and who can retell canonical stories.
Cambro-Britons
Cambro-Britons is a 1798 historical play by the English writer James Boaden. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 21 July 1798. The original cast included William Barrymore as Llewellyn, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Shenkin, Robert Palmer as Wadwall, Richard Suett as Gwyn, John Henry Johnstone as O'Turloch, Henry Erskine Johnston as Bard, William Davies as King Edward, Charles Kemble as Prince David, Thomas Caulfield as Mortimer, George Davenport as Hereford, George Wathen as Doorkeeper, Maria Theresa Kemble as Elinor, Maria Gibbs as Lady Griffith's Shade and Maria Bland as Winifred.
Cambyses, King of Persia
Cambyses, King of Persia is 1671 tragedy by the English writer Elkanah Settle about Cambyses II. It was staged by the Duke's Company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre in London. The original cast included Thomas Betterton as Cambyses, Henry Harris as Prexaspes, John Crosby as Otanes, William Smith as Darius, Henry Norris as Artaban, Matthew Medbourne as Smerdis, Samuel Sandford as Parasithes, John Young as Theramnes, Mary Betterton as Mandana, Elinor Dixon as Orinda and Jane Long as Osiris.
Camino Real
Kilroy, a young American visitor, fulfills some of the functions of the play's narrator, as does Gutman, (named after Sydney Greenstreet's character from The Maltese Falcon, but bearing more resemblance to Signor Ferrari, Greenstreet's character in Casablanca) manager of the hotel Siete Mares, whose terrace occupies part of the stage. Williams also employs a large cast of characters including many famous literary characters who appear in dream sequences. They include Don Quixote and his partner Sancho, Marguerite "Camille" Gautier (see The Lady of the Camellias), Casanova, Lord Byron, and Esmeralda (see The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), and others. The play has one location — the plaza at the end of the road — Camino Real. On one side of the plaza is the dining area of the Siete Mares hotel, on the other side is Skid Row. The town is near the sea, and is tropical, mythic, and sometimes dream-like. It isn’t named, though it suggests Mexico or Louisiana. According to the author, the play exists "outside of time in a place of no specific locality". It is a place of refuge for the quirky misfits that turn up there, and find their illusions crumble. Characters include Lord Byron, Gypsy and her sex-driven daughter, Esmerelda, La Madrecita, a blind singer, and Casanova at an advanced age. Taking place in the main plaza, the play goes through a series of confusing and almost logic-defying events, including the revival of the Gypsy's daughter (Esmeralda)'s virginity and then the loss of it again. A main theme that the play deals with is coming to terms with the thought of growing older and possibly becoming irrelevant. The division of the play includes a prologue followed by 16 scenes or “blocks” and monologues. Sancho Panza has left Don Quixote, who then falls asleep, and Quixote's dream, which ensues, becomes the play. Quixote needs someone to replace Panza, so he selects Kilroy, a dispirited American soldier, who had appeared on the plaza. Kilroy has been courageous in his boxing career, but now he feels lost, and needs to sell his golden gloves. The cruel Gutman, builds The Seven Seas Hotel above the town's water source. Other characters appear in dreams, including Camille, Lord Byron, Esmeralda, La Madrecita (a blind singer), and Baron de Charlus, the sexual seeker who is murdered. Some characters find partners and some do not. Resurrections occur: Esmeralda regains her virginity, the singer’s eyesight is restored, Kilroy and Lord Byron are transformed. Marguerite tells Casanova that she has outlived the tenderness of her heart, and that "tenderness, the violets in the mountains—can't break the rocks!" Casanova falls in love and has the last line of the play: "The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks."
Camp Siegfried
The play follows two American teenagers in 1938 attending a German-American summer camp, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York ahead of World War II, where they're taught Nazi ideology. The two, separated by gender at camp, fall in love. The play is inspired by the real-life camp in the United States during this era, dealing with themes of anti-semitism and fascism.
Campaign
A British foreign-policy adviser seeks a new strategy for Afghanistan and consults Professor Khan about reviving a neglected civil-service plan. Their discussion tests whether lessons from Afghan history can guide present policy.
Campaspe
In Athens, Alexander falls in love with Theban captive Campaspe and commissions Apelles to paint her portrait. Apelles and Campaspe fall in love, and Alexander relinquishes her so they can be together. Alexander also debates with Diogenes and other philosophers while his distractedness affects military discipline.
Can You Hear Their Voices?
A political play intercuts the hardship of tenant farmers in rural Arkansas with Washington, D.C., responses to their plight. It redirects the source story's armed resistance toward a nonviolent farmers' protest and ends with an unresolved question.
Can the Leopard...?
Can the Leopard...? is a 1931 comedy play by the British writer Ronald Jeans. The title refers to the expression "Can the leopard change its spots?" and features a husband forlornly attempting to reform his wife's reckless ways. The New Statesman review considered the plot to be weak, and relied for its success on the acting quality of the cast. It ran for 164 performances at the Haymarket Theatre in London's West End between 5 December 1931 and 7 May 1932. The original cast included Ian Hunter, Gertrude Lawrence, Kay Hammond, Kim Peacock, Joan Swinstead and Kathleen Harrison.
Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
In a political farce about consumer backlash, Antonia and Giovanni confront soaring prices and rent, along with employers cutting jobs, wages, and benefits. Fo's original Italian text also challenges the Italian Communist Party's policy of asking workers to accept lower living standards for the national interest.
Canace
A Senecan-modeled verse tragedy based on the Greek legend of Canace, whom her father forces to commit suicide after she falls in love with her brother Macar. The work was composed for Padua’s Accademia degli Infiammati and later sparked debate about tragic form and theatrical morals.
Canaries Sometimes Sing
Canaries Sometimes Sing is a comedy play by the British writer Frederick Lonsdale that was first staged in 1929 at the Globe Theatre in the West End. It represented the breakthrough role as a solo performer of the French comedienne Yvonne Arnaud.
Candida
Candida, wife of clergyman James Morell, returns home with young poet Eugene Marchbanks, who is in love with her and believes she deserves more than domestic routine. When she must choose between the two men, she chooses Morell, whom she sees as the weaker one.
Candle in the Wind
1940s France. The gardens at Versailles, the concentration camp and Madeline's hotel suite. The play takes place during the German occupation of France in World War II. September 1940. Fargeau, Henri and Deseze are talking about the war, Charlotte and Mercy are visiting from America and are trying to rebuild the past. They want to see Versailles as it was in Marie Antoinette's time. They are upset because the land and history changed too much. Madeline is avoiding Maisie because she has fallen in love and doesn't want to go back to America. She tells Maisie all about Raoul St. Cloud. Moments later he appears in the distance and tells Madeline about his adventures in the war, how his ship sank and he helped hijack a plane. He and Madeline pick up where they left off in their relationship. German soldiers enter and seeing Raoul in a French uniform, ask for his papers. Raoul, unable to produce them, saying they are lost at sea; gets arrested and taken to a concentration camp. At the concentration camp, Colonel Erfurt allows the Fleury family to see their son only if they agree to help gather information for the German party. They hesitate, but ultimately give in because they want to see their son. They are mortified by what they see in the camp. He denies Madeline access to Raoul because he has Sterben written on his file. He says “This is a camp of dead men.” Madeline vows that she will see Raoul again. Exactly one year later. Cissie and Maisie talk about France's condition in Madeline's hotel room. Maisie is hungry and nervous about German soldiers barging in on them. Cissie reassures her that they will not come. Madeline and Colonel Mueller talk about plans to break Raoul out and the three women will leave for London the next afternoon after the plan unfolds. The plan fails. Madeline tells the girls to unpack, they are staying. Maisie tells her that the best way she can help Raoul is by going back to America, back to work and get more money. Lieutenant Schoen arrives saying that he knows a fool proof way to get Raoul out of the camp. Maisie and Cissie leave to get Cissie a visa. Madeline and Lt. Schoen talk about the plan and she gives him her ring to pawn for money as a gift for helping her and Raoul. Lt. Schoen leaves his number, saying that if he can get Raoul out the following day, he will call. The next day, back at the gardens. Henri reads the executed list in the paper and sees Fargeau's name on the list. He always said that he'd rather be who he is and die for it than live as someone the Germans want him to be. Fargeau died trying to buy a gun, the shop didn't have any so he killed a German officer for one. Henri and Deseze mourn him for a moment as Madeline enters. Lt. Schoen never called but meets her at the gardens. He delivers good news that the plan worked and Raoul will be there any moment. Raoul arrives and Madeline is delighted. They immediately embrace, still as in love with each other as they were a year ago. She tells him to go to London and wait for her. But after he leaves, German soldiers arrive at the gardens and begin questioning Madeline. She obliges, thinking that the longer the soldiers are with her, the further away Raoul will get from France. Col. Erfurt and Madeline argue and he ends up confiscating Madeline's passport, leaving her to be a prisoner in France. Madeline and Raoul do not end up together. The idiom Candle in the Wind means something fragile which could finish at any time, a constant fight against all odds. Madeline and Raoul's love is a candle in the wind: the constant fight to free Raoul, even after a year, and the hope that he still loves her.
Candles to the Sun
In an Alabama coal-mining town, miners struggle to form a union while their families face the difficult conditions of life in the community.
Canopy of Stars
Two British soldiers guarding Kajaki Dam discuss military life and the justification for intervention in Afghanistan.
Cantique des Cantiques
In a Paris café in 1935, the President waits for his young lover Florence. When she arrives, she tells him she plans to marry Jerome, a young man she has just met, bringing their affair to a bittersweet end.
Capricornia
Louis Nowra adapts Xavier Herbert's novel about early-twentieth-century life in the Northern Territory, including its interracial relationships and abuses, for the stage.
Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Captain Brassbound plans revenge against Sir Howard Hallam, whom he blames for his mother's death and the loss of an inheritance. Lady Cicely argues him away from vengeance, and later persuades a court of inquiry to release him; he leaves before accepting her marriage proposal.
Captain Carvallo
Smila Darde, the wife of a farmer and partisan, is asked to billet enemy officer Captain Carvallo. Her husband and fellow partisan Professor Winke are ordered to kill him, but they find they like the captain too much.
Captain O'Blunder
A naive Irish officer’s adventures in London form this comedy, which reworks Squire Trelooby by William Congreve and John Vanbrugh, itself based on a Molière farce.
Captain Swift
Australian bushranger Captain Swift escapes to England and lives in London society under the name Wilding. When a wealthy squatter he once robbed and a Queensland detective arrive, Wilding's identity is exposed; he falls for Stella Seabrook, and, after betrayal, takes his own life.
Captain Swing
Set during the 1831 Bristol Riots, the play follows radical schoolmaster Matthew Dinely as he fails to control the mob's violence and struggles to reason with military officer Devoran, who resists using force against an oppressed crowd.
Captivi
War captives Philocrates and his slave Tyndarus switch identities so Philocrates can travel to exchange himself for Hegio's captured son. After their deception is exposed, Tyndarus is sent to the quarries, but the return of Hegio's other son and a confession reveal Tyndarus is the child stolen from Hegio years earlier.
Caramba
In Darwish and Williams’s British adaptation, a playwright’s struggle with a national-theatre director over changes to his play becomes a satire on control of the past and future. The version emphasizes Orwellian Room 101 imagery and changes the original insult to a harsher obscenity.
Caramba (1979–1980 version)
A Yorkshire miner’s son arrives in the capital to discuss his first play with a national-theatre director. In this expressionistic reworking, the writer turns a play about miners and their strike into a musical about a Mexican bordello, while the director’s assistant becomes a whip-wielding dominatrix.
Cardboard Piano
In a Ugandan church on New Year's Eve 1999, American missionary's daughter Chris and Ugandan teenager Adiel attempt to marry before child soldier Pika interrupts and kills Adiel. In 2014, Chris returns to bury her father's ashes and learns that Pika has become pastor Paul; a conflict over the church's rejection of a gay young man brings the past into the present.
Cardinal Beaton
A historical drama about the life of Scottish cardinal David Beaton.
Cardinal Lambertini
In 1739 Bologna, Cardinal Lambertini must manage tensions between the occupying Bourbon Spanish forces and local nobles planning a revolt. The historical comedy follows the future Pope Benedict XIV before his election.
Cards on the Table
Agatha Christie’s mystery about a dinner party hosted by Mr Shaitana, who gathers four people he suspects of murder, and the subsequent investigation into his killing was adapted for the stage without Hercule Poirot.
Career
Career is a 1956 comedy play by James Lee. It was later turned into the 1959 movie Career, also written by Lee.
Carine ou la jeune fille folle de son âme
On her wedding night at her uncle’s château, idealistic Carine encounters a decadent household where her mother tries to trade her innocence for her lover’s favor. A masked party and revelations about Frédéric’s past undermine her faith in their absolute love, and Carine dies after fleeing in despair.
Caroline Chisholm
A biographical play about Caroline Chisholm’s efforts to help immigrant women in Sydney find work and establish themselves, and her struggle to win cooperation from Governor George Gipps while balancing her public work with her family obligations.
Carol’s Eve
On Christmas Eve, which is also her 30th birthday, Carol plans to jump from a Los Angeles high-rise balcony. Partygoers interrupt her attempt, and she meets Michael, a former biker and New Ager who says he experienced death during a coma.
Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights
A Jewish civil rights worker, Seymour Levin, plagued by white guilt, he offers his services to a Black law student, Willie Nurse, as a slave as recompense for American slavery. Levin is more and more exploited by Nurse until Levin is chained to a radiator and Nurse's fiancée sexually assaults him. Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights is a three-act comedy play. It takes place at an apartment in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.
Carry Nation
A chronological dramatization of temperance leader Carry Nation, from her Kentucky childhood and marriages through her campaign against alcohol, saloon raids and final 1910 public appearance.
Cartography
A small group of refugees recounts their experiences through a nonlinear sequence that moves from a waiting room and interviews to an inflatable raft. The audience is invited to add family migration journeys to a map onstage before performers discuss their own migrant backgrounds.
Carving a Statue
In a South London studio, a father spends sixteen years carving a large stone statue of God while his son repeatedly fails to connect with him and tries to form relationships with women who visit the studio.
Casa Valentina
Casa Valentina is a small hotel in the resort area of the Catskill Mountains in New York. In the early 1960s, Casa Valentina has, as guests, heterosexual men who dress and act as women. They are faced with a decision whether to become an official organization.
Casablan
In a detective play, Kazablan is accused of attempted murder by stabbing. The actual attacker is an Ashkenazic Jew, exposing how readily the community assumes the Mizrahi protagonist's guilt; his love for Rachel is portrayed as hopeless amid the cultural divide.
Cascando
Opener alternates Voice and Music as Voice struggles to finish a story about Woburn’s journey toward the sea.
Casey Jones
Railroad engineer Casey Jones treats his locomotive as an escape from a world he does not understand. As he loses his sight, neglects his family, and is forced to retire, his loyalty to the railroad leaves him confronting a life spent in its service.
Casey and Diana
Residents and caregivers at Toronto’s Casey House prepare for a visit from Princess Diana during the AIDS crisis.
Casina
An Athenian father and son both seek the enslaved Casina as a concubine and each arranges for her to marry a favored slave. The father's wife outmaneuvers him by disguising the son's armour-bearer as the bride, humiliating the would-be lovers and exposing the father's scheme.
Caste
Captain George D'Alroy, a nobleman's son, marries poor ballet dancer Esther Eccles and leaves for war. When he is reported killed, his mother tries to take Esther's baby; George later returns, and the family reconciles across class lines.
Castle in the Air
Castle in the Air is a comedy play by the British writer Alan Melville, which was originally performed in 1949. It premiered at the Coventry Hippodrome on 20 September 1949 before transferring to London's West End where it ran for 292 performances between 7 December 1949 and 17 August 1950, initially at the Adelphi Theatre before moving to the Savoy. The original London cast featured Jack Buchanan, William Kendall, Ewan Roberts, Coral Browne and Irene Manning. It was directed by Roy Rich. In 1952 it was adapted into a British film of the same title directed by Henry Cass and starring David Tomlinson, Helen Cherry and Margaret Rutherford.
Castle of Deception
In a pseudo-Gothic castle filled with fake works of art, the central character entertains guests whose reputations are equally bogus.
Castro
The tragedy dramatizes Inês de Castro's execution on King Afonso IV's orders despite her relationship with his son Pedro. It opens with Inês's lament and Pedro's divided loyalties, and ends with a messenger bringing Pedro news of her death.
Castro’s Beard
A mordant comedy about the CIA’s attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro in the 1960s, including schemes involving poisoned shoes and an exploding cigar. Its satire argues that the United States would go to great lengths in defiance of international law.
Cat O'Nine Tails
A thief known as Cat O'Nine Tails breaks into James Gordon's country home to steal government documents. The detective Fox suspects Gordon; hypnosis and a secret passage complicate the investigation until Henry, a seemingly foolish chore boy, reveals himself as the thief.
Cat and Mouse (Sheep)
A political satire follows Gengis, an immigrant shopkeeper whose petty tyranny grows into rule over a country. The play turns his greed and authoritarianism against both capitalist and middle-class left-wing politics, unsettling the audience's shifting sympathies.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
A family in the American South is in crisis, especially the husband and wife, Brick and Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and the crisis unspools with Brick's family over the course of one evening's gathering at the family plantation in Mississippi. The party celebrates the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter", and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health. All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy's true diagnosis: he is dying of cancer. His family has lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare them pain on the patriarch's birthday, but throughout the course of the play, it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit for itself. Maggie, determined and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitts, but finds herself unfulfilled. The family is aware that Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage. Brick, an aging football hero, infuriates her by ignoring his brother Gooper's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. Brick's indifference and his drinking have escalated with the suicide of his football buddy Skipper. Maggie fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that Gooper and his wife, Mae, inherit Big Daddy's estate. Over the evening, each member of the family faces the issues they have bottled up inside. Big Daddy attempts a reconciliation with the alcoholic Brick. Both Big Daddy and Maggie separately confront Brick about the true nature of his close friendship with Skipper, which appears to be the source of Brick's sorrow and the cause of his alcoholism. Brick explains to Big Daddy that the friendship troubled Maggie, who jealously believed it had a romantic undercurrent, and says Skipper took Maggie to bed to prove her wrong but could not complete the act, raising inner doubts that made him "snap". Brick also reveals that, shortly before his suicide, Skipper confessed his attraction to Brick, but Brick rejected him. Disgusted by the family's mendacity, Brick tells Big Daddy that the report from the clinic about his condition was falsified for his sake. Big Daddy storms out of the room, leading the rest to drift inside. Maggie, Brick, Mae, Gooper, and Doc Baugh (the family's physician) decide to tell Big Mama the truth about her husband's illness, and she is devastated by the news. Gooper and Mae start to discuss the division of the Pollitt estate. Big Mama defends her husband from their proposals. Big Daddy reappears and makes known his plans to die peacefully. Attempting to secure Brick's inheritance, Maggie tells him she is pregnant. Gooper and Mae know this is a lie, but Big Mama and Big Daddy believe that Maggie "has life". When they are alone again, Maggie locks away the liquor and promises Brick that she will "make the lie true".
Catastrophe
An authoritarian director and assistant arrange a silent protagonist as a theatrical image of helplessness; in the final moment, the protagonist raises his head to look at the audience in defiance.
Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me if You Can is a play by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert that is taken from a French play by Robert Thomas entitled Trap for a Lonely Man. The work premiered on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on March 2, 1965 and closed after 111 performances on June 5, 1965. The production was directed by Vincent J. Donehue and starred Tom Bosley, Dan Dailey, Bethel Leslie, George Mathews, Patrick McVey, Eli Mintz, and Jo Tract. It was produced by the Samuel French Incorporation at The House of Plays.
Catch-22
Heller's stage adaptation follows U.S. bombardier John Yossarian and fellow airmen stationed on Pianosa during World War II, presenting their experience through recurring events retold from different perspectives, absurd humor and moments of grim realism.
Catharine and Petruchio
Garrick condenses The Taming of the Shrew into three acts, omitting the Christopher Sly frame and Bianca’s courtship subplot. Catharine’s final speech is shortened and reframed; Petruchio promises a gentler marriage while retaining a closing claim that women should obey their husbands.
Catherine Was Great
Catherine Was Great is a 1944 play written by and starring Mae West. The play was a dramatisation of the life of the Russian monarch Catherine the Great. The play ran for 191 performances and then went on tour. It was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd and used costumes by Tony Award winning designer Mary Percy Schenck. West had originally attempted to develop her script as a film in 1938 and 1939 before its appearance on Broadway. The development of West film may have been hampered by the success of Marlene Dietrich's 1934 film of Catherine the Great's life, The Scarlet Empress. The play opened at the Shubert Theatre on 2 August 1944. Previews had been held in Philadelphia. The premier Todd only sold tickets to purchasers of American war bonds, with the opening night of the play raising $4 million. West's biographer, Simon Louvish, described the play as West's opportunity to finally "prove herself a great dramatic actress". West surrounded herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. West claimed to have received a psychic message from Catherine the Great "urging her to take the role seriously". West described her interpretation of Catherine's life as "a pre-incarnation of myself. A Slavic-Germanic Diamond Lil, just as low in vivid sexuality, but on a higher plane of authority". Ramona Curry in her book Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon, contextualises West's performance as Catherine as part of her portrayals of historically powerful women and her persona of feminine strength and power. The critic Howard Barnes wrote that West "returned to Broadway last night, decked out like a battleship in a swimming pool" but also described the play as "incredibly boring and monotonous" and West's dramatic abilities as "more limited than ever". Louvish described West's performance as Catherine alienating her critics and audience with her "standard wide Brooklyn tones". The play was affected by a plagiarism suit; the writers George S. George and Vadim Uraneff sued West for plagiarism for $450,000, as did the writers Edwin K. O'Brien and Michael Karr who alleged that they supplied West with material on Catherine the Great in 1938. O'Brien and Karr's suit was resolved in 1948.
Cathleen ni Houlihan
During the 1798 Rebellion, an old woman who embodies Ireland tells the Gillane family that her four green fields have been taken. Their son Michael abandons his wedding and family to join the fight, and his brother sees the woman leave transformed into a young queen-like figure.
Cathy
A comedy about grief.
Catiline
The Roman nobleman Catilina is torn between his wife Aurelia and the Vestal virgin Furia as he struggles between love and duty. The historical drama is written in blank verse and draws on Catiline's conflict with Rome.
Catiline His Conspiracy
A Jacobean tragedy recounting the conspiracy of Roman politician Catiline, with historical figures including Julius Caesar, Sempronia, Crassus and Cicero.
Cato Street
A play about the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820.
Cato, a Tragedy
During the final years of Caesar's Civil War, the remnants of the Roman senate, led by Cato the Younger, have fled from Caesar's legions to Utica, Tunisia. In Cato's court are his twin sons Marcus and Portius, his daughter Marcia, the exiled Numidian prince Juba (an ally of Cato whose father, Scipio, Caesar killed in the battle of Thapsus), Juba's servant Syphax, and the senior senators Sempronius and Lucius. The play opens as Marcus and Portius praise their father's bravery and reassure one another that he will prevail over Caesar. The senator Sempronius arrives and pretends to agree with them but reveals to the audience that he resents Cato for refusing his requests to marry Marcia and plans to betray him to Caesar in exchange for Marcia's hand. Sempronius persuades Syphax to join his cause and urges him to persuade Juba to marshal the Numidian armies he has brought to Utica and overthrow Cato. Syphax goes to Juba and tries to turn him against Cato, but Juba rebuffs him and insists he will never betray Cato, who he says is like a second father to him. He declares that he is in love with Marcia and wants to seek Cato's favor to marry her. Syphax complains that Juba's idolatry of Cato and Marcia has blinded him to reasonable advice and leaves. Juba finds Marcia cavorting with her friend Lucia and flirts with her, but she scolds him for being distracted by romantic fantasies during a dire crisis. He apologizes and leaves to tend to his Numidian armies, resolving to try to win her over later. Lucia chides Marcia for spurning the advances of the rich and handsome prince and confesses that she herself is in love with Portius and that they are eloping. Marcia sympathizes with her but warns her that Marcus loves her as well, and his jealousy will drive the brothers apart forever if he finds out about Lucia and Portius' relationship. She beseeches Lucia to hold her tongue until the war is won, lest she create more chaos in Cato's house. In the senate chamber at Utica, Cato calls a meeting of the few remaining Roman senators and asks for a plan to defeat the rapidly-advancing Caesar. Sempronius calls for war, arguing that it is time for Rome to avenge the deaths of Scipio and others with fire and fury. Lucius pleads for peace and states that enough blood has been needlessly shed and that it is time for Rome to yield to Caesar. Cato states that both are half right but also half wrong and explains that the best course of action is neither too reckless nor too cowardly. He declares that he will continue to fight until Caesar reaches Utica and only then sue for peace. An envoy from Caesar's camp arrives and informs Cato that Caesar has agreed to spare his life if he surrenders Utica immediately. Cato retorts that he will be merciful enough to spare Caesar's life if he surrenders now and stands trial in the senate. He then sends the envoy away. Juba arrives and praises Cato's strong leadership, prompting Cato to express gratitude for Juba's loyalty. Cato promises to give Juba whatever he wants as repayment for his service when the war ends. Juba shyly asks to wed Marcia, but Cato is affronted by the notion of Marcia marrying a Numidian and storms off. Syphax arrives, and Juba laments that Cato will not consent for him to marry Marcia. Syphax once again urges Juba to marshal the Numidian armies and overthrow Cato, and suggests that once Cato is dead he can take Marcia as his prize. However, Juba vows that he will remain an honorable man and win Cato's favor fairly to marry Marcia. Syphax worries that he will never be able to persuade Juba to turn against Cato. Marcus, still unaware of Portius and Lucia's affair, comes to Portius and begs him to convince Lucia to wed him. Portius does not reveal his relationship with Lucia to Marcus. However, after the brothers' conversation Portius goes to Lucia and informs her how much grief Marcus is in because of his unrequited love for her. Saddened by this news, Lucia decides to end their affair before it brings any more misfortune to Cato's already-suffering family. Portius returns to Marcus and tells him that Lucia feels compassion for him but has sworn off romantic love and cannot be with him, and a heartbroken Marcus pledges that if Lucia will not be his, he will die fighting his father's enemies, rather than live without her. In the Senate, Sempronius grows tired of waiting for Syphax to turn Juba's allegiances, and raises his own mutinous legion to overthrow Cato. He sends them to arrest Cato, but when Cato is confronted, he makes an impassioned speech that moves them to release him. Sempronius realizes Cato cannot be deposed by troops so loyal to him and resolves to abandon his plot, abscond with Marcia, and leave Utica to join Caesar's legions. He dresses as Juba to gain entry to Marcia's apartments. However, Juba himself finds him first and, realizing his treachery, kills him. Marcia finds Sempronius' body and, believing it to be Juba's by his dress, confesses tearfully that she truly loved Juba all along and weeps for his death. Juba hears her soliloquy and reveals that he is still alive, and they embrace. Meanwhile, Syphax succeeds in marshaling the Numidian armies and attempts to depose Cato himself. However an anguished Marcus, no longer concerned whether he lives or dies, viciously attacks them to defend his father and slays Syphax before being slain himself. Cato learns of all this and condemns Sempronius and Syphax while praising Marcus' bravery. He declares that instead of mourning his son, everyone ought to mourn the fallen Roman Republic, which Marcus died to protect. He then announces that he intends to surrender Utica to Caesar. Waiting for Caesar's legions to arrive, Cato privately ponders whether or not to fall on his sword before they do. He laments that "the world was made for Caesar," and not for virtuous men. He kills himself, and as he dies, he is discovered by a shocked Marcia and Portius. With his dying breaths, Cato gives Marcia his blessing to marry Juba, who he declares is a Numidian with "a Roman soul." He also gives Portius his blessing to marry Lucia. Portius curses that they live in the kind of "guilty world" that takes the lives of honest people like Cato and leaves villains like Caesar victorious. He declares that the tragic story of Caesar's conquest will stand forever in history as a warning to all nations of the dire cost of civil war.
Catwalk Confidential
Robyn Peterson performs an autobiographical play based on her life as a catwalk model.
Caught Napping
Caught Napping is a 1959 comedy play by the British writer Geoffrey Lumsden. It premiered at the Salisbury Playhouse, under its original title Gwendolyn before transferring to the Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 114 performances between 22 June and 28 August 1959. Lumsden himself starred in the play alongside a cast that included Graham Armitage, George Benson, Raymond Huntley, Leslie Randall, Winifred Shotter and Timothy West in his West End debut. Excerpts of the play were featured in a 1959 episode of the BBC television series Theatre Night which showcased current West End shows. In 1978 it was revived with a cast that included Arthur Lowe, Bill Pertwee, Fiona Fullerton and Edward Evans.
Causa Mortis
When a brain surgeon accidentally leaves his watch inside Eleanor’s skull, her daughters urge its removal. Each surgeon attempting the operation dies, turning the medical crisis into a satire of the modern health-care establishment.
Cause Célèbre
Cause Célèbre or A Woman of Principle is a 1975 radio play, and the final play by the English author Terence Rattigan. It was inspired by the trial of Alma Rattenbury and her teenage lover in 1935 for the murder of her third husband Francis Rattenbury and first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 27 October 1975. It was Rattigan's first radio play, and Alma was played by Diana Dors. Rattigan was then commissioned to rewrite it as a stage play, ready to be produced in Autumn 1976, but his terminal cancer and casting problems meant he was able to start work only in January 1977, alongside director Robin Midgley. This stage version premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester in 1977 before its West End premiere on 4 July 1977 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, with Glynis Johns as Alma Rattenbury and Helen Lindsay as Edith Davenport. It received largely positive reviews. Rattigan discharged himself from hospital to attend the opening night. A 1987 television version of the stage play starred Helen Mirren as Alma and David Suchet as O'Connor. The stage play itself was revived at the Old Vic from March to June 2011 to mark Rattigan's centenary. The revival was directed by Thea Sharrock, with Alma played by Anne-Marie Duff and Edith Davenport by Niamh Cusack. Reviews were mainly very positive, with The Guardian calling it a "fine revival" of a play which "stands the test of time", though the London Evening Standard regretted that "this is not Rattigan at his most eloquently anguished." A new production of the radio play was aired by BBC Radio 4 on 25 June 2011, again directed by Sharrock with original music by Adrian Johnston.
Cauteriaria
Scintilla, unhappily married to the elderly Brachus, falls in love with the priest Auleardus and arranges a meeting with help from a servant. When Brachus catches them, he condemns her to branding; Auleardus and his friends intervene, and Brachus ultimately hosts a feast for the lovers.
Cavalcade
It is nearly midnight. Robert and Jane Marryot are seeing in the New Year quietly together in their London house. Their happiness is clouded by the Boer War: Jane's brother is besieged in Mafeking, and Robert himself will shortly be going to South Africa. Robert and Jane invited their butler, Bridges, and his wife, Ellen, to join them. Bells, shouting, and sirens outside usher in the New Year, and Robert proposes a toast to 1900. Hearing her two boys stirring upstairs, Jane runs up to see after them, and her husband calls to her to bring them down to join the adults. A month later, a contingent of volunteers are leaving for the war. On the dockside Jane and Ellen are seeing off Robert and Bridges. As the men go aboard, Jane comforts Ellen, who is crying. A band strikes up "Soldiers of the Queen". The volunteers wave their farewells to the cheering crowd. The Marryot boys, Edward, aged twelve, and Joe, aged eight, are playing soldiers with a young friend, Edith Harris. She objects to being made to play "the Boers", and they begin to quarrel. The noise brings in their mothers. Joe throws a toy at Edith, and is sharply slapped by Jane, whose nerves are on edge with anxiety about her brother and her husband. Her state of mind is not helped by a barrel-organ outside, playing "Soldiers of the Queen" under the window. Margaret, Edith's mother, sends the organ-grinder away and proposes to take Jane to the theatre to take her mind off her worry. Jane and Margaret are in a stage-box, watching MirabeIle, the currently popular musical comedy. The plot is the usual froth, but the denouement is not reached: the theatre manager comes onstage to announce that Mafeking has been relieved. Joyous uproar breaks out; the audience claps and cheers and some begin to sing "Auld Lang Syne". The cook, Annie the parlourmaid, and Ellen's mother Mrs Snapper are preparing a special tea to greet Bridges on his return from the war. He comes in with Ellen, looking well, and kisses his little baby, Fanny. He tells them that he has bought a public house so that he and Ellen can work for themselves in future. The celebratory mood is dampened when Annie brings in a newspaper reporting that Queen Victoria is dying. This scene is all in mime. Robert and Jane are walking in Kensington Gardens with their children when they meet Margaret and Edith Harris. Everyone is in black, solemn and silent, following the Queen's death. On the balcony, Jane, Margaret, their children and the servants are watching Queen Victoria's funeral procession. Robert, who was awarded the Victoria Cross is walking in the procession, and Jane has some difficulty in making her boys suppress their excitement and pay due respect as the coffin passes. As the lights fade, Joe comments, "She must have been a very little lady ". Jane and Robert are attending a grand ball given by the Duchess of Churt. The Major-domo announces, "Sir Robert and Lady Marryot". Jane has brought her son Edward, now eighteen, to see Ellen in the flat above the public house. They have just finished tea, together with Flo and George, relations of the Bridges. Seven-year-old Fanny has been dancing to entertain them. Bridges enters, clearly drunk. Jane, dismayed, makes a tactful departure. Bridges starts to bully Fanny and is ejected from the room by George and Flo. After emerging from the pub, Bridges carries on up the road. He is knocked down and killed by a car. Edward Marryot is holding his twenty-first birthday party, with many smart young guests. Rose, an actress from the old Mirabelle production, proposes his health and sings the big waltz number from the show. A concert party of six "Uncles" is performing in a bandstand. Ellen and her family are there and Fanny wins a prize for a song and dance competition. They unexpectedly meet Margaret, Jane and Joe. Ellen tells them that she has kept on the pub since her husband's death and that Fanny is now at a dancing-school and determined to go on the stage. Edward has married Edith Harris, and they are on their honeymoon. They speculate blithely how long the initial bliss of marriage will last. As they walk off, she lifts her cloak from where it has been draped on the ship rail, revealing the name Titanic on a lifebelt. The lights fade into complete darkness; the orchestra plays "Nearer, My God, to Thee" very quietly. War has been declared. Robert and Joe are keen to join the army. Jane is horrified, and refuses to indulge in the jingoism she sees around her. Soldiers are seen endlessly marching. The orchestra plays songs of the First World War. Joe and Fanny – now a rising young actress – are dining in a West End restaurant. Joe is in army officer's uniform. He is on leave but is about to return to the Front. They discuss marriage, but she envisages opposition from his family, and bids him wait until he is back from the war for good. Jane sees Joe off at the railway station. Like many of the women on the platform she is distressed. Ellen visits Jane, having found out that Joe is emotionally involved with her daughter. The two mothers fall out: Ellen thinks Jane regards Fanny as beneath Joe socially. As Ellen is leaving, the maid brings in a telegram. Jane opens it and tells Ellen. "You needn't worry about Fanny and Joe any more, Ellen. He won't be able to come back at all, because he's dead." Surrounded by the frantic revelry of Armistice Night, Jane is walking, dazed, through Trafalgar Square. With tears streaming down her face, she cheers wildly and waves a rattle, while the band plays "Land of Hope and Glory ". Margaret and Jane, both now elderly, are sitting by the fire. Margaret leaves, after wishing a happy New Year to Jane and Robert, who has come in to drink a New Year toast with his wife. Jane drinks first to him and then to England: "The hope that one day this country of ours, which we love so much, will find dignity and greatness, and peace again". Robert, Jane, Margaret, Ellen, and the full company are in a night club. At the piano, Fanny sings "Twentieth Century Blues", and after the song everyone dances. The lights fade, and a chaotic succession of images representative of life in 1929 is spotlighted. When the noise and confusion reach a climax the stage suddenly fades into darkness and silence. At the back a Union Jack glows through the darkness. The scene ends with the lights coming up on the massed company singing "God Save the King".
Cavalleria rusticana
On Easter Day in a Sicilian village, Santuzza confronts Turiddu over his renewed affair with Lola. She reveals the betrayal to Lola’s husband Alfio; the men exchange a challenge, and news arrives that Turiddu has been killed.
Celebration
Three couples dine at an expensive restaurant to celebrate a wedding anniversary. Their conversations, interwoven with the restaurant staff’s existential reflections, reveal increasingly sinister undercurrents of love, hatred and incest.
Celebration of Life
Two dancers’ lives diverge: Kanishka, already successful, becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol, while Chetna, with only three months to live, pursues her dream of winning the All-India Dance Competition despite pressure to enter hospital.
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
A comic theatrical revue in which solo and ensemble readers perform verbatim excerpts from celebrity memoirs, poems and related writings.
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words was a one-hour comedy television special that premiered on December 5, 2005, on Bravo. The show featured comedians reading actual excerpts from celebrity autobiographies. The special was based on a live show written by Eugene Pack, which opened in Los Angeles, California in 1998. Excerpts were chosen because of their melodramatic and/or vacuous nature. Autobiographies which were connected, such as memoirs by former Hollywood couple Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson, were read together. Celebrities whose autobiographies were read included Burt Reynolds, Loni Anderson, members of 'N Sync, Madonna, Sylvester Stallone, Mr. T, Elizabeth Taylor, Kathie Lee Gifford, Ivana Trump, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Vanna White, Kenny Loggins, Tommy Lee and David Cassidy. Comedians included Bruce Vilanch, Jay Mohr, Cheryl Hines, Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts, Fred Willard, Niecy Nash, Kel Mitchell, Laraine Newman and Andrea Martin. An off-Broadway production with a rotating cast featuring Matthew Broderick, Kristen Johnston, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Wiig, Sherri Shepherd, Richard Kind, Claudia Shear, Scott Adsit, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson, Casey Wilson, Bobby Moynihan, Bob Balaban, Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, Craig Bierko, Bobby Cannavale, and Alan Cumming, among others, won the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Celebrity s.r.o.
The main character, Emil, witnesses a crime in a television studio. His life is changed, as he is forced to leave Eastern Slovakia and the girl he loves.
Cell Mates
The play concerns George Blake, who has been convicted for spying for the Russians and sentenced to forty-two years' imprisonment, and a fellow prisoner, Sean Bourke. Bourke helps Blake escape to Moscow, after which Blake does not want to let Bourke leave Moscow to return to his native Ireland.
Cellini
A stage work about the process sculptor Benvenuto Cellini went through to create his mid-sixteenth-century bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa.
Celluloid Heroes
On an island off Queensland, a film producer tries to make a tax-loss thriller about Aboriginal people taking revenge on white castaways. The director, screenwriter, leading man, and a local Aboriginal man reshape the project around competing artistic and political aims.
Celts in Seville
A typical Celtic-supporting family follows the team through its run to the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville. Tony Roper wrote the play to celebrate the supporters’ passionate but good-natured response to losing the cup.
Cementville
In a dingy Tennessee locker room, an underpaid troupe of women wrestlers and their volatile manager struggle to stage a card after an injury cancels a match. A celebrity chaser, an old boxer and an inexperienced tag team complicate the night; as a riot erupts, rivalries and resentments turn violent and the surviving wrestlers flee through a hidden tunnel.
Cenodoxus
After the celebrated physician Cenodoxus dies, his corpse cries out during three days of last rites that he has been judged and damned for pride. Witnessing this, Bruno leaves society to found a monastic order.
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
In 1950s Harlem, widower Russell Parker runs a failing barbershop while his daughter Adele supports the family and his sons Theo and Bobby are unemployed. Theo persuades Russell to join a bootlegging scheme with crime boss Blue Haven; as the business succeeds, Bobby turns to burglary and Russell steals from the profits to court a young woman. Their attempts to escape poverty unravel, while Russell retreats into memories of his vaudeville past.
Chain
Sixteen-year-old Rosa Jackson, a Black teenager living in Harlem, reflects on how she became addicted to crack after her parents chain her to a radiator in a desperate attempt to stop her drug use. The solo performance follows her struggle to choose between life with drugs and life without them, using direct address and projected text across seven scenes.
Chains
Charley Wilson wants to leave his narrow clerical life in Edwardian England and emigrate to Australia, while his wife Lily and family oppose the move. Their lodger Fred leaves, but Lily’s pregnancy forces Charley to abandon his own plans and return bitterly to his job.
Chamber Music
In a 1938 asylum, eight women who are—or believe they are—famous historical figures organize to represent the women’s ward against an imagined attack from the men’s ward, while one may actually be Amelia Earhart.
Champignol malgré lui
When a young painter is away, his flirtatious wife mistakenly introduces her suitor St Florimond as her husband. After the real Champignol and the impostor both receive military summonses, they are repeatedly confused at the barracks, while the wife works to repair their marriage and the escalating mix-up.
Chance Acquaintance
Chance Acquaintance is a 1927 play by the British writer John Van Druten, one of his earliest. It was staged at the Criterion Theatre in the West End for a run of 19 performances between 2 and 19 November 1927. The cast included Helen Haye, Robert Andrews, Benita Hume, Una O'Connor and Reginald Gardiner.
Chandragupta
After his half-brother Nanda overthrows and exiles him, Chandragupta joins Alexander’s army and later returns with Chanakya and allies to defeat Nanda. The play follows the rivalries and alliances around Chandragupta’s rise, including Seleucus’s invasion of Magadha, Helena’s love for Chandragupta, and the marriage that seals a peace treaty.
Chant public devant deux chaises électriques
A play about the Sacco and Vanzetti affair.
Chantecler
All characters are farmyard animals. Chantecler, a rooster who believes his crowing brings the sun, defends his ideals against cynicism and fashionable artificiality. After a pheasant distracts him and the nightingale’s song reveals beauty beyond his own, he learns dawn arrives without him but returns to crow because his call gives the farm courage to greet the day.
Chantecler
Parker’s Broadway adaptation of Rostand’s animal verse play centers on Chantecler, a rooster who believes his crowing brings sunrise and must defend his idealism against cynicism and artificiality.
Chapter Two
Chapter Two is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon. The play premiered on Broadway in 1977, where it ran for 857 performances.
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