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Clear filtersTolstoy recasts Don Juan as a Romantic seeker of ideal love, which links the human soul to higher realms, rather than as a mere philanderer. The drama is dedicated to Mozart and E. T. A. Hoffmann and includes Faustian and Goethean influences.
Brecht’s version follows the notorious womanizer Don Juan and his servant Sganarelle through much of Molière’s comic plot, recast with an anti-aristocratic emphasis.
Set in late 1918, the play follows Don Juan's disorientation on returning from the First World War as a celebrated hero, his love for a woman who died in the war, and his death at her grave.
After betting that he can seduce more women and kill more men than his rival, Don Juan abducts Doña Inés and kills her father and his rival. Five years later, he returns to find Inés dead and his own time nearly gone. Her spirit offers her soul for his; he repents, and they are redeemed together.
Don Juan in Soho is a play by the British playwright Patrick Marber after Molière (see Dom Juan).
In Rome, Don Juan pursues Donna Anna and kills her father and fiancé. The magician Faust abducts Anna after bargaining with the Devil for power, but when she resists him, he kills her; Don Juan continues his conquests and is ultimately dragged to Hell for refusing to repent.
Forty years after Don’s Party, Don and his old friends gather at his home on Australian federal election night in 2010. As election results come in, the now older group compares the turns their lives have taken and mixes politics, strong personalities, and alcohol.
Don Pedro is a tragic play by the British writer Richard Cumberland. It was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 23 July 1796. The original cast included James Aickin as Count Valdesoto, Charles Kemble as Henrique, John Palmer as Pedro De Rascifiria, John Bannister as Basco de Robeldondo, Richard Suett as Nicolas Sassenigo, Thomas Caulfield as Tayo, George Wathen as Roca, Robert Palmer as Cerbero and Elizabeth Kemble as Celestina, Sarah Harlowe as Mariguita, Maria Kemble as Cattania and Elizabeth Hopkins as Benedicta. The epilogue was written by George Colman the Younger.
Blanche has been forced to marry King Peter, although she is really in love with his brother Henry. The king mistreats her and spends much of his time with his mistress Maria de Padilla. Maria schemes with her Jewish ally Raban to bring about the Queen's death, while Peter and Henry do battle with each other.
At the medieval Castilian court, Don Pèdre and his half-brother Transtamare contend for the throne and Léonore's hand. With Church backing and French military aid, Transtamare defeats and murders Pèdre, takes the throne, and drives Léonore to choose death rather than marry him.
Don Sebastian, King Of Portugal is a 1689 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It is based on the reign of King Sebastian of Portugal leading up to his defeat and death at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578. An Elizabethan play The Battle of Alcazar also portrays the events. It was first staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The original cast included Joseph Williams as Don Sebastian, Edward Kynaston as Muley Moluch, Thomas Betterton as Dorax, Samuel Sandford as Benducar, Cave Underhill as Mufti, William Mountfort as Don Antonio, John Bowman as Don Alvarez, Anthony Leigh as Mustapha, Elizabeth Barry as Almeyda, Susanna Mountfort as Morayma and Elinor Leigh as Johayma. It was published in 1690 and dedicated to the politician the Earl of Leicester.
During a newspaper night shift in Pune, editor Milind Bhagwat prepares to name the builders responsible for a fatal collapse. A former lover working for the firm asks him to suppress its name, testing his professional principles against their personal history.
During the 1969 Australian federal election, schoolteacher Don hosts friends to celebrate an expected Labor victory. As the results disappoint, drinking and increasingly ugly exchanges expose the guests' frustrated ambitions and relationships.
Bernard plans a weekend with his mistress while his wife Jacqueline is away, but Jacqueline stays home and Bernard’s friend Robert arrives. A caterer, a mistress, and a series of mistaken identities and cover stories entangle the couples until the caterer’s husband appears.
In an unnamed European country behind the Iron Curtain, the American Ambassador must leave the embassy for business. In his absence he places his incompetent son Axel Magee in charge. Almost immediately the embassy is thrust into a crisis as the Hollanders, an American family of tourists, come rushing in on the run from the Communist police. Walter Hollander, the father, had accidentally sneaked into a high security area and taken pictures, causing the communists to believe that the family are spies. Axel digs the hole deeper and the embassy is surrounded, leaving the Hollanders trapped. The parents, Walter and Marion, act buffoonishly and make business at the embassy difficult, especially after Walter insults a high-class Sultan. The family's adult daughter Susan bonds with Axel, causing him to develop feelings for her even though she is engaged. After the incident with the Sultan, Axel's father demotes him and elevates his favor-seeking assistant Kilroy in charge instead. Kilroy almost immediately fixes the problem and arranges an exchange for a communist spy in jail in America. The communist police head Krojack still believes that the Hollanders are spies and confronts Walter. Walter, assuming that he is free, jokingly admits that he is. Kilroy then announces that the exchange has been called off, as the spy has committed suicide. Krojack plans to increase the hostilities against the embassy. Susan, having recently announced her engagement has been called off, kisses Axel to Walter's horror. Though there are now riots outside the embassy, Walter is much more concerned with Axel's and Susan's relationship. Axel and Susan come up with a plan to escape by using a party in the Sultan's honor as a cover while Father Drobney, a priest who has been hiding in a small room in the embassy for six years, works out the details. Walter is given a gun for the escape and accidentally shoots and wounds Kilroy. During the party Walter and Marion go through several problems, mainly due to a number of revelations or near-revelations of their own secret identities. Upon finally making it out, Walter accidentally shoots someone again—it proves to be Axel's own father. The escape appears to have failed till Axel discovers that the Sultan and his wife are still in the house, severely hungover from the night before. Disguising Walter and Marion as the couple, they plan to continue with the original escape. As for Susan, Axel plans to give her diplomatic immunity as the wife of a diplomat: himself. Walter and Marion escape as Father Drobney marries Axel and Susan.
Career-focused couple Akshay and Pranoti have agreed to remain child-free for five years, but when Pranoti is diagnosed with PCOD, they try to identify and reduce the stress in their lives amid marriage and extended-family tensions.
Donkeys' Years is a play by English playwright Michael Frayn that premiered at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1976. The play is a West End farce, a genre that Frayn parodied five years later in his play within a play "Nothing On" from Noises Off. The play featured Penelope Keith, who subsequently won the 1976 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance.
Artist Noel Gale’s wife Leila becomes involved with Captain Harding while Noel is away. After returning, Noel offers to leave so the two can be together, but Harding refuses the sacrifice and Leila reconsiders; the play frames their conflict through the contrast between yielding “doormats” and assertive “boots.”
Poor Jewish tailor Shimele Soroker from a small town in the Russian Empire wins a 200,000-ruble jackpot.
Double Dan is a 1927 comedy crime play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. It is inspired by the 1924 novel Double Dan by Wallace. The plot concerns high finance and a criminal who is a master of disguise. It ran for nine performances at the Savoy Theatre in the West End having premiered at the Opera House Theatre in Blackpool. The cast included Alfred Drayton, Peter Haddon, Reginald Bach and Josephine Wilson.
Henriquez rapes Violante and pursues Leonora while his brother Julio is away, betraying both women and his friendship with Julio. Roderick later brings the four together and engineers a confrontation that leads to Julio and Leonora's reunion and Henriquez's attempt to marry Violante in repentance.
The play is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx, during the fall of 1964. It opens with a sermon by Father Flynn, a beloved and progressive parish priest, addressing the importance of uncertainty: "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." The school's principal, Sister Aloysius, a rigidly conservative nun who is vowed to her order, the Sisters of Charity, insists upon constant vigilance. During a meeting with a younger nun, Sister James, Aloysius reveals a deep mistrust toward her students, her fellow teachers, and society in general. Naïve and impressionable, James is easily upset by Aloysius's severe manner and harsh criticism. Aloysius and Flynn are put into direct conflict when she learns from James that the priest had a one-to-one meeting with Donald Muller, St. Nicholas's first African-American student. Mysterious circumstances lead her to believe that sexual misconduct occurred. In a private meeting, purportedly regarding the Christmas pageant, Aloysius, in the presence of James, openly confronts Flynn with her suspicions. He angrily denies wrongdoing by insisting that he was disciplining Donald for drinking altar wine and claims to have been protecting the boy from harsher punishment. James is relieved by the explanation. Flynn's next sermon is on the evils of gossip. Aloysius, dissatisfied with Flynn's story, meets with Donald's mother, Mrs. Muller. Despite Aloysius's attempts to shock her, Mrs. Muller says she supports her son's relationship with Flynn. She ignores Aloysius's accusations. Before departing, she hints that Donald may be "that way", which may cause her husband to be beating him. Flynn eventually threatens to remove Aloysius from her position if she does not back down. Aloysius informs him that she phoned the last parish to which he was assigned and that she discovered a history of past infringements. After declaring his innocence, the priest begins to plead with her, but she blackmails him and demands that he resign immediately, or she will publicly disgrace him with his history. Disgusted, she leaves the office. Flynn calls the bishop to apply for a transfer, and is subsequently promoted to pastor of a nearby parochial school. After hearing the news, Aloysius reveals to Sister James that the decisive phone call to Flynn's previous parish was a fabrication and that she has no evidence of past wrongdoing. As a result, Aloysius is left with ambiguous doubt, and the audience is left to wonder if the doubt is in either herself or the Church. With no proof of Father Flynn's guilt or innocence, the audience is left with its own doubt.
Lady Randolph reveals that her infant son by Douglas was lost after being sent away. Raised as Young Norval by a shepherd, he returns and wins distinction, but jealous Glenalvon deceives Lord Randolph into killing him. Lady Randolph takes her life, while the conspirators are exposed.
Down Came a Blackbird is a 1953 comedy play by the British writer Peter Blackmore. It was first staged at Q Theatre in London before transferring to the West End where it ran for 53 performances at the Savoy Theatre between 22 December 1953 and 6 February 1954. Directed by Henry Kendall the cast included Peter Arne, Viola Keats, John Loder and Betty Paul. The title is taken from a line in the traditional nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence. It takes place entirely in the garden room of the Egyptian villa of Sir Clive Dawson.
A group of First World War soldiers desert and hide in Mülheim while waiting for a revolution. Their survival depends on the individualistic Johann Fatzer, whose impulses conflict with the discipline and solidarity represented by Keuner; the fragmented action ends with the group dead.
Four men convicted of sex offenses live together in a group home in downstate Illinois. A former student visits Fred to confront him about abuse, while changing restrictions threaten the residents' routines and a parole violation deepens the conflict; a later confrontation ends in violence and a death.
An actor and his wife travel together, and the play explores their relationship.
Rosita falls in love with a man who leaves for South America and promises to return. She waits, then learns he has married someone else. The play follows her youth, maturity, and loss of hope across three periods in Granada.
In this alternate history, six-year-old Adolf Hitler meets Sigmund Freud for therapy in Vienna. The stage version follows their imagined relationship across three decades, from Hitler’s childhood through his rise to power.
A comic theatrical cartoon satirizing crew cuts and king-sized culture.
A fantasy retelling of the Gilbert and Sullivan story, superimposing characters and images from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland onto familiar figures from the Savoy Operas.
A solo semi-biographical performance narrates the life of Anandibai Joshi, India's first woman physician, while addressing women's status and freedom in contemporary Indian society.
Young physician James Tennyson returns to Vermont to work with his mentor, Dr. Cook, and discovers that the respected doctor has been poisoning patients he considers unworthy. When Tennyson confronts him, Cook tries to poison his protégé, setting off a struggle to the death.
In the first act, a group of friends (including Sir Danvers Carew's daughter Agnes, attorney Gabriel Utterson, and Dr. and Mrs. Lanyon) meet at Sir Danvers' home. Dr. Lanyon brings word that Agnes' fiancé, Dr. Henry Jekyll, will be late to the gathering. He then repeats a second-hand story about a man named Hyde, who injured a child in a collision on the street. The story upsets Utterson because Jekyll recently made a new will that gives his estate to a mysterious friend named Edward Hyde. Jekyll arrives; Utterson confronts him about the will, but Jekyll refuses to consider changing it. Jekyll tells Agnes that they should end their engagement because of sins he has committed but will not explain. Agnes refuses to accept this and tells Jekyll she loves him. He relents, saying that she will help him control himself, and leaves. Sir Danvers joins his daughter, and they talk about their time in Mangalore, India. When Hyde suddenly enters, Sir Danvers tells Agnes to leave the room. The men argue, and Hyde strangles Sir Danvers. In the second act, Hyde fears that he will be arrested for the murder. He gives money to his landlady, Rebecca, to tell visitors that he is not home. Inspector Newcome from Scotland Yard offers Rebecca more money to turn Hyde in, which she promises to do. Hyde flees to Jekyll's laboratory, where Utterson is waiting to confront the doctor about his will; he insults Utterson and leaves. Rebecca, who has followed Hyde, arrives and tells Utterson that Hyde murdered Sir Danvers. In the play's original version, the act ends with Jekyll returning to his laboratory. In later versions (revised after its premiere), the second act contains an additional scene in which Jekyll returns home; his friends think he is protecting Hyde. Agnes, who saw Hyde before her father was murdered, wants Jekyll to accompany her to provide the police with a description, and is distraught when he refuses. In the third act, Jekyll's servant, Poole, gives Dr. Lanyon a powder and liquid with instructions from Jekyll to give them to a person who will request them. While he waits, Lanyon speaks with Newcome, Rebecca, Agnes and Mrs. Lanyon. After the others leave, Hyde arrives for the powder and liquid. After arguing with Lanyon, he mixes them into a potion and drinks it; he immediately transforms into Jekyll. In the final act, Jekyll has begun to change into Hyde without using the potion. Although he still needs it to change back, he has exhausted his supply. Dr. Lanyon tries to help Jekyll re-create the formula, but they are unable to find an ingredient. Jekyll asks Lanyon to bring Agnes to him, but Jekyll turns into Hyde before Lanyon returns. Utterson and Newcome arrive to arrest Hyde; knowing he can no longer transform back into Jekyll, Hyde commits suicide by taking poison.
In Bandmann and McKinney’s adaptation, Dr. Jekyll’s transformations into Hyde intersect with a romantic relationship with Sybil and comic-relief scenes; Hyde murders her father, vicar Howell, before Jekyll’s identity is exposed.
A respected London doctor develops a potion that transforms him into the criminal Edward Hyde. After Hyde murders a vicar and Jekyll runs out of the potion's ingredients, he is trapped in Hyde's form and dies by suicide.
Dr. Strangelove (or Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove) is a comedy play based on the 1964 film of the same name by Stanley Kubrick, adapted for the stage by Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley.
Dracula is a stage play written by the Irish actor and playwright Hamilton Deane in 1924, then revised by the American writer John L. Balderston in 1927. It was the first authorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. After touring in England, the original version of the play appeared at London's Little Theatre in July 1927, where it was seen by the American producer Horace Liveright. Liveright asked Balderston to revise the play for a Broadway production that opened at the Fulton Theatre in October 1927. This production starred Bela Lugosi in his first major English-speaking role. In the revised story, Abraham Van Helsing investigates the mysterious illness of a young woman, Lucy Seward, with the help of her father and fiancé. He discovers she is the victim of Count Dracula, a powerful vampire who is feeding on her blood. The men follow one of Dracula's servants to the vampire's hiding place, where they kill him with a stake to the heart. The revised version of the play went on a national tour of the United States and replaced the original version in London. It influenced many subsequent adaptations, including the popular 1931 film adaptation starring Lugosi. A 1977 Broadway revival featured art designs by Edward Gorey and starred Frank Langella. It won the Tony Award for Best Revival and led to another film version, also starring Langella.
At Dr. Seward’s sanatorium, Van Helsing investigates the mysterious illness of Lucy Seward, whose fiancé John Harker and father help him. He discovers that Count Dracula is feeding on Lucy and can remain in England by sleeping in boxes of Transylvanian earth. After Dracula attacks the investigators and escapes through a chimney, they follow Renfield through a hidden passage to his coffin and destroy him with a stake.
A six-actor stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, dramatizing the Transylvanian Count’s arrival in England.
Dietz rearranges Stoker’s story, presenting Jonathan Harker’s stay in Dracula’s Transylvanian castle through flashbacks. Dracula travels to England and preys on Lucy and Mina; Van Helsing, Seward and Harker confront the vampire, while Mina’s infection draws the group back to Dracula’s castle for a final struggle.
Four characters aboard a yacht quarantined off the West Indies discuss life in this two-part quartet.
Nine-year-old Moon Shadow travels from China to San Francisco to join his father Wind Rider, who works in a family laundry and dreams of becoming worthy to return as a dragon. They face poverty, prejudice and the 1906 earthquake while Moon Shadow supports his father’s ambition.
A pageant-like historical drama celebrating Francis Drake's career, especially his role in England's defeat of the Spanish Armada.
A repertory company arrives in the sleepy Irish seaside town of Inish and stages plays by Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg. Their success stirs unexpected passions and criminal behavior among the townspeople, while the company’s hosts grow irritated by its affected manners; the ensuing disturbances ultimately bring down the government and drive the actors out.
A ceremonial play for Senusret I's coronation or Sed festival, preserved with illustrations that arrange scenes in sequence and depict the king repeatedly in the role of Horus.
A patriotic pageant presented at the Carnegie Institute; it was later combined with a Red Cross pageant for a national fundraising tour.
In 1947, British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe, unfamiliar with India, is tasked with drawing the boundary through Punjab. As he struggles with the assignment, pressures and conflicts mount around the commission’s decisions.
In late-1860s Silesia, drayman Wilhelm Henschel promises his dying wife he will not marry their servant Hanne. After her death he breaks the vow and marries Hanne, whose out-of-wedlock daughter joins the household. As townspeople spread suspicions about Hanne and Henschel’s marriage, guilt and despair overtake him.
Georgie Allerton wakes one morning to hear on her bedside radio a promotion for a personal advice program. Ignoring her mother's calls to get moving, Georgie imagines herself on the radio program, clutching her bedside lamp like a microphone while she reveals her love for her brother-in-law to millions. Her fantasy punctured by her mother's intervention, Georgie joins her parents at the breakfast table. There she reveals that the Mermaid Bookshop has lost less money this month than ever before. Her father William announces he's going to Washington D.C. to plead before the Supreme Court for another impecunious client. Lucy, sneezing from a cold, despairs about both their businesses and that of her hapless son-in-law Jim, who reads manuscripts for thirty dollars a week. Jim had rejected a manuscript called Always Opal that later became a runaway hit. Georgie jumps to Jim's defense, since he has recommended her own manuscript to his publisher. Her sister Miriam comes in the kitchen and reveals she is pregnant and fed up with her husband. Georgie goes into another fantasy where she lies in a hospital delivery room with twin newborns, while the doctor and nurse (looking a lot like her parents) and Jim Lucas praise her courage. Later at the bookstore, her colleague Claire Blakely agrees that without any copies of Always Opal the store will never prosper. The store's location is poor, and a better one will cost them $10,000, money they don't have. Georgie reverts to daydreaming her way out of this dilemma. Her reverie of financial success is interrupted by a stranger named Clark Redfield, who sells her some review copies of books. He doesn't need them since he never reads the books he reviews for his newspaper. Clark angers Georgie by telling her to stop dreaming and live life. Jim Lucas then pops into the shop to let her know that Miriam and he are divorcing. Georgie next has a lunch date with George Hand at the Canard Rouge. He wants her to go to Mexico with him. She launches into another fantasy where she gives in to him, then is abandoned in Mexico to become a streetwalker in which Clark figures as a villain. As the afternoon goes by, Clark's presence in her daydreams changes from bad guy to good, while Jim Lucas gradually disappears. Clark returns to the bookstore to take Georgie to dinner at Emilio's, a modest "spaghetti and red ink joint", where he has to snap her back to reality from another daydream. They go to see The Merchant of Venice; an usher seats George Hand and an expensively-gowned young lady next to them. As the play proceeds, Georgie imagines herself volunteering to take over the role of Portia when the star falters. She delivers the quality of mercy speech but the dream breaks when she sees Clark grinning at her from the audience. She and Clark wake up a Justice of the Peace at 2 am for a quick marriage ceremony, with a mutual promise that she can keep dreaming but will try to do so less often.
Young couple Dana and Paul buy an apartment in Bondi but struggle with their mortgage and troublesome neighbors. Williamson says the play draws on the difficulty his adult children faced in entering the property market.
At a graveyard before a funeral, a husband and wife talk, and the man's parents join them.
Charcoal burner Makak, imprisoned after destroying goods in a market, recounts a vision of a white woman who urges him to return to Africa. His dream unfolds through a jail, market, forest, and imagined African court, as he becomes a healer and then a conquering king before rejecting the apparition and returning to his home on Monkey Mountain with a reconciled sense of identity.
In dreamlike sequences, Emmett Till's spirit confronts people from his life, including his mother and the men who murdered him. Tamara, a contemporary girl who steps from the audience into the action, challenges the characters' assumptions and disrupts Emmett's dream.
In a rental-clothing shop, lovers Michigan and Deeluxe move through a lesbian noir of gender play, erotic fantasy, and shifting identity; Deeluxe's right arm becomes the character Little Peter, and even death functions as another costume.
1948 Atlanta, Georgia. A crash is heard, and Daisy Werthan, age 72, is in her living room, with her son Boolie, age 40. She has crashed her car, and Boolie insists that she have a driver. Boolie is in his office and interviews Hoke Coleburn who is a black man of around 60. He is unemployed. Over the next 25 years Hoke drives "Miss Daisy". They are initially wary of each other, and Hoke puts up with the somewhat crotchety Miss Daisy with dignity. She teaches Hoke to read when she learns that he cannot, which comes naturally to her, having been a teacher. Over the years, they form a bond. In the final scene, Miss Daisy is in a nursing home for increasing memory loss, but is lucid enough to tell Hoke, who has come to visit her, that he is her best friend.
A self-confident, manipulative Bavarian peasant boy tries to outwit the watchful parents of a village girl.
This non-linear play follows five teenagers and their online and offline relationships through a collection of short stories linked by a shared message. Playwright Suzie Miller and director John Sheedy developed the material after interviewing more than 500 Western Australian teenagers.
In a European café, the naïve Pea becomes fixated on a woman in a newspaper photograph. After she rejects him, he sinks into despair, while Roe tries to comfort him and recognizes that he is drowning in pain.
Charlie Conrad, famous for being a failure, is a B-list celebrity whose career collapses after a reporter exposes an embarrassing incident. As his wife, agent and solicitor navigate the scandal, Charlie slips from publicity into obscurity while others turn the episode to their own advantage.
An epic drama commissioned for the opening session of the West Indies Federation’s Federal Parliament, mounted outdoors in Port of Spain with actors and personnel from across the Caribbean as part of a regional arts festival celebrating the new federation.
After four years as a prisoner of war in Africa, Andreas Kragler returns to Berlin to find his former fiancée Anna engaged to war profiteer Friedrich Murk. Anna leaves Murk and searches for Andreas amid the Spartacist uprising; they reunite as the play exposes class conflict and the returning soldier's sense of betrayal.
An interactive theatrical journey through South Africa uses drumming, gumboot and Zulu dancing, and song. Audience members receive djembes and play and sing along with the performers.
Two men, Sam and Jack, conduct an elliptical, fragmented dialogue as homosexual lovers. Sam represents the United States government and its advocacy of hegemony and intervention; Jack begins as an enthusiastic follower but grows disillusioned. Their intimate relationship stages a critique of American power, especially since the Vietnam War.
Drunk Shakespeare is an off-Broadway play created by Scott Griffin and David Hudson currently performing in New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., Phoenix, and Houston. It premiered at Quinn's Bar and Grill in March 2014. As of Jan 2019, there have been over 2000 performances. It received a New York Times Critic's Pick saying "it seems inevitable that all performing will soon be done either plastered or stoned". Drunk Shakespeare follows a trend of drinking and performing popularized by the Comedy Central series Drunk History. In 2023, the actors, stage managers, bartenders, and servers unionized as Drunk Shakespeare United.
Set in the fictional Wasaychigan Hill reserve in Northern Ontario, the play follows seven men and their plans, fears and fantasies about women. Nanabush, a shape-shifting trickster, enacts their phobias and exposes misogynistic attitudes as each man's story connects to the community's wider life.
On Christmas Eve, John, an employee at a Dublin funeral home, recounts how drinking damaged his life and family. His estranged adult daughter arrives to tell him that her mother is dying.
Aspiring DJ Jason reconnects with his homeless, heroin-addicted brother Daniel over a weekend in Dublin. Jason repeatedly encounters a double who has his phone, and time loops back at the end as he seems to relive the day. The stage production used physical performance, sparse scenery and lighting to mark shifts in space and time.
Ducks and Drakes is a 1941 comedy play by the Irish writer Molly Keane. The plot revolves around the wives of three brothers, all living on a farm while their husbands are away due to the war. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Bath before transferring to the West End. It ran for 23 performances at the Apollo Theatre, directed by John Gielgud, with a cast that included Judy Campbell, Ronald Squire, Nora Swinburne, Kathleen Harrison, Mary Jerrold and Lilian Braithwaite.
A farce parodying Siegfried and Roy's Las Vegas act, substituting performing ducks for tigers.
When the Christian sisters Agape, Chionia and Irena refuse to renounce their faith, Governor Dulcitius attempts to assault them but mistakenly embraces kitchen pots and pans. The emperor then assigns their punishment to Count Sisinnius, who has the elder sisters burned and orders Irena's execution.
The humor of the play is lost in the summary, for it consists of Dulcy speaking in bromides while her brother Bill offers dry counterpoint. Gordon Smith is contemplating joining a combine Forbes is proposing, yielding his factory in exchange for 16% of the shares in the new firm. Smith has invited Forbes to spend the weekend to discuss business, while Bill Parker has invited himself to his sister's house. Act I (The Smith's living room, in Westchester County, New York. Friday afternoon.) Bill Parker is there when Gordon Smith comes in from his commute. Henry informs them Dulcy is at a social event. They warily discuss Dulcy's new reform project: Henry. Tom Sterrett has arrived to see Mr. Forbes, while Van Dyck and Leach join the living room party, each having been invited by Dulcy. Sterrett and Leach are both interested in Angela Forbes, with Mr. Forbes taking Sterrett's part and Dulcy in favor of Leach. Angela disdains Sterrett for his preoccupation with business. Dulcy traps Forbes into agreeing to play golf with Van Dyck the next morning, and into riding horseback in the afternoon. She also tells Forbes that her husband has many business interests to manage, hoping to get him to increase his offer of 16%. However, Forbes reacts by telling Gordon his offer was predicated on a full-time commitment to the combine, and so may be lowered. Gordon tries to remonstrate with Dulcy about mixing in his business affairs, but as she sits in his lap can only admit how much he adores her. Dulcy then encouarges Leach to take Angela around the garden, while setting Van Dyck at Mrs. Forbes, since she writes scenarios and he owns film interests. She traps Forbes, Gordon, and Sterrett into playing bridge with her, after displaying an inadequate knowledge of the game. (Curtain) Act II (Same, Friday evening, after dinner.) Forbes is delighted when Dulcy suggests he play billiards with Gordon, only to find she has misplaced the balls. Forbes is increasingly uncomfortable about Van Dyck and Mrs. Forbes, while Sterrett has given up on getting Angela alone. Bill plays the piano in a desultory manner, until Dulcy shoos him away in favor of Van Dyck. She then encourages Leach to talk about his latest work. Leach begins to recite his scenario for Sin, accompanied by Van Dyck on piano. (Three second curtain, to signal passage of thirty minutes.) Leach finishes his scenario recitation as Forbes fumes over his pursuit of Angela. Van Dyck suggests to Gordon that he provide financing to save and expand Gordon's business. Thus encouraged, Gordon tells Forbes he'll reject the combine offer. Dulcy encourages Leach and Angela to elope, and recruits Mrs. Forbes to bring Angela's luggage to the car. Bill offers to drive the couple to a minister, confounding Leach who was hoping to avoid formalities, while Angela is amused. Blair Patterson is brought in by Henry. Patterson informs an aghast Gordon that Van Dyck is really his cousin Hoarce Patterson, who has a mild eccentricity for impersonating the millionaire Van Dyck. (Curtain) Act III (Same, Saturday morning.) Dulcy is subdued, as Gordon gently scolds her for interfering with business. She tearfully promises to try harder but immediately jumps in to offer Forbes a car so he can leave. Dulcy accidentally implicates Mrs. Forbes in the elopement, souring Mr. Forbes, who dreads having a "celluoid son-in-law". Gordon is surprised that Forbes still believes in the Van Dyck offer. Forbes knows Blair Patterson represents the Van Dyck interests, but does not realize Hoarce Patterson is not Van Dyck. Patterson tries to hustle Hoarce away, but is unable to stop him offering to finance Sterrett in his own ad agency. Overhearing this, Forbes is more convinced than ever of the genuine nature of Van Dyck's proposition to Gordon. Meanwhile, Angela and Bill come in; they are now married, Leech having been decoyed out of the car and abandoned on the road just after they left last night. Forbes is so relieved, he offers Gordon 25% of the new combine shares to turn down Van Dyck. Gordon and Dulcy are reconciled. (Curtain)
TV comic Barry meets private bankers John and Jane, who flatter him and try to elicit intimate details for an after-dinner speech. Barry instead seeks to exploit their eagerness, and the three repeatedly try to outwit one another and control the story.
A Renaissance comedy about misunderstandings between older and younger generations, set in Rome among characters from Dubrovnik. Its five-act text survives without its ending.
After Macbeth’s defeat, English commander Siward tries to build a new order in Scotland while Gruach continues the Moray claim to the throne through herself and her son. Their struggle, alongside resistance to the English occupation, extends Shakespeare’s history into a drama of nation-building and continuing violence.
Duplicity is a 1781 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. The original Covent Garden cast included John Henderson as Mr Osborne, William Thomas Lewis as Sir Harry Portland, Richard Wilson as Sir Hornet Armstrong, Charles Lee Lewes as Squire Turnbull, John Edwin as Timid, Ralph Wewitzer as Mr Vandervelt, William Stevens as Scrip, Sarah Maria Wilson as Miss Turnbull, Elizabeth Inchbald as Melissa, Ann Pitt as Mrs Trip and Elizabeth Younge as Clara.
After the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Amir Abdul Rahman and Sir Mortimer Durand discuss the boundary later known as the Durand Line.
Act I Mr. Godboy has bought an enormous wardrobe. He is contractually obliged to provide a wardrobe for his upstairs tenants, Eric, and Doris Hoyden, he says, but at present, it stands in the living room, much to his wife May's annoyance. Godboy and May are in their fifties but have only been married for two years. May is already at the end of her tether with Godboy, as he spends all his spare time chatting to police at the police station about their latest cases and singing the praises of Inspector Hawkins. He is a trained chiropodist but has failed to get his career going. May and Godboy tell each other that they both have surprises for each other but won't reveal what they are. May is planning to walk out on her husband that day, while Godboy is planning to trap his wife in the new wardrobe and gas her with a new appliance he has bought. Before any of this can take place, however, Inspector Hawkins comes round unexpectedly, saying that he has heard a lot about Godboy from others at the police station, and as he was in the area conducting an operation he thought he would pop in. He explains that they are trying to catch the ‘Merrick Street attacker’, who has been stealing women's handbags. After he leaves, Godboy manages to lure May into the wardrobe, but as he is hurriedly preparing his gas appliance, she comes out of the wardrobe, packs her bags and leaves, oblivious to what Godboy has planned. Godboy then locks the wardrobe and pumps it full of gas. Act II The next day, Godboy agrees to remove corn from Doris's foot. Doris and Eric come down, but Godboy tells Eric he must leave them alone and should go and watch a film, which he does. As part of the treatment, Godboy insists that he must give Doris a bit of gas, but while he is fitting the gas mask Doris pulls out the pipe, giving Godboy a lungful of gas and sending him unconscious. Two hours later, Eric comes back to find Godboy delirious and claiming that Doris is dead in the kitchen. PC Hedderley, who has been helping investigate the Merrick Road attacker, comes round looking for Eric, who hides in the kitchen while Godboy is questioned. Once Hedderley leaves, Eric comes back insisting Godboy tell him where Doris is, believing that he has indeed killed her. But Hawkins and Hedderley quickly return, finding Eric, and asking to search his flat, where they find the stolen handbags. Doris returns and is shocked to find her husband arrested, and we find out that Hawkins has been obsessed with finding Doris for years, having once glimpsed her being searched at the police station. Eric suddenly realizes that Goboy must have murdered May and hidden the body in the wardrobe, and tells Hawkins. Godboy proudly allows Hawkins to fiddle open the padlock, saying it will be the crowning moment of his career. But to Godboy's surprise, the wardrobe is empty. Eric is led away, and Hawkins takes Doris under his wing, promising to train her up for the police force.
On a New York subway, the flirtatious encounter between Clay, a young Black man, and Lula, a white woman, turns into a confrontation over race and identity, ending in Clay’s murder as the cycle appears poised to repeat.
The play covers the final years of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, drawing on John Malcolm Brinnin's Dylan Thomas in America and Caitlin Thomas's Leftover Life to Kill.
The religious Light family and atheist Fife family are neighbors divided by conflict. Their children Reuben and Ada fall in love; after Reuben leaves and returns changed, he treats the hydroelectric dynamos as a god, brings Ada to them, shoots her and electrocutes himself.
Sostratos falls in love with the daughter of the ill-tempered farmer Knemon and seeks his consent to marry her. With help from Knemon’s stepson Gorgias, Sostratos proves his work ethic and helps rescue Knemon from a well. Knemon relents and blesses the marriage; Sostratos’s father also agrees to Gorgias marrying Sostratos’s sister, while Knemon is carried into the wedding celebration.
A multi-part poetic drama drawing on the Slavic commemoration of the dead. Its parts combine folk morality and ghosts, a romantic account of love and despair, an unfinished love-centered fragment, and a patriotic vision of Polish persecution and hoped-for liberation.
Zoe Akins had a self-confessed abhorrence for rewriting plays, and insisted Déclassée was presented on stage as she first imagined it. She specified further that only two minor cuts and one important deletion from the original play were made by Iden Payne in staging it. Act I (The drawing room of Sir Bruce Haden's London home. Evening) The scene opens on the aftermath of an argument at a bridge party. Sir Bruce Haden has accused Edward Thayer and Mrs. Leslie of cheating, and ordered Thayer to leave. Lady Helen sprang to Thayer's defense, saying she would leave too unless Sir Bruce apologized. This much is learned from the conversation of Harry Charteris, Sir Emmett Wildering, Charlotte Ashley, Mrs. Wildering, and Mrs. Leslie before the three antagonists appear. Thayer appears first, as the ladies fetch Lady Helen back from her room. To everyone's surprise, Sir Bruce Haden apologizes to Thayer. Lady Helen and Thayer have a long discussion; he reminds her she led him to believe she cared in the letters she wrote. But Lady Helen says that he was only a passing interest to her, and that they must not see each other again. The bridge games resume, and there is a momentary darkening of the stage to denote the passage of an hour. As the light rises, a furious Lady Helen excoriates Thayer and Mrs. Leslie for cheating again. She astonishes Thayer by insisting he now apologize to Sir Bruce. Thayer refuses; his reputation will be ruined if Sir Bruce talks. Thayer threatens to show her letters to Sir Bruce if she insists. Disgusted, Lady Helen calls Sir Bruce and the others back into the room and starts to tell them everything. (Curtain) Act II (The lounge of a Manhattan deluxe hotel. Three years later, late Friday afternoon.) The scene opens on a busy lounge room, with numerous tables occupied by bit players, whose conversation provides the following exposition: Sir Emmett Wildering, newly appointed ambassador, and Lady Wildering are on their way to Washington, D. C. They meet Charlotte Ashley, now appearing in a Broadway play, for tea. Lady Helen enters, and arranges a table with Jean for some guests coming later. She too comes in for background gossip, this time by the Wilderings and Charlotte, whom she hasn't yet seen. It appear that Sir Bruce waited a year before divorcing her, and in the two years since has remarried and acquired twin sons. Now enter Zellito and Alice Vance, and again the bit players' talk identifies them and gives their stories. The two women are seated by Jean, who next greets Lady Helen. Harry Charteris, who also came to New York, has joined the other English at their table. Spotting them at last, Lady Helen braces herself and approaches their table. They greet her in a cautious but friendly way, and make plans to get together soon. Lady Helen now joins the guests at her table as the English quartet depart. Rudolph Solomon is also there, and The Three Wonderful Waltons. Lady Helen senses Alice's disquiet at Rudolph's attention to her. Later, when they are alone, Lady Helen rejects Rudolph's suggestion to keep her, because Alice really loves him. Nevertheless, she accepts his invitation for a dinner party next Friday. As the check arrives, Lady Helen pulls off a pearl ring, her last jewel, and presents it to Jean, to cover the bill and the waiter's tip. (Curtain) Act III (The home of Rudolph Solomon. One week later, a Friday evening.) Lady Helen is delighted to see the exquisite items Rudolph Solomon has collected in Europe, including some treasures that once belonged to her own ancestors. She explains to Lady Wildering and Charlotte that the Gainsborough portrait on one wall is her own great-grandmother, who fell off a horse and died at age 30. Harry Charteris urges Lady Helen to stop her reckless ways and let someone take care of her. She is touched, but tells him "if I were your mother I would not let you marry me". Harry urges her to accept Rudolph then and stop drifting. Alice Vance arrives late and tells Rudolph she has given notice to her musical and will leave for Paris. She knows his fascination for Lady Helen and will set him free to pursue her. Rudolph presents Lady Helen with a string of pearls, made from those she had previously sold. He then tells her about Alice, and hints at marriage but does not propose yet. Lady Helen is ready to acquiesce, but the sudden uninvited entrance of Mrs. Leslie ends this opportunity. Mrs. Leslie is aghast at Lady Helen's presence and cuts her, at which Harry Charteris reminds her of how she cheated at cards in Lady Helen's home. Mrs. Leslie blames Edward Thayer, at which Rudolph suddenly has an epiphany: it is Thayer whom Lady Helen once loved but rejected. Thayer is now wealthy from diamond mines he discovered in South Africa, and is coming to the party. Determined to reunite them, he tells Lady Helen that he now thinks they shouldn't marry, then goes off to find Thayer. Lady Helen has misunderstood; she thinks even Rudolph now rejects her. Taking off the pearls, she wanders out into the street and is hit by a taxi cab. Mortally injured, she is brought into the house but dies as Thayer tries to tell her he loves her. (Curtain)
A middle-aged Jimmy Porter lives with his daughter Alison, whose contempt for his misanthropic rants grows as his old friend Cliff tries to mediate and her friend Helena offers support. Alison ultimately leaves her father.
At Dōjōji temple, a dancer enters despite a ban on women and dances before a new bell, then leaps as it crashes to the ground. The abbot recounts how a woman’s pursuit of the monk Anchin turned her into a serpent that burned him inside an earlier bell. The priests perform an exorcism, driving the dancer’s vengeful spirit into the river.
A play based on a real scandal is watched by people whose lives it depicts. As they recognize the story, they try to stop it; the staged lovers' conflict and the audience's own reactions begin to mirror each other, until Act III is canceled.
Bond's surrealist farce distorts Queen Victoria's court: the Queen is portrayed as a lesbian, her sons are conjoined twins, and a character eats a person in a queue. The play uses grotesque comedy to examine social attitudes and criminality.
A reclusive man hears every sound made by his neighbours. His extraordinary sensitivity traps him in other people’s private lives while intensifying his own longing for connection.
Lulu, rescued from street life and taken under the wing of Dr Schön, is married successively to Dr Goll, the painter Schwarz and Schön. Her relationships drive the men to death and culminate in her shooting Schön before being imprisoned. The play forms the first part of Wedekind’s Lulu pairing with Pandora’s Box.
Three sisters, long abandoned by their father, grapple with his apocalyptic climate forecasts. The eldest, a cabinet minister, weighs environmental protection against economic growth; the pregnant middle sister fears bringing a child into an uncertain future; and the youngest rebels against her career-minded sister. Their father’s predictions and the prospect of reconciliation bring the family back together.
Homa has built a new life in Canada after fleeing Iran. Her son’s relationship with a conservative Muslim woman brings old political wounds into the present and unsettles the family’s sense of safety.
East is a 1975 verse play by Steven Berkoff, dealing with growing up and rites of passage in London's rough East End. The play premiered at the Edinburgh Festival at the Traverse in 1975, with the production later transferring to the King's Head in London.
A semi-autobiographical play about growing up in a mixed-race, working-class family in 1970s Salford.
In Paraguay, Rudi learns that his father was an SS doctor at Auschwitz. He flees to Berlin and falls in love with Sarah, whose mother survived Auschwitz, as both confront the inherited consequences of the Holocaust.
With their father imprisoned for embezzlement and daughter Eleanora confined to an asylum, the Heyst family fears financial and emotional ruin. As Easter approaches, their ordeal opens the possibility of forgiveness and mercy.
In the first act, very successful but disenchanted architect Stephen Wheeler is lunching with his best friend from their days at Dartmouth College, rising avant-garde gay artist Drew Paley, in a trendy restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Seated at the adjoining table are Wall Street investment counselor Phoebe Kidde and her television producer brother Peter, who has just revealed he has AIDS to her. When boisterous homeless woman May Logan enters the restaurant and creates a scene, the four diners and their frazzled waitress Ellen find themselves thrown together, and they eventually strike up an unlikely alliance. In the second act, six months have elapsed, and the sextet are spending the weekend at Stephen's summer house in The Hamptons. Stephen and Phoebe find they share a mutual attraction, while Peter, unprepared to discuss his recent diagnosis, is trying to discourage Drew's amorous advances. Representing the lower class are Ellen and May, whose presence forces everyone to reexamine their lives and reevaluate their priorities.
London goldsmith Touchstone dismisses his idle apprentice Quicksilver and favors his dutiful apprentice Golding, who marries Touchstone's younger daughter Mildred. Meanwhile, vain Gertrude marries the fraudulent Sir Petronel, whose scheme to use her dowry for a voyage to Virginia ends in shipwreck and arrest. Quicksilver repents, and Touchstone restores him and reconciles the family.
The Whittakers' conventional household is disrupted when their only son John returns from France with Larita, a glamorous divorcée. As his family judges her past and John grows jealous, Larita exposes their hypocrisies and ultimately leaves him.
Ushiwaka, the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune, leaves Kurama temple and joins a merchant caravan. He orders a left-folded eboshi hat as a disguise; the Minamoto-sympathizing hatmaker and his wife refuse his sword as payment. When bandits attack, Ushiwaka uses the secret arts he learned from a tengu to defeat them and kill their leader Kumasaka.
Eclipsed takes place in the country of Liberia in 2003 at a bullet-ridden one room shack, which serves as an army camp for the rebel group called Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), which aimed to depose Charles Taylor, the then president of Liberia. The unseen Commanding Officer kidnaps two young women (Helena & Bessie) and makes them his "wives" by forcing them to have sex with him whenever he wants it. The women are helping to care for a bright 15-year-old (The Girl), who has also been abducted and raped after being discovered by the C.O.. Soon, Maima returns from the battlefield, where she was fighting as a soldier. She tries to convince The Girl to leave the C.O. and become a soldier with her. Rita, who works for a peace organization, makes occasional visits at the compound to end conflict. The Girl now seems to resign herself to her new life in the compound with limited options to choose from—stay with an abusive C.O. or become a soldier, while the others will try to make sense of this difficult situation.
Four working-class friends gather in Jean's bleak Kilburn bedsitter. Jean, a suicidal garage attendant, drinks heavily and makes destructive choices, while her friend Dawn arrives with husband Mick and his quiet companion Len; their drunken gathering exposes their shared frustration.
Hong Kong journalist Ella is sent to Beijing to cover the student movement in Tiananmen Square, where she meets Beijing student Ding Nan and Sichuan student Xu Jun. Twenty years later, they meet again and confront their memories and the convictions and choices of their youth.
In 1927 San Juan Hill, Caribbean immigrant Joseph Barton, a follower of Marcus Garvey, discovers that his daughter Annetta loves Eustace Baylor, an uneducated African-American man from the rural South. Their relationship exposes conflicts between Caribbean immigrants and African Americans.
Over a weekend in a small Irish Midlands town, unhappily married Billy drinks at local pubs and is infatuated with younger woman Imelda. His wife Breda, after losing weight, hopes to regain his affection by going out to meet him.
One Tuesday afternoon Wilfred and Lilian are reminded of their sister when the old nurse, Sarah, happens to bring out the frock Stella wore on her night of triumph at the Town Hall. The siblings argue over whether Stella was right to leave; as Wilfred is employed in Nigeria, Lilian complains that she feels obliged to stay at Eden End in order to keep her father company. They are listening to the gramophone when, to their amazement, Stella arrives home, her first return in eight years. Stella is enraptured by the familiar sights, and excitedly questions Wilfred and Lilian about what has happened in her absence. But when alone with Sarah she breaks down; her plans have come to very little. Her emotions are further stirred when Dr Kirby tells her how much he admires his daughter for boldly seeking her fortune, in contrast to his own decision to stay in northern England for the sake of his wife. He confides to her his belief that he has not long to live. Lilian notices the mark of a recently removed wedding ring on her left hand, and Stella admits to her that in Australia she married a fellow actor, Charles, from whom she is now separated. Not long afterwards the eligible bachelor, Geoffrey Farrant, arrives at the house and sees Stella. Their former attraction is revived, to the anger of Lilian. Charles Appleby arrives at Eden End that Friday; he has been called there by Lilian, who is jealous of Stella's easy relationship with Geoffrey. Charles interrupts their tryst, and Geoffrey is stunned to realise that Stella has failed to disclose her marriage. Stella confronts Lilian and Lilian tries to justify her actions, revealing her long-suppressed anger over Stella's "selfishness", which, she claims, led to their mother's premature death. On Saturday night Charles and Wilfred go out drinking. Stella expresses annoyance that Charles should lead her brother astray; Lilian takes the opportunity to continue their argument from the day before, and later Stella is again upset when her father, unaware of her lack of professional success, declares his admiration for her pluck. Realizing that she no longer fits in her former home, Stella announces her departure, on the pretext of having been cast in a new production. She and Charles leave on the Sunday train, and it seems that they will try to patch up their marriage.
A retired actress resists pressure to sell the house she loves, as family and romantic relationships complicate her effort to remain there.
Edgar; Or, Caledonian Feuds is an 1806 historical tragedy by the British writer George Manners. It was inspired by Ann Radcliffe's novel The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 9 May 1806. The original cast included Sarah Smith as Edgar, Henry Erskine Johnston as Osbert, Alexander Pope as Baron, William Chapman as Malcolm, William Claremont as Count Zulmio, Charles Klanert as Officer, Nannette Johnston as Matilda and Louisa Brunton as Emma. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 30 April 1808.
Edgar Allan Poe returns as a one-man stage character to recount his life and correct false claims about him. The play combines his poetry, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, personal episodes, and a full recitation of The Raven.
In the Scottish Highlands, the peasant Edgar guides the young Earl Osbert away from the castle of Malcolm, who murdered Osbert’s father. Their meeting rekindles the family feud: Osbert prepares to rally his clan for revenge, and Edgar offers to fight alongside him.
After a fortune-teller visit, white-collar worker Edmond leaves his wife and wanders through New York's underworld. Violence and escalating alienation lead him to murder, prison and a charged relationship with his cellmate, while the play examines fear, race, sexuality, faith and destiny.
Set in Paris in 1897, Alexis Michalik's comedy follows playwright Edmond Rostand as he creates Cyrano de Bergerac.
An anonymous five-act history play pits English king Edmund Ironside against Danish prince Canutus, while duplicitous Edricus repeatedly shifts sides and seeks power. The play ends with the kings agreeing to share England after combat.
A backstory play follows Edmund from birth to his appearance in King Lear, exploring the circumstances that shape his later actions.
The plays follows the relationship between a 26-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year. Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature. The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time. Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink. The two have an immediate and profound effect on one another; Frank is impressed by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutelage opens doors to a bohemian lifestyle and a new self-confidence. However, Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises. Susan becomes disillusioned by a friend's attempted suicide and realises that her new social niche is rife with the same dishonesty and superficiality she had previously sought to escape. The play ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change.
Education is an 1813 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Morton. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 27 April 1813. The original cast included Charles Mayne Young as Count Villars, Charles Mathews as Sir Guy Stanch, John Fawcett as Mr. Templeton, Charles Kemble as Vincent Templeton, John Liston as Suckling, William Barrymore as Damper, John Emery as Broadcast, Mary Catherine Bolton as Rosine, Maria Theresa Kemble as Mrs Templeton, Sarah Booth as Ellen and Mary Ann Davenport as Dame Broadcast.
Edward II recalls his favourite Piers Gaveston, provoking opposition from the nobles. After Gaveston is killed, Edward elevates the Spencers; Isabella and Mortimer overthrow him, imprison and murder him, but Edward III ultimately executes Mortimer and takes the throne.
King Edward III pursues his claim to the French throne while resisting his attraction to the Countess of Salisbury, then campaigns in France. His son, the Black Prince, proves himself in battle, and the English secure victories at Crécy and Poitiers and capture Calais.
King Edward The Third; With The Fall Of Mortimer, Earl Of March is a 1690 tragedy, generally attributed to the English writers John Bancroft and William Mountfort. It was first performed by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. It portrays the early years of the reign of Edward III and his defeat and execution of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March. The original Drury Lane cast included George Powell as King Edward the Third, Joseph Williams as Mortimer, Earl of March, William Mountfort as Lord Mountacute, Edward Kynaston as Delamore, John Hodgson as Sir Robert Holland, Anthony Leigh as Bishop of Hereford, James Nokes as Serjeant Eitherside, John Freeman as Nevill, George Bright as Sly, John Bowman as Earl of Leicester, Samuel Sandford as Earl of Exeter, Elizabeth Barry as Isabella and Anne Bracegirdle as Maria. When published it was dedicated to the politician Lord Sydney.
A two-part Elizabethan history play follows Edward IV’s courtship of Jane Shore, her attempts to use her influence to obtain pardons, and her expulsion after Edward’s death under Richard III.
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