8284 shows
Clear filtersOut-of-work actress Rosie Seymour accepts a date with Sam Berryman, who mistakes her for the absent owner of the flat she is minding. The apparent romance becomes a police sting to trap a drug courier, and Rosie must impersonate the nonexistent Joanna to keep the operation alive.
In ancient Rome, playwright Titus Maccius Plautus must convince producer Crassus Dives that his new comedy will succeed and satisfy the censor. Before the script is finished, Plautus and his wife perform an improvised version of The Swaggering Soldier, which challenges Roman conventions including slavery and women's roles in theatre.
A woman recounts her sexual encounters and social anxieties while her family ties, friendships and guinea-pig café come under strain. The solo comedy follows her attempts to keep control as her life begins to unravel.
In rural Arkansas in 1997, a high-school girls’ basketball team dreams of professional careers. Five young Black women navigate friendship, ambition, and the consequences of choices made beyond the court.
Set during the Russian Civil War's final fighting in Crimea, the play intertwines the lives of abandoned Serafima Korzukhina, professor Sergei Golubkov and White generals Charnota and Khludov as the White Army retreats before the Red Army.
A performance artist introduces and reenacts the story of the Isle of Anglesey breaking away from mainland Wales and voyaging around the world. The creator plays himself, while a second actor plays all other roles.
David Rogers's stage adaptation follows Charlie Gordon, a man with an intellectual disability who undergoes experimental surgery to increase his intelligence. As Charlie becomes highly intelligent and then begins to regress, he confronts how others treat him and asks that flowers be placed on Algernon's grave.
Flowers of the Forest is a 1934 play by the British writer John Van Druten. It lasted for a brief West End run of fourteen performances at the Whitehall Theatre with a cast including Henry Oscar, Haddon Mason, Stephen Haggard, Barry K. Barnes and Lewis Casson. In New York it played for forty performances at the Broadway Martin Beck Theatre with a cast that included Hugh Williams and Burgess Meredith.
On Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration day, older veteran Chet recalls his training and service as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black pilots in the U.S. military. Flashbacks follow four composite airmen through wartime training and combat as they face racism at home and abroad. A tap-dancing Griot uses movement to express emotions the servicemen had to suppress.
Film critic Oliver returns to his Ohio hometown for a high-school reunion and confronts Ted, a former bully who has lost his job at the local plant.
On his wedding day, pharmacist Frederick Foggerty learns that another fiancée may disrupt his engagement. A fairy gives him an elixir to erase her from his past, but the resulting changes leave him in a worse predicament: his beloved is engaged to his rival and an older woman believes he is her lover. After a chaotic alternate reality, he persuades the fairy to restore events without the unwanted fiancée.
Folly as it Flies is an 1801 comedy play by the British writer Frederick Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 29 October 1801. The original Covent Garden cast included Charles Murray as Sir Herbert Melmoth, Henry Erskine Johnston as Leonard Melmoth, William Thomas Lewis as Tom Tick, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Peter Post Obit, Thomas Knight as Shenkin, Samuel Simmons as Doctor Infallible, John Waddy as Cursitor, John Whitfield as Malcour, Maria Gibbs as Georgiana and Harriet Murray as Lady Melmoth. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre on 14 January 1802.
Fool Moon is a 1993 comedy sketch and slapstick show written and performed by David Shiner and Bill Irwin. The show debuted on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theater in 1993, and had two more Broadway runs in 1995 and 1998. Alongside Shiner and Irwin, Fool Moon features the Red Clay Ramblers, and a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. Director and performer Stefan Haves worked as a consultant for Fool Moon.
The "fools" in the play are battling lovers at a run-down Mojave Desert motel. May is staying at the motel when an old flame, Eddie, shows up. Eddie tries to convince May to come back to him and live in a trailer on a farm in Wyoming that Eddie has always wanted to buy and where he has always imagined living with May. May vehemently refuses. She says that she has absolutely no interest in living with Eddie under such circumstances, that she has a job and started a new life and knows that if she goes back to Eddie their relationship will repeat the same destructive cycle it has followed before. Throughout the play the character of the Old Man—apparently the father of both lovers—sits to the side and talks to May and Eddie and offers commentary on each character and about himself. It is revealed that the Old Man had led a double life, abandoning each family for different periods during each child's life. The two became lovers in their high school years and when their parents finally figured out what had occurred, Eddie's mother shot herself. May is afraid that Eddie has begun to emulate his father; taking to drinking and secretly seeing a woman May refers to as the Countess. The play centers around the drama of the confrontation rather than a plot with any rising and falling action. In the end Eddie appears to have left May, just as his father had left his mother, and May has packed her suitcase to go off somewhere unspecified. Eddie and May have not reconciled, the Old Man has begun to drift off in denial that Eddie's mother had been driven to suicide, and May's erstwhile date, Martin, is left on stage bewildered to observe it all.
Leon Tolchinsky, an ambitious young schoolteacher, arrives in the Ukrainian village of Kulyenchikov in order to educate a doctor's daughter, Sophia Zubritsky. Upon arrival, Leon meets several of the locals: Snetsky the shepherd, Mishkin the postman, Slovitch the butcher, and Yenchna the vendor. All of them seem rather unintelligent and hold tedious and confusing conversations. Leon makes his way to the Zubritsky home, finding Dr. and Mrs. Zubritsky to be similarly dimwitted. Leon soon learns that the town's idiocy is the result of a curse: 200 years ago, the son of sorcerer Vladimir Yousekevitch fell in love with Sophia's ancestor, but her scholarly father married her to another man when he learned that the boy was illiterate. After his son committed suicide, Vladimir cursed the townspeople and their descendants to live as fools, forever trapped in Kulyenchikov. The curse can only be broken if Leon is able to educate Sophia, or if she marries a Yousekevitch. Count Gregor, the last surviving Yousekevitch, proposes to Sophia twice a day, but she always turns him down. Leon is introduced to Sophia and is immediately lovestruck. He asks her a few simple questions, but she responds idiotically. Nevertheless, Leon resolves to break the curse, especially after he learns that those cursed are incapable of love. Count Gregor arrives for his evening marriage proposal, and Leon confronts him. Count Gregor warns Leon that if he can't educate Sophia within 24 hours of his arrival in Kulyenchikov, he must either leave the village or fall victim to the curse himself. Leon meets with Sophia again, and she affirms her desire to be able to love him. Leon promises that she will love him the next day. The next morning, Leon arrives at the Zubritsky home, eager to educate Sophia. He attempts and fails to teach her elementary mathematics, and the lesson soon spirals into a debate: Sophia tries to ask Leon questions to get to know him better, but he stubbornly insists on imparting her with knowledge, believing that students are not meant to ask questions, only answer them. As the deadline looms, Sophia urges Leon to leave Kulyenchikov before he too is cursed, but he resolves to stay with her and seemingly turns into a fool. The townspeople, who have gathered outside in hopes of seeing the curse broken, leave disappointed. Once Leon and Sophia are alone, he reveals to her that he was merely pretending - the curse had no effect on him. Leon speculates that the curse is actually a psychological phenomenon which came about because the villagers have always been told they are stupid. Count Gregor enters, lamenting his villainous reputation. Leon convinces Gregor that he could be better liked if he adopted him and let him marry Sophia. This would break the curse in the eyes of the townspeople, as Sophia would technically be wed to a Yousekevitch. Count Gregor agrees, and Leon and Sophia are set to be wed. At the last minute, Count Gregor reveals that he tricked Leon into signing divorce papers instead of adoption papers, and forces Dr. Zubritsky to let him marry Sophia. Leon, in a flash of inspiration, asks Mishkin the postman for his urgent letter, which has been mentioned throughout the play. The letter supposedly reveals that Leon is a Yousekevitch through a distant relation, though Leon explains to the audience that it is actually a bill from his college in Moscow. Leon and Sophia are wed, and the "curse" of Kulyenchikov is broken. Leon then narrates what happened to all the characters afterwards, mentioning that he and Sophia are happily raising a child and constantly learning from one another.
Fools Rush In is a 1946 comedy play by the British writer Kenneth Horne. It ran at the Fortune Theatre in London's West End for 237 performances between 2 September 1946 and 29 March 1947.
At a press conference, an angry football coach speaks allegorically about Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War.
In four parts marked by a bell, May paces a short strip outside her mother's room while exchanging fragmented, repetitive speech with her mother's voice. The measured movement and dimming light turn her isolation and uncertain presence into the play's central action.
For Better, for Worse is a comedy play by the British writer Arthur Watkyn. It was first performed at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge in 1948. It enjoyed a lengthy and successful run at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End where it lasted for 618 performances between 17 December 1952 and 12 June 1954. The original West End cast included Leslie Phillips, Geraldine McEwan, Tom Macaulay, Anthony Sharp, Gwynne Whitby, Polly Elwes, Aimée Delamain, Charles Lamb and Dandy Nichols. It was directed by Kenneth Riddington who also appeared in the cast. The plot revolves around the trials and tribulations of a newly-married couple.
For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy is a 2021 play by Ryan Calais Cameron, inspired by Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The play follows six young Black British men—Jet, Midnight, Obsidian, Onyx, Pitch, and Sable—meeting for group therapy. The show was originally commissioned by New Diorama Theatre and co-commissioned by Boundless Theatre.
The plot of For Heaven's Sake! follows an Irish Catholic family from Buffalo, NY, in 1974. The Kilgannons are a typical Irish Catholic clan in Western New York in the 1970s. The action focuses on the changing world and the gap between the differing generations, which is widening. It also examines the way religious beliefs can affect our plans and behaviors. For Heaven's Sake! employs clever dialogue to examine the family's faith along with commonly held beliefs of the time period which test the strength of the bonds between the characters. The older generation has constructed their lives around salvation with the church as the center of their personal, social, and spiritual lives. The younger generation is not as devout, with more focus on modern-day society and less on praying and following the rules. The two youngest family members, Jimmy and Kathleen, lead the charge to move the Kilgannon's viewpoint in a progressive direction. Their lives are touched by numerous American issues during that era, including Watergate, the Vietnam War and gay liberation. Author John Updike called the time period "The most dissentious American decade since the Civil War." Some family members have come to accept the constraints of society while others feel trapped. Family mealtimes have become a debate forum for various issues and viewpoints. “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. “ The Bible, —Daniel 12:3
Set in a future European war in which England, America and Australia fight Russia and Germany, the drama follows Captain Gerald Berkley, Sylvia Tressilion and rivals entangled in a murder accusation.
This synopsis is compiled from contemporary newspaper reviews. The setting is the drawing room of Preston Mitchell's home at Port Washington, New York, during December 1946. The Tremaines and Nita Havermeyer are gathered with Preston Mitchell in his drawing room. The former express condolences for his recent bereavement, while the latter presses Mitchell to return to their current production, and, covertly, to legitimize their personal relationship. He assures the Tremaines there is nothing he needs or wants, except solitude. They and Nita depart, with Bill the last to leave; as he does, a heavy rain begins. Soon a frantic knocking at his door convinces Mitchell it must be Nita returning to resume her campaign. When he answers the door, an unfamiliar and bedraggled young lady demands shelter. She is Janet Blake, whose employer became overly amorous at a party in Great Neck, causing her to run out onto the country highway. There, a young man offered her a lift, but he too became fresh. She ran from his car through the rain to the nearest shelter, Mitchell's home. Janet is a modern young woman, who knows all the cinema stars but has never heard of Mitchell. After hearing her story, he offers her a job as his secretary, so she won't have to return to Dr. McCafferty. Mrs. Early and Wilbur assume she is the newest paramour, but Mitchell behaves correctly, charming Janet with his continental style. Eventually Bill becomes a rival for Janet, while Nita tries to woo Mitchell with their profitable association in the theater and shared memories. Mitchell realizes he is falling for Janet, but expects it is a hopeless contest with the younger man. However, Janet surprises everyone by choosing Mitchell in the end.
Set in late summer 1932 in Kent, the Ardsley family seem to be managing their lives very well following World War One and the Great Depression. In reality, each of them is fighting for survival. Leonard and Charlotte Ardsley are parents to Ethel, Eva, Sydney and Lois. Ethel is married to a former officer, Howard Bartlett, who returns to his position as a tenant farmer after the war. His class is a source of disharmony between Ethel’s family and her husband. Howard drinks excessively and he attempts to seduce his wife’s younger sister, Lois. Although Ethel is disillusioned, she finds solace in her children. Her marriage disproves the expectation that the war would bring about better social mobility. Sydney has been blinded in the war; his main occupation now is sitting in a chair whilst knitting. It is Sydney who speaks directly about the madness of war and its devastating effects upon his generation. Eva is unmarried and approaching forty, martyring herself to the cause of brother, Sydney. Collie Stratton, after a lengthy period serving his country in the Navy, has invested in a motorcar repair shop. However, a naval career has left him ill-prepared to run a business and this proves his undoing. Not realizing it would be illegal, and thinking that it would buy him time to solve his cash-flow problems, Collie writes cheques to creditors despite knowing that his bank will refuse to cash them. Leonard Ardsley informs him he has broken the law and that he will be tried and imprisoned. Eva, who is in love with Collie, proposes to give him money she has saved in order to clear his debts. She asks him to become engaged to her so that he can accept the gift. Collie refuses. Facing prison and disgrace he shoots himself. On hearing of his suicide, Eva holds her family responsible because none of them offered help or support. She pretends to have been engaged to Collie. By the end of the play, Eva has entered into a delusional state, believing truly that she will soon be leaving with her fiancé, Collie. Lois, at twenty-seven years old, is single and without a hope of finding a husband in the English backwater in which the family live. She is however receiving attention from the married Wilfred Cedar. Wilfred’s wife, Gwen, is tortured by his attraction to Lois. She sees Lois wearing a pearl necklace and despite assurances by Lois that the pearls are fake, she realises that her own husband has gifted the pearls to Lois. Gwen’s fears are later realised when, listening in on the telephone, she hears Lois agreeing to run away with Wilfred. She confronts Lois in the presence of Lois’s mother and sister and pleads with Lois to give up Wilfred, accusing all the family (who defend Lois) of wishing to bring Wilfred’s money into their family. Lois decides to keep to her plan despite Gwen's pleas, and despite the scandal it will cause, not because she loves Wilfred, but because she enjoys the power she has over Wilfred and the way she can exploit him in order to achieve material security and independence from the family. The younger generation can no longer live their lives in the blueprint of the older generation, they must find a new way of living. England is changing, falling apart, and must begin again. Charlotte is diagnosed by her doctor brother, Charles Prentice as having an unnamed condition, probably cancer, which requires an operation and home care in order to prolong her life. Charlotte refuses treatment so that her family are not burdened with the expense but also because she feels a sense of liberation and self-possession in deciding her fate for herself. ‘I’m rather relieved to think it’s over. I’m not at home in this world of today. I’m pre-War. Everything’s so changed now. To me life is like a party that was very nice to start with but has become rather rowdy as time went on and I’m not at all sorry to go home.’ Leonard, who is oblivious to the true states of any of the members of his family ends the play with a cup of tea and a blithely optimistic speech about the future, ‘If you come to think of it we none of us have anything very much to worry about. We have our health, we have our happiness, and things haven’t been going too well lately, but I think the world is turning the corner and we can all look forward to better times in the future. This old England of ours isn’t done yet and I for one believe in it and all it stands for.’ Delusional Eva sings God Save Our King and the curtain falls.
In a one-room studio apartment, each doorbell brings a new character into an escalating farce. Masterman, a fake charity collector, discovers a woman’s body hidden in a fold-down bed; an investigator, police officers, neighbors, and a second fraudster complicate the cover-up until contradictory identities and stories unravel.
A court masque honoring Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales, designed as a more entertaining response to Jonson's earlier masque; it included comic scenes featuring stereotypical Welshmen.
For the Love of Mike is a "play with music in three acts". The work was originally written as a non-musical by H. F. Maltby for the actor Tom Walls who rejected the piece when presented with the completed work. The work was then transformed by the English songwriter Clifford Grey who restructured Maltby's drama and interspersed the piece with song material with music by composers Jack Waller and Joseph Tunbridge and lyrics by Grey and Sonny Miller. It was this version of the play that finally made it to the stage; premiering in London's West End at the Saville Theatre on October 8, 1931. The cast was led by actress Peggy Cartwright in the role of "Mike" with Bobby Howes as Little Bob, Alfred Drayton as Mr. Miller, Viola Tree as Mrs. Miller, Arthur Riscoe as Paton, Syd Walker as PC Wildgoose, and Wylie Watson as the vicar. It became a hit play, running for 239 performances, and after remaining a staple/often revived work in British provincial theaters into the 1950s. The 1932 film For the Love of Mike was adapted from the play.
Agnes Brown seeks a Valentine’s Day date through internet dating, while a misplaced cache of LSD tablets leads to comic confusion in her family’s salon.
In a rugby changing room and at an after-match party, a captain dies after being kicked by teammate Clean; the character Foreskin ends by challenging the audience's values through rugby allusions.
Forget and Forgive is a comedy play by the British writer James Kenney. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 21 November 1827. The original cast included Henry John Wallack as Charles Sydney, John Liston as Rumbold, John Cooper as Cameron, William Bennett as Sir Gregory Ogle, Maria Rebecca Davison as Lady Ratcliffe and Ellen Kean as Georgiana. Originally of five acts it was later shortened to three. It was revived under the title Frolics in France in 1828.
Two families confront the lasting effects of the Second World War in this adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s memoir.
In a Filipino household ruled by Ramon’s rigid authority, his children’s attempts to escape his control lead to departures, illness, violence, and loss. After their lives are damaged, Ramon recognizes his failure and allows the surviving children to choose their futures.
After Hamlet's death, events continue at Elsinore as characters from Shakespeare's play return as ghosts.
Seventeen-year-old Smitty enters a youth reformatory and learns the prison's coercive hierarchy from cellmates Rocky, Mona and Queenie. After a Christmas pageant, Smitty and Mona share a moment of intimacy, but Rocky and Queenie attack Mona and he is taken away for punishment. The play ends with Smitty vowing revenge.
Two rural families’ fortunes reverse: the mild Forrests lose their wealth while the ruthless Hardings prosper. After Old Forrest’s son is killed, his younger son flees to sea, becomes a successful privateer, defeats pirates and rescues a merchant. At home, the elder Harding son and his wife endure service until his father’s sudden death leaves him the estate; the younger Forrest later wins a pardon, and the families reconcile.
Fortune's Fool is a 1796 comedy play by the English writer Frederick Reynolds. It was first staged at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. The original cast included William Thomas Lewis as Ap-Hazard, James Middleton as Sir Charles Danvers, John Quick as Sir Bamber Blackletter, John Fawcett as Tom Seymour, William Macready as Orville and Isabella Mattocks as Miss Union.
At a Russian country estate, impoverished former household jester Kuzovkin fears that the returning heiress and her husband will evict him. A wealthy neighbor goads him into a drunken revelation that disrupts the household and forces its members to face the consequences.
At a country manor, the return of Olga Petrovna and her husband should delight Kuzovkin, the penniless gentleman resident, but his friend Ivanov fears trouble. A wealthy neighbor who enjoys humiliating his social inferiors turns a celebratory lunch into a drunken confrontation that exposes a family secret, leaving Kuzovkin with renewed security but damaged honor.
Forty Carats is a play by Jay Presson Allen. Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down during a vacation in Greece. Their ensuing romantic interlude changes from a brief encounter to a potentially serious relationship when he turns up on her New York City doorstep to take her 17-year-old daughter on a date. Finding the attraction between them still irresistibly strong, she must overcome her resistance to a May–December romance while contending with her mother, ex-husband, and a real estate client who wants to discuss more than business. After two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Abe Burrows, opened on December 26, 1968, at the Morosco Theatre, where it ran for 780 performances. The opening-night cast included Julie Harris (Ann Stanley), Marco St. John (Peter Latham), Iva Withers (Mrs. Adams), Polly Rowles (Mrs. Margolin), Murray Hamilton (Billy Boylan), Franklin Cover (Eddy Edwards), Glenda Farrell (Maud Hayes), Gretchen Corbett (Trina Stanley), Nancy Marchand (Mrs. Latham), John Cecil Holm (Mr. Latham), and Michael Nouri (Pat). Julie Harris won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, in the lead role and she was succeeded by June Allyson, Joan Fontaine, and Zsa Zsa Gabor throughout the run. The 1973 film adaptation starred Liv Ullmann.
At Albion House, a British public school stages an end-of-term pageant reviewing the first half of the twentieth century. Vignettes parody literary, political and cultural figures, linked by a conversation between an MP and his family during the Second World War.
In the Republic of Venice, tensions brew among the elite. Count Erizzo, envious of the Doge's power and coveting the ducal bonnet himself, manipulates the kind but temperamental Senator Donato by exploiting a minor slight: the Doge refuses Donato's request to appoint Erizzo's follower Celso to a vacant procurator post, citing Celso's unsavory character. Erizzo fans Donato's anger, drawing him into a faction plotting to depose the elderly Doge on grounds of incapacity due to age. Meanwhile, the Doge shares with his close friend Count Zeno a mysterious prophecy from his youth foretelling danger to his rule, and he receives an anonymous warning to grant the first boon requested the next day or suffer heartbreak. Donato's daughter Camilla is betrothed to the Doge's valiant son Francesco Foscari, a heroic general fighting in the Milan wars, while Donato's son Cosmo and niece Laura share a budding affection, and Cosmo enjoys the Doge's favor. In the Senate, Erizzo, bolstered by Donato's resentment, accuses the Doge of misrule, favoring the populace over the nobility, and wasting resources on prolonged wars to glorify his son. They propose deposing him, nominating Donato as successor. The plot collapses dramatically when Francesco Foscari returns triumphant from the front, announcing a decisive victory at Brescia, the liberation of the city, and a peace treaty with Milan. He exposes Erizzo's interception of victory dispatches to delay news that would bolster the Doge's popularity. Foscari publicly castigates the conspirators, particularly Donato for betraying his old friend, but reconciles partially with him. The Senate reaffirms the Doge, who retains his position, while Foscari resigns his generalship, symbolically removing the ducal bonnet in a gesture of filial devotion before it is restored. Erizzo, humiliated and thwarted, secretly hires Celso to assassinate Foscari that night during his clandestine meeting with Camilla. Foscari sneaks to Donato's palace for a midnight rendezvous with Camilla, facilitated by the absent Cosmo. A storm rages as they reaffirm their love amid fears of lingering family discord. Foscari escapes through a balcony when Donato stirs, but Celso, mistaking Donato for Foscari in the dark (or perhaps seizing the opportunity), stabs him. Celso plants Foscari's dropped sword and cloak at the scene. Donato's dying cries name "Foscari", and Erizzo, "conveniently" nearby with Cosmo, frames the young hero for the murder. Foscari is tried in a hall of justice presided over by the heartbroken Doge. The evidence—the sword, cloak, Donato's last words, and Erizzo's testimony of seeing Foscari flee—is overwhelming. Cosmo, devastated by his father's death, accuses his childhood friend bitterly. Camilla, summoned as a witness, heard Donato's dying accusation but steadfastly proclaims Foscari's innocence, refusing to condemn him despite pressure. Threatened with torture, Foscari defiantly demands the rack rather than confess falsely. The Senate convicts him but, respecting his and the Doge's stature, commutes death to perpetual exile in Candia. On the seashore, Foscari prepares to depart. Camilla defies Cosmo to accompany her betrothed into exile, enduring her brother's furious denunciation as a parricide's bride. Cosmo pursues her, leading to a duel with the unarmed Foscari (armed by Erizzo). Foscari is mortally wounded. As he dies, Zeno arrives with news that Celso has confessed: Erizzo orchestrated the plot, and Celso killed Donato by mistake while intending Foscari. Erizzo is arrested but gloats over his revenge. The exonerated Foscari dies in Camilla's arms, proclaiming joy at his restored honor. The devastated Doge, cursing the ducal crown that forced him to condemn his innocent son, flings it away and collapses from a broken heart.
At a school, Julie and Michelle befriend new student Franky, whose absent father and departure from his old school prompt questions. Their friendships and family tensions unfold around preparations for and aftermath of a school dance.
When a Queensland town’s mayoral candidate stages a corroboree to raise money for a playground on an Aboriginal settlement, community spokesperson Vic Filmer leads resistance to the expansion that would dispossess traditional landowners. In the conflict, he accidentally shoots his wife.
Four figures, identified as Red, Green, Yellow and Black, build a scarecrow to protect themselves from an unseen danger. Their creation gains power over them, exploiting their mutual distrust until each is confined in a separate box.
After killing Archbishop Thomas Becket, four knights hide for a year in Knaresborough Castle. Across four evenings, they wrestle with guilt, exile, desire and political loyalties as their isolation deepens and a local woman is tried as a witch.
An Induction frames four brief dramas presented at a royal wedding: Honor depicts magnanimity after conquest; Love resolves a family conflict through mock deaths and resurrections; Death condemns a sinful heir; and Time uses masque and anti-masque to show human culture transcending mortality.
Four Winds is a 1953 thriller play by the British writer Alex Atkinson. A murder mystery it takes place entirely in a cottage on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Phoenix Theatre in London's West where it ran for 38 performances between 29 September and 31 October 1953. The original cast included William Kendall, Frank Lawton, Raymond Francis, Peggy Evans, Betty Ann Davies and Patricia Cutts. It then went on tour.
A Broadway set of four one-act plays—House of Dunkelmayer, Betty, Toreador and The Swingers—presented together as a single bill.
Mrs. Pringle plans a dinner party to introduce her daughter Elaine to eligible bachelor Oliver Farnsworth. When illness and a blizzard force guests to cancel, Mrs. Pringle, Elaine, and the household servant try to rescue the evening and rearrange the dinner table.
Annie Nations lives on her mountain property after her husband Hector's death, still able to see and hear his ghost. When a real-estate buyer tries to purchase the land, Annie's son Dillard and childhood friend Holly return, and a concert and memories of family life lead Annie to choose whether to sell.
In a theatrical frame that brings Gilbert Murray and Sybil Thorndike from Poets' Corner to a new play, two explorers attempt to reach the North Pole. After one dies and the other turns to Russian famine relief, the play links debates about art with the suffering of famine victims and refugees.
Francesca falls in love with her husband’s brother, dramatizing the medieval lovers’ story from Dante’s Inferno.
Francis the First is an 1832 historical tragedy written by the British actress Fanny Kemble. It is based on the reign of Francis I of France in the sixteenth century. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 15 March 1832. The original cast included Kemble herself as Louisa of Savoy, Mason as Francis the First, Charles Kemble as Charles of Bourbon, Daniel Egerton as Chabannes, George Bennett as Laval, William Abbot as Clement Marot, Robert Keeley as Triboulet, John Duruset as Bonnivet, James Prescott Warde as Gonzales, Harriette Taylor as Margaret Valois and Ellen Kean as Francois de Foix. Kemble had originally conceived it as a historical novel before converting it into a stage play. Kemble was paid a large sum for the rights by publisher John Murray, and it enjoyed brief success on stage, although she herself was later critical of its "stilted declamation"
In a prologue, the audience is made the ultimate judge of a ten-scene trial of Baron von Herberstorff, Emperor Ferdinand II, and their advisers over the Thirty Years’ War and the 1625 killing of Frankenburg peasants. After the rulers reproduce the peasants’ life-or-death dice game, a black-armored knight makes them roll and the judges condemn them. The Thing play uses chorus, processions, and a three-level stage.
Victor Frankenstein creates the Creature from human remains and abandons him. After repeated rejection, the Creature learns language and compassion from the blind De Lacey, but is driven toward revenge when the family rejects him. He demands a mate from Victor; after Victor destroys her, the Creature murders Elizabeth on her wedding night. Victor pursues him to the Arctic, where their mutual hatred continues.
At a St. Louis dance hall, Frankie falls in love with riverboat gambler Johnnie, but a rival dancer lures him away; Frankie's response ends in tragedy.
The play opens in the dark with a couple making love in her one-room walk-up apartment in the west side of Manhattan. They are Johnny (originated by F. Murray Abraham), a short order cook, and Frankie (originated by Kathy Bates), a waitress. Johnny is certain he has found his soul mate in Frankie. She, on the other hand, is far more cautious and disinclined to jump to conclusions and at first has written off the encounter as a one night stand. As the night unfolds, they slowly reveal themselves to each other as they take tentative steps towards the possible start of a new relationship. Describing the scene from which the play gets its name, David Finkle wrote, "Johnny calls the radio station to request the most beautiful music ever written...Claude Debussy's 'Clair de lune'...floats onto the night air... Johnny, buoyant with love, beckons Frankie to join him at the window and to bask...in the clair de lune. It's a lovely moment..."
Restless Franziska rejects marriage and bargains with the insurance agent Veit Kunz for two years to live as a man and pursue music. Under the name Franz, she enters a series of Faust-like entanglements; the five-act play consciously parodies Goethe's Faust while examining gender expectations.
In this German Hamlet variant, the new king has murdered his brother and desires his sister-in-law. Night and the Furies encourage the incestuous marriage and stir revenge among the dead king’s loyalists; Hamlet later evades assassins through slapstick mischance, and the play warns against gaining power through foul means.
In a solo coming-of-age performance, Leguizamo traces his life from birth to the start of his show-business career, portraying dozens of friends, relatives, and neighbors from Queens in a series of shifting characters and voices.
Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh is a 1729 historical tragedy by the British writer Eliza Haywood. It is based on the life of medieval ruler Frederick I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Haywood, well-known for her novels, had previously written a comedy A Wife to be Lett in 1723, but in the wake of the theatrical boom following the success of The Beggar's Opera, she produced a second play. Haywood wrote the play in roughly four weeks, and dedicated it to Frederick, Prince of Wales who had recently arrived in Britain from the country from Hanover. It was an effort to secure patronage from the royal family, based on the life of their Guelph ancestor, and was intended to coincide with the celebrations of Queen Caroline's birthday. However it was not a success, lasting for only three nights, something Haywood partly attributed to its lack of royal backing. The original cast included Thomas Walker as Frederick, Lacy Ryan as Duke of Wirtemberg, Thomas Chapman as Ridolpho, James Quin as Count Waldec, William Milward as Anspach, Henrietta Morgan as Sophia, Elizabeth Buchanan as Anna and Anne Berriman as Adelaid.
Fredolfo is an 1819 historical tragedy by the Irish writer Charles Maturin. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 12 May 1819. The original cast included William Macready as Wallenberg, Charles Mayne Young as Fredolfo, Charles Kemble as Aldemar, Frederick Henry Yates as Berthold, Charles Connor as Waldo and Elizabeth O'Neill as Urilda. Maturin dedicated the published version to the Duke of Leinster, which was published by Archibald Constable. The work was considered a failure which failed to recaptured the success of his earlier Bertram and Maturin turned back to writing novels.
Set in the imaginary West African country of Bokondo under colonial rule, the play concerns a nationalist movement seeking independence.
Inside a comedy club, six college students confront the changing limits of free speech, inclusion and censorship in a politically charged era. The play draws on Lenny Bruce’s work and the debate over comedy’s role in public life.
At a skewed family reunion, the Underfingers' ids run amok in a darkly satiric comedy.
Madalena de Vilhena, whose first husband was presumed dead, lives with her second husband Manuel de Sousa Coutinho and their frail daughter Maria. When an old pilgrim reveals that the first husband may still be alive, Madalena and Manuel face the possibility that their marriage is invalid; the returned man conceals his identity to spare them, but Maria dies during her parents' convent vows.
French Salad is a 1934 comedy play by the British writer Max Catto. It appeared in London's West End between 31 July and 7 September 1934 initially at the Westminster Theatre before transferring to the Royalty Theatre. The West End cast included Clive Morton, Aubrey Dexter, A.R. Whatmore, Hilda Trevelyan, Leonora Corbett, Faith Bennett and Ellen Pollock.
French Without Tears is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936.
Fresh Fields is a comedy play by the British writer Ivor Novello, first staged in 1933. Its West End run lasted for 465 performances at the Criterion Theatre between 5 January 1933 and 17 February 1934. The original cast included Robert Andrews, Fred Groves, Lilian Braithwaite, Minnie Rayner and Martita Hunt.
In a comic reworking of the 1860s artistic circle at Freshwater, young actress Ellen Terry tries to escape her marriage to the much older painter G. F. Watts. The Camerons and Watts want to portray her, while Ellen sees a young naval lieutenant as a route to freedom.
Prince Edward seeks to win Margaret, the Fair Maid of Fressingfield, with the help of Friar Bacon, but his friend Earl Lacy falls in love with her. Their romance resolves alongside Friar Bacon’s magical feats: he and Friar Bungay attempt to create a protective talking brazen head, but their servant Miles fails to wake Bacon before it breaks. Witnessing the destructive effects of magic, Bacon renounces it.
Frieda is a 1946 play by the British writer Ronald Millar. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Brighton before transferring to the Westminster Theatre where it ran for 132 performances from 2 May to 24 August 1946. The following year it was adapted by Ealing Studios into a film of the same name directed by Basil Dearden and starring Mai Zetterling and David Farrar.
Henry Block and Karl Pfeifer are old friends who both immigrated to the United States from Germany. Karl's son Billy and Henry's daughter June are engaged to be married. Henry has assimilated as a patriotic American, including changing his name from Heinrich. Karl refuses to change his name and remains a German patriot. The entry of the United States into World War I against Germany creates conflict between Karl and the others. Karl is secretly giving money to Walter Stuart to fund what Karl thinks is an effort to defuse anti-German propaganda, but Stuart is actually a German agent who uses the money to fund sabotage. Billy enlists in the United States Army against Karl's wishes. When Karl discovers that his money has funded a bomb that sinks the troop transport carrying his son, he changes his position on the war. The play has a happy ending when Billy returns home, having been saved from the sinking ship.
Set in a post-Columbine American high school, the drama follows five students whose friendships, bullying and social divisions shape their lives. Garrett, an ostracized student who escapes into live-action role-playing, forms an unlikely relationship with Nicole as tensions build toward a school shooting.
Friendship Improved, or the Female Warrior is a 1699 tragedy by the English writer Charles Hopkins. The original Lincoln's Inn Fields cast included Thomas Betterton as Zoulis, John Verbruggen as Maherbal, Elizabeth Barry as Semanthe, Henrietta Moore as Cyllene, Anne Bracegirdle as Locris and Mary Porter as Orithyia.
Goodvile, a fast-living man about town, attempts to cast off his mistress Victoria on his best friend Truman while seducing another woman Camilla before palming her off on another friend Valentine. When the two men find out about this they decide to take revenge by seducing Goodvile's attractive young wife. In turn, another of Goodvile's former paramours, Lady Squeamish, seeks her own revenge after being abandoned for the younger Camilla.
A bittersweet drama about family relationships, the search for love and the fear of not being accepted as oneself, following ordinary people confronting life's serious problems.
An outdoor historical drama tracing the Waldenses' religious persecution in Europe, their 1893 migration to America, and the founding of Valdese, North Carolina; the story begins in 1686 and spans two centuries.
In a nation under military rule, prison life exposes the regime's injustice when authorities retroactively declare that an offense once punished by imprisonment now warrants summary execution.
An unnamed, neurotic old man recounts three disjointed days from his youth, marked by sudden rages, unsettling encounters with animals, and painful memories of his parents, then returns to his solitary present-day walks.
An Argentine Canadian performer moves between personal memories and an exaggerated Latino persona. Travel, music, and encounters at borders reveal the pressures of stereotype and the difficulty of locating a single home.
Peter Morgan's historical drama stages David Frost's 1977 televised interviews with Richard Nixon, focusing on the former president's administration and his role in the Watergate scandal.
Gilberte, nicknamed Froufrou, leaves her marriage to Sartorys for Valréas, tearing her family apart. After tragedy and illness, she returns to seek her husband’s forgiveness and a final reunion with her son.
After the murder of a ten-year-old girl, her mother and the killer are linked over the years by a psychiatrist studying the causes of such crimes. The play begins in interwoven monologues as the characters confront grief, emotional paralysis and forgiveness.
A young man confronts life after killing a prison guard.
A man tries to bring down the government by blackmailing the Prime Minister with a threat to expose an MP’s homosexuality. When the political system defeats him, he turns toward working-class revolution and violence.
Hester Smith, an abortionist branded with the letter A, saves money to visit her imprisoned son. After a mistaken reunion and his death, she plots revenge against the First Lady, while an escaped convict she later recognizes as her son asks her to spare him capture and torture.
Fucking Men is a 2009 American play by Joe DiPietro. It premiered at the King's Head Theatre in the London Borough of Islington, directed by Phil Willmott. It opened on 9 January 2009 and was extended three times due to strong sales, and later ran in repertory with Naked Boys Singing. Both productions transferred to the Arts Theatre in London's West End Theatre on 15 July 2009. It was revived at the King's Head in August 2015, directed by Geoffrey Hyland. It was revived again by the King's Head in December 2015, directed by Mark Barford, designed by Jamie Simmons, lighting by Jack Weir and starring Richard De Lisle, Harper James and Haydn Whiteside. This production played again in London (April/May 2016) and then toured to Dublin (May 2016) and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August 2016). It played at The Vaults Waterloo until January 15, 2017. It was revived again with a new cast at Waterloo East Theatre from 2023 to 2025. The play had its United States premiere on 11 September 2009 at the Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The production was directed and co-produced by Calvin Remsberg. This production featured Johnny Kostney, Brian Dare, Mike Ciriaco, Michael Rachlis, Sean Galuszka, David Pevsner, Jeff Olsen, A.J. Tannen, Chad Borden and Gregory Franklin.
Claire awakens each day with amnesia and relies on her husband Richard and son Kenny to reconstruct her life. A man who claims to be her brother abducts her, setting off a chaotic chain of revelations about Claire's family, her past abuse and her relationship with Richard.
After Commander Fernán Gómez abuses the villagers and assaults their women, the people of Fuenteovejuna unite and kill him. When a magistrate investigates under torture, the villagers answer together that Fuenteovejuna did it; Ferdinand and Isabella ultimately pardon them.
In a flophouse in Two Rivers, Mississippi, a lonely clerk is befriended by Terry Meighan, an on-the-run gangster who claims to be a victim of a corrupt social system and represents hope to the clerk.
In a verse drama about Caesar's invasions of Britain, British leaders resist Rome and invoke their shared Trojan ancestry with the Romans. After initial victories, internal conflict and renewed invasion bring defeat; the play frames the history as a political argument for British resistance to Roman authority and ends with a masque and chorus.
In ancient Rome, Senator Fulgens’s daughter Lucrece must choose between the wealthy patrician Publius Cornelius and the modest commoner Gaius Flaminius, each of whom argues his worthiness. She chooses Gaius, whose honest love outweighs his lack of lineage. In a comic subplot, servants A and B discuss the expected play, break the fourth wall and pursue Joan, while their jokes question class and lordship.
Parisian author Dolores decides to legitimize her three grown children by inviting their three fathers to a reunion party and deciding which one she should marry.
Gabriel Nkoke, a Nigerian-born man raised in England, delivers a monologue to an unseen National Front representative as he tries to join the organization, drawn to its racialist agenda despite feeling he belongs neither in England nor Nigeria.
Full Gallop is a one-woman play written by Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson. It tells the story of fashion icon Diana Vreeland and her return to New York City following a four-month escape to Paris after her public and scandalous firing from Vogue in 1971. It was first performed in 1993.
Downtrodden salesman Henry Gow endures breakfast quarrels among his wife Doris, daughter Elsie and mother-in-law. After returning home from work, he confronts all three, reveals he has saved enough to leave, and walks out for good.
A parodic reworking of Macbeth in which the Weird Sisters circle their cauldron while throwing in contemporary novels, periodicals and pamphlets.
As Yoshitsune flees his brother's persecution, his retainer Benkei meets him at the port. After Yoshitsune's companion Shizuka leaves following a bad omen, a storm at sea brings an attack by ghosts including Taira no Tomomori; Benkei's prayers finally drive the spirits away.
In a two-person dialogue, Heidi, who has found certainty in a fundamentalist religious community, and a liberal priest debate literal and symbolic readings of the Bible. Their arguments are complicated by a past relationship, her family within the community, and the priest's growing public fame.
On his birthday, Henry Perkins mistakenly takes a stranger's briefcase on the Underground and discovers it contains a large sum of criminal cash. As he tries to flee with his wife, police officers, friends, a taxi driver, and the money's criminal owners converge at his home, driving a farce of mistaken identities and escalating confusion.
In a dreamlike stage world that unfolds in Sarah’s mind, her inner selves—including Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Hapsburg, Jesus, and Patrice Lumumba—embody her struggle with mixed ancestry, internalized racism, and alienation.
A family drama centered on secrets and betrayal that examines the age of consent for homosexual males; its gothicized treatment also engages with the liberation of the insane.
On an isolated island modeled on Tristan da Cunha, the islanders debate a factory proposal as a volcanic eruption forces evacuation. Resettled in Southampton, they learn that the island may be habitable but is being kept for nuclear testing; Mill organizes an effort to return while Bill's murder of Rebecca's newborn and the community's wartime starvation weigh on them.
Laura is revived centuries early from suspended animation after NASA’s funding runs out and a private company takes over the facility. She wakes into a transformed world and faces the loss of the loved one she expected to see again.
Russian poets confront the upheavals following the 1917 Revolution, as their artistic ambitions and loyalties become entangled with revolutionary politics and repression.
Princess Fédora Romazoff vows revenge on Count Loris Ipanoff for killing her fiancé. When Loris explains that he shot the man for an affair with his wife, Fédora recognizes his motive and falls in love with him—but her letter accusing Loris’s brother has led to the brother’s death in prison and their mother’s death from grief. Loris renounces Fédora, who takes poison in his arms.
Raised by a fairy, Félicie asks for the gift of pleasing others. Her passionate love threatens to overwhelm her, and the fairy intervenes to discipline her.
G. David Schine arrives in an Orange County dinner-theatre version of Hell and reunites with Roy Cohn, Richard Nixon, Whittaker Chambers and J. Edgar Hoover. The dead political figures appear in drag and trade absurd complaints about gender, turning a year-end gathering of notable Americans into a comic political satire.
Vietnam War soldiers assigned to graves registration prepare the dead for shipment home in black plastic bags, confronting the grim work of returning casualties to the United States.
In a deteriorating toy factory in the distant future, an electrical accident brings a doll to life. Four robot workers discover their own performance skills and learn the value of play and humanity through mime, juggling, breakdance, and magic.
A migrant husband returns after fifteen years and claims the son his wife has raised with another man. A village council hears the competing claims, while the boy and his mother resist being treated as property in the dispute.
Set in a former center of political radicalism in Fife, the play examines the disappearance of socialism from the community. Its title comes from a street in Lumphinnans, near Cowdenbeath.
A genderqueer reworking of John Lyly’s Gallathea, recast as a trans love story set against a climate crisis.
To evade a sacrifice demanded by Neptune, shepherds disguise their daughters Gallathea and Phillida as boys and send them into the woods. The two meet and fall in love without knowing each other’s sex, while Cupid’s mischief entangles Diana’s nymphs. The supernatural conflict ends when Neptune withdraws his demand and Venus allows the lovers to remain together, though the promised transformation is not shown.
On Long Island, Nell tricks Jack Hemingway into a fox hunt, where he is mistaken for his famous jockey cousin and compelled to enter a horse race despite having never ridden.
A voyeuristic view of a couple's relationship, framed as reality television.
At a tournament at Harrenhal ten years before A Game of Thrones, members of Aerys II Targaryen’s inner circle plot against the increasingly ruthless king.
To help support her financially struggling mother, sixteen-year-old Sorrel begins working as a call girl and recruits her friend Kelly to help. When her first client dies of a heart attack, the girls hide his body, while the ensuing police inquiry and a journalist’s approach force Sorrel and her mother to confront the consequences.
When Malechhu and his wife take his mother to bathe in the Ganges, the mother slips into the river and the wife prevents him from helping. A fraudulent priest robs the wife at the fair; eventually the couple and mother reunite, reconcile and return home together.
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