8284 shows
Clear filtersMrs. 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.
In 1970s Soweto, poet Masechaba is interrogated by police officers who demand she stop reciting activist poetry. After she defies a banning order, they torture her to death and discuss concealing the murder.
A low-budget horror parody built around the fictional horror writer Garth Marenghi and spoofing Stephen King; the stage show also features his publisher Dean Learner.
A low-budget comedy horror sequel stage show centered on fictional horror writer Garth Marenghi and his publisher Dean Learner.
After the civil war's devastation, two servants, Gary and Janice, clean up the bodies. The play is set in an alternate aftermath of Titus Andronicus.
The play is set in fog-bound London in 1880, at the upper middle class home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time that Hamilton notes as the time "before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea." Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches of her overbearing husband (who flirts with the servants in front of his wife) make matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack's unexplained disappearances from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. It becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane, even to the point of assuring her she is imagining things. The appearance of a police detective called Rough leads Bella to realise that Jack is responsible for her torment. Rough explains that the apartment above was once occupied by one Alice Barlow, a wealthy woman who was murdered for her jewels. The murderer was never found. Jack goes to the flat each night to search for the jewels, and lighting the apartment's gas lights causes the lights to dim in the rest of the building. His footsteps in the supposedly empty apartment persuade Bella that she is "hearing things". Rough convinces Bella to assist him in exposing Jack as the murderer, which she does, but not before she takes revenge on Jack by pretending to help him escape. At the last minute she reminds him that, having gone insane, she is not accountable for her actions. The play closes with Jack being led away by the police.
An office worker pulls The Great Gatsby from a desk drawer and reads it aloud; coworkers gradually join in as the office and its occupants transform into the novel's characters and settings.
Two gay actors offer a master class for straight performers hoping to win acclaim by playing gay roles. Their advice satirizes casting, career ambition, and the entertainment industry’s treatment of queer identity.
Gaya, a Gandharva king, accidentally angers Krishna, who vows to kill him. Gaya secures Arjuna's promise of protection before revealing Krishna's vow, forcing the two allies toward combat. Shiva intervenes to avert disaster and explains that the conflict tests Arjuna before the Mahabharata war.
Sepp and Beppi's child, born at the end of Stallerhof, is killed during this sequel play.
The play is set in 1904 at 1839 Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Aunt Ester, the drama's 285-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life and in search of redemption. Aunt Ester is not too old to practice healing; she guides Barlow on a soaring, lyrical journey of spiritual awakening to the City of Bones.
Set in the backyard of a blue-collar neighborhood in South Philadelphia early in the summer of 1973, the comedy-drama focuses on the 21st birthday celebration of Harvard student Francis Geminiani. In attendance are his divorced father Fran and Fran's widowed girlfriend Lucille, next-door neighbor Bunny Weinberger and her overweight son Herschel, and Francis' classmates, the wealthy WASP Hastings siblings; Judith (who seeks romance with Francis) and Randy (the object of Francis' unexpressed affection), who have arrived unexpectedly, much to their friend's dismay. All are dysfunctional to varying degrees, and the interactions among them provide the play with its comic and dramatic moments.
A confidence trickster persuades a small Irish town to erect a statue to a native supposedly responsible for leading a South American country's independence movement, modeled closely on Bernardo O'Higgins.
Generation is a 1965 Broadway play written lyrics and by William Goodhart, directed by Gene Saks, produced by Frederick Brisson and Victor Samrock, incidental music by Jerry Bock, stage and lighting design by George Jenkins, costume design by Albert Wolsky. Its first preview opened with Henry Fonda in the lead role on September 29, 1965, at the Morosco Theatre. The play official premiered on October 6, 1965, at the same theatre. It ran for 300 performances, and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966 for the Best Featured Actor in a Play (for A. Larry Haines).
At an international court in Geneva, three fictionalized dictators are summoned to answer for their conduct. Their trial is broadcast around the world, but a false report that Earth has left its orbit briefly forces political rivals to confront a shared catastrophe.
Gentleman Prefer Blondes is a 1926 play by Anita Loos and John Emerson, based upon Loos' 1925 international best-selling novel of the same name.
Gentlemen of the Press is a three-act play written by Ward Morehouse. Producers Thomas E. Jackson and H. S. Kraft opened it on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre on August 27, 1928. George Abbott directed the production, which ran for 128 performances. The play is a comedy about Wick Snell, a journalist who decides to take a job as a publicist for a real estate firm. After a dispute with his new boss, Snell goes back to journalism. Morehouse was a journalist who had worked for several different newspapers. The main character in Gentlemen of the Press was inspired by one of his co-workers who frequently complained about the difficulties of working in journalism.
Geographer Professor Tygesen’s wife Karen leaves with her friend and the housekeeper, forcing the self-absorbed scholar to manage the household and recognize the work she has quietly carried.
Gangsters hold Cody, a man whose dreams can predict race winners, in hotel rooms in the United States and England. When his dreaming ability returns, the gangsters and a doctor plan to remove the bone they believe gives him the power and implant it in someone else; Cody’s brothers arrive and rescue him.
The play portrays a day in the lives of a middle-class London family and their servants. They are thrown into chaos by the suddenly announced arrival of their old friends George and Margaret for dinner that evening. The snobbish and domineering mother forces all family members to attend, despite the resentment of her children. However, the anticipated arrival eventually provides a catalyst for various members of the family to resolve their personal crises. The play ends without the title characters George and Margaret ever having appeared on stage.
The five-act comedy centers on Gert, a barber whose incessant talk drives customers from a tavern, prompting its keeper to bring a lawsuit against him. Gert's courtship of an apothecary's daughter is a subplot: her parents favor him, while she loves a young distiller.
Gertie Maude is a dramatic play by the British writer John Van Druten. It is set before the First World War, the plot about a chorus girl who begins an affair with an upper-class man only to kill herself when he marries someone of his own class. It ran for 62 performances at St Martin's Theatre in London's West End between 17 August and 9 October 1937. The cast included Carol Goodner, Griffith Jones, Jill Esmond and Sebastian Smith.
Middle-aged Gertrud decides to leave her politician husband Gustav for young composer Erland as her former lover, poet Gabriel, returns from abroad. The drama explores her competing attachments and her search for love beyond a confining marriage.
Howard Barker reworks Hamlet from the perspective of Queen Gertrude, focusing on the mother of Prince Hamlet.
A Toronto family gathers for a Jamaican Independence Day celebration as old conflicts and hopes surface.
St Monica’s Hospital faces staff and bed pressures, infection and a threat to its emergency department. Nurse Danuta and her colleagues confront the strain on a public health service struggling to meet present demands.
David Hare’s political drama examines how Britain’s Labour Party raises funds and the cynicism of a governing party long unchallenged in power. It juxtaposes those political compromises with Lori’s life-changing decision to leave teaching and become a busker.
Getting Away with Murder is a play written by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, which ran for 17 performances on Broadway in 1996.
Getting Gertie's Garter is a play written by Wilson Collison and Avery Hopwood. Producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it opened at the Republic Theatre on August 1, 1921. Hazel Dawn played the role of Gertie. The play was a sex farce, but unlike most productions of its type, the setting was a hayloft instead of a bedroom. It was a success at the box office, running for 15 weeks with 120 performances on Broadway, then moving to touring companies. The play had tryouts starting in Brooklyn, then in Boston and Chicago under the reduced title of Gertie's Garter. Dawn found her role unsatisfying due to its similarity to her part in Up in Mabel's Room, an earlier farce produced by Woods, but stuck with the show. She eventually left the Broadway production in September to take the lead in another Woods-produced farce, The Demi-Virgin.
1908: Edith, youngest daughter of Bishop Bridgenorth, is about to be married. Her uncle General Boxer Bridgenorth, will give her away, as he has all her sisters. As at all the other weddings he proposes to Lesbia Grantham, the bride's aunt, who refuses him for the "tenth and last" time. Lesbia wants a family, but not a husband who smokes and is as untidy as the general. The General is soon shocked to find that his disreputable brother Reginald will be at the wedding. Reginald was recently divorced by his wife for assaulting her and for his adultery with a prostitute. Even more distressingly, his ex-wife Leo is coming too. When the divorcees arrive they are not at all embarrassed. It seems that Leo and her ex-husband arranged the "assault" and the "prostitute" so that they could separate without any blame attaching to Leo, who wishes to marry another man - St John Hotchkiss. However problems arise when the bride refuses to leave her room. She says she is reading a pamphlet on marriage! Apparently Cecil Sykes, her husband-to-be, is also reading a pamphlet. Both refuse to go to the church until they are finished. The couple finally emerge from their rooms. It seems that the pamphlets have revealed to them the dangers of marriage. She has learned that if her husband becomes a criminal lunatic she cannot divorce him. He has learned that he may be liable for his wife's debts. The bishop, who is writing a book on the history of marriage, suggests that Edith and Cecil should revive the Roman concept of marriage by contract, but he thinks a traditional marriage is better. The Bishop's chaplain, a lawyer, tries to draw up a contract, though it proves a difficult task. All the characters have ideas about what should be in the contract, based on their own experience. There is disagreement on medical, religious, financial and other matters. Eventually they give up, agreeing that a standard marriage is easier, at least with the possibility of divorce. Cecil and Edith leave together and return married - though the ceremony involved the Beadle giving away the bride. They have arranged with an insurance company a deal that will free Cecil of responsibility for any future debt incurred by his wife. In return Cecil has provided a document declaring that if he commits a crime while insane, his wife may divorce him. Hotchkiss, who, it turns out was being pursued by Leo rather against his own wishes, falls in love with the siren-like Mrs George Collins. Leo therefore tells her ex-husband that their divorce must be revoked.
A disillusioned Member of Parliament, ten years into his second marriage, faces family frustrations, disappointed expectations, mortality and changing social norms; the comedy carries serious overtones.
Released from prison, Arlene returns to a rundown Louisville apartment hoping to begin again. Flashbacks show her younger self, Arlie, and the history behind her conviction, while both versions of her appear onstage as she faces family, former associates and a new neighbor.
In a historical political satire using Marathi folk-theatre Tamasha, the ambitious Ghashiram seeks revenge after mistreatment by Pune's Brahmins and bargains his daughter to Nana Phadnavis for the post of kotwal. His harsh policing, her death and Nana's self-protective politics lead to Ghashiram's execution.
A Nepali folk drama satirizes superstition in Nepali society, particularly Gandaki Pradesh, using the Balan style and storytelling from hymns.
In a 1983 Tel Aviv frame, an older Srulik recalls the Jewish theatre in the Vilna Ghetto. Under SS commander Kittel, artists try to stage performances that entertain their oppressors and help keep residents employed and alive, while Jacob Gens navigates impossible compromises and residents confront resistance, collaboration and survival.
Small audience groups move through backstage corridors, dressing rooms and hidden areas of the Claire Tow Theater, encountering dreamlike vignettes about theatrical superstitions, performance, memory and stagecraft.
The play is notable for running only 80 minutes (with no interval) and for its publicized warnings advising against anyone under the age of 15 attending. The marketing of the show outside the theatre is unusual in that there are no production photographs, just stills and video monitors showing the shocked reactions of audience members. An announcement at the end of the play asks the audience to "keep the secrets of Ghost Stories" so that new audiences do not have the experience spoiled with any prior information about the play. Its plot and specific moments are sampled from various TV series and films including, most obviously, the episode ‘During Barty’s Party’ from Beasts by Nigel Kneale, Don’t Look Now, Halloween and Le Serpent. Reviews of the show have confined themselves to outlining the basic structure of the plot, which revolves around Dr. Goodman, a Professor of Parapsychology delivering a lecture on ghost stories. In the lecture, he discusses a website featuring ghostly pictures, scienceofghosts.com. He has recorded interviews with three people who claim to have had a supernatural experience. Each story seems to hinge on guilty feelings. As each interview is played back, the story is re-enacted on stage. The stories are recounted by a night watchman, a teen driver and a businessman awaiting his first child. These stories are then drawn together at the end, with a twist, as it becomes clear that the Professor is a participant in the stories and not simply a narrator.
In East London, the return of former gang leader Travis Flood brings him into conflict with Torchie Sparks, her granddaughter Rio and Rio’s girl gang, the Disciples.
Helen Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage, which she has built in memory of her late husband, Captain Alving. Despite her husband's affairs, Mrs. Alving stayed with him to protect her son Oswald from the taint of scandal and for fear of being shunned by the community. In the course of the play, she discovers that Oswald (whom she had sent away to avoid his being corrupted by his father) is suffering from syphilis, which she believes he inherited from his father. She also discovers that Oswald has fallen in love with her maid Regina Engstrand, who is revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of Captain Alving and is therefore Oswald's half-sister. A sub-plot involves a carpenter, Jacob Engstrand, who married Regina's mother when she was already pregnant. He regards Regina as his own daughter. He is unaware (or pretends) that Captain Alving was Regina's father. Having recently completed his work building Mrs. Alving's orphanage, Engstrand announces his ambition to open a hostel for seafarers. He tries to persuade Regina to leave Mrs. Alving and help him run the hostel, but she refuses. The night before the orphanage is due to open, Engstrand asks Pastor Manders to hold a prayer-meeting there. Later that night, the orphanage burns down. Earlier, Manders had persuaded Mrs. Alving not to insure the orphanage, as to do so would imply a lack of faith in divine providence. Engstrand says the blaze was caused by Manders' carelessness with a candle and offers to take the blame, which Manders readily accepts. Manders in turn offers to support Engstrand's hostel. When Regina and Oswald's sibling relationship is exposed, Regina departs, leaving Oswald in anguish. He asks his mother to help him avoid the late stages of syphilis with a fatal morphine overdose. She agrees, but only if it becomes necessary. The play concludes with Mrs. Alving having to confront the decision of whether or not to euthanize her son in accordance with his wishes.
After Roald Dahl's 1983 review of God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut, was deemed antisemitic, he faces the consequences of his public comments and his conflict with publisher Tom Maschler.
The Angel of the Lord calls Gideon to save Israel from idolatry by leading 300 Israelites against 120,000 Midianites. Gideon questions his covenant with God, refusing to kill idolatrous leaders because of his pity for people, and challenges the limits of divine law.
In 19th-century Paris, Gigi is groomed for a life as a courtesan, but her family friend Gaston falls in love with her and proposes marriage after recognizing the emptiness of his life.
During a siege of Amsterdam in 1304, Gijsbrecht faces accusations tied to Floris V's death. Enemy soldiers hide in a firewood shipment to enter the city; after battle, Gijsbrecht flees to Prussia to found a 'New Holland.'
Gil Blas is a 1751 comedy play by the British writer Edward Moore. It is based on the novel Gil Blas by French writer Alain-René Lesage. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Gil Blas, Henry Woodward as Don Lewis, John Palmer as Don Felix, John Sowdon as Don Gabriel, Richard Yates as Melchior, Hannah Pritchard as Aurora, Frances Cross as Beatrice and Ann Pitt as Bernarda.
In 1962 Steveston, young Iris believes her pet goldfish’s death caused her parents’ marriage to unravel and the Cuban Missile Crisis to begin. She finds a man washed ashore and believes he is the fish reincarnated, placing her hopes in his recovery.
The play opens after servant Griet inherits the pearl earrings she once wore for Vermeer, then returns to her arrival as a teenager in his household. As Griet works in Vermeer’s studio and becomes his model, his wife and daughter respond with resentment and heartbreak. A part-narrated structure gives the other characters direct address to the audience as they recount Griet’s effect on the household.
An unnamed woman recounts meeting, marrying and having children with the man of her dreams as her documentary career grows and his business fails. When she seeks separation, he murders their children and later kills himself in prison.
When a naked photograph of Scarlett goes viral, rumours spread through the school and her friends turn against her. Scarlett remains silent as the girls’ opinions and actions reveal how online sharing and group pressure can make a friendship toxic.
Gisippus is an 1842 tragedy by the Irish writer Gerald Griffin. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on 23 February 1842. It was staged posthumously as Griffin had died from typhus in 1840, and was likely written before 1838. The original cast included William Macready as Gisippus, James Robertson Anderson as Titus Quintus Fulvius, Edward Elton as Pheax, George Bennett as Lycias, Charles Selby as Macro and Helena Faucit as Sophronia. Its opening resembles William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, but with the setting switched from Rome to Athens. The play was a popular success. It went on to appear in New York at the Park Theatre in 1847 and Broadway Theatre in 1848.
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