8284 shows
Clear filtersIn fifteenth-century Athens, Duchess Gismonda rules as regent for her young son Francesco. When a courtier’s plot sends the child into a tiger pit, commoner Almerio rescues him, prompting Gismonda to vow marriage. She resists the promise until political danger and her growing love force her to confront the conspirators and accept Almerio as husband and co-ruler.
A one-man biographical show presents former U.S. president Harry S. Truman through a solo performance.
In Milan, the heiress Eugenia and Fulgentius repeatedly break up over her jealousy and his impulsiveness. When Count Roberto courts Eugenia, a near-marriage threatens their relationship, but the return of Fulgentius’s brother removes the obstacle that had kept him from marrying her.
In the Pajadas’ home in coastal Iloilo, gay newspaper writer Dennis invites his bisexual boyfriend Raymond for a quiet weekend and introduces him to his homophobic father, whom he cares for after the rest of the family emigrated. Their conversation about family, ambition, guilt, and happiness is complicated by Raymond’s unseen wife and Dennis’s younger self appearing onstage.
Set on the Somerset Levels in August, the play explores a young girl's sexual awakening and acceptance of past loss alongside eel fishing and the decline of rural life.
Four short plays explore the fragility and anxieties of modern life through distinct dramatic modes: a mysterious, resistant-to-interpretation Glass; Kill’s use of ancient revenge violence to frame modern murder; Bluebeard’s Friends’ culture of self-exculpating hangers-on; and Imp’s portrait of ordinary people turning against outsiders and fearing the unfamiliar.
Glencoe; or, the Fate of the Macdonalds is a historical tragedy by the British writer Thomas Talfourd. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket on 23 June 1840. The cast included William Macready as Halbert MacDonald, Helena Faucit as Helen Campbell, Henry Howe as Henry MacDonald, Benjamin Webster as MacIan, Samuel Phelps as Captain Robert Campbell, Priscilla Horton as Alaster MacDonald, Walter Lacy as Lindsay and Mary Warner as Lady MacDonald. Talfourd dedicated the published version to the literary critic Lord Jeffrey. It was revived at the Surrey Theatre in October 1849. It is inspired by the Massacre of Glencoe which took place in 1692 the wake of a failed Jacobite Rising in Scotland. The current dispute between Jacobites and supporters of William III is subsumed into the long-standing rivalry between the MacDonalds and their arch-enemies the Campbells.
Setting: a Chinese restaurant Scene 1: Shelly Levene tries to convince office manager John Williamson to give him some of "the Glengarry leads" (names and phone numbers of promising potential clients for expensive properties). Williamson is willing to sell some of the prime leads, but demands cash in advance. Levene cannot come up with the cash and must leave without any good leads to work with. Scene 2: Dave Moss and George Aaronow hate the pressure management has put on them to succeed. Moss tells Aaronow that they need to strike back by stealing all the Glengarry leads and selling them to another real estate agency. Moss's plan would require Aaronow to break into the office, stage a burglary, and steal all the prime leads. Aaronow wants no part of the plan, but Moss intimidates him, claiming that he is already an accomplice simply by listening to Moss's pitch. Scene 3: Ricky Roma delivers a monologue to James Lingk. Roma does not bring up the real estate he wants to sell to Lingk until the very end. Instead, Roma preys upon Lingk's insecurities, and his sense that he has never done anything adventurous with his life. Setting: a real estate sales office The burglary is discovered. Williamson has summoned a police detective. Shelly Levene is happy, because he has finally sold a large plot of land to a couple named Nyborg. James Lingk enters the office, looking for Ricky Roma. Lingk's wife has ordered him to cancel the sales contract he signed with Roma. Roma attempts to smooth-talk Lingk into not canceling the contract, informing Lingk that his check has not yet been brought to the bank; this begins to have its intended calming effect on Lingk, who is clearly agitated. Levene supports the ruse, but Williamson, thinking Lingk is worried about the safety of his check, accidentally ruins Roma's ploy when he tells Lingk that his check has just been deposited. Lingk abruptly leaves, telling Roma he's sorry for letting him down. Roma is furious at Williamson, who has blown a big sale. Levene picks up where Roma left off, and begins insulting Williamson. Mid-rant, Levene accidentally reveals his knowledge that Williamson made up the claim about the check being cashed, information he could not have known unless he had been in Williamson's office. Williamson accuses Levene of robbing the office. Levene quickly folds and admits that he and Dave Moss were the thieves. Levene tries to bribe Williamson, offering half of his future sales. Williamson reveals that the Nyborg sale is worthless, as the couple is elderly, mentally ill, and just like talking to salesmen because they're so lonely. Levene asks why Williamson wants him turned in, and why he wouldn't give him the leads in the first place. Williamson simply states he doesn't like Levene, for the years of verbal abuse, and the old man's flippant nature. Roma comes back from his interrogation and Williamson goes in the back room to speak with the detective. Alone with a devastated Levene, Roma proposes the two men work together. The door opens and the detective demands to speak with Levene, shoving him into the back room. Roma, unaware of Levene's fate, reveals his true intentions behind the partnership. Roma orders Williamson to not only continue to hand him the best leads, but to add half of Levene's commissions. Williamson tells Roma not to worry about it but Roma won't listen. (This exchange is omitted in both the published play script and film adaptation.) Aaronow enters the office, desperate to know if they found the perpetrators. Roma says no and heads out to the restaurant.
Four versions of pianist Glenn Gould examine the ambitions, anxieties, and contradictions of his life. A structure inspired by Bach’s Goldberg Variations turns the musician’s public achievements and private struggles into a conversation across time.
In Don Roberto’s household, Zelinda and Lindoro struggle to protect their love amid rival attentions. Zelinda’s tearful confession moves Don Roberto as the young lovers navigate the uncertain course of their relationship.
The play follows the ambitious assistants at a high-end Manhattan magazine. When no one attends the housewarming party for colleague Gloria, she begins feeling increasingly isolated from her co-workers, eventually shooting several managers at the office, leaving her colleagues with fear, confusion and survivor's guilt.
Gloriana; Or, The Court of Augustus Caesar is 1676 tragedy by the English writer Nathaniel Lee. It was first performed by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The original cast included Michael Mohun as Augustus Caesar, Charles Hart as Caesario, Edward Kynaston as Marcellus, Edward Lydall as Tiberius, William Cartwright as Agrippa, Philip Griffin as Mecaenas, Thomas Clark as Ovid, Martin Powell as Leander, Rebecca Marshall as Gloriana, Elizabeth James as Julia and Mary Corbett as Narcissa. The published play was dedicated to the Duchess of Portsmouth, mistress of Charles II. The play is set in the Roman Empire during the reign of the first Roman Emperor Augustus. Amongst other things it portrays the Emperor's banishment of the poet Ovid from Rome.
The proud Duke Gloriant, who believes no woman worthy of him, falls in love with Florentijn, a Saracen princess, after seeing her portrait. Their families’ enmity and religious divide lead to conflict and imprisonment, but Gloriant escapes and rescues her so they can marry.
A comedy about Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York socialite and amateur singer convinced of her talent despite being unable to carry a tune. After mostly private recitals and recordings, she gives a public performance at Carnegie Hall at age 76.
Go Back for Murder is a 1960 mystery play by the British writer Agatha Christie. It is an adaptation of her 1942 novel Five Little Pigs, with the principal character of the book Hercule Poirot removed from the story. Much of the detective work is taken over by Carla Crale, daughter of the murder victim, with the assistance of Justin Fogg, a lawyer. It premiered at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh. It then transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 37 performances. It received a poor reception from critics. The London cast included Robert Urquhart, Lisa Daniely, Ann Firbank, Margot Boyd, Mark Eden, Dorothy Bromiley and Nigel Green. It was directed by Hubert Gregg.
An Englishman goes to the Australian outback. The farce is set in Australia and includes an Egyptian siren named Fatima.
When a performance of A Christmas Carol is threatened, a group of goblins takes to the stage to tell its own version of Dickens's story.
Three goblins take on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in a spontaneous theatre creation.
In an ancient Greek amphitheatre, an actor and a writer struggle to find an ending for a play, repeatedly breaking the fourth wall as other characters and audience members join the action. Their play-within-a-play and a malfunctioning deus ex machina collapse into an infinite loop.
A fictional one-act play set during the Battle of the Alamo.
After one boy knocks out two of another boy’s teeth, their parents meet to settle the matter civilly. Their conversation deteriorates into irrational arguments over sex, race, and prejudice, until the adults themselves behave like children.
Brothel owner Yankl commissions a Torah scroll and plans to marry his daughter Rivkele to a yeshiva student to secure respectability. Rivkele instead falls in love with Manke, one of the women in the brothel, exposing the hypocrisy and moral corruption beneath Yankl’s ambitions.
Using nonlinear strands and documentary dialogue, the play examines the 1984 murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg by the white supremacist group The Order, interweaving Berg, group founder Robert Jay Mathews and former member turned prosecution witness Denver Parmenter within the racketeering trial.
A pious Long Island tycoon faces a messenger from God who tries to make him renounce his faith; after the family endures a series of afflictions, the tycoon remains steadfast.
Hershele Dubrovner, a poor and pious scribe, is tempted by the Devil, disguised as benefactor Uriel Mazik, to exchange his modest life for wealth and a talis factory, at the cost of his soul and marriage.
Gods of the Lightning was a 1928 Broadway three-act drama written by Maxwell Anderson and Harold Hickerson, produced by Hamilton MacFadden and Kellogg Gary and staged by MacFadden. It ran for 29 performances from October 24, 1928 to November 1928 at the Little Theatre. The Sacco-Vanzetti case was the play's inspiration, Charles Bickford in the Sacco character role. Anderson later wrote an updated Sacco-Vanzetti play titled Winterset.
An autobiographical play tracing actor Tim O’Malley’s life at Chicago’s Second City, including bitterness, alcoholism and cocaine addiction, recovery, and later stage, film, and television success.
In Los Angeles, a group of Black residents trapped in cycles of crime, violence and addiction dream of starting over in Buffalo. When Art returns from prison and joins Curt, Pandora, Rich and Mamma Too Tight, their plans unravel as he betrays the others and persuades the women to leave with him.
An Australian artist and his wife live in Canada, frustrated with their lives.
In a Broadway dressing room, two understudies wait through a hit show’s run for their chance to go onstage. Their hopes and fears about being called up frame a love story about people who also struggle to go on with lives they see as short on love, purpose or success.
A Yale man with no athletic ability is drawn into a footrace to recover a ranch's stolen phonograph for New Mexico cowboys and win the affection of a Smith College woman. Farcical complications include rivalries, mistaken athletic expectations, bets and a competitor arriving on crutches.
May N’Kame, mother of a dictator, travels to England for treatment from ophthalmologist Cora Gage. Cora asks her to use her influence to free imprisoned doctors; May instead seeks poison to assassinate her son and end his dictatorship. Their opposing motives create a moral dilemma as both women’s experiences of motherhood and loss emerge, and the consequences continue in a second act set in Africa.
Six German Shepherds perform a Byzantine love story in which a young woman introduces her boyfriend to her parents, amid love, jealousy, curiosity and parental worry. The dogs behave naturally on stage, giving the work its unusual theatrical premise.
Gold Eagle Guy is a 1934 Broadway five scene drama written by Melvin Levy, produced by the Group Theatre with D. A. Doran, Jr., staged by Lee Strasberg, choreography by Helen Tamiris with scenic design by Donald Oenslager and costume design by Kay Morrison. It ran for 65 performances from November 28, 1934, to January 1935 at the Morosco Theatre.
The play follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to a leader of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Much of its focus is on the period surrounding the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel's forces in the Golan Heights and Sinai were attacked by Egypt and Syria. Gibson's drama suggests Meir threatened Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger with the launch of nuclear weapons against her enemies, conceivably starting World War III, unless the U.S. came to her country's aid. The term "Golda's Balcony" refers to the nickname given to an area inside the secretive Dimona nuclear weapons facility from which visiting VIPs can observe some of the activity taking place in the underground portion of the facility.
In Jerusalem, Mr. Jay leads a rehearsal of a play about Old and New Testament episodes, with Holocaust survivor Goldberg as his assistant. As Creation, the Fall, the binding of Isaac, the golden calf and the Crucifixion are rehearsed, a cascade of disasters and the pair's bitter exchanges question the relationship between God and humanity.
Joe Bonaparte, a young Italian American man and talented violinist, dreams of becoming a professional musician. Joe, however, fights a boxing match for manager Tom Moody, which he wins. Joe's father, Mr. Bonaparte, has scraped up enough money to afford a top-of-the-line violin for Joe's 21st birthday. However, upon learning of Joe's fight from Joe's brother Frank, Mr. Bonaparte decides not to give Joe the violin. Two months later, Joe has become a successful boxer for Moody and Roxy Gottlieb, a prizefight promoter. However, Joe won't throw punches, attempting to protect his hands. Later, Joe prepares to go on a boxing tour, where Mr. Bonaparte presents Joe with the violin. Joe plays it, but tells his father to return it. Six months later, Joe's career continues to advance. Infamous gangster Eddie Fuseli approaches Moody and Roxy, demanding to be signed on as a partner, which Joe agrees to. Moody, believing Joe to be distracted by his fame, convinces his girlfriend Lorna to talk to Joe. She does so, and the pair profess their love to each other. Despite this, Lorna cannot bring herself to break off her relationship with Moody. Feeling that he has lost Lorna as well as his father's respect, Joe no longer holds back in the ring. In his next match, Joe defeats his opponent, but breaks a hand, thereby ruining any future career he may have had as a violinist. Six months later, Joe has become a top-ranked prizefighter. He has become disillusioned with his fame and his managers, and has become more vicious in the ring. After learning Lorna is engaged to Moody, Joe confronts her and they argue, where Lorna accuses Joe of being a killer like Fuseli. Disoriented, Joe is unable to stay focused against his opponent, but pulls through with a victory. Before the celebration begins, Joe learns his final blow has killed his opponent. Meanwhile, Joe's managers arrive at the Bonaparte home to wait for Joe and Lorna. Frank receives a call informing him that Joe and Lorna have died in a car accident. Mr. Bonaparte prepares to retrieve the body, saying he will bring Joe "home... where he belongs."
In a present-day frame, Andrew Kwong’s dead grandmother recounts the family history of his great-grandfather, a Chinese businessman who returned home in 1918 intent on converting to Christianity and adopting Western ways. His three wives and daughter face the costs of religious and cultural change, and the story helps Andrew confront his own fears about fatherhood.
Act I: The Bud (The Simmonds sitting room, Farmdale, Connecticut. Afternoon in June 1917.) Mrs. Simmonds and Betsy clean, while Miss Slissy sits and gossips. When Mary Anne brings in flowers, Miss Slissy upsets her with talk about Billy and Elaine. Mrs. Kirkland and Felice arrive soon after with Dick Stanhope. He is introduced to Mrs. Simmonds and Mary Anne. Elaine and Trelle Webb arrive after Dick has left. They push uninvited into the house and ask for tea, ignoring that the tea shop is only the front porch. Mary Anne asks Betsy to serve them anyway. Elaine taunts Mary Anne, and insinuates Billy deceived her; he will be coming too, she adds. Mary Anne goes to the kitchen. Lloyd and Billy join the two girls. Billy wants to invite Mary Anne to the party, but Elaine protests. Mary Anne returns, having donned her best dress and hat. The two city girls slyly mock her country apparel, and twit Billy about her. After they go, Betsy tells Mrs. Kirkland what they said about Mary Anne. Mrs. Kirkland calls for Felice, and they discuss in French a quick makeover for Mary Anne. (Curtain) Act II: The Blossom (Parlor of the new Farmdale Hotel. Same evening.) Some soft dance music is heard in the background, as party goers spill out the hotel ballroom into the parlor. They are all young members of society in New York, friends who have come to Farmdale for the new hotel's opening. Between dances they discuss Billy and Elaine, who are arguing on a side porch, and tease Miss Slissy. Suddenly Dick Stanhope, the beau ideal of this social circle, appears escorting "Marion", who wears a chic new dress straight from Manhattan, and has a sophisticated new hairstyle. The young men are all captivated, the young women puzzled as to who is this new girl. Elaine and Trelle are shocked to learn she is the niece of the wealthy and influential Mrs. Kirkland. (Curtain) Act III: The Full Blown Rose (An upstairs sitting room in Mrs. Kirkland's home in New York City. Summer 1917.) Mrs. Kirkland presides over a soiree in her salon, with "Marion" as her protege. The young men present wear the uniform of privates in the US Army, save for Billy, who has declined to join up. They are soon to leave for France, and the occasion is a farewell party. Billy is overcome by the change in Mary Anne, and longs to renew the spurned courtship. But she is no longer interested in him. Instead, as the young soldiers depart, she realizes that Dick Stanhope is now the focus of her attention. (Curtain) Act IV: The Perfume of Romance (Same as Act I, June 1919.) The whole crowd has gathered at the Simmonds' home to celebrate Mary Anne's return from France, where she had volunteered as a Salvation Army canteen worker. The young men are now in civilian dress, with only Dick missing. Mary Anne fears he has been lost in the war, but a letter from him that went astray before she could read it is suddenly discovered. Dick reappears in timely fashion to join the party. Elaine makes her peace with Mary Anne; she is no longer insecure about Billy. Dick and Mary Anne confess their mutual attraction as the play ends. (Curtain)
Golden Eagle is a 1946 historical play by the British writer Clifford Bax. It portrays the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. It ran for 39 performances at the Westminster Theatre in London's West End between 29 January and 2 March 1946. The original cast featured Claire Luce as Queen Mary and also included Arthur Wontner, David Horne and Torin Thatcher. It was produced and directed by Anmer Hall. The play's music was composed by the author's brother Arnold Bax with whom he often collaborated.
A British women’s 100-metre relay team is given a performance-enhancing drug by its doctor. Ambitious runner Dorcas exceeds the prescribed dose, is caught, and receives a lifetime ban even as the team wins.
Twelve-year-old orphan Marigold is adopted by bush creatures and taken to Golden Valley. Together they resist a developer who threatens their home, with help from a shape-changing boy, a witch-cat and a mysterious gold claim.
Rodrigo García describes the play as a critique of consumer society and a meditation on despair about humanity, built through a deconstruction of Jesus of Nazareth.
On a South London housing estate, British-born Yemi and his Nigerian-raised brother Ikudayisi go out to buy milk. Encounters with neighbors, police and local gangs expose the brothers' tensions over identity, belonging and what they mean to each other.
In 1930s Frankfurt, liberal literature professor John Halder believes he can steer the Nazis toward humane policies. His vanity, careerism, and moral detachment gradually draw him into the party and its crimes, including book burnings, euthanasia experiments, Kristallnacht, and the genocide at Auschwitz, where his Jewish friend Maurice is deported.
Wood’s comedy is set in a north-west England arts centre and centers on women in the community. Its stage form mixes dialogue with songs.
A satire about World War I.
Good Losers is a British mystery play by Michael Arlen and Walter Hackett. It was originally performed at the Whitehall Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 134 performances between 16 February and 13 June 1931. The original cast included Ian Hunter, Francis Lister, Ronald Shiner, Anthony Holles, Eric Maturin, Joan Marion, Marion Lorne and Cathleen Nesbitt. It was followed at the theatre soon after by another Hackett's plays, the horseracing farce Take a Chance.
Good Luck is a 1923 comedy play by Ian Hay and Seymour Hicks. It ran for 260 performances at the Drury Lane Theatre in London's West End between 27 September 1923 and 10 May 1924. The cast included Claude Rains, Edmund Gwenn, Arthur Treacher, Claud Allister, Joan Maude and Joyce Carey. In 1926 it was adapted into a silent film The Sporting Lover by Hollywood studio First National Pictures, starring Conway Tearle and Barbara Bedford.
Decades in the future, with Guantanamo Bay’s staff stranded after funding and media attention disappear, the warden creates a morning talk show to imitate life off the island and keep guards and detainees in line. Celebrity guests are pressed to publicize the prison, while detainee segments and character soliloquies expose its conditions and inner prisons.
Bill loves Dr Sally Smith and tries to win her affection while ending his relationship with Lottie. His tactless friend and his disapproving uncle complicate his efforts; in the play, the uncle ultimately pays Lottie to leave Bill.
The show follows a 1958 episode of The Tonight Show, where host Jack Paar has as a guest comedian Oscar Levant.
The play's story closely follows the plot of the 2005 film, which portrays the conflict between veteran CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin regarding the Senator's investigations and use of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to blacklist people suspected of being communist. Near the end, the play adds a projected montage depicting the evolution of news coverage, showing archival footage including the destruction of the World Trade Center, the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and ending with Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute.
Margie Walsh, a lifelong resident of Southie, a blue collar Boston neighborhood, is fired for tardiness from her job as a cashier at a dollar store. A single mother, and knowing that she and her handicapped adult daughter Joyce, "are only a single paycheck away from desperate straits", Margie goes to her old high school boyfriend Mike — now a doctor, but formerly from her neighborhood — looking for employment. After a verbal game of chicken, Margie shames Mike into inviting her (however reluctantly) to his birthday party in Chestnut Hill. Margie is looking forward to the party because she views it as a chance to meet potential employers. Her friends, Dottie and Jean, encourage her to tell Mike that her daughter Joyce was not born premature but is his, in hopes of getting support from Mike. When Mike calls to tell her that the party has been cancelled, Margie assumes that he is disinviting her because he's embarrassed to have her mix with his bourgeois doctor friends. She decides to go to the house anyway, with the intent of crashing the party. At the beginning of Act II, Margie arrives at Mike's house only to discover that the party has, in fact, been cancelled. Mike's elegant young African American wife Kate at first mistakes Margie for a caterer coming to pick up left-over party paraphernalia. Once the misunderstanding is resolved, Kate invites Margie to stay and reminisce about Mike's past (though Mike is clearly less than enthusiastic at the prospect). A discussion begins, in which Mike tells Margie that her current financial problems are her own fault for not trying hard enough, and Margie tries to explain to Mike that he had lucky breaks that most people from Southie didn't. She talks about the time Mike was beating an African American boy and Mike's father intervened to prevent him from possibly killing the boy and ending up in prison. Then she goes further and tells him that he is Joyce's father, and that she never told the truth about the paternity because she wanted Mike to be able to "get out". Mike says that it wouldn't have made a difference if she'd told him, as he had been planning to leave her anyway. Kate, though she had been taking Margie's side, says to Margie that if Joyce was indeed Mike's, it was selfish of her to hide that fact and not do everything she could for her child. Margie finally claims she was encouraged by her friends to try to extort Mike and it was, indeed, a lie, before finally leaving in shame (though not without implying that Mike is cheating on Kate). Later, Margie's landlady receives an envelope marked as having Margie's rent inside - thinking it has been sent from Mike, Margie intends to return it to him. At bingo, though, it is revealed that the envelope is from Stevie, her former boss at the dollar store - upon learning this, Margie accepts the money as an indefinite "loan" and Stevie agrees to help her find a new job. In a final twist to the plot, Margie asks Jean how she knew that Joyce was indeed Mike's baby, to which Jean replies that "everybody knows."
Dr. Michaels and fellow counselor Evangeline counsel six patients at a rural mental health center.
Goodbye Charlie is a 1959 play written by George Axelrod. It opened on Broadway on December 16, 1959, and closed on March 19, 1960.
A pianist has abandoned music after a public performance mishap and the loss of his wife. He regains his desire to play when another woman takes an interest in his music.
Goodbye, My Fancy is a 1948 play by Fay Kanin. A comedy in three acts and four scenes, the work premiered at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, on October 21, 1948, for tryout performances before the production moved to Broadway in New York City. The work premiered on Broadway on November 17, 1948, at the Morosco Theatre. The original production was staged by Sam Wanamaker and produced by Michael Kanin, Richard Aldrich, and Richard Myers.
A British-born Hollywood star returns to the seaside town where he once struggled as an actor and is cast in a local theatre production without anyone recognizing him. He falls in love with his leading lady, then realizes that his attempt to recreate the past is doomed.
Goodnight Children Everywhere is a 1997 play written by American playwright Richard Nelson that premiered at The Other Place, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. The play is set in 1945 just after the end of World War II. Three sisters reunite with their brother who had been sent to live in the United States during the period of evacuations of civilians during the London bombings.
Constance Ledbelly, an academic studying Othello and Romeo and Juliet, is drawn into their worlds. Her interventions transform the tragedies into comic encounters and lead her to recognize herself as both their author and wise fool.
During World War II, evacuated boy William Beech is billeted with reclusive widower Tom Oakley in rural Dorset. Tom cares for the illiterate, bruised and starving child, but William's abusive mother later calls him back to London during the Blitz.
King Gorboduc divides Britain between his sons Ferrex and Porrex. Their conflict leads to fratricide and revenge, the deaths of the king and queen in a popular revolt, and a succession crisis that ends in civil war.
A skeptical science professor takes part in a Canadian psychology experiment using a helmet said to induce religious experiences. When her son considers becoming a priest, their conflict over religion and tolerance deepens; after his death in a terrorist attack, the professor experiences visions that make her reconsider her beliefs and reconcile with his partner.
A family pursues criminal charges after a young woman discloses childhood sexual assault. Drawing on a true story, the play examines the distance between legal procedure, personal truth, and the search for justice.
David Hare’s play explores the lives and long stage relationship of Victorian actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, alongside the lives of Terry’s children Edith Craig and Edward Gordon Craig.
After a bank clerk inexplicably kills a caretaker with an axe, a public prosecutor identifies with the killer's escape from routine, takes up the legendary Count Öderland's axe, and sets off a rebellion. His attempt to break free of social constraints grows into political upheaval without bringing him the freedom he seeks.
Set twenty years after On Our Selection, the play follows the now-prosperous farmer and parliamentarian Dad as he bullies his sons, who are encouraged by their wives to rebel. The plot also includes a granddaughter’s love triangle, a returning son seeking the estate, and neighboring families.
Grand Hotel is a 1931 play by the British-American writer Edward Knoblock. A drama, it is based on the 1929 German novel Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum about guests staying at a Grand Hotel in Berlin. It ran for 147 performances at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End between September 1931 and January 1932. The cast included Hugh Williams, Ursula Jeans, Elena Miramova, Lyn Harding, George Merritt and Everley Gregg. Its release was pushed back several times. Much of the play's appeal revolved around its large cast and special effects. A separate American stage version was written by William A. Drake and ran on Broadway from November 1930 to December 1931. It was elements of this play that were used for the 1932 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation.
At a seaside hotel, a magician’s illusion leaves a jealous husband questioning reality.
Grand National Night is a 1945 thriller play by the British writers Campbell Christie and Dorothy Christie. A racehorse owner quarrels and accidentally kills his wife on the evening of the Grand National. It premiered at the New Theatre, Oxford before transferring to the Apollo Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 268 performances between 12 June 1946 and 1 February 1947. The original West End cast included Leslie Banks, Hermione Baddeley, Frederick Lloyd, Olga Edwardes, Campbell Copelin and Vincent Holman. It was revived briefly at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 1948, lasting for 16 performances.
On Labor Day 1944, political boss Patsy McCall vacations at the Grand View Hotel on Saratoga Lake with his entourage. Their quiet stay is disrupted when his political rival and former friend Corbet Atterby arrives.
Jerry, a lifelong blue-collar resident of Grangeville, Idaho, reunites with his estranged half-brother Arnie, a gay artist who fled to Rotterdam. Their conversation about caring for their ailing mother forces them to reckon with their relationship and forgiveness.
A romantic tragedy centered on Grania and Diarmuid from the Fenian Cycle, set in ancient Ireland.
Shepherd Daifilo turns from his pursuit of shepherdess Dorilea after meeting Persian princess Granida. Their love draws him into court life and its rival suitors, while Granida longs for pastoral simplicity; the lovers ultimately unite in marriage.
Great Britain is a satirical play written by Richard Bean. It received its world premiere at the Royal National Theatre, London on 30 June 2014, before transferring to the West End's Theatre Royal Haymarket.
The plot focuses on Captain Charles Edstaston, a very prim and proper British military attaché who, in 1776, is assigned to the Imperial Russian court in Saint Petersburg, during the 34-year (1762–1796) rule of Empress Catherine the Great, and brings his equally prim fiancée, Claire, with him. In the midst of court intrigue and palace politics, primarily instigated by Catherine's favored statesman and military leader, the drunken, ill-mannered, but crafty Prince Patiomkin, the imperiously commanding, yet concurrently, voraciously intimate Catherine toys with the naive arrival, questioning his rigid beliefs, leading him to drop his guarded mannerisms and, in the process, she also learns certain philosophical truths.
Great Day is a 1945 play by the British writer Lesley Storm. It portrays the excitement generated in an English village by the upcoming visit of American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The play ran for 29 performances at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End. The original cast included Edgar Norfolk, George Selway, Avice Landone, Mary Hinton, Elsie Randolph, Irene Handl, Barbara White, Olga Lindo and Winifred Evans. The same year it was adapted into a film of the same title directed by Lance Comfort and featuring Flora Robson and Eric Portman.
Great Day in the Morning is a dramatic stage play written by American playwright Alice McCamley Cannon (19192017). The play premiered on Broadway at Henry Millers Theatre in 1962. Colleen Dewhurst was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the production. The play is semi-autobiographical and based on Cannon's Irish Catholic upbringing in St. Louis, Missouri.
A live theatrical recreation of a 1950s radio-drama recording, with performers aware of the audience and free to break character. The original production staged three detective stories, including Dragnet, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Candy Matson.
An unexpected fortune allows the orphan Pip to leave a blacksmith’s forge for life as a gentleman. His attachment to Estella and his assumptions about his benefactor gradually unravel as the past returns.
Eddie Izzard performs a solo reading of Charles Dickens’s story of Pip, an orphan whose unexpected inheritance draws him away from his childhood home. The performance moves among the novel’s characters as Pip confronts ambition, shame, and mistaken assumptions about his benefactor.
At a dinner table, conversation is replaced by fragments of Iraq news reports, an Army prayer manual, invented Arab folk tales and a recurring state of emergency. Three speaking percussionists interweave music, noise and meaning as the sounds of the table press the conversation against material reality.
Greater Tuna is the first in a series of four comedic plays, followed by A Tuna Christmas, Red, White and Tuna, and Tuna Does Vegas. Each play is set in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas, the "third-smallest" town in the state. The series was written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard. The plays are an affectionate comment on small-town Southern life and attitudes, while also satirizing them. Of the four plays, Greater Tuna is the darkest in tone, as it follows the news of the death, and possible murder, of Judge Buckner. The plays are notable for using two actors to portray the entire cast of more than twenty eccentric characters of different genders and ages. Greater Tuna premiered in Austin, Texas, in 1981 and had its off-Broadway premiere in 1982.
Berkoff relocates the Oedipus story to a decaying modern Britain and London’s East End, reframing Sophocles’ tragedy through social disaffection and the bleakness of urban life.
A devised drama about the troubled relationship between a Greek couple, Alex and Calliope.
In early-1900s pioneer country, headstrong farmgirl Laurey and cocky cowhand Curly pursue a rocky romance amid the farming community of Indian Territory.
Green Waters is a 1936 play by the British author Max Catto. It ran for 80 performances at the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End between 25 May and 1 August 1936. The West End cast included Sebastian Shaw, Wilfred Walter, Morland Graham, Torin Thatcher, Marie Ault and Gillian Lind. It also appeared at the Masque Theatre on Broadway.
In this Jacobean city comedy, spendthrift citizen Spendall loses his inheritance while Bubble unexpectedly comes into money and remains loyal to his master Staines. Debt, role reversals, disguises and cheats let Staines regain his position, satirizing contemporary urban life and its debauchery.
After a Conservative election victory, four characters jump into the Thames and awaken 700 years later in a utopia where no one must do anything against their will.
A collaborative play about global warming and its effects, created for the National Theatre and named after the island of Greenland.
Greenwich Park is a 1691 comedy play by the English writer William Mountfort. The original cast included Anthony Leigh as Sir Thomas Reveller, James Nokes as Raison, Cave Underhill as Sasaphras, John Hodgson as Lord Worthy, William Mountfort as Young Reveller, William Bowen as Thoughtless John Bowman as Beau, George Bright as Bully Bounce, Elizabeth Barry as Dorinda, Susanna Mountfort as Florella, Margaret Osborne as Lady Hazard, Katherine Corey as Aunt to Dorinda and Frances Maria Knight as Mrs Raison.
Faustus, a monk disillusioned with isolation, seeks the pure woman Mephisto shows him. His love for Gretchen leads to her pregnancy and death; before dying, she forgives him and urges a life of faith, truth and charity.
A political satire reacting to Denmark's introduction of counts and barons, who outranked untitled nobles under the absolute monarchy.
Max and Henry, a young married couple, wreck their car in the mountains during a blizzard. They take shelter in a cabin occupied by a group of teenage girls and an old lady who claims to be their mother. During their stay, the girls imply that Max and Henry were not drawn to the house by the car accident, but their own pasts.
A young liberal nobleman fights patriarchal order and seeks to transform the landlord economy.
Grieving's a Folly is an 1809 comedy play by the British writer Richard Leigh. It premiered on 21 April 1809 at the Lyceum Theatre in London, which was being used the Drury Lane company while their own theatre was being rebuilt after a fire. The cast included Henry Siddons as Mr Herbert, Harriet Siddons as Ellen, William Dowton as Sir Oliver Cypress, William Powell as Belford, John Bannister as Crape, John Henry Johnstone as O'Harrolan, Charles Mathews as Joe Thresher, Walter Maddocks as Jonathon, Jane Powell as Mrs Mordaunt and Frances Maria Kelly as Susan Woodburn. The prologue was written and spoken by Edmund John Eyre. It enjoyed a successful run and was published by Longmans the same year. A second play by Leigh Where to Find a Friend was performed by the company in 1811.
The devil Belphagor comes to earth disguised as a Spanish doctor to investigate marriage. After curing Honoria, he is trapped in a series of humiliations involving her broken promise, a bed trick, attempted murder, and poisoning; he returns to Hell when his allotted time ends. In the subplot, the good-hearted collier Grim wins Joan with help from Puck.
Grimaldi, an Italian duke in disguise, protects a young actress from the condescension of wealthy society and ultimately reveals her noble birth.
Carol Ann Duffy’s stage adaptation draws on four Grimm fairy tales: Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, and The Golden Goose.
A poor farmer, Ise, wishes for power to trap anything that climbs his orange tree by saying “Grip Am”; he uses it to control his troubles and trap the Angel of Death, while his wife Aso has her own wish.
A family saga shaped by loss and trauma, the play uses intimate experience to comment on contemporary Nigerian political dysfunction and the resilience needed to remain engaged in public life.
The play revolves around the relationships between five school-friends are explored at three stages of their lives: in Year Two in 1994, Year Nine in 2001, and at a school reunion in the present day.
Based on the 1971 labor dispute in Balen, the play concerns Vieille Montagne workers striking for equal pay. The strike lasts nine weeks, leaving workers without income as local residents and charities provide support.
Using contemporary court documents, newspaper accounts, and books read aloud by the actors, the play reconstructs Oscar Wilde’s three trials over his relationships with Lord Alfred Douglas and other men. Wilde’s libel case against Queensberry fails, and the later prosecutions for gross indecency end in conviction and hard labour.
A biographical revue follows Groucho Marx's life and career, with an actor portraying him from age fifteen to eighty-five and other performers representing Harpo, Chico and figures from his work.
A female Air Force pilot grounded from flying after becoming pregnant is reassigned to remote drone operations near Las Vegas, where the distance between her home life and distant targets causes psychological distress.
Grouse in June is a 1939 comedy play by N.C. Hunter, in which a group of Americans hunt for treasure lost on the Scottish coast when the Spanish Armada was washed ashore in 1588. After premiering at Richmond Theatre, it ran for 126 performances in the West End at the Criterion and New Theatres. The cast included Robert Beatty, Arthur Hambling and Hugh McDermott.
Three women of middle age perform a scripted comedy of gripes about fashion, food fads and everyday frustrations, from complaints to shops and service providers to the indignities and pleasures of getting older.
In London, a tabloid journalist finds an opportunity to further his career by manufacturing photographs supposedly depicting British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. He is identified only as "English Boy". This story is intercut with the confessional monologue of a young United States Army soldier from West Virginia who becomes a scapegoat in a scandal involving photographs of actual abuse. She is identified only as "American Girl". It is later revealed that English Boy is a sexual sadist, taking pleasure in torturing his partners and taking advantage of his boyfriend's masochism for his own pleasure. It is also revealed that American Girl had an abusive sexual relationship with a superior officer. It is implied that these relationships may have furthered the main characters' descent.
A one-act tragedy following Queen Guenevere through Camelot’s final days as she watches from exile in a nunnery, shaped in the structure of a classical Greek tragedy.
Guilty or Not Guilty is an 1804 comedy play by the British author Thomas Dibdin. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London on 26 May 1804. The original cast included Robert Palmer as Major Corslet, William Chapman as Mr. Balance, Robert William Elliston as Edmond Rigid, Vincent De Camp as Sir Harry Pointer, Charles Mathews as Triangle and Maria Gibbs as Nancy.
Ten years into their marriage, May and Raleigh live in a Florida Gulf Coast island community, where a shrinking dream house and arriving relatives test their relationship.
Guy Domville, a tutor planning to enter the priesthood, considers marrying to preserve his family line, but ultimately helps the people he loves marry and returns to his vocation.
Gypsy was a 1929 Broadway three-act play written by Maxwell Anderson and produced by Richard Herndon. Directed by George Cukor, the production ran for 64 performances from January 14, 1929, to March 1929 at the Klaw Theatre. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1928-1929.
Goethe’s freely adapted drama presents the historical Götz as a maverick and pillar of national integrity resisting a deceitful, over-refined society. He ultimately succumbs to the abstract demands of law and justice, dramatizing the individual’s submission to social authority.
In Hove, a doctor and his family, a would-be seducer, an aspiring lover, and a frustrated celibate become entangled in mistaken sexual advances, false breasts, a tranquilliser, an unexpected pregnancy, and old secrets.
A schoolteacher casts an Aboriginal girl as the Virgin Mary in a play, raising a story about race relations in Australia.
A verse drama in which Ishmael quarrels with the Angel of the Lord.
A fisherman finds a celestial dancer’s feather mantle and agrees to return it only if she performs her dance. The chorus presents her dance as an image of the moon’s changes, and she vanishes into mist.
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