Discover our past plays

Direction: Robert Rumpf If you like hilarious farce with a sophisticated plot, then this British offering is for you. The fun begins when Ferris takes over the management of his sister’s shady hotel while she is on holiday. Little does he know that a newspaper critic will soon appear anonymously to evaluate the hotel. He…

Direction: Paul Glaser This is one of London’s biggest hits ever.  Adapted from Susan Hill’s gothic novel, it has been scaring audiences in the West End for over 30 years. The story concerns a young solicitor who is sent to a remote village to settle the affairs of a woman who recently died. In her…

After her mother’s death an American girl travels to a coastal village in southern Spain to reconnect with her artist father, Emiliano, who abandoned the family ten years earlier. She meets her father’s female companion and falls in love with his Moroccan houseboy, only to discover  that the young man is not only married to…

Jeremy Troy is a successful New York lawyer living the American Dream. In fact, his boss is coming to dinner that evening and will be making him a full partner in the law firm. Unfortunately, Jeremy and his wife are visited that day by an old college friend who now lives by sponging off former…

The second longest running Off-Broadway Show in history finally arrived in Hamburg! Hilariously funny, not to be missed. How does one deal with romantic love and marriage in today’s world? This is the question posed by this delightful revue-like musical as it moves from couples on their rst disastrous date, through courtship, the ups and…

Based on Oscar Wilde’s famous novel of 1891, the play is part melodrama and part comedy of manners. It tells the story of Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man who falls in love with a portrait of himself. He naively makes a pact with the Devil, whereby he will keep his youthful appearance while the…

Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, thinks he has the perfect set-up. He has proposed marriage to three beautiful young women of different nationalities: Italian, German and American. Each one is an airline hostess, and thanks to their different stopover times in Paris, Bernard is able to entertain them separately in his at without…

In a retrospective on Canadian theatre in the Toronto Globe & Mail, I’LL BE BACK BEFORE MIDNIGHT! was called “probably the most produced Canadian play ever.” It has had countless productions in Canada, the USA and Europe, placing the author among the top playwrights working in the mystery thriller genre today. The play is an…

In This comedy by one of Britain’s most popular playwrights is a brilliantly funny link at the English abroad. Al and Bet lead a quiet, boring life in Yorkshire. After twenty years of working for the same company, he has lost his job and cannot find another one. Frustrated with their life and worried about…

OTHELLO, written by William Shakespeare between 1601 and 1602, continues to hold audiences spellbound. This suspenseful drama of jealously and betrayal begins in Venice where Othello, a dark-skinned Moor and rising military star, has just chosen Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of the ambitious Iago, who wanted the position for himself. Iago immediately vows…

Derek Benfield was a master at writing farces. Webster’s New Universal Dictionary defines the word “farce” as “a light humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character.” In DON’T LOSE THE PLACE! the characters differ enough to make them interesting, but the plot takes precedence over…

New York audiences gave this play standing ovations when it opened there in 1985. Described as a theatrical thrill ride, it has been an international success throughout the world and joined the prestigious group of American modern classics. Performed in the past by leading actors such as Albert Finney and Al Pacino, the play was…

DANGEROUS  OBSESSION is one of the British theatre’s most successful psycho thriller of recent history and one of the highest quality. The play takes place on a sunny afternoon in the Home Counties. Sally Driscoll is watering her plants in the conservatory of her luxurious home. Suddenly John Barrett appears at the door. Sally does…

First production by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 1980, this comedy was later transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre where it won three major awards from the critics. It was one of the longest running plays in London`s recent theatrical history and was turned into an award winning film starring Michael Caine and Julie…

In this fast moving British comedy Jim invites his super moral American boss and wife to dinner. Since the boss insists that his employees be married if they are living together, Jim asks his live-in girlfriend, Helen, to pose as his wife for the evening. The request infuriates Helen who has been waiting for ages…

How many insults can you hear before you stand up for the women you love? Tom, a young business executive, meets Helen, an intelligent, funny, but overweight librarian. They date and fall in love, but Helen`s plus-size causes trouble for Tom back in his office. His best friend and colleague, Carter, treats the relationship as…

How far would you go for love? This is the focus of THRILL ME, which takes a new look at the legendary “thrill killers”, Leopold and Loeb, who committed what was called the crime of the century in Chicago in 1924. The court trial concluded that the two young men murdered their victim simply for…

Bernard Shaw had two categories for his plays, those that were “pleasant” and those that were “unpleasant”. CANDIDA he put among the pleasant ones, and it is easy to see why. A box office hit in its time (1904), this British classic continues to be one of Shaw’s most popular plays. It deals with a young poet,…

Derek Benfield was a master at writing farces. Webster’s New Universal Dictionary defines the word “farce” as “a light humorous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character.” In ANYONE FOR BREAKFAST? the characters differ enough to make them interesting, but the plot takes precedence over character…

THE WHIPPING MAN takes place over a period of three days in April, 1865. The American Civil War (1861—1865), which saw the northern states fighting against the southern states to end slavery and preserve the unity of the country, has just ended. The North has won the war, so all over the South the slaves…

Arthur and Leslie Reed have just given a party after moving into a high-class neighborhood in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Ben, a man from the neighborhood, unexpectedly knocks on their door and invites himself in. He admires the expensive possessions the Reeds have and they are pleased that he is impressed. Unlike Arthur and…

MASS APPEAL premiered off-Broadway in New York City and then moved to Broadway in 1981. Since then it has been performed around the world. It was made into a movie starring Jack Lemmon with the screenplay written by Bill C. Davis. The play was born from the author’s inner dilemma. As an artist, does one say…

Ginny, after breaking up with her boss Philip, goes to his country home to get back some love letters. She tells her new boyfriend Greg that she is going to visit her parents. Greg secretly follows her, and for the rest of the afternoon there are two couples together in Philip’s garden. Greg believes that…

Newlyweds Robert and Olivia Chappell have recently bought a small hotel in a remote part of the Lake District, and at the end of their first autumn season they settle down with a drink in front of a warm fire. But their cosy evening is interrupted by the arrival of a charismatic young hiker seeking…

If you like screwball comedy with a message for today, then BIG BOYS by award-winning playwright Rich Orloff is something for you. Described as “Big Business meets the Marx Brothers’ Monkey Business”, the play starts out with what is worst in America’s corporate culture and stretches it to its most absurd and, at times, surreal. It is…

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is generally considered to be the finest comedy of its kind in the English language. Of all of Oscar Wilde’s plays, it is the most timeless and universal. There is certainly very little in the play one could call dated. With the substitution or elimination of just a handful of references,…

When Brian takes up jogging, his wife Hilary is overjoyed. But, instead of jogging, Brian is in fact spending a couple of hours with his girlfriend, Wendy, in his good friend George’s flat. This arrangement works wonderfully for some time; for, while Brian is with Wendy, George knows there is no danger of his being…

How does physical beauty, or the lack of it, impact our lives? This is one of the questions that American playwright Neil LaBute raises in his provocative play REASONS TO BE PRETTY. He does this as he observes the lives of four young people who are stuck in jobs and relationships that are not working for…

How dThis touching, yet funny play is set in a Pennsylvania coal town. Single mom, Miriam Waslyk, works as a waitress, but it is her painting that matters most to her. She would like some male companionship, but, so far, her precocious daughter, Amanda (13), has driven away anyone that might come between her and…

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (DIE KOMÖDIE DER IRRUNGEN) is usually considered to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays.  Based on a work by the Roman comic playwright Plautus, it concerns two sets of identical twins that were separated shortly after birth. Years later the twins end up in the same town unaware of the others’ existence.…

Rosie’s so busy ‘saving the world’ and generally enjoying her cosy, comfortable life style that it comes as a major blow when 52 year old husband, Piers, dumps her for his young secretary Larissa. – So how will this ordinary middle-class housewife pick up the shattered pieces of her life… a passionate affair with Darren…

THE FOX is based on the famous novella of the same title by D.H. Lawrence (1885—1930). Like the original, this adaptation is set in rural England in 1918, where two young women in an unconventional relationship are struggling to exist on an isolated farm. They are having trouble with their crops, their hens won’t lay, winter…

Rose Steiner needs to write another best-seller to stay out of the poor house.  But she has been suffering from writer’s block ever since her lover Walsh McLaren, also a famous author, passed away five years ago. To cope with her loss, Rose imagines that Walsh visits and talks to her every night.  She even has…

During a summer day in the English country-side, Vivie Warren, a young Cambridge graduate, learns that her mother is a madam in the oldest profession in the world. She is horrified. Her entire education and luxurious life-style have been financed by her mother’s string of brothels on the Continent! Mrs Warren struggles to win her…

From its first performance in 1984, this light-hearted British comedy has been a favourite with audiences and critics alike. It concerns a middle-aged family man, Charles, who has had a brief affair in New York with an American girl. Back in England now, he believes he covered his tracks by not giving her his address…

Belinda and Cody are a typical young American couple. Typical . . . except Cody is black and Belinda is white. All appears to be going well until she becomes attracted to a former classmate who is also white. As the men battle for her affections, the door is opened to a world of bigotry and…

Belinda and Premiered recently in the USA where it received the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award for crime fiction, this fast moving, witty thriller is sure to keep you on the edge ofyour seat until the veryend.  Camille Dargas, a highly successful jewelery designer in her 40s, asks a waiter at a party in her New York…

It is the Bronx, 1946.  Twenty-one-year-old Timmy returns home after serving three years in the army during World War II. His Irish-Catholic parents celebrate his homecoming with song, dance and booze. But Timmy soon finds himself caught in the crossfire between mother and father, who compete for his affections while trying to mask the tensions…

Geoff has arranged a special birthday treat for his old friend Bob whose marriage is on the rocks. The treat is a hotel room for the night, complete with champagne, a double bed and a very attractive girl called Mimi. Arriving at the hotel, Bob discovers Kate in his room and assumes she is Mimi.…

Geoff has arranged a special birthday treat for his old friend Bob whose marriage is on the rocks. The treat is a hotel room for the night, complete with champagne, a double bed and a very attractive girl called Mimi. Arriving at the hotel, Bob discovers Kate in his room and assumes she is Mimi.…

What could a Southern Baptist widow in Florida possibly have in common with a gay dance instructor from New York? Perhaps more than you think. In this new American comedy, seventy-two-year-old Lily hires Michael, a former Broadway chorus boy now approaching middle age, to give her dance lessons in the hope of spicing up her…

A young playwright returns home to get permission from his mother and father to produce a play he has written about them. His well-to-do (and rather stuffy) parents are horrified at the idea of their private life being exposed on stage, while his sister is furious that she is only a secondary figure in the…

If you think your life is stressful, imagine the life of John Smith, a taxi driver who keeps two separate families in different parts of London. When his teenaged children (a girl from one family and a boy from the other) accidentally meet on the Internet and plan to see each other in person, John’s…

Why do people make the wrong decisions in matters of love ? This is the life dilemma that prize-winning playwright Christopher Hampton focuses on in this intelligent, witty play about sexual manners and manipulation. Ann has tried to free herself from Dave by taking on a new lover, Patrick, while Dave is away in Iraq.…

“Love Is All Around” is the name of a feminist publishing house where Harriet Copeland is running a competition to find new romantic fiction written by women only. Leonard Loftus is trying to get his books published, but Harriet keeps sending his manuscripts back because they are the work of a man. When Leonard finally…

“What do you do when you are not sure?” This is the question posed by this remarkable new play. The setting is a Catholic church and school in New York in 1964. Twelve-year-old Donald starts behaving strangely and is caught with alcohol on his breath. The principal of the school, Sister Aloysius, suspects that the…

What’s to be done when grown children return home to live with their parents? George and Helene’s kids have finally left the nest. Now the middle-aged couple are alone together and have time to renew their romance that has suffered while raising the family. Or so they think. Within a week, all three sons come…

Aston, a young man in his early thirties, rescues a poor old tramp from a fight. He brings him home to his room in a large house, gives him a place to sleep and offers him a job as caretaker. The tramp is reluctant to take the job, but he obviously likes the shelter and…

CORPSE!, a comedy-thriller, was originally premiered at the American Stage Festival Theatre, Milford, New Hampshire, USA in 1983. Critics were lavish in their praise of the play both in terms of comedy and suspense. In 1984 it was presented in London at the Apollo Theatre with Keith Baxter and Milo O’Shea in the starring roles. The production transferred to…

Mr. Green, an elderly, retired dry cleaner, wanders into New York traffic and is almost hit by a car driven by Ross Gardiner, a 29-year-old business executive. Ross is charged with reckless driving and sentenced to a period of community service. Over several months he is required to visit Mr. Green, shop for his groceries and clean…

GAMEPLAN is a humorous depiction of a teenager who uses the internet without parental supervision. It takes place in Lynette Saxon’s London apartment overlooking the River Thames. After Lynette and her husband lose all their money in the computer industry and he runs away with another woman, Lynette tries hard to support herself and her…

“Give a dog a woman’s name and you begin to think of it as a woman,” says one of the characters in this charming American comedy. And that is exactly what happens to Greg who brings home from the park, fleas and all, a stray dog named Sylvia (played on Broadway by Sarah Jessica Parker).…

BAD BLOOD was first presented at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on 28 January, 2003. Doug Rollins, the husband of Pamela Hall, played the role of Jack in the original production. Pamela has appeared recently in I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES and APRIL IN PARIS at The English Theatre of Hamburg. In the play, Tom and Victoria are an ideal couple with everything money…

One of the greatest plays of the American theatre, THE GLASS MENAGERIE tells the story of a St. Louis family struggling to cope with the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Son Tom is torn between his role as the family bread-winner and the desire to lead a life of his own. His sister Laura…

LONDON SUITE, produced on Broadway in 1995, is a collection of four short plays set in the same suite of a fashionable old hotel in London. In each playlet Simon sets a different tone, starting with a thriller, moving to a comedy, then to a comedy-drama, and finally a hilarious farce. LONDON SUITE contains Simon’s characteristic witty dialogue,…

Jan de Hartog (1914—2002) was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. His father was a minister and theology professor. He left home at the age of ten to work as a sailor on fishing boats and steamers. After attending the Amsterdam Naval College, he worked at the Amsterdam Municipal Theatre from 1932 to 1937. During this period he wrote…

PERFECT WEDDING is a rare combination of riotous farce and touching love story. It has already provoked waves of laughter across Europe and America. Bill wakes up in the bridal suite on his wedding day to find an extremely attractive girl in bed beside him. In his hangover state he cannot remember who she is…

MEN’S SINGLES is an amusing as well as revealing look at the friendship of three modern American males. Every Tuesday night, Rob, an advertising executive in his twenties, gets together with either Larry, a macho salesman in his mid-thirties, or Kurt, a psychiatrist in his early thirties, for a tennis match. Rob, a New Yorker, yearns…

In ROLEPLAY Justin Lazenby and his live-in girlfriend Julie-Ann Dobson are planning to announce their engagement at a dinner party for each other’s parents. Julie-Ann wants everything to be perfect for her conservative mother and father. When she discovers that a dessert fork is missing, she panics and leaves the flat, hoping she can buy a new…

Victor and Harlan are two philosophy professors who have been friends, rivals and tricksters since their college days. But now Harlan has become a Stoic who has adopted a strict unemotional regimen in preparation for the afterlife, while Victor has turned into a wild hedonist who believes that “when you’re dead, you’re dead,” so enjoy…

Rita, a young hairdresser, registers for a literature course offered by the Open University, sensing that it will enrich and increase her possibilities in life. During her tutorials, she becomes a different person, gradually liberating herself from the limitations of her working class background, family and marriage. She exchanges the small talk of the hair…

The title of the play comes from a popular song that Americans sing around Thanksgiving and Christmas. The first verse is, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow.” This song brings back memories of family…

I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES is the poignant story of a father and daughter trying to pick up the pieces of a broken home. Set in the showbiz world of Hollywood that the author knows so well, it is about a failed scriptwriter whose struggling existence is suddenly shattered by the arrival on his…

Is life a circle, a journey that keeps repeating itself? This seems to be the question the playwright is asking in this amusing play. Lady Kitty, who gave up a boring life with her titled husband to run away with a young adventurer, watches her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, about to do the same thing thirty years…

THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT opened in New York in 1964 and was such a success that it was soon made into a film with Barbra Streisand and George Segal. It is easy to see why the play continues to be so enormously popular with audiences all over the world. The comedy is based on…

DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER was first a smash hit in Paris and then later London’s longest running comedy ever. Set in a stylishly converted French farm building, Bernard hopes to entertain his chic mistress while his wife Jacqueline visits her mother. He has hired a cook for the evening and even invited along his best…

DANGEROUS OBSESSION takes place on a sunny afternoon in the Home Counties. Sally Driscoll is watering her plants in the conservatory of her luxurious home. Suddenly John Barrett appears at the door. Sally does not recognize John, but it seems that the Driscolls and the Baretts have met before. After Sally’s husband, Mark, arrives it…

TWELFTH NIGHT (“Was Ihr wollt

This long-running Broadway comedy (also a popular film) is not only about a love affair taking place once a year. It is also a reflection of 25 years of American manners, morals and attitudes mirrored in the changing lives and personalities of its two characters. George picks up Doris in a California inn in 1951,…

This play (as well as the musical CABARET) was adapted from THE BERLIN STORIES of Christopher Isherwood (1904—1986). It looks at life in a Berlin rooming house of 1930 with a photographic eye. Chris is a struggling young writer whose novel, I AM A CAMERA, concerns the events occurring around him in the Berlin of…

DON’T MISUNDERSTAND ME opened in May of 1984 at the Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead. From the very beginning the play has been extremely popular with audiences and critics. After a tour of Sweden in 1985 and the U.K. in 1986, the play has gone on to successful runs in theatres across the U.K. and abroad. This…

I’LL BE BACK BEFORE MIDNIGHT! was named in a recent Toronto Globe & Mail retrospective on Canadian theatre as “probably the most produced Canadian play ever.” The play has grossed over $8 million world wide, and has had countless productions in Canada, the USA and Europe, placing the author among the top playwrights working in…

Vicky, who runs a bookshop, is overweight. She suffers, good humouredly enough, the negative remarks of the two characters who share her home next to the shop: James, a Scottish youth who works as an au pair, and Henry, a not-so-young gay man. When a customer—a handsome man of thirty—seems attracted to her, she resolves…

Shaw had two categories for his plays, those that were “pleasant

Shaw had two categories for his plays, those that were “pleasant

There is a time in everyone’s life when you have to get serious, quit acting like a child and start acting like a grown-up. This would seem to be the message, if there is one, in Neil Simon’s autobiographical play COME BLOW YOUR HORN. Known later in Germany under three different titles (Leg doch endlich…

Should ethics be based on the ideals of Socrates or on the real situation one faces? The author of the play sees no reason why such a serious question should not be posed in an entertaining and theatrical manner. Henry Lowenthal, long-time professor of philosophy is looking forward to a semi-retirement position at the college…

BIRTHDAY SUITE was first produced at the Redgrave Theatre, Farnham in 1983. Subsequently there were two national tours and many provincial productions. It has also been produced in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, Holland, Poland, South Africa, and the United States. The fast moving comedy takes place in two adjoining hotel bedrooms. Geoff Tippett tells his…

RELATIVELY SPEAKING concerns two couples, one young and one middle-aged, each containing one unfaithful partner. Greg wants to marry Ginny, who has only recently broken off an affair with her boss, Philip. Ginny goes down to Philip’s country home to get back some love letters, after telling Greg that she is going to visit her…

MURDER IN GREEN MEADOWS was first produced in 1986 as a one-act teleplay, as part of the NBC Chicago Playwrights Festival, in a cooperative venture between WMAQ-TV and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois. It received its world premiere as a full length two-act play at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton, England in 1992.…

STAGE STRUCK opens in the living room of one Robert Simon, a failed actor, but at one time a first-rate stage manager. Without any money of his own, he now keeps house for Anne, his successful West End actress-wife, and supports this rich, ambitious woman in every way possible. But she, believing him to have…

In CALIFORNIA SUITE Neil Simon is again the witty and accurate observer of marital and family relationships. He is also at his most humane and compassionate. This humorous confection is divided into four parts, each with a different situation and different characters. In “Visitor from New York

In CALIFORWHY NOT STAY FOR BREAKFAST? has never failed to delight audiences, both young and old, with its comic treatment of the generation gap. It was a particular favourite when the English Theatre of Hamburg produced it in 1981 and again in 1989. The comedy opened at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1973 and played…

BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE was first produced at the Booth Theatre in New York and was named the best play of the 1969/70 season. Eileen Hekkart played the mother, Keir Dullea her son Don, and Blythe Danner did the part of Jill. Ralph was played by Michael Glaser. The film version, which followed three years later…

First produced at the National Theatre in London in 1978, BETRAYAL was a popular success on both sides of the Atlantic. It won, in New York, the Drama Critics Circle Award as best foreign play and, in London, the West End Award as best play of the season. It was filmed in 1983 with Ben…

ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR takes place on three successive Christmas Eves in the kitchens of three different couples. In Act I, the “lower-class” but ambitious Hopcrofts give a party for their bank manager and his wife, and an architect neighbour. The Hopcrofts are nervous because the people they have invited might be useful to them on their…

AN INSPECTOR CALLS is  usually seen as a social message wrapped in a detective story, or thriller. Penned in 1945 but set in 1912, the author was writing from his personal experience of two world wars and was warning of another one to come unless people changed their behaviour. For him this meant taking moral…

Neil Simon’s comedies have given pleasure to literally millions of theatergoers over the past three decades. Critics have ranked his plays anywhere from a “delightful evening

PRIVATE LIVES, in the opinion of most critics, is the likeliest candidate as Noël Coward’s masterpiece. It, along with HAY FEVER, DESIGN FOR LIVING, PRESENT LAUGHTER and BLITHE SPIRIT, admit Coward to the line of great English comic dramatists such as Congreve, Sheridan and Wilde. “With the sole exception of Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward has…

Peter O’Donnell was born in 1920 and sold his first story at the age of 16. Drunk with success, he sobered up when he failed to sell another for two years. On leaving school, he worked for a magazine publishing company producing comics. Convinced the work was beneath his dignity, he soon had this notion…

TABLE MANNERS is part of a trilogy under the general heading THE NORMAN CONQUESTS, the other two plays being ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN and LIVING TOGETHER. The plays are not consecutive, but all occur during a single week-end and each takes place in a different part of the same house. Thus we are watching…

Sister George is a famous character in a BBC soap opera series, a nurse who cycles about singing hymns, doing good deeds, and spreading cheer. Because of the struggle for ratings, and because there is gossip of notoriety in her personal life, the BBC decides to “kill her off” by having her involved in an…

After a six day honeymoon a spanking new lawyer, who has just won his first case 6 cents in damages, and his young bride, who is as pretty and addled as they come, move into the new, high rent apartment that she has chosen for them But the difficulty is, in order to enjoy the…

The play is set in a duchy in France, but most of the action takes place in a location called the Forest of Arden..’ Frederick has usurped the Duchy and exiled his older brother, Duke Senior. The Duke’s daughter Rosalind has been permitted to remain at court because she is the closest friend and cousin…

CORPSE!, a comedy-thriller, was originally premiered at the American Stage Festival Theatre, Milford, New Hampshire, USA in 1983. Critics were lavish in their praise of the play both in terms of comedy and suspense. In 1984 it was presented in London at the Apollo Theatre with Keith Baxter and Milo O’Shea in the starring roles.…

One of Bernard Shaw’s most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is also a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina…

Colin must be comforted in his grief over the death of his fiancee so his friends, who never met the girl, arrange a tea party for him. Understandably they are on edge wondering what to say, but there is more to their unease: Diane and Paul, John and Evelyn, and Marge and her husband is…

Charles Condomine, a successful novelist, wishes to learn about the occult for a novel he is writing, and he arranges for an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his house. At the séance, she inadvertently summons Charles’s first wife, Elvira, who has been dead for seven years. Madame Arcati leaves after the…

Sidney Bruhl is a once-successful playwright whose last several productions have flopped at the box office. He then receives a script by a novice writer named Clifford Anderson for a stage thriller entitled Deathtrap. Bruhl tells his wife Myra that the script is brilliant and he then concocts a murder plot whereby he will offer…

Of all of Oscar Wilde’s plays, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is the most timeless and universal. There is certainly very little in the play one could call dated, even more than a hundred years after it was written. Perhaps this is because it is almost pure comedy. The plot is as improbable today as…

In the attic of a soon-to-be-demolished house, two brothers meet after a 16 year estrangement to dispose of their dead parents’ property The first is a policeman who sacrificed his education and probably a career as a scientist to care for his ruined, invalid father. The other, who arrives late, is an eminent surgeon who…

I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES is the poignant story of a father and daughter trying to pick up the pieces of a broken home. Set in the showbiz world of Hollywood that the author knows so well, it is about a failed scriptwriter whose struggling existence is suddenly shattered by the arrival on his…

Susan Kerner, a young Boston college student and Larry Eastwood, a young lawyer she’s just met, have been enticed to the Brabissant mansion by the Mackeys, a charming, elderly Irish couple who are struck by Susan’s strong resemblance to Veronica Brabissant, long dead daughter of the family for whom they work They view Veronica’s picture…

This long-running Broadway comedy (also a popular film) is not only about a love affair taking place once a year. It is also a reflection of 25 years of American manners, morals and attitudes mirrored in the changing lives and personalities of its two characters. George picks up Doris in a California inn in 1951,…

This is a gripping drama about an unusual terrorist, one who is brilliant, articulate and right? Victor is the head of a group responsible for a bomb attack at the White House in which 27 people have been killed He has a television news reporter led to his lair so she can tell the world…

The play is set in the Wiltshire, England manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. His home reflects Wyke’s obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing. He lures his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle, to the house and convinces him to stage a robbery of…

Rita, a young hairdresser, registers for a literature course offered by the Open University, sensing that it will enrich and increase her possibilities in life. During her tutorials, she becomes a different person, gradually liberating herself from the limitations of her working class background, family and marriage. She exchanges the small talk of the hair…

Dan and Margaret have come to spend Christmas with Rachel and Edmund in their renovated seventeenth-century cottage. Events become sinister and macabre when Rachel has a feeling of deja vu, the electricity fails, the phone is out of order, and strange happenings esculate out of control.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE, Tennessee Williams’s first great hit, opened to critical acclaim in Chicago on December 26, 1944, and then moved on to Broadway where it made its author internationally famous. The play’s setting is St. Louis

The story is a love triangle, mixed with politics. Andy and Norman are radicals who barely make a living working on their magazine, Fallout, which is dedicated to fighting “the system” in America. Sophie, a former Olympic swimmer, is an all-American, Southern girl who moves into the apartment next door. It’s love at first sight…

Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover. But the lover who comes to call in the afternoons is revealed to be the husband adopting a role. He plays the lover for her: she plays the whore for him. The play contrasts…

Two hit-men, Ben and Gus are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. Ben is the senior member of the team and is reading a newspaper when the action begins. Gus is the junior member and is tying his shoes as the play opens. Gus asks many questions of Ben as he gets ready…

Bill Manhoff (1919-1974), though perhaps best known for his hit Broadway comedy THE OWL AND THEPUSSYCAT, was a longtime writer for a number of TV series (THE ODD COUPLE, SANFORD ANDSON, ALL IN THE FAMILY, LOVE AMERICAN STYLE, ROOM 222 and THE PARTRIDGEFAMILY). THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT opened in New York in 1964 and…

The “Shrew” is Katherina Minola, the eldest daughter of Baptista Minola, a Lord in Padua. Her temper is extremely volatile and no man can control her. She ties her sister to a chair in one scene, and in another attacks a music tutor with his own fiddle. Her younger sister, Bianca Minola, is nubile and…

WHY NOT STAY FOR BREAKFAST? has never failed to delight audiences, both young and old, with its comic treatment of the generation gap. It was a particular favourite when the English Theatre of Hamburg produced it in 1981 and again in 1989. The comedy opened at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1973 and played through…

Bruce and Prudence are deeply into therapy. Prudence’s macho therapist is urging her to be more assertive while Bruce’s wacky female therapist wants him to meet women by placing a personal ad She does not fully comprehend that Bruce has a male lover who is not pleased by Bruce’s desire to date a woman: Prudence.…

The story follows newly weds Michael and Agnes starting on their wedding day and explores their life together over the next 50 years until they finally sell their home to the next pair of newlyweds. During that time, the couple goes through their wedding night jitters, raises a family, negotiates mid-life crises, quarrels, separates, reconciles…

Aston, a young man in his early thirties, rescues a poor old tramp from a fight. He brings him home to his room in a large house, gives him a place to sleep and offers him a job as caretaker. The tramp is reluctant to take the job, but he obviously likes the shelter and…

I’LL BE BACK BEFORE MIDNIGHT! was named in a recent Toronto Globe & Mail retrospective on Canadian theatre as “probably the most produced Canadian play ever.” The play has grossed over $8 million world wide, and has had countless productions in Canada, the USA and Europe, placing the author among the top playwrights working in…

Since 1960, a Broadway season without a Neil Simon comedy or musical has been  rare one. During the 1966-67 Season, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, SWEET CHARITY and THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL were all running simultaneously; in the 1970-71 Season, Broadway theatergoers had their choice of PLAZA SUITE, LASTOF THE RED HOT LOVERS and PROMISES, PROMISES. Next…

The play is set in Salford in northwestern England in the 1950s. It tells the story of Jo, a seventeen-year-old working class girl, and her mother, Helen, who is presented as crude and sexually indiscriminate. Helen leaves Jo alone in their new flat after she begins a relationship with Peter, a rich lover who is…

RELATIVELY SPEAKING concerns two couples, one young and one middle-aged, each containing one unfaithful partner. Greg wants to marry Ginny, who has only recently broken off an affair with her boss, Philip. Ginny goes down to Philip’s country home to get back some love letters, after telling Greg that she is going to visit her…

Peter O’Donnell was born in 1920 and sold his first story at the age of 16. Drunk with success, he sobered up when he failed to sell another for two years. On leaving school, he worked for a magazine publishing company producing comics. Convinced the work was beneath his dignity, he soon had this notion…

Peter O’Donnell was born in 1920 and sold his first story at the age of 16. Drunk with success, he sobered up when he failed to sell another for two The action covers a fateful, heart-rending day from around 8:30 am to midnight, in August 1912 at the seaside Connecticut home of the Tyrones –…

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1978—79), THE GIN GAME by D. L. Coburn is a serious yet extremely funny play. It concerns two elderly people, Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, who meet in a nursing home for the aged and discover they both enjoy gin rummy. So they begin to play, exchanging lifelong…

CORPSE!, a comedy-thriller, was originally premiered at the American Stage Festival Theatre, Milford, New Hampshire, USA in 1983. Critics were lavish in their praise of the play both in terms of comedy and suspense. In 1984 it was presented in London at the Apollo Theatre with Keith Baxter and Milo O’Shea in the starring roles.…

In the play, George and Martha invite a new professor and his wife to their house after a party. Martha is the daughter of the president of the university (believed to be based on Trinity College) where George is an associate history professor. Nick (who is never addressed or introduced by name) is a biology…

GASLIGHT tells the story of the Manninghams who live on Angel Street in the 19th Century When the curtain rises, all appears to be peaceful. It is soon apparent that Manningham, a suavely sinister and handsome man, is slowly torturing his gentle, lovely wife into insanity under the guise of kindness While he is out,…

Rita, a young hairdresser, registers for a literature course offered by the Open University, sensing that it will enrich and increase her possibilities in life. During her tutorials, she becomes a different person, gradually liberating herself from the limitations of her working class background, family and marriage. She exchanges the small talk of the hair…

“. . . modern British theatre has an actual birthday; by virtually universal consent, it is regarded as the first performance at the Royal Court Theatre in London of John Osborne’s LOOK BACK IN ANGER on May 8, 1956.” (Clive Barnes, American theater critic).This first play by Osborne was so vitriolic in its attack on…

PRIVATE LIVES, in the opinion of most critics, is the likeliest candidate as Noël Coward’s masterpiece. It, along with HAY FEVER, DESIGN FOR LIVING, PRESENT LAUGHTER and BLITHE SPIRIT, admit Coward to the line of great English comic dramatists such as Congreve, Sheridan and Wilde. “With the sole exception of Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward has…

Sidney Bruhl is a once-successful playwright whose last several productions have flopped at the box office. He then receives a script by a novice writer named Clifford Anderson for a stage thriller entitled Deathtrap. Bruhl tells his wife Myra that the script is brilliant and he then concocts a murder plot whereby he will offer…

A man sits peacefully reading in the sunlight in Central Park. There enters a second man. He is a young, unkempt and undisciplined vagrant where the first is neat, ordered, well-to-do and conventional. The vagrant is a soul in torture and rebellion. He longs to communicate so fiercely that he frightens and repels his listener.…

In THE LOVER Harold Pinter leads the audience to believe that there are three characters in the play: the wife, the husband and the lover. But the lover who comes to call in the afternoons is revealed to be the husband adopting a role. He plays the lover for her: she plays the whore for him.…

Arrogant, self centered and sharp tongued Jason Carmichael, successful co author of Broadway romantic comedies, is facing two momentous events: he is about to marry a society belle and his collaborator is retiring. Enter Phoebe Craddock, mousy Vermont schoolteacher and budding playwright. Presto! Jason acquires a talented and adoring collaborator. Fame and success are theirs…

Arrogant, self centered and shTHE GLASS MENAGERIE, Tennessee Williams’ first great hit, opened to critical acclaim in Chicago on December 26, 1944, and then moved on to Broadway where it made its author internationally famous. The play’s setting is St. Louis, where Williams lived for 20 years and with which he had a “love-hate

This long-running Broadway comedy (also a popular film) is not only about a love affair taking place once a year. It is also a reflection of 25 years of American morals and attitudes mirrored in the changing lives and personalities of its two characters. George picks up Doris in a California restaurant in 1951, and…

John Fowles’ classic story of possession, obsession and love is considered one of the great works in modern literature. Frederick Clegg appears to be an ordinary, slightly shabby clerk. When he wins a fortune in the lottery he buys a remote country house, furnishing it with everything he thinks a beautiful woman could desire .…

Middle-aged and married, overworked and overweight, Barney Cashman wants to join the sexual revolution before it’s too late and arranges three seductions: the first, Elaine Navazio proves to be a foul-mouthed bundle of neuroses; Bobbi Michele is next, a 20-ish actress who’s too kooky by half; finally comes September and Jeanette Fisher, a gloomy, depressed…

Blowsy landlady Kath and her sexually repressed brother Ed rent Sloane a room and proceeed to “entertain” him by seducing the seemingly hapless young man. But when their old Pa recognizes Sloane for what he is, a feckless murderer, he too is killed by the ruthless hustler. As witnesses, sibling rivals Kath and Ed come…

This wickedly observant comedy by the author of Educating Rita finds Dennis, on the eve of his thirty fifth birthday, making a last ditch attempt to break away from his middle class existence. Imprisoned on Phase Two of the housing estate and surrounded by Tupperware parties, Weight Watchers and wife swapping, he longs to revert…

Never has Jean Kerr’s wit had a keener edge or her comic sense more peaks of merriment than in this clever confection which starred Gilda Radner and Sam Waterston on Broadway as a pair whose spouses are having an affair. They counter by “inventing” an affair of their own. He, ironically, is a marriage counsellor…

Brian is financially dependent on his wife Sheila, and he is in love with another woman. An acquaintance convinces him he would be better off if Sheila were to die and then suggests a “foolproof’ murder scheme, adding that he only wants the satisfaction of committing a perfect murder. The murder is successfully carried out…

As is necessary for a pretty girl with her own student apartment, April McGregor has learned to fend off wolves; although she is hard pressed to cope with Skipper Allen, a particularly persuasive graduate student who is convinced that her secret wish is to have him move in with her Thanks to a bad back,…

An underpaid worker hires himself in disguise as his own assistant to increase his income. His sweetheart falls for his phony self and he becomes his own rival.  “Side splitting.” Lerner Voice.  “A comedy with the accent on fun.” Beacon News.  “Delightful … lighthearted, fast paced quality entertainment.” Daily Chronicle.  CAST FRED DICKSON| Michael Cremer…

TABLE MANNERS is part of a trilogy under the general heading THE NORMAN CONQUESTS, the other two plays being ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN and LIVING TOGETHER. The plays are not consecutive, but all occur during a single week-end and each takes place in a different part of the same house. Thus we are watching events which are taking…

Bill Manhoff (1919-1974), though perhaps best known for his hit Broadway comedy THE OWL AND THEPUSSYCAT, was a longtime writer for a number of TV series (THE ODD COUPLE, SANFORD ANDSON, ALL IN THE FAMILY, LOVE AMERICAN STYLE, ROOM 222 and THE PARTRIDGEFAMILY). THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT opened in New York in 1964 and was such a success that…

WHY NOT STAY FOR BREAKFAST? has never failed to delight audiences, both young and old, with its comic treatment of the generation gap. It was a particular favourite when the English Theatre of Hamburg produced it in 1981 and again in 1989. The comedy opened at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1973 and played through the…

When Paul Cunningham reports for work addressing postcards for a mail-order house, he makes it clear to his fellow worker, Sylvia Payton, that his employment is strictly temporary. Paul, a married man, is studying law at night, and with his uncle already in successful practice there is every hope that his future will be a…

This long-running Broadway comedy (also a popular film) is not only about a love affair taking place once a year. It is also a reflection of 25 years of American morals and attitudes mirrored in the changing lives and personalities of its two characters. George picks up Doris in a California restaurant in 1951, and…

When Paul Cunningham reports for work addressing postcards for a mail-order house, he makes it clear to his fellow worker, Sylvia Payton, that his e THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE takes place in New York City during World War II and explores the sexual struggles of Sally Middleton, a young woman attempting to reconcile her childhood…

TA lovely young girl who works on a magazine in New York is engaged to a serious and pompous young business executive. He adores her in his fashion, but has a ragtag time smoothing relations between the carefree girl and his stuffy family especially after that night at a champagne reception when she started to…

This long-running Broadway comedy (also a popular film) is not only about a love affair taking place once a year. It is also a reflection of 25 years of American morals and attitudes mirrored in the changing lives and personalities of its two characters. George picks up Doris in a California restaurant in 1951, and…

A lovely young girl who works on a magazine in New York is engaged to a serious and pompous young business executive. He adores her in his fashion, but has a ragtag time smoothing relations between the carefree girl and his stuffy family especially after that night at a champagne reception when she started to…

Lee Schallert, housewife, feeling she may be missing out on something, leaves her husband, Bob, and her suburban home and moves into a two room Greenwich Village apartment with two roommates. One roommate, Pat, is an aspiring actress, never out of character or costumes; but through an agency mix up, the other roommate is a…

The play takes place in New York City during World War II and explores the sexual struggles of Sally Middleton, a young woman attempting to reconcile her childhood teachings on the importance of chastity with her newfound affection for Bill Page. The story begins the aspiring actress Sally Middleton has just finished moving into her…

When Paul Cunningham reports for work addressing postcards for a mail-order house, he makes it clear to his fellow worker, Sylvia Payton, that his employment is strictly temporary. Paul, a married man, is studying law at night, and with his uncle already in successful practice there is every hope that his future will be a…

THE MAIDS carries on Genet’s fixation upon the netherworld of life, showing us two maids who are sisters. They are servants, the servile dregs of society, and expendable. But Genet does not look upon them at all; rather he sees through their eyes and minds the rest of the nightmare world. Alone, the sisters take turns…

THE LESSON takes place in the office and dining room of a small French flat. The professor, an elderly man, is expecting a young female student. The third character is the professor’s maid who is always worrying about the professor’s health. As the lesson progresses, the professor grows more and more angry with what he perceives…