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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…