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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…