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…
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…
“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…
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.…
“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…
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…
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…
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…