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| A Forty-Minute Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 18. Minimum total without doubling = 40. No chorus. Lots of small roles (guards, messengers and the like), so either opportunities for a large cast or scope for doubling! |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Rome is ruled by a triumvirate, locked in a struggle for power. Mark Antony is beguiled by Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, and neglects his duties in Rome. Eventually, there is open warfare between Antony and Octavius Caesar. Antony loses, and Cleopatra takes her own life (with the aid of literature's second most famous snake.) |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Forty-Minute Coriolanus by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 19. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 22. Minimum total without doubling = 30. Chorus. As usual with Shakespeare, most of the characters are male - but for your production, you can cast whomsoever you like! |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's tragedy 'Coriolanus', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | In the early days of the Roman republic, Caius Martius Coriolanus is a brilliant Roman General, but contemptuous of the civilian population. After a successful military campaign against the Volsces (an Italian tribe), Coriolanus runs for Consul. He is supported by the Senate, but the common people are stirred-up to riot against him. Still contemptuous of the people, Corilanus is exciled from Rome and takes his revenge by leading the Volsces against Rome. His mother intervenes and persuades him to sign a peace treaty. Unfortunately, his Volscian allies see this as a betrayal, and Coriolanus pays the price. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| The Gala Programme by Tony Best |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. Whilst there isn't a formal requirement for a chorus, one could easily be added, as the protagonists refer to the reactions of crowd. |
| Run Time | Around 20 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short one-act play, adapting a story by Saki. Single set (as simple as you like). A comedy, if you have Saki's very dark sense of humour. |
| Synopsis | A sufragette rebellion is projected back to Roman times. The Romans, needless to say, did not have very modern attitudes to female participation in the political process, and the emperor's solution to the problem is calculated to please the crowd of the circus maximus rather than twenty-first century sensibilities! |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| I, Tiberius by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. The numbers of soldiers and secret service agents can be treated flexibly. |
| Run Time | Around 45 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act comedy play for kids, set in Roman Britain. Single set (to the point of almost no set at all) and simple props, give or take the solid gold Egyptian statuette. |
| Synopsis | When Tiberius Pompus arrives from Rome to take up a governorship in the wilderness that is Eastern Britain he is looking for peace and a quiet life. He has every faith in his long-suffering personal assistant, Flavia, and his military commander, Ludicrous. Unfortunately restless locals in the form of the Iceni tribe and in particular the ambitiously troublesome Boudicca prove a thorn in his side. What Tiberius needs least is a visit from newly-appointed Emperor and old school friend, Marcus Antonius, accompanied by the Emperor's girlfriend, the ultra-glamorous and even more ultra-temperamental Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. It is imperative that the Emperor's stay goes perfectly. It doesn't. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Julius Caesar [75-Minute Abridgement] by Shakespeare, abridged Jack Shaw |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 32. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 75 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A 75-minute abridgement of Shakespeare's Roman history.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but, because all the words are Shakespeare's and therefore out of copyright, performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | 'Beware the Ides of March!'
'Caesar shall go forth.'
'Et tu, Brute?'
'Brutus is an honourable man.'
'Revenge!'
'This was the noblest Roman of them all.' |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Pompeii Up! by Sue Russell |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 25. Minimum total without doubling = 30. Chorus. Further parts could be added at the Producer's discretion. |
| Run Time | Around 20 minutes. [Estimated!] Variable timing with your choice of music. |
| Music | Two musical suggestions are included with the Producer's copy of the script. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | A short one act play, suitable for a school assembly. |
| Synopsis | In this piece we have information and entertainment, with facts and figures from the eruption of Vesuvius - which buried Herculaneum and Pompeii. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Pyramus and Thisbe by Nicholas Richards |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 8. Minimum total without doubling = 12. No chorus. Characters include a wall, a lioness, a statue and a mulberry tree. Aside from that, they are all normal. (Whilst there are three female characters - four if you count the lioness - they could, in Shakespearian fashion, be played by lads.) |
| Run Time | Around 12 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short drama (played for comedy) in which the protagonists speak Latin and the narrators, where necessary, translate. |
| Synopsis | The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is most familiar to modern audiences through Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - rehearsed during the play and performed by the Mechanicals at the end. The Latin tale - from which Shakespeare drew his story - is from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
The story is of two lovers separated by their parents and a wall. Arranging to meet, but dying in the process. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Questions of French History by Nicholas Richards |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 0. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 58. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 47 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A series of comic, educational sketches with no set necessary. Adaptable for presentation as a whole or as a pick and mix, for use as an assembly piece or a classroom aid. A large number of roles but performable by just a handful of actors. |
| Synopsis | A series of sketches touching light-heartedly on several episodes of French history, from the Stone Age to the Common Market, providing elementary oral French and a bit of fun with history. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| The Roman Invasion of Britain by Richard Morris |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 29. Chorus. The characters are very flexible, with multiple 'chorus' roles which can be expanded or doubled. |
| Run Time | Around 20 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play in irregular verse, fitting with the English National Curriculum Key Stage 2 History topic - The Romans. |
| Synopsis | A dramatised (and abbreviated) history of Romans in Britain (from Caesar to Honorious) |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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The Romans by Andrew Yates
Best Seller |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 13. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 26. Minimum total without doubling = 35. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Lyrics to seven songs are embedded in the script. accompaniments (and demos of the songs) are available on the optional extra CD. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | School play with songs, sketches and chorus work, providing lots of opportunities for all abilities. The show is both accessible and educational and will deliver a memorable experience for audience and participants alike. |
| Synopsis | A humorous journey through the events and personalities of the Roman Empire. All Roman life is here, from emperors to slaves. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Extras | The following additional items are available (at extra cost) to go with this script:
** Soundtrack CD - vocal performances of songs from the show
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| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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