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| A Forty-Minute Henry VI Part 1 by Shakespeare, adapted by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 17. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 31. Chorus. Shakespearian theatre, history and war conspire to leave few female roles. Don't let that put you off! |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act adaptation of Shakespeare. Other plays in this series are abridgements. This is an adaptation (Bill Tordoff felt that it worked better with the verse form used throughout), hence both script and performances are subject to copyright licensing. |
| Synopsis | Subtitled 'The Wars Of Henry VI And Joan Of Arc'.
Henry V has died, but his dukes continue to prosecute his war in France. Joan of Arc arises to lead the French. The English lose ground as they bicker amongst themselves and the first quarrels of the Wars of the Roses begin. Henry V1 is crowned and the fortunes of war change again...
Despite all the fighting and infighting, the play also has room for some moments of broad comedy. |
| 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 King John by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 19. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 23. Minimum total without doubling = 33. Chorus. Characters include Arthur, aged 8 and Blanche, aged 14. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'King John', 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 | War amongst the descendants of King Henry II with Henry's wife, the powerful Eleanor of Aquitaine, supporting her son, King John, whilst the King of France, mendaciously, backs Arthur, the young son of John's elder brother. John's treatment of the captured Arthur causes his barons to rebel and join forces with a French invasion. |
| 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 King Lear by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 13. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 23. Chorus. As usual with Shakespeare, the characters are male-heavy. Also as usual, you can cast it how you like! |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'King Lear', 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 | The king proposes to retire and divide his kingdom amongst his daughters. The elder two, Goneril and Regan, are happy to sweet-talk their father and go along with his plans - just until they have power. Cordelia, the youngest, loves her father, but refuses to flatter him, and, as a result, is banished. Soon the elder daughters take power and dishonour their father. Edmund, illegitimate son of the Duke of Gloster, aids Goneril and Regan, but becomes a focus for their rivalry. With Lear cast out, there is war between Cordelia and her sisters. Playing-out the themes of pride, deceit and jealousy, all ends tragically. |
| 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 Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 16. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 34. Chorus. Plenty of scope for extras, as we have the population of Troy and the entire Greek army looking on (and occasionally getting involved in the fray - some of the spear carriers get to use their spears!) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Troilus And Cressida', 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 | The Trojans are trapped in their city as Greek warriors like Ajax scour the battlefield. Troilus, youngest son of the Trojan King Priam, is distracted from the battlefield by his pursuit of the beautiful Cressida. Just when Cressida has submitted to his advances, she is used as part of a prisoner exchange and sent to join her father (who is camped with the Greeks). During one of the periodic truces, Troilus witnesses Cressida in a dalliance with Greek hero Diomedes. Enraged, Troilus takes to the battlefield in pursuit of Diomedes, whilst the petulant Achilles takes on the noble Trojan Hector.
Shakespeare uses the siege to question notions of fidelity and chivalry. |
| 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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| Good King Richard by Ian Dixon Potter |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 108 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A full-length historical drama. (A lot of locations, but simple to stage, give or take the butt of malmsey.) |
| Synopsis | After the death of Edward IV, his brother Richard becomes Lord Protector and then King. Richard III is determined to be a good king, but his principles - out of place in the royal court - enable challengers including Henry Tudor to plot his downfall. A counterpoint to Shakespeare's Richard III (which was based on the testimony of Richard's greatest enemy), Good King Richard sets the historical record straight. |
| 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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Guernica Goodbye by William Campbell
A production by Progress Theatre won three awards at the Henley-on-Thames Drama Festival, including best production. |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 3. Minimum total without doubling = 3. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act drama, with an imaginative living room set. |
| Synopsis | A powerful drama - in which Spanish refugees from the Guernica bombings, having settled in Chartres, find themselves once again embroiled in further conflict against Fascists. War torn France has been liberated, and recriminations and revenge are already setting in. |
| 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 Heretic Queen by Vithal Rajan |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 6. No chorus. Two of the characters are boys (age unspecified). |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A combination of Indian storytelling and chess! Simple props, but needs a means of displaying the chess moves to the audience. |
| Synopsis | Game Eight in the Varadachary Chess Cycle. The painter El Greco challenges the Lord High Admiral of the Spanish navy to a chess match on the eve of the launch of the Armada to invade Queen Elizabeth's England. (The other El Greco - the chess master - takes notes!) |
| 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 Hunter And The Hunted by JPS Yates |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 12. No chorus. Two non-speaking roles. |
| Run Time | Around 95 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A full length, emotive drama, set during the First World War. |
| Synopsis | A hunting party on General Franklin-Davies' Scottish estate in the early years of World War One, poignantly and dramatically presages events that the party are to experience in the trenches. |
| 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 Stand Alone by Kevin Broughton |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 75 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Drama in two acts. Four locations, but designed for minimal staging. Contains mild swearing. |
| Synopsis | An allegorical play.
In the far future, Britain has been ravaged by an external conflict and a civil war between the returning Celts, who restored the country, and the native Saxons who feel they have been pushed aside. |
| 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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| An Incorrigible Irishman by James Skivington |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 5. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 94 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A full length historical drama with a single setting. |
| Synopsis | Sir Roger Casement’s flagging enthusiasm for the cause of Irish Home Rule is rekindled with encouragement from his friend Ada McNeill and the tragic events suffered by young serving girl Theresa and her family at the hands of the British. Casement's fervour grows, despite knowing too well that he will be walking into a den of lions. After going to America in order to raise support from the Irish population, the die is cast for the events that will lead him to disgrace, humiliation, a heart-wrenching parting from Ada and the hangman’s noose. |
| 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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