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| A Forty-Minute Love's Labour's Lost by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's comedy 'Love's Labours Lost', with the original text cut down to under 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The King of Navarre makes a vow to devote a year to scolarship, and three of his lords (albeit reluctantly) join him. Their resolve is sorely tested by the arrival of the Princess of France and her pretty ladies in waiting... |
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| A Forty-Minute Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 16. No chorus. The listed characters are four women, nine men, two servants (nominally male) and a boy. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', 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 | Sir John Falstaff arrives in Windsor short of ready cash and decides his coffers would best be filled from the resources of two married ladies. They have no interest in him, but play him along for their own amusement. Fun with a laundry basket ensues. |
| 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 |
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| A Forty-Minute Othello by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 13. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 25. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Othello', with the original text of around three hours cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, secretly marries Desdemona, daughter of a nobleman. Roderigo, a suitor of Desdemona, and Iago, a jealous soldier, conspire against Othello, turning him against Desdemona, with disastrous consequences.
An introduction to Shakespeare for schools. |
| 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 Richard II by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 32. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Life and Death of King Richard II', with the original text cut down to under 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | King Richard II is approached by both Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, who wish him to judge a duel between them. Both Richard and John of Gaunt oppose the duel, but Richard agrees to oversee it. As the duel commences Richard interrupts and banishes both men from England. Mowbray predicts this as the first act leading to Richard's downfall. Following John of Gaunt's death, Richard appropriates all his money and lands. As Richard plots a war on Ireland, the nobility seek to overthrow him and place Bolingbroke on the throne. |
| 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 |
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| A Forty-Minute Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. There are two groups which give numerical flexibility - 'outlaws' and 'musicians'. This is the Shakespeare play with the dog. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', 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 | The two gentlemen in question are Valentine and Proteus. Valentine wants Proteus to be his travelling companion on a tour, but Proteus wishes to stay behind and court Julia, a coy young lady who likes Proteus, but is too shy to admit it - at least until Proteus's father sends him away to join Valentine in Milan. However, in Milan, Proteus falls for Sylvia, whom Valentine is courting. There follows rivalry, betrayal, banishment, outlaws, cross-dressing and the occasional swoon before all ends happily! |
| 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 |
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| A Forty-Minute Winter's Tale by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 28. Chorus. The characters are adults plus one child and, famously, a bear, whose only role is to exit in pursuit of Antigonus (for an offstage lunch appointment - although only one of the parties is hungry.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', 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 | Leontes, King of Sicilia, suspects his wife Hermione of having an affair with Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. (Herminone and Polixenes are innocent.) Polixenes escapes Leontes' wrath, but Hermione does not and is imprisoned. Hermione gives birth to a daughter, but Leontes does not believe the child, Perdita, to be his and sends her abroad. She is abandoned on the coast of Bohemia (a feat which would be frowned upon these days, owing to Geography) and Perdita is brought-up by a Shepherd. Time (making a guest appearance) moves the play on sixteen years, and Florizel, son of Polixenes, meets and falls in love with Perdita, the shepherdess, thus setting-up the inevitable reconcilliation and happy ending. |
| 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 |
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| Hamlet - What Was The Question? by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 21. Minimum total without doubling = 21. No chorus. The cast is top-heavy with male roles. In this version a number of parts (Clowns, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Castle Guards and Narrators) can be played by either male or female performers without any need to amend the text. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play for kids, adding some comic touches to Shakespeare's Hamlet. No specific set requirements. (Castle locations - make your own mind up about complexity!) |
| Synopsis | When the King of Denmark dies, Prince Hamlet, his son, assumes that he will succeed to the throne. Unfortunately his Uncle Claudius has other ideas and, by marrying the newly widowed Queen Gertrude, takes the crown for himself. When Hamlet learns through his father's ghost that Claudius and Gertrude engineered the King's death so that they could be together, the Prince seeks vengeance. His task is not aided by pressure being placed on him to marry the vapid Ophelia and Claudius' plan to have him killed by the sinister Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The body count rises as Hamlet closes in on the evil Claudius. Will justice be done? Will our hero triumph? Will he ever answer that question? |
| 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 |
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| Hamlet the Musical by Gerald P. Murphy |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 16. Chorus. The chorus play non-speaking roles of peasants, courtiers, onlookers and servants. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Sheet music (piano and vocal) for the five songs is supplied with the producer's copy of the script. |
| Style | Shakespeare's Hamlet retold in modern (American) English, with more jokes than the original.
In a normal tragedy, at the end, everyone dies. This is a musical - at the end, everyone sings. |
| Synopsis | Prince Hamlet's father reappears as a ghost to demand revenge for his murder. The prince vacillates, arranges a play to trap the murderer, and finally chooses to fight. |
| 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:
** A 'rehearsal CD' with piano arrangements of songs from the show
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| Just an Act by Chantel Kuli |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 8. Minimum total without doubling = 8. Chorus. The chorus is optional, mainly for the final party scene. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act romantic comedy for teenagers. |
| Synopsis | Lisa is angry at Tommy because he hasn't learned his lines for the school production of Romeo and Juliet. Her anger is a mask for her growing attraction to Tommy, although she won't admit this to herself, Tommy or her jock-boyfriend Clark. Lisa finally realises her feelings when Clark provokes her, resulting in Lisa dumping Clark, but will Tommy take the initiative...? |
| 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 |
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| Kids in Lurve by Bill Siviter |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 8. Minimum total without doubling = 15. No chorus. Lots of flexibility for either doubling characters or splitting the narrator's role amongst several actors. |
| Run Time | Around 20 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Rhyming play, delivering a rapid, modern and informal version of Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew'. Multiple scenes, but little required by way of set or props.
Set in the north-west midlands, but could easily be moved to your home town! |
| Synopsis | Bianca is sweet and pretty. All the lads fancy her. But standing in the way, there's Bianca's acid-tongued sister, Kate, and who can tame Kate?
Well, since there aren't many lads called Petruchio these days, the modern-day volunteer is Shane.
The course of true love never did run smooth (but that's another story). |
| 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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