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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 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 Pericles by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 40. Chorus. The episodic nature of the story makes lots of doubling possible. (Or, if you have a lot of actors, there are lots of roles.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre', 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 | On the run from the King of Antioch, Pericles is shipwrecked and washes up on the shores of Pentapolis. There he wins the hand of Thaisa, daughter of the King of Pentapolis. On their return voyage to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter during a violent storm. Thaisa is thought to have died and is thrown overboard in a casket. The grieving Pericles leaves his daughter, Marina, in the care of the King and Queen of Tarsus. Years later, Pericles returns to seek Marina , but is told that she died. In fact she escaped an assasination plot, and eventually Pericles finds a happy ending.
Bill Tordoff started this series as abridgements for primary schools. We think that some of the themes in Pericles are too adult for that demographic! |
| 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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| 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 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| The Four Musketeers by Pat Wollaston |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 18. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 80 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The Producer's Copy of the script includes suggestions for 12 songs, with some original lyrics. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | All of the essential ingredients of panto are here with a knockabout Dame as D'Artagnan's mother, plenty of slapstick and corny jokes and the all important opportunities for audience participation. |
| Synopsis | A fusion of pantomime and classic literature that manages to do credit to both genres. With apposite music and chorus involvement the musketeers ensure that the nasty Richeliuer and his accomplice Rougeforthe are thwarted in their evil intentions for the French Royal family. |
| 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:
** Pantomime Fun-Packs - jokes and games for children, to supplement the programme for your show
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| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Frank Sent This... by Aaron Warren |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 28. Minimum total without doubling = 30. Chorus. Chorus size may vary |
| Run Time | Around 65 minutes. [Estimated!] This allows for 17 songs or music pieces included |
| Music | Mostly song suggestions with one original song and score provided with the Producer's copy. |
| Style | A one act nativity comedy, with fun centering on events in Bethlehem. |
| Synopsis | A school nativity rehearsal is causing three students to question whether the events they're portraying ever took place at all. Their teacher makes a Christmas wish, and the three find themselves back in Bethlehem, dressed as the three kings... |
| 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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| Frankenstein - The Monster Musical by George Douglas Lee |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 19. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 100 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The Producer's Copy of the script comes with piano/vocal scores for 13 original songs. |
| Style | Gothic horror musical comedy! |
| Synopsis | If Mary Shelley had written a version of Frankenstein for children, this is how she might have approached it - as a heartwarming family musical, filled with mad scientists, misbegotten creatures and an angry mob!
On a rainy night when the power is out, a father tells his son the story of Frankenstein, and we are transported to Victor Frankenstein's Laboratory with Mary Shelly singing of the creation of the creature. We meet the creature, his bride and a croud of villagers, led by the rabble rouser Frau Gribble, whipped into a frenzy and go in search of 'the Monster'. Eventually, they come to realise that he was just misunderstood! |
| 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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| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Frankenstein - The Pantomime by Martin Hailey |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 15. Chorus. Ten or eleven principals backed by a chorus of villagers (sometimes waving pitchforks and flaming torches). |
| Run Time | Around 110 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Nine songs are suggested in the Producer's copy of the script. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | Monstrous British pantomime |
| Synopsis | Panto reworking of the classic 'mad scientist makes monster' story.
Mary Shelley will be turning in her grave - if she hasn't already been dug up and used for spare parts. No, on second thoughts, forget I ever said that. |
| 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 Frog Prince by Andrew O'Leary |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 25. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 98 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The producer's copy of the script includes suggestions for 11 songs. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | Full-length panto - comedy, magic and mayhem with added frogs. |
| Synopsis | Prince Norman is about to be crowned king, since his father is stepping aside due to old age. But the king's evil sister, Norman's Aunt Phibian, has a plan to steal the throne for herself, leaving her nephew transformed into a frog! |
| 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:
** Pantomime Fun-Packs - jokes and games for children, to supplement the programme for your show
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| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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