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| The Epic of Gilgamesh by Adrian Jarvis |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 28. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 75 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Four thousand-year-old Sumerian epic brought to life. This play skilfully combines dance, mime and music with challenging acting and technical opportunities together with a gripping story, ideal for Secondary Schools, Drama Acadamies, and Youth Groups. |
| Synopsis | King Gilgamesh is convinced that he can find the secret of eternal life and his dramatic odyssey is brought to life as he wanders the mythological world in his quest for immortality. We travel with him as his travails become ever more arduous and he becmes embroiled in ever more dramatic conflicts. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Cymbeline by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 29. Chorus. Thre are 29 speaking roles (with considerable doubling possible), plus a non-speaking chorus with plenty of roles on offer! |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Posthumus Leonatus has married Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, the King of Britain, without permission. That gets Posthumus banished, leaving Imogen behind. Meanwhile, the King's second wife is trying to engineer her son's route to the throne. An Italian braggart causes a rift between Posthumus and Imogen, and with Cybeline's court in disarray, the Romans mount an invasion. How then can the kingdom be saved? |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Duchess of Malfi by John Webster abridged by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 25. No chorus. Characters include a small boy and optional non-speaking servants, etc. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The eponymous heroine is a rich widow. Her brothers - a duke and a cardinal - want control of her wealth and so have forbidden her from marrying. They set the loyal but troubled Bosola to spy on her, and he discovers that the duchess has, in secret, married Antonio, her steward. The news sets the Duke and Cardinal into such a rage that nobody escapes unscathed.
(Whilst the abridgement reduces the length of the text, all of Webster's gory details are preserved - which is more than can be said for the principals.) |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Henry VI Part 2 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 25. Minimum total without doubling = 47. Chorus. As with most of the history plays, the cast of characters is huge, with over 40 speaking parts, but lots of doubling is possible. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Second Part of King Henry VI', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Subtitled 'Cade's Rebellion'.
The wars with France are over, but there's trouble brewing for King Henry within his own court. There's the Duke of Suffolk, trying to manipulate the King through Henry's wife, Margaret , there's the Duchess of Gloster trying to put her husband, Henry's uncle, on the throne, and there's a growing faction around the Duke of York and his two sons, Edward and Richard Crouchback. Matters come to a head with a rebellion led by Kentish tradesman Jack Cade. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Henry VI Part 3 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 41. Chorus. As with most of the history plays, the cast of characters is huge, with over 30 speaking parts, but lots of doubling is possible. (They are also mainly male, but don't let that put you off.) |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Third Part of King Henry VI', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The Wars of the Roses in full force, with the Duke of York rebelling against the weak Henry VI. York is killed, but his three sons continue the 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 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Fifty-Minute Henry VIII by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 20. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 40. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | We meet Henry VIII when he has been king and married to Katharine of Aragon for some 20 years. The court is under the sway of the manipulative, acquisitive Cardinal Wolsey, but Henry falls for Anne Boleyn (or Anne Bullen, as Shakespeare calls her) and in the ensuing turmoil he ditches both Wolsey and Katharine. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Richard The Third by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 26. Minimum total without doubling = 48. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Life and Death of King Richard III', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Richard the Third, from the winter of discontent to the kingdom for a horse, as the last of the Plantagenets intrigues and murders his way to the English throne, only to be confronted by the army of the Earl of Richmond - one Henry Tudor.
Historical footnote: Shakespeare derived this account from Henry Tudor's historians. In the view of the editor, this makes it unreliable history, but a cracking play! |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 20. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 36. Chorus. Large numbers of speaking roles, many appearing on stage at the same time. Flexibility in the non-speaking roles, with Roman nobility and a whole army of Goths (who probably dressed differently in Roman and Shakespearen times). |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | When Roman general Titus Andronicus returns victorious from the wars against the Goths, he resolves to be king-maker, rather than taking the role of emperor for himself. Having lost many of his sons in the fighting, Titus has the eldest son of Tamora, captive Queen of the Goths, sacrificed to the gods. When Tamora is freed by the new Emperor, she and her lover Aaron set about avenging themselves - a feud that is tragic for all concerned.
Bill Tordoff started this series as abridgements for primary schools. We think that some of the themes in Titus are too adult for that demographic!
Asides: This is not for the faint-hearted, though John Webster probably enjoyed it, and Mrs Lovett would have learned a thing or two. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute White Devil by John Webster abridged by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 35. No chorus. Characters include a small boy and optional non-speaking attendants, etc. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of John Webster's 'The White Devil', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | In his pursuit of Vittoria, the wife of old Camillo, Duke Brachiano abandons his wife, Isabella, then connives with Vittoria's brother, to have Isabella and Camillo murdered. Isabella's brother, the Duke of Florence, and his ally Cardinal Monticelso - Camillo's cousin - set out to get revenge.
(We're in Grand Guignol territory. This isn't going to end happily for anyone!) |
| 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 All's Well That Ends Well by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 22. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'All's Well That Ends Well', 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 | Following the death of the Count of Rousillon, his teenage son, Bertrand inherts his estate and departs for the French court with dreams of military glory. He leaves behind Helena, daughter of his father's physician, and desparately in love with Bertrand. Helena follows Betrand to Paris where she uses her father's medicines to cure the sick king. The king grants her a reward, and she claims marriage to Bertrand. He wants none of it, and heads off to war. How can Helena win him back? |
| 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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