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| The Merchant of Venice [60-minute abridgement] by Shakespeare, abridged Jack Shaw |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 16. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 60 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Every word is Shakespeare's, but the cast list has been reduced, with four minor characters and all servants/court officials removed.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Bassanio needs money so that he can court the noble lady Portia. He goes to his friend Antonio, who helps negotiate a loan from the moneylender Shylock. If the money is not repaid, Shylock will demand a pound of Antonio's flesh. This leads to a court case with an unexpected judge.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| 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 Midsummer Night's Dream In 17 And A Half Minutes Or Less by Christine Harvey |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 19. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 19 minutes. [Estimated!] (But see also the title - which assumes a fast pace.) |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one-act Shakespearean comedy with various simple settings. |
| Synopsis | A fast-paced version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perfect for schools, this is a compact, humorous adaptation of the classic tale of love and mishap in seventeen and a half minutes or less. |
| 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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Missing by Sue Bevan
Finalist in the Sky Blue Theatre International play-writing competition, 2013 |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 9. No chorus. Voices of 7 parents may be off stage or recorded. |
| Run Time | Around 43 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A gritty one act play for youth theatre. |
| Synopsis | Tom's run away from home but finds he's spent his first night on Lizzie's 'turf'. Is she going to help him, or take his stuff? Perhaps Lizzie's idea of helping Tom isn't the same as his... |
| 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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| Mo by Tyler Mathews |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 8. Minimum Female roles = 8. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 27. No chorus. The characters are a mixture of teenagers and adults. Could be played to age or by a youth theatre company. |
| Run Time | Around 125 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Full-length drama. Multiple settings, but locations indicated by minimal furniture rather than realistic sets. |
| Synopsis | Mo is the boy who thinks - knows - he can fly. With an exceptional IQ but a difficulty fitting in, he battles prejudice, a dysfunctional foster family, school bullies and himself. With imaginative staging and a vividly powerful, atmospheric plot the play describes Mo's tortuous journey of self-discovery. |
| 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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| Nanny State by Nigel Holloway |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 22. No chorus. Several of the characters appear only in voice-over. A 'doubling list' is included in the Producer's Copy of the script. |
| Run Time | Around 60 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A complex and challenging, but performable one-act play, with a subject that is both controversial and compelling. Split-stage set. Includes mild swearing |
| Synopsis | When Bernard dies, his wife discovers he's been writing a political blog that has galvanised the country. She steps into his shoes, fights a campaign and becomes Prime Minister. But the cost is high for saving the country.
A hard-hitting political play, posing the question 'Could the Grey vote really change the world?' However, when it comes down to it, the play is not about how to right the wrongs of governing the country, it's about one woman's blindness to the people closest to her, about losing sight of the things that really matter in life. |
| 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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| Natterjack by John Peel |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 9. Minimum total without doubling = 10. No chorus. Rod is an off-stage voice and therefore might be doubled or recorded. |
| Run Time | Around 150 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Full-length play - at its heart, a drama of practical politics, but leavened with plenty of comedy. |
| Synopsis | A shed by a river has become home to a tramp. When he discovers that plans to build a bridge put his home under threat, he engages with politicians, engineers and a barrister. Chaos ensues, and a visit from the Minister for Transport spectacularly fails to improve the situation. |
| 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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| Nay, Remember Me! by Amelia Marriette |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 23. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 82 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The producer's script includes suggestions for pieces of music to be played at particular points in the play. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | A full length comedy drama with various settings. |
| Synopsis | After Shakespeare’s death, two of his principal actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell, undertake the task of publishing all of his scripts, and the First Folio is born. Four centuries later in 2001, the First Folio is auctioned at Christies. |
| 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 |
| Exclusions | Due to professional performances, this script is not available for performance in the following places at the following times:-
15 mile radius of Malvern, UK from the first day of November, 2023 to the last day of November, 2023 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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The Necklace by Tony Best
Performance by Cheshire Academy of Performing Arts won best Youth Production and the Syd Mence cup for a piece of theatre magic at the Wilmslow Guild One Act play Festival, 2012 |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 29. Chorus. There are two main roles, and a 'chorus of voices' playing all the other roles, thus the numbers are very flexible. The chorus members play specific roles but also act as a 'Greek Chorus' to comment on the story. |
| Run Time | Around 35 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play based on a short story (a moral fable) by Guy de Maupassant. Written for a youth theatre production but could be performed by adults. |
| Synopsis | Mathilde is a vain, proud woman, who regrets that the she has been born into the humbler classes. She longs to be an aristocrat. Given her chance to shine, she borrows a stunning necklace, but that is the start of her woes. |
| 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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| O, What A Lovers' War! by Karen Ince |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 7. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 20. No chorus. Optional numbers of non-speaking women and soldiers. |
| Run Time | Around 35 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act drama, evoking times of the First World War, in various settings. |
| Synopsis | A story of love during the Great War, told through a series of vignettes, looking at the Home Front through the lives of two families from different social classes - for whom the conflict has parallel effects. |
| 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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| Of Myths And Mortals by Matt Harper |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 11. Minimum total without doubling = 10. No chorus. Alex, Toni, Ash, Pip, Curator 1, Curator 2, Guard and Florist can be played by male or female actors, with pronouns changed accordingly. Guard and Florist can be doubled. |
| Run Time | Around 24 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act comedy drama for schools with a flexible museum setting. |
| Synopsis | A rather badly behaved family's visit to the museum is marked with a re-telling of Greek Myths which strangely resonate with modern behaviours. |
| 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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