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| Disguise by David Pemberton |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 11. Minimum total without doubling = 11. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 31 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A modern comedic reworking of The Siena Academy's Gl'ingannati, the principal source for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. |
| Synopsis | A twin sister disguises herself as a boy to get the man she loves, only to find that when her identical twin brother shows up, he is mistaken for her. This play forms act two of Amore by the same author. |
| 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 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... |
| 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 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 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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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 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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I Am Hamlet by Richard James
Performance by Portree ADS won the Wakefield Quaich Award for Presentation, Scottish One Act Festival, 2011, Performance by Thurso Players won Best Play award at the SCDA One Act Play Festival, 2012, |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act comedy thriller, single bare-stage set. |
| Synopsis | An amateur actor auditions for the lead role in a local production of Hamlet. There is some fun to be had as the director puts him through his acting paces, but slowly we learn that the actor has more in common with the Prince of Denmark than meets the eye... |
| 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:-
Spain, ES from the first day of January, 2022 to the last day of January, 2026
50 mile radius of Mexico City, MX from the first day of April, 2024 to the last day of October, 2024 |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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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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| Kids in Tights - The Musical by Bill Siviter with Music by Jonny Ardern |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 12. No chorus. Whilst there isn't a formal requirement for a chorus, there is plenty of opportunity for adding Montagues, Capulets and ball guests. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Piano and Vocal scores for nine songs are supplied with the Producer's Copy of the script. |
| Style | Romeo and Juliet told, as an irreverent verse play, by the protagonists and by narrators. A good introduction to Shakespeare's story! (The specified run-time is the minimum - extending the ball and the fight will add time!) |
| Synopsis | Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet condensed into a short verse play for kids, then lengthened because everyone gets so excited that they need to sing about it.
Boy meets girl, love overcomes the family feud - but only for the lovers. Swordplay turns rivals into kebabs. Mistakes are made and the heroes die. (You see, it's a soppy love 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 |
| 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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| King Lear by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 14. No chorus. The number of roles can be increased by adding soldiers (the King of France in particular would make good use of them.) |
| Run Time | Around 55 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short modern-English version of Shakespeare's tragedy. (Whilst the plot is all there, there are more comic moments than the bard envisaged.) The author has structured this in 13 acts, but don't let that fool you. |
| Synopsis | An ageing King Lear intends to retire and hand over his throne to one of his squabbling daughters. The Earl of Gloucester, on the other hand, does not intend to retire but his scheming son, Edmund, wants to take over the title anyway, even if it means by-passing the rightful heir, his brother Edgar. The two families' affairs become linked and a violent tale of treachery, jealousy and blind ambition ensues.
Despite the body count running into double figures, this is a 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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| Love's Labour's Lost [60-minute abridgement] by Shakespeare, abridged Jack Shaw |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 18. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 60 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A 60-minute abridgement of the Shakespeare comedy.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but, because all the words are Shakespeare's and therefore out of copyright, performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Ferdinand, King of Navarre, has decided that he and his court will devote three years to an ascetic life of studying, fasting, and forswearing the company of women. However, he has forgotten that the Princess of France and her retinue are due to visit. So, will the court pursue asceticism or pretty women? |
| 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 Merry Wives of Windsor [60-minute abridgement] by Shakespeare, abridged Jack Shaw |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 8. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 20. No chorus. 17 speaking parts (playable by 13 actors) plus at least three fairies, who might be played by doubled by some of the speaking roles, if they are not busy doubling other people. |
| Run Time | Around 60 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A 60-minute abridgement of the Shakespeare comedy.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but, because all the words are Shakespeare's and therefore out of copyright, performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Down on his luck, Sir John Falstaff arrives in Windsor and plots to turn his fortunes around by seducing the wives of two wealthy gentlemen. But the wives detect his unscrupulousness and put their own scheme together to humiliate him. |
| 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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