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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. |
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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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A Forty-Minute Volpone by Ben Jonson abridged by Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 15. No chorus. The minimum cast could be achieved by combining the four magistrates into 1 judge and using the boy and clerk as the court officers. |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Abridgement of Ben Jonson's 'Volpone', 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 | Volpone is a sly miser. With the aid of his rascally servant, Mosca, he sets out to accumulate more wealth by way of gifts from his gullable acquaintances who think he is ailing and believe that they will be the beneficiaries of his will. Things start to unravel when Volpone sets his sights on Celia, wife of the wealthy merchant, Corvino. Jacobean comedy, verging on farce. |
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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Frankenstein Abridged by Richard Brinsley Peake ab. Dwayne Lawler |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 9. Minimum total without doubling = 9. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 39 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | One-act melodrama. Multiple scenes, but mainly indicative settings. |
Synopsis | 'Presumption, or, The Fate of Frankenstein' by Richard Brinsley Peake was the first adaptation for the stage of Mary Shelley's pioneering novel. Dwayne Lawler's abridgement has reduced it from 5 acts to 1 and cut the characters from more than 15 to a total of 9. Peake's adaptation tweaked the novel's plot (not least to reduce locations), nevertheless, the core plot of Frankenstein is here and cutting it down hasn't removed the impact or significantly dampened the themes. |
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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Frankenstein's Last Chance by Geoff Bamber |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 16. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 42 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | A one act comedy melodrama, for school-age, youth performers. |
Synopsis | Having given up his medical practice to concentrate on his career as an inventor, Doctor Viktor Frankenstein desperately needs to raise funds to pay for his daughter's forthcoming wedding. Success at the annual Mad Scientists' Convention would be well-rewarded, but Viktor finds himself singularly short of inspiration until... No, that would be absurd - wouldn't it? |
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 Friend of Ronnie's by David Barry |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 3. Minimum total without doubling = 3. No chorus. Edith and Arthur are relatively elderly, Susan a younger researcher. |
Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | One act drama set in 1983 (twenty years after the main event). Single domestic setting. Contains mild swearing. |
Synopsis | It's been a tense twenty years for Edith and Arthur. Now that Susan has arrived and is uncovering his shady past, will life improve for the pair of them, or simply reveal more regrets? The play fills some gaps in the true story of the robbery, and the substitute train driver who was never caught. |
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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From Bad to Worse by Cheryl Barrett |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 7. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 37 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | A one-act comedy with a single (meeting room) setting. |
Synopsis | Potts Rhoding Amateur Theatrical Society meet to discuss the local newspaper review of their latest production. Everyone’s a critic as the committee meeting falls into disarray, accusations fly, and a few home truths are laid bare. |
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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Frying Nemo by Amelia Armande |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 33. No chorus. Enormous flexibility! The author presents a doubling table showing how the thirty-three characters can be played by 10 actors (with a lot of swift - and necessarily simple - costume changes). |
Run Time | Around 45 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | The producer's copy contains suggestions for (the style of) accompanying music. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
Style | A one-act nautical comedy play (with opportunities for dance music). Written for minimal set - because it was originally performed in a sea-life centre! |
Synopsis | An old man in a care home is telling the story of his younger days - as the seafaring adventurer Captain Nemo! We see things that Jules Verne never got to write about in this stirring tale of derring do and mermaids, with a surprisingly affecting 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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Gallery by Stewart Boston |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 7. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Structurally a two-act play (but classified as a one-act on the grounds of length), single art gallery setting, satirising thepretentions of the commercial fine arts world. |
Synopsis | An unscrupulous Art Dealer has a young artist foisted on him by a work programme, but soon turns the situation to his advantage when a misunderstanding makes the artist an overnight sensation. |
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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