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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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Fighting the Kaiser with Catapults by S. J. Edwards |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 9. Minimum total without doubling = 9. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 24 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | One-act drama written for performance by older youth theatre students (16-19 year olds). Can be performed on minimal sets. |
Synopsis | A series of vignettes follows three different men, their relationships with the women in their lives and their involvement in the First World War. The scenes take place at various intervals between 1914 and 1916. |
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 Filming of Das Kapital by Vithal Rajan |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 5. Minimum total without doubling = 7. No chorus. Two of the characters make a brief non-speaking appearance (and therefore could be regarded as optional). |
Run Time | Around 25 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | A combination of Indian storytelling and chess! Simple props, but needs a means of displaying the chess moves to the audience. |
Synopsis | Game Nine in the Varadachary Chess Cycle. A Bollywood producer has plans to make a film of the life of Karl Marx, part of which is played out through a chess game. An amateur theatre group - including the author! - runs through the script (and the chess game), criticising the producer's distortions of history! |
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 Flag by Neil Walden |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 3. Minimum total without doubling = 3. No chorus. |
Run Time | Around 25 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Easy-to-stage one-act drama for three actors in one simple office set. |
Synopsis | A school in 1930s England is set to welcome an ambassador from Nazi Germany, whose child is one of the pupils. Headteacher Mrs Mayhew wants to fly the Nazi flag for the visitor's arrival, but young teacher Miss Tait raises an objection. A good period drama with a sharp focus on an area of pre-WW2 history that's often overlooked - how a lot of British people were generally welcoming towards the Nazis, or at least apathetic about their politics, in the years before the war. It also has some relevance to the contemporary debates around flags. |
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 Coriolanus by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 19. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 22. Minimum total without doubling = 30. Chorus. As usual with Shakespeare, most of the characters are male - but for your production, you can cast whomsoever you like! |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's tragedy 'Coriolanus', 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 | In the early days of the Roman republic, Caius Martius Coriolanus is a brilliant Roman General, but contemptuous of the civilian population. After a successful military campaign against the Volsces (an Italian tribe), Coriolanus runs for Consul. He is supported by the Senate, but the common people are stirred-up to riot against him. Still contemptuous of the people, Corilanus is exciled from Rome and takes his revenge by leading the Volsces against Rome. His mother intervenes and persuades him to sign a peace treaty. Unfortunately, his Volscian allies see this as a betrayal, and Coriolanus pays the price. |
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 Henry IV Part 1 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 27. No chorus. This is a story about a male-dominated society. This does not preclude inventive casting! |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'First Part of King Henry IV', 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 | Henry IV is at odds with his nobles, even those who helped him usurp Richard II. Meanwhile his son, Prince Hal has absentend himself from court and is spending his time in taverns with Sir John Falstaff and his clique. Things come to a head with a rebellion, led by Harry Hotspur and at last the dissolute Prince Hal proves himself a warrior. |
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 Henry IV Part 2 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 43. No chorus. This is a story about a male-dominated society. This does not preclude inventive casting! |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Second Part of King Henry IV', 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 | King Henry IV is facing rebellion on a scale close to civil war. Meanwhile, his son and heir, Prince Hal, is spending his youth carousing and brawling in taverns in the company of the wastrel Falstaff. If a successful transition is to be made, the old king needs to keep the kingdom together and his son needs to reform. |
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 Henry V by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 20. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 23. Minimum total without doubling = 29. Chorus. As usual for Shakespeare's time, there's a dearth of female characters, which does not preclude inventive casting! |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Henry V', 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 | King Henry the Fifth is at war with the French, and facing daunting odds. He rallies his troops, wanders amongst them in disguise to find what they really think, then leads them, once more, unto the breach. |
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 Henry VI Part 1 by Shakespeare, adapted by Bill Tordoff |
Roles | Minimum Male roles = 17. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 31. Chorus. Shakespearian theatre, history and war conspire to leave few female roles. Don't let that put you off! |
Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
Music | None. |
Style | One-act adaptation of Shakespeare. Other plays in this series are abridgements. This is an adaptation (Bill Tordoff felt that it worked better with the verse form used throughout), hence both script and performances are subject to copyright licensing. |
Synopsis | Subtitled 'The Wars Of Henry VI And Joan Of Arc'. Henry V has died, but his dukes continue to prosecute his war in France. Joan of Arc arises to lead the French. The English lose ground as they bicker amongst themselves and the first quarrels of the Wars of the Roses begin. Henry V1 is crowned and the fortunes of war change again... Despite all the fighting and infighting, the play also has room for some moments of broad 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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