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FULL LENGTH PLAYS:

Title / Author / Type / M/F / RRP / Performance Fee / Synopsis
ANOTHER CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES / Lynn Elliott and William Johnson / Christmas Play / Ensemble Cast / £9.50 / £80.00 / Take a large assortment of Rabelaisian characters, give them shape and language filled with charming and humorous “Wenglish” dialogue. Add a healthy dose of joy found in the large family gatherings of the past, stir in the inevitable sorrow with the realisation that “all good things must come to an end” – and you have an exuberant yet poignant story.
BEAUTY / Lesley Ross / Play / M2 F5 / £7.00 / £80.00 / Beauty tells the story of a young woman suffering from the eating disorder Bulimia Nervosa. The disease has a most damaging effect on the sufferer and family and this is well demonstrated in this excellent piece of writing. ‘Beauty’ is written with great insight and compassion and was very well received when it was performed at the Edinburgh Festival. ‘A strong cast make few concessions in this uncompromising play.’ The Independent – The Best of the Edinburgh Festival. ‘Excellent.’ The Scotsman ‘Brilliant.’
JELLY BABIES / Miriam Llywelyn / Play / M3 F3 / £9.50 / £80.00 / A very touching and human story of a family sharing the responsibility of looking after Ted, the once proud head of the household who has suffered ill health and is in a condition where he needs constant attention. The arrival of Kate, the older daughter makes each one of the family take a good, long look at their situation within the Griffith household. A moving and often funny story with a warmth that will ensure a production of great depth.
THE KING’S HOSTAGE / Diana Griffiths / Historic Drama / M3 F4 / £7.00 / £80.00 / In 1298 a 16 year old novice at Sempringham Priory, East Anglia known to everyone as ‘Wencilian’, is about to take Holy Orders. She has lived at the Priory nearly all her life and knows nothing of the world outside. During the war between England and Scotland, the priory admits a group of ‘King’s hostages’ whose families are known to be Scottish sympathisers. Amongst these is Blanche, also 16. It is through Wencilian’s subsequent illicit friendship with Blanche that she comes to understand the nature of her own passion for Aleric, the Lay Brother, and discovers the secret of her identity: she is Gwenllian, the only child of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Elinor de Montfort. Finally, she must confront the fact that she too is a hostage to King Edward I – and a person of the highest political importance in England and Wales.

ONE ACT PLAYS:

Title / Author / Type / M/F / RRP / Performance Fee / Synopsis
AFTER THE DREAM / Richard Macaulay / Comedy / M6 F3 extras / £4.50 / £38.00 / The play is a mini-sequel to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nick Bottom, still partly in thrall to his experiences in the wood, has become a travelling play actor, leading a ragbag company gathered up over the years on the road. Now, ten years later, he returns to Athens. His career has been neither a financial nor a dramatic success, and, after yet another disaster, he and his players find themselves sheltering in the same woodland glade of the Pyramus rehearsals ten years earlier. The action of the play concerns Titania’s making amends for the turmoil she has caused to Bottom’s life. Winner of the Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy for Best Original Script 2002.
ANOTHER AUGUST 919 / Monika Johnson / Play / M2 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Nic and Daniel Dime are brothers who have never been close. Nic, the dreamer, and Dan, the arrogant layabout, only brought together by their friendship with the streetwise Pam. However, when Dan announces he is leaving to go to war, Nic starts to fear for his brother and questions whether Dan deserves to be honoured in the same way as good, decent men who have laid down their lives for their country. He remembers Dan before he went away…
Can the three of them come together once more and realise that there are causes closer to home also worth fighting for?
THE ARK / Helen Griffin / Play / F3 / £5.00 / £38.00 / A beautifully crafted and deeply touching play, The Ark charts the journey of a mother and her two grown up daughters following the death of Dad. By turns funny and moving. Although set in Swansea, this play is completely transferable to anywhere in the UK because of the honest universal humanity of its theme.
THE AUDITION / Richard Macaulay / Play / M4 F3 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Adam Sparrow attends an audition for Garrick’s Drury Lane company at the beginning of a new season. He meets two of the backstage staff, Mrs Trundle and Tom Grout, then Hannah Moody, also hoping for an audition, who immediately catches at his heart, and seemingly returns his feelings. Dr Johnson arrives. Finding Garrick is indisposed after too riotous an evening, he indulges himself by conducting his own audition, a scene from Romeo and Juliet. But this brings ructions, first from Peg Woffington, one of the Lane’s established actresses and Garrick’s mistress, then from Garrick himself. Hannah, deserting Adam, succeeds in joining the company, but Adam loses both his new love and his chance of employment. Johnson sympathises but can do nothing. Only the sonnet that Adam brought with him as his audition piece can echo his feelings in the end.
The running time is estimated at 40 minutes. The set is an empty stage with a footlight row and stacked scenery flats in the background.
THE BEACH INSPECTOR / Alan Osborne / Play / M1 F1 Plus 4 extras / £5.00 / £38.00 / The Beach Inspector is retiring and giving way to the new generation –
‘Baywatch’ comes to BarryIsland. The Beach inspector and his hut take us back to the times of family days out at the seaside, contrasting them against the dog eat dog competitiveness of the modern work ethic. But before he goes he passes on the mantle with warmth and human dignity, assuring us that his experience, knowledge, values and humility will continue to thrive in his replacement.
BEDSIDE MANNER / Frank Vickery / Comedy / M1 F5 / £5.00 / Performance rights held by Samuel French Ltd. / She’s back! The loveable, gutsy, human bulldozer, Marlene, finds herself hospitalised once more. Will she be discharged in time for her daughters’ wedding? In true Marlene form things just never quite go exactly to plan. The latest in a series of Vickery hits!
BEST END OF LAMB / Yvonne Williams / Comedy. / M1 (voice only) F5 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Set in a theatre green-room during a performance ofMacbeth.It is a delightful comedy involving ghosts, famous tragediennes, the playing of Shakespearean tragedy, infidelity and an unseen actor who can’t resist adding Casanova to his list of credits! Brief flashes over the tannoy remind us that off-stage/on-stage the “Scottish Play” is heading for a disastrous finale.
BISCUITS / Graham J. Evans / Comedy / M5 F2 / £4.50 / £38.00 / It is 1361 and William, failed builder and Clerk of Works to Henry of Grosmont, is in trouble: the building work on the new courthouse is behind schedule and Henry is not happy. With a frustrated daughter, a rebellious son and a bad tempered witch adding to his problems, the offer of help from Gerald, scribe, legal adviser to Henry of Grosmont and fully paid-up lecherous monk, is accepted with tragic and hilarious results.
BREAK, MY HEART / Arnold Wesker / Play / M1 F1 / £7.00 / £50.00 / Inspired by a true story, Break, My Heart confronts the breakdown of a marriage. Maeve’s love of words and poetry intimidates her husband, whose resentment explodes into violence. Shame follows. Maeve comforts him. Literacy, violence, shame, comfort – will the cycle ever be broken? This complex and sophisticated work is an intense and harrowing drama and was described by The Western Mail as ‘...one of the best pieces of theatre ever to come out of Wales’ and ‘As a metaphor about humanity, it has almost mythic quality; as a domestic drama it is explosively, frighteningly real’.
BRIDGE, THE / Gabe Torrens / Play / M2 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / On a dark, wet and windy night Dave stands alone on a bridge underwhich flows a fast, dark torrent. Trying to face up to his past, he iscontemplating suicide when the sudden arrival of a stranger stopshim. Who is this stranger? What is it that links these two men? Whatis the secret tragedy in Dave’s past that has led him to this momentand can the stranger convince Dave not to jump off The Bridge? Winner of both the Glamorgan Drama League and the Wales FinalFestival of One Act Plays, consequently The Bridge represented Walesat the British Final Festival of One Act Plays in 2007.
A CANTERBURY TALE / Richard Macaulay / Play / M7 F3 / £4.50 / £38.00 / In 1388, a group of Barons, jealous of the power of lesser men close to the young King Richard II, brought appeals of treason against them in Parliament. A number were taken and executed, including Sir Simon Burley, and many others who had held minor roles in the King’s service, including Chaucer himself, feared for their lives. That much is history. This play supposes a final meeting between Burley and Chaucer at the HopeInn in Canterbury, among a haphazard collection of pilgrims and local characters who witness Burley’s capture ad then improvise a rescue to save Chaucer from arrest by the King’s Marshal. And from these events emerge – with prompting – the germ of the idea that was to grow into the Canterbury Tales.
A CLASS ACT / Ken Owen / Farce / M4 F3 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Frank wakes up one Sunday morning in a strange bed, hung over and wearing a red dress! The bed’s owner Barbara, gradually explains the circumstances that brought Frank to her bed. The unexpected arrival of Barbara’s over-protective mother, an enraged neighbour and a woman hell-bent on revenge all add to the pace of this fast-moving farce.
THE COMEDY OF A SUMMER SEASON / Richard Macaulay / Comedy / M5 F4 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Pantalone and his Commedia dell’Arte players are touring their new Comedy of a Summer Season. Funds are low and the standard of performance perhaps lower still, though we will never see the play to judge for ourselves. Nor will we know them other than by their character names. But the tangled events of the afternoon are a living Commedia of deception, quarrels and courtship, echoing the mannered style of the time, until the denouement of reality paints a darker shade both to their day and to the drama.
A DOCTOR BY PERSUASION / Adapted by Graham J. Evans / Comedy / M4 F5 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Gėronte is worried as the marriage he has arranged for his daughter Lucinde to his OLD friend has been postponed because she has lost her voice. Local doctors are baffled, so Gėronte sends out his two faithful servants to search for a brilliant doctor. They meet Sganarelle who has to be 'persuaded' to use his medical skills...
THE DRAG FACTOR / Frank Vickery / Play / M2 F1 / £5.00 / Performance rights held by Samuel French Ltd. / Simply set in a hospital corridor, The Drag Factor is classic Frank Vickery. It is a poignant and blisteringly funny account of a husband and wife coming abruptly to terms with the fact that their son is gay. Certain to be a festival favourite, the characters of Ruby and Griff offer brilliant opportunities for middle-aged actors. The small role of the male nurse completes the casting.
EGGPLANT / Lesley Ross / Play. / M1 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Lisa invites you to her cousin Tom’s 30th birthday party, and all that comes with it; jelly, pass the parcel and some home truths about the Little Mermaid. But a group of elements, a swimming pool and the history of a man called Rob are about to change the way they look at the world forever. This is about to become one party that you won’t want to miss.
EMBODIMENT / Jeremy Hylton Davies / Comedy / M3 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / The local rugby team are all killed in a tragic coach crash and Franklin takes the opportunity to build his own perfect fly-half with bits nicked from the mortuary – the magnificent Tennyson Evans. But in the true tradition of the creature created by Frankenstein, things don’t quite turn out as Franklin envisaged... No, Ten doesn’t go around destroying everything in sight and falling in love with hapless maidens – he becomes an actor!! A superb piece of fresh new writing.
FANCYING SHEEP / Vic Mills / Comedy / M4 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / A comedy set in the 1960’s. It takes a fond look at the life of the Welsh Baptist Chapel, at a time when the chapel was still at the centre of most village life in South Wales. The Griffiths family prepare for their anniversary services at Bethel and the arrival of the ‘Big Preacher’. As part of the celebrations, the chapel is to select a new ‘deacon’ and Edward Griffiths is, once again, standing for office, having failed several times in his attempts to be raised to this very important position of authority. Whilst the manners, the language and the beliefs at the heart of this world have all but disappeared, Edward’s longing for position and acknowledgement by his peers, is a universal longing and his pettiness and pomposity are all too real. A simple setting, where a sense of the period and place is deeply important and five characters, all of whom offer depth and challenge for actors, make this a compelling, warm and touching piece of theatre. Winner of the DAW Crawshay Cup for Best Original Script 2007.
THE FUNERAL OF MACIE LOVERETT / Gytha Lodge / Play / M4 F3 / £5.00 / £38.00 / Macie Loverett’s family gather for her funeral and it is a fairly sorry and absurd sight. Her husband is determined to bring his mistress to the ceremony, and her eldest children can’t seem to feel anything. The devoted mother is little mourned, it seems. But as the funeral approaches, a whole life they knew nothing about comes to light. This is a play about love, loss, grief, wilful blindness and secrets. Told in part through a variety of fonts, it draws out as much laughter as it does sadness at the absurdity of the lives we make for ourselves. Winner of the Geoffrey Whitworth Award 2009 for best new play in the U.K.
FUTURE SHOCK / Richard Stockwell / Play / M1 F2 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Laura is woken from an eight hundred year hyper-sleep because she has run out of money. It is a hundred years before her partner will return from surveying new planets. How can she reach him? She has no money to be returned to hyper-sleep, and she is alone in an unfamiliar time. All she has are the stories of the past, until she is offered a strange and desperate way of reaching the future. Is she brave enough to accept?
GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS / Vic Mills / Play / M3 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Just when the Shakespeares were finally getting a coat of arms and becoming 'gentry' at last, William was performing in a play for Ben Jonson, in which a country family gain a coat of arms with the comic motto, 'Not Without Mustard'. This appears to be a jibe at the Shakespeare's motto of, 'Not without Justice'. In this hilarious comedy, Will takes his revenge on his best friend, Jonson. The play features an angry and troubled Will, a bemused and tormented Jonson and, with echoes of Hamlet, the touching appearance of the ghost of Will’s father, John Shakespeare. This is robust, bawdy comedy, but there are levels of complex enjoyment – with many references to the works and life of the playwright for members of an audience who know and love Shakespeare – and a strong plot and comedy for those for whom all this is less familiar.
GUERNICA GOODBYE / William Olson Campbell / Play / M2 F1 / £4.50 / £38.00 / Chartres in 1944 is a time of lionising heroes and denouncing collaborators. Solana is celebrating the Liberation when her grandson Rafael visits with a disclosure. The two are the only family survivors from the Fascist bombing of Guernica, and now Rafael has fallen in love with a German. His confession is stalled by the presence of Resistance leader Jacques, Solana’s young lover. As questions surface, tensions build and break into a violent realignment of passions. The first production won awards for Best Actor, Actress and Production at the Henley-on-Thames Drama Festival. Winner of the award forBest Adult Play in the DAW Playwriting Competition 1998.
HONI THE CIRCLE DRAWER / Don Rodgers / Play / 7 Speaking Parts (with doubling) / £4.50 / £38.00 / The winner of the 1993 Drama Association of Wales, Playwriting Competition. Honi is considered to be a miracle worker by the people of his village. Overnight, he is transformed from village idiot to miracle worker and hero. Biblical allegories abound; the play questions the infallibility of prophets given authority by fallible Man and the ways in which Man uses these prophets as scapegoats for all things beyond his power and comprehension. This is a very clever piece with a very simple setting that would pose very few problems with staging. The costuming is also very simple.
HUNGER MARCH / Michael Bodenstein / Play / M2 F2 / £4.50 / £38.00 / A Soldier returns to home after a war. He is battle weary and fatigued; he has been incarcerated, tortured and raped. He grips firmly to the hope that the life he left, is the one to which he will return. The reality of his homecoming is one of rejection, distrust, threat and fear. The Soldier’s survival is guaranteed by the family’s need to protect him as a source of food. The play is both well written and constructed and has a distinct ‘Brechtian’ feel edging into areas of Theatre of Cruelty. Simple settings.