Books in the Acting Edition S. series

Dennis spends his spare time messing about in his untidy garage, indifferent to the fact that his wife is being driven to distraction and beyond by his possessive mother. The hidden tension and antagonisms under an apparently normal surface build up to a climax of bizarre violence and madness.3 women, 2 men

This is a series of playlets which tell the various well-known tales of Robin Hood. The possibilities for presenting the play are numerous open stage, promenade, open air as well as on a proscenium stage. There is a basic cast of fourteen, but the authors envisage productions in which large numbers of local people take part, emphasizing the basic concept of the play which is that of a musical celebration by a whole community.|14 women or men

Young Philip Pirrip, known as "Pip", helps the escaped convict Abel Magwitch and sets in motion a train of events that will affect his entire young life. This is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel of the same name.

An ex-miner turned poet is appointed writer-in-residence at Eastwood branch library. Ellen, senior librarian, soon realizes the feckless but charming Geordie is no poet. Despite this she finds him highly entertaining, much to the disgust of Nutley, an earnest young man who covets the writer-in-residence role. These three find themselves an unlikely but united strike group when the Libraries sub-committee proposes demolishing the library.|2 women, 3 men

Six of Chaucer's best known Canterbury Tales - the Knight's, the Wife of Bath's, the Pardoner's, the Franklin's, the Nun's Priest's and the Miller's - are here freely adapted for the stage. Original and adapted music to suit the period has been added. The style of the play is that of a spontaneous telling of a story by a group of strolling players, with all the Company taking various parts in enacting the different tales.7 women or men

No Room For Love is a play for five men and four women. Dr Garfield arrives at the somewhat seedy Lawns Hotel in the hope of spending an enjoyable, if discreet, visit with his attractive receptionist, Michele. Unfortunately, however, his wife is the harpist in an orchestra also visiting the hotel, which makes his excuse of a golfing excursion difficult to sustain.4 women, 5 men

In Winter Glory, we meet once again the redoubtable quartet of Dame Beatrice and her lodgers Nan, Hattie and the Brigadier who featured in Peter Coke's earlier comedies Breath of Spring, Midsummer Mink and Autumn Manoeuvres. This, however, will be positively their last appearance, as due to an unfortunate slip up in their schemes to put a pathetic pet out of its misery and to help an ageing actress fade away at a peak of happiness, they dispatch themselves heavenward as well!7 women, 3 men

Pizzazz consists of three plays intended solely as entertainment. If they have a theme in common, it is that each one deals with travellers - near Dublin, in Rome and on the Shannon - who are apart from their natural environment. Another quality in common is perhaps suggested by the original composite title Scorpions.-3 women, 2 men

Opening on the wedding night of Henry VIII and his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and closing with the execution of his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, found guilty of adultery, this play takes a slice of history and turns it into theatre. There is romance, political intrigue, and betrayal.

Mark and Sandra arrive at the peak of a Munro. Sandra is not keen on repeating the experience - but then the couple meet John, a widower who has just climbed his last Munro and regrets that his late wife cannot share his triumph. His story wins Sandra's sympathy and she changes her mind, leading Mark off to the next peak as the play ends.1 woman, 2 men

This original and enjoyable show is best described as a musical revue which takes a light hearted look at the first time experience and feelings all of us have or will come up against. Each song and sketch is associated with the word "first" in one way or another-- First Child, First Job, First Glance, First Family Christmas, First Bite(!). The show can be presented simply but effectively on an open stage, and the large number of characters provides the opportunity for a mixed cast to play a variety of interesting parts, with doubling. A great success in England.|9 women, 9 men

Bookseller Alec Firth is having an affair with his assistant, Liz, and has craftily organized his domestic life so that they can go to Spain without making Alec's wife Maggie remotely suspicious. What could possibly go wrong? The answer: plenty.

In this unique thriller that has playgoers gripping their seats, Sir Charles Jasper is an eccentric who delves into the mystical.|6 women, 4 men

Full Length, Farce/ 5 m, 3 f, extras / 2 ints.Here is the hilarious frolic that launched Feydeau in Paris as the Neil Simon of his day. Take one philandering husband; add his virtuous wife set on revenge, and a doctor determined to be her instrument of revenge; mix well with the husband''s friend who is eager to trap his spouse in flagrante delicto and a young nephew with a cocotte to round out his education; toss them together at 13 Rue de L''Amour where a love starved German countess is the co

A sensitive, wryly humorous study of a middle-aged widow who finds the courage to break with the past. June keeps a diary in the form of private conversations with her late husband Sam, a national newspaper editor. Her stepdaughter, Pauline, determines to keep an eye on June. Likewise, Eric Grant, an ex-colleague of Sam's. But June strikes out on her own and befriends Duggie, who, like June, is lonely. June, however, discovers that Pauline, Eric and Duggie have their own hidden agenda.2 women, 2 men

"Suggested by the author's earlier play, Local affairs."

This play is presented as a 'clown show' in which most of the actors wear clown-style costumes, creating a kaleidoscope of impressions around the central character of Grace, representing all those people who are scorned in this world but who develop a resistance to such injustice. An intelligent and searching contemporary play of ideas, ideal for school groups and young people.Large flexible cast

On the 1st April, 1914, in the village of Burston, a group of children went on strike to protest at the unfair dismissal of their teachers, Kitty and Tom Higdon. The Burston Drum tells the story, in musical form, of the events leading up to this historic first school strike, and of Kitty's battle to provide a comprehensive and enjoyable education for all the village children and Tom's fight to organize the villagers into a more democratic rural community. With simple staging and a large cast (either all children or mixed children and adults) this musical offers the opportunity for an enjoyable and entertaining community or school production.11 women, 13 men

Who's Who takes place in the lounge of a Brighton hotel a place of faded elegance where the inevitable trio saw away playing sad and dated ballads. In the first act we follow the confusion that Mr. Black and Mr. White land themselves in as inextricable as the hotel itself in their efforts to cover up a clandestine weekend; a confusion which ends in no one knowing anyone else's identity and a hint that, even when things have more or less cleared up, it's likely to start all over again. In the second act the male leads discuss the previous events and Mr. White says that if positions and identities had been reversed the confusion would never have happened. 2 women, 2 men

Jane and Andrew's pleasant country house is accident prone. Six people have already died there in unfortunate and embarrassing accidents. When daughter Sally's young man Geoff arrives for the weekend unaware of the house's reputation, he mistakenly deduces from conversational confusion that the deaths were due to sinister circumstances.4 women, 4 men

A committee meets on a winter''s night to arrange the summer village fete. As protocol gives way to bickering and gossip, the personalities of those present emerge: busybody Ethel; Pauline, the vicar''s long-suffering wife; careworn Gloria; horsy Majorie who is very attentive to the shy new teacher, Angela; elderly Mavis and Sally, the brisk Army wife. Six months on, the cathartic events of the fete are related with humour and pathos, and the upbeat ending affirms the enduring value of village life.|7 women, 1 man

Gripping mystery drama.  An ordinary decent citizen is caught in a waking nightmare.  A West-End hit in 1950.|2 women, 5 men

A stage adaptation of the novels of E.F. Benson, and the war for social supremacy between Lucia and Miss Mapp in the small coastal town of Tilling. Hitherto, Tilling's doyenne has been Miss Mapp; so when Lucia rents Miss Mapp's house for the summer, the battle lines are drawn.

Four Riotous Routines edited by Michael Kilgarriff. The Molecatcher by Malcolm Sircom, is a brief (ten-minute) rousing sketch with music showing three yokels and their trials and tribulations with moles. Who Will Man the Lifeboat? devised by Michael Kilgarriff, is a six-minute sketch with music. The Tram-Track Tragedy by Patricia and Peter Ariss, is a twenty-five minute sketch in the best melodrama fashion, without music, but with the provision of a tram! The Master and the Maid by Michael Kilgarriff, is a six-minute sketch in the mode of the silent movies wherein a film of husband, wife, lover and maid is first shown ordinarily, then backwards and finally forwards at double speed! The script includes several pages of accompanying music.|Flexible casting

Hitting Town opens with Ralph, a student drop-out from Birmingham University, dropping in unexpectedly on his sister, Clare, in her Leicester bed-sit. Together they decide to "hit the town". But against a background of commercial radio, city-centre precincts, Wimpy Bars and dangerous practical jokes, the incestuous relationship that develops between them seems the only way of affirming their vitality...|2 women, 1 man

The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Operatic Society's Production of The Mikado - and the ladies outdo even themselves in this hilarious staging of the classic operetta.-Large flexible cast

"We all marry the wrong people" announces Edward Gray, looking at his three daughters and their unsuitable partners. But when his daughters change partners and then again - every combination is played out. The outcome being that none of them works any better than any of the others.

The delegates from many governments arrive in an atmosphere of suspect bonhomie. The two cleaners, backed by the troops and ordinary people, take over and announce a slight amendment to international law: in future a formal declaration of any war shall be by the public execution of all members of governments concerned.|8 women, 8 men