Books in the Acting Edition S. series

Ageing Matthew Cuthbert suffers a heart attack during harvest, 1903, and his grim-visaged sister determines to adopt an orphanage boy to help with the farm work at Green Gables. By mistake, a girl arrives, red-haired, freckled and over-talkative. Her vivid imagination and entertaining flow of chatter endear her to Matthew, but sister Marilla is set on packing her back as soon as possible.13 women, 12 men

Dirty Linen concerns the investigation of a Select Committee into the moral standards of the House of Commons - a somewhat unconventional investigation, rendered not less so by the presence of an ultra-sexy secretary whose clothes have a trick of whisking off in the hands of various members. New-Found-Land is a duologue between two Home Office officials, with a tour-de-force speech on America by one of them.2 women, 8 men

It is a light-hearted, almost farcical, comedy which revolves around the mother's deep anxiety and attempts to avoid scandal after she confuses two men (both called David) and accidentally sets up her daughter with 'David Hoylake-Johnston' (who has a reputation as a philanderer) instead of 'David Bulloch' (who she believes to be the perfect match for her daughter).5 women, 3 men

This ingenious comedy is about two sisters and the choices they make (or have made for them) over a few months. There are four versions that can be done on different evenings, each stemming from one random and one deliberate choice. The story starts with a funeral at which Dorcas, Abigail and Simon solve a dilemma by tossing a coin: either Dorcas or Abigail wins the toss and goes with Simon. Later, at a picnic, Dorcas opts for either a camping adventure for Abigail or a day of sports for herself. The inevitable end of either choice is a wedding.4 women, 8 men

In this play, three women, Jessica, Rachael and Ruth, find themselves emotionally stranded in Jessica's beach home. Jessica's lover of several years standing has died and as they wait for Jessica's daughter, they weigh the choices they have made as women, as daughters, and as mothers.

There are three good friends: a devoted husband, a pathetically invalid wife, and a woman friend of the family. Gradually we learn that there is a terrifying truth beneath the appearance of their friendship. It has an ending you have never seen before, and it will give you the shock of your life.5 women, 5 men

The ladies of the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society make another spectacle of themselves and their harassed producer. Vigorous sound effects enhance their spine chilling mystery production, a tale of murder and mayhem that is guaranteed to bring down the house or at least a substantial part of the set.-5 women, 1 man

Gig Young starred on Broadway as a food and wine connoisseur who dabbles in female delectations. He is picked up at a party by a younger woman who is a match for any roue. The new romance bubbles along smoothly considering the contrast between sophisticated gourmet and the modish girl. He finds himself in love permanently but is rebuffed when a young musician/ linoleum layer reclaims her heart.-3 women, 4 men

A sequel to Wild Goose Chase. In the ancestral home the nerve-shattered Chester is again menaced by his old enemies Capone and Wedgwood. In the flower beds Lord Elrood lurks with his shotgun ready to repel attacks by the butcher's boy, the postman and other desperate characters. Through the ancestral living-room wander Maggie and Bert, come for two-and-sixpence-worth of gawp and suitably awestruck by the goings-on of the country-house set.|5 women, 6 men

Six interlinked plays set in a National Health hospital during visiting hour. Alternately funny and sad - with elements of tragedy and comedy in each - your audience will be reaching for the Kleenex one minute and rolling in the aisles the next!-4 women, 2 men

Four typical Ayckbourn misfits are playing a Dungeons and Dragons type game in a suburban living room. Stanley, Hazel, Warren and Rick make the weekly escape from their real life nightmares into a role-playing board game peopled by dragons and monsters. A safe world where the dangers are of their own imagining; where they are free to become heroes of their own devising. But how clear is the dividing line between what they choose to be and what they really are? What would it take for them to lose sight of it altogether?-4 women, 4 men

This audacious adaptation of Les Femmes Savantes, Moliere's mischievous farce inditing intellectual ladies of the salons, is liberally peppered with contemporary allusions which put it firmly in the present.-5 women, 5 men

Three women in a psychiatric hospital meet for a therapeutic drama lesson. Jones, an ex-professional actress, adopts the role of teacher. The ease with which she slips between three other "characters" the other two women - Dawn, a neurotic day-dreamer, and Hannah, an apparently "normal" is both frightening and baffling. Are they, as she claims, just characters she has dramatically created, or in fact, as the doctors believe, schizophrenic personalities?|3 women

Mary and Jack's dull Saturday evening is interrupted by the arrival of Maureen, Ted and Dennis. The occasion rapidly dissolves into a drunken gathering as Ted's intellect is likened to that of a paper clip, Maureen, his wife, reveals a liking for Jack, and Jack cultivates a taste for pouring whisky over his head.2 women, 3 men

George Orwell's biting satire, adapted by Nelson Bond Characters: 5 male, 2 female Bare Stage. Animal Farm is a fable with a sting. Much has been written about the threat of Communism, but it remained to the late George Orwell, farsighted British author of the brilliant and frightening 1984, to expose the Russian experiment for what it really is; an idealist's dream, converted by realists into a nightmare. In staged dramatic reading version of this timely allegory y

Written in a clear and unpretentious blank verse, this play tells the story of Stanley and Dimitri, two middle-aged men who have lived together and loved each other for seventeen years. They speak directly to the audience, sharing their story with insight, humour and very obvious affection. The story ends sadly but our overriding impression is of the tenderness and warmth of a happy, unselfish relationship.2 men

The old story has been re-written for modern audiences and is equally suitable for performance by adults or older children.Large flexible cast

Paul Reakes' pantomimes include many original twists to the familiar stories, with plenty of audience participation. They can be staged as simply or as elaborately as desired.Large flexible cast

A heart-warming tale of how young war widow Lulu Littlehampton is saved from the dishonourable designs of Captain Harvey Kneetrembler and Arkwright, the Pickled Onion King, by the timely return of her husband Walter, who is not only not dead, but also very rich, having stumbled upon a hidden diamond mine!1 woman, 6 men

Leonard, a disk jockey, is increasingly disillusioned with the falsity of his job of provding fantasies for his devoted teenage listeners. So frustrated is he that he tries to force Nicola, a contestant in a stupid competition, to realise the idiocy of the whole set-up - but what is the result when fantasies are destroyed?3 women, 4 men

In A Life this intriguing character is at the end of his life and setting his emotional accounts in order. Two casts represent the young and the old Desmond Drumm, his simple and loving wife, and the one true love of his life, who rejected him for a lovable ne'er do well. Now near death and isolated from the world by his "high principles," Drumm comes to realize he has never given his life or the people in it, a chance.5 women, 3 men

Amy and Lawrence, whose marriage is on the brink of collapse, invite Cissy to live with them. Gabriel, a friend of Lawrence's arrives, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Amy's attempts to provoke an emotive reaction from those around her are ineffective. The breakdown in communication is half-resolved and the play ends with Cissy personifying Lawrence's idea of hope as "... a rather plain but really very nice woman of indeterminate age sidling into a room dressed in a pink tutu ..."3 women, 3 men

Full Length, Comedy Characters: 1 male, 1 femaleInterior SetIn a San Francisco loft, aspiring author Felix focuses his binoculars on a prostitute plying her trade. He complains to the landlord, has her evicted, and finds he has trouble pounding on his door in the form of Doris, not a prostitute but an aspiring "model and actress," thank you very much. She figures he owes her a bed for the night, an arrangement that leads to hilarity. Alan Alda and Diana Sands took the roles on Broadway, George Segal and Barbra Streisand on film."The first nighters laughed maniacally."-New York Daily News "Animated, vivid, and comic (with) startling intensity and truth."-The New York Times

This play focuses on the male night-shift at Kale Moor grocery depot. But their new colleague is a woman, who sees through the antics of the men to the insecurities and weaknesses beneath. But when a mystery role-playing game is presented to the team, there are surprises for them all.

Based on fact, the story tells of a strike by the girls in a match factory in 1888, when unions were still groping for recognition and mass withdrawal of labour was an almost unheard-of strategy in industrial relations. The match-cutters finally rebel against working conditions in which young girls had their jaws rotted away by phosphorus, and discipline was maintained by a system of crippling fines and sanctions. A grim episode, perhaps, but not many minutes of the play are allowed to pass before the natural ebullience of the traditional Cockney sparrow helps to create sparkling entertainment which warms the heart, yet retains the essential drama of the central theme.13 women, 5 men

This delightful, wry comedy centres on Nell, an attractive and intelligent woman who has been deserted by her husband and feels at the crossroads of her life. Her hopeless love affair with George Rush, a married local teacher and minor poet, seems bound to end in anger and frustration. George insists on conducting their romance in total secrecy until the arrival in Nell's life of Jim Grant which causes the dying affair to erupt suddenly into flames.3 women, 2 men

Four women arrive at Del Sol on a package tour. They find themselves stranded in a workman's hut on the site of their hotel, which is not even constructed yet. Determined not to let their husbands know that they have been conned, they decide not to return home and determinedly try to make the best of everything. It is, however, far from easy!5 women

When Aubrey Tanqueray marries for the second time, he knows that his new wife, Paula, is a 'woman with a past'. But he has no idea how that past will catch up with him in the end. More probing than Oscar Wilde, more accessible than Ibsen, Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893) is one of the masterpieces of the Victorian theatre: sexy, dramatic, funny and very moving.-6 women, 5 men

When a group of children decide to put on a play, they begin by playing with toys. But shouldn't a play be about something? It must be about football, says one. It should be about space, says another. So begins the production of Indiana Smith and the Cup Final of Doom, and The Return of the Tedi.