Books in the Acting Edition S. series

A thunderstorm. A windswept country house. A family of failures - a detective who has never solved a case, a writer, an artist, a composer, and a dysfunctional teenager - are all arguing over a bequest. But the victim is not who we think it will be and the murderer could be one of three people.

Teddy arrives home to pay his family a visit with his wife Ruth, who settles into the household as if into a well-known niche. Teddy''s brothe''s and his father all take it for granted that she is anyone''s for the asking - and she is. It is then''suggested that they should set her up in trade, in a little flat in Soho. Calmly Ruth lists the conditions she requires before accepting, barely batting an eyelid as Teddy returns to America.

Stella returns from her dress collection in Leeds to tell James, her husband, that she has been unfaithful. James confronts Bill, pressing for the truth, already determined to believe the worst. Bill confesses that he and Stella had only talked about spending the night together. It had amused him to perpetuate Stella''s story - to hurt his friend Harry. Is this the truth? Stella is silent.

Genre: Comedy with music Characters: 4 females and 1 male Scenery: Simple set In a festive mood, the ladies mount another assault on the classics with their stage version of A Christmas Carol. They enthusiastically portray a dizzy array of characters from the Dickensian favorite (and a few which aren't), engineer some novel audience participation while bravely contending with an intrusive PA system and a real Farndale first rap their vocal cords and feet around two original, show stopping songs.

When Dame Beatrice is given a mink stole by her maid, she is reminded of the maid's shady past and immediately suspects that it was stolen from the the next flat. A former army officer and other lodgers endeavour to return the stole. The plan is devised with care and all of them take such delight in the secretive scheme that they wonder why they don't do this more often.-5 women, 3 men

Maugham's popular comedy of modern manners espouses that so long as a wife is supported by her husband she must remain faithful, but when the tables are turned freedom becomes the currency with which both must pay. Revived by New York's Roundabout Theatre Company...-5 women, 4 men

Both Anne Bancroft and Julie Andrews have played the role of a famous concert violinist who is stricken with a disease which necessitates her retirement from the stage and which threatens her marriage as well. The play is structured as a series of interviews between the violinist and her psychiatrist in which she tries to cope with her illness and its effect on her life.1 woman, 1 man

Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre leads a lonely life until she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Mr Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls by night.

A snowstorm traps a group of guests and crew into the Greenfingers Palace Hotel. A detective is sent to the hotel to investigate a top secret crime, but it is Miss Tracey and new hostess who solve everything.-6 women, 4 men

Trying to forget his marital problems, dull and doleful Charlie Baker takes a fishing-lodge holiday in the Deep South of America, and to avoid being pestered by the locals pretends that he is a foreigner who speaks no English. This leads him to becoming involved, at first unwillingly, in bizarre goings-on featuring a corrupt preacher, his pregnant girlfriend, her none-too-bright kid brother and the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan!|2 women, 5 men

Adapted from the stories by Rudyard Kipling. Mowgli, the "man-cub", lost in the jungle, is rescued from the clutches of the fearsome tiger, Shere Khan, by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. Brought up with a family of wolf-cubs, the time eventually comes for Mowgli to return to the world of Man. But Mowgli is not finished with the jungle, for one day he returns to settle the score with Shere Khan...Large flexible cast

The Sacred Flame is the story about the misfortune of Maurice Tabret, previously a soldier of World War One who had returned home unscathed to marry his sweetheart Stella. Unfortunately, after only a year of marriage, Maurice is involved in a plane crash and left crippled from the waist down. The play commences some years later in Gatley House near London, home of Maurice's mother, Mrs. Tabret.

Shows how Mama, with the help of her husband and Uncle Chris, brings up the children in their modest San Francisco home during the early years of the century. Mama, a sweet and capable manager, sees her children through childhood, manages to educate them and to see one of her daughters begin her career as a writer. Mama's sisters and uncle furnish a rich background for a great deal of comedy and a little incidental tragedy, while the doings of the children manage to keep everyone in pleasant turmoil.13 women, 9 men

The eve-of-performance dress rehearsal of Henry''s send-up of a Victorian tragedy is running anything but smoothly as the cast constantly step out of character to bicker. Feuds simmer beneath the surface and the pretty heroine cannot remember her lines! However, when all seems lost, and the play likely to be cancelled, the cast rally like true troopers for "the show must go on"!|4 women, 2 men

Two ladies living next door to each other share a love of plants, but not of friendship. Mrs Roberts, Everybody's Friend (and busy-body), tries to reconcile the two ladies who have quarrelled over one much-loved plant. However, the ladies become friends, united in their eventual hatred of Mrs Roberts.

A Dramatic Society is assembling on the stage of a church hall to rehearse a production of a mystery-thriller under its somewhat dictatorial director Philip Stephens. Events and strains within the company, however, more than equal those in the play they are to present. Philip''s wife is friendlier than is wise with a young man of the company, a "prowler" is in the neighbourhood and attacks one of the girls, an unpleasant caretaker tries a little blackmail and one of the women seems to know him from the past.|4 women, 4 men

Dan and Margaret have come to spend Christmas with Rachel and Edmund in their renovated seventeenth-century labourer's cottage. Later, as Rachel plays the piano, she suddenly gets a sinister feeling of d¿j¿ vu. Shortly afterwards, the electricity fails and the phone is out of order too. It is the start of a series of macabre events which mount relentlessly to a bizarre and terrifying climax culminating in a tragic report coming from the TV into an empty brightly-lit room.2 women, 2 men

Filmed as The Way to the Stars and set in the 1940s, Rattigan''s famous play concerns Patricia''s love for a film actor, despite her marriage to Flight-Lieutenant Teddy Graham. Going to the hotel to break with Teddy, followed by Peter, Pat encounters Doris, married to a Polish Count, who is one of two pilots not to return from a bombing raid. Hearing the Count''s last letter, Pat realizes how much Teddy needs her, and gives Peter his dismissal.

The curtain is about to go up on the Women's Guild variety and dramatic show when one of the leads loses her voice. This is the start of a series of calamities, not lessened by well meant but embarrassing offers of help. At the last moment all is well, and Clara even learns how to work the curtains.-10 women

Short comedies Characters: Various males and females, extras In each of these masterpieces from the authors of Four Plays for Coarse Actors, sets collapse, actors fail to appear and props fall to pieces while the casts carry on, believing that the audience won't notice. Moby Dick is an ambitious attempt to reduce the epic novel to a series of quick fire scenes. The Cherry Sisters, a previously undiscovered Chekhov fragment, is a desperately sincere piece with a teary ending (spoiled by a faulty prop that necessitates a standing death). Last Call for Breakfast is an avant garde play shortened because an actor is in the wrong place during a black out. Henry the Tenth (Part Seven) is a rarely performed tragedy with battle scenes that would amaze the bard.

This riotous comic farce notched up a staggeringly successful sixteen-year run in the West End. Peter and Frances could reasonably expect to look forward to a calm, happy start to their married life together. Owing to an unfortunate mistake, however, they find themselves inundated with pornographic material from the "Scandinavian Import Company". Senior bank officials, Peter's snobbish mother, and a prim, respectable bank cashier become inextricably entangled in the rumbustious events that follow.-4 women, 6 men