Books published by Samuel French Ltd

This delightful spoof of the classic horror tale is an unparalleled romp from start to finish.

A small provincial Russian town is suddenly aroused from its lethargy by the imminent arrival of the first railroad. Gorky is less concerned here with the Industrial Revolution than with the damaging personal effect of people who represent progress; in this case, two engineers who come to prepare for the railroad and who sweep into the lives of all and sundry with the force of a gale, upsetting stalemated romances, stale marriages, and the equilibrium of the petty bureaucracy.

Prince Rudolf's valet falls in love with a pretty voice over the telephone, invites his charmer to his master's first-floor apartment, and then, naturally, puts off his livery and becomes a Prince.

Two Black scavengers emerge from the underbrush loaded with their total possessions: the makings of a shack and a battery of pots and pans, but nothing to cook in them.

A beautiful young book illustrator is having an affair with her dream man, a ruggedly attractive owner of a demolition company. When he announces his intention to leave his family, Donna gets looped and awakes in the arms of an angelic looking man with "Wings" printed on his sweatshirt.

In story theatre style this play tells of the fateful meeting between Dwayne Hoover, Pontiac dealer, and Kilgore Trout, Vonnegut's alter ego, in Midland City, where Dwayne bites off Trout's finger.

Defeated for re-election as District Attorney, Paul Biegler isn't looking forward to becoming a defense attorney, but his first case is sensational: a lieutenant is accused of murdering the bartender who allegedly raped his wife. It's a high-stakes battle of wit and determination, as Biegler uses every device to save the officer's neck.

Donald, a weary Chartered Surveyor, is retiring from the company he's devoted himself to for the last 35 years. Margaret is his unmarried secretary who has devoted herself to Donald. On his last day, Donald plans to do whatever he wants to do. But Mimi, his bored wife has other ideas.

Unknown to the present-day tourists, they are accompanied in the room by Anne who lived in the manor 500 years previously as a servant girl to its lord, James Darlow. She is soon joined by a group of other servants who have been stealing from their master, and by Susan Makem, an eccentric loner rumoured to be a witch.

Drama / Characters: 14 male, 4 femaleSacrificed to powers larger than himself, Woyzeck is one of drama's first anti-heroes. He serves a German captain and makes money by allowing a doctor to experiment on him, but his deeper morality leads him to a tragic end.

Two perfectly ordinary couples - hosts David and Caroline, guests Helen and Edward - are enjoying a dinner party. David is having an affair with Helen and Caroline knows all about it. Once the cat is out of the bag there is no way to stop the evening developing into a battleground of recriminations, explanations and cruel home truths. Explosively and observantly written.

With over 600 song titles of the period, this text provides both a source book for the music hall chairmen, and an historical insight into the genre. Whether researching for a music hall evening, or reading purely "for pleasure", this volume should make informative and amusing reading.

At Break of Day is the story of two soldiers who make an epic journey home after a long war, encountering many different people on the way. Events become more and more dreamlike, indeed nightmarish, taking them not just along the road home but through a whole century and its conflicts.

"Since It Gives Me Great Pleasure first appeared in 1972 I have been heartened to hear from so many producers and performers, both amateur and professional, how useful they have found it as a source of help, information and encouragement and above all of inspiration for their own ideas. For this is very much a suggestive publication, if you'll pardon the expression, the intention being to fire the imagination, to suggest a course of procedure rather than to proclaim an ex cathedra list of inviolable do's and don't's. And now my estimable publishers have permitted me in this new edition to update publishers' addresses, to revise the text in the light of a further fifteen years' Music Hall experience, and considerably to expand the Chairman's section."Michael Kilgarriff

Comedian and national treasure Dave Thursby has died, and on the day of his funeral, friends and colleagues gather beside his coffin to pay their last respects. There's Harvey, who wrote Dave's material; Vi, Harvey's wife; Kevin, Dave's agent, and Kevin's wife Jane.

It's the half term holiday and George Kranky is looking forward to a break from school when a letter from Grandma arrives announcing that she is coming to stay - that very day! Soon she is making George's life miserable with spiteful comments and demands for doses of medicine, so George decides to mix a new type of medicine for her.

Comedy / Characters: 3 males, 5 femalesSet Requirements: InteriorThe marriage of Rupert and Sarah is on the rocks and their friends Charles and Madge, both of whom are lawyers, agree to handle the divorce. After the curtain has been up a few minutes, Rupert forgets his lines, has a brain storm and threatens to kill Charles in full view of the audience because he's been having an affair off stage, with Rupert's real wife, Madge. Quite true as it happens. The rest of the cast try to ignore t

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

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

The events of the past are brought to life in Gorse Cottage when, after twenty years abroad, Mrs Bell's daughter Sylvia returns to visit her mother and spinster sister, Mavis. The beautiful Sylvia brings with her a daughter whose plainness arouses the same enmity in old Mrs Bell that has led her to use and mistreat Mavis for so long. Rose, however, shows spirit and humour in her dealings with her grandmother. The atmosphere of spite deepens into something more when Mrs Bell is frightened almost to death. The only suspects are the members of her own family. Was murder the intention? Will it be finally accomplished? | 5 women, 2 men

In this bubbling modern extravaganza for the young, the immaculate Miss Nadia Naive and her three pupils are swung into riotous Transylvanian happenings with the irrepressible Count and his gruesome acolytes. On the side of right are noble Nick Necrophilic, Father O'Stake, the cuddly Hansel and Gretel and the Fuddled Friends; can they prevail over the forces of darkness when these include the creme de la horrible creme such as the Countess Wraith, Genghis the groveling minion, the Zombies, the Fanged Brides and the dynamic sanguineous gentleman the Price of Vampireshimself? Plenty of good parts, a sizzling score and a fresh hilarious script.

Willis Hall brings Dumas' swashbuckling adventure to the stage in this tongue-in-cheek version of "The Three Musketeers". D'Artagnan, a poor, young Gascon gentleman, goes to Paris to join King Louis XIII's musketeers and is befriended by three members of that force and shares their adventures.

At the end of Noël Coward's Design for Living, two men and a woman embark on a menage a trois founded on mutual attraction and a conscious flouting of societal norms. This witty and warm hearted comedy continues their story.|2 women, 4 men