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Our office will close at 5pm on Friday 20th December 2024 and will re-open at 9am on Monday 6th January 2025
During this period you will still be able to download free preview files and to purchase e-scripts, but we will not be able to supply any printed material, nor issue any quotations or any licences (including Script Copying Licences).
Categories
Black Comedy
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A Bit Of A Do by Tony Layton(1f) apx 25 minsMaggie is happily settled into her life. Settled with husband, Harry; settled into their comfortable house in a small cul-de-sac; settled with her circle of friends and settled with her high standards of behaviour. When something unsettling though happens to one of her friends, the effect of it builds up a tidal wave around her which smashes through her comfy existence, destroying it forever. |
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A Woman Of Uncertain Age by Maggie Dealey(1f) apx 35 mins Winner - Best New Writing, Buxton Festival Fringe : 2003Ruth is in her forties. She travels with baby Eve, a slowly dwindling mountain of baggage and a distinct lack of self-esteem on a somewhat fraught train journey to see her grown-up son. We hear the story of Eve through Ruth’s inner thoughts and outer utterances in this bitter-sweet comedy of lost love and lost luggage. |
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Ashes To Ashes by Anne Gawthorpe & Lesley Bown(2f) apx 45-50 minsA two-handed black comedy that charts a descent into murder and madness. Margaret and Divora are lifelong friends, but what happened between Margaret and her husband Max, and is she asking too much of Divora? The play explores the see-saw relationship of two women held together by a shared past. |
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Bye-bye, Mr Heim by Tony Layton(4m, 7f, 1m/f) apx 40 minsWalter Heim is a bigamist and a money launderer who has been embezzling from his criminal friends to support his extravagant lifestyle. Lying in a hospital bed, he is visited by his two wives, who walk out on him, and a messenger from the Mob who reveals that the 'accident' won't be botched next time - he's living on borrowed time. Who can Walter turn to for help? His Doctor and Nurse agree to secretly get him out of hospital and hide him in exchange for a large sum of money. Why does the Nurse though, get the cheque made out in her name only? Does Walter survive? |
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Calling Time by Derek Webb(Variable casting up to 6m 6f. Can be played by 2m 2f with doubling)In the lounge bar of the local pub, these five linked short comedies all take place during one evening. 'Calling Time' is written to be performed by four actors performing all the parts, but can be played by a cast of up to 12. Similarly, the play allows for flexibility in length (from 30 mins to 60 mins). Provided the intro and outro scenes, together with 'Who's Joe?' are played, one or two other scenes may be omitted to reduce the running time for use in festivals etc. |
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Career Day by Paul Adam Levy(5m but could gender swap) 30 minsWhat should have been straightforward careers advice for four schoolboys descends into anarchy when one pupil has no plans for the future and faces the wrath of a demonic careers counsellor. A dark tale with snappy dialogue, this one act comedy captures the contrasting feelings of hope and dread experienced by pupils on career day. Winner of two writing awards at the Welwyn Drama Festival and Waltham Forest Festival of Theatre. |
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Dancing With Auntie by Bill Cronshaw(3m, 4f) apx 60-70 minsWhen teenager Barry invites his new girlfriend to the family Christmas party, she has a catalytic effect on the rest of the household, bringing to the fore a secret that has been hidden for many years. Barry's father has some explaining to do to his niece and his son in an attempt to atone for his actions. A beautifully crafted, wickedly humorous play. (Two Act split possible). |
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Digs by Tony Layton(4m, 4f) apx 40 minsSara catches Ben with her drunk sister wrapped round him and throws him out. Forced to take lodgings, Ben arrives at the house of Mrs Schiller. With spartan accommodation and an ageing Austrian landlady, Ben is plunged into a bizarre series of conversations and flashbacks. His wild imagination portrays her as a Teutonic prison warder after she takes away all his clothes, and his inability to leave the room until she returns them lets him take stock of his married life. |
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Ladies On The Costa by Lindy McNaughton Jordan(1f) Each play apx 20 minsA compelling series of 12 monologues telling the amusing, acerbic and utterly absorbing stories of the lives of twelve female ex-pats living in Spain, each with a different reason for emigrating there. |
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Like Us by Stephen Bean(2m, 5f) 40 mins Winner - Best Original Play, AETF North East Heats : 2006Whilst waiting in a doctors' surgery in a rough part of town, Pippa, a well-spoken woman complains to the loud-mouthed Tracey and Monica who had been vigorously discussing their affairs for all to hear. Now rather antagonised, the two women try and discover why this posh person needs to be here. After quite some prevarication, it transpires that Pippa has been the subject of serious mental and physical abuse by her lawyer husband, a fact that immediately aligns her with Tracey who has suffered similarly. |
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Rally Cry by Paul Adam Levy(3m, 3f) 40 minsAfter inciting the bloody overthrow of a headmaster, the new headmistress of a secondary school has to negotiate the promises she made to the teachers who helped her. But when the corpse of the previous head begins to talk and provide unwanted counsel on her newly claimed position, she soon learns she’s a player in a cruel game with no winners. Rally Cry is about the ease of criticising those in power, promising the impossible, and the difficulties of balancing diplomacy and discipline. |
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Sexologically Speaking by Carolyn Pertwee(2m, 2f) 3 x 10-15 mins approx & 1 x 70 mins approxA quartet of humorous and sometimes dark plays on the sexual complexities of the mating game for older people, involving flagging libido, frozen embryos, troubled marriages and the difficulties to be found in one-night stands. The plays can be performed by a cast of four actors: a man and woman in their sixties plus, and a man and a woman in their mid-forties plus. |
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Still Lives by Tony Layton(2m, 2f) 40 minsMaggie believes that children are crucial for a successful marriage. Bob has other ideas. Is the future world the ideal place to rear the next generation? Bob doesn’t think so. Life would be a comedy if it were not for its tragic ending. |
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The Deadly Factor by Jan Moran Neil(1m, 1f, 8m/f)Seven actors have been instructed to live and breathe their parts whilst ‘getting into their characters’ shoes’ in the dressing room. The problem is … they are to play the roles of the Seven Deadly Sins. Are they preparing for their first night or for their doom? An audience vote is to reveal the deadliest of them all and the prize: a winner-takes-all recording contract with a high-flying producer. But there is a different ending at each performance – of which even the ‘real’ actors are unaware. It will be a sin to miss it … |
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The Missing Links by Phil Mansell(2m, 2f) 45 mins |
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Thicker Than Water by Ron Nicol(2m, 8f, 8m/f down to 2m, 4f with doubling/trebling) 40 minsMrs Prince makes her son a vampire cloak for his birthday. Harold is captivated, and bites a girl at his birthday party. He decides on a career as a vampire, and his reign as the self-styled Prince of Darkness begins. As Harold grows older, he and his mother encounter horrified parents and a succession of angry teachers, until his fumbling attempts at seduction lead to the deaths of a number of women. Combined with his new career, this eventually results in Harold’s downfall and his inevitable destruction in the traditional vampire manner – a stake through the heart. Doubling/Trebling possible. |
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Two Sisters by Caroline Harding(2f) 50 or 60 min versionsNominated - Manchester Evening News Award (Best Play) 2006 Runner Up - AETF Central Area Semi-Finals 2017 Dark secrets hidden in the grey mists of time are reluctantly revealed in this excellent black comedy, set in a small village in 1880's Russia. On the bizarre discovery of an empty coffin in Anya's lodgings, she and her sister Sonia, who are both now in their 40s, are goaded into recollecting some things they'd rather forget from their earlier years. |
