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| Bardell versus Pickwick by Malcolm Seymour |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 15. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 85 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Full-length comedy play. Single period (1830s) set. |
| Synopsis | Members of the Pickwick Club, re-enact their founder's legal altercation with his landlady, Mrs Bardell.
Faithfully adapted from The Pickwick Papers, this hilarious romp highlights the Dickens' well-known dislike of the legal profession, with topical sideswipes at the modern 'no win - no fee' culture. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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BARF by Richard Moon
BARF was one of the eight winners of the 2022 Ilkley Playhouse 8x8x8 Playwriting Festival and was performed at the Ilkley Playhouse in April 2023. |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 8 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A funny sketch with a nicely grim twist. |
| Synopsis | Pauline's dishwasher is broken and Joe is confident he is the man to fix it for her. But why is Pauline so interested in Joe's private life? |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| The Barrier by Neville Judson |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Stongly-written one-act drama set in the 1990s in a single guest-house setting. Contains adult themes, with meaty material to the actors as the two couples explore very different attitudes towards sexuality. |
| Synopsis | Clare and Graham arrive for a weekend in Tenby when they bump into old friends Marjorie and Richard. But Richard has refused to speak to Graham since a falling-out twenty-five years ago. The women are shocked to discover the reason. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Battle of the Bedroom by David Pemberton |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 0. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 7. Minimum total without doubling = 7. No chorus. The characters are written as 3M, 4F, but - with permissible minor tweaks to the text, could be played by any combination. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A funny and fast-paced one-act comedy combining physical humour with witty dialogue. |
| Synopsis | When Chris and Jo move into their new bedsit apartment, they discover that it's much smaller than they first thought and that living together, with their combined possessions, is going to be an alarmingly cramped and intimate experience. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Battlefield Re-Enactment by David Lovesy |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. Characters Army 1 and Army 2 can be one person or several people each. |
| Run Time | Around 4 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A short comedy sketch. |
| Synopsis | An interviewer explores the exciting world of the amateur battlefield re-enactor. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Beach Buddies by Frank Gibbons |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 0. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. Whilst the two characters are women, they might be played as women by men in non-glamorous drag, provided they look good in beachwear. (British people with long memories are invited to contemplate Les Dawson in this context.) |
| Run Time | Around 4 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Comedy sketch set in a pair of deck chairs. |
| Synopsis | Ange and Maxine are enjoying the benefits of a seaside holiday - the bracing air and the opportunity to sit in deck chairs grumbling about the men in their lives. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Beasts by Tony Best |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 35. No chorus. The characters are a mixture of adults and children, intended to be played by a Youth Theatre company or a mixed company. |
| Run Time | Around 175 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Collection of five one-act plays based on short stories by Saki (H H Munro). Following the originals, the humour is very dark - verging on wicked. |
| Synopsis | The stories are:
Sredni Vashtar in which a boy oppressed by his aunt extracts an unexpected revenge
Gabriel-Ernest about a werewolf
The Storyteller featuring a subversive entertainer
The Open Window in which the hero does not discover a rest cure and
The Gala Programme which revisits Roman attitudes to female emancipation and entertainment |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Beautiful Day for a Duel by Gerald P. Murphy |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 10 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Ten-minute comedy skit. Single set (with no specific requirements) and a pair as duelling pistols as the main props. |
| Synopsis | Andre arrives for his sixth duel of the year to find that his day is in danger of being spoiled by his inexperienced opponent. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Becoming the Drop by Henry P. Gravelle |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 3. Minimum total without doubling = 3. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 8 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A short play with a simple set. US English. Adult themes. |
| Synopsis | In a whistle-stop town in 1878, the hangman does his job, with the sheriff and the judge as witnesses, but takes his bragging too far and places himself in a questionable position. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Beetlemania by Nicholas Richards |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. The characters are both written male, but Douglas could undergo gender reassignment with little pain! |
| Run Time | Around 2 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short comedy sketch. No set or props required beyond a single handkerchief. |
| Synopsis | Douglas is delighted to hear that his old friend Michael has someone new in his life, but when they meet she's not what he expected... and it doesn't look like the relationship was meant to last. |
| Price | For scripts and live performance rights, please click on the Price Link to find the cost. For scripts and lockdown videos/streaming rights, click here |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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