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| A Fifty-Minute Alchemist by Ben Jonson adapted by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 13. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act adaptation of Ben Jonson's comedy. Whilst the text uses mostly Jonson's language, this is an adaptation, not an abridgement, hence both script and performances are subject to copyright licensing. |
| Synopsis | Three con-artists set up a series of swindles starting with the pretext of an alchemist who can create charms and turn base metal into gold. Things start to go wrong when too many of their customers arrive at once, and the result is the 17th century equivalent of a multi-door farce, with a different problem lurking behind each door and needing to be kept hidden from the others. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Cymbeline by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 29. Chorus. Thre are 29 speaking roles (with considerable doubling possible), plus a non-speaking chorus with plenty of roles on offer! |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Posthumus Leonatus has married Imogen, daughter of Cymbeline, the King of Britain, without permission. That gets Posthumus banished, leaving Imogen behind. Meanwhile, the King's second wife is trying to engineer her son's route to the throne. An Italian braggart causes a rift between Posthumus and Imogen, and with Cybeline's court in disarray, the Romans mount an invasion. How then can the kingdom be saved? |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Duchess of Malfi by John Webster abridged by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 11. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 17. Minimum total without doubling = 25. No chorus. Characters include a small boy and optional non-speaking servants, etc. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The eponymous heroine is a rich widow. Her brothers - a duke and a cardinal - want control of her wealth and so have forbidden her from marrying. They set the loyal but troubled Bosola to spy on her, and he discovers that the duchess has, in secret, married Antonio, her steward. The news sets the Duke and Cardinal into such a rage that nobody escapes unscathed.
(Whilst the abridgement reduces the length of the text, all of Webster's gory details are preserved - which is more than can be said for the principals.) |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Henry VI Part 2 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 25. Minimum total without doubling = 47. Chorus. As with most of the history plays, the cast of characters is huge, with over 40 speaking parts, but lots of doubling is possible. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Second Part of King Henry VI', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Subtitled 'Cade's Rebellion'.
The wars with France are over, but there's trouble brewing for King Henry within his own court. There's the Duke of Suffolk, trying to manipulate the King through Henry's wife, Margaret , there's the Duchess of Gloster trying to put her husband, Henry's uncle, on the throne, and there's a growing faction around the Duke of York and his two sons, Edward and Richard Crouchback. Matters come to a head with a rebellion led by Kentish tradesman Jack Cade. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Henry VI Part 3 by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 41. Chorus. As with most of the history plays, the cast of characters is huge, with over 30 speaking parts, but lots of doubling is possible. (They are also mainly male, but don't let that put you off.) |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Third Part of King Henry VI', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | The Wars of the Roses in full force, with the Duke of York rebelling against the weak Henry VI. York is killed, but his three sons continue the fight. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Henry VIII by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 20. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 40. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | We meet Henry VIII when he has been king and married to Katharine of Aragon for some 20 years. The court is under the sway of the manipulative, acquisitive Cardinal Wolsey, but Henry falls for Anne Boleyn (or Anne Bullen, as Shakespeare calls her) and in the ensuing turmoil he ditches both Wolsey and Katharine. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Richard The Third by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 21. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 26. Minimum total without doubling = 48. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Life and Death of King Richard III', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Richard the Third, from the winter of discontent to the kingdom for a horse, as the last of the Plantagenets intrigues and murders his way to the English throne, only to be confronted by the army of the Earl of Richmond - one Henry Tudor.
Historical footnote: Shakespeare derived this account from Henry Tudor's historians. In the view of the editor, this makes it unreliable history, but a cracking play! |
| 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 Fifty-Minute Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 20. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 24. Minimum total without doubling = 36. Chorus. Large numbers of speaking roles, many appearing on stage at the same time. Flexibility in the non-speaking roles, with Roman nobility and a whole army of Goths (who probably dressed differently in Roman and Shakespearen times). |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | When Roman general Titus Andronicus returns victorious from the wars against the Goths, he resolves to be king-maker, rather than taking the role of emperor for himself. Having lost many of his sons in the fighting, Titus has the eldest son of Tamora, captive Queen of the Goths, sacrificed to the gods. When Tamora is freed by the new Emperor, she and her lover Aaron set about avenging themselves - a feud that is tragic for all concerned.
Bill Tordoff started this series as abridgements for primary schools. We think that some of the themes in Titus are too adult for that demographic!
Asides: This is not for the faint-hearted, though John Webster probably enjoyed it, and Mrs Lovett would have learned a thing or two. |
| 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 Fifty-Minute White Devil by John Webster abridged by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 35. No chorus. Characters include a small boy and optional non-speaking attendants, etc. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of John Webster's 'The White Devil', with the original text cut down to 50 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | In his pursuit of Vittoria, the wife of old Camillo, Duke Brachiano abandons his wife, Isabella, then connives with Vittoria's brother, to have Isabella and Camillo murdered. Isabella's brother, the Duke of Florence, and his ally Cardinal Monticelso - Camillo's cousin - set out to get revenge.
(We're in Grand Guignol territory. This isn't going to end happily for anyone!) |
| 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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| Fifty! by Archie Wilson |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 7. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 13. No chorus. One offstage - radio - voice, could be pre-recorded. |
| Run Time | Around 48 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | One suggested tune is a part of the plot. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | A one act farce, with a single (living room) setting. |
| Synopsis | Seemingly boring David is fifty years old today! Wife Fran and daughter Jessica arrange a surprise party for him, but unbeknownst to them he is having an affair. Feathers fly as he appears at the surprise party with his semi-clad mistress, and assorted extra visitors also help to make it a special event! |
| 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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