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| A Forty-Minute Volpone by Ben Jonson abridged by Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 10. Minimum total without doubling = 15. No chorus. The minimum cast could be achieved by combining the four magistrates into 1 judge and using the boy and clerk as the court officers. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of Ben Jonson's 'Volpone', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes or so.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Volpone is a sly miser. With the aid of his rascally servant, Mosca, he sets out to accumulate more wealth by way of gifts from his gullable acquaintances who think he is ailing and believe that they will be the beneficiaries of his will. Things start to unravel when Volpone sets his sights on Celia, wife of the wealthy merchant, Corvino.
Jacobean comedy, verging on farce. |
| 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 Forty-Minute Winter's Tale by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 9. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 15. Minimum total without doubling = 28. Chorus. The characters are adults plus one child and, famously, a bear, whose only role is to exit in pursuit of Antigonus (for an offstage lunch appointment - although only one of the parties is hungry.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', with the original text cut down to 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | Leontes, King of Sicilia, suspects his wife Hermione of having an affair with Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. (Herminone and Polixenes are innocent.) Polixenes escapes Leontes' wrath, but Hermione does not and is imprisoned. Hermione gives birth to a daughter, but Leontes does not believe the child, Perdita, to be his and sends her abroad. She is abandoned on the coast of Bohemia (a feat which would be frowned upon these days, owing to Geography) and Perdita is brought-up by a Shepherd. Time (making a guest appearance) moves the play on sixteen years, and Florizel, son of Polixenes, meets and falls in love with Perdita, the shepherdess, thus setting-up the inevitable reconcilliation and happy ending. |
| 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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Four Sinister Bookworms by Paul John Matthews
New |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 6. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 66 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A quirky and clever comedy - a murder mystery where there hasn't been a murder. Two simple sets (that can be constructed with the same furniture and just minor changes in decoration and layout between scenes). One act. |
| Synopsis | Library employee Mandy is desperate for something interesting to happen. She gets more than she hoped for when the library's four most eccentric regulars all receive anonymous notes that one of them is a murderer, and gather to solve the case. |
| 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 Fourth Princess by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 6. Minimum total with doubling = 20. Minimum total without doubling = 36. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] Plus additional time for songs and dances. |
| Music | Production notes list recommended songs and opportunities for dances. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | Humorous fairy tale in one act. Simple sets. |
| Synopsis | The royal family of Tallania try to restore the wealth of a kingdom devastated by dowries. A timeless tale of royalty, wizardry and bankruptcy. |
| 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 |
| Feedback | Click here to find out what other customers said about this script. |
| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| A Frame That Fits by William Campbell |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 6. No chorus. Interesting crafting of character - especially on the part of Richard Gloster, the unorthodox detective, who, given his name, has a tendency to attempt iambic pentameter. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act detective story - not so much a 'whodunnit?' as a 'how do we prove that he dunnit?' Multiple locations, but intended to be represented minimally in a single composite set. Contains mild swearing. |
| Synopsis | A family has been found murdered - apparently by their daughter, who then took her own life. The police suspect a frame-up, since the family's nephew stands to profit from their deaths, but they need to call on the unorthodox services of Private Investigator Richard Gloster to prove it. |
| 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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| Framed In A Window by John Chambers |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 32 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A two-handed, one act play, with a single set and containing strong language. |
| Synopsis | Mo, the janitor in the Texas School Book Depository, is startled to come across a figure sitting in the notorious window, holding a very familiar rifle. Is it really the ghost of Lee Harvey Oswald? |
| 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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| Frankenstein Abridged by Richard Brinsley Peake ab. Dwayne Lawler |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 9. Minimum total without doubling = 9. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 39 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act melodrama. Multiple scenes, but mainly indicative settings. |
| Synopsis | 'Presumption, or, The Fate of Frankenstein' by Richard Brinsley Peake was the first adaptation for the stage of Mary Shelley's pioneering novel. Dwayne Lawler's abridgement has reduced it from 5 acts to 1 and cut the characters from more than 15 to a total of 9.
Peake's adaptation tweaked the novel's plot (not least to reduce locations), nevertheless, the core plot of Frankenstein is here and cutting it down hasn't removed the impact or significantly dampened the themes. |
| 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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| Frankenstein's Last Chance by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 16. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 42 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act comedy melodrama, for school-age, youth performers. |
| Synopsis | Having given up his medical practice to concentrate on his career as an inventor, Doctor Viktor Frankenstein desperately needs to raise funds to pay for his daughter's forthcoming wedding. Success at the annual Mad Scientists' Convention would be well-rewarded, but Viktor finds himself singularly short of inspiration until... No, that would be absurd - wouldn't it? |
| 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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| Free For Hall by Cheryl Barrett |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 7. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 12. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The producer's copy of this script contains suggestions for 2 songs, to be played during the comedy dance routines. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | A one act comedy with a single setting. |
| Synopsis | The local amateur dramatic group are rehearsing their pantomime in the local village hall but the venue has been triple booked and no-one is prepared to budge. With Celeste getting her yoga knickers in a twist and conflict running high amongst the drama group members the chaos is eventually resolved. |
| 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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| Free Time by Helen Foster |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 4. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 28 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act comedy, with a single (school staff room) setting. |
| Synopsis | Three teachers find themselves trapped in the staff room with no apparent avenue for escape, and with a drop of whisky - handily available! Their previously distant relationships become much closer as they cope with their situation. |
| 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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