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| A Forty-Minute Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 17. No chorus. There are two groups which give numerical flexibility - 'outlaws' and 'musicians'. This is the Shakespeare play with the dog. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', 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 | The two gentlemen in question are Valentine and Proteus. Valentine wants Proteus to be his travelling companion on a tour, but Proteus wishes to stay behind and court Julia, a coy young lady who likes Proteus, but is too shy to admit it - at least until Proteus's father sends him away to join Valentine in Milan. However, in Milan, Proteus falls for Sylvia, whom Valentine is courting. There follows rivalry, betrayal, banishment, outlaws, cross-dressing and the occasional swoon before all ends happily! |
| 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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| Hamlet - What Was The Question? by Geoff Bamber |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 21. Minimum total without doubling = 21. No chorus. The cast is top-heavy with male roles. In this version a number of parts (Clowns, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Castle Guards and Narrators) can be played by either male or female performers without any need to amend the text. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act play for kids, adding some comic touches to Shakespeare's Hamlet. No specific set requirements. (Castle locations - make your own mind up about complexity!) |
| Synopsis | When the King of Denmark dies, Prince Hamlet, his son, assumes that he will succeed to the throne. Unfortunately his Uncle Claudius has other ideas and, by marrying the newly widowed Queen Gertrude, takes the crown for himself. When Hamlet learns through his father's ghost that Claudius and Gertrude engineered the King's death so that they could be together, the Prince seeks vengeance. His task is not aided by pressure being placed on him to marry the vapid Ophelia and Claudius' plan to have him killed by the sinister Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The body count rises as Hamlet closes in on the evil Claudius. Will justice be done? Will our hero triumph? Will he ever answer that question? |
| 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. |
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| Hamlet auf Deutsch by Nicholas Richards |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 8. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 13. Minimum total without doubling = 14. No chorus. As usual with Shakespeare, the characters are predominantly male. Of course, casting against gender is open to the production. |
| Run Time | Around 15 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet aimed at students learning German. To enable such a short version, a narrator sets the scenes. All speeches, including narration, in German (but directions in English). |
| Synopsis | Einige verkürzte Szenen auf Deutsch von Shakespeares Hamlet.
A ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore castle demanding revenge. Hamlet's uncle has siezed the throne. Will Hamlet take arms against a sea of troubles?
Sein oder Nichtsein - Das ist hier die Frage. |
| 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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| Hamlet the Musical by Gerald P. Murphy |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 5. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 16. Chorus. The chorus play non-speaking roles of peasants, courtiers, onlookers and servants. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | Sheet music (piano and vocal) for the five songs is supplied with the producer's copy of the script. |
| Style | Shakespeare's Hamlet retold in modern (American) English, with more jokes than the original.
In a normal tragedy, at the end, everyone dies. This is a musical - at the end, everyone sings. |
| Synopsis | Prince Hamlet's father reappears as a ghost to demand revenge for his murder. The prince vacillates, arranges a play to trap the murderer, and finally chooses to 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 |
| Extras | The following additional items are available (at extra cost) to go with this script:
** A 'rehearsal CD' with piano arrangements of songs from the show
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| The Handfast by Louise Wade |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 4. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 6. Minimum total without doubling = 6. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 24 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A one act play, of historical interest, with a flexibility of settings. |
| Synopsis | The joining of a young couple in marriage is assisted by William Shakespeare, but the results of the wedding could have come from one of his plays - a miserly father-in-law, refusing to pay the dowry his new son expected, and a trial. |
| 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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| Henry V Revisited by David Baldwin |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 23. Minimum total without doubling = 39. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 65 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A full length revised version of the Shakespearean play. |
| Synopsis | Shakespeare's famous play about the battle of Agincourt is updated, and Chorus reveals and explains the historical facts. The essentials of the original play are covered and the 'St. Crispin's Day' speech is retained unaltered. |
| 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 |
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I Am Hamlet by Richard James
Performance by Portree ADS won the Wakefield Quaich Award for Presentation, Scottish One Act Festival, 2011, Performance by Thurso Players won Best Play award at the SCDA One Act Play Festival, 2012, |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 2. Minimum Female roles = 0. Minimum total with doubling = 2. Minimum total without doubling = 2. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 50 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act comedy thriller, single bare-stage set. |
| Synopsis | An amateur actor auditions for the lead role in a local production of Hamlet. There is some fun to be had as the director puts him through his acting paces, but slowly we learn that the actor has more in common with the Prince of Denmark than meets the eye... |
| 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 |
| Exclusions | Due to professional performances, this script is not available for performance in the following places at the following times:-
Spain, ES from the first day of January, 2022 to the last day of January, 2026
50 mile radius of Mexico City, MX from the first day of April, 2024 to the last day of October, 2024 |
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| Julius Caesar [75-Minute Abridgement] by Shakespeare, abridged Jack Shaw |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 7. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 32. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 75 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | A 75-minute abridgement of Shakespeare's Roman history.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but, because all the words are Shakespeare's and therefore out of copyright, performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | 'Beware the Ides of March!'
'Caesar shall go forth.'
'Et tu, Brute?'
'Brutus is an honourable man.'
'Revenge!'
'This was the noblest Roman of them all.' |
| 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 |
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| Just an Act by Chantel Kuli |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 3. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 8. Minimum total without doubling = 8. Chorus. The chorus is optional, mainly for the final party scene. |
| Run Time | Around 30 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | One-act romantic comedy for teenagers. |
| Synopsis | Lisa is angry at Tommy because he hasn't learned his lines for the school production of Romeo and Juliet. Her anger is a mask for her growing attraction to Tommy, although she won't admit this to herself, Tommy or her jock-boyfriend Clark. Lisa finally realises her feelings when Clark provokes her, resulting in Lisa dumping Clark, but will Tommy take the initiative...? |
| 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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