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| A Forty-Minute Pericles by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 4. Minimum total with doubling = 14. Minimum total without doubling = 40. Chorus. The episodic nature of the story makes lots of doubling possible. (Or, if you have a lot of actors, there are lots of roles.) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre', 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 | On the run from the King of Antioch, Pericles is shipwrecked and washes up on the shores of Pentapolis. There he wins the hand of Thaisa, daughter of the King of Pentapolis. On their return voyage to Tyre, Thaisa gives birth to a daughter during a violent storm. Thaisa is thought to have died and is thrown overboard in a casket. The grieving Pericles leaves his daughter, Marina, in the care of the King and Queen of Tarsus. Years later, Pericles returns to seek Marina , but is told that she died. In fact she escaped an assasination plot, and eventually Pericles finds a happy ending.
Bill Tordoff started this series as abridgements for primary schools. We think that some of the themes in Pericles are too adult for that demographic! |
| 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 Richard II by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 14. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 32. No chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'The Life and Death of King Richard II', with the original text cut down to under 40 minutes.
(The abridgement is copyrighted, so we charge for scripts and copying rights, but performances are royalty-free.) |
| Synopsis | King Richard II is approached by both Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, who wish him to judge a duel between them. Both Richard and John of Gaunt oppose the duel, but Richard agrees to oversee it. As the duel commences Richard interrupts and banishes both men from England. Mowbray predicts this as the first act leading to Richard's downfall. Following John of Gaunt's death, Richard appropriates all his money and lands. As Richard plots a war on Ireland, the nobility seek to overthrow him and place Bolingbroke on the throne. |
| 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 Timon of Athens by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 10. Minimum Female roles = 2. Minimum total with doubling = 12. Minimum total without doubling = 31. No chorus. Lots of flexibility in numbers - lots of doubling is possible or, conversely, roles like the senators and lords can be shared out. Few specifically female characters, but many could be cast female. |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Timon of Athens', 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 | Timon is berated by the sour philosopher Apemantus, but Timon ignores his advice, preferring to enjoy himself through banquets and acts of generosity. However, when Timon runs into debt his friends prove false and he leaves Athens in anger and disgust. In the wilderness his fortune changes. but not his view of his fellow man. |
| 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 Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare, abridged Bill Tordoff |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 16. Minimum Female roles = 3. Minimum total with doubling = 19. Minimum total without doubling = 34. Chorus. Plenty of scope for extras, as we have the population of Troy and the entire Greek army looking on (and occasionally getting involved in the fray - some of the spear carriers get to use their spears!) |
| Run Time | Around 40 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Abridgement of William Shakespeare's 'Troilus And Cressida', 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 | The Trojans are trapped in their city as Greek warriors like Ajax scour the battlefield. Troilus, youngest son of the Trojan King Priam, is distracted from the battlefield by his pursuit of the beautiful Cressida. Just when Cressida has submitted to his advances, she is used as part of a prisoner exchange and sent to join her father (who is camped with the Greeks). During one of the periodic truces, Troilus witnesses Cressida in a dalliance with Greek hero Diomedes. Enraged, Troilus takes to the battlefield in pursuit of Diomedes, whilst the petulant Achilles takes on the noble Trojan Hector.
Shakespeare uses the siege to question notions of fidelity and chivalry. |
| 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 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 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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| Forty-Two by Amanda Giles |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 1. Minimum Female roles = 1. Minimum total with doubling = 4. Minimum total without doubling = 5. No chorus. The voice of the App could be recorded or played live. The angels are written male, but since they are angels this scarcely matters. |
| Run Time | Around 12 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | None. |
| Style | Short comedy play for a couple of pieces of furniture, four actors and the gentle voice of a phone app. (British English, using 'lounge' for 'living room' and including slang for a cigarette which might confuse speakers of other varieties of English.) |
| Synopsis | Jemima has just woken up from her meditation cd session to find three strange men in her living room. Well, not men, they're angels, summoned by the cd she has just listened to. They have answers for Jemima, but she won’t like them... |
| 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 Four Musketeers by Pat Wollaston |
| Roles | Minimum Male roles = 6. Minimum Female roles = 5. Minimum total with doubling = 16. Minimum total without doubling = 18. Chorus. |
| Run Time | Around 80 minutes. [Estimated!] |
| Music | The Producer's Copy of the script includes suggestions for 12 songs, with some original lyrics. Lazy Bee Scripts does not supply any sheet music with this script. |
| Style | All of the essential ingredients of panto are here with a knockabout Dame as D'Artagnan's mother, plenty of slapstick and corny jokes and the all important opportunities for audience participation. |
| Synopsis | A fusion of pantomime and classic literature that manages to do credit to both genres. With apposite music and chorus involvement the musketeers ensure that the nasty Richeliuer and his accomplice Rougeforthe are thwarted in their evil intentions for the French Royal family. |
| 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:
** Pantomime Fun-Packs - jokes and games for children, to supplement the programme for your show
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| Click here to read the script or Click here for more details. |
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| Four Sinister Bookworms by Paul John Matthews |
| 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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