Best of
Plays

1964

Blues for Mister Charlie


James Baldwin - 1964
    With this act of violence--which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till--James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race. For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a boy like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast.In his award-winning play, Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated--and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion.

Four Plays: Come Back, Little Sheba / Picnic / Bus Stop / The Dark at the Top of the Stairs


William Inge - 1964
    His female characters especially are engulfed by the bathos of their lives, and Inge capitalizes on this fact in order to heighten dramatically the moment of personal crisis which comes to each of them. In his four major successes--Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs--the play carries the audience through the moment of crisis; and the final curtain falls upon a note of hope and fulfillment.'--R. Baird Shuman

Incident at Vichy


Arthur Miller - 1964
    Some of them are Jews. All of them have something to hide—if not from the Nazis, then from their fellow detainees and, inevitably, from themselves. For in this claustrophobic antechamber to the death camps, everyone is guilty. And perhaps none more so than those who can walk away alive.In Incident at Vichy, Arthur Miller re-creates Dante's hell inside the gaping pit that is our history and populates it with sinners whose crimes are all the more fearful because they are so recognizable."One of the most important plays of our time . . . Incident at Vichy returns the theater to greatness." —The New York Times

Androcles And The Lion


Aurand Harris - 1964
    Refreshingly antic, irreverent treatment of Aesop's fable, written in the style of Italian Commedia dell'Arte. One set, 16th century Italian costumes. Cast of 5 men, 1 woman. One of the most popular children's plays ever written, ANDROCLES AND THE LION has been produced in twenty countries. In Commedia tradition, a group of strolling players set up their stage and give a performance. Using authentic staging and stock characters of Commedia -- the miserly Pantalone, the bragging Captain, the romantic Lovers, the trickster Arlinquin, plus an endearing Lion -- Aesop's fable becomes a colorful theatrical experience. The play sky rockets with zany comedy. It also glows with the warmth of "Friendship." Androcles and the Lion is a prize winning play, applauded around the world, again, and again!