Best of
Plays

1982

Noises Off


Michael Frayn - 1982
    The two begin to interlock as the characters make their exits from Nothing On only to find themselves making entrances into the even worse nightmare going on backstage. In the end, at the disastrous final performance, the two plots can be kept separate no longer, and coalesce into a single collective nervous breakdown.

Little Shop of Horrors: Script and Lyrics


Howard Ashman - 1982
    This foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it, BLOOD. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II's out of this world origins and intent towards global domination!

Agnes of God


John Pielmeier - 1982
    Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is charged with assessing the sanity of a young novitiat accused of murdering her newborn. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, determindly keeps young Agnes from the doctor, arousing Livingstone's suspicions further. Who killed the infant and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone's questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love leading to a dramatic, compelling climax. A hit on Broadway and later on film."Riveting, powerful, electrifying drama...the dialogue crackles."-New York Daily News"Outstanding play [that]...deals intelligently with questions of religion and psychology."-The New York Times"Unquestionably blindingly theatrical...cleverly executed blood and guts evening in the theatre."-New York Post

Aeschylus: The Oresteia


Aeschylus - 1982
    

Three Exposures: Plays


John Guare - 1982
    

Good


Cecil P. Taylor - 1982
    Witness all those turgid films and telly plays full of stuffed SS uniforms. Bu

Last Summer at Bluefish Cove: A Play in Two Acts


Jane Chambers - 1982
    The friendships, the laughter, the love, the fears of being outed, the difficulties of being gay and how it affects relationships with family, children, parents and careers, the demonstrations of what the painful price could be for a gay life 30 years ago in everyday America, had never before been told with such respect. Chambers' comedic dialogue, sensitivity to human nature and tender treatment of her characters help the play transcend preconceptions and show the universality of these women's journeys.

The God Of Isaac


James Sherman - 1982
    "This hilarious and heartwarming play by the author of Beau Jest tells the story of a young man in search of spiritual identity. Isaac begins by informing the audience that "things may go a little differently tonight because my mother is in the audience" and, from the audience, his mother becomes a persistent presence in the play. Isaac tells how he learned about the threatened Neo Nazi demonstration in Skokie and he wonders how if this incident should concern him as an American Jew. Various characters that he encounters in funny and touching scenes offer a confounding array of possible positions to adopt and two women significantly affect the path of his journey. Intermittently, Isaac illustrates his inner conflict with fantastical parodies of old movies." Sam French catalog.

Selected Plays


Lennox Robinson - 1982
    Lennox Robinson was one of the leading playwrights of Dublin's Abbey Theatre as well as being its general manager and a director for many years. As with many other playwrights of the twentieth century, his work has been unjustly neglected, this volume, published in 1982, being the first of his plays to have appeared for over a quarter of a century. It is fitting, therefore, that this selection should be the first of a new series, Irish Drama Selections, which has sought to remedy the shortage of texts of the work of Ireland's dramatists, which with the exception of perhaps ten authors, are virtually unobtainable except in rare editions, long out of print.

Pines '79: A Romantic Comedy in Two Acts


Terry Miller - 1982
    A beach house shared by five gay men, The sand, the sea, the salt air.