Hal Leonard

A writer finds himself accidentally a counsellor for would-be suicides.

The simple setting is an old stage theatre following an afternoon rehearsal. The actors have left and the aging director, Henrik Vogler, sits alone surrounded by old props from productions of Ibsen and Strindberg.  Anna Egerman, cast as Agnes in Vogler’s current production of Strindberg’s “Dream Play” enters, surprising him.  Anna’s mother Rakel was an attractive actress who left the theatre to raise a family. Rakel and Vogler were occasional lovers.  Anna’s mother is dead and her father gone.  Vogler expresses his views on actors, artistic morality and scenography, echoes of Bergman’s statements over the years.  He also talks about the thin line between fantasy and reality, past and present.

In a flashback Rakel enters searching for her shoes. She is 46, drunk and voluptuous. At the time Anna was 12. Vogler has asked Rakel to play a small part in a new production.  The alcoholic Rakel is in and out of institutions. Their conversation is bitter, ironic and tense. Rakel leaves and Vogler promises to visit her.  We return to the present. Anna tells Vogler she is pregnant, later that she has had an abortion and will divorce her husband.  Vogler contrives a fantasy love affair with Anna and she falls into her role. The make-believe affair ends with them parting as friends.  Vogler stays behind, left alone.  The church bells, which have been chiming, fall silent or perhaps it is just that the Director can no longer hear them.

 A gruffly poignant and darkly funny play, Ages of the Moon finds old friends Byron and Ames re-united by mutual desperation. Ames' marriage has broken down and he rings Byron in desperation. Byron travels for three days to see Ames, and over bourbon on ice, they sit, reflect and bicker until fifty years of love, friendship and rivalry are put to the test at the barrel of a gun.  "A shotgun blast of brilliance" --Irish Mail on Sunday.  "An understated triumph of a play, funny and moving" --The Sunday Times.   

After a life of hard graft, retirement isn’t at all what Albert Nobbs had expected. Instead of relaxing and taking things at a leisurely pace, the curmudgeonly Albert finds himself bored and nagged senseless by his wife Connie. But Albert’s world is soon turned upside-down by the sudden death of Connie in a road accident, and he struggles to find a reason to carry on - until Connie returns as a ghost and sets about organising a fulfilling retirement for Albert, including matchmaking with her best friend Rose. Despite Albert’s protestations, he gradually learns to overcome his reluctance and begins to explore new opportunities, so that he and Connie can continue with their journeys in different directions. A Blithe Spirit for the working class, ALBERT NOBBS charms and delights in equal measures, simultaneously devastatingly painful and delightfully funny.

“Hull Truck Theatre Company have discovered yet another remarkable new writer.” - Daily Mail.

When Graham and Annette, and Gus and Maria, the two winning couples of Meteor Television's popular lovers' reunion programme, Star-Crossed Sweethearts, head off for the romantic cruise they've been promised on board the Sovereign, little do they realise what adventures lie in wait over the horizon. Unknown to the couples, the "cruise" turns out to be artificially staged for the cameras on a moored ship, which the inept Meteor TV researcher Debbie has been put in charge of organising. It's not long before Debbie's own "ex" Marcus appears under innocent enough circumstances, and while some old flames prepare to rekindle, others soon look positively ready to explode. The situation rapidly accelerates when they realise that the ship is no longer moored and is drifting helplessly into the English Channel shipping lanes, endangering everybody in this black comedy of romance and rust on the high seas.  

Confused by Confucius? Wish Swift was swifter? Moby a bit quicker? Then prepare to enjoy another outrageous assault on the senses with over eighty of the greatest literary masterpieces brought humbly down to Earth. This fast-paced comedy flies through a crash course in Western Literature from The Iliad to Harry Potter, plus everything else you really should have read by now but couldn’t be bothered. Taking the form of a crash-course remedial English class, three actors playing a drama teacher, coach and an inept student-teacher all play their part in this tour de force of theatrical pyrotechnics. “Who knew that Homer was so funny – not Simpson, the other one?” –Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Intertextuality can rarely have felt so frantic, or so funny.” –The Scotsman.   

The plot catalyst is the death of a famous musician, Felix. Filing past his bier are all the women of importance in his life and his manager Jillker. His biographer, Cornelius, places a manuscript on the body.  In flashback, Cornelius arrives at Felix’s house to collect material for the biography.  He meets Cecilia, the musician’s young cousin, Felix’s wife, Adelaide and Bumblebee, who shows him the master bedroom. This leads to an amorous encounter, depicted as a dance to tango music.

The following morning Cornelius wakes in Bumblebee’s bed and finds a woman who is about to murder him, mistaking him for Felix.  He escapes to warn Felix of her murderous attempt but is barred from the music room by the chamber maid. In desperation he leaps from a window to find Adelaide firing shots at busts that resemble Felix. Later that night, he gets lost searching for Bumblebee and ends up kissing Felix’s accompanist, Beatrice. Jillker photographs the scene. Cornelius, apprehensive, flees again and drops his cigar, which sets off a firework display.

The next day Jillker persuades Cornelius to dress as a woman to get closer to Felix. He succeeds but at no point do we actually see Felix.  Cornelius then learns Felix is to play his composition, “Song of the Fish” or “Abstraction No. 14”. Jillker threatens to resign but before he does Felix dies.  After the death Cornelius peruses his manuscript and admits he has not captured Felix’s personality. He is accosted by Felix’s “widows” and part of the manuscript disappears. A young man enters.  The women flock round him. Felix is already forgotten together with the biographer.

The legendary football tall story about Achilles Jones.

The plot of this unusual comedy centres around a mother’s astonishing discovery that the effect of a prescribed sleeping draught is to make her mind and spirit slip away from her body. She uses this ‘gift’ to solve many of her family problems and at the same time provide herself with a little harmless fun. One of the author’s most endearing efforts.

An exploration of the destructive nature of the Hollywood entertainment industry. A trio of unknown screenwriters has been brought together by a pair of hungry producers who are anxious to make the ultimate cinematic apocalypse. The three are a cowboy-shaman, a jazzman who talks with his tympani drums and a lady who can sound like a cross between Marilyn Monroe and a Barbara Cartland novel. Off they spin on a seismic wave of images leading to Hollywood's self- destruction.