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| Play Synopses |
| Synopses of Plays by Claire Booker | ||
ONE ACT PLAYSThe Big IssueActors : 2m:20-30s; 1f:20-30s (parts can be split to create additional 1m and 2f). Max and Alice share a terrible childhood secret which destroyed their family and drove them apart. Alice is now a successful novelist, whilst Max lives on the streets selling The Big Issue. An unexpected meeting throws them together again to confront the truth about their past. But will they face it together - or alone? A fast-moving, humorous, and ultimately poignant look at the subject of childhood abuse.
Don Juan Wore Red Braces Actors : 2m: 20-30s/30-50s. 2f: 20s/20-40s (parts can be split to create an additional 3m and 2f). Using his charm, looks and razor sharp wits, John ‘The Don’ Mahaffy deals in deception and cocaine to raise capital for his property deals. Chauffeur Mick abhors his boss’s moral bankruptcy, yet makes an uneasy truce with it to fund his ambitions on the greyhound track. With a sexual appetite to match the size of his wad, no woman is safe from ‘The Don’. Or is she? Set in Thatcherite London, Lust to Dust is a dark comedy inspired by Molière’s Don Juan.
Gone Fishing Actors : 3m: late teens/middle aged/over 25; 3f: middle aged/18-30 x2. ( Also available in a version for youth groups) Tim has a problem - his parents! Looking for that elusive first job is no joke when Dad expects results and Mum's convinced you're hiding drugs, women or worse in your bedroom. A fast-moving comedy about unemployment, love and the generation gap.
The Last Picnic Actors : 2m:30-40s x2; 3f:20s/50-60s/30s. "Just our luck. A tramp with principles!" Richard's day at the seaside turns into a surreal nightmare when a local 'bag lady' decides to join the family picnic, and Aunt Dot hatches a cunning plan to stop the sea from flooding England. Infidelity, mass murder and a ruined sand castle are just the start of it!
Love in the Meadow Actors : 2m:30-40s x2; 3f:30s/20's x2. Inspired by Tolstoy's short story The Devil, the play is about the power of passion to bewitch, even beyond death. When a Russian landowner is driven mad with desire for one of his peasants, he decides to end his torment of guilt by shooting her. But though status and gender protect him from a severe sentence, images of his victim return to haunt him.
Rainbow Baby Actors : 1m: 20-30s; 3f: late teens/middle-aged x2. An intellectual woman is reunited with her Down’s Syndrome daughter eighteen years after having given her away for adoption. With growing surprise and pleasure, she comes to recognize her daughter's charm and humour and learns to love her.
The Romance Actors: 1m: 40s; 3f: 20-30s/30-40s x2. Peter has picked up an embarrassing condition from his lover and is desperate to hide it from his wife, Becky. What he doesn't know is that Becky has contracted a similar problem which she is desperate to hide from him. The celibacy imposed on them during treatment has a curious effect on their marriage. Peter finds himself falling in love - with Becky! But she has other ideas . . .
Shattered Peace Actors : 2m: 20s x2; 1f: 20s. A story of revenge set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Cathy's young husband is shot dead by the British army. As grief turns to hatred, she decides on a terrible way to take her revenge.
Socks go in the Bottom Drawer Actors : 1m: any age; 4f: young/working age/middle-aged x2. Set in a future where women rule the world and men are almost extinct, Adam is one of the last living examples of the male species, kept in a zoo for everybody’s safety. When a research professor and her project team decide to visit Adam, they soon discover that Homo sapien male is capable of considerable mischief, even behind bars!
Something Borrowed Actors : 1m: middle-aged; 2f: 40s/elderly. A domineering woman and her spinster daughter, Rosemary, battle for control over their emotionally vulnerable bachelor neighbour. Rosemary hopes he will become her passport to freedom, but she can never beat the cunning of her own mother, eager to add a 'son' to her collection.
FULL LENGTH PLAYSBlood So Cheap Actors : 4m: 20s x2/middle-aged/30s; 2f: 20-30s x2. Based on the true story of a young Austrian conscript during the Second World War. Posted to the Russian Front, 19 year old Otto comes face to face with the morals of war and resistance, and the brutality they breed. When commanded to shoot innocent civilian hostages, he takes a courageous decision that will cost him his life.
Building on Sand Actors : 2m: 30-40s x2; 3f: 20s/50-60s/30s. When Aunt Dot decides to build a sand castle to stop the sea from flooding England, the race is on to save her sanity. Meanwhile, nephew, Richard, is busy nursing his own brand of paranoia, convinced his new wife, Juliette, might be unfaithful to him. Who better to test her out than his best friend, Dan? Self-deception is the name of the game in this seaside comedy set among the sand dunes of Littlehampton.
The Devil and Stepashka Actors : 2m: 30-40s x2; 3f: 30s/20s x2. Inspired by Tolstoy's short story The Devil, the play is about the power of passion to bewitch, even beyond death. When a Russian landowner is driven mad with desire for one of his peasants, he decides to end his torment of guilt by shooting her. But though status and gender protect him from a severe sentence, images of his victim return to haunt him.
A Doll's House Actors : 3m: 30-40s x2/40-60s. 3f: 20-30s x2; 40-60s. Norway in the 1870s? No. Suburban England in the 1950s! Nora and Harold Helmer are the perfect couple, living out their social pretensions in a post-war England of petty snobbery and net curtain morality. All is set for success when Harold is promoted to bank manager. But Nora has a skeleton in her cupboard, and her life starts to spin out of control when she is blackmailed over her secret.
Irish Roulette Actors : 2m: 20s-30s; 2f: 20s-30s. (parts can be split to create an additional 4m and 3f) A young couple’s chance for happiness is shattered by bullets in the Belfast of the 1980s. From joyful bride to grieving widow, gun runner and finally street walker, we follow Cathy on a cycle of destruction as she attempts to satisfy her craving for revenge. But only through illness and resulting friendship does she come to learn the true price of vengeance.
Lust to Dust Actors : 3m: 20-30s/30-50s x2. 2f: 20s;30-40s (parts can be split to create an additional 4m and 3f). Using his charm, looks and razor sharp wits, John ‘The Don’ Mahaffy deals in deception and cocaine to raise capital for his dodgy property deals. Chauffeur Mick abhors his boss’s moral bankruptcy, yet makes an uneasy truce with it to fund his addiction to the greyhound track. With a sexual appetite to match the size of his ambitions, no woman is safe from John ‘The Don’. Or is she? Set in Thatcherite London, Lust to Dust is a dark comedy inspired by Molière’s Don Juan.
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