On Discworld live three witches, Granny, Nanny and Margrat. One day a baby is thrown into their laps and it happens that it is the son of the dead king. The king, murdered by the Duke, who wants to be ruler. Well, the Duchess want to be ruler actually: behind every good man, stands a better woman. Anyway, the witches decide to get the baby adopted by an actor and his wife, so he stays out of trouble until he is ready to rule as the new king. When everything goes awry with the Duke (the idea to burn down the whole forest amongst other things), the witches decide to speed up time about fifteen years. But is that the right decision?
this is a preview of wyrd sisters: the play – terry pratchett & stephen briggs
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It’s Catherine’s birthday. She is turning twenty-five, but already spent most of her adult life caring for her manic-depressive father Robert, having to disgard her own study and student life. Now that Robert is dead she has difficulty to get her own life back on track. She doesn’t leave the house with all her father’s stuff and 103 notebooks he left behind. When her estranged sister Claire arrives and Hal, a student interested in her father’s work, shows up, she has to get out of her shell she built after Robert’s death and has to confront her own desires. She knows she inherited her father’s genius for mathematics, but has he also enherited his ‘madness’?
this is a preview of proof – david auburn
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A group of troubled school kids with special needs, are going on a trip with their teacher Mrs Kay. Mrs Kay is very sympethatic with the teens and her trips always get out of hand, so this time Mr Briggs (another teacher) is going with them to control the situation. The kids don’t like him and he doesn’t like the kids, but as the trip develops both parties learn valuable lessons.
this is a preview of our day out – willy russell
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A famous play by an even more famous play writer. It is a classic piece with all the good that comes from that, but also with all the bad. Let me explain.
The play is from 1897 and the style, the way of interaction between the characters and the language is outdated. That last point is often corrected with new translations, so that shouldn’t be the problem. With the new translations I come to the strong point of the play: it is still relevant and interesting for our day and age (what the new translations prove). People are still intrigued by Uncle Vanya and all the others with their problems, doubts and choices. The themes discussed are international and still present in all humans.
this is a preview of uncle vanya – anton chekhov
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A play by Gertrude Stein. But it also could have been called a poem or short story. You never know with her writing. Also, you can never exactly know what Stein wants to say, what the plot of her fiction is. Better yet: what plot? And: does she really want to say anything?
I think she wants to say something about the language used, not in language used.
this is a preview of mexico – gertrude stein
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The zoo story:
Two men, Peter and Jerry meet at a bench in Central Park New York. Jerry stars talking to Peter, who is reluctant to give up his peace. Jerry however is not having it and keeps rambling. Peter is slowly giving in, until Jerry is taking “his” bench. Jerry is behaving stranger and stranger and at the end Peter and Jerry clash with a disastrous result.
The sandbox:
A strange little play with Mommy and Daddy who take Grandma to the beach, where eventually the Young man takes a special role in Grandma’s life.
this is a preview of the zoo story and other plays – edward albee
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A very uncomplicated and amusing play. This play has everything a good classic play should have: characters with secrets, a situation that starts easy but spins out of control in no time, love interests, confusion of tongues, little fights, a moral and a happy ending.
The characters with secrets are John/Jack and Algernon. The love interests are Lane and Cecily. The situation is John wanting to marry Cecily, but she only wants to marry an Earnest. The confusion is in all the names the characters have. The fight is between Algernon and John. The moral is: be yourself and truthful and the happy ending…well, I think I don’t have to say anything about that.
this is a preview of the importance of being earnest – oscar wilde
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This is what Ionesco himself says about his play (translated):
It’s not even a satire: it’s the fairly objective description of a process of inflammation, of a development of a totalitarianism that’s spreading, that propagates, captures, that’s changing a world. And this world will be totally changed because after all it’s about totalitarianism.
this is a preview of rhinoceros – eugène ionesco
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