RODNEY ACKLAND   (1908 - 1991)


Rodney Ackland
   Nationality:
British
   Literary Agent: *:
   Email:
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   Website:
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Plays by Rodney Ackland

RODNEY ACKLAND
Absolute Hell!
1st Produced:
1988
Company:
-
1st Published:
Oberon Books, London, 1990
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
11
Female
10
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
revision of The Pink Room
Synopsis:
This fascinating evocation of Bohemian life in London in 1945 was presented at the Orange Tree, Richmond, in 1988 and is a revision of the play The Pink Room originally staged at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1952. A world-weary hostess runs a drinking-club where the members gather to drink and, variously, escape, dream, seek, bitch, mock and destroy. 'This is not only an archaeologist's treasure, but is among the most convincing, moving pieces to hit London yet this year.' Independent
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RODNEY ACKLAND
After October
1st Produced:
London
1936
Company:
-
1st Published:
Gollancz, London, 1936
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
5
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
After October is Ackland's most autobiographical play. It shows a feckless family in the grip of poverty, with a young playwright, Clive, scenting the possibilities of escape to affluence and extravagance. But Clive's play is a failure and his beloved Frances opts for his rival Brian. A loan helps Clive until his novel will be completed and everything will be all right 'after October'. The mood lightens - only the creditors are heavy.
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Ballerina
1st Produced:
London
1933
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Musical
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
by Rodney Ackland; music by Henry Sullivan, lyrics by Desmond Carter, adaptation of the novel by Eleanor Smith
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Before the Party
1st Produced:
London
1949
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1950
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
2
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
From W S Maugham
Synopsis:
Laura has recently returned from the Gold Coast - she tells her family that he died from malaria. She then upsets her family by telling them that she is going to marry a man they all dislike - David. Laura's sister, Kathleen has learnt the truth about the death of her husband and the family confront - but Laura tells them that he did not commit suicide - she killed him. He was an abusive drunk. Laura's family then insist that after their garden party she must tell David the truth, break the engagement and leave the family home. Laura leaves a letter for David. The family then discover that David is the son of a Lord and will inherit a fortune. They change their minds about him and try to prevent him from seeing Laura's letter. But he has already read it. He says it changes nothing - he loves Laura. Disgusted with the family they elope
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Birthday
1st Produced:
London
1934
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1935
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Blossom Time
1st Produced:
London
1942
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
music by Schubert
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Crime And Punishment
1st Produced:
London
1946
Company:
-
1st Published:
Sampson Low and Marston, 1948
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
16
Female
10
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
book by Fedor Dostoevsky
Synopsis:
Originally published in 1866, Crime and Punishment tells the story of Rodion Romanivich Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student who murders an old woman to escape his wretched situation
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Cupid and Mars
1st Produced:
London
1947
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
with Robert G. Newton, adaptation of a story by Newton
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Dance with No Music
1st Produced:
London
1930
Company:
-
1st Published:
Deane, London, 1933
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Dark River, The
1st Produced:
London
1941
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1942
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
5
Female
3
Parts Other:
1 boy
Notes:
(as Remembrance of Things Past, produced 1938; as The Dark River, produced 1941)
Synopsis:
set in the late thirties, the flamboyant characters are cocooned in a Thames backwater ignoring the turbulent events of a politically unstable Europe
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Dead Secret, A
1st Produced:
London
1957
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1958
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Mystery
Parts:
Male
9
Female
6
Parts Other:
extras
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
When the miserly old spinster dies the question remains - was it murder?
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Diary Of A Scoundrel
1st Produced:
London
1942
Company:
-
1st Published:
Sampson Low and Marston, 1948
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
9
Female
7
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Alexander Ostrovsky
Synopsis:
With the death of Yegor's father he and his mother are left in dire straits. He worms his way into a wealthy family and discredits the daughter of the family's fiance. It is his hope now to marry her himself and they are engaged. But Yegor has been keeping a diary of how he has sucked up to the wealthy family and his true feelings about them. The diary is discovered
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Farewell, Farewell, Eugene
1st Produced:
London
1959
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1960
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
3
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
adaptation of a work by John Van
Synopsis:
How do you say "farewell" to someone who never appears in the first place? Let the action speak for itself: the time is 1915; the place a shabbily genteel basement apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Its denizens are Gert and Minnie Povis, the former quite correct and slightly formidable, the later not above sneaking a clandestine bottle of beer or reliving her brief but happy days as a member of a third-rate opera company. The sisters supplement a small income by turning out handpainted greeting cards, which Cousin Peonie merchandises through her acquaintances in the "outside world." One of these is Chuck Bailey, who is in love with Poenie but out of favor with Gert. He does move a lot of greeting cards, however, which means more money for the growing fund in the "Visit to Eugene Box." Brother Eugene, we might add, has been off in Africa for a rather long time doing nobody knows what. All this, of course, has its complications, which runs something like this: Gert manages to break up Peonie's romance;
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Foe, The
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Wood, E.R. (Ed.), The Sixth Windmill Book Of One-Act Plays, 1972
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
One Act
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Improper People
1st Produced:
London
1929
Company:
-
1st Published:
Heinemann, London, 1930
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Marion-Ella
1st Produced:
London
1930
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Multitude of Sins, A,
1st Produced:
London
1951
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
with Robert G. Newton
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Old Ladies, The
1st Produced:
-
1935
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1935
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
-
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
novel by Hugh Walpole (produced 1935; as Night in the House, produced NY 1935).
Synopsis:
A harsh winter in the 1920s. Lucy and May have rooms in an old house and, through fond memories, simple pleasures and buried hopes, happily help each other through their impoverished days. But, in the upstairs room, the dark, brooding presence of Agatha plots to shatter their friendship. Little by little, she begins a journey of terror as she manipulates, ridicules and undermines the careful fabric of Lucy's and May's lives. Is Lucy's son really alive? Why does May depend so much on her prized possessions? And what is the terrible secret that Agatha craves to discover?
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Other Place, The
1st Produced:
London
1964
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Plays 2" Oberon, London, 1999
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
8 characters
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Pink Room, The; or, The Escapists
1st Produced:
London
1952
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Plot Twenty-One
1st Produced:
London
1936
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Sixth Floor
1st Produced:
London
1939
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
adaptation of a play by Alfred Ghéri
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Smithereens
1st Produced:
1985
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Plays 2" Oberon, London, 1999
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
12 characters
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Top of Page
RODNEY ACKLAND
Strange Orchestra
1st Produced:
London
1931
Company:
-
1st Published:
Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1932
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
5
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
takes place in a large Chelsea flat, run as a boarding house by a slatternly Bohemian with a heart of gold. Her paying guests are young, poor and uncertain of their jobs. They squabble hysterically, make love and dance to the tune of a wind up gramophone. Then into this lively household strolls Peter, a homeless artist destined to destry happiness with his ready charm and caddish behaviour
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Too Clever by Half
1st Produced:
-
1988
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Alexander Ostrovsky
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
White Guard, The
1st Produced:
London
1934
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Mickhail Bulgakov
Synopsis:
-
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RODNEY ACKLAND
Yes, My Darling Daughter
1st Produced:
London
1937
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
adaptation of work by Mark Reed
Synopsis:
-
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