BRIAN FRIEL   (1929 - )


Brian Friel
   Nationality:
Irish
   Literary Agent: *:
   Email:
n/a
   Website:

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Plays by Brian Friel

BRIAN FRIEL
Afterplay
1st Produced:
2002
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
in Three Plays After, The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 2002
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Play
One Act
Parts:
Male
1
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Afterplay revisits the lives of two of characters, Andrey Prozorov and Sonya Serebriakova, who had a previous existence in two separate Chekhov plays, Three Sister and Uncle Vanya respectively. Both characters are now middle-aged, but cannot escape the circumstances of their earlier lives; Andrey is still an only boy, confused, motherless and living in the remote rural town of Taganrog; Sonya is still deeply and hopelessly in love with the local doctor. Andrey now takes the train regularly from Taganrog to Moscow, allegedly to play as a violinist at the opera, Sonya is in Moscow to negotiate with the Ministry for Agriculture to try to save what's left of her dwindling estate. They meet by chance for one evening, twenty years after their previous fictional lives ended.
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BRIAN FRIEL
American Welcome
1st Produced:
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Best Short Plays 1981", Chilton, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1981
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
play
Ten Min
Parts:
Male
2
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
A foreign writer arrives in the U.S. and is greeted by a loquacious American director
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BRIAN FRIEL
Aristocrats
1st Produced:
1979
Company:
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 1980
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
6
Female
3
Parts Other:
voice
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Set in Ballybeg Hall in County Donegal, the decaying home of District Justice O'Donnell, where those who congregate for a wedding stay to attend a funeral. Aristocrats chronicles the lives of three sisters and their 'peculiar' brother and reveals the way 'in which the ache of one family becomes the microcosm for the ache of a society'.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Bear, The
1st Produced:
2002
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
in Three Plays After, The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 2002
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Adaptation 1 Act
One Act
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov
Synopsis:
The young widow, Elena, in mourning for a year, declares herself effectively dead, only to be stirred back into life by the blustering, salty-tongued Gregory, who she cannot resist despite her best efforts.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Blind Mice, The
1st Produced:
Ebalana Theatre, Dublin
1963
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN/ASIN
-
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:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
8
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Father Chris returns home after five years in a Chinese Communist prison. His sister's boyfriend reveals a devastating secret
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BRIAN FRIEL
Communication Cord, The
1st Produced:
Guildhall, Derry
1982
Company:
Field Day Theatre Company
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1983
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Farce
Parts:
Male
4
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Set in a restored thatched cottage close to the sea in the remote townland of Ballybeg, County Donegal, The Communication Cord is a farce which is preoccupied with language and its powerful effects.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Crystal And Fox
1st Produced:
1968
Company:
-
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1970
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Tragedy
Parts:
Male
8
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
When one of couple of itinerant players touring Irish Country decides to go it alone it leads to tragic consequences.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Dancing At Lughnasa
1st Produced:
1990
Company:
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1990
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
3
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
It is 1936 and harvest time in County Donegal. In a house just outside the village of Ballybeg live the five Mundy sisters, barely making ends meet, their ages ranging from twenty-six up to forty. The two male members of the household are brother Jack, a missionary priest, repatriated from Africa by his superiors after twenty-five years, and Michael, the seven-year-old child of the youngest sister. Narrated by Michael as an adult, the play depicts two days in the lives of five remarkable women.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Doubtful Paradise, The
1st Produced:
Ulster Group Theatre, Belfast
1959
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN/ASIN
-
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:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Also known as "The Francophile"
Synopsis:
Willie is proud of his children. But then his son, a barrister is suspended by the Bar Committee and his daughter runs away with a bogus French Count
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BRIAN FRIEL
Enemy Within, The
1st Produced:
1962
Company:
-
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 1979
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
10
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The story of Sixth Century saint - Columba
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BRIAN FRIEL
Faith Healer
1st Produced:
Longacre Theatre, New York
1979
Company:
-
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1980
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
In the course of four monologues the story unfolds of the travelling healer Frank who has gone all over Wales and Scotland with his wife Grace, and his manager Teddy. In their respective monologues, Frank, Grace and Teddy tell their differing versions of the healer's performance and of a terrible event that slowly comes into focus.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Fathers And Sons
1st Produced:
1987
Company:
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1987
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
10
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The play's central conflict is a clash between old, aristocratic, class-ridden Russia and the fanatic zeal of young nihilist revolutionaries. The young revolutionary Bazarov's views are clear: he wants to 'smash people' and make a 'complete clearance' in order to remake Russia. Life and fate frustrate Bazarov's politics and, when exposed to them, he has to respond as a human being and not as a cynical demagogue.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Francophile, The
1st Produced:
Belfast
1960
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN/ASIN
-
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:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
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BRIAN FRIEL
Freedom Of The City, The
1st Produced:
1973
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1973
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
15
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Skinner, the outsider dislocated from family and society in oblique relationship to the Troubles in Northern Ireland
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BRIAN FRIEL
Gentle Island, The
1st Produced:
1971
Company:
-
1st Published:
Davis Poynter, London, 1973
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
11
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
lives of a family on the island of Inishkeen are shown to be brutal, squalid, beset by sexual frustration and violence
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BRIAN FRIEL
Give Me Your Answer, Do!
1st Produced:
1997
Company:
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 1997
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
This play is set on a sunny August afternoon in the old manse in Ballybeg in County Donegal, now the home of novelist, Tom Connolly, and his wife, Daisy. They are visited by an American agent who may, or may not, purchase Tom`s papers for an American College library. Joining them is their novelist friend, Garrett Fitzmaurice, and his wife, Grainne, whose marriage may, or may not, outlive the year. Absent from the occasion but overshadowing it by her tragedy is Bridget, the mentally-ill daughter of Tom and Daisy, who has been institutionalised since she was a child.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Home Place, The
1st Produced:
2005
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 2005
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
8
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The year is 1878. The widowed Christopher Gore, his son David and the woman they are both in love with, their housekeeper Margaret, live in The Lodge in Ballybeg. But in this era of unrest at the dawn of Home Rule, the seemingly serene life enjoyed at The Lodge is threatened by the arrival of Christopher’s English cousin, who unwittingly ignites deep animosity among the villagers of Ballybeg.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Living Quarters
1st Produced:
1977
Company:
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1978
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
5
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Living Quarters reconstructs a day in the life of the Butler family in the village of Ballybeg. Frank Butler, who has served all his life in the Irish army, returns from United Nations service, a hero, to learn of his young wife's affair with his son from a previous marriage.
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BRIAN FRIEL
London Vertigo, The
1st Produced:
1992
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
Gallery Press, Oldcastle, 1990
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Adaptation 1 Act
One Act
Parts:
Male
3
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The London Vertigo tells the story of Mrs O’Dogherty/Diggerty who is forced to reform her behaviour by dropping her newly acquired Anglophile habits and language use to transform into 'The Irish Fine Lady'. Her concomitant giving up of colonial mimicry and changing back to 'decent Dublin domesticity' unwittingly rewrites the original author’s own biography as comedy and farce.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Lovers: Part One: Winners
1st Produced:
1967
Company:
-
1st Published:
Farrar Straus, New York, 1968
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Domestic Comedy
One Act
Parts:
Male
2
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Young lovers drown as they attempt to sort out their different sorts of lives.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Lovers: Part Two: Losers
1st Produced:
1967
Company:
-
1st Published:
Farrar Straus, New York, 1968
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Tragicomedy
One Act
Parts:
Male
1
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Bedridden despot of a mother causes problems for middle-aged lovers
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BRIAN FRIEL
Loves Of Cass Mcguire
1st Produced:
Helen Hayes Theatre, New York
1966
Company:
-
1st Published:
Noonday Press, New York, 1966
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Domestic
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Disreputable old spinster returns from United states to family in Ireland.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Making History
1st Produced:
Guildhall, Derry
1988
Company:
Field Day Theatre Company
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1989
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Historical
Parts:
Male
4
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The life of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, whose flight to Rome after his defeat at Kinsale cleared the way for the plantation of Ulster.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Molly Sweeney
1st Produced:
1994
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 1994
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Molly Sweeney tells the story of a woman who has the chance to regain her sight after being blind. Through a series of interconnected monologues we follow Molly's journey from darkness into light, as she lies in her hospital bed, attended by her husband and her eye surgeon.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Month In The Country, A
1st Produced:
1992
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 1992
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
7
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Natalya Petrovna is a young married woman who is bored by her life and her marriage to a rich, absent-minded husband. Increasingly frustrated by the loss of her youth, she has become obsessed with her small son's tutor, a young man from Moscow. He in turn appears to be engaged in a flirtation with Natalya's ward, Vera, whom she has always regarded as a daughter but now sees as a rival.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Mundy Scheme, The
1st Produced:
1969
Company:
-
1st Published:
Farrar Straus, New York, 1970
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
Political Satire
-
Parts:
Male
9
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Corrupt Irish politicians conceive wild scheme for national prosperity
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BRIAN FRIEL
Performances
1st Produced:
2002
Company:
Gate Theatre
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 2003
ISBN/ASIN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
This enthralling play considers the relationship between the private life and public work of the composer Leos Janácek, the passion he felt for a married woman nearly forty years his junior and his final surge of creative energy.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Philadelphia, Here I Come!
1st Produced:
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
1964
Company:
-
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1965
ISBN/ASIN
-
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
11
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
A young man attempts a reconciliation with his father the day before setting out for America..
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BRIAN FRIEL
Three Sisters, The
1st Produced:
Guildhall, Derry
1981
Company:
-
1st Published:
Gallery Press, Dublin, 1981
ISBN/ASIN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
9
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
the death of Tusenbach in a meaningless quarrel is one more of the losses which empty the sisters' future of meaning
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BRIAN FRIEL
Translations
1st Produced:
Guildhall, Derry
1980
Company:
Field Day Theatre Company
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1981
ISBN/ASIN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
7
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The first Royal Ordnance Survey is translating the local Gaelic place names of the townland of Baile Beag in County Donegal into English, with far-reaching personal and cultural consequences for a hedge-school teacher, his two sons, and the small group of local people who attend the school.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Uncle Vanya
1st Produced:
1998
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
ISBN/ASIN
-
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
6
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
story of an uncle in love with a young lady who is married to an old and ill man, she is attracted to the doctor who attends her husband
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BRIAN FRIEL
Volunteers
1st Produced:
1975
Company:
1st Published:
Faber & Faber, London, 1978
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
8
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Volunteers is set on an archaeological site in a contemporary Irish city centre. For five months, the 'volunteers', who are all political prisoners, have been excavating 'from early Viking down to late Georgian'. All around them is 'encapsulated history, a tangible precis of the story of Irish man'. On the last day of the dig, before the builders move in, the volunteers learn that they have been sentenced to death by their fellow internees for treason.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Wily Sweeney
1st Produced:
1994
Company:
Gate, Dublin
1st Published:
-
ISBN/ASIN
-
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:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Top of Page
BRIAN FRIEL
Wonderful Tennessee
1st Produced:
1993
Company:
1st Published:
Faber, London (Gallery Press ?), 1993
ISBN/ASIN
-
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Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
3
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Three married couples wait for a boatman to arrive to ferry them to Oilean Draiochta, Island of Otherness or Mystery. In the course of a night they talk, sing, and tell stories. What started as an escapade assumes the semblance of a pilgrimage. Gradually their true relationships and frailties are revealed.
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BRIAN FRIEL
Yalta Game, The
1st Produced:
2001
Company:
Gate, Dublin
1st Published:
The Gallery Press, Republic of Ireland, 2001
ISBN/ASIN
-
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
Adaptation 1 Act
One Act
Parts:
Male
3
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
This short play examines a theme from Anton Chekhov's short story, 'The lady with the Little Dog', which Chekhov wrote in Yalta in the autumn of 1899. The Yalta Game tells the story of an accountant who holidays alone, leaving his wife and family behind in Moscow. While away, he plays the game of amorous dalliance and seduction, and happens on a young wife with her pet dog. They have a brief affair and part forever. But back home, they both find themselves obsessed by reveries and meet again to embark on a future of duplicity, ecstasy and perhaps of love.
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