JOHN GOSS   (1945 - )


John Goss
   Nationality:
English
   Literary Agent: *:
n/a
   Email:
   Website:

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Plays by John Goss

JOHN GOSS
Buskers
1st Produced:
-
-
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:
120 min musical comedy
Musical
Parts:
Male
6
Female
5
Parts Other:
chorus
Notes:
Original play was written in 1995-1997. "Although we booked the Crescent Theatre to produce Buskers, it coincided with Birmingham Artsfest and we selflessly sacrificed what would have given us a ready-made audience to the greater demands of theatre. In fact we never produced Buskers in 1998 nor subsequently. It's a great loss"
- John Goss
Synopsis:
The musical opens as Garbie, a mute tramp, finds a mouth-organ in a bin. He takes this to his down-and-out friends. Lord Ronald, who presumes himself leader of this motley group, sees an opportunity to earn money by encouraging Garbie to busk on the streets. It's a play about survival in an unforgiving world where for down-and-outs everything goes wrong. It questions the futility of war and observes that even at the bottom of the pile there is a pecking-order.
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JOHN GOSS
Frozen Fish
1st Produced:
-
-
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:
120 min
Comedy
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Something Fishy and Ice Cold in Alaska separated by an interval. 1 set for the two halves.
Synopsis:
See synopses for 'Something Fishy' and 'Ice Cold in Alaska'.
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JOHN GOSS
Ice Cold in Alaska
1st Produced:
Australian Bar, Hurst Street, Birmingham
1998
Company:
Puffin' Penguin Theatre 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:
60 min
Comedy
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Can be played together with its prequel 'Something Fishy' the two together being called 'Frozen Fish'.
Synopsis:
Due to failing eyesight Tom misreads a newspaper article. He's disappointed that nobody will buy his script Ice Cold in Alaska. Helen suggests he produces it himself. There's the problem of actors. Tom wants Helen to play all three women, Vivien, Cassie and Raquel while he plays George. There's a knock at the door. It's Uncle Tom passing through from the Isle of Man. Tom sees in Uncle Tom the makings of Eskimo Nell. Uncle Tom is not keen on this idea but agrees to take the script with him to read the part. When he returns it seems he's re-written the script to the displeasure of Tom. Helen thinks the new script is good. They learn their parts and perform the dress-rehearsal right there in the living room which they turn into an Alaskan cabin. Tom plays George, Helen plays Vivien (George's wife) and Uncle Tom plays Nanook. Vivien is a saucy wench who, to the displeasure of George, spends all day whoring with the menfolk of Caribou. They pay for her services in gold soldiers. She collects a great many of these and is able from the proceeds to buy a saloon in Connecticut.
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JOHN GOSS
Mozart and Salieri
1st Produced:
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-
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:
Drama with music/translation, 15 min
Play with Music
Parts:
Male
3
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
This short tragedy was written by Alexander Pushkin in 1830. It has gone a long way in perpetuating the myth that Mozart was poisoned by Salieri out of envy. There is no evidence of this. Salieri's soliloquies - at the beginning and end of scene one - and Mozart's short addresses are written in pentameter, mostly iambic, and the translation mimics the original. Rhyme, where it exists, does not dictate the flow of speech and for Pushkin assonance and alliteration make occasional appearances in the tragedy. Where they do exist, for example line 22, "Oozhe derznool, v nayooke iskooshennii" and "prazdnikh/ Prenedbregaushikh prezrennoi polzoi,/ Yednovo prekrasnovo zhretzov" in Mozart's dying words they demonstrate the masterly technique which has created a comparison of Pushkin to Shakespeare as being Russia's greatest literary figure. For any would-be translator this is a hard act to follow.
Synopsis:
Mozart brings a blind fiddler he has found in a tavern performing Mozart for Salieri to listen to. Salieri dismisses the fiddler and devises plans to poison his rival composer.
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JOHN GOSS
Room To Let, A
1st Produced:
1997
Company:
Puffin' Penguin Theatre 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:
Comedy/Translation, 20 min
Comedy
Parts:
Male
1
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
A room to let was performed at Midlands Arts Centre & The Rep Door in Sept 1997 for Birminghams Artsfest 97. (Someone called Krivoshayne wrote the original short comedy (20 mins) and I have no biographical information on him/her. The name is common in the Urals).
Synopsis:
It's morning. André (28 years old) is getting ready to go to work. Serafima (60s) is agitated that he's still there. He wants to know why he keeps finding women's things in his room. Much to the relief of Serafima he eventually sets off for work. It turns out that Serafima has let the room to both André, who works days, and a young woman Vera (23 years old), who works nights. Vera comes home from work and wonders why she keeps finding men's things in her room. She's annoyed too that the table is not in the same position in which she left it. At Vera's request Serafima moves the table back and goes out. Vera settles down to sleep and André returns home having changed his shift.
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JOHN GOSS
Snegurochka - Snowgirl
1st Produced:
Birmingham Central Library Theatre
2006
Company:
Pro bono publico theatre 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:
Seasonal musical in the pantomime tradition
Pantomime
Parts:
Male
5
Female
3
Parts Other:
3 children
Notes:
Music by Dan Rodger, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Carolan. Lyrics and script by John Goss
Synopsis:
Snegurochka  Snowgirl tells the tale of a street flower-seller in love with her brother Buckle Boy, a seller of buckles. They live on the streets of 4th century Myra (now in Turkey) and together with other street children have been fathered by Soak (Soni Akram), an alcoholic, who also lives on the streets. The Bishop of Myra, Claus, blames Constantines father and the emperor Diocletian for poverty and homelessness in the town. Claus brings the street-children gifts for Christmas. He is helped by the ethereal, Snegurochka, who Flower Girl believes has eyes for Buckle Boy. Baba Yagga, a wicked witch, has entered into a pact with Old Nick to eat at least one child a year, every year. Flower Girl is abducted by Baba Yagga, and imprisoned in a tree-house. On discovery of Flower Girls abduction Buckle Boy organises a search party.
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JOHN GOSS
Something Fishy
1st Produced:
MAC, Birmingham
1997
Company:
Puffin' Penguin Theatre 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:
60 min
Comedy
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Can be played together with its sequel 'Ice Cold in Alaska' the two together being called 'Frozen Fish'.
Synopsis:
There's a fishy smell near the hall/lounge doorway. It keeps coming and going. Tom thinks it's a ghost. Helen thinks there's a rational explanation. Tom gives Helen a taste of his writing talent, a very short extract from his sitcom about four people in Arctic America. Helen is not very impressed. She points out possible weaknesses with this and other areas of his writing and agrees to help him improve his output by offering him a sexual inducement. The smell still lingers apparently appearing when the word fish is mentioned. Helen reads Tom's script and makes some recommendations. It's not good enough to earn him a night of "torrid" sex. One morning a few days later she tells Tom his script's all right apart from two references to polar bears. If his facts check out "Tonight's the night." It seems the fish-ghost does not appear during the day. Helen goes to work. Uncle Tom turns up and exorcises the ghost. Tom finishes his script and capitalises on his promise.
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JOHN GOSS
Splitting the Atom
1st Produced:
MAC, Birmingham
1998
Company:
Puffin' Penguin Theatre Company in collaboration with Anglo-Russian Theatre Company, London
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:
110 min Tragedy/Translation
Translation
Parts:
Male
1
Female
0
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
1998 (George Ivanov (1895-1958), a great Russian poet, wrote this amazing prose-poem as Raspad Atoma in 1938. It was acted as a one-man play by Leslie Brand [1975-200]. Leslie was trying to get it performed in London when he was killed as a pedestrian on the roads). Directed by Victor Sobchak.
Synopsis:
A one act, one-man play about life and death, good and evil, right and wrong. It was produced to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of its author's death and the sixtieth anniversary of its publication. Not available for production.
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