Full Length Plays
"The Haunting at Warleggan Rectory" Ghost play for 9f & 4m by Tony Leonard ISBN: 9781873130919 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Warleggan exists and is reputed to be the most remote village in Cornwall on the edge of Bodmin Moor. The village church of St Bartholemew has had some strange relationships with its clergy over the years and is famous for its ghost stories. In the 14th century Ralph Tremur, the son of one of the rectors, was regarded as a heretic and a witch; a past curate of Luxulyan is said to haunt a nearby road and in 1953 Reverend Frederick Densham was so eccentric that he was boycotted by his parishioners and ended up preaching to cardboard cutouts. This play has them all in a fascinating ghost story about the conflict between good and evil that will leave you wondering and wishing to visit.
Download first part of "The Haunting at Warleggan Rectory"
"Dress Rehearsal" Comedy for 4f & 4m By Charles Stott ISBN: 9781873130896 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
An amateur drama group are in the final stages of rehearsing their next play which is a sci-fi story about a trip to the moon. The props are useless, the sound effects and lighting are all wrong and all-in-all it looks like another catastrophe is about to happen!
Download first part of "Dress Rehearsal"
"Musical Chairs" Comedy by Peter Bridge for 8f & 3m ISBN: 9781873130889 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
The Mellow Blossom’s Orchestra for retired people regularly rehearses in the local St Winifred’s Hall, a council-owned property that is let out, not only to the orchestra, but also to four other groups. The orchestra members are advised that their tenancy is under threat due to the severe cuts the council are having to impose, caused by their own reduced revenue. With the group facing impending eviction, they detect a possible solution when, prior to her engagement with the council to turn on the Christmas lights, a famous female superstar arrives at their premises.
(NB: actors don't actually need to play instruments)
Download first part of "Musical Chairs"
"Stage Fright" Comedy for 1f & 2m by Lynn Howes ISBN: 9781873130841 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A savagely funny satire on celebrity and theatre - Stage Fright charts the struggle for supremacy between three actors appearing in a play together; old friends Peter and Charles, and Geraldine, the young and vulnerable actress they have befriended. As opening night approaches, it becomes apparent that Geraldine is not who she appears to be, and the friends must fight to salvage their pride, their identity and their reputations. Recently performed by a well-known professional cast at the Canal Cafe Theatre, Little Venice, London.
Download first part of "Stage Fright"
"The Dating Agency" Comedy by Peter Bridge for 8f & 2m ISBN: 9781873130827 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Martin is suffering the trials of a long-lasting, stale marriage that is slowly juddering to an acrimonious halt. In order to infuse a spark into his dull, purposeless life, he joins a dating agency. His intention is to test the waters of an alternative lifestyle with a new partner. Problems arise when, in order to conceal his ultra-matrimonial actions from his long-suffering wife, he borrows the identity of his old friend, Bruce. Due to the confused ID and resultant coincidental, unforeseen circumstances, the two men suffer a succession of perils, which lead to the heightened suspicions of each man’s partner. During the confused exchanges, Martin comes to learn of a long-held secret about Bruce… but should he tell his friend of this devastating information?
(First performed by the Desborough Players at Walton on Thames, Surrey on 10th June 2011)
Download first part of "The Dating Agency"
"The Chair" Choral Society Committee Comedy by Chris Joby 4f & 4m ISBN: 9781873130759 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
The committee for the choral society are about to have their first yearly meeting in John's house and John has finally achieved his life's goal - to be elected "The Chair" or President - a position he believes should have been his years ago. In his mind he will be the best, the most masterful President the society has had and befitting his new-found status, he will control the meetings from his wonderful new acquisition - a Queen Anne chair. The problem is that the rest of the committee don't have as high an opinion of John as he does himeslf. Is he the real thing and is his chair the real thing too? Things begin to become a little discordant ...
Download first part of "The Chair"
“Toshie” Seafaring Drama with music by Stewart Brown, Mixed Cast, ISBN 1-873130-22-8 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Since losing both legs to frostbite in an whaling incident off Greenland, Toshie has kept his own counsel about what happened. Then he is visited at home by Captain Robert Falcon Scott who is seeking survival advice prior to his fateful expedition to Antarctica. “Tell me your story”... to Scott a simple request. But Toshie, who could never refuse a Captain, knows that he will have to relive a journey that will take him back, not just to the stark frozen wastes of The Arctic, but into the deepest, darkest reaches of his soul.
N.B: The play, which has toured profesionally in Scotland, is based on an episode in Dundee’s history known as The Chieftain Disaster and tells of the remarkable survival of James McIntosh, one of the whalers involved.
Download first part of "Toshie"
" The Power & The Glory" Village Occupation Drama by Tony Breeze 15f + 15m ISBN 1-872758-10-X £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A powerful drama based on a combination of two events which actually occurred in different parts of the world. A small village sleeps in the summer sun at the end of the war, untouched by all that has gone before, when the peace is disturbed by the arrival of a group of soldiers. The group is joined by a young boy soldier who isn't aware of the unit's past history and they are told that they are to lie low for a while and that they mustn't get involved with the villagers. The boy soldier forgets this and soon becomes involved with one of the local girls as he slowly learns more about the past history of his colleagues. A dance is held by the pompous local mayor to welcome the soldiers and then one of the officers is found dead. This is the moment the soldiers' friendliness changes to something much darker as the village is surrounded when they try to find the culprit. In Act Two the priest is tortured to expose what has been said in the confessional but he will not speak; all the food is removed from the villagers to get at the truth which results in people starving and resorting to animal-like fighting for survival as they get hungrier and hungrier. The final conflict is between the hope of spiritual glory in the form of the communion wafers from the local nuns versus the threat of earthly military power of the occupying force ... but which will triumph in the end?
Download first part of "The Power & The Glory"
“ My Father’s House” 1929 US Farming Family Drama by Tony Breeze 3f + 3m + 2 juveniles ISBN 1-872758-23-1 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Set in the American Dust-bowl in 1929, we see one family’s heartwarming story, trying to cope with grinding poverty as fate throws everything at them. The Macdonald’s landlord is chasing them for the rent and his spoilt son plays with their two boys. They find a black hobo hiding in the woodshed who is unable to speak and take him in. The racist landlord doesn’t like this and while the latter can pay for his son to have a minor operation, the same can’t be said for the Macdonalds, whose youngest son is soon seriously injured in a fall from a nearby tree whilst looking for the promised land of California. Joe Macdonald is told that to encourage his son to get better he needs to think of something for him to aim for, so he decides to build him a tree house. This doesn’t seem to work until the black hobo points out a phrase from the Bible … "My Father’s house has many rooms" and Joe begins extending the tree house until people come from far and wide to see it. This prompts the landlord to want to use it as a moneymaking venture and he asks Joe to help him with promises of becoming a member of a secret organization that he’s in (which is actually the KKK). Joe isn’t sure what to do and then the hobo is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. The family goes to a Speaking Competition and while there, Joe learns that the hobo is being taken from his cell to be lynched. It is then that Joe finally finds the courage to make a stand and speak out to the assembled audience.
Download first part of "My Father's House"
" Strange Days" Teenage Comedy by Steve Pearce 15f & 18m ISBN 1873130201 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
The play is the story of an eccentric boy called Kalon Grace. He has a number of peculiarities—there are arguments going on in his head all the time, he has a seemingly irrational fear of dogs but most importantly his entire life is read from a script. Three fragments of Kalon’s psyche jostle to read from it, and hence control his destiny. But which of them will be brave enough to read the final page, and what would happen if someone were to take the script away?
Download first part of "Strange Days"
" My Brother’s Keeper" Filial Duty Drama by Tony Breeze 2f + 4m (2NSP) ISBN 1-872758-09-6 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A middle-aged writer returns home to his brother who is looking after their comatose father. The writer left home at an early age to find fame and fortune while the other brother, who was equally talented musically, stayed home to look after the ageing parents. The writer and the brother's wife do not get on and he has thoughtlessly invited his young actress girlfriend to the house. The stress of looking after the old man builds to a climax at the end of the first act when the stay-at-home brother suggests that the only way out of their predicament is to remove the feeding tube that is keeping their father alive. While they are arguing about whether to do such a thing, the decision is taken away from them when the old man dies a natural death. In the second act the writer is made to face up to his own shortcomings as a distant father. (This play was chosen from 150 scripts to reach the final of the Pittsburgh New Play Festival, first read in public in the UK at the Questors Theatre, Ealing, London and later published in Holland & Belgium by Peter Vink & Co.)
Download first part of "My Brother's Keeper"
“ Loyalties” Wartime Drama by Jeffrey A. Lee 2f & 4m ISBN 9781873130520 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A play in four scenes set on an occupied island between England and France during the time of the Second World War. The lady who runs the island is told that some German officers are going to be billeted in her house but this could be problematic as there is a Jewish man hiding nearby.
Download first part of "Loyalties"
" Wasps" Traffic Wardens Tragi-comedy by Tony Breeze 8 females ISBN 1-872758-06-1 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Set in a UK traffic wardens office, the play sees the first day at work for a new girl and explores the interaction between the different characters, one of whom is a shy, introverted, pigeon lover on the edge of a nervous breakdown. In the second act they are called in to be interviewed for promotion and while they wait they hold an impromptu birthday party for the pigeon lover. A present is left over at the end which, when given to her, sends her over the edge - but who gave it and why? (First performed by the Criterion Players, Coventry)
Download first part of "Wasps"
“ One Without Shame” Wartime Drama by James Brockbank 4m ISBN 9781873130469 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance (Full-Length Version)
A young soldier is told that he has to become a member of a firing squad which will execute a 16yr old for cowardice. He decides to make a stand against this, even though he knows he may suffer the same fate as his young comrade.
Download first part of "One Without Shame"
" The Eckersley Rising" Henpecked Husband Comedy by Tony Breeze 4f + 4m + I teenager (doubling) or 8f + 7m (Singly) ISBN 1-872758-02-9 £7.00 each Royalties £40 performance
Walter Midgley is an inoffensive clerk working in a building firm for an arrogant councillor. He is put upon by both his boss and his wife until one day he decides to give up work and build a multi-layered chicken shed in his tiny back yard. Having built the shed he moves his amateur radio gear in alongside his chickens and for a while all goes well. However one night, for some reason, Walter receives a signal on his aerial that appears to be coming from a planet in outer space. He sends a copy of the signal to London but locally he is made the laughing stock of the neighbourhood. Word then comes from London that the signals might actually be genuine but they can't help him at the moment. Only then does he decide to reply himself to the signal by sending up his own home-made rocket powered by the methane gas from his chicken manure! The day comes for the big launch, with all the usual media attention, but the rocket refuses to budge until later that night when all is quiet and his estranged wife is searching for him in the darkness of the rocket. (First performed by Burton Joyce Players, Nottingham and a subsequent adjudicator's award winner in the Nottinghamshire Play of the Year Competition).
Download first part of "The Eckersley Rising"
" The Witches of Wicken" 1950's Witchcraft Drama by Tony Leonard 3f & 4m & Witches & Dancers ISBN 9781873130476 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
The play is set in the 1950s in a small English village where, behind the scenes, there is a battle going on between good and evil - secretive black witchcraft competes with innate goodness of the villagers - but which one will prevail in the end?
Download first part of "The Witches of Wicken"
" Sepia Serenade" A musical comedy by Tony Breeze 8f & 8m & children & dancers ISBN 9781872758193 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
The local drama group are about to begin one of their performances when an old granddad appears, with his grandchildren, clutching an old fashioned magic lantern. He wants to show them some slides of his early life but the group are naturally not interested. Then a strange thing happens - there's a suspicious power cut so the group is in trouble. Very coincidentally the old man's magic lantern doesn't need electricity and gives out light so they decide to use his lantern and build a show around it. Slides are shown of his early life while the group perform stories and songs around them. The show is a success and everyone is pleased until they learn another interesting fact at the end about how the power cut came about. (First performed by Burton Joyce Players)
Download first part of "Sepia Serenade"
“ Lorenzo’s Dream” Lawrenceian Drama By Jeffrey A.Lee 2f & 5m & Dancers ISBN 9781873130513 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A play in four scenes based on the eighteen months that D.H. Lawrence and Frieda spent in Cornwall during the First World War and set in the living room of Tregerthen Cottage, Zennor. They are being watched by the bumbling local constabulary who believe that when Frieda dances around the garden in her zest for life, she may actually be signalling to German U-boats.
Download first part of "Lorenzo's Dream"
" Harry’s Bird" Hospice/Meaning of Life Drama by Tony Breeze 3f + lm ISBN 1-872758-07-X £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Harry Moss is an ex-teacher and failed writer being taken by his wife to a hospice for the terminally ill. Due to his predicament he is extremely bitter towards her and the staff until his final days are enlivened by the arrival over the wall of a young girl from the probation hostel next door. He teaches her to read and she, in return, gives him hope in his darkest hour. She joins the system by getting a job and he encourages her to steal one final car for a final exciting trip out. (Winner of the Nottingham Playhouse New Writing Competition, performed at The Edinburgh Fringe and later winner in the Nottinghamshire Play of the Year Competition with Mapperley Mavericks of Nottingham)
Download first part of "Harry's Bird"
“The Woman” Symbolic Drama by Ray Gregory 10f & 6m ISBN 9781873130445 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Two warring tribes live in close proximity and are constantly wary of each other. One day a mad woman is found wandering who seems to have strange powers, powers that could lead one tribe to victory over the other. She becomes priceless in the eyes of each tribe and both want to have control over her.
Download first part of "The Woman"
" Robbie" Disability Drama by Julia Richdale-Ellis 5f & 4m 1-873130-12-0 £7.00 each Royalties £40pp
A family gathers together after the death of a husband and wife in a car crash to discuss what can be done with Robbie, the son, now left, who was disabled from birth. Each of the sisters have their own reasons for not wanting to take on the responsibility and one of them, the youngest, arrives from Australia where she was sent to live with relatives when he was born. A thought-provoking play, which makes us all, face up to our own attitudes towards disability.
Download first part of "Robbie"
"Vilna” Wartime Drama by Jeffrey A Lee 7f & 6m & extras 1-873130-13-9 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A dramatic and heart-rending story of the attempts of a group of Jews to survive Nazi oppression trapped in the cramped confines of the Vilna ghetto
Download first part of "Vilna"
“ The Personal Assistant” Retribution Drama by Tony Breeze 3f & 3m (doubling) ISBN 9781872758220 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
A wheelchair-bound, retired, college principal has advertised for a personal assistant to help him with his care and an applicant arrives who seems to have all the right qualities. After a brief interview he is taken on but what the old man doesn’t know is that the applicant is actually someone from his past in disguise, someone who has borne him a grudge for many years …
Download first part of "The Personal Assistant"
" The Victorious Loser" African Drama by Moses P'Ado 3m & 3f & 2 juvs doubling ISBN:1-873130-37-6 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
An African play by this Ugandan lawyer who shows us the reality of what happens when the West think they are bringing about democracy in an African country but the prime mover for the latter to comply is simply to receive financial aid. Here we see a female professor trying to get herself elected and democracy working on a different level. She fights against the gullibility of voters who are willing to give up their vote for the promise of more salt but in the end a hollow victory is achieved for the one who is the "winner"
Download first part of "The Victorious Loser
" Saffron Lady" Romantic Comedy by Frederick C.Webb 4f & 3m ISBN: 9781873130537 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Saffron Lady is an elegant, well-to-do lady of mature years who has just divorced her two-timing husband and her children decide that to cheer her up they will arrange for her portrait to be painted. Instead of a well-known London artist preferred by them, she decides to explore the possibilities of a charismatic local artist known as "Truffle." When he arrives we can see that this is definitely not going to be any ordinary artist-subject relationship - far from it!
Download first part of "Saffron Lady"
"Last Night in Denny Abbey" Historical convent drama by Tony Leonard 5F & 3m ISBN: 9781873130582 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
After his clash with the Pope, King Henry VIII has ordered the closure of all the abbeys and monasteries in England and the seizure of all their goods. This play sees two of the King's men arriving at Denny Abbey in Cambridgeshire to enforce the King's command. What they don't cater for is that the abbey and its nuns seem to be protected by spirits, ghosts and even the sounds of Roman soldiers marching through the cloisters and one of the enforcers comes to a really nasty end.
Download first part of "Last Night in Denny Abbey"
"Aunt Agatha's Anniversary" Family Inheritance Comedy by Tony Leonard 4f & 5m ISBN9781873130766 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Major and Lady Plimp are in debt due to her husband's gambling. They invite their ailing wealthy aunt, hoping to inherit her fortune one way or another. Giles Plimp, their son, brings home his stripper girlfriend from the May Ball; among the other guests is an eccentric Indian Doctor, a weird piano tuner, a jealous maid and a ghost, all adding intrigue to the concert party.
Download first part of "Aunt Agatha's Anniversary"
"Promise Not To Tell" Abandoned husband drama by Peter Bridge 4f & 2m ISBN: 9781873130834 £7.00 each Royalties £40 per performance
Two old (male) friends have arranged to meet up with two old girl school friends that they have not seen (collectively) since their school days, some forty five years previously. However, the main character, Paul’s best friend, David, is holding a very dark secret from Paul and the other two friends, the girls, are also aware of this concealed “skeleton in the cupboard”. The foursome meet in a seaside tea shop and things go well until Paul’s suspicions are aroused… and piece by piece he begins to find flaws in the camouflaged cover story that has been fed to him until finally, he uncovers the hidden bombshell that has been concealed for over twenty years and he confronts each party concerned.
Download first part of "Promise Not To Tell"
HOME TOP OF PAGE ONE ACT PLAYS
