The Playwrights Publishing Company

Full Length Plays

Toshie”   Seafaring Drama with music by Stewart Brown, Mixed Cast,   ISBN 1-873130-22-8 £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
The famous explorer Scott of the Antarctic goes to a small Scottish village to visit “Toshie” to find out how he managed to survive in an open whaling boat in freezing conditions when all his shipmates didn’t.  Toshie reluctantly tells the story of how he tried to make his comrades concentrate on their predicament but some of them were unable to block out the mental call of home (which we see in flashbacks).  This play with music has toured professionally in Scotland to great reviews.
Download first part of "Toshie"


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The Power & The Glory"  Village Occupation Drama by Tony Breeze  15f + 15m   ISBN 1-872758-10-X £7.00 each   Royalties £40pp    
A powerful drama based on a combination of two events which actually occurred.  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 but it only results in 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 earthly military power of  the occupying force ...  which will triumph in the end? 
Download first part of "The Power & The Glory"


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You Can’t Be Serious"  Tennis Club Comedy by Joan Woolley  4f  & 4m  ISBN 1873130163  £7.00 each   Royalties £40pp
 There’s trouble at Little Buttocks Tennis Club as the committee assemble to grapple with problems at home and abroad.  The drains are running uphill, there are inappropriate boxer shorts being worn on court and the door to the women’s’ locker room  has strangely developed a very large keyhole.  Coupled with that there is the threat of complicated EU legislation on the horizon as the motley club members fight amongst each other for love, status and a sense of belonging.
Download first part of "You Can't Be Serious"


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 £40pp   
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 (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 by the  KKK.  He then finally finds the courage to speak out to the assembled audience and to make a stand.
Download first part of "My Father's House"


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Strange Days"  Teenage Comedy by Steve Pearce   15f &  18m   ISBN 1873130201 £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
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"


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My Brother’s Keeper"  Filial Duty Drama by Tony Breeze  2f + 4m (2NSP)  ISBN 1-872758-09-6  £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp     
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 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 £40pp
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"


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Wasps"  Traffic Wardens Tragi-comedy by Tony Breeze 8 females ISBN 1-872758-06-1  £7.00 each   Royalties £40pp  
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?   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 £40pp  (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"


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The Eckersley Rising" Henpecking Comedy by Tony Breeze 4f + 4m + I teenager (doubling) or 8f + 7m (Singly) ISBN 1-872758-02-9 £7.00 each   Royalties £40pp    
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 comes from London that the signals might be genuine but 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 award winner in the Nottinghamshire Play of the Year Competition.
Download first part of "The Eckersley Rising"


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The Witches of Wicken"   1950's Witchcraft Drama by Tony Leonard   3f & 4m & Witches & Dancers    ISBN 9781873130476  £7.00 each Royalties £40pp
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"


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Sepia Serenade"  A musical comedy by Tony Breeze  8f & 8m & children & dancers  ISBN 9781872758193  £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
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 to 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.
Download first part of "Sepia Serenade"


Lorenzo’s Dream”  Lawrenceian Drama By Jeffrey A.Lee  2f & 5m & Dancers  ISBN 9781873130513  £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
A play in four scenes based on the eighteen months 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 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"


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Harry’s Bird"   Hospice/Meaning of Life Drama by Tony Breeze 3f + lm  ISBN 1-872758-07-X   £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp  
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 eggs her on to 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 R.Gregory   10f & 6m   ISBN 9781873130445  £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
 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"


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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 £40pp
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 £40pp
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"


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The Victorious Loser" African Drama by Moses P'Ado  3m & 3f & 2 juvs doubling  ISBN:1-873130-37-6  £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
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


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Saffron Lady"  Romantic Comedy by Frederick C.Webb  4f & 3m   ISBN: 9781873130537   £7.00 each  Royalties £40pp
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!
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