Some friends of mine want to put on a play next semester. They aren’t having much luck finding just the right one, so I thought I’d ask all of you for your opinion. They want a short play (30 minutes to an hour) for a small cast (about 2-6 people) Preferably a well written, emotional play. It can be a comedy as long as it’s a good one. They’d like it to be a one act play with a simple set. I’ve looked up Neil Simon and a few other playwrights, and he seems to be the sort of author they want, but we’re trying to find something that isn’t so well known. Ideas for controversal plays are also welcome. The reason why I ask is that I suspect that they will try to wrangle me into all of this soon. I’m willing to give it a shot if we can find a good play. Anyhoo, thanks in advance!!
It sounds to me like The Good Doctor by Simon is what you’re looking for. It is one of his lesser known works and it can be abridged down to 30 minutes easily enough. Although do not advertise that fact since you’re not supposed cut any playwright’s work.
Basically the play is “Simon does Checkov” It’s a homage to the Russian author. It’s done in very intelligent little pieces. Most humorous, some very funny and some very touching. It is very easy for actors to double throughout this play.
It may be what you’re looking for.
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You might want to look into Plaza Suite, also by Neil Simon. It consists of three short vignettes with a common thread running through them…all three are set in the same suite at the Plaza Hotel, NY.
They’re quite good standalone, and the lead cast for each is only two people.
Love Letters and Woody Allen’s God may fill the bill.
But Love Letters is a full-length play! And you can’t edit it! Or shouldn’t, rather. It’s too beautiful to be cut short…
What about Mike Leigh’s “Abigail’s Party” – one set, five characters, black comedy
It would need updating and relocating but could work well
The Shawl by David Mamet
3 characters, one act, and I believe 3 or four scenes. There is a lot packed in there and it caused quite a stir as it deals with speaking to spirits.
Waiting for Godot?
(I’ve never seen it, so I’m not sure how long it is.)
I’ve read a one act version of Arthur Miller’s “The creation of the world and other business” that had me rolling. It’s very funny and also controversial. The cast is adam, eve, satan, and some angels.
Check out some of the (very) small cast one-acts in David Ives’ All in the Timing. Speed-the-Play (a Mamet anthology-slash-parody that might take twenty minutes, tops!) is extremely funny… if you know Mamet. Otherwise it kind of falls flat.
Oh, and damn my double-posting. But The Complt Wrks f Wllm Shkspr (abrgd.) is hysterical, runs in the same vein as Speed-the-Play, and combines all of Shakespeare’s plays (and the sonnets!) into one play, including
- The Tragedies
- The Comedies
- Titus Andronicus (the cooking show)
- Hamlet in 30(?) seconds
- Hamlet in 15(?) seconds
- Hamlet in 15(?) seconds, backwards.
Another goodplay with a small cast is Adaptation. It’s not at all based on or like the Nicolas Cage movie of the same name. It’s basically a person’s life, turned into a game show. The cast is four people, the contestant, a host, and male and female players who fill in the roles of everyone in the contestant’s life.
The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco would fit the bill. Small cast of characters, short, funny, simple set. Get the right people acting and it’s hilarious.
There are 45,000 users of the SDMB. So by instructing someone “not to advertise this” you pretty much advertised it. And that’s probably not a good idea, since some of us actually work for Mr. Simon. hint, hint
Be careful.
If your friends have a taste for Noel Coward, you could try “Red Peppers” or “Fumed Oak” (two of the 10 plays that make up Tonight at 8:30).
Thistle Blossoms by R. Whitlow.
http://www.pioneerdrama.com/catalog/thistle_oa.html
Thus by doing what I did, I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.
Doc is a wonderful guy too, has a better grasp of the language than virtually every other human being alive and he knows I feel he is perhaps the greatest living playwright (better than most of the dead ones, too).
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The Actor’s Nightmare by Christopher Durang. Good funny stuff, especially for theater nerds, and a cast of 5 I believe.
I second the nod for All in the Timing by David Ives.
Let me throw support behind this choice as well. The author is Elaine May (formerly of Nichols and May) and a well respected writer and script doctor.
Plus, though a little dated, it is pretty darn funny.
I’m a big fa of George Bernard Shaw’s – he’s got a lot of short plays you might try – **The Man of Destiny, Th Dark Lady of the Sonnets[/B, etc. Or the “Don JUan in Hell” sequence from Man and Superman.
Woody Allen wrote a few short plays that might fill your bill. Check his collections “Getting Even” and “Without Feathers” and "Side Effects. There’s one where a guy plays Death at cards (a la “The Seventh Seal”). I think it’s called “DEath”.
You might consider doing a scene from a play instead of the whole shebang (I’m assuming that you can do that – I have no idea what the licensing rules are like). f that’s the ase, try a scene from Neil Simon – something from "God’s Favorite, or “The Odd Couple” or something.