Dickens Abridged
Play Description
A fast-paced musical comedy in which a cast of five Dickens devotees bring hundreds of his best-loved characters to life in 90 minutes of madcap Dickensian mayhem. From Great Expectations complete with flaming bride, to A Christmas Carol in which Tiny Tim rocks the house with a soaring electric guitar solo, DICKENS (ABRIDGED) also features scenes from David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (5 female, 5 male, or any combination of males and females totaling 5)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Gloriously absurd.” —The Daily Mail (London)
“Highly original, fast moving and witty.” —The Daily Express (London)
“[An] irresistible comic romp. ” —The Hollywood Reporter
“Dickens meets Bill and Ted meets Tenacious D meets Monty Python.” —Londonist
Author(s)
Adam LongAdam Long is the co-creator, co-writer and director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED), which ran in London's West End for nine years and was nominated for an Olivier Award. THE COMPLETE WORKS also ran Off-Broadway twice and continues to enjoy numerous successful tours throughout the world. His feature-length film THE BARN won The Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards. Adam has written for Disney (DUDE THAT'S MY GHOST, HISTORY ON TOAST and LAST MINUTE BOOK REPORTS), PBS (THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED)), Channel Four UK (TRIGGER HAPPY TV and THE RING REDUCED), BBC Radio Four (THE HISTORY BOYS CONDENSED, CONDENSED HISTORIES OF THE BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES and HOME TRUTHS) and Lucasfilm & BSkyB (STAR WARS SHORTENED). Other stage shows include DICKENS ABRIDGED (The Arts Theatre, London and UK Tour), SATAN SINGS MOSTLY SONDHEIM (Jermyn St. Theatre, London), THE BIBLE: THE COMPLETE WORD OF GOD (ABRIDGED) (Reduced Shakespeare), THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (ABRIDGED) (Reduced Shakespeare), and DECONSTRUCTING ALBERT (The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield). Adam also provides the voice of Mr. Small for the BAFTA and Emmy Award winning THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL(Cartoon Network).
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 8/15/2011 |
| Pages | 78 |
| ISBN | 9780881454482 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, then at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, and then at The Comedy Theatre in London
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Related Plays
$11.95–$15.00 Play Description
On the eve of his departure from Paris, Benjamin Franklin and his French contemporaries avoid goodbyes by engaging in charades and parlor games. The passions of revolution are overshadowed by the intensity of personal relationships in this structurally inventive play within a play.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95–$100.00 Play Description
A paean to gay life and its idiosyncrasies, TEN PERCENT REVUE has proven a hit across the country with audiences of all persuasions. An uncompromisingly delightful musical revue.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 75 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$0.00–$11.95 Play Description
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's classic farce, two of its original writer/performers (Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield) thoroughly revised the show to bring it up to date for 21st-century audiences, incorporating some of the funniest material from the numerous amateur and professional productions that have been performed throughout the world. The cultural touchstone that is THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) was born when three inspired, charismatic comics, having honed their pass-the-hat act at Renaissance fairs, premiered their preposterous masterwork at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1987. It quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, earning the title of London's longest-running comedy after a decade at the Criterion Theatre. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) is one of the world's most frequently produced plays and has been translated into several dozen languages. Featured are all 37 of Shakespeare's plays, meant to be performed in 97 minutes, by three actors. Fast paced, witty, and physical, it's full of laughter for Shakespeare lovers and haters alike.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male, or 3 female or any combination of males and females and number of actors)Full Length Comedy (about 97 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00 Play Description
As he is making preparations to set out on what will become his final sea journey, Joshua Slocum (hounded by an unsympathetic offstage second wife), tells us about his previous Great Adventure when, in 1895, he set out on a three-year journey in his 34-foot sloop the Spray to prove that a man could sail around the world alone. In vivid anecdotes, he shares the tale of his unprecedented 46,000 mile journey, when (years before radio or G P S systems), he sailed through sun and storm, blazing heat and relentless cold, through hunger and delirium, across the world's great oceans and seas, battled wind and waves to traverse the world's two great capes, fought pirates and savages, and put into port in some of the wildest, weirdest and most inhospitable lands around the world. Slocum takes us with him on his epic adventure, told with humor and originality through the eyes of a weather-beaten sea salt who, against all expectation, did what no one had ever done before. Based on Slocum's own account of his epic journey.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00 Play Description
This provocative chronicle, interspersed with fantasy sequences from Alice in Wonderland, traces the career of Charles Dodgson (better know as Lewis Carroll) from his first work on the immortal classic to his near downfall when accused of immorality.
Production Info
Cast: 11 total (4 female, 7 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem for the trial of the century.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$50.00 Play Description
A musical revue that tackles sex, love and relationships, politics, religion, and AIDS, GET USED TO IT! is funny, serious, and always thought-provoking.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male, or up to 6 with any combination of genders)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
The real life, storybook adventures of Phillis Wheatley; a revolutionary American slave girl, whose poetic genius lifted her from New England parlor trick into the great salons of Europe and beyond. Follow her travels with the Countess Selena, Ben Franklin, and the Admiralty from Boston to London and back, where she will find love in the arms of Samson Osee Power Frock — free man of color.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male, multiethnic cast)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Hounded out of his native England, Joseph Priestley hoped to secure a sanctuary along the banks of the Susquehanna. Would this refugee find America, that great experiment, to be the true democracy he had championed from across the sea? Would he finally be free to pursue his religion, his science, and his political beliefs in this new “land of liberty”? Controversy continued to swirl around him. Revolutionary comrades turned into bitter political opponents when it came time to actually govern the country they founded. The immigrant Priestley was drawn into the vortex of America’s first major crisis. “Freedom of Speech” had yet to be tested, and Priestley’s admirers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were engaged in a deeply polarized debate over the fate of our fledgling nation.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, doubling, bit parts)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95 Play Description
A stunning play from one of America’s best contemporary playwrights, FRANK’S HOME is a lyrical, heartbreaking story about Frank Lloyd Wright, one of our greatest — if less than perfect — visionaries, a man who created a new architectural vocabulary but couldn’t create a home for himself and his family.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$100.00 Play Description
Three gay actors find themselves on a stage. They have no idea how they got there or why they are there. They find a copy of THE THREE SISTERS — in Russian. One of them can read Russian so he begins to translate the play, and each of them starts to act out the part of one of the sisters.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00 Play Description
Sarah Bernhardt made her lasting fame in America. This tour de force for one actress takes Bernhardt from her first American tour, in her thirties, to her last, when, with leg amputated, she toured the country at age seventy-two. Her indomitable spirit, summarized by her motto “Quand Même,” is abundantly displayed as she travels from coast-to-coast experiencing triumphs and tragedies.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 female)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes