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
Play Description
Opal meets a drunk tramp named Psyche on the bus. He strikes up a conversation, and at first she’s very wary of him. But gradually Psyche’s penetrating insights begin both to unnerve and intrigue Opal. Does she know him? Has she always known him?
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male, plus 1 musician)Short Drama (about 25 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$25.00 Play Description
Welcome to the Annual Holiday Variety Show and Christmas Pageant at St. Everybody's Non-Denominational Universalist Church, where all faiths are welcome because we'll believe anything. But there's a problem: none of the acts scheduled to perform have arrived, so three members are pressed into service to perform the entire Variety Show and Christmas Pageant by themselves. An irreverent yet heartwarming trip through the holidays, THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS SHOW (ABRIDGED) is festive, funny, physical, family fun as these Three Wise Guys send up and celebrate our favorite holiday traditions.
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 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$75.00 Play Description
An affectionate, irreverent roller-coaster ride from fig leaves to Final Judgment, tackling the great theological questions: Did Adam and Eve have navels? Did Moses really look like Charlton Heston? And why isn't the word “phonetic” spelled the way it sounds? Whether you're Catholic or Atheist, Muslim or Jew, Protestant or Purple People Eater, you will be tickled by this romp through old-time religion.
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 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00 Play Description
The sweep of Eleanor’s entire life — from her early marriage to Louis VII, King of France, through her marriage to Henry II of England, to her imprisonment, reign and death — is encompassed in this action-packed, highly literate drama. Through every challenge, Eleanor, with her grace and independence — in a world which expected women to stay in their place — triumphs, as wife, soldier, mother, queen and patron of the Courts of Love.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (5 female, 11 male, doubling possible)Full Length Drama (about 140 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Discovered in a treasure-filled parking lot in Leicester, England (next to a pile of bones that didn’t look that important), an ancient manuscript proves to be the long-lost first play written by none other than seventeen-year-old William Shakespeare from Stratford. We are totally not completely making this up. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S LONG LOST FIRST PLAY (abridged) is the literary holy grail: an actual manuscript in Shakespeare’s own hand showing all his most famous characters and familiar speeches in a brand-new story. But because it’s one hundred hours long and contains multiple unwieldy storylines, it was decided, as a public service, to abridge it down to a brief and palatable ninety-minute performance for this lost masterpiece.
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 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the theater … the Reduced Shakespeare Company boldly goes where few would dare — Tinseltown! America’s “bad boys of abridgement” take on America’s largest cultural and economic export (well, except for weapons) in this seriously silly show biz satire. Get your clapper boards ready as we rummage through the reels and flick through the films in this riotous carnival of the classics. Giving Hollywood more than just a nip and a tuck, they cut through the celluloid to condense the 186 greatest films in Hollywood’s over 100-year history into a complete compilation of classic cinematic cliches — plus a few brand new cliches they just made up.
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 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.95 Play Description
On the deck of his flagship, the expedition commander addresses his men, his voice rising in stirring peroration: “Let us all be new men! Born today! This minute! And with only one purpose in mind! To push forward to triumph! To push forward — to Japan!” That Columbus had a clearer sense of destiny than destination is, even without the facile irony of hindsight, emblematic of the confusion of motives and expectations that inspired him and his companions to undertake their epoch-making voyage. An intimate drama of epic events.
Production Info
Cast: 18 total (2 female, 16 male)Full Length Drama (about 210 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00 Play Description
The Off-Broadway hit that spoofs the mating game. Kitschy, stylized, and romantic, DUET! takes on old movies and old values with stiletto-sharp humor.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Comedy (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
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
$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
Play Description
Simone Weil, a French girl of Jewish extraction whose death in 1943 was caused primarily by self-imposed starvation, is the subject of this striking theatrical exploration into the nature of faith and spirituality. APPROACHING SIMONE gives fascinating insights into this extraordinary woman who was later canonized as a saint.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (6 female, 10 male)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes