Daring
plays requiring a passion and artistic urgency
Samples of
these scripts are available FREE
for reading, Workshop or Educational purposes. The whole scripts may
be purchased for $12 each. The
performance licence
for any of these plays is
now available. These works wont make millionaires of any one. But
they may light up a community and give creative sustenance to
artistic urgency.
Generally these plays may be produced for a minimum fee of $120(Aus)
against 10% of box office (whichever is greater).
Depending on your circumstances, we are open to negotiation.
We can accommodate any situation if you have a passion for the work.
Click on the
relevant title for synopsis, details and samples of text.
CAUTION: These
plays need a passion, daring and love of dynamic theatre. We are
reminded that presenting a play takes massive amounts of energy
concentrated into limited space. When attempting a play that draws
upon archetypes of real power, we need to be a aware and careful in
what we do. Have a read and you'll see why this applies to these
works ...
Derived
from versions of the Faust myth by Christopher Marlowe and Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, Ich
Bin Faust is
set in the time of the Large Hadron Collider. It focuses on a group
of students, of diverse backgrounds and obsessions, who were
initially drawn together to produce a production of Marlowe's Doctor
Faustus. Their
real lives intertwine with the play. One suggests God is dead.
Another believes the devil is alive and well and just waiting for the
advent of the big bang! The limits of belief, knowledge and faith are
explored in the ensuring life and death struggle.
Samuel
Taylor Coleridge's brilliant unfinished poem, Christabel,
is integrated into a sleek exposition of ambiguous relationship
between a young woman and the most dangerous person in her life. Such
people can herald the destruction or the making of an individual.
This Gothic style play utlizes Coleridges poem expanded into a
framework that blurs dreams and reality. Daemons and Night Walkers
from the forest of desires converge on the house that once protected
the young and innocent Christabel.
Sex&Violets.com
is certainly not for the faint hearted. Its crude and violent
treatment of sexual desire and fantasy is guaranteed to divide
audiences. The extreme sexual rituals enacted by the unconventional
couple and their obsession with Internet sex, makes the play open for
adventuous and exciting theatre. The play has had a number of
presentations on three continents and each one has provoked strong
reactions. There are undertones of La Belle
Dame Sans Merci by John Keats that haunt
the setting. 'La Belle Dame sans Merci hath thee in thrall!'
Sanctimonious
is a rewrite of Sanctimony
presented at The Street Theatre in Canberra in 1996. It is a rare
bird; a surreal depiction of public service in a public service town.
There is no morality and orders are given by the trophy birds on the
shelves of high ranking officers. It is a thriller about a deadly
substance put into the water supply by an eager public servant only
to find that the additive had a devastating effect on one's brain. It
engenders enzymes that digest people's brains. This becomes
euphemistically known as the "affliction". With changing
political and social values as a result, religion is utilized in the
creation of the Department of Heaven. We can safely say and guarantee
that there is nothing like it anywhere. The play will not be to
everyone's taste and its surreal sequences with the Kite Bird require
a very high level of movement from a trained dancer or martial arts expert.
Violine
is
based on the actual war time diaries of Jack Woodward who was
prisoner of war in Klagenfurt, Austria. It also deals with his
journey into dementia some sixty years later. The life shaping events
of one period become re-examined and changed over time. But even in
the hazy world of dementia, the leading character still plays the
violin with consumate ease. Violine is about the struggle for
dignity in a brutal and dirty world. Regardless of circumstances or
outward appearances, there are some for whom such a concept remains
paramount. Violine touches on the same world depicted in
Faure's music (a point lost on the mediocre fumbling of the Canberra
production team). The actor playing the central character MUST be
able to play classical violin at a very high level of expertise.
Otherwise it might as well be simply a reading exercise!
Shadow
In The Dark will
break up relationships and marriages. It is the stirring up of the
forces within the wicker circle. It is the story of a young woman
teacher who is fascinated by a young student and writes of her sexual
fantasies about him in her diary. He finds it and uses it to
establish a hold over her. However, there is another dimension at
play here. Her past mental state is not quite as it might seem. Late
one evening after school when the rest of the staff have gone home,
all her demons from her past visit. And the outcome is bloody ...
There is magic embeded in this work and it should be produced with
great care. When produced in 1995 at The Canberra Theatre Centre,
there were a number of unforeseen and frightening consequences.
Reading it isn't a problem. You're safe !!!
APE
is a rewrite of Brother Ape produced in 1981 at The
PITS in Canberra and causing near riots and uproar. Twenty of
Canberra's leading theatre "lights" from the invited
audience stormed out of the theatre at interval. After that, it
played to nearly sold out houses in the 180 seat PITS Theatre and bar
at The Canberra Rex. The play was flawed by a lack of character
building and some over-stating of the sexual relationship in the
menage trois. The re-write is still being undertaken and may yet be
further edited. However, APE deals with the effect of the Ape Of God
or the Trickster in relationships. The casual affair leads to
unforeseen consequences. Ape cannot be killed off or diminished. The
bestial nature of sexual desire and family responsibility meets head
on in this collision course of a play. Read it at leisure. The play
will never be mainstream. Producers need to leave a glass of wine or
Champaign out for the Trickster each evening after rehearsal or
performance. Otherwise, who knows what might happen in the real world
of vulnerable relationship and volitile desires ...
Deo
Dorez is
a difficult monologue set in an art gallery. Ideally, the paintings
and / photography on the wall around the audience and central
character should be able to move and come alive. The nude is
gradually distorted into surreal world of art and life.
Zarathustra's
Rose
is a fictional account of an Iranian woman's affair with an
Australian. As she parts from him for the last time, she opens up
about her mother who was murdered by the Revolutionary Guards on the
orders of Ayatollah Khomeini. When originally produced at The Street
Theatre as part of the Platform Seven evening, it was attacked as
racist for daring to suggest some women in burkahs might not like
wearing covering from head to toe. With more information coming to
light about the plight of women in some Islamic countires, the play
was much better received when included in the Naked Goddess program
at DNA Studios at The Ralph Wilson Theatre in 2006. It is a strong
monologue for an actress seeking a challenge.
NOTE:
Portions of scripts are available FREE of charge for
reading purposes, workshopping in classes and community theatres and
evaluation of suitability and needs.
Purchase
the whole scripts for $12 by clicking on the icons.
Production
licence is available for a $120 (AUD) fee. Professional fees are 10%
of gross box office or a minimum of $120.
The
prime criteria for letting out the licence is a passion for the
material and a desire on the producer's part to challenge audiences
and the respective cultures where the work is to be performed. None
of the Shadow House PITS scripts are mere entertainments. All are
conceived within the context of personal, social and cultural
challenge. You are invited to join us on this quest by producing one
or more of these works within your own cultural and community
context. We invite you to exercise your imagination and your desire
to embrace theatre for change and liberation. Let me know if you find
any other offerings on the Internet that have the same or similar aims.
Trinculo's
Shadow
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