Short Plays

Note: clicking on the title of any one of these plays will take you to the Download area where you can download a copy of the play.

Don't You Know There's a War On?

Don't You Know... is a play about life on the home front in the UK during World War II. It features popular songs of the day:

• We'll Meet Again
• The Lambeth Walk
• Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye
• The Long and the Short and the Tall
• The White Cliffs of Dover
• Much Binding in the Marsh
• Lilli Marlene

It is made up of extracts from letters and diaries written by people who experienced life on the home front at first hand, and covers such topics as air raids, food rationing, school, the radio, even going out for meals with a boy-friend!

The play's structure is quite simple: much of the time the actors address the audience directly, but this does not mean there cannot be lots of movement. There are opportuities for dance, for choreographed marching and even knock-about comedy. The original production had a cast of about thirty, but it can easily be done by as few as six.

The play runs for about 25 minutes.

The Wife of Bath

This is Chaucer's Wife of Bath, not the Tale she tells (which, frankly, is not that good) but her Prologue, the bit where she tells us about herself. And, in particular, the bit where she tells us how she met and married her fifth husband. And - best of all - what happened afterwards.

It's a knockabout bit of comedy and lasts for about ten minutes. Originally written for a compilation show entitled Luv!, it tells of love, sex and marriage - and, in particular, how to tame a domineering husband!

It runs for about ten minutes. Is it a long sketch or a short play?

A Modern Shepherds' Play

Like the Shepherds' Plays in the Mystery Cycles, this is a light-hearted piece. In fact, it goes beyond lightheartedness: it's a comedy.

Judah is a young shepherd (with a typically Yiddisher Momma mother!), working the night shift in Bethlehem. The problem is, he can't get out of bed!

Then there are the angels, two of them: one young and inexperienced (but a bit full of him/herself!) and the other not exactly overjoyed at the way way the youngster is fulfilling his first mission. They don't exactly look the way you imagine either: they wear suits and carry briefcases and torches (flashlights, if you're an American).

You'd like a sample of the humour? OK.

"Shepherds, arise!" says the younger angel.

"Are you from the union?" asks one of the shepherds.

Babushka

This one's a serious piece. It's a version of the old Russian folk tale about the grandmother who is visited by the three kings who are looking for the birthplace of the Son of God. She doesn't know, of course, but they invite her to come with them. But, says Babushka, she has too much work to do. Everyone else goes, including her three grandchildren, so she says she'll follow when she's finished her work. But when she is finished, it's too late, and she can't find them or the Christ child.

It was originally written as part of a carol service and is in six sections, but it can be played as a whole piece, and lasts about fifteen minutes.

A Nativity Play

What! a nativity play?

Yup!

Shepherds with tea-towels round their heads and angels in tutus?

Yup!

Yech!

But don't forget: all these plays are meant to be performed by secondary kids, and this is no exception. Your actors really have to act, because they have to play five year old kids performing a nativity play.

Get the idea now? It's a glorious send-up! One primary headmaster described it as "wickedly funny - and so accurate"!

But it's more than just a send-up: it has a serious point to make. For on four occasions actors come out of their infant characters and become adults, adults for whom Christmas is a time of misery. They address the audience directly in a stark contrast to the naive, child's joy in Christmas that the nativity portrays.

Of all the carol service plays, this is the most hard-hitting and serious, for it forces the audience/congregation to confront the reality of Christmas in the 90s and not just wallow in a sentimental, unthinking glow.