Series:

Acting Edition S.

15 total works

Cover of Single Spies

Single Spies

by Alan Bennett

Published 17 April 1989

Cover of Kafka's Dick

Kafka's Dick

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 November 1987

'Alan Bennett is a courageous and gifted writer: no one since Shaw has had the guts to include a finale set in Heaven which resembles some awful publishing party-cum-tea-dance at the Savoy, or mix up so many fundamentally serious ideas about the importance - or lack of it - of art and artists in our gossip-prone, disordered lives with so much engaging theatrical capering.'

Time Out

Cover of Beyond the Fringe

Beyond the Fringe

by Alan Bennett

Published 19 February 2015

Cover of Getting on

Getting on

by Alan Bennett

Published 7 January 1972
A British Labour M.P., ten years into his second marriage, feels tethered in a time of change. He is distrustful on the one hand of the "mawkish mentality" of the young and, on the other, of the encroaching motorway life of the middle aged who can look forward to nothing more than the fairly imminent end of a not so very interesting road. "The play is a small jewel of bewilderment and regret." - London Sunday Times

Cover of Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus

by Alan Bennett

Published 15 October 1973

After two elegiac comedies about the decline of old England, Mr Bennett has now written a gorgeously vulgar but densely plotted farce that is a downright celebration of sex and the human body... a combination of hurtling action with verbal brilliance.

Guardian

Cover of Say Something Happened

Say Something Happened

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 February 1996
The social services department of the council is preparing a register of the elderly in the area and eager but green June Potter (recently transfered from transport) is despatched to gather information while obtaining some hands-on-experience. Mam and Dad are in their 60s and therefore must be in need of registering - but Mam and Dad, perfectly alert, able-bodied and streetwise have no intention of being registered. Thrown by Mam's no-nonsense approach, the increasingly desperate June resorts to Mr Farquarson's detailed notes on "Conducts of Interviews", while Mam sorts her out. This comic, ironic look at patronizing bureaucracy was first televised in 1982.

Cover of A Chip in the Sugar

A Chip in the Sugar

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 May 1994
Graham, a middle-aged bachelor, emotionally retarded and chronically dependent on his mother, finds life difficult enough at the best of times. When Mother meets an old flame and seems set to marry him, however, Graham's old insecurities rear their ugly heads again. Fate, eventually, rescues Graham and he resumes his normal life of banal muddle under his mother's amnesiac tyranny.

Cover of Green Forms

Green Forms

by Alan Bennett

Published March 1988
Doris and Doreen are comfortably installed in an obscure department of a large organization. On a normal day they keep busy by flirting with nice Mr. Tidmarsh in Appointments or pursuing their feud over a plug with Mr. Cunliffe in Personnel. This is not a normal day. Someone has an eye on them and a shadow is falling across their tranquil lives. Are they about to be fired?

Cover of A Lady of Letters

A Lady of Letters

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 May 1994

Cover of Soldiering on

Soldiering on

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 November 1995
Muriel's husband Ralph has just died, leaving her rather well off - until that is, her son Giles gets his hands on the money. Unused to thinking about financial matters, Muriel submits to Giles' plans and comes out the loser as he has invested unwisely. Eventually, neglected by Giles and no longer needed by her disturbed daughter Margaret, Muriel ends the play alone and poor. Brisk, bright and eternally optimistic, she is determined to "soldier on", her persistent cheerfulness striking an icy note in this cool and merciless monologue of self-deception and moral blindness from the stage version of "Talking Heads".

Cover of Enjoy

Enjoy

by Alan Bennett

Published 17 November 1980
Dad thinks everything will be better when the family moves. The social worker who calls to observe their lives turns out to be absent son Terry, idolized by Mam, in drag. Secretary daughter Linda, in reality a prostitute, breezes in, shattering Dad's illusions. The house is dismantled around them to be rebuilt in a park preserving the ideals of family life. Mam will be in a showcase whilst Dad is carted off to the geriatric ward.

Cover of Visit from Miss Prothero

Cover of A Woman of No Importance
At work Peggy has carved herself a comfortable niche. Once in hospital, she loses no time in establishing herself as Queen Bee, taking on several responsibilities. Persistently cheerful, blind to the feelings of others and, at heart, terribly lonely, Peggy is at once a richly comic and desperately moving creation, providing a rewarding challenge for a mature actress.

Cover of A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

Cover of Her Big Chance

Her Big Chance

by Alan Bennett

Published 1 February 1998
Meet Lesley, an actress. She has just completed a video ('targeted chiefly on West Germany') in which she plays Travis, a career girl who enjoys life, spends a remarkable amount of time topless and shoots a man with a harpoon gun. She tells all, blind to the sinister undertones of her story as well as to her own self-delusions and gullibility.