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Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

A friend needs the following:

A play (or plays) that deals with an ensemble of friends that comes together for an evening or some event during which secrets are reveals, resentments surface, old wounds are opened, and so on?

Off the top of my head, I've come up with The Big Chill! Which, of course, isn't a play.

Looking forward to your no-doubt great suggestions.


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: AlanScott 07:42 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

I'm not sure that these exactly fit what he's looking for (but some of those already mentioned don't really altogether fit either):

Dangerous Corner, by J. B. Priestley
An Inspector Calls, by J. B. Priestley
Old Times, by Harold Pinter
In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes, one-act by John Guare
The Fifth of July, by Lanford Wilson
The Rehearsal, by Jean Anouilh
Hay Fever, by Coward


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And a really obvious one

Posted by: AlanScott 07:54 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: re: Help please finding a type of play - AlanScott 07:42 pm EDT 08/15/14

If a musical is acceptable, Follies.


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re: And a really obvious one

Posted by: WWriter 08:17 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: And a really obvious one - AlanScott 07:54 pm EDT 08/15/14

Follies! Perfect!


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"A Weekend Near Madison"

Posted by: Delvino 06:55 am EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

By Kathleen Tolan. Lovely. Exactly what's sought here. Who recalls the premiere? Sterling cast with a young Holly Hunter among the players.


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"A Weekend Near Madison" is available through Samuel French

Posted by: Delvino 08:06 am EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: "A Weekend Near Madison" - Delvino 06:55 am EDT 08/15/14

A hit at Actors Theatre of Louisville and later Off-Broadway, A Weekend Near Madison takes place during a reunion of college friends now in their early thirties. The occasion is the visit of Vanessa, the "star" of the group and the leader of a lesbian/feminist rock band. Vanessa arrives at the home of an old friend, a psychiatrist, hand in hand with her younger lover who plays in the band. Also on hand are the psychiatrist's wife a novelist suffering from writer's block and his brother, who was once Vanessa's lover and loves her still. In the course of the weekend, Vanessa announces that she and her lover desperately want a child and attempts to persuade her former lover to be the father...

"Warm, vital, glowing...full of wise ironies and unsentimental hopes.-Newsweek

"A new playwright of sharp perceptions, humor, and tender sensibilities."-Christian Science Monitor

"Appealing characters and fresh from the vine dialogue."- The New York Post

Link http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/6534/weekend-near-madison-a

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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: MikeR 09:02 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

"Friends" is a bit of a stretch, but otherwise, God of Carnage might work.


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: wmdmcree 08:53 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

Love! Valor! Compassion!
Dinner with Friends
Top Girls
A Delicate Balance
Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean
Uncommon Women and Others
The Norman Conquests


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: WWriter 08:40 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

Thanks everyone. This is for a playwriting class, so the casting isn't an issue. And you came up with great ideas!!


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: Pir8Jenny 08:39 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

The first thing that leapt to mind was "Hunter Gatherers" by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. Two couples get together to have a dinner to celebrate their joint wedding anniversary and ... it all goes south from there.


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: Charlie_Baker 08:12 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

That Championship Season. The recent revival wasn't very well received, but I think it could still work. A cast of men, one older than the others.


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re: Help please finding a type of play

Posted by: RobbGrn 08:10 pm EDT 08/14/14
In reply to: Help please finding a type of play - WWriter 07:57 pm EDT 08/14/14

The Boys in the Band
Party
Girl Party
The Last Sunday in June
My Night With Reg

So a lot of gay playwrights have worked that trope.

Alan Ayckbourn has written a few in that vein: Absent Friends (which sounds like it'd be perfect for your friend's needs) and A Small Family Business come to mind.

David Rimmer's youth comedy Album also comes to mind, but it's not very good IMO.


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