Foreman Plays
New volume of short scripts from Edinburgh playwright
Edinburgh-based playwright Martin Foreman is to publish a new volume of short play scripts on his Arbery Books imprint on August 28 2023, with a heavy discount for pre-purchases.
Eleven Short Plays is aimed at drama students and amateur companies. Foreman says that it is an ideal collection for the drama drama groups and students to develop their talents in a wide range of topics and styles.
Eleven Short Plays cover
The Eleven Short Plays vary in length from 10 to 20 minutes and use casts ranging from two handers up to as many actors as there are in the company. Included in the collection is The Report, a script for three performers which won the Pitlochry Festival Theatre Short Play Award in 2018.
The plays included, with links here to the first page which will open in a new window, vary from the time loops of One More Time (cast 3; 15m) and The Report (cast 3; 15m) – where time loops endlessly and disaster always looms – to the comedy of Delivery! (cast 4; 13m) where a family discovers that the doorbell’s ring is not always welcome.
There are surreal and futuristic scripts in Umm Kulthum (cast 2; 10m) which depicts a dystopia where there is no music; Nothing To Be done (cast 8; 20m) which answers the unspoken question in a famous 1950s drama; and Hand and Foot (cast 7, plus 2 voices; 10m) which is about, yes, a hand and a foot.
Japanese Noh style
Adult material is also included with sex and violence warnings for The Reckoning (cast 6; 20m) which takes us back to the sixteenth century and the death of Christopher Marlowe; E, C, H, K (cast 7; 15m) which covers the dark side of drug dealing and Everyone’s Dream (cast 6; 15m) which reveals different memories of a sexual encounter.
There is a play in the Japanese Noh style with The Tragic Love of Two Enemies (cast size adaptable; 15m) which retells the story by Ihara Saikaku (1642 – 1693). A challenge for Western drama groups to recreate a classic Japanese tale in a traditional Japanese style. And polemic in Get A Licence! (cast size adaptable: 15m) which is bound to create strong emotions by proposing an extreme solution to a very pressing problem.
Martin Foreman’s previously published full length scripts have been performed in Edinburgh and reviewed by Æ. These include the life of Casanova in Casanova Dreaming, an adaptation of Ben Jonson’s Volpone and a stage version of the classic Latin satire Satyricon. All are available from Arbery Books, as is Tadzio Speaks aka Death on the Lido, featuring Tadzio years after the fateful summer of Death in Venice.
Eleven Short Plays Published by Arbery Books, 28 August 2023.
ISBN 978-0-9933546-7-0 soft cover 172 pages
Priced £10.99
Pre-publication discount: £7.99 (free postage) offer only valid via arberybooks.co.uk
The volume is available to the trade through Gardners or direct from the publisher:
Arbery Books, 17/5 Craigend Park, Edinburgh EH16 5XX contact@arberybooks.co.uk.
ENDS
