Adult two-act plays

 

EXTENDED RELATIONS (FORMERLY MY THREE MOTHERS-IN-LAW)

COMEDY
A two act comedy about adoption premiered in July 2002 at Centenary Theatre and subsequently produced at the Stage Door Dinner Theatre, Brisbane in July 2003.

CAST:
Two females 50-60, one male 50-60, one male 40ish, one female 35, and one boy 13.

RUNNING TIME: 120 mins.

SYNOPSIS:
Hillary was adopted at birth. Her mother Margaret is a widow. Hillary has been searching for her genetic parents. She has already found her birth mother, Delia and as the play opens and husband David comes home from work she informs him that she has just made contact with genetic father, Antonio. She also tells David that she has invited both mother for a visit the following weekend. So as not to upset Margaret they concoct a story that they are going away for the following weekend and taking son Jason with them. The following weekend, when Delia has arrived Margaret turns up on the pretext of checking the house. Then Antonia arrives uninvited and is mistaken for a swimming pool salesman. In an effort to keep Delia and Antonio apart David tells Antonio that the two women out back drinking his wine are the cleaning ladies. Amid the deceptions and tall stories the play turns into a farce as people come in and out of doors, just missing each and David's stories get taller. Delia and Antonio do meet and have no recollection of each other at all, until one of Antonio's phrases rings a bell and the past comes to light.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

"My Three Mothers-in-law, the 25th play written by Eric Scott, is a comedy involving hilarious mix-ups, mistaken identities and outright deceptions."
Len Granato, CATHOLIC LEADER.

'The first act sets the scene for act two when total confusion and chaos breaks out. It not only keeps you laughing, but guessing what else could possibly go wrong."
Kellie Scott, THE SATELLITE

"Finely honed comedic dialogue that provided a solid foundation for the actors. Scott's ability to weave such a sensitive plotline into the mayhem of characters being manipulated in and out of revolving doors and passed off as each other and as what they most certainly are not is a further reflection of his writing skills."
Ron Finney, STAGE DIARY.COM

"A very funny and original comedy inspired by his (the author's) wife's real life story. I found this production to be very innovative and refreshing."
Denita Muller, UNIVERSITY DRAMA REVIEW

"Scott clearly has a talent for dialogue and an eye for the absurd and a wicked understanding of the family dynamic."
Brett Debritz, BRISBANE NEWS

"A good, old-fashioned farce - the kind with multiple mistaken identities and lots of frantic rushing in and out of door."
"Oscar", BRISBANE INDEPENDENT

"In true comic fashion. A secret meeting with birth mum Delia goes haywire when everyone unexpectedly turns up - birth dad too. David finds himself desperate to keep identities hidden, bottles of wine out of Mother in-Law's hands and the lid on this mounting confusion. Throw in Jason. The cheeky, curious son with a growing penchant for alcohol, and the mix is hilarious."
D.D. Flicker, SUZIE G's WEBSITE

"Brilliant show. Great cast."
Helen Stacey, BRISBANE SUNDAY MAIL

"A laugh-a-minute comedy about a happily married couple living the quintessential Aussie lifestyle."
Karl Brien, CATHOLIC LEADER

 

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN DECEMBER,

 COMEDY

A two-act comedy. Produced by the Nash Theatre, Brisbane, September, 1996. Revised 1997 and performed at Act 1 theatre Strathpine, November, 2000 and at Stagedoor Dinner Theatre, January 2004.

QUITTING

COMEDY
Two act comedy about five women giving up smoking.

CAST:
Five females late 20s to late 30s. One male, around 22.

RUNNING TIME: 120 including interval.

SYNOPSIS:
The five women work for a pharmaceutical company that manufacture among other things, anti-smoking aids. For different reasons they all smoke. The male, BRETT is the female boss's secretary and is a reformed smoker. INGRID, in her late 30s and a happily married family woman, is the office manager who discovers she has lung cancer. ANDREA is sales manager. She is in her mid 30s and is a divorcee who enjoys a night on the town. She is bitter about her broken marriage. DOLLY, also mid 30s is a single Mum who is Andrea's drinking and party partner. Both are social smokers. GINA is 30 and married to a fashion photographer and smokes to keep her weight down because she is insecure. ELISHA is a Chinese woman of mid 20s. She started to smoke in internment camps when she was a child. She is saving up to bring her parents over form China. When the girls discover Ingrid's condition they all agree to stop smoking to help her quit. Dolly, uninsured hits BMW and Elisha has all her money stolen from home. So they enter a radio reality show to win a $10,000 prize, which they do. Ingrid finds her cancer it not large and her prognosis is good. She has her operation and has chemo. Andrea gets a proposal of marriage from a lovely man, Elisha has enough money for her parents' fares, Gina's husband gets a promotion and Dolly, gets back into her own bad habits and is the only one not to quit for good. Brett ends up being his boss's boy friend.

 

GETTING EVEN WITH STEVEN

 COMEDY

A two act comedy successfully performed at Act 1 Theatre, Strathpine in September, 1999; StageDoor Dinner Theatre, Brisbane, July, 2011

CAST: Two males 30s, two females 30s, one male and one female any age.

RUNNING TIME: Two hours.

SYNOPSIS:  It’s Dennis and Anita’s 10th wedding anniversary and they are celebrating it at the home business partners and friends, Chloe and Steven. Steven declares he wants some port and, when Chloe decides she is the only one sober enough to drive, she takes Dennis off to get a bottle from his home. IT is revealed then that Anita and Steven are having an affair. A policeman then turns up and informs them that Chloe and Dennis have died in a car crash. Was it an accident?  Chloe and Dennis returns as disgruntled ghosts and haunt the hell out of the illicit lovers. Into the fray comes an eccentric spirit guide, Doris le Grand whose job it is to find out why Chloe and Dennis won’t budge to the hereafter. Finally, with some time lapses it is revealed that it was in fact Anita’s time that was up and not Chloe’s, so Anita and Dennis disappear into the ether and Chloe wreaks her revenge on Steven.

 

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

 ““When Even Stevens won the 1962 Melbourne Cup he was a pronounced favourite at 3-1. Getting Even with Steven at the StageDoor Diner Theatre at Bowen Hills proved an even more pronounced favourite with theatre patrons. It’s truly spooky. Brisbane based Scott has written a fast-paced comedy with plenty of physical action and Australian reference points … the plot twists and turns more times than an endless spiral staircase.” Phillip Bate, THE INDEPENDENT

  “A rollicking ghost yarn with a strange twist of fate keeps the audience guessing and pleasantly amused. The humorous lines ate judiciously spread among all the characters and there’s enough action to keep the pace ticking.” Marcus Kuczynski, CATHOLIC LEADER

 

I DON'T DO AUDITIONS!

BLACK COMEDY
Two-act play, first performed in 1990 at Sunnybank Theatre and a subsequent professional production at Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane in 1994. Completely rewritten, 1997.

CAST:
Four males, two females.

RUNNING TIME: 120 mins.

SYNOPSIS:
Three men, Belvedere Thornton, a faded Shakespearean actor, Mickey Finnegan, an over-the-hill club comic and Billy Winter, a jaded rock star, all turn up at a derelict theatre with a bank of computers on stage, to audition for an unnamed play. And yet all of them are too famous to do auditions. Two beautiful girls, Angela Caduti and Diana Verdelet, interrogate them and the dark and dirty secrets of their life are revealed. Finally they do their audition pieces for empressario Joshua Lucy. The comic does a speech from Shakespeare, the actor does a comedy routine and the rocker has to sing Ave Maria. Two fail the test and are dismissed. Then it is revealed they were auditioning for Hell.

 

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:

  “A well-crafted, totally absorbing drama/comedy/psychological. Thriller.” Nick Riviera, THE SCENE

 

LIFE CENTRE 14

DRAMA: a two-act post apocalypse drama, professional production, Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane 1995.

CAST: Male and female 40s, male and female 21 and one female mid20s.

RUNNING TIME: 90 mins

SYNOPSIS: A woman, Teresa, her husband Matt and two adopted children, Carly and Mark,  have been living in a Life Centre since a nuclear holocaust began. They are the only people in a centre which was built to accommodate hundreds. The young people have been living together and the girl is pregnant. In the living room are two lights, one red, one green. The red light is shining and legend has it that when the air outside is clean. Into their ordered life comes a stranger, a military female named Sabatina who comes from another life centre where life has developed completely differently. Life changes for everyone. When the light turns green, other things are revealed about the past and finally the newcomer is murdered and the children go outside, a new Adam and Eve.

 

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID: 

 

“There should be an awfulness in the situation, but there is not. The real strength of Scott’s text lies in its black comedy.” BRISBANE SUNDAY MAIL

 

QUITTING

COMEDY
Two act comedy about five women giving up smoking.

CAST:
Five females late 20s to late 30s. One male, around 22.

RUNNING TIME: 120 including interval.

SYNOPSIS:
The five women work for a pharmaceutical company that manufacture among other things, anti-smoking aids. For different reasons they all smoke. The male, BRETT is the female boss's secretary and is a reformed smoker. INGRID, in her late 30s and a happily married family woman, is the office manager who discovers she has lung cancer. ANDREA is sales manager. She is in her mid 30s and is a divorcee who enjoys a night on the town. She is bitter about her broken marriage. DOLLY, also mid 30s is a single Mum who is Andrea's drinking and party partner. Both are social smokers. GINA is 30 and married to a fashion photographer and smokes to keep her weight down because she is insecure. ELISHA is a Chinese woman of mid 20s. She started to smoke in internment camps when she was a child. She is saving up to bring her parents over form China. When the girls discover Ingrid's condition they all agree to stop smoking to help her quit. Dolly, uninsured hits BMW and Elisha has all her money stolen from home. So they enter a radio reality show to win a $10,000 prize, which they do. Ingrid finds her cancer it not large and her prognosis is good. She has her operation and has chemo. Andrea gets a proposal of marriage from a lovely man, Elisha has enough money for her parents' fares, Gina's husband gets a promotion and Dolly, gets back into her own bad habits and is the only one not to quit for good. Brett ends up being his boss's boy friend.

 

I LOVE YOU, MR TAYLOR

DRAMA

 Not yet performed.

CAST:
One female to look 17-18, one male to look 15-16, one male late 40s, one Chinese female late 20s, one female 30s.

RUNNING TIME: 120 mins.

SYNOPSIS:
Matt is a drama teacher with a couple of books published. He used to be a bit of a wild one while his second wife, Marielle, is an artist with world fame just ahead of her. Kate Wong is the wardrobe mistress for the school play, which is Romeo and Juliet. She is in quietly in love with Matt. Natalie is a new student who gets an instant crush on Matt. When the cast Juliet breaks her arm, Natalie does a brilliant audition to win the role. She casts a spell over Matt, who does crazy things. He falls in love with the girl but is in a constant state of denial, despite warnings from Kate. Matt's 16-year-old son is also madly in love with Natalie. On the eve of an exhibition Marielle leaves Matt and he plunges into a pure love affair sans sex with Natalie. He then promises her that at the end of term when she leaves school, he will make the union complete. On the night of the play, which is a triumph for Natalie, Matt gets a message from Marielle demanding that he fly to Sydney to help with her exhibition. He decides that after 16 odd years he owes her, so he tells Natalie he his going back to his wife and is leaving for Sydney right away. Natalie is heartbroken and when Ben invites her back to the house, she goes. She is determined to have sex with Ben, but can't bring herself to do it. They are both half undressed when Matt comes home. He had changed his mind and had come back to pack a bag to move into a hotel and leave an explanatory note for Ben. He is distressed when he sees the scene, but after Natalie's explanation he takes her away with him to spend the night in his hotel.

 

TRAPPED!

THRILLER

 A one act play involving live action and video A violent murder story, with a hostage situation in Act Two. Yet to be premiered.

CAST: One male 30, one female 19, one male 20s, one male 30s, one male 50s, one female 50s.

RUNNING TIME: A 90 minute,

SYNOPSIS:  Gazza is a bikie whose leg was crippled when he crashed his bike running from the police. After a stint in prison he now living  in a rural homestead on the outskirts of Melbourne with another former gang member, Ray. But Gazza isn’t the man he used to be. Prison crippled his mind. He is living on the edge of violent insanity. He and Ray are planning to rob a TAB office make tracks for Sydney. Then in come Jolie, 19, who was Gazza’s teenage mole in the bikie gang. She has finished a stint of probation and is looking for action. Gazza, who always walks because he is afraid of riding a bike, goes for beer, but when his leg starts to ache he steals a car, which happens to be an unmarked police car.

The cop visits the house and  Gazza shoots him. He and Jolie then go on the run and end up in a holiday shack in the NSW hinterland. Jolie’s aunt and uncle wh own the shack turn up and when trhepolice arive are held hostage. In the stand-off Ray, who has been helping the police is allowed into the house and part of a police plan. During a lull another policeman bursts into the house. It is the dead policeman’s twin. There is more violence and standoff tactics, but the Gazza, who is convinced, he can run free runs outside. He is shot and falls back into the house, his good leg shattered. He pleads with Jolie to shoot him, which she does. Then the cop, who has also been shot in the leg tells Jolie Gazza was crazy. “Don’t ever call him crazy,” she says and shoots him.

 

DEAR ALL.

DRAMA

This play involves wartime action on Guadalcanal. It is a study of cultural differences and reconciliation.

CAST: One male 40s, one male around 22 and one Japanese male 30-40.

RUNNING TIME: 50 minutes.

SYNOPSIS:  Ray, an experienced professional soldier, and his nephew, a young conscript, named Terry, are joining in mopping up operations on Guadalcanal in 1946 after the war is officially over. They capture a Japanese soldier who turns out to be an American who, when the Japs were being rounded up, fled to Japan where he was conscripted into the army. He is more American than Japanese, but slowly his cultural heritage emerges and, despite is differences, Ray helps him commit sepuki.

 

FLOODWAY

DRAMA

CAST: Two females, mid-40s, one male late-50s, and one male early 30s.

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes (approx as play is still be to be performed).

This two-act play has six original songs that are performed on stage using only a piano. Pauline Walsh lives by a creek that sometimes floods. She is a piano teacher. On this night three people on their way to town of Narradeen on the other side of the creek are trapped by a flood and stay the night at Pauline’s house.

There is Anthony Barlowe, a Queen’s Councillor who is on his way to prosecute a case.  Second to arrive is Ian Douglas, a reporter on his way to cover the trial.

Finally there is Bebe Hooper, a former pop star who has been out of the limelight for a mysterious 20 years.

New friendships are formed, skeletons fall from closets and people are never quite what you think they are.