Short Plays

plus performances to date

Running from 15 minutes to an hour and half, our short plays are popular choices for competitions (where several have won awards) and play evenings and offer a wide range of challenging subjects and situations with casts numbering 2 to 10.

A Merry Lyttle Christmas

A Merry Lyttle Christmas

Susan Steadman wants a Christmas like she had when she was a little girl – Susan Lyttle. She invites her brother and his family to Christmas Dinner, but not everyone has the same experience of Christmas as Susan…

4m 4f
Running Time: 30 mins approx

A Time for Farewells

A Time for Farewells

As they dress for a social event that will mark the end of their married life together, Sarah and Alex review their relationship to find out what brought them to this point.

3m 1f
Running Time: 45 mins approx

Winner of the Author’s Award, RAFTA One-Act Play Festival 2003

Winner of Bronze Medal in the Drama Association of Wales One-Act Play Competition 2003

Highly Commended by the Sussex Playwright's Club

Winner All Wales YFC Drama Festival 2007

Alice and the Cold Case

Alice and the Cold Case

A detective on administrative leave and a reporter with everything to prove have to team up to solve a cold case that no one really cares about. The only question is whether it will make their careers, or end them…

5m 5f
Running Time: 68 mins approx

Alice and the Cold Case

Alice and the Cold Case

A detective on administrative leave and a reporter with everything to prove have to team up to solve a cold case that no one really cares about. The only question is whether it will make their careers, or end them…

5m 5F
Running Time: 70 mins approx

Cosplay

Cosplay

The boss wants everyone concentrating on the big presentation, but excitement has gripped the office – this weekend is HeroCon, and people are planning their costumes! It soon becomes clear that what you wear on the outside can hide the real you.

4m 2f
Running Time: 37 mins approx

Don’t Mention the Dream

Don’t Mention the Dream

It’s the annual meeting of the Drama Society, but they’re a bit thin on the ground this year. Will Russell get his way and produce a period “Midsummer Night’s Dream” or will Lucy put a spanner in the works?

1m 3f
Running Time: 25 mins approx

Winner Best Play in Lincoln Drama Festival 2007

For sale, baby shoes, never worn

For sale, baby shoes, never worn

The story goes that Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a novel in six words. His response was ‘For sale – baby shoes, never worn.’ Damian Trasler takes each part of that phrase as the starting point of a short play – three stories in the life of a young couple, not necessarily going in the direction you might expect.

2m 2f
Running Time: 40 mins approx

Loitering within Tent

Loitering within Tent

A Tourist party of ladies from the Women’s Institute are treated to the ‘Bedouin Desert experience’, unaware that there is more to it than meets the eye…

1m 6f
Running Time: 20 mins approx

Making theatre history

Making theatre history

It is decision time for the Amdram society committee. The next show must be chosen tonight and after months of arguments and division, the task of making that choice has been handed to the chair, Richard, to make. But Richard’s announcement is not quite what everyone was expecting…

3m 3f
Running Time: 25 mins approx

Merely Players

Merely Players

An amateur theatrical group clearing out props, furniture and wardrobe  find that, unintentionally, they have created a drawing room set.

Phyllis then starts to imagine what it would be like to be the Lady of the Manor.

Her enthusiasm carries the other members along, each finding a new role to play.

All is going splendidly – until the body is discovered!

3m 2f
Running Time: 1hr 25 mins approx

Adjudicator's Award, Woodbridge Drama Festival 2015

Murder at Twilight Gardens

Murder at Twilight Gardens

Four sprightly senior sleuths try to solve the murder that has taken place in their residential home, with the reluctant assistance of their Activities Supervisor,

2m 4f 1 either
Running Time: 35 mins approx

Outside the Audition

Outside the Audition

Bill and Jeff are waiting for their audition slot and help each other out by rehearsing their lines together. Unfortunately, they can’t agree on what makes a good piece of drama.

2m
Running Time: 25 mins approx

Pride and Proton Lasers

Pride and Proton Lasers

A scheduling error at a theatre means that a production of a Regency period drama and a Science Fiction suspense play have to share the same stage…

3m 4f 1 either
Running Time: 17 mins approx

The Big Courtroom Drama

The Big Courtroom Drama

A group of drama students improvise a courtroom scene, but when the teacher becomes the accused, can they tell where the make-believe ends?

3m 2f
Running Time: 25 mins approx

The Birth of Womankind

The Birth of Womankind

In a future post apocalyptic world in which all men are extinct, a group of female survivors meet to discuss their plans for the future.

10f (parts can be combined to reduce numbers as required)
Running Time: 15 mins approx

The Crying Dame

The Crying Dame

A regular committee meeting of the Southern Sudbury-Regis Drama Club is rudely interrupted by one of the society members who has some strong ideas about the next pantomime. Little do they know just how far he is prepared to go!

3m 3f
Running Time: 30 mins approx

The Friday Night Radio Play

The Friday Night Radio Play

t’s an exciting night for the Branston family. The premier of aspiring writer Geoff’s radio play is about to be broadcast and the family is gathered to listen. But just as it is about to start, the fuses blow. To ensure that Grandma is not disappointed, the show must go on…

9 performers
Running Time: 35 mins approx

The Golf War Widows

The Golf War Widows

Three women meet behind the scenes at a corporate Golf Tournament. Theresa is a wife who has built her own business in response to her husband’s obsession with work and her own fading looks. Dotty has brought up a family despite the disinterest of her husband and Rachel… became a crime-fighter.

3f
Running Time: 30 mins approx

The Kitchen Skirmishes

The Kitchen Skirmishes

When Lucy and Bernard have their first child, they decide that Bernard will stay home and be the house husband while Lucy continues working. Bernard thinks it will be a walk in the park… he has a surprise in store…

2m 2f
Running Time: 40 mins approx

The Poems of Edwin Plant

The Poems of Edwin Plant

Bernard’s been looking for traces of his old school bully – has he changed since the bad old days? Are these poems really by him, and if so, do they indicate regret? Lucy doesn’t think so.

2m 1f
Running Time: 42 mins approx

The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon

A couple interrupt the premier of a piece of Modern Theatre and claim it’s all rubbish. The performer challenges them to produce something better, and the three begin to work on the piece together. What will they come up with by the end of the evening?

1m 2f
Running Time: 20 mins approx

Winner of Best Play Award, GDA Festival 2006

The source of denial

The source of denial

Struggling to write a ‘proper’ play after years of comedies, a writer uses his favourite character to explore faith, proof and truth, only to end up learning more about himself than he expected.

3m 1f
Running Time: 40 mins approx

Under the Hood

Under the Hood

Rose, an actor, is rehearsing the title role in a new psychological interpretation of Red Riding Hood under a hot-shot director. Meanwhile her husband, Mark, is torn between the frustrations of his well-paid, dead-end job and the uncertainties of his dream of creating his own business…

3m 1f
Running Time: 65 mins approx

Waiting for Twist Stiffly

Waiting for Twist Stiffly

Filming of the 1950’s adventure serial “Twist Stiffly – Space adventurer” is being held up because the leading man is nowhere to be found. While the remaining cast members lounge around waiting for him to turn up, they discuss their roles in the drama and their dissatisfactions with the main man. Then they come up with a great way to fill their time until he arrives…

3m 2f
Running Time: 30 mins approx

Work in Progress

Work in Progress

Working on his Chandleresque detective novel, an author is confronted by his characters who are unsatisfied with the plot. They force him to take on the roles in the book and begin a rewrite.

2m 2f
Running Time: 30 mins approx

Winner of the Author's Award, RAFTA One-Act Play Festival 2000

Runner up in the Millennium One-Act Play competition 2000

Winner of the Adjudicator's Award, Anglesey Drama Festival 2005