Michael Frayn

Short Plays, Comedy

2m, 2f

Simple sets

Eight short playlets examine with hilarity difficulties modern technology has added to life. In Alarms, two couples embark on a dinner party that is doomed to failure as, one by one, labor saving devices and even furniture become hostile. Doubles sees two couples having similar problems in adjacent hotel rooms. In Leavings, the dinner party is revisited to great amusement. In Look Away Now, passengers ignore the airline's safety lecture. Heart to Heart deals with the impossibility of communication at a noisy cocktail party. Glasnost presents a political speech that is sabotaged by a harassed autocue operator. Toasters shows the problems of trying to eat and work standing up at a social function. The last play, Immobiles, is acted out entirely over the phone as a couple try to decide where they should meet their German guests: Gatwick or Heathrow?

FEE: $100 per performance.

Other Michael Frayn titles available from Samuel French include:
Afterlife
Alphabetical Order
Audience
Balmoral
Benefactors
Black and Silver
Chinamen
Clouds
Copenhagen
Democracy
Donkeys' Years
Exchange
Here
Listen to This
Make and Break
Mr. Foot
The New Quixote
Noises Off
Now You Know
The Sea Gull (trans.)
Uncle Vanya (trans.)
Wild Honey

Collections
Chekhov: Plays (trans.)
Michael Frayn: Plays, Vol. 2
The Sneeze (Collected Works)
The Two of Us