About
the Play:
Control Freaks has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.
L-Play has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.
Three Plays is a collection of one-act plays by Beth
Henley. Contains three long one-act plays by the Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Crimes of the Heart.
Control Freaks portrays the savage repercussions of the
secrets and shame that lurk in our hearts. L-Play is twelve
different scenes done in different styles. The only unifying factor
is that all the scenes start with the letter "L". In Sisters of the Winter Madrigal,
the idyllic aspirations of two sisters clash against the violent
realities of life in a medieval rural town.
Control Freaks: Carl Willard has just brought home his
fourth wife, Betty. Her presence annoys his sister, known only as
Sister (a troubled woman who struggles with three personalities:
Sister, Spaghetti and Pinkie), who now finds she has to share the
household with two people rather than one. Carl and Betty have big
plans to open up Furniture World. All they need is Sister's signature
on the papers, and the building will be theirs. Paul, the owner of
the building, is invited over to sign the papers and have cocktails
and hors d'oeuvres. Sister decides to "set her cap" for
Paul because she wants Carl to see that "she can get a man."
Betty doesn't like this plan because she is secretly and very
sexually involved with the seductive Paul. Murder, mayhem and
memories unfold as these four desperate characters vie for ultimate
control. (Premiered in 1992 at Center Theater in Chicago; Cast: 2
female, 2 male)
What people say:
"Nothing in the previous work
of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley
quite prepares one for the stunning singularity and depth that
permeates her latest work, Control Freaks." —
LA Village Voice
L-Play is a fascinating study
of style, character and rhythm. The play is written in twelve scenes.
Each scene has a unique style and is a mini play in itself. The
element that unites these pieces is that each scene title begins with
the letter "L." The scenes include: "Learner," a
young student struggles to gain the affection of his beloved through
poetry; "Lunatic," an isolated woman fights going mad, goes
mad, and after circling the edge finds redemption; "Leaving,"
a piece performed in masks in which a granddaughter seeks to find the
secrets of her dying grandmother's life; "Loser," a
small-town guy tries to get his best friend to hit on his girlfriend
to test her loyalty. The final piece, "Life," is primarily
a dance where the primitive family of Ones encounters the Shoe who
presents them with the terrible joy of life. (Premiered in 1996 at
the Unicorn Theatre as part of the Berkshire Theatre Festival; Cast:
3 female, 3 male)
What people say:
"…a curious, challenging,
funny, and at times, mesmerizing evening of theatrical
musings…refusing to conform to soothing, sentimental narratives.
Ms. Henley's brand of Southern Gothic humor – dark as a box of
bittersweet chocolates – is enticing and deliciously impolite…."
— Daily Hampshire Gazette
Sisters Of The Winter Madrigal:
Not every fairy tale has a happy ending. Calaih and Taretta, the orphaned daughters of Joshua the Cow Herder,
live together in a hut outside a medieval village. Calaih, a girl
with beautiful long red hair, roams the hills with her cow and falls
desperately in love with Stephan, the Shoemaker's son. Taretta, the
older sister, is the village siren who is the most ravishing
seductress in the land. Fortune changes for the two sisters when the
nefarious High Lord proclaims he will marry Calaih because he is
obsessed with her glorious hair, and Taretta falls ill with a
menacing disease that has her romantic admirers giving her a wide
berth. (Premiered in 2001 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center; Cast: 3
female, 3 male)
What people say:
"Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley exhibits a toothy edge with her one act, Sisters Of The Winter Madrigal, a trenchant black comedy in the stilted guise of a fairy tale…Recommended!"
— LA Weekly
About the Playwright:
Beth
Henley is an award-winning American playwright, screenwriter, and
professor best known for her play Crimes of the Heart
(Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award
for Best American Play). Her plays have been produced on Broadway and
continue to be well-received and widely popular, both in professional
and regional theatres throughout the United States as well as
internationally and translated into twelve languages.