UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, THE
by Ives, David
Genre: Comedy
Cast 2 male 1 female
Length Short
Set Flexible
Licence UK & Ireland only
ISBN 9780822213963
This critically acclaimed, award-winning evening of comedies combines wit, intellect, satire and just plain fun, a hilarious sextet of short plays that can be performed together or separately. The Plays: Sure Thing (1M IF) is a classic of contemporary comedy: two people meet in a cafe and find their way through a conversational minefield as an offstage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes and faux pas on the way to falling in love. Words, Words, Words (2M IF) recalls the philosophical adage that three monkeys typing into infinity will sooner or later produce Hamlet, and asks: what would the monkeys talk about at their typewriters? The Universal Language (2M IF) brings together Dawn, a young woman with a stutter, and Don, the creator and teacher of Unamunda, a wild comic language. Their lesson sends them off into a dazzling display of hilarious verbal pyrotechnics - and, of course, true love. Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread (2M 2F) is a parodic musical vignette in trademark Glassian style, with the celebrated composer having a moment of existential crisis in a bakery. The Philadelphia (2M IF) presents a young man in a restaurant who has fallen into a “Philadelphia”, a Twilight Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. His only way out is to ask for the opposite of what he wants. Variations on the Death of Trotsky (2M IF) shows the Russian revolutionary on the day of his demise, desperately trying to cope with the mountain-climber’s axe he’s discovered in his head.