Plays Database
The Mystery of Jack and the Clones of Chaos
A time-traveller from the future journeys back to 2010 to investigate the strange case of Jack, a thirteen year old boy who believes his life is being taken over by alien clones of himself. The clones look and sound just like him, but behave in ways he never would. They are messy, dirty, rude, destructive, obsessed with girls, clothes and music, sometimes childish, sometimes violent and frightening and get him into all sorts of trouble with his mother, his friends and teachers. When they invade his bedroom, Jack teams up with a famous female pop singer in a final battle to regain control of his life. The time-traveller is revealed as Jack, now grown up, revisiting his own adolescence and coming face-to-face with his younger self. A comedy-drama play about the confusions and battles of growing up, it runs for 45 minutes and is performed by one adult male actor and one teenage male actor with multi-role playing.
NOW 55 31 13 me - The boundary path of realities. One day in the life of adolescents
The script contains the entire text of the production. The actors for the most part play themselves, sometimes becoming fictitious characters.
NOW 55 31 13 me is not a theatre play in the true sense of the word, but is literally a theatre script. This is because it was created during the rehearsal process and is based on the testimonies of particular people. It is composed of both fictitious and documentary parts. The authors of the texts used in the script are writers Bára Gregorová and Blanka Josephová-Lu?áková, with use also being made of conversations and discussions between the actors in the production. Last but not least, it is important to mention that the play draws on the contributions of teenagers studying at a Pilsen grammar school. The fictitious part of NOW 55 31 13 me takes place over the course of a single day. The students get up in the morning and drag themselves into the classroom, going on to spend the afternoon on the internet. Their day is composed of images of mundanity and stereotype, but one thing about it is out of the ordinary. One of their fellow students has committed suicide by jumping off a roof. What form and likeness is taken by this magical NOW, in which children become adults?
Most of Petra Tejnorová’s auteur-style productions are created with no text to begin with, by means of improvisation, and it is thus relatively difficult to provide precise information ”about the author”. The authors of the script are the actual actors in NOW 55 31 13 Me, plus second-year students at the František K?ižík grammar school in Pilsen, playwright Blanka Josephová-Lu?áková and writer Bára Gregorová. The script contains the entire text of the production. The actors for the most part play themselves, sometimes becoming fictitious characters. This script is fulfilled only on stage, when acted in front of an audience, since it is closely interconnected with the action on stage.
Emil and the detectives
Emil and the Detectives is a famous classical novel by the German writer Erich Kästner. It’s about the adventures of a young boy who lives in the countryside. He goes on a journey to Berlin. He has never been there before. He falls asleep on the train and his money disappears from his pocket. He thinks that one of his fellow passengers was the thief – an adult. Looking trough the train-window he glimpses the suspected thief, and gets off the train to follow him. He doesn’t know where he is and he doesn’t how to catch the thief in the capital city which he doesn’t know at all. Some street-children help him to find out where the suspect is and finally, to catch him.
The story in the original novel takes place in Germany in the first part of the last century – a little bit far away from the present-day teenagers, who – unfortunately – don’t read too much. But the story about the solitude of children and about the unknown frightening adult-world must be interesting and exciting for them.
Adapting the story to contemporary Hungary, Peter Horvath changes the names of some of the minor characters and creates a new image for them, so that they can be easily identified with by today’s young audiences. Two young street musicians, one delivery boy, one computer nerd, two twin girls and one boy who is always using his video camera, help Emil to fight against the adult-world and the thief as well. They catch him (a real gangster) in a theatre, in which every character (and audience member) takes part in a strange, live-TV-show.
Whilst sticking to the main events of the original story, Peter Horvath adds some new aspects to it using the language of the children of today.
School Ties
Come with us on a journey into the deep, dark, dusty corridors of your memory. Inhale the stale stench of floor polish, click open your Barbie lunchbox, tuck in that shirt and straighten your tie! You’re back at School.
School Ties begins with the first day back after the holidays: it is a site-specific work designed to be performed in a school, from the playground and hall, to classrooms and dusty storerooms. The audience gathers in the playground amidst the pupils, joining with their games, their arguments and their celebrations. We hear the bell calling us to Assembly where we wait nervously to meet the three-headed Headmaster.
After the usual preaching, beseeching and admonishments from this giant of a man we are sent on our way to explore the school grounds and the characters which inhabit them. In class–sized tour groups we meet the teachers: the deaf and drunken Mr Humpledink, who fails to contain us with the classics of English literature; the delightfully dippy Miss Hunniford who barely bothers to attend; and the passionate Mrs Harris whose teaching enthrals and inspires.
In the classrooms, corridors and storerooms we find the students: from Geeks and Barbie dolls to Rude Boys and Gossips, you’ll meet them all and perhaps recognize something of yourself. They let us in to the real life of the school and remind us just who really is in charge. Have you done your homework? Did you bring your lunch money? Whose side are you on? And just how cool are you?
In every school there are students entrusted with higher responsibility; the Prefects. They guide, educate, inspire confidence and occasionally mislead us. As the tour comes to an end they bring us together to witness the bizarre life of the playground: a place where pack mentality rules and strength, scent and allegiance are king.
The school year has been squeezed into a single day. There is a hint of celebration in the air, a whiff of freedom heightened by expectation and tempered by memory. The laughter, the tears, the lessons learnt and the experiences shared.
The bell rings.
THE BOOK OF PUBERTOSIS or THE EXPULSION FROM CHILDHOOD
Short play written for the PLATFORM 11+ Final Production FACE ME Time of Transition
Jack & Daniel’s Spectacular Comedy Guide to Girls
Short play written for the PLATFORM 11+ Final production FACE ME Time of Transition
Santa's Last Christmas
Short Play written for the PLATFORM 11+ Final Production FACE ME Time of Transition
Oh boy!
Danilo, a Russian, and Sertac, a Turkish boy; two boys in a city that could not be more different. Really? Despite all the cultural differences at first glance, the second glance might perhaps show a few similarities.
The two boys get closer to each other, as Sertac watches Danilo measure the energy of lightning like a real scientific researcher. He does all this in the backyard of Sertacs father’s shop. At first the two find each other rather odd. But because of what they experience together in a competition for a big fashion show, Danilo and Sertac realize that they actually get on quite well together. But Sertac’s father observes the friendship with a boy of the “Russian Mafia” sceptically. Then, an incident Sertac’s father’s store casts a shadow on Danilo. The two friends have to be very courageous to keep their friendship alive and to defend it against the problems in the family. Because with the strong family honor in Sertac’s family and the separation of Danilo’s parents, the two eleven year olds actually have to plough through a lot of other areas.
“Oh, boy!”is a play about a very different male strong point and disassociation from identified role models. And a friendship that first looked like nothing and gives a lot more support than expected in the end, after the boys have sought and found their identity.
The dark cloud
(Written for DUS, the Norwegian version of the British program “Connect”)
Five children aged 12, 13, 14, 15 and16 are to have their summer holidays without their parents. Hosting the summer camp are Cinderella, Snow White, Pamela Anderson, Marilyn Monroe and the handsome handball coach. Here they are well looked after but a threatening dark cloud appears on the horizon. What does the cloud want; how can one get rid of it, and is it all just a story?