French's standard library edition

First presented at Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1916, "The Whiteheaded Boy" is set in a typical Irish small-town household which is thrown into a frenzy, as the play begins, with the return of son Denis from Dublin's Trinity College. He is the whiteheaded boy of the title--the apple of his mother's eye and as a result the focus of his siblings' resentment--who has just failed his exams. Rather than face the shame of this failure, the family plan to ship him off to Canada; he just wants to marry his sweetheart, get a job, and settle down in the country. Hijinks, marriage proposals, bribes, and counter-bribes ensue as the family members exploit and misinterpret Denis' situation.

Intrigued by her isolated country mansion's many mysteries, old Miss Cornelia longs to play detective, and neither death threats nor unearthly sights and sounds are going to dissuade her

The adventures of the emotionally underprivileged child of New York society parents in a world where metaphors such as "she's a snake in the grass" literally come true.

Robert Johnson, a timid, meek man lives the most ordinary of lives - until he dies. Suddenly he is catapulted into the strangeness of his afterlife and begins a frightening, lurid and emotional journey. Past memories, secret desires and present regrets and longings mingle with the real, surreal and sublime, threatening to overwhelm him.

SCENE: The terrace of the Hotel Regina Margherita, on the cliff at Sorrento, overlooking the Bay of Naples.There is a view of the bay and its semi-circular coast-line, dotted with villages; Vesuvius gray in the distance. Across the stage at the rear runs a marble balustrade about three feet high, guarding the edge of the cliff. Upon the left is seen part of one wing of the hotel, entrance to which is afforded by wide-open double doors approached by four or five marble steps with a railing and small stoop. The hotel is of pink and white stucco, and striped awnings shield the windows. Upon the right is a lemon grove and shrubberies. There are two or three small white wicker tea-tables and a number of wicker chairs upon the left, and a square table laid with white cloth on the right.As the curtain rises mandolins and guitars are heard, and the "Fisherman's Song," the time very rapid and gay, the musicians being unseen.

Paul Beaumont is a scientist who labored for years alone to prove his radical theories on the origin of mankind. Baron Regnard becomes his patron, enabling him to do research while living in his mansion. One day, Beaumont announces to his beloved wife Marie and the baron that he has proved all his theories and is ready to present them before the Academy of the Sciences. He leaves the arrangements to the baron. However, after Beaumont goes to sleep, Marie steals his key, opens the safe containing his papers, and gives them to the baron. It is clear that Marie and the baron are lovers. On the appointed day, Paul travels to the Academy with the baron. He is aghast when the baron, instead of introducing him, takes credit for Paul's work himself. After he recovers from the shock, Paul confronts him in front of everyone, but the baron tells them that Paul is merely his assistant and slaps him. All of the academicians laugh at his humiliation. Paul later seeks comfort from his wife, but she brazenly admits she and the baron are having an affair and calls him a clown. Paul leaves them. Five years pass by. Paul is now a clown calling himself "He who gets slapped", the star attraction of a small circus near Paris. His act consists of him getting slapped every evening by other clowns. - Wikipedia.

"Very successful when first performed in London in 1908, Diana of Dobson's introduces its audience to the overworked and underpaid female assistants at Dobson's Drapery Emporium, whose only alternative to their dead-end jobs is the unlikely prospect of marriage. Although Cicely Hamilton calls the play "a romantic comedy," like George Bernard Shaw she also criticizes a social structure in which so-called self-made men profit from the cheap labour of others, and men with good educations, but insufficient inherited money, look for wealthy wives rather than for work." "This Broadview edition also includes excerpts from Hamilton's autobiography Life Errant (1935) and Marriage as a Trade (1909), her witty polemic on "the woman question"; historical documents illustrating employment options for women and women's work in the theatre; and reviews of the original production of the play."--Jacket.

In her determination to help her husband and friends, Dulcy plans a weekend party. They are an ill-assorted group, such as only a Dulcinea could summon about her. Their brief association becomes a series of hilarious tragedies. It is Dulcy's final blunder which unexpectedly crowns her efforts with success. Meanwhile she has all but ruined her husband's plans to put through a big merger with a rich capitalist. Among her guests is a rapturous scenario writer who conspires to elope with the daughter of the capitalist, who loathes motion pictures. The rich young man from Newport, who Dulcy thinks may be useful in assisting the capitalist's wife to write for the films, turns out to be an escaped lunatic. The ex-convict butler steals a necklace. Everything goes wrong. But the most exquisite torture she inflicts is when she invites the scenario writer to recite one of his hectic plots to music played by the lunatic. It is with this that the play reaches its highest level of satirical fun.

A play in 3 parts written by Betty Smith and final husband, Robert Finch, prior to their marriage.