Writing for Stage
Plays
A selection of plays by Nicolas Ridley
Writing for Stage
Plays
A selection of plays by Nicolas Ridley
Full-Length Plays
From This Day Forward
Set in a fictional ‘alternate present’, the action takes place in a hospitality facility that is somewhere between an airport lounge and a budget hotel. In the recent past, the powers-that-be have taken the view that the institution of marriage, viewed as the bedrock...
Gerard
“You can live here on eight dollars a day. Six if you’re careful. Less if you’re very careful.” Set in an expatriate household in a fishing-village in South-East Asia, Gerard is an ever-darkening comedy in a landscape of memory, escape and despair. Are Gerard and his...
The Ghost Train (Revised)
Arnold Ridley's classic drama was first produced in 1925 and filmed no less than three times. A very silly young man accidentally strands six passengers at a small Cornish wayside station. Despite the pyschic stationmaster's weird stories of a ghost train, they...
If As We Were Walking
The location is an unnamed European city. The period - neither past nor present - is unspecified. The setting is the apartment of Max and Anna Luft. ’The simple fact is that we took our decision long ago. We rehearsed the arguments. We weighed them up. We came to our...
Make Peace Not Love
One-Act Plays
Baggage (His & Hers)
Their last morning together. Or is it? Has the week that Hilary and Simon have spent in Greece been nothing more than a holiday romance or is it something serious? The moment has come for them to bare their souls and unload their emotional baggage. But Simon still has...
Double Bubble
In some ways Gina and Lois are very much the same. In other ways, they couldn’t be more different. Gina is a career woman whose company provides ‘high-level digital solutions to meetlow-level logistical challenges’ – although she may not be entirely sure what this...
Four Sides of a Triangle
Gardening Leave
Bob is on ‘gardening leave’ but he’s anxious ‘to get back in the saddle’. Work is Bob’s life. For him, it’s an imperative, a compulsion. What is life without a job? It has to be the right job, of course. That’s not to say that money isn’t important. And although...
Made For Each Other
A gentle tragicomedy which brings together a rich cast of characters who follow – or fail to follow - the path of true love: Ned, who ignores his father’s warning that “women are dangerously mad” & Grace, who sets Ned a sensible test, before agreeing to...
Rude Awakenings
Set in a typical English village - and easily staged with minimal props and scenery - ‘Rude Awakenings’ is a charming comedy which mixes both broad and subtle humour with truthful insights into the pain and pathos that can sometimes lie beneath the surface of village...
The Trees of Nature
Titus Returns
Rob has packed and is ready to go. He and Jen have been married for 20 years but Rob believes he has fallen in love with Suzy, a young woman he met at his evening class. Jen is almost certain it’s a temporary infatuation, but she warns Rob that, if he leaves, he’s...
Turnabout
When Peter Potter, the Chairman of S&M, encounters ‘Arty’ / Artemis, the newly-appointed CEO (plus a lot more roles besides), it's light years away from a conventional job interview and the outcome isn’t quite what he might have hoped for or expected. Cast: 1F,...
Short Plays
As I Draw Near You
Cast: 1M, 1F Characters: Alison, 40'sNigel, 40's Running time: 10-15 minutes Published by Stagescripts For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Stagescripts
Bee All, End All
Six ‘waiters’ pass the time as best they can. They don’t know who ‘she’ will choose, how she makes her choice or why. All that’s certain is that one of them will be chosen. And then another. And then another. It may be now. It may be later. In the meantime, worrying...
Casting About
Cast: 2M, 3F Hamlet – A pale young man in his 20'sMillie – A brisk woman in her 30's/40's Salome – A young woman in her late teensBoudicca – An imposing woman of ‘a certain age’Arnold – An unimposing older man Running time: 10 minutes Performed by Actors & Writers...
Disengaged
Friendly Bombs
Green Room Blues
Grounded
A business traveller sits patiently in an airport departure lounge, waiting for his flight to be called. He listens to the boarding announcements, which begin normally enough, but which become increasingly bizarre. He continues to sit and wait while other passengers...
Holly, Polly, Tom, Dick & Harry
What happened last night in the pub? Tom really can’t remember anything. Not one thing. Not even Polly’s dress. But Holly can. Dick thinks he knows who did what and he approves although he does counsel caution. Harry thinks he knows, too and, although he doesn’t blame...
In Plain Sight
Georgia is wearing dark glasses again. Domestic violence usually occurs behind closed doors, but Mrs Potts is quite certain she knows what’s been happening. Her advice is based on her own bitter experience. Men who use violence never change. They may say how sorry...
It Isn’t You
Cast: 1F, 1M Karen – late 20's / early 40's, commercial lawyerJonathan – late 20's / early 40's, art teacher Running time: 10-12 minutes Performed at Actors & Writers London, March 2020Performed at Salisbury Fringe, October 2020 Published by Stagescripts in Six of...
Match & Mix
Cast: 2M, 2F Henry, married to CarolineCaroline, married to HenryAlisdair, Caroline’s exFlorence, Henry’s ex Running time: 10-15 minutes For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Stagescripts
Mr Mouse’s Munificent Gifts
Cast: 2M, 1F Mr Mouse : the customer, middle-agedMiss Pringle : the assistant, young, slimMr Whiting : the manager, middle-aged, large Running Time: 10-15 minutes For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Stagescripts
Not a Friend of the Family
Sheltering from the rain after the funeral of a friend, two complete strangers reveal am unsuspected past to one another that neither of them ever imagined. Cast: 1F, 1M Timothy Pollard (aka ‘Polly’) – youthful middle-age, neat, trim,...
Redress
Room Service
Round & About the Rufus Stone
Sorry/Je m’excuse
Cast: 2M, 2F For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Stagescripts
Swinging
The Mistress Bedroom
After unsuccessful novelist and playwright, Edmund, suggests to his high-flying, thought-leading, glass-ceiling-splintering wife, Anya, that she should meet Cindy, the woman Edward has met in the street and invited to come to live with them, it suddenly seems like a...
Three Into Two (Won’t Go)
Cast: 1F, 1M, 1F or 1M Alistair – 50’sOlivia – 30’s / 40’sFiz – gender neutral Running time: 12-15 minutes Performed at Actors & Writers London, May 2022Performed at Salisbury Fringe, October 2022 Published by Stagescripts in Six of One (Volume 2) For licensing...
What Now?
Cast: 1M, 1F Woman : 20-50Man : 20-50 For a preview script and licensing enquiries, please contact Stagescripts
Monologues
An Account of Six Poisonings
Following the death of the King, nothing is as it was. Queen Utrica and her sons, Hector and Cyril, the besotted Rosalind and Fatima, the Great Turk’s daughter, are caught in a tangle of passion and deceit. The court’s official poisoner agrees to give a true account...
Doing What Comes Naturally
“After years of herding the populace into healthier habits, society found itself encumbered with an ageing population that displayed an inconvenient reluctance to die …” Cast: 1M First performed at Actors & Writers London June 2011
Holding On, Letting Go
Mr Mooney saw the writing on the wall. Sales falling. Costs rising. He sold all his shares, and I went to Zurich to make a final withdrawal for him. “I don’t need it all, Walter,” he said. “Only enough to pay for the yacht.” And off he sailed into the sunset. Cast: 1M...
Pillow Talk
“Forging friendships in your later years is difficult, particularly perhaps for men. How much of your past life do you need or wish to share? How much of it will interest anyone else?” Cast: 1M First performed at Actors & Writers London February 2023