Plays by Paddy Gillard-Bentley

Short & Very Short PLAYS

Ten- twenty minute PLAYS

SANGUINE SONATA

Anthony Crea and Shelagh Ranalli in Sanguine Sonata

Drama
1f/1m
10 min.

Vincent and Anna have been together a very long time...perhaps too long. Amid their bitter arguments and waning love for each other, inevitable when you are with the same person for so long, they come to realize that there might still be some embers still burning.

Through the often poetic dialogue Vincent and Anna are compelled to revert to, they rediscover love by remembering the first nigh they met. We walk with them through the streets of Venice. He...was dying of thirst...and she died (not in the traditional manner), to satiate him.

Production History: SANGUINE SONATA was produced June 19, 20, 21, 2003, at the King Street Theatre in Kitchener, Ont. For the Record New Works Festival, Directed by Gary Kirkham.

Sanguine Sonata, by Paddy Gillard-Bentley, directed by Gary Kirkham featuring Shelagh Ranalli and Anthony Crea, tells of the breakup of the relationship between two characters. But Vincent attempts to recreate the passion surrounding their first meeting, the dialogue sensuous and mirrored by the acting, and the pair become so carried away that they forget what happens when the sun rises on a pair of Vampires.

~ Harry Currie - Record Staff

Read the entire play

Cast pictures and bios

Anne Harper as Daisy

And

David Nicholson as Glum.

Comic Strip (formally called Marry Go Round)
© 2001 Paddy Gillard-Bentley

Comedy
1 m/1f
10 min.

This absurd and twisted little tale of two circus clowns preparing for a soiree where spouse swapping clowns is only one of the party favors. Daisy and Glum have been together for a long time. The last spouse swapping party didn’t go so well for the over bearing Daisy. This time, Glum, henpecked by his not so jovial wife, has a plan of revenge up his polka dotted sleeve that includes a riding crop, a borrowed saddle and a bronze mouse.

So...do you think a clown's shoe size is direction proportional to the size of his…oh, never mind.

This play can be read in full at the COCKTAIL NAPKIN PLAYS

Production History: COMIC STRIP was part of “No Sweetheart Required” An evening of short plays about love…or the lack thereof. in Febuary 2005 at The Village Players Theatre – Toronto, On. Canada ~ Directed by Nancy Bradshaw. Performed by David Nicholson and Anne Harper

FRAILTY, THY NAME IS WOE

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

Ophelia…just recently dead, still in love…and verging on madness.

The Ghost of Hamlet’s father…a man bent on revenge.

Ten min.

No set required. (also available as a two/one-minute play)

Ophelia

Thus circumstance doth make a coward of him…and the performance and hue of his resolution will be sullied o'er with the pale cast of memory of love’s demise.

HAMLET’S FATHER’S GHOST

He pledged me his vengeance!

Ophelia

He pledged me his love!

Beat.

Sweet breath no more uttering his name in sacred tryst. Neither revenge…nor my skin turned blue from sorrow will circumscribe his wretched solitude.

HAMLET’S FATHER’S GHOST

I believe, in this state of affairs, the brutality is ended, but for the taking of my brother’s life…

The conversation between the two take place as two grave diggers work on a fresh grave, Ophelia's grave. Hamlet, accompanied by Horatio, muses on death, while his father’s ghost and the ghost of Ophelia argue which is stronger in death…love or revenge. The scene around the grave is imagined to be in progress, not actually required to be.

Production History:

-Gone in 60 Secs., Brooklyn College, NYC. June 30^th 2005 (1-min. version)

Ophelia: Jenn Perez Hamlet’s Father’s Ghost: Mickey Ryan

-Set to be produced as part of SHAKESPEARE IN CANADA – 2007 (long version)

Notes: Harrogate Theatre of England and Brooklyn College of New York presented Gone in 60 Secs, the world's first interactive international theater festival. The festival opened on Wednesday, June 22, in the English resort town of Harrogate. The Harrogate Theatre premiered fifty new plays, each lasting no more than sixty seconds. A week later, on Thursday, June 30, at 8 p.m. in the New Workshop Theater, Brooklyn College hosted the festival and premiere an additional fifty new plays. The plays, were taped and are available for viewing on the World Wide Web and on video-equipped mobile phones.

VIEW HERE

Sweet Liquid Fire

Erotic fantasy

1/m 2/f

10 mins.

No set…a door.

A women struggles with her desire to sexually submit to Vincent.

VINCENT: I touched your mind, Kate. Your body simply responded.

KATE: Initially it affected my mind, but then I…oh. I see.

Long pause.

VINCENT: How about, Vincent you are right?

KATE: I didn't deny you touching my mind. That reaction was no surprise. It was the…the other that was.

He waits.

Vincent

VINCENT: I’m a patient man.

Long pause.

Kate

KATE: Vincent, you were right.

VINCENT: Thank you.

Long pause.

KATE:l I just went onto the balcony for a little air, you know.

VINCENT: So it was not your intention to entice me to follow?

KATE: No.

VINCENT: I see. And if instead of my hands gently on your neck, breathing into your hair making no apology for staring down at your breasts, watching them heave with every laboured breath…if instead I had increased my grip on your throat, holding you tighter, what then?

Kate just stares at Vincent.

VINCENT: If a man plays effectively between a girl’s ears, untold treasures are unlocked.

KATE: You seem to have no trouble with the key.

Pause.

SHORT SHORT SHORTS

One Tender Lie

1/m, 1/f late teens.

Two minutes. (three and one minute versions also available)

A young couple wait to find out the results of her pregnancy test.

PRODUCTION HISTORY:

Produced in the summer of 2004 at the Sacramento 2Page Play Festival. 23 plays * 10 Actors * 49 roles At The Geery Theater, 2130 L Street, Sacramento, CA), a 49 seater in the basement of a Victorian.

One Tender Lie was part of Java Theatre’s 32 2-min plays, 8 actors, 2 locations, April 30^th, 2005 at Tazza Café, Providence RI., and May 1^st, 2005, at The Actor’s Workshop, Boston MA.

Scott Levine and Sarah Robinson

Tazza Café, RI. USA,

directed by Milton Coykendall.

IN TENSE CITY

1/m 1/f 1/either

3 minutes.

What seems like the perfect love…isn’t always what it seems.

Production History:

University of North Dakota “Picking Up the Pieces” in conjunction with The Campus Violence Intervention, in a series of thought provoking monologues and short plays on domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. January 2005 – Grand Forks, ND, USA Shannon was played by SARA HALLBERG, Ben was played by LEIF ERIK BERGERUD and Patrick O’Neal played the police officer.

In Tense City was part of Java Theatre’s 32 2-min plays, 8 actors, 2 locations, April 30^th, 2005 at Tazza Café, Providence RI., and May 1^st, 2005, at The Actor’s Workshop, Boston MA.

JAVA THEATRE PRESENTS…FIVE VERY SHORT PLAYS at Tazza Caffe, Providence, RI, USA. September 9 -11. Directed by Directed by Milton Coykendall. With Scott Levine and Sarah Robinson

Cynthia’s Story

SUMMER RYAN DOYLE performing ‘Cynthia’s Story’, a monologue from Shaking the Dew from the Liles.

Production History: JAVA THEATRE PRESENTS…FIVE VERY SHORT PLAYS at Tazza Caffe, Providence, RI, USA. September 9 -11. Directed by Directed by Milton Coykendall.

Other one and two-minute plays

Bastard

Être Amoureux

Thunder & Lightening

External Musing

Sweet Consequence of ecstasy

Click here for TITLES AND SHORT SYNOPSIS OF MONOLOGUES

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