All the plays on this web site are subject to copyright. Permission for performance must be obtained from the publishers Michael Weston Organisation <mwo@eis.net.au>. A royalty (currently US$35 or 20 pounds sterling) must be paid for each and every performance |
Plays by Mal Andersen Click the script button to see an excerpt from the script |
Plays by Mal Andersen Click the script button to see an excerpt from the script |
One Act Plays for professional, community and amateur theatre |
On the advice of their respective solicitors, Joanie and Max, who are going through the process of divorce, meet in the cafeteria of a Shopping Centre. In this neutral ground they endeavour to establish some idea of the demands being made by each other. Their patience is worn thin. Any chance of compromise seems remote. They are angry, hurt and bitter. The interference of Sal the table-clearer and waitress threatens the neutrality of the meeting place. Its over and been over for a long time but they are still trying to work out how to call it Quits! This is the end. But, maybe, it's the beginning of something new. |
Calling It Quits |
A young woman is taken hostage by a strung-out junkie in a bungled hold-up at an all-night convenience store and taken back to his squalid squat in a disused warehouse down town. In case the police should catch up with him, she is his "little bit of insurance". And what about her? Does she have "a little bit of insurance"? One should never underestimate the hidden resources of a woman. |
When Big Jim Mc Donagh, who weighed over twenty stone, died at home in an upstairs bedroom, he created something of a problem. Whilst he was a good man in life, he was bad news in death. When the local Undertaker was informed in the bar of the pub, he called in the help of most of the town with hilarious results. We trace the collection of the body, the funeral, and the wake through the eyes of twelve Irishmen who prove Murphy's Law once again that what can go wrong, definitely will. |
When Louisa set out to trace her family tree she was unprepared for the mystery she was to uncover. Here was a deep family secret that had been kept from the past three generations. How could she get to the truth? Here was one branch of the family cut off from the rest by some terrible act in the past. Was it some heinous crime? What act had been so horrible that it had irreconcilably divided a family? Someone in the family must know. Armed with her preliminary research she approaches the matriarch of what she believes is the estranged wing of the family for help. |
A Little Bit of Insurance |
Big Jim |
Family Tree |
Goin' Bonkers |
Three characters come together in the recreation courtyard of a mental hospital and play out aspects of their lives in an ever-changing drama. Who is a patient and who is not? What is true and what is not? What does it mean to be sane or insane? We are drawn deeper and deeper into these questions and given an insight into the act of Goin' Bonkers. |
Market Forces |
Somewhere in the future four members of the 'Corporation' are trapped in an outpost administration centre by an uprising of 'Primitives'. They are in hostile territory, cut off from all outside help. Communication is impossible. They have no alternative but to follow the 'Code' of the corporation and 'Trade' their way out. It is a time when there is no race only citizenship. When there is no morality, only results. There is no choice, only responsibility. Economic Rationalism is the religion and Business is all! What happens when the value of a human life is subjected to 'Market Forces'and traded like any other commodity? |
When the very strange Noah Smith tells a psychiatrist that he believes that some days he doesn't exist, he sets the stage for a comic clash between Freudian Analysis, Paranoia, Fantasy, Phobia, and just a little bit of Reality. We have Noah, his mother, his wife, and a psychiatrist in the same consulting room, if not on the same couch, or on the same wavelength, at roughly the same time, with hilarious repercussions. If laughter is the best medicine then this session should achieve outstanding results for all concerned. And if you thought the patient was strange, just wait till you meet the rest of the cast. |
COMEDY 3 Females, I Male One. A Psychiatrist's Consulting Room The Present 25 minutes |
Some Days I Don't Exist |
COMEDY/ DRAMA Two. 1 male, 1 female One. A squalid squat in a disused warehouse. The Present 25-30 minutes. |
All the plays on this web site are subject to copyright. Permission for performance must be obtained from the publishers Michael Weston Organisation <mwo@eis.net.au>. A royalty (currently US$35 or 20 pounds sterling) must be paid for each and every performance |
COMEDY/ TELLING A TALE 12 males One. The Bar of an Irish Pub. The Present 25-30 minutes |
COMEDY/ DRAMA Three. 2 Females, 1 Male One. A Cafeteria in a Shopping Centre. The Present 25-30 minutes |
DRAMA 3 Females One. A Sitting Room The Present 25-30 minutes |
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD I male, 2 female One. A Mental Hospital Recreation Courtyard The Present 45 50 minutes |
FUTURISTIC DRAMA 2 females, 2 males One. A futuristic Administration Centre. The future 25-30 minutes |
Terror on the Train |
COMEDY 2 Females, I Male One. A Railway Carriage (Non-Smoking) The Present 25-30 minutes |
A would-be Terrorist meets his match on a suburban railway train when he encounters two elderly ladies. But who turns the tables on whom? A comic fable warning of the perverse logic of officialdom. |
The Angel at Conroy's Crossing |
COMEDY Five. 3 Females, 2 Males One. An Anglican Priest's Study / Reception Room The Present 25 minutes |
When Ellen Brown, a teenage schoolgirl, reported seeing an Angel in the main street of Conroy's Crossing, it created quite a stir. Father Dunn, the Anglican Rector of St.Jude's was called on to investigate this miraculous vision. Miss Stevens the School Principal, who was the only person in Conroy's Crossing to have studied it, and of the very few who had even heard of Psychology, was asked to give some insight into the emotional and mental state of Ellen Brown. Mrs. Brown was also there to assert that her daughter was a paragon of virtue who would never have made up such a thing. And lastly Joe Conroy, Shire Chairman and grandson of the original Conroy after whom the town and district was named, could see great benefits from such a phenomenon for himself, and of course, this out-back community. Now it seemed that there were two choices. One, the schoolgirl did actually see an Angel in which case she is probably, or even, most definitely, bonkers. Or two, she made the whole thing up and if they were quick to capitalize on it, the whole town could do O.K. anyway. Was there a third option? Well, this small out-back town might actually have been sent it's own guardian Angel but that's probably a bit far fetched even for a one-act comedy. |
The Fear |
HORROR Two. 1 Male & 1 Female One. A farmhouse kitchen The Present 25 30 minutes |
This is a horror story. A middle-aged couple is trapped in a farmhouse by the "Fear". What is the unknown force? Where did it come from? Is there any escape? More to the point what is the nature of fear itself? |
Fun to do Easy to produce Enjoyable for the audience |
Here they are! |
What everyone wants - plays that are |
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