PLAYS & PITCHES
The R/18 Collective is passionate about working with theatres to produce works from the Restoration and 18th century. The pitches on this page showcase some of the great but undeservedly forgotten plays of this era.
If you're an actor, director, or producer and want more information about any of these plays, we'd love to hear from you! In some cases, we also have performance cuts of them. You can reach us at: R18Collective@gmail.com
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COMEDIES
Animal magnetism | ELIZABETH INCHBALD | 1788
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Cast size: 5M, 2W
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The Doctor is really no doctor at all, and he keeps his ward Constance under lock and key. But Constance's lover has other ideas. Disguising himself as a practitioner in the the art of mesmerism – “animal magnetism” – he tricks his way into the house.. This hilarious farce, one of Dickens’s favorite plays, ridicules pseudo-science and, above all, men who try to control smart young women.
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A bold stroke for a wife | Susanna Centlivre | 1718
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Cast size: 8M, 3W (doubling possible)
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Colonel Fainwell wants to marry Anne Lovely but there’s a problem: he needs the consent of all four of her guardians and they’re very different men. How can he possibly meet the combined approval of a stockbroker, a Quaker, an antiquarian, and an ageing fashionista? The answer: by becoming a stockbroker, a Quaker, an antiquarian, and a fashionista.
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The Wonder | Susanna Centlivre | 1714
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Cast size: 7-8M, 4-5W
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A woman hides with a friend rather than face a forced marriage. But can that friend keep the secret, even if the goings-on rouse the suspicions of her jealous hothead lover? Of course! This sparkling comedy of confusions and near escapes takes male possessiveness to task and celebrates female friendship and solidarity.
The male coquette | David Garrick | 1757
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Cast size: 7M, 5W (doubling possible)
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Daffodil wants people to believe he sleeps around. In fact, he’s only got eyes for Arabella. Enter Arabella’s friend, Sophia, who’s determined to expose Daffodil for the fake rake he is – by posing as a young Italian nobleman. This gender-bending farce is brilliant take-down of male bravado and the sexual double-standard.
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love in a village | Isaac bickerstaffe | 1762
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Cast size: 6M, 4W
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Worried about marrying someone she’s never met, Rosetta runs away from home. Thomas has escaped home for the same reason. Taking up work in the same household as a chambermaid and gardener, they quickly fall in love. This musical comedy’s take on English country manners brilliantly sends up class and gender norms.
The Author's Farce | Henry Fielding | 1730
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Cast size: 7-8 total, with doubling
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Penniless playwright Luckless realizes that the only way to make money in a market for mindless entertainment is to produce a puppet show. A satirical musical farce with actors playing puppets, long before Avenue Q was a glimmer in anyone's eye, Fielding's play sends up an entertainment industry pandering to consumers and driven by profit rather than aesthetic or moral value. It's as relevant as ever.
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Wives as they were, maids as they are | Elizabeth inchbald | 1797
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Cast size: 7M, 3W
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The wife: tyrannized by her husband and harassed by an unwanted admirer. The maid: fed up with being told how to behave by condescending men. Both women are financially and sexually entrapped by an ideal of domestic femininity. Inchbald's searching - and brilliantly funny - exploration of how women can resist men’s control over their bodies in a sex/gender system that grants them so little agency has never been more urgent.
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THE DISCOVERY | FRANCES SHERIDAN | 1763
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Cast size: 5W, 4M
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Sir Harry Flutter and his wife Lady Flutter are a naive married couple who fight over silly things while stuffy, curmudgeonly Lord Medway tries to marry off his children to repair his own fortunes. The bad dad is eventually brought low through the “discovery” that the rich widow he wants his son to marry is, in fact, Medway’s daughter. Written by the mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who drew on his mother’s work for key scenes in The Rivals and The School for Scandal, Frances Sheridan’s The Discovery reflects a thorough knowledge of comic stagecraft, crowd-pleasing comic devices, and a prescient awareness of gender dynamics.
THE BELLE'S STRATAGEM | HANNAH COWLEY | 1780
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Cast size: 5W, 7M (4W, 6M with doubling)
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Letitia is betrothed to Doricourt, but she wants a real relationship with him, not an obligation. Cowley’s answer to She Stoops to Conquer, includes meaty roles for women, references to the American revolution, a fop, a helpful ex-boyfriend, and critiques of conventional gender. This is a crowd-pleasing comedy with a contemporary track record of success.
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THE LAW AGAINST LOVERS | WILLIAM DAVENANT | 1662
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Cast size: 5W, 13M (multiple opportunities for doubling)
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The marriage market is open in this winning mash-up of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Measure for Measure. Featuring singing, dancing, sword-fights, and Davenant’s answer to the problems of both originals, The Law Against Lovers offers the comfort of familiarity with the piquancy of surprise.
THE CITY HEIRESS | APHRA BEHN | 1682
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Cast size: 5W, 7M
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The "City Heiress," Charlot, is wooed by Sir Timothy Treat-All, a "seditious knight," and his nephew, the rakish Tom Wilding. When Treat-All disinherits his nephew, Wilding takes revenge in a fast-paced carnivalesque romp through mistaken identities, a faked burglary, and a false offer of kingship. In the end, Wilding receives his inheritance and Charlot’s hand; on the way, the play interrogates women’s precarious social position in a world where no safety is guaranteed.
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THE RUNAWAY | HANNAH COWLEY | 1776
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Cast size: 5W, 7M
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Hargrave wants Lady Dinah’s fortune for his son George. Lady Dinah wants George, period. George wants Emily. Emily does not want Baldwin. Miscommunication, the delights of rural life, and wit take center stage in this comedy where love–but not alway marriage–wins the day.
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THE HAUNTED HOUSE | JOSEPH ADDISON | 1716
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Cast size: 2W, 7M
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Rich widow Lady Truman is beset by suitors - all of them after her fortune. To make matters worse, a ghostly drumming disturbs the house each night, terrifying her and the servants alike. But reports of George Truman's death have been greatly exaggerated. Disguised as a conjuror, he returns home determined to get rid of the suitors - including the "ghost" - and discover whether his wife still loves him. A comedy that skewers vanity, greed, and superstition.
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WHO's THE DUPE? | HANNAH COWLEY | 1716
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Cast size: 2W, 4M
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Elizabeth’s father – a rich, Cockney merchant – is determined to marry her to a man of learning. The man in question is Gradus, a stuffy Oxford academic who knows lots about obscure classical texts and nothing at all about how to woo a woman. But Elizabeth has other ideas. Her preference is for Granger, a poor but dashing captain in the army (who loves Elizabeth… and her fortune). With the aid of her cousin and Granger’s friend, can Elizabeth see to it that Granger not Gradus wins her hand? In this riotous two-act farce, the scholar must pass as a man of fashion, and the man of fashion as a scholar.
THE MOGUL TALE | ELIZABETH INCHBALD | 1784
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Cast size: 4W, 5M
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What do you get when you put an English quack doctor, a cobbler, and his wife in a hot air balloon that lands in Turkey? Inchbald’s farce pokes fun at the craze for hot air balloons, ridiculous ideas about Muslims, and English nationalism. The play contrasts the Sultan’s compassion with British imperialism as the foolish English carry the farce.
THE BUSY BODY | SUSANNA CENTLIVRE | 1709
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Cast size: 4W, 6M
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A young woman, her handsome lover, and their friends plot to escape a controlling guardian in this clever and hilarious comedy. But will the nosy Marplot - the "busy body" - ruin the plan? Packed with brilliant characters, Centlivre's hugely popular play pits parents against children and explores how women might find freedom of choice in an age of the marriage contract.
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WILD OATS | JOHN O'KEEFFE | 1791
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Cast size: 3W, 14M (doubling possible)
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The characters (many of whom are pretending to be someone else) practice for an upcoming performance of As You Like It. It’s a rollicking comedy full of juicy details about eighteenth century playcraft - how to memorize lines, how to come in and out of character, and in-jokes about Shakespearian performance - that make it a great choice for a Shakespeare festival.
THE SUSPICIOUS HUSBAND | BENJAMIN HOADLY | 1747
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Cast size: 7W, 9M (doubling possible)
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A jealous husband and a virtuous wife. Two lively young couples whose attempts to get together are both advanced and impeded by their unattached ‘friend’: the comical, agile, foolish rake Ranger. A farcical comedy with teeth, The Suspicious Husband examines the suffering of what we would now call coercive control in marriage contrasted with the high spirits of freewheeling men and women about town.
sir anthony love | thomas southerne | 1690
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Cast size: 3W, 10M, 1 flexible (doubling possible)
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The rakish Sir Anthony “as famous for [his] action with the men / as for [his] passion for the women” follows the dashing and handsome Valentine to Montpelier, determined to reignite the love affair they enjoyed in London when Valentine knew Sir Anthony as Lucia, a woman abandoned by her lover, Sir Golding. Sir Anthony joins Valentine and the prickly Ilford in madcap capers with three young local women determined to make their own choices in love. A witty exploration of the gaps between appearance and reality in multiple registers, the play appears to end according to the generic conventions of comedy while in reality offering ample space to explore the unconventional happy endings of its characters. In particular, the play offers strong potential for explorations of sexuality and gender identity.
THE ROVER | APHRA BEHN | 1677
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Cast size: 7W, 12M (5W, 7M with doubling)
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It's carnival time in Naples and Willmore and his friends - English Cavaliers who've lost everything now that Cromwell is in charge back home - are in town for a good time. Their fortunes and affections become entwined with those of two sisters: one who is to be sent to a nunnery, the other who is being pressured to marry against her wishes. Throw in duels, drunkenness, and disguises - and a famous courtesan - and you have a comedy of sparkling dialogue and confused identities... with a dark and violent edge to it.
THE EMPEROR OF THE MOON | APHRA BEHN | 1687
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Cast size: 3W, 3M + 1-2 flexible
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Doctor Baliardo is spending too much time with his telescope and has come to be believe that he can use it to spy on the king of the moon. Can his closely guarded daughter and niece (and their respective suitors) use Baliardo's gullibility to their advantage and ensure that love triumphs? Behn's spectacular comedy of lunar-cy is a play all about the problems of seeing and believing in an age when science and technology seem to make the impossible possible and the invisible visible.
THE BEAU DEFEATED | MARY PIX | 1700
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Cast size: 9W, 8M (possibilities for doubling; could be done with a cast of 6)
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As the widow of a banker, Mrs Rich has lots of money and little sense - and is hell-bent on climbing the social ladder by marrying a lord. She covets 'a name that shall fill the mouth', and neither good taste nor good manners stand in her way. Lady Landsworth, meanwhile, is a widow of a different sort. She has her heart set on one man... once she's tested him, that is. Pix's hilarious and sharp-edged skewering of class obsession, social pretence, and selfishness is as relevant now as ever.
TRAGEDIES
ALL FOR LOVE | JOHN DRYDEN | 1677
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Cast size: 4, 6M
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This stellar example of “Restoration Shakespeare” is a revision of Anthony and Cleopatra with depth, thoughtfulness, and order, including a much reduced cast of 10. A middle-aged Anthony cannot get over his loss at Actium and dallies with the tempestuous Cleopatra, who rejects the wifely role that a scorned Octavia embodies. A great choice to pair with Anthony and Cleopatra or as an alternative Shakespeare, All for Love is rich in figurative language, a psychological portrait of infidelity, midlife crisis, and political intrigue.
Zara | AAron Hill | 1721
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Cast size: 6M, 2W (doubling possible)
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Zara is enslaved to the Turkish Sultan, but they fall in love. Yet when Zara discovers her Christian lineage, she’s plunged into an unbearable conflict: between love for a Muslim man and pressure from her family to embrace Christianity. Based on Voltaire's Zaïre, Hill’s tragedy explores the anxieties about religious difference that haunt the European fascination with the non-Christian.
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The Revenge | Edward Young | 1721
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Cast size: 5M, 3W (some doubling possible)
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Zanga, an African prince enslaved by Spanish conquerors, experiences one indignity too many: his master's callous slap resolves Zanga to plot gruesome, calculated revenge. Tracing the corrosive effects of disrespect and micro-aggressions within a hegemonic system, Young's tragedy dramatizes what propels oppressed peoples to revolt.
Cato | Joseph Addison | 1713
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Cast size: 9M, 2W (with minor doubling)
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The plot sets the values of representative government and virtuous nationalism against the tyranny and greed of a despot, the former embodied in the republican Cato, the latter in the tyrant Caesar. Juba, a Numidian prince, holds out hope for continuing Cato’s virtuous nationalism into a future fight against tyranny. The play’s themes speak to the sacrifices currently being made by those fighting for Ukrainian freedom as well as to the despotism of a Putin. The character of Juba brings to the stage the importance of including brown and black peoples in any sustainable vision of democracy.
The London Merchant | George lillo | 1731
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Cast size: 5M, 3W
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Capitalism vs. Morality is predictably gendered in this tragedy... but the irresistible villainess could be "ripped from the headlines" of a Hollywood blockbuster. The wealthy merchant's apprentice commits adultery, theft, and even murder at the behest of a temptress. Her motive? Revenge for a lifetime of exploitation by men. Both go to the gallows, but she remains proudly defiant to the end.
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DE MONFORT | JOANNA BAILLIE | 1798
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Cast size: 4W, 7M (doubling possible)
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De Monfort - wealthy, respected, loved - is driven to madness and murder by his all-consuming hatred of another man. Is he truly being goaded or is it all in his imagination? And is his love for his saintly sister really that of a brother? Baillie's gothic tragedy powerfully demonstrates her belief that theatre was the preeminent place for dissecting the human passions.
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THE MASSACRE | ELIZABETH INCHBALD | 1792
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Cast size: 2W, 9M (doubling possible)
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Inchbald daringly explores the causes and costs of revolutionary violence by focusing on the desperate plight of a single family as the mob arrives at their door. Written in 1792, as the French Revolution spiralled into bloodshed, and too politically provocative to be staged, this short tragedy - which can be performed in just 40 minutes - remains chillingly timely.
VENICE PRESERVED | THOMAS OTWAY | 1682
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Cast size: 2W, 7M
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Poor and disaffected, Jaffeir joins a group of conspirators plotting a bloody coup against the Venetian state. But when one conspirators attempts to assault his wife, Belvidera, Jaffeir's loyalties are torn. In Otway's political tragedy, the senate is utterly corrupt, but those who seek political change are no better. Women are, inevitably, the collateral in this bleak and chilling exploration of power, desire, and self-interest.
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THE FAIR PENiTENT | NICHOLAS ROWE | 1702
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Cast size: 2W, 5M
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Calista is deeply unhappy: pressured into marriage with the milquetoast Altamont by her scrupulously honorable father Sciolto only days after Sciolto's enemy, Lothario, oozed through her chamber window, seduced her, and then refused to marry her. Just as Altamont and Calista seal their bond, his friend and brother-in-law Horatio stumbles upon the truth, setting in motion a series of tragic confrontations. At the heart of it all, Calista - "all indignation, love, [and] shame" - rails against Lothario, herself, and the society that makes women "through every stage of life the slaves of men." Rowe's wildly popular play is a surprisingly modern examination of patriarchy and toxic masculinity within an accessible domestic setting, with a heroine in the vein of Bel-imperia and Cleopatra.
MIXED GENRE PLAYS
KING LEAR | NAHUM TATE | 1681
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Cast size: 3W, 8M (doubling possible)
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Adapted from the Shakespeare play of the same name, Tate's wildly popular version cuts the Fool but ends happily: with justice restored and Lear resigning his throne to Cordelia, alive and well and married to Edgar.
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SUCH THINGS ARE | Elizabeth Inchbald | 1787
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Cast size: 3W, 14M
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Set in Sumatra, this comedy skewers the class-climbing and pretentiousness of British colonials, while a parallel plot about sympathetic, wrongfully imprisoned indigenous characters plays out the dark undertones of colonial oppression. A Sultan is reunited with a wife who was wrongly incarcerated and is moved to reform the unjust and oppressive systems that led to her imprisonment.
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oroonoko | Thomas Southerne | 1696
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Cast size: 7M, 2W
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Southerne's play - based on Aphra Behn's novella - gives us the drama of an African Prince and his beloved who have been sold into slavery in the British colony of Surinam. This play opens an opportunity for actors to explore what W.E.B. Dubois has called “double-consciousness”: how African chattel slavery and its historical legacy have endowed Black people with knowledge of Eurocentric culture and values while denying their claims to social being and, ultimately, life itself.
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THE ENCHANTED ISLAND | DAVENANT & DRYDEN | 1667
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Cast size: 5W, 9M (doubling possible)
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This reworking of The Tempest gives both Miranda and Caliban sisters, and also adds a man who's never seen by a woman (Hippolito) - a role designed to be played by a woman! Prospero, meanwhile, is a far darker character: never in control, anxious of his power, and full of sadistic rage when his plans unravel. Despite its happy ending, the play's troubling questions about political authority remain.
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