Josef Weinberger – Full-Length Comedies

WANTED: ONE BODY! by Raymond Dyer
(5 Men. 4 Women. 1 interior set).
This is a classic murder mystery of disappearing bodies, siding panels and howls in the night.
Two solicitors arrive at the home of the Barraclough family to read the will of the late owner
only to discover that his body has vanished along with the will! A whodunit with the
emphasis on laughter, this play is hilarious fun for actors and audience alike.

TIME MURDERER PLEASE by Raymond Dyer (5 Men. 5 Women. 1 interior set – Pub).
Highly successful comedy/thriller keeps audiences guessing until final curtain. Quick, slick
and thoroughly entertaining, the attention is held from beginning. There is a neat twist at
the end.

THE WOMAN WHO COOKED HER HUSBAND by Debbie Isitt
(1 M. 2 W. Flexible staging).
Kenneth and Hilary have been married for 20 years. Ken meets Laura but the fling gets out
of hand and his world becomes a tangle of lies and deceit. He leaves Hilary for Laura but
there’s one problem … Laura can’t cook! Hilary invites Ken & Laura for supper. Ken accepts
– unaware of the delicacies Hilary plans to serve!

YOU’RE ONLY YOUNG TWICE by Ron Aldridge
(3 Men. 4 Women. 1 interior set).
The age-old story – running around with a gang, staying out late, drinking parties, loud music
etc. etc. – Sue and Robert have all of these problems. But it is Sue’s Dad and his Over 60s
Club who are causing havoc by their unruly lifestyle! There is a wedding in the offing until
one particularly heavy stag night …… and Dad starts feeling his age.

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufmann (9M 7W 1 Interior set)
The Sycamores seem mad. The Kirbys are snobbish. Wealthy Tony Kirby loves Alice
Sycamore. The families are to meet at dinner at the Sycamores, and the Kirbys duly arrive –
on the wrong night. Alice is heartbroken and embarrassed and tries to call off the
engagement. Tony however resolves to win his parents over to the Sycamore’s more
endearing qualities which include manufacturing homemade fireworks in the basement,
ballet dancing in the kitchen, writing plays and not paying income tax!

MURDERED TO DEATH by Peter Gordon
(5 Men. 5 Women. 1 Interior set).
This is a spoof of the best Agatha Christie traditions. There’s a butler, an English Colonel, a
shady French art dealer and his moll, bumbling local inspectors and a well-meaning local
sleuth who seems to attract murder – all caught up in side-splitting antics. Will the
murderer be unmasked before everyone has met his doom, or will the audience die laughing
first?

THE OFFICE PARTY by John Godber
(4 Men. 3 Women. 1 Interior set).
From the arrival of the first eager few to kick off the celebrations of clinching a lucrative
account, everyone tries to get into the party spirit. Body language and other signals are
misread, culminating in a party night they’d all rather forget. A hilariously funny yet poignant
exploration of just why people behave as they so often do when faced with selfconsciousness - and over-confidence - in such circumstances. Just who will show a face
tomorrow or, more importantly, who won’t?

ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS by John Godber
(3 Men. 2 Women. Flexible staging).
Richard is middle-aged, middle-class and content with his lot - but all this changes when he
gets the decorators in! Richard finds himself on a wild and unpredictable night on the town
after a chance meeting with the die-hard party animals (and sometime decorators), Danny
and Leo and their wives – with hilarious and disastrous consequences all round.

BOUNCERS by John Godber
(4 Men. Multiple role-playing. Bare stage)
Presented by just 4 actors, this play is an outrageous and hilarious parody of the disco scene
of the ‘eighties/’nineties. It portrays a night on the tiles from the point of view of the men
on the door. It is a funny energetic piece of highly theatrical story-telling where the men are
at once themselves and every character they happen to meet at the nightclub.

SHAKERS by John Godber & Jane Thornton (4 Women. Multiple role-playing. Bare stage).
A wickedly funny glimpse of the world of the trendy cocktail bar from the point of view of 4
overworked and underpaid waitresses. A fascinating and often hilarious view of the reality
that lurks behind the plastic palms and the pina coladas!

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by Joseph Kesselring
(11 Men. 3 Women. 1 Interior set).
A timeless and classic hit, this is the amusing story of two charming and innocent elderly
ladies who poison their poor lonely lodgers and bury their bodies in the cellar in the belief
that they are saving them from the sorrows of this world! A widely acclaimed comedy hit.

BOSTON MARRIAGE by David Mamet
(3 Women 1 interior set)
‘Boston Marriage’ - a term coined by Henry James - is a nineteenth century euphemism for a
romantic friendship enjoyed by two unmarried women of independent means. This is a
wickedly and wittily entertaining exploration of the on/off relationship between Anna and
Claire who exchange barbs and take turns taunting Anna’s maid. The dialogue combines
Wildean artifice with contemporary frankness.