Plays written in English or translated into English; Published since 1900 Cover title: Index to one-act plays for stage, radio, and television.

Good evening. I'm Inspector Carter. Take my case. This must be Charles Haversham! I'm sorry, this must've given you all a damn shock. After benefitting from a large and sudden inheritance, the inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society embark on producing an ambitious 1920s murder mystery. They are delighted that neither casting issues nor technical hitches currently stand in their way. However, hilarious disaster ensues and the cast start to crack under the pressure, but can they get the production back on track before the final curtain falls? The Play That Goes Wrong is a farcical murder mystery, a play within a play, conceived and performed by award-winning company Theatre Mischief. It was first published as a one-act play and is published in this new edition as a two-act play.

The one-act play stands apart as a distinct art form with some well known writers providing specialist material, among them Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill. Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Albee and Tennesee Williams. There are also lesser-known writers with plenty of material to offer, yet sourcing one-act plays to perform is notoriously hard. This companion is the first book to survey the work of over 250 playwrights in an illuminating A-Z guide. Multiple styles, nationalities and periods are covered, offering a treasure trove of compelling moments of theatre waiting to be discovered. Guidance on performing and staging one-act plays is also covered as well as essential contact information and where to apply for performance rights. A chapter introducing the history of the one-act play rounds off the title as a definitive guide.

This fine selection of 20th century plays includes contributions from Robert Emmons Rogers ("The Boy Will"), Booth Tarkington ("Beauty and the Jacobin"), Ernest Dowson ("The Pierrot of the Minute"), Oliphant Down ("The Maker of Dreams"), Percy MacKaye ("Gettysburg"), A.A. Milne ("Wurzel-Flummery"), Harold Brighouse ("Maid of France"), Lady Gregory ("Spreading the News"), Jeannette Marks ("Welsh Honeymoon"), John Millington Synge ("Riders to the Sea"), Lord Dunsany ("A Night at an Inn"), Stark Young ("The Twilight Saint"), Lady Alix Egerton ("The Masque of the Two Strangers"), Maurice Maeterlinck ("The Intruder"), Josephine Preston Peabody ("Fortune and Men's Eyes"), and John Galsworthy ("The Little Man"). All of these plays may be staged free of charge in the United States (and possible in other countries--check your local copyright laws for details).