It is early summer in the secluded seaside village of Betworthy. But there is a strained atmosphere in the once-prosperous Maitland household, because the family has fallen on hard times. Performance presents the first production for 60 years of the witty and tragic family drama by Ronald Mackenzie.

The Maitlands

Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after WW2. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens.

Absolute Hell

When Vanya's brother-in-law declares his intention to sell the family's house, polite facades begin to crumble and long repressed feelings start to emerge with devastating consequences.

Uncle Vanya

An adaptation of Roberto Cossa's Argentinian drama, the play focuses on a family desperately struggling against inflation and unemployment while trying to assuage the insatiable appetite of their 100-year old grandmother.

Nona

A married couple are visited by a friend from their past, who causes them unease and even embarrassment.

Old Times

Marlene celebrates her new position as MD of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five oddly assorted women from centuries past.

Top Girls

Dramatization of the famous 1971 trial in which the editors of the British underground magazine "Oz" were charged with obscenity.

The Trials of Oz

Among the residents of Los Angeles during the 1940s were Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht and, according to this play, the Austro-Hungarian dramatist Odon Von Horvath, our guide to the sun-soaked boulevards and the bizarre cultural collisions of wartime Hollywood.

Tales From Hollywood

Years ago, Nora Helmer committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed, and lives in fear of her husband finding out.

A Doll's House

Beatie returns to her family home in Norfolk, having been "educated" in cultural and political matters by Ronnie, the boyfriend she lived with in London. Through trying to pass on the things she's learnt to her uninterested family, she discovers her own voice and views—which are no longer just an echo of Ronnie's.

Roots

David and Joan's life has been one continuous party, but their marriage is loveless. Suddenly a young girl appears in their world and announces that she's in love with David and wants to change his life for ever. Critics called it Terence Rattigan's most serious and truthful play, but it has not been seen for 50 years.

After the Dance

Originally set in a theatre, this new version of Luigi Pirandello's classic play takes place in a film studio in 1950 and is recorded in black and white. A family carrying a great personal tragedy of shame and despair have come to the studio to find somebody who can describe their experiences and explain what they've done to each other.

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Mrs Venable's grief at the loss of her beloved poet son Sebastian turns to rage against her niece Catharine, his last companion and witness of his gruesome death. Determined to erase the memory of Sebastian's loss, she tries to persuade her pet doctor to perform a lobotomy on Catharine.

Suddenly Last Summer

Hedda Gabler is a beautiful woman married to the solid and respectable academic George Tesman. Then an old flame, the dreamer Eilert Lovborg, turns up on the scene with tragic results.

Hedda Gabler

The play uses the metaphor of the dying music hall tradition, specifically fictional music hall star Archie Rice, to comment on the moribund state of the British Empire in the 1950s.

The Entertainer

Just days before her wedding, Beatrice-Joanna has a chance encounter with Alsemero, and realizes that she has met her one true love. To marry the man she loves, she persuades the love-struck henchman De Flores to murder her fiancé, but does not anticipate the tragic consequences of her actions.

The Changeling

A Parliamentary committee decides to commission a portrait as a memorial to an ageing Conservative, wartime ex-Prime Minister, Sir David Browning. Bizarrely, they choose anarchic, anti-establishment and equally ageing artist James Player, who appears to stand for the very opposite values and positions to his prospective sitter. During sittings the two men find many opportunities to score political and social points off each. Screened with an with an introduction by Brian Walden, a contemporary of writer Dennis Potter at Oxford and an old Oxford political sparring partner.

Message For Posterity

Modern dress version of Shakespeare's "problem comedy" emphasizing the darker elements of the play and eliminating most of the humor, as Claudio is dragged to the police station on charges of fornication, and given a rectal exam in front of a window.

Measure for Measure

A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

The Deep Blue Sea

In 1975, after a nuclear war, the nations have combined to set up a World Government. An old man who lives quietly in the country finds his peace threatened by a visit from three World Government figures.

Summer Day's Dream

Paddy Chayefsky's 1954 play set in the Bronx tells the story of a recently widowed 66-year-old seeks a job after 40 years if being a homemaker.

The Mother

In 1920 as the Irish War of Independence rages, two young men, Donald Davoren and Seamus Shields, share a flat in Dublin. First installment in Sean O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy.

Shadow of a Gunman

Mrs Holroyd is married to a loutish miner. When a gentlemanly neighbour makes romantic advances to her, she wishes her husband dead. Sooner than she hoped, her wish comes true.

The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd

Beth sits in an armchair to the left of the table, and Duff in a chair at the opposite end. Duff refers normally to Beth but does not appear to hear her voice. Beth never looks at Duff and does not appear to hear his voice.

Landscape

Surreal drama about seven old people living in the same bed.

Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising.

Henry IV

An updated version of Strindberg's play examining class and social differences. Julie, the daughter of an MP, seduces her father's chauffeur, despite his being engaged to the maid.

After Miss Julie

At his 35th birthday party Bobby's friends are all wondering: Why isn't he married? Why can't he find the right woman and settle down?

Company

A group of English gay men get together to reminisce. They are all coming from a wake for one of their circle who's died of AIDS. It's that terrifying time between the outbreak of AIDS and the development of an AIDS test and as the conversation unfolds it becomes apparent that each man there has had unprotected sex with the deceased.

My Night with Reg

The incompetent Richard II is deposed by Henry Bolingbroke and undergoes a crisis of identity once he is no longer king.

Richard II

A Jewish housewife in 1938 Brooklyn loses the use of her legs after reading about Kristallnacht.

Broken Glass

Shakespeare's play updated to the present day. On a council estate where people survive by dealing drugs and shoplifting, Duncan is the Godfather. Urged by Mrs Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan.

Macbeth on the Estate

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

King Lear

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

All Episodes of Performance

Season 1

Absolute Hell

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 10/5/1991

Uncle Vanya

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/1991

Nona

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/19/1991

Old Times

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/26/1991

Top Girls

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/1991

The Trials of Oz

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/1991