A well-written one-act play is a lot like a tight jazz solo: succinct and powerful, with no wasted motion and containing only the most compelling of the artist’s ideas. But many excellent one-act plays are rarely produced—they’re too short to constitute a night of theatre, but presenting them in combination with other one-acts can require a tricky match of tone, scenic design, and cast. Nevertheless, we have a soft spot for these small gems, so here’s our tribute to those we’ve loved (and would love to see again).
(alphabetical by playwright)
J. M. Barrie: The Shaw Festival in Ontario each year schedules a midday one act, usually a highlight of the festival in our opinion. Several of our favorites have been by J. M. Barrie (best known for Peter Pan, of course). The Twelve-Pound Look, first produced in 1910 and presented at the Shaw Festival in 2015, deliciously combined wry observations on the status of women, ample class-skewering, and humor. Half an Hour, which premiered in 1913 and at the Shaw Festival in 2010, depicts a 30-minute period in which the protagonist’s decisions will determine the course of the rest of her life. As many reviewers noted, this is a short play that you think about for a very long time.
Anton Chekhov: Who would have thought that Chekhov could be so funny? Thanks to the Shaw Festival (2006), Butler University (2006), and the now-defunct Greasy Joan and Company (2008), we’ve seen three programs of Chekhov’s one-act comedies (including The Bear, The Proposal, A Reluctant Tragic Hero, The Dangers of Tobacco, and Lady with a Lapdog). The plays are both poignant and amusing, and the character-driven humor is as relevant today as when the plays were written in the late nineteenth century.
Noel Coward: In 2009, the Shaw Festival in Ontario produced all ten one-act plays from Coward’s Tonight at 8:30—”the first time all ten plays have been presented together in repertory theatre history,” according to the festival’s press release. While the quality of the ten plays varied (not surprisingly), we greatly enjoyed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the entire cycle. Coward wrote Tonight at 8:30 in part to “revive” the one-act play, a sentiment we applaud.
Hannah Moscovitch: In 2011, Signal Theatre produced a pair of one acts, East of Berlin and The Russian Play by Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch. With direction by Ronan Marra and only three actors (accompanied by a violinist in The Russian Play), the plays totally transported you to their world, accompanied by an emotional workout and a good dose of sardonic humor. In 2013, Signal Theatre staged an engrossing production of another one-act by Moscovitch: the 90-minute This Is War, depicting the nature of modern war and the human toll on those who wage it.
