Videoteca

William Shakespeare's Hamlet 1990
A Danish prince and university student avenges his father's murder by his uncle, who stole the crown and married his mother.

Alice in Wonderland 1983 star_border 8
From the elaborate Broadway revival of the 1932 Eva Le Gallienne/Florida Friebus production comes a whimsical retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic.

The Regard of Flight 1983
A performer/artist with a bag of vaudeville tricks and the help of his trusty piano player must prove to a critic that there is still a way to present New Theatre without relying on devices. Like trampolines.

The Skin of Our Teeth 1983 star_border 10
Production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play "The Skin of Our Teeth," the story of Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus, their children Henry and Gladys, and their maid Sabina. They are simultaneously a typical American family living in a present-day New Jersey suburb and are also Adam, Eve, Lilith, Cain and a daughter who survive the Ice Age (although their pet dinosaurs do not), the Flood (as in the book of Genesis in the Bible) and War (as in WWII).

Fifth of July 1982 star_border 7
Ken Talley, a Vietnam vet who lost his legs in combat, lives in a farmhouse in rural Missouri with his lover, Jed. Traumatized and bitter, Ken struggles to find meaning in his life. As he contemplates selling the farmhouse, old friends and family members descend for a vacation. Originally broadcast as part of the series "American Playhouse" (season 1, episode 9).

Working 1982 star_border 4.3
This musical adaptation of the Studs Terkel book examines the average worker's viewpoint--showing that he or she is anything but average. Based on a series of interviews with real working people--construction workers, waitresses, firemen, secretaries, and cleaning women, Working is both an exploration of the individuals' occupations and a lament for lost hopes and dreams.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf 1982 star_border 10
The powerful tales of seven diverse African-American women are woven together in this 1982 performance of Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-winning landmark play. A breakthrough portrayal of black women's experiences in America, the story combines music, poetry and dance to celebrate their unique culture while painting a poignant portrait of their terrible struggles.

Alice at the Palace 1982 star_border 5.5
Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Based on the acclaimed New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, Alice at the Palace follows Alice's surreal adventures with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat, among many others.

The Shady Hill Kidnapping 1982
John Cheever's wry comedy of errors comes to the screen in this filmed presentation from the Broadway Theatre Archive. An upper-middle-class suburb is turned upside-down by the apparent kidnapping of Toby Wooster (Garrett Hanf). Unaware that the whole thing is a setup, the town swings into action to raise funds to meet the kidnappers' ransom demands. George Grizzard, Polly Holliday, Katharine Balfour and Celeste Holm star.

The Girls in Their Summer Dresses and Other Stories 1981
Three Irwin Shaw short stories are dramatized. In "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" a young married couple stop for a drink on a Sunday morning in Manhattan, and the conversation turns to the husband's fidelity. "The Monument" centers on the conflict between a popular bartender with a following in an upscale Irish bar in 1938 Manhattan and its owner, who is determined to introduce a more economical whiskey in the establishment over the barkeep's objections. In "The Man Who Married a French Wife" the influential American husband of a French woman is asked by her former lover, a former resistance fighter, to help him escape the country.

Guests of the Nation 1981
This drama tells the story of Irish insurgents and the captured British soldiers whom they are assigned to guard. While confined to a remote farmhouse the foursome enjoy card playing, jig dancing, and a great deal of amiable bickering. Throughout the conviviality, however, Barney Callahan is haunted by the knowledge that reprisals will be in order if the Irish harm their British captives.

Big Blonde 1980 star_border 5
High-spirited model Hazel decides that she should settle down in this stage play based on a Dorothy Parker short story. But her marriage to traveling salesman Herbie Morse fails to satisfy her due to his alcoholism and frequent absences. Dispirited and bored, Hazel turns to alcohol herself—and to other men—as her lively spirit sinks and her life begins a downward spiral.

Happy Days 1980
Winnie, a woman in her fifties, is buried waist-deep in a mound of scorched earth, with just a large, black shopping bag and a collapsed parasol. Behind her and hidden from view sleeps Willie.

The Pirates of Penzance 1980 star_border 6.1
This Pirates of Penzance is primarily a historical document, part of the Broadway Theater Archive television series. It presents, with some inevitable, tiny technical shortcomings, a live 1980 performance in Central Park, not the 1983 movie of the same name that also starred Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline. Those who remember that film, which had the benefit of retakes and editing, a lavish production budget, and the spaciousness of a Hollywood studio, may find this video less polished. On its own terms, it is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.

The Five Forty-Eight 1979
An advertising man, emotionally estranged from his wife and those around him, has seduced and then fired and discarded his secretary. She pursues him and forces him to confront the squalor of his life.

O Youth and Beauty! 1979 star_border 10
Cash Bentley and his wife Louise lead an average upper-middle-class life in suburbia, with a nice home and two fine children. But Cash grows increasingly unsettled in his life, yearning for the glories of his athletic youth and watching them fade further in the distance with accumulating age. Louise worries about him as his difficulties with mid-life pull him further away from happiness and comfort with his family.

The Sorrows of Gin 1979 star_border 10
An affluent suburban couple's empty and gin-fueled lives are observed through the eyes of their neglected, eight-year old daughter.

When Hell Freezes Over, I'll Skate 1979
This lively, spirit-lifting musical celebrates the sheer joy -- and survival -- of black music, song and poetry since the days of America's Civil War. With utter grace and ease, the gifted eight-member singing ensemble glides from gospel to disco and from slave-quarter sermons to contemporary black poetry.

Uncommon Women and Others 1979
While at an impromptu reunion lunch, five women reminisce and relive their college days at Mount Holyoke, and weigh their goals and aspirations against their lives.

The Good Doctor 1978 star_border 0.5
A writer (made to resemble Russian playwright Anton Chekhov) narrates a collection of his stories, all of which are written in the style of Chekhov.

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Mourning Becomes Electra 1978 star_border 1
In a Greek tragedy updated to the 1860s, young New Englanders exact vengeance after the murder of their father.