The Theatre: Next Up

One man's dream is another man's nightmare...

...And in The Actor's Nightmare, George Spelvin certainly gets the wrong end of that bargain. Playwright Christopher Durang thrusts his anxious accountant on the stage to replace an ailing actor, but George has no knowledge of the lines or even the name of the play -- is it a Noel Coward comedy? Shakespeare's Hamlet? As the almost too real executioner approaches, George hopes against hope that it's only a dream!

On the silver side of the dream is Moon and Birdboot, two theatre critics in Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, who aspire to live out their dreams of fame and sexual prowess. As the hilarious Agatha Christie-style play-within-a-play begins, the two critics place their focus on the cliché-sodden country style mystery. Eventually their own personal obsessions take over and they find themselves onstage and deeply involved as the murderer's identity is revealed. As the story takes its hilarious twists and turns, our intrepid critics might find their dream closer to a nightmare than originally thought!