ONE ACT COMEDY PLAY SCRIPTS & MONOLOGUES BY BRUCE KANE
ONE ACT COMEDY PLAYS    FEMALE MONOLOGUES   MALE MONOLOGUES   JUSTIN THYME MYSTERIES


All play and monologue scripts are available for immediate download. Click Here to purchase a play script.
Royalties are required on ALL performances of our plays and monologues.

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Monologues Ten Minute Play Scripts Five Minute Play Scripts One Act Play Scripts "Caesar & Cleo" Justin Thyme Mysteries

COMING IN JULY
"Caught In The Act" - Strasbourg, France

"Under The Balcony" "Ruby of Elsinore" - Criterion Theatre, Australia

"In The Beginning" - Alberta, CA
"Caught In The Act" - Barnfield Theatre, UK
"Instructions To The Audience", "Caught In The Act" - Winnipeg Fringe Festival
"Cindy & Julie" - The Cork Arts Theatre, Ireland
"Cindy & Julie" - Grand Rapids, MI
"Caesar & Cleo" - Landmark College, VT

COMING IN SEPTEMBER
"Under The Balcony" - St. Louis Community College

COMING IN NOVEMBER
"The Case Of The Prince Formerly Known As Hamlet" - Hertfordshire, UK

"Caught In The Act" - Regal Theatre, Somerset, UK
"In The Beginning" - Invercargill, New Zealand

AUDIO PRODUCTIONS
Listen to audio productions of our plays.
"The Prince Formerly Known As Hamlet - A Justin Thyme Mystery"
"Caesar & Cleo"
"Wham! Bam!"

Coming Soon - "The Case Of The Tale Told By An Idiot - A Justin Thyme Mystery"

Click on play title to read short excerpt

FULL LENGTH ONE ACT PLAYS

SHORT ONE ACT PLAYS

JUSTIN THYME MYSTERIES

Winner - Regional One Act Play Festival, Medicine Hat, AB - Canada

Two characters trapped in a one act play try to break free while working out their relationship in a scenario that keeps getting re-written.

(1 man, 1 woman)

"Bruce Kane's script crackles with gentle humour." CBC News

"Thanks for your brilliant play – the audience loved it!"
Rebecca E. (Becky) Grewer
Medicine Hat Musical Theatre

Recent Productions
John Carroll University
U. of Central Missouri
U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Kyogle Theatre Society-Canada
Woking Drama Festival
Thompson Rivers U.
Tagora Theatre Group, France
Adelphia Theatre Club, UK
Terrace Little Theatre Co.- Canada
Rice University

Northern Michigan U.
Concord Academic Student Theater, NH
Sandgate, Theatre, Brisbane, Australia
York Mills Collegiate Institute, Canada
Carleton College, MN
Nenagh Players, Ireland

Antigonish, NS, Canada

Finalist - Macra National Drama Festival,
Ireland

Winner - East Division
All England Theatre Festival
"Best Comedy"

In a land where "beauty is only skin deep - thank God" a "woman of a certain age" takes drastic action when she learns that she's been surpassed in the looks department by her sexy stepdaughter as the tales of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White" get rolled into a 90210 facelift.

Recent Productions
Rennsalear Polytechnic Inst.
Southend Drama Festival, UK
Bishop Ready High School
Eastern High School, NJ
Canfield High School, OH

Newfound Regional High,
Hinsdale School, IL
Lebanese American University, Beirut

Daniel Hand High School, CT
The English Theatre Group, Strasbourg (France)
Belmont High, MA
Abbey Park High School, Canada
Mountbellew, Ireland
North Branch High School
Limerick, Ireland
County Cork, Ireland
Hotchkiss School, CT

Hanford High School, WA
Crown Point High, IN

A slovenly and indecisive Hamlet, a marriage bent Ophelia, an oversexed Gertrude, a power hungry Claudius and a revenge seeking Ghost let their hair down to Elsinore's hippest hair dresser.

Winner - "2007 All-Ireland
One Act Play Competition"

Winner -2009 Adjudicator's Prize
Rosebowl Drama Festival - Cyprus

Winner - "Most Original Contribution" 2008 Cork, Ireland Youth Drama Festival

Winner - "2008 Macra Na Feirme National Drama Finals" - Ireland

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"'Recontrahamlet,' the comedy that Shakespeare did not write...reaches its highest point in the sequence 'Ruby of Elsinore' by Bruce Kane"

Sergio Velarde
Founding Member -Association of Peruvian Theatre Critics and Research

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"...we won the Adjudicator's prize for Artistic Originality and my actress playing 'Ophelia' won the Adjudicator's prize for acting achievement (equivalent to best supporting actor/actress prize). The Adjudicator even described the production as "a breath of fresh air". Most importantly everyone enjoyed our production - from the actors to the audience and we had some wonderful feedback.

Julie James
Woodlands Drama Group
Harrogate, England

Recent Productions
Trim Drama Group, Ireland
Vagabond Theatre, Canada
Malthouse Players, Ireland
Goderich Theatre - Canada
The Burnavon - Ireland

Theatre Prelude - Lima, Peru

Dewdney Players, Canada
Crestwood Preparatory College

Ballaly Players, Ireland
Abbey College, Ireland
The English Theatre Group, Strasbourg (France)
Harrogate Theatre, UK
Meeting House Players, CT
Rathfarnham Theatre Group, Ireland
Anglo Cypriot Theatre, Cyprus
Irondale HS, MN
Seaton Town Hall, Devon UK

A comedic look at all the things that make modern romance so much fun including infidelity, emotional masochism, envy, bad sex, letting go and getting caught.

"10 quick takes on the dating game... the sketches move quickly and devastatingly".
Los Angeles Dramalogue

“Opposites” is more than just a play; it’s a fully involved experience. "
City Pulse, Lansing, MI

Recent Productions
Lansing Civic Theatre
Framingham State College, MA
Teatrul Metropolis - Romania
Attic Theatre
Fresno Fringe Festival
St. Bonaventure U.
Shaking Fist Productions
Betchworth Festival, UK
Network Theatre, London
The Living Room, Taipei
Aqualuna, Peru
West Coast Ensemble, L.A.
Scla'ka Si Teatre, Spain
Actors Nausea - Germany
Sleepy Theatre Company, Woking, Surrey, England

Shakespeare's famous balcony scene goes slightly askew when a fleeing Casanova shows up to turn Romeo from a lover to a seducer under Juliet's balcony.

(2 males, 1 female)

Read A Review  

Recent Productions:
Friends University
Pasadena College
Arden Club Theatre
Harry Ainlay High School
Winter Springs Performing Arts
GRAPA, Australia
Theatre On A Shoestring
Lee University
Pass Area Players
Network Theatre, London
Rialto Theatre, TX
West Liberty State College
Baradene College, New Zealand.
Virginia Renaissance Faire
Pomona College
Parkway West High, MO

Montgomery Blair High, MD

Facing a mid-life crisis, a man calls on his reluctant conscience, in the form of his leather clad, whip cracking ex-wife, for help in choosing between his prudish fiancee and a nubile fantasy woman who only exists in his imagination.

One Act Play - 1 man, 3 women

"...a psychologically brilliant and funny piece of work!" - Marsha M. Morgan, Associate Professor of Theatre, Park University

Recent Productions:
Montgomery Playhouse
Park University
Latrobe Theatre Company
University Central Missouri

A man interacts with the women in the audience as well as the three areas of his brain that affect sex and love while trying to find the girl of his dreams.

4 Males - 6 Females
2 female roles can be double cast

Productions:
Pasadena City College
U. of British Columbia
Miami High School
Bentley University
Shippensburg University, PA
Trinity Valley School, TX

US Naval Academy

"Sex And The City" meets Shakespeare when Juliet gets conflicting advice from “Othello’s” romantic Desdemona, “Taming of the Shrew’s” man-hating Katherine and Henry VIII’s man-loving but still beheaded wife Anne Boleyn.

(5 females)

Recent Productions:
Freeport Community Players
Pasadena College
The Ballaly Players
Illinois State Univ.
James Hargest School, NZ
Okotoks, CA
Seaton Town Hall, Devon UK
Alverno College
The Nightingale School, NY

 

 

Cinderella and Juliet commiserate about romantic love, happily ever after and what went wrong with their marriages.

(10 minute play)
(3 women)

"I wanted to tell you that I fell in love with the play at first reading, and still can't get enough of it. My cast of three delightful young women love performing it. Your dialogue flows so beautifully that there is never a problem with lines, and the audience reaction is great."

JoAnn Katz
Township Theater Group, NY

"Writer Bruce Kane cleverly puts a modern spin on the old stories that make them less fairy tales and more every day life.
Vermont Times


Read A Review  

Recent Productions:

Oregon State U.
Sonoma State U.
The Repertory Co.
Milligan College
Reynolds H.S.
Stepping Out Theatre Co. (AUS)
Tagora Theatre Group, France
Lincoln Middle School, WA
Berea High School, OH
Lander University
Meeting House Players, CT
Siegel High School, TN a">
Eisenhower High School, IL
Lebanese American University, Beirut
Ursuline Academy, New Orleans
Mahtomedi, MNM
Irondale HS, MN
Summerhill Community Centre, Meath, Ireland
GRAPA, Australia
VSA Arts of Florida
Ballaly Players,Ireland
North Hennepin Coll.
Vilseck Bavarian Arts Guild
Pass Area Players
Oakland City University
Hillsdale High School, CA
Rialto Theatre, TX  
U. of Wisconsin, River Falls
Sauk Theatre, MI
Eisenhower High, Yakima. WA
Lompoc Civic Theatre Francis Howell North High School. MO>
Township Theatre Group, NY
Tochet High School. WA  
Township Theatre Group, NY
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, FL

Winner - Audience Favorite
Actors Refuge Repertory Theatre

With a reptilian bartender acting as matchmaker, the future of the human race looks anything but promising when a sophisticated Eve meets the hunky but dim Adam over apple margaritas at the Garden of Eden Bar & Grill.

(10 minute play)
(2 Males, 1 Female)


Recent Productions:

Gordon College
GRAPA, Australia
Firestone Theatre
Sonoma State U.
Tennesse State U.
Chesapeake Theatre
Pass Area Players
Network Theatre, London
West Liberty State College
Ripon College
Sauk Theatre, MI
Clinton County Civic Theatre, IN
Mississippi College

Belmont High School, CA
Stepping Out Theatre Co. (AUS)
Attic Theatre
Actors Refuge Repertory Theatre
Freeport Community Players
Theatre On A Shoestring
Jesuit College Prep
Lakewood Theatre Guild
U. of Indianapolis
Friends Univ. 
Great Neck South High School, NY
Parkway Central High, MO
 
James Hargest School , NZ 
Edmonds-Woodway High School. WA 
Arkansas Tech University
Washington High School, OH

"We staged a cabaret-style season of your plays and the whole concept was enthusiastically received…the audiences particularly enjoyed "In the Beginning" and "Cindy & Julie."

Bernie Maxwell
GRAPA
(Griffith NSW Australia)

A man uses his so-called ineptitude around women to successfully hit on them.

(10 minute play)
(1 Man - 2 Women)

Recent Productions:
Western Oregon U.
Rialto Theatre, TX
Pasadena City College

Tochet High School. WA
Calgary, Alberta

An egotistical super hero has difficulty consummating a liaison with the sexy and eager wife of his super hero rival.

Listen to Deluxe Audio Theatre Production

(10 minute play)
(1 man, 1 woman)

Productions:
Indio Performing Arts Center
Southwestern Oregon College


The sexy and suggestive computer voice of a high tech automobile becomes jealous of the new owner's girlfriend and threatens to destroy his life.

(15 minute play)
(1 male - 2 female voices - 1 male voice)

Boston University

A woman, who's recently plunged back into the dating scene, recalls disastrous encounters with three typical males. The strong, silent type who never speaks (Frankenstein), the all gentlemanly one minute and all hands the next type (The Wolfman) and the one night stand who's gone before the sun comes up (Dracula).

"MARJORIE:(breathlessly) Now I know why they call you Vlad... the impaler."

(10 minute play)
(1 female - 3 males)

Productions:
Bancroft Theater Guild
Lakeland College, WI

What happens between the moment a woman insists a complete stranger answer her cell phone and the moment she invites him home.

Pass Area Players
Queen Anne's County High School, MD
Pasadena City College
Broughton, UK

(10 minute play)
(1 male - 1 female)

A stage actress refuses to do a nude scene only to become insanely jealous when the director decides to replace her with an imaginary actress that the audience seems to love.


(1 female, 2 males, 1 male or female)
(
Running time approximately 6-7 minutes)

Productions:
Oregon State U.

Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, MA.

Dwight-Englewood School - NJ

Two masochists form a romantic relationship based on mutual rejection.

(10 minute play)
(1 male, 1 female)

"...If I tell you that the text has been inspired by Bruce Kane’s Masochism Tango , it should give you some idea of the nature of the verbal exchanges. If Woody Allen or Mike Nichols and Elaine May had gone in for movement theater, they might have talked like this."

Allan Ulrich
© VoiceofDance.com 2007

Recent Productions:
West Wave Dance Festival
Coffee Creek Playhouse
Rice University
Trinity College, CT
Broughton Drama Group, UK

Four friends participate in a dance of shifting romances, friendships and betrayals.

(running time 15-16 minutes)
(One act comedy -2 males, 2 females, 2 off-stage voices)

..."I Can Explain," by Bruce Kane, is a short American play on the same theme, more implicit, but also more extravagant and just as funny!"
Claude Vedder
Strasbourg

Recent Productions
FEATS Festival, Strasbourg, France
Pasadena City College
Middletown High School

A sexy, tough talking female superhero with an inferiority complex, negotiates the sale of her life story to the movies.

(running time 7-8 minutes)
(1 female, 1 male)

Concord, NH

A wife and a mistress want what the other has... until they get it.

(10 minute play)
(one male, two females)

Corcoran High, Syracuse
Thespo Festival, Mumbai

A relationship between two people taken with their own sense of emotional honesty and openess quickly rises and falls from a lack of emotional honesty and openess.

(10 minute play)
(1 male, 1 female)

Productions:
Actors Refuge Repertory Theatre

An open marriage almost collapses when the husband admits he hasn't been sleeping with anyone.

(10 minute play)
(1 male, 1 female)

Recent Productions:
RAF Lyneham Theatre Club
GRAPA, Australia
Stepping Out Theatre Co. (AUS)
The Black Cow Theatre Company - Delhi, India
Rep East Playhouse, Newhall, CA
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School

Plays that run less than 5 minutes
A baseball/softball catcher uses the rules of grammar to drive opposing batters crazy.

( 4 characters)

Recent Productions:

Eureka High School, MO
Belmont High School
Hebron Academy, ME
Frankfort Christian Academy, KY
Hudson, Quebec

What looks like an intense confrontation between a couple facing a break-up over his infidelities turns out to be something quite different. Think cellphones in public places.

Recent Productions:
Pass Area Players
Harbour View High School, Canada

(1 male - 1 female)

A young couple try to explain where it all went wrong when she kept changing and he never did.

(1 male - 1 female)

FULL LENGTH PLAY

Read first 20 pages

With a hip hop style Roman Chorus providing narration, Julius Caesar tries to prevent the luscious Cleopatra, the ambitious Brutus, the lean and hungry Cassius and the dim witted Marc Antony from knifing him in the back in this bawdy romp about the folks who ran the Roman Empire - right into the ground.

"This hilarious play had a hip-hop chorus and a riotous cast..." Louisville Voice Tribune

Listen to original audio production.
(This is the abridged 35 minute version)

RECENT PRODUCTIONS
Gingerwoods, Prospect KY
Lebanese Theatre, Beirut

Both the full length script and the abridged version are available for production.

 
Comedy-mysteries written
for the stage


The adventures of Justin Thyme, Fictional Detective. Hard boiled with a side of irony, Thyme takes on the toughest, dirtiest cases in English literature. M
YSTERIES

All Ireland One Act Play Festivals 2008
Crooked Wheel Productions

Ballymahon - Best play, Best Actress, Best Moment in Theatre-Overall
Cavan - Best Play, Best Actress

Carrigallen - Best play, Most entertaining Play-Overall
Maudebaum - Best Play
Manorhamilton - Best Play, Best Actress

Winner
Audience Appreciation Award
Cambridge, UK Drama Festival

Tough talking, hardboiled detective Justin Thyme travels to 11th century Denmark to find out who whacked Hamlet's old man and runs into a king named Claudius who wants him dead, a prince named Hamlet who doesn't know what he wants and a dame named Ophelia who wants everything including Thyme.

"The Maltese Falcon" meets "Hamlet."

Productions:
Pasadena City College
Cambridge Theatre Festival-UK
Crestwood Preparatory College

Sayville Players Theatre Laboratory
Harlington, UK
Bedford, United Kingdom
Gordon Tech High School, Milwaukee
Bedfordshire Drama Festival, UK


Listen to original audio production

Justin Thyme, the hard boiled fictional detective, gets burned by an old flame by the name of Lady MacBeth, when he's hired to find out who zotzed the King of Scotland.

'The Case of The Tale Told by an Idiot - a Justin Thyme Mystery' went down a storm at the festival. The audience laughed from the first line and even stopped the play on several occasions by clapping!
Vivien Devereaux
Mold Drama Works

‘The Case of the Tale Told By An Idiot’ by Bruce Kane, a send-up of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, which guarantees a laugh a minute."
Limerick Independent

Recent Productions:
Mold Drama Works - UK
Insight Theatre Group, Ireland
Marion County High School, GA
Wednesday Players, Ireland
Theatre Colwyn, Wales
Kiltullagh Hall, Ireland
Sauk Theatre, MI
The Earl Inn. Galway, Ireland
Punches Hotel, Limerick, Ireland
Palestine High School, OH
Gordon Tech High School, Milwaukee

Nobody is what they seem when Justin Thyme, fictional detective, heads to Sherlock Holmes country to find his client frightened to death by a four hundred year old hound the size of a Buick and a list of suspects that includes the slow witted heir to the murdered man's fortune, his butler, a butterfly collecting twit and a beautiful woman who immediately casts her spell over our detective..

"THYME: For a British dame she was alright. Hair the color of strawberries. Peaches and cream complexion. Eyes like blueberries and for lips... two red delicious apples. I couldn’t tell if I was fallin’ for her or just low on vitamin C."

Recent productions:
West Valley High School,Alaska

Meeeting House Players, CT

Thyme comes face to fangs with Count Dracula while investigating the loss of the entire virgin population of Transylvania.

AC Reynolds High School. NC
North Hardin High School, KY

Monologues

Monologue-Male or Female

A snippy stage manager gets carried away in his/her instructions to the audience regarding proper behaviour during the performance of the play to follow. Can precede any production.

"The evening began with a dramatic plea, written by Bruce Kane. This friendly chastising rant was witty and humourous, and vocalized most theatergoers’ pet peeves to a tee."
Bancroft This Week, Ontario, Canada

Recent Productions:
Regina Theatre, Canada
Central College
Indio Performing Arts Center

Bancroft Theatre Guild
GRAPA, Australia
Network Theatre, London
Rialto Theatre, TX
Sauk Theatre, MI

Mooresville, NC
Londonderry, Northern Ireland
(Read review)

Male Monologues

Prince Charming gives the lowdown on his ex-wives Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Rapunzel, wicked stepmothers-in-law and the perils of trying to fulfill every woman's fantasy. It's not easy being the Prince.

Read A Review  

Recent Productions:
Freeport Community Players
Theatre On A Shoestring

An insecure and paranoid playwright talks about writing and women two things he seems to know little about.

Recent Productions:
Terrace Little Theatre Co. - Canada

A manifesto for men saddled with dorky names.

Recent Productions:
Terrace Little Theatre Co.- Canada
Freeport Community Players

Female Monologues

Ophelia dishes on the royal family while explaining why she has to marry Hamlet or die

Recent Productions:
Terrace Little Theatre Co.- Canada
Mullen High School
North Hennepin College
Network Theatre, London
Seaton Town Hall, Devon UK

1 minute monologue

A woman fantasizes about the stranger of her dreams.

Justin Thyme becomes Hard Case, Fictional Detective in these narratives based on the Justin Thyme plays. Purchase your copies today in book form or for your Kindle.


Now available for your Kindle

One Act Play Scripts & Monologues
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