Play List: Theme - Plays That Feature Children

Here you can find a selection of theatrical plays that feature children. Each play listed includes cast size, genre, the setting and a review. All the plays listed have been tested with my play reading group.

Key:           

Cast Sizes - Small 2-6; Medium 7-12; Large 13+

Copies - Number of copies currently held at the NewSPAL library in Ewell

Geoffrey Beevers - George Eliot's Silas Marner

Genre: Historical Drama/ Literary                 Cast: Mixed, Medium Copies 13

Setting Northern England, Victorian

George Eliot's story of the reclusive miser who is transformed by a young girl is told in a series of telling short scenes, keeping much of the feel of the original.

Silas Marner, a weaver, hoards the gold he earns, and treasures a store of it under his floorboards. Meanwhile, Godfrey Cass, the squire’s son, has secretly married and has a young daughter (only his brother, Dunstan, about this). One night, full of drink, Dunstan steals Silas’s gold and disappears.

,Molly, Godfrey’s secret wife, now an opium addict, collapses near Silas Marner’s cottage and dies. The child totters into Silas’s cottage; Silas cares for the girl, who he names Eppie, and reconnects with the people and community around him.

Sixteen years pass and Eppie grows into a lovely young woman, Dunstan Cass’s body is discovered, accompanied by Marner’s stolen gold. Godfrey’s proposes to adopt Eppie (his own child) but Eppie refuses, saying she could never leave her father.

Note: Much enjoyed by our group

William Gibson - The Miracle Worker

Genre: Drama                                             Cast: Mixed, Medium Copies 13

Setting  Tuscumbia, Alabama. 1880’s

The play is centred on the childhood of Helen Keller and her relationship with her teacher, Annie Sullivan.

After an illness leaves her blind and deaf, Helen is isolated, unable to comprehend the world around her or to communicate with her family, who have never disciplined her. She more of an animal than a human child. Annie Sullivan, who herself has very limited sight and has only recently graduated from the Perkins Institute for the Blind, is hired as a teacher for Helen. Through the use of sign language and stern discipline, Annie teaches Helen to communicate. In the process, she is able to process her own sad past.

Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4

Genre: Comedy                                           Cast: Mixed, Large Copies 8

Setting England, late 1900s

In his secret diary, British teenager Adrian Mole excruciatingly details every morsel of his turbulent adolescence. Mixed in with daily reports about the zit sprouting on his chin are heartrending passages about his parents' chaotic marriage. Adrian sees all, and he has something to say about everything. Delightfully self-centred, Adrian is the sort of teenager who could rule a much better world--if only his crazy relatives and classmates would get out of his way.

Gillian Cross  - The Demon Headmaster

Genre: Children’s theatre                             Cast: Mixed, Large Copies 32

Setting England, anytime

When Dinah is fostered by the Hunters, she thinks her biggest problem will be fitting in with her foster-brothers, Lloyd and Harvey. However, once she starts at her new school it's clear that there's more to worry about. All the children, apart from a handful including Lloyd and Harvey, are too well-behaved-robotic almost-and oddly keen to please the creepy headmaster. The three children set out to discover the nature of his influence over everyone . . . but then Dinah finds herself saying and doing things she has no power over. Soon they uncover the headmaster's wicked plan. Controlling the school is just a practice run. He has set his sights on dominating the entire nation! The children must foil him before he succeeds. .

This didn’t appeal at all to several of our members, It’s definitely for children!

Willy Russell - Blood Brothers : edited by David Self

Genre:  Drama                                            Cast: Mixed, Medium Copies 16

Setting Liverpool, 1960s – 1980s

The play follows the lives of twin brothers from birth  to adulthood. Mrs. Johnstone, a working-class woman, is pregnant, single and struggling. She is persuaded by her employer to give her one of her soon-to-be-born twins. One of the twins, stays with his mother and grows up in a working-class environment. His twin, is sent to live with Mr and Mrs Lyons, and grows up in a middle-class family. The twins fatefully meet again when they are seven years old, and instantly become best friends and blood brothers. As they reach adulthood their different backgrounds drive them apart, and to a tragic end.

Julian Mitchell - Another Country

Genre: Drama                                             Cast: Mixed, Medium Copies 10

Setting An English public school, early 1930's

At a public school, future leaders are being prepared for their roles in the ruling class. Two of the central characters are outsiders: Guy Bennett is coming to terms with homosexuality and Tommy Judd is a committed Marxist. Judd wants to abolish the whole system of British life; Bennett wants a successful career within it. The school and the system have traditional ways of dealing with rebels.

Loosely based on the life of spy Guy Burgess.

Frances Goodrich - The Diary of Anne Frank

Genre: Drama, Historical, Biography                                                           Cast: Mixed, Medium Copies 13

Setting Amsterdam, 1942 - 1944

For nearly two years, Anne, her father, mother, and sister, joined with the Van Daan family to hide in a secret annex space above her father’s former office in Amsterdam, as the Nazis deported Dutch Jews to their deaths. In her secret attic, Anne comes of age: she laughs, plays, fights with her mother, and falls in love for the first time. Then they are discovered.

Note: Thoroughly enjoyed by all. Highly recommended.

John Godber  - Teechers: a classroom comedy

Genre: Drama                                             Cast: Mixed, Small Copies 13

Setting Edinburgh, 1980s

It is a play within a play that three students perform for their teachers, playing all the characters between them. It’s an account of their time in secondary school specifically with Mr. Jeff Nixon, the drama teacher who inspires them with his idealism. Mr. Nixon leaves School to teach at another school that is regarded more highly. Once the three know that Nixon is leaving, they start to understand how much he helped them.

Dave Simpson - The Railway Children

Genre: Drama/                                           Cast: Mixed, Large Copies 23

Setting Yorkshire

The Railway Children is about three young children: Roberta, Peter and Phyllis. They move to Yorkshire when their father is sent away because he is (wrongly) found guilty of being a spy and selling state secrets. They live next to the railway and are involved in many adventures including finding a Russian Exile at the station, while Mother supports the family through her writing. Robert, the oldest child, finally discovers the truth about her father in an old newspaper article, which secures his release and leads to the eventual reunion of the family.

More themes, and more individual plays will be added as they are read.

If you would like me to add a play you have read, please let me know.