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David Mercer

DAVID MERCER

  (1928 - 1980)
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Casarotto Ramsay and Associates Ltd  

David Mercer's plays including theatres, agent, synopses, cast sizes, production and published dates

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below is a list of David Mercer's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         After Haggerty         Arcata Promise, The         Belcher's Luck         Blood On the Table         Buried Man, The         Climate Of Fear, A         Cousin Vladimir         Duck Song         Flint         Folie a Deux         Governor's Lady the         Huggy Bear         In Two Minds         Let's Murder Vivaldi         Monster Of Karlovy Vary, The         No Limits To Love         On the Eve Of Publication         Ride A Cock Horse         Shooting the Chandelier         then And Now         Where the Difference Begins         White Poem         You And Me And Him
After Haggerty

After Haggerty
agonies of two individuals whose dilEmmas interlock, as man tries to escape his past with new home only to be confronted with the past of previous occupants

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
RSC

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Arcata Promise, The

Synopsis:
centres around the attraction betwen an actor and an inexperienced girl and the destructive conclusion of such an attraction; Find Me returns to the theme of ideological conflict and Eastern Europe

Notes:
televised 1974

1st Produced:
New York     1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Huggy Bear and Other Plays", Eyre Methuen, London, 1977   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Belcher's Luck

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London, 1967   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blood On the Table

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Buried Man, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Manchester     1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Climate Of Fear, A

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Collected T.V. Plays Vol.1" Calder & Boyers, London, 1981   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
T.V. Drama Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  20            Female:  11            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cousin Vladimir

Synopsis:
marriage of convenience to aide defection from Soviet Union but second thoughts creep in

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1978   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Political Drama Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Duck Song

Synopsis:
Duck Song was first produced in the dying days of the failing Heath government and the characters represent a society in decline as the younger characters attempt to find a solution through feminism or psychiatry, it presents "a world to which one cannot relate, which one cannot control, which one can't understand, and which one can't manipulate"

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1974   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Flint

Synopsis:
elderly Anglican vicar whose way of life which has long been the cause of scandal is transformed by a simple young Irish girl

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Oxford     1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Humorous Drama Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Folie a Deux

Synopsis:
Gillian Reynolds reviewed it in the Guardian on 2 February 1974, saying that it was " a blackly humorous circular tale of lust, fire, death and religiosity. Michael Hordern was the 69-year-old Anglican vicar caught up with Kate Binchy's Rubenesque unmarried mother, for whom he leaves his wife, church and eventually, life itself, and who survives serene to tell the tale. Bold and bitter, shocking and sceptical, Alfred Bradley's production brought out the hard brilliance of the words and the exquisite construction of both the play and the performances. the hard shivering horror lay beneath the lines like a pike in a deep dark pool, and has stayed to haunt me since in many a wary internal echo."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bbc 3     1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Radio Play Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Governor's Lady the

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of "Home And Colonial" by the RSC; broadcast 1960 (published in "Stand", Necastle upon Tyne, Spring, 1962)

1st Produced:
Scarborough     1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Huggy Bear

Synopsis:
depicts Hooper, an infantile and philosophical dentist with a "failure to integrate".

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Plays: Two" Methuen, London, 1994   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In Two Minds

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
televised 1967

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Parachute with Two More TV Plays", Calder and Boyars, London, 1967   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Let's Murder Vivaldi

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Parachute with Two More TV Plays", Calder and Boyars, London, 1967   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Monster Of Karlovy Vary, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Black Farce Farce

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  2            Other:  Fxtras

Further Reference:
-

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No Limits To Love

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Warehouse, Covent Garden, London     06 Oct 1980

Organisations:
RSC

1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1981   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On the Eve Of Publication

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
On the Eve Of Publication And Other Plays, Metuen, London, 1970   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  8            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Ride A Cock Horse

Synopsis:
Peter is not getting on with his wife Nan. She does not want to have sex with him. He says it is because she is a lesbian. Nan did have a lesbian fling when she was sixteen. Peter tells both his lovers Fanny and Myra that Nan is a lesbian. When Nan starts wearing slacks he blows his top

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Nottingham     1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London, 1966   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Lesbian full length

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shooting the Chandelier

Synopsis:
in 1945 a Russian officer has to take over a country house provoking a confrontation with surviving inhabitants and fellow soldier

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bbc 2     1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1978   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
TV Play Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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then And Now

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1979

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Eyre Methuen, London, 1979   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Where the Difference Begins

Synopsis:
Its themes - Father and son relationships, northern working-class values versus southern middle-class culture, alienation in society - were all to recur throughout Mercer's later work.

Notes:
aka A Death in the Family

1st Produced:
Leeds     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Generations - A Trilogy of plays" Calder & Boyers, London, 1964   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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White Poem

Synopsis:
A White Rhodesian Farmer sits on an almost empty stage, awaiting the black Zimbabwe rebels who are about to attack his farm. His wife has left for England. the play is one long, xenophobic, racist rant, interrupted only by verses of a WWI military song (Bless 'em all). Once his rant is over, a burst of automatic gunfire errupts onstage, and the spot on the former is extinguished.
- eckhart von glan

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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You And Me And Him

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Bankrupt And Other Plays" Methuen, London, 1974   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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