The Playwrights Database
JAMES YAFFE
(1927 - 2017)Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: Robert A Freedman Dramatic Agency
James Yaffe's plays including theatres, agent, synopses, cast sizes, production and published dates
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Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of James Yaffe's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Cliffhanger Deadly Game, The Ivory Tower This Year's GenieCliffhanger
Synopsis:
Henry Lowenthal, after a long tenure as professor of philosophy at a small western college, is looking forward to being appointed to an endowed chair so he and his wife can enjoy their golden years with honor and dignity. But their plans are given a rude jolt when his successor, a vindictive and ruthlessly ambitious young woman, informs him that she is not recommending him for the chair-an act of such calculated cruelty that the usually gentle professor seizes a bust of Socrates and strikes his tormentor a fatal blow. thereafter, as Henry and his wife plot a foolproof way to dispose of the body, complications arise in the form of a rather sinister young student who is about to flunk out of school (unless his grade is changed) and who happened to witness the professor's violent action. Add in a suspicious police lieutenant and you have all the ingredients for a series of suspenseful, unexpected and frequently funny developments, leading to a denouement that will catch everyone by surprise.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,
Music:
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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:
Comedy/Thriller Comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDeadly Game, The
Synopsis:
As told by Atkinson (NY Times): "Three retired men of law on a remote mountain in Switzerland amuse themselves by going through the legal ceremony of prosecuting strangers who drop in. An American traveling salesman is their guest on a snowy evening. Although their 'deadly game' seems foolish to him, he agrees to it to humor his hosts. Since he has never been guilty of a crime in his life, he is unable to propose anything they can try him for. After a little amiable social conversation, the retired prosecutor discovers a plausible case. He accuses the traveling salesman of having murdered his boss. At first, this appears to be a wild improvisation. But Mr. Yaffe, using Mr. Durrenmatt's novel as source-book, gradually makes something real out of phantoms. By ingenious questioning, he proves his case out of the witness' own mouth."
Notes:
Adapted from the novel Trapps by Friedrich Durrenmatt.
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,
Music:
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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: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageIvory Tower
Synopsis:
Is outlined in the Citizen-Journal: "in 1943 an American poet living in self-exile in Paris made several broadcasts to invading American forces urging them to lay down their arms and stop the bloodshed. This absorbing and disturbing play poses the question: Did he or did he not intentionally commit treason?. . .Simon Otway, the central figure, is so overwhelmingly in detail, so articulate, that he becomes the unwitting artist-on-trial and the ultimate victim of his own character. the trial brings about a kind of catharsis-a mind-bending recognition of his real motives. . .As the poet on trial for his life and career, Grayson Goss is superb. His performance is a plea for artistic freedom, tempered with contempt for mediocrity. He catches the essence of an artist who has a superiority complex simply because he is superior." And while this superiority does set him apart, and even above, the question remains-were his actions harmful to other men, and are they punishable by the laws which all must obey? But the final outcome remains to tantalize, for there is no jury on stage during the trial scenes. the audience is the jury, and theirs is the decision on which a man's fate, and even the meaning of his life, must hinge.
Notes:
written by Jerome Weidman And James Yaffe
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,
Music:
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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: 11 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThis Year's Genie
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
in "Eight Plays Book 2" Cassell, London, 1965
Music:
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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:
Fantasy
Parts:
Male: 12 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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