Willis Hall

As Billy's job at the undertakers becomes increasingly boring, his lies become increasingly outrageous, which starts to get him in serious trouble. Full of hilarious characters and touching moments, Keith Waterhouse's adaptation of his own novel remains a modern classic.

Following his earlier adaptations of the novels "Jane Eyre" and "Mansfield Park" for Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, Willis Hall brings Dumas' swashbuckling adventure to the stage in a fast-moving tongue-in-cheek version. D'Artagnan, a poor, young Gascon gentleman goes to Paris to join King Louis XIII's musketeers, is befriended by three valiant members of that force - Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and shares their adventures, foiling the evil plans of Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter to discredit Louis' wife Anne and expose her love for the Duke of Buckingham. The play's structure is flexible so that it may be presented simply with the minimum of scenary and plenty of audience participation to give a "carnival-type" atmosphere.

A study of three families - the Bertrams, the Crawfords and the Prices - in which Jane Austen uses the unlikely heroine, Fanny Price, to explore the social and moral values by which these families' lives are ordered.

Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre leads a lonely life until she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Mr Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls by night.

Pulling himself out of the rut of his middle-aged executive lifestyle, Roger Piper stumbles into a sixteen-month tempestuous affair with the effervescent Angela Caxton, and is thrown into a whirlwind of romances and champagne. He discovers that Angie does not share his obsession with their relationship and after multiple crises the affair ends in tragedy.3 women, 4 men

Ordered by the Emperor to find the gold "in the skies" and aided by his equally lazy son, they have just four days in which to recover it. They succeed but only after an accidental discovery of the thieves, a trip on the high seas with pirates and a fortunate case of mistaken identity.-Large flexible cast

Charles Kingsley's well-loved story of The Water Babies is enchantingly brought to life in this adaptation by Willis Hall. The tale of young Tom, apprentice to the unpleasant chimney-sweep Mr Grimes, and his underwater journey to the End-Of-Nowhere is interspersed with delightful songs by John Cooper. In the original professional touring production, puppets were used to represent The Water Babies and underwater creatures, but small children could be used to play these parts in, for example, schools' productions.-6 women, 3 men

The stories of Ratty, Toad and Badger.

All the characters that have captivated the imagination of readers for generations are vividly presented here - the rascally one-legged sea-dog Long John Silver, Billy Bones, Blind Pew, Ben Gunn and of course, young Jim Hawkins the 'rare bright spark' who sets the Treasure Island adventure in motion. There are many delightful songs and musical numbers, with plenty of scope for imaginative staging.-1 woman, 13 men

Following the successful television series based on Barbara Euphan Todd's children's classic, Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall and Denis King bring us a new, effervescent stage musical of the story of Worzel Gummidge. The naughty, petulant, greedy, yet always lovable scarecrow is here with all the familiar characters: Aunt Sally, Sergeant Beetroot and Sue and John. Brought to life by the Crowman, Worzel creates havoc and farce wherever he goes in his frenzied efforts to win Aunt Sally's unwilling hand until he finds himself before the scarecrow court on a very serious charge. But the final resolution is a happy one with a birthday cake enormous enough to satisfy even Worzel's appetite!5 women, 13 men

The Wedding and The Funeral make up the two parts of this comedy in which we are introduced to the same family, first making preparations for a wedding and subsequently, six months later, returning from the funeral of their Uncle Arthur, a lovable personality who provides the link between the two plays.7 women, 7 men

Set in the Malayan jungle, this critically acclaimed play is tough, realistic and full of comedy. Its characters are British soldiers who look upon their duty in the jungle with a marked lack of enthusiasm until they discover that soldiering is something more than the game they thought it was at first. Before the play comes to its unexpected climax, the men have faced up to unforeseen issues of loyalty and danger. Period 1942.-8 men

A teenager in a North Country town, Billy Fisher weaves a world of his own out of his day dreams. He is an incurable liar, idle and dishonest, and to escape from his dull job as an undertaker's clerk and his dreary domestic background he imagines himself in so many different situations that truth and fiction become hopelessly intermingled. His family is unable to understand or control him, though they realize that he is a good for nothing. The cast is completed by the three girls to whom he is simultaneously engaged. When he is given the chance to start a new life, he turns it down, preferring his dreams to reality.

An exhuberant comedy which is yet a sad commentary on twentieth-century bureaucracy. The Hesseltines are living in property well overdue for demolition and they are looking forward to being re-housed in more beautiful and salutory surroundings. The crisis comes when they find that, far from a house with a little bit of garden, they are to live in a warrenous block of flats.-3 women, 6 men

This is the third Christmas Eve spent in the company of convicts Gilbert and Crosby (the first two being Kidnapped at Christmas and Christmas Crackers). Our lovable heroes are back in prison again with Warders Mullins and MacBain.2 women, 7 men

Christmas Crackers is the hilariously funny sequel to Kidnapped at Christmas, written by Willis Hall for Christmas 1975. Crosby and Gilbert, our two convicts, are spending a lonely Christmas Eve eating baked beans on the stage of an empty theatre when they encounter their old enemies - Detective Constable Grummett (and his wife and son) and Mullins and Macbain (now promoted to Constables - 'evening all'). -Large flexible cast

Crosby and Gilbert are escaped convicts who couldn't face the thought of yet another Christmas dinner in gaol. Their adventures on the run, in various disguises, dodging a host of amazing characters are all tremendous fun.2 women, 7 men

A hectic children's birthday party provides a noisy background to a series of domestic crises. Robin has left Emma and Emma has become friendly with her solicitor, Tom; both Tom and Robin arrive for the celebrations. The mishaps of the party spill over into the kitchen'situation, the behaviour of the young visitors affecting the adults. By the end of the party however, thin's look a little brighter for Robin and Emma.4 women, 3 men

Who's Who takes place in the lounge of a Brighton hotel a place of faded elegance where the inevitable trio saw away playing sad and dated ballads. In the first act we follow the confusion that Mr. Black and Mr. White land themselves in as inextricable as the hotel itself in their efforts to cover up a clandestine weekend; a confusion which ends in no one knowing anyone else's identity and a hint that, even when things have more or less cleared up, it's likely to start all over again. In the second act the male leads discuss the previous events and Mr. White says that if positions and identities had been reversed the confusion would never have happened. 2 women, 2 men