Showing results by narrator "Matthew Wolf" in All Categories

Forget George and the dragon. Forget Sir Lancelot and tales of knightly exploits. This is dirty, bloody work. This is violent, visceral action. This is a mercenary knight as you've never seen one before. Twenty-eight florins a month is a huge price to pay for a man to stand between you and the Wild. Twenty-eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders.

For countless millennia, no man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching the stone gateway into Girdlegard. Until now.... Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith is the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. But when he is sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he has not been trained.

Loyalty costs money. Betrayal, on the other hand, is free. When the emperor is taken hostage, the Red Knight and his men find their services in high demand - and themselves surrounded by enemies. The country is in revolt, the capital city is besieged and any victory will be hard won. But the Red Knight has a plan. The question is can he negotiate the political, magical, real and romantic battlefields at the same time - especially when intends to be victorious on them all?

In this original adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel, an encounter in Florence and an offer to exchange rooms brings George Emerson to the attention of Lucy Honeychurch. Their flirtation is cut short by Lucy’s chaperone, but when they meet again back home in England, Lucy must negotiate the demands of her station with the desires of her heart. 

Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he’s hopelessly naïve when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he’s confronted with being the cuckold himself. Both dazzlingly clever and emotionally naked, Henry’s search for the “the real thing” in art and love demonstrates beautifully why both are worth the effort in the end.

Fasten your seatbelts for a rapid-fire, sophisticated thrill-ride that propels you through one of the most infamous financial scandals in history! With a spicy blend of humor, pathos and music, the big biz machinations of Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andy Fastow are laid bare as razzle-dazzle entertainment. Lucy Prebble’s Enron casts a shocking new light on today’s economy and how we got here.

This final play from the pen of Oscar Wilde is a stylish send-up of Victorian courtship and manners, complete with assumed names, mistaken lovers, and a lost handbag. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, "that name which inspires absolute confidence." Wilde’s effervescent wit, scathing social satire, and high farce make this one of the most cherished plays in the English language.

Romantic havoc ensues in the town of Bath when Sir Anthony arrives to arrange the marriage of his son Captain Jack Absolute to the wealthy Lydia Languish. Jack and Lydia are already in love, but because of Lydia’s obsession with romantic novels, Jack has disguised himself as a poor officer named Ensign Beverly – and he is only one of Lydia’s many suitors. i>The Rivals was Sheridan’s first play, and this charming comedy of manners continues to be widely performed today. Includes an interview with Linda Kelly, author of Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life.

Starring James Marsters, this classic comedy of manners from 1773 is still widely performed and studied. Love, lies, and dysfunctional families. Sound like your last family gathering? Try this one on for laughs. Two randy young gents, Charles and George, set out to woo the alluring and upper-crust Kate and Constance. But inexperienced Charles is shy and clumsy around upper-class ladies, so it’s the barmaid who catches his eye. But is she really who she seems?

In three short months, Oscar Wilde, the most celebrated playwright and wit of Victorian England, was toppled from the apex of British society into humiliation and ruin. Drawing from trial documents, newspaper accounts, and writings of the key players, Moisés Kaufman ignites an incendiary mix of sex and censorship, with a cast of characters ranging from George Bernard Shaw to Queen Victoria herself.

The most iconic love story of all time, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is an epic-scale tragedy of desire and revenge. Despite the bitter rivalry that exists between their families, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet have fallen madly in love. But when the long-running rivalry boils over into murder, the young couple must embark on a dangerous and deadly mission to preserve their love at any cost. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Calista Flockhart as Juliet.

A dark tale of hubris, lust, and self-destruction… as told by a man who famously fell prey to those same impulses in his own life. Oscar Wilde wrote his original interpretation of the Biblical story of Salomé in French, and the play was so controversial that no theatre in England would produce it for nearly four decades. Includes a conversation with director Michael Hackett and Wilde scholar David Rodes. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production.

Composed over 400 years ago, the tragic tale of young Prince Hamlet remains one of the theater’s most studied and performed works, presented here in a new full-cast recording, directed by Martin Jarvis and featuring a special appearance by Stacy Keach as The Ghost.

Before Twilight and True Blood, only one vampire commanded “the children of the night.” In this blood-thirsty tale of unholy terror, Count Dracula slips into Victorian London with a cargo of his native Transylvanian soil - so he can rest between victims. The city seems helpless against his frightful power, and only one man, Dr. Van Helsing, can stop the carnage. But to do this, he must uncover the vampire’s lair and pierce his heart with a wooden stake. Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in May, 2011.

As a young Jewish man in 17th century Amsterdam, Baruch de Spinoza excelled as a theological student; but as he encountered free-thinking Protestants, atheists, and radicals in this relatively tolerant city, he began to question his religion and the nature of God. As a result, he was branded a heretic and faced excommunication. Directed by Rosalind Ayres. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles.

In this unique audio adaptation of Neil Simon’s screenplay, Paula McFadden’s a down-on-her-luck actress who’s forced to take in a new roommate - the eccentric, noisy, and generally unpleasant Eliot Garfield - who also happens to be an actor. As their careers and finances hit new lows, their reluctant partnership threatens to turn into something neither one wants.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production. In this riveting political drama, Sara, along with her German husband Kurt, returns to the opulent Washington, DC, mansion of her mother, Fanny, after years away in Europe. With Hitler and Mussolini assuming full power, Kurt finds himself blackmailed for his anti-Fascist activities as the conflict in Europe crosses the hearth of this tranquil home.

The story of Curt Herzstark, an Austrian industrialist and concentration camp prisoner who was sent by the Nazis to an underground salt mine during the war. While in captivity he continued his experiments with a device that would eventually become the hand-held calculator.

It's London, 1879, and the hapless members of the Explorers Club must confront their most lethal threat yet: the admission of a woman into their hermetically-sealed ranks. But the intrepid Phyllida Spotte-Hume turns out to be the least of their troubles, in this hilarious farce starring members of the original Broadway cast.

A stinging satire of tell-all showbiz memoirs, starring a self-deluded gay icon who has managed to ride every pop culture trend of the last 40 years. Marc LeJeune has had a remarkable career in the entertainment business. Despite the carping of critics, cruel twists of fate, and the treachery of former friends who were blind to his exceptional dramatic and musical talents, he has remained true to his unique artistic vision. Through this fabulous parody of the showbiz confession, Rupert Smith has created a witty and scathing satire of popular culture and entertainment over the last 40 years.