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Lose Not Thy Head by Gary Rodgers play script cover

Lose Not Thy Head

by Gary Rodgers Canadian Author

The Viscountess is in a funk. She’s lost her passion for her job as lead executioner. This may or may not help the next victim.

Joan has been sentenced to lose her head for impersonating her famous brother William Shakespeare. He’s disappeared with all his earnings and Joan has been trying to finish his latest play about Henry VIII. Joan pleads for her life, Death waits for Joan to die, a severed Head says beheading isn’t so bad, a Sigmund Freud-type doctor tries to convince everyone that you can’t sew a head back on a body, and then things get weird.

If you like Shakespeare, Monty Python, a little love, a little death, a lot of laughs and lunch at the pub, you must read Lose Not Thy Head!

Comedy Black Comedy Shakespeare

Average Producer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Recommended for High Schools and Middle Schools

At a Glance

Running Time
About 35 minutes
Approximate; excludes intermissions and scene changes
Cast
13 Characters
1 M 3 F 9 Any Gender
Set
Simple set
Length
34 pages
Free Excerpt

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Performance Royalty Fees

Royalty fees apply to all performances whether or not admission is charged. Any performance in front of an audience (e.g. an invited dress rehearsal) is considered a performance for royalty purposes.

Exemption details for scenes and monologues for competition.

13 Characters

  • 1 Male
  • 3 Females
  • 9 Any Gender

Characters in this play are currently identified as male or female. Directors are welcome to assign any gender (binary or non-binary) to any character and modify pronouns accordingly.

  • VISCOUNTESS Any gender 87 lines
    Commanding executioner, armed with a dagger, suffering a bout of melancholy. If played by a male the title is Viscount. One Monologue.
  • WOLSEY Any gender 47 lines
    An executioner by day and a drunkard by night.
  • CROMWELL Any gender 30 lines
    An executioner who takes great pride in her work.
  • FRIAR Any gender 30 lines
    A holy person, offers prayers for the condemned and advice to the Viscountess. One Monologue.
  • DEATH Any gender 23 lines
    An apparition, unseen by the others at first, until he chooses to reveal himself.
  • LOVELL Any gender 24 lines
    A guard, rough and tumble.
  • GUILFORD Any gender 20 lines
    A guard, new to the job.
  • JOAN Female 92 lines
    William Shakespeare’s sister, dressed as Shakespeare typically did for she is impersonating her famous brother.
  • MARY Female 28 lines
    Joan’s mother, has a tendency to faint. One Monologue.
  • KING Male 55 lines
    King Henry VIII, ruler of all and husband to Katherine of Aragon. One Monologue.
  • ANNE Female 45 lines
    Mistress to King Henry VIII. One Monologue.
  • HEAD Any gender 17 lines
    Recently severed from body and okay with that.
  • DOCTOR Any gender 52 lines
    An authority on the analysis of dreams. Rather Freudian, speaks with a quasi-Austrian accent. One Monologue.

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