NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance

by Doug DeVita

FULL LENGTH, 78 pages / For sample pages and/or information about licensing / purchase visit Next Stage Press: https://www.nextstagepress.com/nell-dash/

"We had our annual Playwrights Retreat where we read ...NELL DASH... It was the highlight of the weekend. ... there is a great deal of comedy coming from every corner of the dingy world it so effectively creates."
– Kim T. Sharp | [Former] Associate Artistic...

FULL LENGTH, 78 pages / For sample pages and/or information about licensing / purchase visit Next Stage Press: https://www.nextstagepress.com/nell-dash/

"We had our annual Playwrights Retreat where we read ...NELL DASH... It was the highlight of the weekend. ... there is a great deal of comedy coming from every corner of the dingy world it so effectively creates."
– Kim T. Sharp | [Former] Associate Artistic Director, Abingdon Theatre Company

In the alternate London of 1820 during the reign of King Stanley V8, Elinor and Marianne Wood, the illegitimate daughters of Sir Henry Dashwood and his cook, have become Nell Dash and Nance. They find themselves whirling up against Fagin, The Artful Dodger, Miss Havisham, Celia and Polly Peachum, and a barber named Todd, among many others. Their vile half-sister-in-law Lady Fanny Ferrars Dashwood, stops at nothing to keep them from getting a single penny of the fortunes accrued from the Dashwood Meat Packing Empire whilst at the same time trying to attain the two strands of pearls given the girls when they fled Devonshire years before, pearls which have mysteriously disappeared and have a strange history of their own.

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NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance

Recommended by

  • Donald E. Baker: NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance by Doug DeVita
    “

    I had great expectations for this play and it did not disappoint. It’s a tasty minced pie of a penny dreadful made up of ingredients ground together from large chunks of Dickens, smaller bits of Austen and Brecht, leavening by Sondheim and Bart, and a mysterious seasoning only revealed at the very end, all of it wrapped up in DeVita’s erudite, wicked, shameless sense of humor. There are lines that literally and literarily had me gasping in delight. Reader and audiences alike are sure to Lovett.

    I had great expectations for this play and it did not disappoint. It’s a tasty minced pie of a penny dreadful made up of ingredients ground together from large chunks of Dickens, smaller bits of Austen and Brecht, leavening by Sondheim and Bart, and a mysterious seasoning only revealed at the very end, all of it wrapped up in DeVita’s erudite, wicked, shameless sense of humor. There are lines that literally and literarily had me gasping in delight. Reader and audiences alike are sure to Lovett.

    ”
  • Rachel Feeny-Williams: NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance by Doug DeVita
    “

    How can I have not read this play before?! My admiration of Doug's work has grown with every piece I've read but this one is just fabulous! Taking classical characters and whisking them up with his own brilliant imagination and this is what is produced! I read the piece tucked on the sofa with a cup of tea but it needs to be experienced live to give it the atmosphere it will undoubtedly provide. As a British playwright, I think Nell needs to make her hop across the pond! Truly brilliant work.

    How can I have not read this play before?! My admiration of Doug's work has grown with every piece I've read but this one is just fabulous! Taking classical characters and whisking them up with his own brilliant imagination and this is what is produced! I read the piece tucked on the sofa with a cup of tea but it needs to be experienced live to give it the atmosphere it will undoubtedly provide. As a British playwright, I think Nell needs to make her hop across the pond! Truly brilliant work.

    ”
  • Larry Rinkel: NELL DASH, The Gruesomely Merry Adventures Of An Irrepressibly Sensible Capitalist With A Vengeance by Doug DeVita
    “

    In "Nell Dash," Doug DeVita mashes up "Sweeney Todd," "Oliver Twist," "Great Expectations," "The Beggar's Opera," and doubtless more to create a dazzlingly intricate, rapidly paced melodrama-cum-farce centered around the exploits of its irrepressible eponymous heroine. Do you need to know all these allusions to enjoy the work? Not really, since what matters most is the legerdemain of DeVita's plotting and comic timing, something all theatergoers will find a source of delight.

    In "Nell Dash," Doug DeVita mashes up "Sweeney Todd," "Oliver Twist," "Great Expectations," "The Beggar's Opera," and doubtless more to create a dazzlingly intricate, rapidly paced melodrama-cum-farce centered around the exploits of its irrepressible eponymous heroine. Do you need to know all these allusions to enjoy the work? Not really, since what matters most is the legerdemain of DeVita's plotting and comic timing, something all theatergoers will find a source of delight.

    ”
View all 21 recommendations
All roles can be played by anyone of any race, any gender, any anything. Written to be performed with a cast of 4 Women and 4 Men, 1 Gender Neutral, with lots of doubling as outlined below:

Nell Dash: A cheerful but sensible pie-maker 32 F (Does NOT double any role)
Lady Fanny Dashwood: A selfish, evil, upper-crusted woman 36 F (Does NOT double any role)
-----
Nance / Nell's younger sister, a prostitute 28 F
Estella Adopted child of Miss Havisham 23 F
-----
Celia Peachum / Polly's ambitious, conniving mother 35 F
Miss Pross / An elderly customer of Nell's 75 F
Wackford Squeers A hospital attendant 30 M
-----
Dodger / A teenage pickpocket 15 M
Edward Ferrars / Fanny's gentle younger brother 33 M
Mr. Todd / A socially awkward barber 35 M
Executioner An executioner 30 M
-----
Fagin / An old Jewish leader of thieves 60 M
Mr. Brownlow / The Dashwood family solicitor 60 M
Dr. Grimwig / A grumpy doctor 60 M
Abel Magwitch Another elderly thief 60 M
-----
Toby Muzzle (or just Muzzle) / A dim-witted but gentle footman 39 M
Miss Aurelia Havisham / A recluse 65 F
The Beadle / An unctuous minor official 35 M
King Stanley V8 The King of this alternate England 37 M
-----
Polly Peachum / A crafty little girl, very pretty 8 F
Bill Sikes / A notoriously violent thief 35 M
Tiger Brown / An ambitious but genial policeman 40 M
Mr. Jaggers The Havisham family solicitor 40 M
-----
The Narrator / A genial narrator Ageless GN
The Reverand Mr. Collins / A Little Priest 35 M
Bullseye A dog. Can be a puppet manipulated by the Narrator.

This play can also be produced with as large a cast as the director/producer wishes. It's more fun with just 9 people playing all the roles, though.


Development History

  • Reading, The 9th Floor, a New York Writers Group, and Abingdon Theatre Playwrights Group, 2015

Production History

  • Community Theater, The Heights Players, 2021
  • Workshop, Winterfest 2017, Hudson Guild Theatre, 2017