Since we introduced the one-act adaptation of Gammer Gurton's Needle, it has become one of America's most popular short plays. In response to many requests, here is the full-length Gammer, a faithful rendering of the original, but in language that your students can read and audiences understand.

Gammer Gurton's Needle is famous as the second oldest comedy in the English language. Written about 1552, several years before Shakespeare was born, the play helped open the fabulous Elizabethan Period—the Golden Age of English literature. This 3-act translation from the almost incomprehensible pre-Shakespearean rural dialect of the 5-act original gives your theatre an opportunity to present a classic that nearly everybody has heard about but few audiences have seen.

Gammer Gurton's Needle has some of the most delightful characters ever created. There's Gammer herself, a widow in a tiny rural Elizabethan English village. She is the proud possessor of a needle. But she loses it. There's Hodge, who is terribly brave when there is no danger and terribly clever when there is no problem. And there's Tyb, her maidservant, the only person in the world who can leave a garbage dump dirtier just by walking through it. There's Dame Chat, the neighbor who loves a good hair-pulling; and Dr. Rat, the curate, whose skull gets split; and Master Bailey, who has to try to settle it all. But most of all, there's Diccon the Bedlam, an alumnus of Bethlehem Hospital for the mentally disturbed. Everyone gets mentally disturbed when Diccon plays his tricks.

Like all Clark plays, Gammer was well tested before being offered to you. Premiered by a community theatre, it was acclaimed as one of the funniest, most delightful plays available for a general audience. For all groups. Simple exterior set; late medieval costumes (mostly rags). A Director's Script (prompt book) is available from the publisher. It contains drawings of costumes and set, details on all technical aspects of staging, discussion of characterization, plot, and theme. It also suggests the complete blocking and full stage directions for all movement and business.

"Replete with folksy detail"—John Gassner. "An important play in the survey of dramatic literature," wrote a professor of theatre at the University of Wyoming, one of several institutions to adopt this version for classroom use. "We are most grateful to you for providing such a helpful production script."—Nancy Gwraydon, Whitefish, Mont., High School.

Two sets of 35-MM Color Slides available. Set A: Provides a pictorial outline of the entire play. A great help with characterization, movement, pantomime, picturization, costumes, set, lighting, etc. Set B: Closeup views of the costumes and make-up of each character and of the principal set pieces. The two sets together provide a complete synopsis of this famous old comedy—an interesting and effective way to open a classroom unit on the Elizabethan period.

See also: Adaptations of Ancient Scripts