Performance Season 1 Episodes

Episode 1

Absolute Hell

120 mins

Black comedy set in Soho, London, right after WW2. Half of the fun is seeing a slew of very familiar faces kick up their heels as gay men, lesbians, party-girls, drunks, and drag queens.

Episode 2

Uncle Vanya

Fri, Feb 22, 1991128 mins

A retired professor has returned to his estate to live with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. The estate originally belonged to his first wife, now deceased; her mother and brother still live there and manage the farm. For many years the brother (Uncle Vanya) has sent the farm's proceeds to the professor, while receiving only a small salary himself. Sonya, the professor's daughter, who is about the same age as his new wife, also lives on the estate. The professor is pompous, vain, and irritable. He calls the doctor (Astrov) to treat his gout, only to send him away without seeing him. Astrov is an experienced physician who performs his job conscientiously, but has lost all idealism and spends much of his time drinking. The presence of Yelena introduces a bit of sexual tension into the household. Astrov and Uncle Vanya both fall in love with Yelena; she spurns them both. Meanwhile, Sonya is in love with Astrov, who fails even to notice her. Finally, when the professor announces he wants to sell the estate, Vanya, whose admiration for the man died with his sister, tries to kill him.

Episode 3

Nona

An adaptation of Roberto Cossa's Argentinian drama, the play focuses on a family desperately struggling against inflation and unemployment while trying to assuage the insatiable appetite of their 100-year old grandmother.

Episode 4

Old Times

78 mins

A married couple are visited by a friend from their past, who causes them unease and even embarrassment.

Episode 5

Top Girls

115 mins

Marlene celebrates her new position as MD of Top Girls Appointment Agency by giving a dinner party for five oddly assorted women from centuries past. Lesley Manville and Cecily Hobbs star in this TV production of the stage play by Caryl Churchill.

Episode 6

The Trials of Oz

90 mins

Dramatization of the famous 1971 trial in which the editors of the British underground magazine "Oz" were charged with obscenity.