| RUNOF | ___-the-play contract |
| OER | "Give ___ the play" (line from "Hamlet") |
| KNIGHTS | The -; play by Aristophanes, the dramatist who also wrote The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds and The Frogs (7) |
| BENNETT | Dramatist depicted in The Lady in the Van whose productions include the series of 12 monologues Talking Heads and the play The Madness of George III (7) |
| CHRISTIE | Agatha ___; author whose works include Hercule Poirot's Christmas, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and the play The Mousetrap (8) |
| EPILOGUE | You and the ego are mixed up with a pile at the end of the play (8) |
| OSCAR | "One of the biggest slobs in the world," per the play |
| BARRETT | Wilson, English actor-manager who authored the play The Sign of the Cross (7) |
| MARCCONNELLY | US winner of the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play The Green Pastures (4,8) |
| IANMCKELLEN | Knighted actor currently treading the boards in London's West End as King Lear in the play of the same name (3,8) |
| OBSCENE | Part of the play following the beginnings of the Old Bill is disgusting (7) |
| SPORTSPAGE | Reviews the play produced by the journalists working on The Courts (6,4) |
| SPIES | Novel by Michael Frayn, author of Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and the play Copenhagen (5) |
| SCHOOLOFDRAMA | Where one is taught to take the lead in the nursery with the play-actors (6,2,5) |
| ISHERWOOD | Christopher -; novelist whose The Berlin Stories was adapted into the play I Am a Camera and in turn the film Cabaret (9) |
| PRIESTLEY | J. B. -; author of the novel The Good Companions and the play An Inspector Calls (9) |
| FRANCIS | Bellows-mender in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who plays Thisbe in the play-within-the-play (7,5) |
| FLUTE | Bellows-mender in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who plays Thisbe in the play-within-the-play (7,5) |
| HERO | See the girl ring the star of the play |
| MUTED | Turned off the play-by-play |
