Plays, playscripts, drama

Book SynopsisAn explosive play about the fiendishly charismatic icon of children's literature, Roald Dahl. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024 and staged in the West End in 2025. Winner of the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play.

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Book SynopsisThe play that gave birth to the smash-hit film - a wonderful comedy about growing up in multiracial Salford. The six Khan children, entangled in arranged marriages and bell-bottoms, are trying to find their way growing up in 1970s Salford. They are all caught between their Pakistani father's insistence on Asian traditions, their English mother's laissez-faire attitude, and their own wish to become citizens of the modern world. Ayub Khan Din's play East is East was first performed at Birmingham Repertory Studio Theatre in October 1996 in a co-production by Tamasha Theatre Company, the Royal Court Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Company, before transferring to the Royal Court, London. It was later adapted into a feature film, with a screenplay by the author, that became one of the most successful British films ever made. East is East won the John Whiting Award in 1996 and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1998.Trade Review'A bona fide classic' * Guardian *'First plays don't come much better than this... full of intelligence, irresistible laughter and serious promise' * Sunday Times *'A hugely entertaining, highly involving, emotionally tender, politically inflamed family drama' * Time Out *'An explosion of a show that feels surprisingly, joyously, fresh, a quarter of a century on' * Guardian (2021) *'Khan Din's play is bitterly and wickedly funny... Its explorations of identity, race, relationships, power, gender dynamics and familial aspiration ensure it still has as much to say to audiences of 2021 as it did 25 years ago' * Whatsonstage (2021) *

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Book SynopsisA tried-and-tested stage adaptation of Barry Hines' novel A Kestrel for a Knave, about a troubled young boy who finds and trains a kestrel. Billy, a disaffected young boy, has problems at school and at home: he's neglected by his mother, beaten by his brother and bullied on all sides. He adopts a fledgling kestrel and treats it with all the tenderness he has never known. Slowly, he begins to see for the first time what he could achieve – if only he tried. Lawrence Till's adaptation of Barry Hines' 1968 novel retains its gritty charm and popular staying power. Kes was first performed at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1999.Trade Review'Laurence Till's skilful adaptation... offers a series of sure-fire scenes... Hines' story retains an undeniable emotional pull' * Independent *'Sensitively scripted and stunningly staged, Kes is essentially about a community which fails its young' * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Suzan-Lori Parks' play Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future. Topdog/Underdog was first performed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, in 2001. Its UK premiere was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2003.Trade Review'[The] speech is quick and rhythmically suprising. Parks' dialogue is funny and distinctive and black... a great play, well worthy of its Pulitzer Prize' * Financial Times *'A vibrant, gritty, lyrical play full of striking moments' * The Times *'Exhilarating, funny but also devastatingly sad, presenting a vivid microcosm of both family relationships and the black experience in America today' * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisRichard Eyre's high-profile adaptation of Ibsen's famous 'problem play' about a headstrong woman's determination to control those around her. Arriving home after an extended honeymoon, Hedda struggles with an existence that is, for her, devoid of excitement and enchantment. Filled with a passion for life that cannot be confined by her marriage or 'perfect home', Hedda strives to find a way to fulfil her desires by manipulating those around her. Richard Eyre's adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler was premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2005. Included in this volume is an introduction to the play by Richard Eyre.Trade Review'A triumph... Eyre's dialogue is forceful, clear, with just enough idiomatic dash' * Observer *'Hedda is often regarded as the female Hamlet. But Eyre reminds us that it is a great polyphonic play as well as a commanding title-role' * Guardian *'Hedda Gabler still has the power to shock' * Independent on Sunday *'Thrilling... re-administers, as if for the first time, the devastating shock and the sheer affront of Ibsen's drama' * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe Escape or a Leap for Freedom is a captivating novel written by William Wells Brown, a former slave who escaped to freedom in 1834. The novel follows the journey of a slave named Cato who escapes from his master in Kentucky and embarks on a perilous journey to freedom in Canada. The book offers a vivid portrayal of the horrors of slavery, the dangers faced by escaped slaves, and the courage and determination required to achieve freedom. Do you want to read an amazing thriller horror story? Throughout the novel, Brown also explores themes of identity, race, and freedom, offering a powerful critique of the racialized society of his time. His writing style is gripping and powerful, drawing readers in with his vivid descriptions and vivid portrayal of the characters' emotions and experiences. Overall, The Escape or a Leap for Freedom is an important work in the history of African American literature and a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about the experiences of slaves and the fight for freedom during the 19th century.

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Book SynopsisThe political theatre of the 21st century has arrived, in some style. The TimesThe most infamous scandal in corporate history. The most vilified figures in the financial world. The most audacious (and destructive) display of greed history has ever seen.Charting the notorious rise and fall of the eponymous company and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Lucy Prebble''s Enron is a pulse-racing and rage-inducing parable, exploring the limits of greed... or lack thereof.Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron is published in Methuen Drama''s Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Natasha Tripney.

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Book SynopsisPresents a philosophical and poetic drama full of satire, irony, humour and tragedy. This book creates the text's varied metre and rhyme and also its diverse tones and styles - dramatic and lyrical, reflective and farcical, pathetic and coarse, colloquial and soaring.Trade Review"Greenberg is quite remarkable, and at his best truly brilliant, in evoking the poetic ‘feel’ of Goethe’s original. I do not believe that any other version of Faust has attempted anything quite like it."—Cyrus Hamlin, Yale University (on the earlier edition of Part One)"Goethe’s Faust is an enigmatic and perhaps barely translatable masterpiece. Its grotesque and exuberant part 2 must be the most outrageous poem in the western canon. Martin Greenberg’s revised version conveys the outrage yet also shows again and again why the poem does stand with the major works of the western tradition."—Harold Bloom"Greenberg has accomplished a magnificent literary feat. He has taken a great German work, until now all but inaccessible to English readers, and made it into a sparkling English poem, full of verve and wit. Greenberg's translation lives; it is done in a modern idiom but with respect for the original text; I found it a joy to read."—Irving Howe

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Book Synopsis'Retired people are like nuclear power stations. They like to live by the sea.' Two ageing nuclear scientists in an isolated cottage on the coast, as the world around them crumbles. Then an old friend arrives with a frightening request. Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children premiered at the Royal Court, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 17 November 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald. The Children was named Best Play at the 2018 Writers' Guild Awards.Trade Review'Sly, gripping, darkly funny… this is sci-fi kitted out with real people, real dilemmas, real scope. It’s really good' * The Times *'A richly suggestive and beautifully written piece of work, provoking questions that will continue to nag and expand in your mind… the genius of the play is to embed its pressingly topical preoccupations in a humane, tragicomic scenario that is never, despite the circumstances, portentous or clangingly apocalyptic in tone… The Children consolidates my view that Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation' * Independent *'Grips compulsively... genuinely disturbing... leaves you an abundance of ideas on which to ruminate' * Guardian *'A far-reaching, unsettling play about legacy, survival and responsibility… deceptively lightly written and often tartly funny… Kirkwood tackles huge themes and poses tough, even shocking questions, but weaves them into a droll script that both chastises and sympathises with her characters… there are shades of Beckett, of Sartre's Huis Clos and of Priestley's An Inspector Calls here, but Kirkwood has her own bittersweet style' * Financial Times *'Meticulous writing… has a pressing, provocative question at its heart – about the responsibility of the older generation towards the younger... [this] is Fukushima meets The Archers, and it's marvellous' * Telegraph *'A gripping modern classic' * The Stage *'Remote as Butterworth, cruel as Pinter, but sad too… Kirkwood instils a fine mood – a heavy, melancholic languor – and speckles the play with moments of crack theatricality' * WhatsOnStage *'A moving inversion of the kitchen sink drama… birth and death, living and dying, love and loss, children and parents – all of these ideas collide and crumble in Kirkwood's nuclear reactor of a text' * Exeunt Magazine *

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Book SynopsisAlice Birch's new play is scored like a piece of music ... It is an extraordinary echoing text, full of pain and strange beauty. The three stories play out simultaneously on stage, the dialogue from one scene overlapping with the other two in a manner that borders on the choral ... Birch has provided a text that explores these ideas in a formally invigorating way. The StageThree generations of women. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings with it a painful legacy.A powerful, unflinching look at a family afflicted with severe depression and mental illness. Presented as a triptych of plays performed side by side, this groundbreaking play reverberates with audiences and readers. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama''s Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand new introduction by Ava Davies.Trade ReviewWhat determines our character? Nature or nurture? Genetic inheritance or social environment? It is an age-old debate, and Alice Birch now adds to it with this startling theatrical triptych about three generations of mothers and daughters... Birch’s progress as a writer has been fascinating to watch... On the evidence so far, I would say Birch has a gift for radical experiment in the style of Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane. In her new play we are confronted by three women, Carol, Anna and Bonnie, who we learn are mother, daughter and granddaughter. They exist in three different time zones but the story of their lives is told simultaneously. As Birch herself says, the text has been scored and can be read, or viewed, horizontally... I can, in fact, think of few exact parallels to this play. * Michael Billington, The Guardian *The way conversations overlap, intersect, even chime exactly, as if words are echoing down the decades, is a compositional marvel... [any] vague misgivings pale beside the essential bravery and daring of it all: anyone who has experienced the nightmare of handed-on familial sadness, let alone the horror of suicide, will surely find in this a therapeutic-cathartic release. * Telegraph *What a fiercely uncompromising, clinically emotional two hours this is Alice Birch, darling of the film world after her stark and powerful script for Lady Macbeth, returns in triumph to her home ground of the theatre for an unflinching examination of three generations of women in one family... an intricately interwoven work in which three separate scenes often play out simultaneously. * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisA play about families and particle physics. Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, she is embarking on the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson particle. Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time Googling. When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos. Lucy Kirkwood's play Mosquitoes premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2017, in a production featuring Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams, and directed by Rufus Norris.Trade Review'Fascinating… Lucy Kirkwood is a dramatist of dauntless ambition' * Guardian *'This is the kind of play that makes me want to punch the air in celebration - it exudes as much energy as the protons pinging around the Large Hadron Collider… Lucy Kirkwood's real triumph here is to combine the thoughtful enquiry and large themes that marked her previous hit, the award-winning Chimerica, with a portrait of a dysfunctional family that exerts its own gravitational pull. The result is emotionally involving as well as intellectually satisfying… ranges from profoundly funny to deeply moving' * WhatsOnStage *'A fascinating and provocative work which uses science as a way of questioning our humanity… Lucy Kirkwood is a playwright who tackles giant themes with a swaggering showmanship' * Telegraph *'Wildly ambitious, often very funny… a drama of huge ideas – the need for logic and irrationality, faith and science, to co-exist together; the idea of love as a physical bond to the universe' * Time Out *'An idea-stuffed, intelligent play… Kirkwood is a writer of reach, intelligence and ambition. There’s a hunger to her work, an urge to fill her plays to brim. She knows how to spring-load a joke and can write lines of total emotional devastation' * The Stage *'A mighty new play… hugely ambitious, intelligent and affecting, and a refreshing epic powered by two women who contain multitudes' * Broadway World *'Intelligent, impassioned… examines existence through both ends of the telescope, swinging wildly between micro and macro, and injecting huge questions about science and faith, the rational and the emotional into a tough, tender family drama… exhilarating in its ambition' * The Times *

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Book SynopsisA striking and sharply funny reflection on the frailty of existence and the complex relationship between knowledge and love. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned specialist in the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness – and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy programme – she comes to reassess her life and her work with profundity and an unbearably moving wry humour. Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit was first performed in 1995. It was filmed for TV by Mike Nichols in 2001, starring Emma Thompson (who also wrote the screenplay).Trade Review'Cuts deep… a coruscating metaphor for all our helpless efforts to orchestrate our lives, despite our awareness of our mortality' * The Times *'Delightfully funny and deeply moving… its final radiant moment is breathtaking' * Independent *'Truly wonderful – emotionally battering, yes, but very funny, never mawkish and ultimately exultant' * Telegraph *'Edson's writing has its harrowing moments but it is never maudlin… A genuinely life-enhancing play about death * Guardian *'Heart-battering... as glorious and cathartic as theatre gets' * The Stage *'An original and urgent work of art. Among the finest plays of the decade' * Wall Street Journal *'A dazzling and humane play you will remember until your dying day' * New York Magazine *'A brutally human and beautifully layered new play. You will feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted' * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisDrama Characters: 9 male Interior Set This seminal work of the Off-Broadway movement premiered in 1968 and was a long-running hit onstage, later filmed with the original cast. In 2010, the play made a triumphant return to New York City in an highly praised production produced by Drama Desk and Obie Award winning Transport Group. In his upper eastside Manhattan apartment, Michael is throwing a birthday party for Harold, a self-awoved 32 year-old, pock-marked, Jew fairy, complete with surprise gift: Cowboy a street hustler. As the evening wears on, fueled by drugs and alcohol, bitter, unresolved resentments among the guests come to light when a game of Truth goes terribly wrong. A play of real substance, one that deserves to be performed not occasionally but regularly.-The Wall Street Journal ...terrifically thoughtful...The Boys in the Band emerges remarkably universal.-NY1 ...deliriously delicious...-Gay City News The Boys in the Band...goes from wittily bitchy to heartbreakingly brutal...-Out Magazine Witty, bitchy, revelatory and dazzlingly entertaining...the excoriating wit is still there.-New York Post Humor is still on key in this poignant, sparkling revival of a landmark gay play...the star of the evening is the play itself solidly built, still moving and enormously entertaining.-New York Daily News This is a play that takes the homosexual way of life totally for granted and uses this as a valid basis for human experience...the power of the play is the way in which it remorselessly peels away the pretensions of its characters.-The New York Times

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Book SynopsisTracey Gordon, the 67 bus, friendship, sex, UK garage, school, music, teachers, friendship, periods, emergency contraceptive, arse and tits, friendship, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship. Aaron, Candice, sex and Connor Jones. Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood.Written and performed by Michaela Coel who spent her childhood in Hackney, London, Chewing Gum Dreams won the 2012 Alfred Fagon Award.Trade ReviewCoel is by turns casually cruel, hilariously funny, naive, wise and vulnerable. Her play tackles some difficult themes, including sexual assault, violence, and underachievement across generations - a serious new talent. * Londonist *An engrossing, engaging and compelling one-woman show... nothing short of virtuosic. * What's On Stage *A promising, resilient artist. * Che Walker *

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Book SynopsisI'm older now. I'm stronger. How do you know I haven't sorted out some natural equilibrium all on my own? Maybe we should try it, just for a bit. Diagnosed with a severe mental illness as a child, Anna was prescribed a cocktail of pills. Now a young adult, in her first serious relationship and about to go to university, she's wondering how life might feel without them. But as she tries to move beyond the labels that have defined her, her mother feels compelled to intervene - threatening the fragile balance they have both fought so hard to maintain. Winner of a Judges' Award at the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, Kendall Feaver's The Almighty Sometimes premiered at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in February 2018. The play received the the UK Theatre Award for Best New Play at 2018.

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Book SynopsisIf you could spend eternity with just one precious memory, what would it be? A group of strangers grapple with this impossible question as they find themselves in a bureaucratic waiting room between life and death. Encouraged by enigmatic officials, they must sift through their past lives to choose their forever. Adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film, After Life is a surreal and powerfully human look at the way we view our lives, and a haunting meditation on what it is to live – and to die. Written by Jack Thorne from a concept by Bunny Christie, Jeremy Herrin and Thorne, After Life was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in June 2021. It was directed by Herrin, in a co-production with Headlong, by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical.Trade Review'A compelling vision of eternity' * The Times *'A powerful show with subtlety and tenderness' * The i *'A great idea, charmingly done... Although After Life is based on a film, its best parts are pure theatre' * Guardian *'Miraculous... an absolutely superb play... I was incredibly moved by it... a properly transcendent piece of theatre' * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisSharp and funny. Gunderson taps into a buoyant spirit ... the touching ''barbaric yawp'' (Whitman''s phrase) of these two deeply engaging kids. The Washington PostHousebound by illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only social media for company. That is until classmate Anthony bursts in uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman's poetry and a school project due the next dayCaroline is unimpressed, but an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework starts to reveal the pair's hopes and dreams - as well as a deep and mysterious bond that connects them even further.Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2014. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Julie Felise Dubiner.Trade ReviewSharp and funny. Gunderson taps into a buoyant spirit...the touching 'barbaric yawp' (Whitman's phrase) of these two deeply engaging kids. * Washington Post *The show is suffused not with the bleakness that you might expect, but with a strong sense of potential and promise. * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisSimon Weinberg is dead. And, on a November morning, six people gather at his funeral - brothers and a sister, lovers and in-laws. Mourning allows them a special privilege and, for a few hours, they are isolated in another world under a lingering sun, in the shadow of the deceased.Written by the winner of the award-winning Art, Conversations after a Burial is a savage but richly comic play which explores that ineffable moment of mourning, when the newly deceased is still almost palpable, the moment in which one can maintain the memory of a breath, the intense pause between absence and the return to everyday existence, between loss and life.

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Book SynopsisExclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw’s powerful historical drama about Joan of Arc, which led him to win the Nobel Prize for Literature—part of the official Bernard Shaw Library  A Penguin Classic With Saint Joan, which distills many of the ideas Shaw had been exploring in earlier works on politics, religion, feminism, and creative evolution, he reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc, but unhappy with the way she had traditionally been depicted, Shaw wanted to remove “the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition.” He presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, naïve, foolhardy, and brave—a rebel and a woman for Shaw’s time and our own.   This is the definitive text under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. The volume includes Shaw’s Preface of 1924; the cast list of the first production of SainTrade ReviewBy the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature“[Shaw] did his best in redressing the fateful unbalance between truth and reality, in lifting mankind to a higher rung of social maturity. He often pointed a scornful finger at human frailty, but his jests were never at the expense of humanity.” —Thomas Mann “Shaw will not allow complacency; he hates second-hand opinions; he attacks fashion; he continually challenges and unsettles, questioning and provoking us even when he is making us laugh. And he is still at it. No cliché or truism of contemporary life is safe from him.” —Michael Holroyd “In his works Shaw left us his mind. . . . Today we have no Shavian wizard to awaken us with clarity and paradox, and the loss to our national intelligence is immense.” —The Sunday Times “He was a Tolstoy with jokes, a modern Dr. Johnson, a universal genius who on his own modest reckoning put even Shakespeare in the shade.” —The Independent “His plays were superb exercises in high-level argument on every issue under the sun, from feminism and God, to war and eternity, but they were also hits—and still are.” —The Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisThe central character of this play is Hugh O''Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who led an Irish and Spanish alliance against the armies of Elizabeth I in an attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. The action takes place before and after the Battle of Kinsale, at which the alliance was defeated: with O''Neill at home in Dungannon, as a fugitive in the mountains, and finally exiled in Rome. In his handling of this momentous episode Brian Friel has avoided the conventions of ''historical drama'' to produce a play about history, the continuing process.

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Book SynopsisI've got a new law for you mate, it's called survival of the fittest, it's called fuck you we're the Riot Club.In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn't the last huzzah: they're planning a takeover. Welcome to the Riot Club.

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Book SynopsisIn a townhouse in Copenhagen works Hans Christian Andersen, a teller of exquisite and fantastic children's tales beloved by millions. But the true source of his stories dwells in his attic upstairs, her existence a dark secret kept from the outside world.Dangerous, twisted and funny, Martin McDonagh's new play travels deep into the abysses of the imagination. A Very Very Dark Matter premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in October 2018.

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Book SynopsisThe four great comedies of Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were all written at the height of the controversial Irish author's powers in his last, doomed decade, the 1890s. They remain among the most-loved, and most-quoted, of all drama in the English language. Along with Salome, his darkly decadent dramatization of the Bible story, these immortal plays continue to pack theatres, and have been adapted for every kind of media. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Importance of Being Earnest & Other Plays echoes the book form in which Wilde originally insisted his plays were published, and includes illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley and an afterword by Ned Halley.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

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Book SynopsisThis edition of one of the Western canon's most iconic plays brings back into print the pivotal 1890 translation by William Archer. It was this translation that was largely responsible for the huge impact that A Doll's House had in the English-speaking world, igniting as it did, in the words of one critic, 'a firestorm of critical debate and dissent' about marriage and women's rights. Accompanying the comprehensively annotated text of the play is a substantial introduction that combines critical analysis with biographical and historical context. An extensive series of appendices provides extracts from contemporary adaptations of A Doll's House; writings by William Archer and Bernard Shaw about the play; reviews of early productions in London, New York, Montreal, and Sydney; contemporary documents relating to Ibsen and feminism; and views of actresses on playing the role of Nora.Trade ReviewWith its balanced introduction and thoughtfully selected contextual materials (parodies, performance reviews, and more), Leonard Conolly's volume is a valuable and accessible resource for first-year drama students and seasoned Ibsen scholars alike. It allows twenty-first-century readers to see with fresh clarity the controversy that Ibsen's play sparked nearly a hundred and fifty years ago-and to recognize, perhaps, that the debate has not subsided quite yet." - Mary Christian, Middle Georgia State University"This excellent edition of A Doll's House shows twenty-first-century readers exactly why Ibsen's play galvanized their nineteenth-century counterparts-and why its impact remains apparent on our stages, in our classrooms, and in the societies of which they are a part. Conolly provides the critical analysis and historical context necessary to understand what aspects of the play and its author were, and were not, considered revolutionary in multiple national and theatrical settings. Conolly's contributions to this volume make for lively and informative reading, and his presentation of William Archer's translation makes the play-text clear and accessible for today's students. The well-selected appendix materials make for useful and enjoyable reading in and of themselves-especially the adaptations, 'sequels,' parodies, and Ibsen's own alternative ending. As a teacher of modern drama, I have long hoped for an edition of A Doll's House that was as suitable for students as this one-and now, I am glad to say, I have it." - Jennifer Buckley, University of IowaTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction Henrik Ibsen and A Doll's House: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextA Doll's HouseA Note on Nora's Final ExitAppendix A: Contemporary Adaptations, Sequels, and Parodies 1. From a letter from Ibsen to a Danish newspaper regarding the ending of the play (17 February 1880) 2. Ibsen's alternative ending (1880) 3. From Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman, Breaking a Butterfly (1882) 4. From August Strindberg, 'A Doll's House' (1884) 5. From Walter Besant, 'The Doll's House—and After,' The English Illustrated Magazine (October 1890) 6. From Ednah Dow Cheney, Nora's Return: A Sequel to The Doll's House (1890) 7. From Israel Zangwill and Eleanor Marx-Aveling, 'A Doll's House Repaired,' Time (March 1891) 8. From F. Anstey, 'Nora; or, The Bird-Cage,' Mr Punch's Pocket Ibsen (1893) Appendix B: William Archer and A Doll's House 1. From Archer's review of the first performance in England of A Doll's House, Dramatic Review (4 April 1885) 2. From a letter to Charles Archer (13 June 1889) 3. From 'Ibsen and English Criticism,' Fortnightly Review (July 1889) 4. From William Archer, The Theatrical 'World' for 1893 (1894) 5. From The Collected Works of Henrik Ibsen (1906) Appendix C: Bernard Shaw and A Doll's House 1. On A Doll's House, Penny Illustrated Paper (1 June 1889) 2. From Shaw's review of A Doll's House, Manchester Guardian (8 June 1889) 3. From a letter to William Archer (11 June 1889) 4. From 'Still after the Doll's House,' Time (February 1890) 5. From The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891) 6. From 'A Doll's House Again,' Saturday Review (15 May 1897) 7. From 'The Technical Novelty in Ibsen's Plays,' The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1913) Appendix D: The Critics 1. In London a. From The Era (28 March 1885) b. From The Times (8 June 1889) c. From The Globe (8 June 1889) d. From The Daily Telegraph (8 June 1889) e. From The Pall Mall Gazette (8 June 1889) f. From The Spectator (21 June 1889) g. From Clement Scott, 'A Doll's House,' The Theatre (1 July 1889) 2. In America a. From The Courier-Journal [Louisville, Kentucky] (8 December 1883) b. From The New York Times (27 September 1889) c. From The Boston Globe (31 October 1889) d. From The [New York] Sun (22 December 1889) e. From The New York Times (22 December 1889) f. From The [New York] Evening World (23 December 1889) g. From The [New York] Sun (16 February 1894) h. From The [New York] Evening World (7 June 1895) 3. In Montreal and Sydney a. From The [Montreal] Gazette (18 February 1890) b. From The Sydney Morning Herald (19 July 1890) Appendix E: Feminism 1. Henrik Ibsen, 'Notes for the Tragedy of Modern Times' (19 October 1878) 2. From Henrietta Frances Lord, preface to her translation of A Doll's House (1882) 3. From August Strindberg, preface to Getting Married (1884) 4. From Havelock Ellis, The New Spirit (1890) 5. From Ellen Battelle Dietrick, 'The Doll's House—T'Other Side,' Women's Penny Paper (15 and 22 March 1890) 6. From Annie Nathan Meyer, 'Ibsen's Attitude Towards Woman,' The Critic [New York] (22 March 1890) 7. From Max Nordau, Degeneration (1895) 8. From Ibsen's speech to the Norwegian Women's Rights League (26 May 1898) 9. From Louie Bennett, 'Ibsen as a Pioneer of the Woman Movement,' The Westminster Review (March 1910) Appendix F: Acting Nora 1. From 'Nora Helmer off for the Antipodes: An Interview with Miss Janet Achurch,' The Pall Mall Gazette (5 July 1889) 2. From 'Ethel Barrymore on Nora Helmer' (6 May 1905) 3. Alla Nazimova, 'Ibsen's Women,' The Independent (17 October 1907) 4. From Elizabeth Robins, Ibsen and the Actress (1928) 5. From Liv Ullmann, Changing (1976) Works Cited and Select Bibliography

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Book Synopsis'Make me happen' Your partner's died, could things have been different? Caryl Churchill's short play What If If Only premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2021, directed by James Macdonald. This edition also includes the resonant and surreal short piece, Air. 'Caryl Churchill has remade the landscape of contemporary drama – and earned herself a place among the greats' GuardianTrade Review'A truly uncompromising theatrical voice at the top of her game... [Churchill] packs more into this 20-minute piece about death, grief and the multiverse than many writers manage at seven times the length... it has a crystalline beauty, sly humour and boundless imagination' * Evening Standard *'Quietly astonishing... a taut distillation and a gripping realisation of a giddying idea that resonates long after the curtain falls' * The Stage *'Trust Caryl Churchill to pack more meaty matter into 20 minutes than most playwrights manage in two hours. Her surreal new short covers nothing less than bereavement, time and the universe – and does so with dizzying complexity... [She demonstrates] absolute mastery of her form. Like Picasso in his late sketches, she has become the essence of herself, still challenging, thoughtful and heading in directions no one else dares... a rocket of thought to propel you into the night' * Whatsonstage *'There is nobody like Caryl Churchill and it's hard to think of any writer in history so completely on top of their game at her age. [What If If Only is] just 20 minutes, but it contains whole worlds' * Time Out *'Packs many an emotional punch, traumatic and claustrophobic while laugh-out-loud funny' * Independent *'Crammed with poetry and profundity. A meditation on grief and mortality that encompasses huge existential questions about the ways humanity is messing up the planet, ourselves and each other, What If If Only is incredibly intense... a nugget of supremely accomplished theatre... It leaves you moved and marvelling afresh at Churchill's tireless inventiveness and consummate skill' * iNews *

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Book SynopsisThis new Student Edition, featuring the classic John Willett translation of the play, includes an introduction by Katherine Hollander, which explores the following:* Contexts (Thirty Years War, 1618-1648; World War II and exile; sources; influential figures such as Brecht, Margarete Steffin, Helene Weigel and Karin Michaelis)* Themes (war; nature; capitalism)* Dramatic devices (epic theatre)* Production history and critical reception* Academic debate (Marxist, feminist and postmodernist)* Further studyWidely regarded as Brecht''s best work, Mother Courage and her Children was written in 1938-9 and received its premiere in Zurich in 1941. Mother Courage - a canteen woman serving with the Swedish Army during the Thirty Years War (1618-48) - follows the armies, selling provisions and liquor to the troops. Both her sons die in the war and her dumb daughter, Kattrin, is mortally wounded as she beats a drum to warn the town of Halle of an impending attack. Yet, all the while, Mother CTable of ContentsChronology Contexts (Thirty Years War, 1618-1648; World War II and exile; sources; influential figures such as Brecht, Margarete Steffin, Helene Weigel and Karin Michaelis) Themes (War; Nature; Capitalism) Dramatic Devices (Epic Theatre) Production History and Critical Reception Academic Debate (Marxist, feminist and postmodernist) Further Study MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN

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Book SynopsisLucy Prebble is one of Britain''s foremost writers for the stage and screen. This eagerly anticipated play collection brings together her landmark plays for the first time, showcasing her work from 2003 to 2019. Beginning with her George Devine Award-winning play The Sugar Syndrome it continues through her explosive look at the biggest financial scandal in history, concluding with her pointed dramatization of the one of the most shocking news stories of the 2010s. The Sugar Syndrome (2003) Dani is on a mission. She''s just 17, hates her parents, skives college and prefers life in the chatrooms. What she''s looking for is someone honest and direct. Instead she finds Tim, a man twice her age, who thinks she is 11 and a boy. What seems at first to be a case of crossed wires, ends up as an unlikely, and unsettling friendship between the two, which culminates in a shocking, and morally challenging revelation.Enron (2009) One of the most infamous scandals in financial hiTrade ReviewA playwright blessed with an exceptionally fine mind * Telegraph *A brilliantly bold and ferociously intelligent drama about our slippery times * Financial Times (on A Very Expensive Poison) *Prebble has written a profound and stirring play. The material is complex but always accessible, the drama serious and informative yet deeply human, with the odd jolt of piercing humour. The Effect confirms her as one of the most intelligent voices in British theatre. * Evening Standard (on The Effect) *An exhilarating mix of political satire, modern morality and multimedia spectacle * Guardian (on ENRON) *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Sugar Syndrome The Effect Enron A Very Expensive Poison

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Book SynopsisWritten with characteristic Berkoff flair and an understanding of the subtle power and violence of the English language, this second collection of his plays includes Decadence, described by the Guardian as being ''enthused with Berkoff''s violent, imagist, vivid wordplay''. The collection also includes Kvetch, Acapulco, Harry''s Christmas, Brighton Beach Scumbags, Dahling You Were Marvellous, Dog and Actor, and is introduced by the author.

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Book SynopsisBorn in London in 1939, Alan Ayckbourn is one of the world's most popular and prolific playwrights. He has written 74 full length plays and more than 20 other revues and plays for children. He is also an acclaimed director. Alan Ayckbourn was awarded a CBE in 1987. Ten years later to the day, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II 'for services to the theatre.'

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Book SynopsisAfter the restoration of King Charles II to the British throne in 1660, dramatists experienced new freedom in an age that broke from the strict morality of puritan rule and in which elegance and wit became the chief virtues. Irreverent, licentious and cynical, the three plays collected here hold up a mirror to this dazzling era and satirize the gulf between appearances and reality. In Etherege''s The Man of Mode (1676), the womanizing Dorimant meets his match when he falls in love with the unpretentious Harriet, while Wycherley''s The Country Wife (c. 1675) depicts the rakish Horner who fakes impotence to fool trusting husbands into giving him easy access to their wives. And in Congreve''s Love for Love (1695), the extravagant Valentine can only win his beloved Angelica if he loses his inheritance.

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Book SynopsisExclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw’s telling indictment of the generation responsible for World War I—part of the official Bernard Shaw LibraryA Penguin Classic   When Ellie Dunn joins a house party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain’s forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman’s choice. Opinion on the matter quickly divides and a lively argument about money and morality, idealism and realism ensues as Hesione’s rakish husband, snobbish sister, and Ellie’s fiancé—a wealthy industrialist—enter the debate.    Heartbreak House was written between 1916 and 1917, as war raged across Europe. With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, it remains an uncannily prophetic depiction of a society on the threshold oTrade ReviewBy the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature“[Shaw] did his best in redressing the fateful unbalance between truth and reality, in lifting mankind to a higher rung of social maturity. He often pointed a scornful finger at human frailty, but his jests were never at the expense of humanity.” —Thomas Mann “Shaw will not allow complacency; he hates second-hand opinions; he attacks fashion; he continually challenges and unsettles, questioning and provoking us even when he is making us laugh. And he is still at it. No cliché or truism of contemporary life is safe from him.” —Michael Holroyd “In his works Shaw left us his mind. . . . Today we have no Shavian wizard to awaken us with clarity and paradox, and the loss to our national intelligence is immense.” —The Sunday Times “He was a Tolstoy with jokes, a modern Dr. Johnson, a universal genius who on his own modest reckoning put even Shakespeare in the shade.” —The Independent “His plays were superb exercises in high-level argument on every issue under the sun, from feminism and God, to war and eternity, but they were also hits—and still are.” —The Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisIn these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs.The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling, Sicilian-American community, where newly widowed Serafina is paralysed by grief, until she has her romantic illusions about her dead husband shattered and rediscovers her true nature as a fiery prima donna, in a life-affirming celebration of love and sex. Tennessee Williams explores a new ''wild and unrestricted'' theatrical form in the colourful tropical fantasy Camino Real, while Orpheus Descending, however, takes us into the dark territory of the Deep South: the corrupt hell of a small, brutal township, where a forbidden and tragic love affair sparks horrific violence.

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Book SynopsisLoneliness, sexual tension and the need for human kindness pervade these three plays by Tennessee Williams, as their characters rage against personal demons and the modern world. In ''Sweet Bird of Youth'', a drifter, Chance Wayne, returns to his home town with an ageing movie actress in search of the girl he loved in his youth, but with terrible, violent results. ''Period of Adjustment'' tells the story of two young newlyweds who visit the husband''s old army friend on Christmas Eve after unsuccessfully consummating their marriage, and unleash forbidden passion, while in ''The Night of the Iguana'' a diverse group of people, including a disturbed ex-minister and a troubled spinster, are thrown together in an isolated Mexican hotel for one eventful night.

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Book SynopsisAphra Behn (1640-89) was both successful and controversial in her own lifetime; her achievements are now recognized less equivocally and her plays, often revived, demonstrate wit, compassion and remarkable range. This edition brings together her most important comedies in a single volume: The Rover, her best-known play; The Feigned Courtesans, a lively comedy of intrigue; The Lucky Chance, a comedy with a bitter edge, which takes a satirical look at marriage customs; and the dazzling and popular farce, The Emperor of the Moon. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner of the University of York, the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. Detailed annotation helps the reader to visualize the plays in performance and the Introduction argues for the importance of Behn''s skilful stagecraft and her great success as an entertainer. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of litTable of ContentsThe Rover ; The Feigned Courtesans ; The Lucky Chance ; The Emperor of the Moon

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Book SynopsisAristophanes is the only surviving representative of Greek Old Comedy, the exuberant, satirical form of festival drama which flourished during the heyday of classical Athenian culture in the fifth century BC. His plays are characterized by extraordinary combinations of fantasy and satire, sophistication and vulgarity, formality and freedom. Birds is an escapist fantasy in which two dissatisfied Athenians, in defiance of men and gods, bring about a city of birds, the eponymous Cloudcuckooland. In Lysistrata the heroine of the play organizes a sex-strike and the wives of Athens occupy the Akropolis in an attempt to restore peace to the city. The main source of comedy in the Assembly-Women is a similar usurpation of male power as the women attempt to reform Athenian society along utopian-communist lines. Finally, Wealth is Aristophanes'' last surviving comedy, in which Ploutos, the god of wealth is cured of his blindness and the remarkable social consequences of his new discrimination are exemplified. This is the first complete verse translation of Aristophanes'' comedies to appear for more than twenty-five years and makes freshly available one of the most remarkable comic playwrights in the entire Western tradition, complete with an illuminating introduction including play by play analysis and detailed notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewI readily endorse the opinion that the general introduction (ix-lxvi) is 'superb' and the introductions to the individual comedies 'excellent'. The rock-bottom price suggests extensive sales are anticipated and rightly so. * P. Walcot, Greece & Rome *Table of ContentsBirds ; Lysistrata ; Assembly - Women ; Wealth

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Book Synopsis''I thought you''d do what the common run of slaves normally do, cheating and tricking me because my son''s having an affair.''Terence''s comedies have provided plots and characters for comic drama from classical times to the present; the outstanding comic playwright of his generation at Rome, he has influenced authors from Molière and Wycherley to P. G. Wodehouse. Scheming slaves, parasites, prostitutes, pimps, and boastful soldiers populate his plays, which show love triumphing over obstacles of various kinds, and the problems that arise from ignorance, misunderstanding, and prejudice. Although they reflect contemporary tensions in Roman society, their insights into human nature and experience make them timeless in their appeal. Peter Brown''s lively new translation does full justice to Terence''s style and skill as a dramatist. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Table of ContentsThe Girl from Andros ; The Mother-in-Law ; The Self-Tormentor ; The Eunuch ; Phormio ; The Brothers

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisModern and Contemporary Irish Drama is the ideal focal point for the study of Irish literature and culture and, because of its many great twentieth-century works, for the study of drama more generally.

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Book SynopsisKeatley's play is about three generations of women in one family. It is widely studied for A level and this volume is equipped with a substantial introduction by the author, featuring the background and a discussion of themes and character

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Book SynopsisA collection of the most important plays of the 1980s and 1990s in one volume, the first in a series of anthologies celebrating landmarks of world drama. It is aimed at structuring college and university coursesTrade Review"Top Girls 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' Guardian Hysteria 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' Sunday Times Blasted 'Her dialogue is both sparse and stunning. They will call her mad, but then they said that about Strindberg' Mail on Sunday Shopping and F***ing 'A real coup de theatre' Evening Standard The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'The most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist... a born storyteller' New York Times"Table of ContentsTop Girls; Hysteria; Blasted; Shopping & F***ing; The Beauty Queen...

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