Plays, playscripts, drama

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Book SynopsisIn this profile, Emma Donoghue tells the story of two eccentric Victorian spinsters: Katherine Bradley (1846-1914) and her niece Edith Cooper (1862-1913); poets and lovers, who wrote together under the name of Michael Field.They wrote eleven volumes of poetry and thirty historical tragedies, but perhaps their best work - richest in emotional honesty and wit - was the diary that the two women shared for a quarter of a century, and these unpublished journals and letters form the basis for the groundbreaking We are Michael Field.The Michaels lived in a contradictory world of inherited wealth and terrible illness, silly nicknames and religious crises. They preferred men to women, and yet their greatest devotion was saved for their dog. Snobbish, arrogant eccentrics who faced bereavement and death with great courage, the Michaels never lost their appetite for life or their passion for each other.

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Book SynopsisThe long-awaited follow-up to the perennially bestselling writers'' guide Story, from the most sought-after expert in the art of storytelling. Robert McKee''s popular writing workshops have earned him an international reputation. The list of alumni with Oscars runs off the page. The cornerstone of his program is his singular book, Story, which has defined how we talk about the art of story creation. Now, in Dialogue, McKee offers the same in-depth analysis for how characters speak on the screen, on the stage, and on the page in believable and engaging ways. From Macbeth to Breaking Bad, McKee deconstructs key scenes to illustrate the strategies and techniques of dialogue. Dialogue applies a framework of incisive thinking to instruct the prospective writer on how to craft artful, impactful speech. Famous McKee alumni include Peter Jackson, Jane Campion, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Haggis, the writing team for Pixar, and many others.

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Book SynopsisAdapted for the stage by the author, Takin'' Over the Asylum is a hilarious, updated and profoundly moving adaptation of Donna Franceschild''s Bafta-winning BBC TV-series. Set in a Scottish mental institution, the play reveals hope and joy in the fragile beauty of the human heart. When Ready Eddie McKenna, Soul Survivor and double glazing salesman, arrives to reinvigorate St Jude's defunct hospital radio station he turns more than the ramshackle station upside down. The whisky drinking would-be DJ meets the 19-year-old bipolar Campbell, schizophrenic electronic genius Fergus, OCD Rosalie and the elusive self-harming Francine. Fighting against illness and perception Eddie and the patients of St Jude's strive for their dreams to be accepted.Trade ReviewDonna Franceschild's bittersweet comedy, based on her own 1994 TV series, stands as a metaphor for authoritarian oppression . . . Touchingly, it illustrates the fragility of the human psyche . . . Behind Franceschild's brash, confrontational jokes is a plea for understanding of the damage done by circumstance. -- Mark Fisher * Guardian *What is certain is that – in refashioning her screenplay as a contemporary, two-hour stage play – Franceschild has, while maintaining the comedy and humanity of the TV series, added a fascinating new dimension to her drama. -- Mark Brown * Telegraph *. . . great writing, good music, a collection of fabulous characters facing unenviable challenges and a well structured story. * What's On Stage *

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Book Synopsis''How do you want to live here? I mean we could come and go and lead separate lives. Or we could really live together. What do you think?''Aged 18, three women join forces. Life is fun. Living is intense. Together they feel unassailable. Crackling with wisdom and wit, Di and Viv and Rose is a humorous and thoughtful exploration of friendship''s impact on life and life''s impact on friendship.Di and Viv and Rose charts the steady but sometimes chaotic progression of these three women''s lives and their ultimately enduring bonds. The varied journeys of their lives take their toll on the characters, forcing them apart and stretching their relationships with each other to a near breaking point.Trade ReviewIt achieves what it sets out to do – show how the lives of a trio of women are shaped by their friendship over some twenty-seven years – in a manner that brims over with warm, effervescent humour and sharp, unsentimental perceptiveness . . . The long vista of the years helps Bullmore to show with moving clarity the intricate way that life and friendship inform each other and how the stock of mutual memories can contain both smarting, buried grievances and the means to dissolve them eventually in shared, helpless laughter. -- Paul Taylor * Independent *A deeply felt account of female friendship. It’s written with a remarkable economy and freshness, and rings true even, or especially, in its moments of absurdity. In Bullmore’s hands the problem she has set herself — of writing a story spanning three decades in which only the three women appear on stage — is solved by using a deceptively light bantering dialogue which occasionally turns into pointed comments and then outright slanging matches. Humour is always only a batted eyelash away … this is an emotionally satisfying and perceptive account of three real lives. It’s that dense … This is a story of female friendship that is neither sentimental, nor nostalgic. It just feels real. -- Aleks Sierz * Arts Desk *It connects emotionally with the audience, and is wittily written … Bullmore makes you like, and believe in, her three characters … The play also has a careering energy … impossible not to like. -- Michael Billington * Guardian *There is a mixture of warmth, humour and sadness in … the writing … that is very special indeed … But this is also a play that cuts deeply and asks hard questions, about the nature of kindness for instance, and the way friendship can decay just like everything else. There are moments in the second half that are overwhelmingly moving as the characters experience the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. -- Charles Spencer * Telegraph *The pulling power is in the snap of individual lines, in the register of daily life, the gradual piling up of memories that eventually accumulate to make a shared history. -- Susannah Clapp * Observer *The texture and detail of the play feels so real, the dialogue is so salty and authentic, and the bond between the three so frankly, warmly explored -- Sarah Hemming * Financial Times *Amelia Bullmore’s three-hander is a big, warm-hearted piece about female friendship which doesn’t — as friends don’t — shy away from occasional hard-hitting home truths. -- Fiona Mountford * Evening Standard *Funny, universal and wise. It is about friendship, sexuality, and sex, growing up and changing tack, intimacy and comradeship, corsetry and careers, success, disaster and dissatisfaction. It compasses illness, loss, loneliness and loyalty ... It's a play that will last. -- Libby Purves * The Times *[Bullmore] handles the change in moods expertly. And she offers each of these contrasting characters equal shift . . . And even when the mood turns sourest, Bullmore has some blackly funny one-liners in reserve. It's a moving, memorable evening. -- Dominic Maxwell * The Times *

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