Plays, playscripts, drama

Book SynopsisMike Bartlett's 'future history play' explores the people beneath the crowns, the unwritten rules of our democracy, and the conscience of Britain's most famous family. Queen Elizabeth II is dead. After a lifetime of waiting, her son ascends the throne. A future of power. But how to rule? Drawing on the style and structure of a Shakespearean history play, King Charles III opened at London's Almeida Theatre, directed by its Artistic Director Rupert Goold, in April 2014, before transferring to the West End. The play went on to win Best New Play at both the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and the Olivier Awards. It also won the South Bank Sky Arts Theatre Award.Trade Review'Outstanding and provocative… the most spectacular, gripping and wickedly entertaining piece of lèse-majesté that British theatre has ever seen' * Telegraph *'Bold, brilliant and unstoppably entertaining… an intelligent, empathetic, moving look at the power and limitations of the modern monarchy… theatre doesn't get much better than this' * The Times *'Extraordinary… a meaty, hilarious, dizzyingly audacious state of the nation political thriller' * Time Out *'Royally entertaining… raises fascinating questions about the future of the monarchy' * Guardian *'Scintillating and highly ambitious... a brilliant, provocative piece of drama' * Financial Times *'Wonderfully original... Bartlett's brilliant text pulses with Shakespearean resonances... a right royal triumph' * The Stage *'Pitch-perfect… bracingly provocative and outrageously entertaining' * Independent *'Brilliantly ambitious… deliciously smart… [the] script is a witty amalgam of Shakespearean rhythms and sharp modern colloquialisms' * Exeunt Magazine *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Let's just talk until it goes.' The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons imagines a world where we're forced to say less. It's about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons. Sam Steiner's play premiered at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015 and won three Judges' Awards at the National Student Drama Festival, before appearing at Latitude Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Camden People's Theatre, London.Trade Review'A masterpiece of beautiful simplicity' * Broadway Baby *'A beautiful play about the beauty and preciousness of language… about as promising as debuts get' * Time Out *'Takes the can opener to a typical opposites-attract romcom in order to explore wider issues of democracy and free speech' * Guardian *'[An] accomplished debut… bright, light and sharp - a rom-com with smarts' * WhatsOnStage *'[A] taut two-hander… intriguing and original… [a] complex piece of theatre' * FestMag *'Marvellously wide-ranging… truly experimental and unique… a must-see' * A Younger Theatre *

Read more less

Book Synopsis“I’m walking down the street and there’s a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I’ve seen before.” Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Caryl Churchill's play Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald. It was named Best Play at the 2017 Writers' Guild Awards.Trade Review'A light-on-its-feet, elliptical view of apocalypse… this is fantasy intricately wired into current politics. It is intimate and vast. Domestic and wild' * Observer *'Packs a formidable charge: Churchill has now perfected an elliptical style as individual and as powerful as that of Samuel Beckett… created and conveyed with mastery' * Financial Times *'A menacing, joyous, brilliant return... it's hard to imagine you'll come across a more brilliant play this year' * Time Out *'A magnificent show which demands repeated viewing to reveal its full richness' * The Arts Desk *'Packs an amazing amount into a modest frame… this is Churchill at her best' * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnnie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about three cinema attendants - 'Wondrous, devastating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. A play to be treasured' New York Times. In a run-down movie theatre in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35-millimetre film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lacklustre, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely tuned ear for comedy, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world. The Flick arrived at the National Theatre, London, in 2016, direct from New York, where it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It went on to win Best New Play at the 2016 Critics' Circle Awards.Trade Review'Annie Baker's play is not just good. It is not just new. It's a new sort of good' * Observer *'Astonishing... The beauty of Baker's play lies in its portrait of three quietly desperate people... This is like no other play in London. It moves at its own unhurried pace and magically exposes the souls of lonely people in danger of being left behind in our new, digitised age' * Guardian *'A portrait of a generation struggling through life without moorings, that also beautifully and often hilariously observes the strange, fragile nature of work friendships, enforced intimacy with virtual strangers' * Time Out *'An understated epic of dreams, disappointment and tenacity by America's greatest living dramatist' * The Stage *'What makes The Flick so original and captivating is the way form really does match content… [conjures] a stillness that is almost like a painting, rewarding patience, forcing you to pay attention. It's a mighty achievement' * WhatsOnStage *'Wondrous, devastating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. A play to be treasured' * New York Times *'The Flick offers that beautiful, exquisitely alive feeling you get during the best moments of theatre – that life is too wonderful to be believed' * New Yorker *

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmerica in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. Originally premiered in Britain at the National Theatre, London, where it won the Evening Standard Best Play Award, Tony Kushner's Angels in America went on to win two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This volume contains both Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika, plus 45 pages of bonus material including a new introduction by the playwright, a full production history, deleted scenes, and notes on staging. It was published alongside a new production in 2017 at the National Theatre, London, directed by Marianne Elliott and starring Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle and Russell Tovey.Trade Review'The finest drama of our time, speaking to us of an entire era of life and death as no other play within memory. In its sweep and imagination, it defines the collapse of a moral universe during the Reagan years in an unforgettable way, transcending its specific time in the richness of its portrait of an America Lost, perhaps to be regained... It's a pretty funny play, too. How we still need it! It ranks as nothing less than one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century' * New York Observer *'A true theatrical epic… Kushner’s writing dazzles. Its sheer imaginative reach can be exhilarating and it’s studded with devilish humour. Instead of appearing dated, it seems pointedly topical in its scrutiny of intolerance, immigration, religious values and national ideals' * Evening Standard *'A start-to-finish sensation… the core themes, about the price paid for denial, and the cost of change and acceptance, the end-times sense of foreboding many feel about the state of the planet too, still pulse with urgency; the emotions sear afresh' * Telegraph *'The scope and vision are enough to make you gasp and cheer… seeing it now is like a vigorously entertaining history lesson. It is a reminder of just how terrifying and tragic the times were, of all the people who died terribly and needlessly, but also a vibrant hymn to the ragged soul of humanity itself, in all its messy, complicated imperfection… Kushner's achievement is to make his characters so compelling that the massive themes he pins around them - the relationship between man and God, the power of the numinous, the root of good and moral in a shifting, dangerous world, the role of progress and change – sit comfortably alongside the unfolding of their stories' * WhatsOnStage *'Epic in every conceivable sense of the word… though valuable as an evocative history play, Kushner's work is still a powerful call to arms. The challenges of progress, immigration and integration, prejudice, global warming, and religious and national identity are still urgent topics, here often brilliantly and waspishly articulated... a monumental achievement' * Broadway World *'Big on ideas, ambition and scope… it liberatingly plays with form: conventional scenes of domestic realism defiantly throw off those shackles with abandon to enter hallucinatory realms of fantasy, mystery and mysticism… where once it might have been stating radical positions, Angels in America now plays like a raw, truthful documentary of where we've come from, and serves as a necessary reminder of those bleak times before AIDS became a treatable disease' * The Stage *'Both a document of the Aids crisis and an enduringly relevant commentary on US politics… what really hits one is the expansiveness of Kushner’s imagination and the rich opportunities he creates for actors' * Guardian *'Probably the great American play of the late 20th century' * Time Out *'One of the greatest achievements in American theatre during the twentieth century… epic in every sense of the word… a once-in-a-lifetime experience that should not be missed' * British Theatre Guide *'An astonishing piece of theatre, madly inventive and driven by deep compassion… the portrait of a fractured America feels no less resonant today; the inquiry into where true progress lies feels no less urgent… the play’s themes emerge through a kaleidoscope of richly varied characters, all wrestling with their own angels and demons' * Financial Times *'This revival confirms its place in the pantheon of dramas that stretch toward the heavens. In the case of Angels in America, the sky is not the limit, and no work of theater since has quite matched its reach… [has] a boundless imagination and a moral rage that roam, at length and at large, where few playwrights have dared to tread… the climate of fear and anger Mr. Kushner summoned feels, if anything, even more pervasive today than it did when Angels first opened… Mr. Kushner's words [have] a Shavian wit and ferocity rooted in the most visceral of feelings... the heroes of Angels are human. This still-singular play fans their anger, confusion and hopefulness into a flame of genuine divinity' * New York Times *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'So you know how on the news these days there's just this endless stream of horrendous shit going down, like every single night? Suicide bombs, mass shootings, genocides, drone strikes, school massacres – it's like the end of the world or something... And you're kind of like – "Could I even cope if that stuff happened to me?"' Six young people are caught in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in the heart of London. By turns terrifying, inspiring, brutal, heartbreaking and hilarious, BU21 is verbatim theatre from the very near future. Stuart Slade's play comprises six interlinking monologues. It premiered at Theatre503, London, in 2016, in a co-production with Kuleshov, before transferring to the Trafalgar Studios, London, in January 2017.Trade Review'Brave, blackly comic… the stories here are gut-churningly vivid, compassionate, yet often wildly, horribly funny' * The Times *'Slade offers six close-up, compelling and often blackly comic stories and the result is a constantly sparky 90 minutes that delights in surprising and wrong-footing us' * Evening Standard *'Amongst the trauma and suffering lurks an awful lot of humour… gallingly graphic, desperately bleak, heartrendingly sad and quite, quite hilarious' * Exeunt Magazine *'The real star of this show is Stuart Slade's script. It's not just the pace that runs relentlessly across the 90 minutes all-through, but his ear for how people speak, their lexicons and their rhythms. An Alan Bennett for the Millennial Generation is a big label to put on a young playwright, but Slade is building a corpus of work to justify it... superb work' * BroadwayWorld.com *'Intelligent, questioning and very funny' * The Stage *'What a daring feat of writing this is… hauntingly credible, shudderingly so… captures the internal conflict of global terror: the sense that it was somehow deserved, the pull to be part of something, the impulse to laugh and to cry' * WhatsOnStage *'Strikingly real, shocking and even heartbreaking at times… the dialogue is snappy and at some points surprisingly funny despite the tragic subject matter… a haunting piece that in the light of current events, will stay with the audience' * The Upcoming *'Around two-thirds of the way through I realised I'd become so caught up that I'd forgotten BU21 has not actually happened… Slade's fresh, intelligent writing is full of life and action' * West End Wilma *

Read more less

Book Synopsis‘What doctor know about our illness? Just give you pills to sick you stomach and a doctor certificate. What they know about a black woman soul?’ In North London, Del and Viv are soul-sick. Del doesn’t want to be at home; staying out late – 3 p.m.-the-next-day late – is more her thing. Viv scours her schoolbooks trying to find a trace of herself between their lines. When Enid takes her daughters to the local obeah woman for some traditional Caribbean soul-healing, secrets are spilled. There’s no turning back for Del, Viv and Enid as they negotiate the frictions between their countries and cultures. Two generations. Three incredible women. Winsome Pinnock's play Leave Taking is an epic story of what we leave behind in order to find home. It premiered in 1987, and was revived at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2018, in a production directed by the Bush’s Artistic Director, Madani Younis. Winsome Pinnock has written numerous plays, including Talking in Tongues, for which she won the George Devine and Pearson Best New Play Awards. ‘The godmother of Black British playwrights’ GuardianTrade Review'A devastatingly powerful story of a British-Caribbean family... why Winsome Pinnock's play isn't on the English Literature syllabus is a mystery to me, given its shocking contemporary relevance... this play warms and devastates' * Time Out *'A beautiful, humourous and often impossibly sad portrayal of the immigrant experience... Pinnock's dialogue is a subtle marvel, offering all the poetry and rhythm of the Jamaican accent, where phrases sing with layers of meaning. It is a brilliantly wrought piece of drama' * WhatsOnStage *'An epic story that spans generations and puts the narratives of four formidable women on the centre stage... Leave Taking is an undeniably important addition to our theatrical landscape' * Broadway World *'There are few plays in British theatre that speak so directly, resonantly and truthfully to the experience of the black woman. Winsome Pinnock's first full-length play does this with such profound eloquence – it is rousing to watch… Leave Taking is timely in its politics, yet timeless in its themes' * The Stage *'Three decades since its debut Winsome Pinnock's pioneering portrayal of the lives of black Britons feels shockingly contemporary... Pinnock was a pioneer and her piece still hits home through its often shocking honesty about the hazards facing black people in Britain' * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn one of the poorest cities in America – Reading, Pennsylvania – a group of factory workers struggle to keep their present lives in balance, ignorant of the financial devastation looming in their near future. Based on the playwright's extensive interviews with residents of Reading, Lynn Nottage's play Sweat is a tale of friends pitted against each other by big business, and a topical reflection of the present and poignant decline of the American Dream. The play premiered in Oregon in 2015, before being produced at the Public Theater, New York, in 2016, and the following year on Broadway, where it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It received its UK premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2018, directed by Lynette Linton, and went on to win Best Play at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.Trade Review'Lynn Nottage's devastating account of American industrial decline is a masterpiece... empathy radiates from every word; Nottage's own sweat has paid off in what is emphatically one of the great American plays' * Time Out *'Profound, terrifying, earthy and witty... exquisitely empathetic... outstanding' * Evening Standard *'Magnificent… does what drama at its very best can do — it tells the story of our times through one tight-knit and vividly drawn group of people… it's funny, angry and immensely sad, making a profound plea for those who have been chewed up and spat out by geopolitical forces beyond their control… a humane, heartbreaking and necessary play' * Financial Times *'A play of passion, eloquent about the way life can grind a person down... at times staggeringly sad, this is an American story, but also a global one... a nuanced and moving study of a town in decline' * The Stage *'Nottage is simply brilliant at capturing the authentic voices of workers caught up in a drama they never wanted or expected' * The Times *'Breathtaking... tackles the devastating impact of loss of work and of de-industrialisation on modern America... captures brilliantly the way work, however hard or demanding, gives people an identity and purpose... I can't think of any recent play that tells us so much, and so vividly, about the state of the union' * Guardian *'Written by a dramatist of ambitious scope and fierce focus, Sweat is a bracingly topical portrait of American dreams deferred. It warrants serious applause' * New York Times *'A moral, passionate, and richly articulated cri de coeur' * Chicago Tribune *'A powerful critique of the American attitude toward class, and how it affects the decisions we make. Sweat has fraternity at its heart, but also the violence, and the suspicion that can result from class aspirations' * New Yorker *'Sweat never feels less than authentic — and crucial... Nottage gives us fully realized characters who, even when acting on their worst fears, are grippingly human' * Deadline *'A timely drama... goes where few playwrights have dared to go — into the heart of working-class America' * Variety *'A passionate and necessary drama, a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us… Along with the rage, despair, and violence, there's humor and abundant humanity' * Time Out New York *

Read more less

Book SynopsisCelebrate the incredible journey of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's outrageously funny, blazingly forthright Fleabag, from fringe theatre hit to international cultural phenomenon, in this special edition – featuring the original playscript, never-before-seen colour photos, and exclusive bonus content by Phoebe, director Vicky Jones and key members of the creative team. In 2013, Fleabag made its debut as a one-woman show in sixty-seater venue the Big Belly, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's Underbelly. It was an immediate hit, going on to enjoy two runs at London's Soho Theatre, national and international tours, whilst picking up prizes including Critics' Circle, The Stage, Fringe First and two Off West End Theatre Awards, plus an Olivier Award nomination. The 2016 TV adaptation propelled Fleabag and Phoebe to worldwide fame, earning critical acclaim and further accolades including Writers' Guild, Royal Television Society and BAFTA Television Awards. A second series followed in 2019, winning an amazing six Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series), along with a sold-out run of the original play in New York. This special edition of the play is released alongside Fleabag's first West End run at Wyndham's Theatre, London. It is introduced by Deborah Frances-White, stand-up comedian, writer and host of The Guilty Feminist podcast.Trade Review'Throbs with a concentrated, combustible vitality… Fleabag keeps all contradictory shards and shades of feeling in play at the same time. That's why it's so gloriously disruptive' * New York Times *'Never has being a modern woman seemed so painfully funny, brutal, and hopeless all at once' * The Atlantic *'Filthily funny… the character is a fascinatingly complex creation' * Guardian *'Sucker-punch funny... I've never seen a play quite like it' * Scotsman *'It has the pinpoint observational comedy of great standup, the fearless honesty and shamelessness of a raw confessional and the subtlety to draw you in… both gut-bustingly funny and gut-wrenchingly sad' * Hollywood Reporter *'Filthy, funny, snarky and touching' * Telegraph *'A legitimately hilarious show' * The New Yorker *'Frank and sometimes brutally funny... devastatingly good' * The Times *'Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one-woman show Fleabag is unbelievably rude, astoundingly filthy and she's almost certainly going to go to hell for it' * Time Out *'Penetrating, pitch-black and nastily brilliant' * Metro *'Funny, vibrant, and blunt as a hammerhead' * New York Magazine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA true modern classic from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers, Long Day's Journey into Night is an intensely autobiographical, magnificently tragic portrait of the author's own family - a play so acutely personal that he insisted it was not published until after his death. One single day in the Tyrones' Connecticut home. James Tyrone Snr is a miser, a talented actor who even squanders his talent in an undemanding role; eldest son Jamie is an affable, whoremongering alcoholic and confirmed ne'er-do well; youngest son Edmund is poetic, sensitive, suffering from a respiratory condition and deep-seated disillusionment; and their mother Mary, living in a haze of self-delusion and morphine addiction. Existing together under this roof, and the profound weight of the past, they subtly tear one another apart, shred by shred. 'Set in 1912, the year of O'Neill's own attempted suicide, it is an attempt to understand himself and those to whom he was irrevocably tied by fate and by love. It is the finest and most powerful play to have come out of America' Christopher Bigsby Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey into Night was written in 1939-41, and first published in 1956 (after O'Neill's death in 1953). It was first performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in February 1956, and had its first American production at Helen Hayes Theater, New York, in November that year. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, and O'Neill was posthumously awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.Trade Review'A piercingly autobiographical vision of a family bent on self-destruction' * Evening Standard *'Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece' * The Times *'What never ceases to astonish is the dizzying emotional contradiction of O'Neill's characters. Within a tight classical structure, they bounce around like pinballs between reality and illusion... leaves you emotionally pulverised' * Guardian *'A semi-autobiographical masterpiece... [has] an emotional truth that is utterly devastating' * WhatsOnStage *'Eugene O'Neill's greatest play... [has a] horribly uncomfortable power. The family's arguments suck you in, forcing you to become a fifth member whose loyalties are endlessly called on in a shifting game of 'Who ruined whose life?'' * Time Out London *

Read more less

Book SynopsisInspired by Georges Seurat's pointillist masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical celebrates the art of creation and the creation of art. In the first half of the musical, set in 1884, the people - and the animals - in the painting come to life in a world where, for the artist George, art comes before love, before everything. In the second half, a century later, Seurat's great-grandson is wrestling with the same obsessions in present-day New York. Sunday in the Park with George was premiered on Broadway in May 1984, in a production directed by James Lapine. An earlier, incomplete version had been performed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in July 1983. The musical went on to win the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The first London production opened at the National Theatre in March 1990. It won the 1991 Olivier Award for Best New Musical.Trade Review'The first truly modernist work of musical theatre that Broadway has ever produced' * New York Times *'Penetrates the mystery of artistic creation... overpoweringly affecting... what a show this is... irresistible' * Daily Telegraph *'This is great musical theatre' * Sunday Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisPart One of the two-part Angels in America, Tony Kushner's epic drama set during the Reagan years in America - now recognised as one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century. Prior, visited by ghosts of his ancestors and abandoned by his lover after his diagnosis with AIDS, is wondering if he is still sane when the angels select him to be their prophet. Powerbroker Roy Cohn also has the virus - but he believes that only the powerless can have that particular illness, and so kicks back against his diagnosis. In the 'melting pot where nothing melted' of modern America, the nation's reaction to the sickness – and its sufferers – is laid bare. Millennium Approaches was premiered in May 1991 by the Eureka Theatre Company, San Francisco, directed by David Esbjornson. In London it was premiered in January 1992 in a National Theatre production at the Cottesloe Theatre, directed by Declan Donnellan. The play received many awards, including Best Play at the 1992 Evening Standard Awards, Best New Play at the 1992 Critics' Circle Awards, Best Play at the 1993 Tony Awards and the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Trade Review'One of the greatest plays of the 20th century' * New York Observer *'The most ambitious American play of our time' * Newsweek *'A vast, miraculous play, a true millennial work of art' * New York Times *'A victory for the theatre, for the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty' * The New Yorker *'Something dark, rare and harrowing has erupted upon the London stage' * Evening Standard *

Read more less

Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Middleton and Rowley's masterpiece, a tale of murder, lust, seduction and blackmail in the seventeenth century. Alsemero has fallen in love with the beautiful Beatrice after a chance meeting in a church – but Beatrice has already been promised to another man. Unable to marry the man she loves, she employs the hated De Flores, her father's servant, to murder the man her father bids her marry. As payment, De Flores demands Beatrice. And then things get worse... Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's play The Changeling was mostly likely first performed in 1622. This edition of the play in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Trevor Griffiths. Set Text >> The Changeling is a set text for AQA Drama and Theatre Studies A/AS Level, AQA English Literature A/AS Level, OCR English Literature A/AS Level and WJEC English Literature A/AS Level.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Henrik Ibsen's revolutionary play about a woman's awakening to her need for a life of her own. A Doll's House was premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 1879. This English version of A Doll's House is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA powerful expressionist drama from the 1920s about the dependent status of women in an increasingly mechanised society, based on the true story of Ruth Snyder. Sophie Treadwell was a campaigning journalist in America between the wars. Among her assignments was the sensational murder involving Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, had murdered her husband and gone to the electric chair. 'This is a play written in anger. In the dead wasteland of male society – it seems to ask – isn't it necessary for certain women, at least, to resort to murder?' - Nicholas Wright Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal was first seen on Broadway in 1928, in London in 1930, and was later revived in the 1990s. This edition of Machinal includes an introduction by Judith E. Barlow.Trade Review'Gripping... doesn't loosen its hold on the senses until its shattering climax' * Independent *'Stingingly fresh and provocative' * Time Out New York *'[A work of] rare and disturbing beauty' * New York Times *'Gaspingly intense... Machinal remains pretty extraordinary stuff... [Treadwell's] spare, percussive language frequently feels like it could have been written yesterday' * Time Out *'A dazzling piece of work... Machinal, written in 1928, has lost none of its cold fury, its expressionistic power to depict a woman trapped by a society that expects her to marry and conform. It is astonishingly modern' * Whatsonstage *'An unforgettable portrait of a particular woman and of America itself as a hellishly dehumanised assembly line' * Guardian *'Feels strikingly modern: its sharp, splintered depiction of a young woman breaking apart in a dehumanising, mechanised world could have been written yesterday… an eloquent and groundbreaking play' * Financial Times *'Machinal was decades ahead of its time and still feels astonishingly, and depressingly, pertinent' * Radio Times *'Captivating, intense and resonant... a fascinating piece, a formally bold and explicitly feminist study of an ordinary woman who snaps under societal pressure... demonstrates Treadwell’s adventurousness as a playwright' * The Stage *

Read more less

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 *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA modern classic about one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past. Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life... Between 1939 until the outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 Jewish children were taken from their families in Nazi-occupied Germany and sent to live with foster families in Britain. Diane Samuels’ seminal play, Kindertransport, imagines the fate of one such child. Now widely considered a modern classic, Kindertransport has been read and studied the world over. Kindertransport won the 1992 Verity Bargate Award and was subsequently staged by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 1993. It also won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1993. Since its premiere the play has been revived several times. Watford Palace Theatre staged it in 1996, in a production that transferred to the West End. Renowned theatre company Shared Experience also revived the play to great acclaim for a regional tour in 2007. This edition includes several personal memoirs by German-born children whose lives were saved, and transformed, by the Kindertransport. Kindertransport is a SET TEXT for GCSE English Literature (AQA) and AS/A-Level English Literature (WJEC).Trade Review'Desperately harrowing... searing theatre that cuts across a continuum of suffering to the very heart of what unifies us as human' * The Times *'A powerful contribution to Holocaust literature... presented with emotional clarity and intense sympathy' * New Yorker *'Samuels has written the best play about the pain and passion of mother/daughter relationships' * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor hundreds of years, ordinary folk in the small Austrian village of Oberufer on the Danube gathered in the local tavern at Christmas time to perform these plays to their neighbours. With their roots lost in medieval times, the plays gradually evolved to incorporate a unique mixture of broad peasant humour and deep reverence in their celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. "The Paradise Play" serves as a Preface, presenting the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, but with the promise of future salvation through Christ. "The Shepherds Play" follows with its portrayal of the birth of Jesus in a stable where he is sought out by a group of simple shepherds. "The Kings Play", the final in the trilogy, depicts the visit of three wise Kings to the birthplace of the 'King of Humanity', and the murderous measures taken by Herod to try and thwart Jesus' mission. This revised edition of the plays - eminently suitable for amateur and professional companies alike - offers a clear layout of the texts, greatly elaborated director's and make-up indications, stage and lighting directions, and detailed costume designs illustrated in colour.

Read more less

Book SynopsisUsing a play by Karl and Josef Capek as source, Flann O’Brien locates his insect drama in Dublin, his most familiar stalking- territory. His adaptation is a vehicle for ridicule and invective, targeting race, religion, greed, identity and purpose. With his extraordinary ear for dialogue, O’Brien creates his own fantastical world, and the outcome is a hilarious satire of Irish stereotypes – as Orangemen, Dubliners, Corkagians and culchies become warring ants, bees, crickets, dung-beetles, and other small-minded invertebrae. The lost text of this play, Hilton Edwards’ prompt copy from the 1943 Gate Theatre performance, was discovered in the archives at Northwestern University, Illinois.Trade ReviewA play by Ireland’s most celebrated comic writer, Flann O’Brien, lost for fifty years, has been discovered in the archives of Northwestern University, Illinois, by an American academic. The O’Brien play, Rhapsody in Stephen’s Green, was put on in Dublin by the Edwards-MacLiammoir company at the Gaiety Theatre during Lent in 1943 with a cast of 150 – representing millions, as is obligatory with an insect play. But, presumably because of the offence it gave to Catholics, Ulster Protestants, Irish civil servants, Corkmen, and the aspersions it seemed to cast on married life and the superpatriotic Fianna Fail party, it only ran six days and was never again performed … However it and the context in which it was born – and rapidly snuffed out – gives intriguing insights into neutral Ireland of the 1940s, suffocating in puritanism and insular politics.’ -Peter Lennon, The GuardianA play by Ireland’s most celebrated comic writer, Flann O’Brien, lost for fifty years, has been discovered in the archives of Northwestern University, Illinois, by an American academic. The O’Brien play, Rhapsody in Stephen’s Green, was put on in Dublin by the Edwards-MacLiammoir company at the Gaiety Theatre during Lent in 1943 with a cast of 150 – representing millions, as is obligatory with an insect play. But, presumably because of the offence it gave to Catholics, Ulster Protestants, Irish civil servants, Corkmen, and the aspersions it seemed to cast on married life and the superpatriotic Fianna Fail party, it only ran six days and was never again performed … However it and the context in which it was born – and rapidly snuffed out – gives intriguing insights into neutral Ireland of the 1940s, suffocating in puritanism and insular politics.’ -Peter Lennon, The Guardian

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe stirring tale of a legendary royal family''s fall and ultimate redemption, the Theban trilogy endures as the crowning achievement of Greek drama. Sophocles'' 3-play cycle, chronicling Oedipus''s search for the truth and its tragic results, remains essential reading for English and classical studies majors as well as for all students of Western civilization.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe plays in this collection reveal in combination the ''frivolous'' and ''serious'' aspects of Tom Stoppard''s talent: his sense of fun, his sense of theatre, his sense of the absurd, and his gifts for parody and satire. The author rounds off his brief introduction, giving the genesis of each piece, with the comment: ''The role of the theatre is much debated (by almost nobody, of course), but the thing defines itself in practice first and foremost as a recreation. This seems satisfactory''.Leading off is The Real Inspector Hound, the ultimate country-house whodunnit; Dirty Linen moves a Whitehall farce to Parliament Square; Dogg''s Hamlet, Cahoot''s Macbeth subverts Shakespeare; and After Magritte explains the inexplicable.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCasting: 10 m / Scenery: InteriorThe greatest of all English war plays, Journey''s End shows the effect of war on a group of young officers. The play is a tragic and moving piece for advanced casts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis classic Victorian thriller was first produced in 1935. Jack Manningham is slowly, deliberately driving his wife, Bella, insane. He has almost succeeded when help arrives in the form of a former detective, Rough, who believes Manningham to be a thief and murderer. Aided by Bella, Rough proves Manningham''s true identity and finally Bella achieves a few moments of sweet revenge for the suffering inflicted on her.

Read more less

Book SynopsisComedy / 6m, 2f / Int.This classic comedy opens as a group of the guys assembled for cards in the apartment of divorced Oscar Madison. And if the mess is any indication, it''s no wonder that his wife left him. Late to arrive is Felix Unger who has just been separated from his wife. Fastidious, depressed and none too tense, Felix seems suicidal, but as the action unfolds Oscar becomes the one with murder on his mind when the clean-freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilari

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn a cold September morning in 1844 a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers and an American epic begins. 163 years later the firm they establish - Lehman Brothers - spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy triggering the largest financial crisis in history. Weaving together nearly two centuries of family history this epic theatrical event charts the humble beginnings outrageous successes and devastating failure of the financial institution that would ultimately bring the global economy to its knees./ The Lehman Trilogyis the quintessential story of western capitalism rendered through the lens of a single immigrant family. Note: Nick Powell's original music from the Broadway and West End productions (which is available for streaming on music platforms) is not approved or licensed by Concord Theatricals for use in performance.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA perfect Lysistrata for the new millennium: rich apparatus and a sparkling, metrical, accurate translation of this inexhaustible treasure of a play. --Rachel Hadas, Rutgers UniversityPresents a readable, clear translation with the assistance students will need to understand this play and the society that produced it. . . . A worthy addition to Hackett's growing series of translations of classical literature in accessible editions. --Anne Mahoney, New England Classical Journal

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThree of the most famous tragedies from Ancient Greece, all featuring female protagonists - in modern, much-performed translations. This volume, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classic Collections series, contains: Antigone by Sophocles, translated by Marianne McDonald. The first great 'resistance' drama, and perhaps the definitive Greek tragedy. Bacchae by Euripides, translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael. The story of revenge by the half-man half-god Dionysos on Pentheus, King of Thebes, and all his people. Medea by Euripides, translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael. The powerful myth of Medea, who murders her children as revenge for her husband's infidelity.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review`Luke has done us all - including, if one may say so, Goethe - a potently good turn. We should take advantage of it.' D.J. Enright, Observer`a translation "for our time" without signs of strain.' D. J. Enright, The Observer`At last! A translation of Goethe's masterpiece which reads like a masterpiece in English. David Luke conveys the meaning, intellectual passion and Byronic raciness of the original. This is a poet's as well as a scholar's version, for David Luke has written original poems of great distinction.' Stephen Spender, Spectator'scrupulous and well-informed, backed up by scholarly clarification of the text's difficult history ... one of the most spirited efforts to capture the great poetic drama' Independent'a translation of really poetic quality, preceded by an informative introduction and a most useful synopsis of the various stages of composition of the drama ... This reissue is most welcome: for over and above having available for the non-Germanist an English version of this novel.' The Classical Era'signs of struggle are remarkably few ... The price he pays for rhyming is never too high, and the profits are immense. Michael Hamburger once noted that while Faust had been translated again and again, no single version had established itself as a standard text for the English-speaking world. With his Parts One and Two, both in Oxford University Press World's Classics, Luke has provided us with exactly that.' Times Literary Supplement

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisCelebrating the art forms of ballet and fashion, this beautiful book explores the creative collaborations between New York City Ballet and the top fashion designers of our age, including Virgil Abloh, Christopher John Rogers, Anna Sui, and Valentino, among others.Featuring more than thirty contemporary fashion designers, New York City Ballet Choreography & Couture highlights their distinctive work for ballet. From the shorts suits of Thom Browne accommodating the movement of dancers, and the leather harness detailing of Prabal Gurung to the baroque flounces of Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen or the jewel-encrusted slip dresses of Carolina Herrera, this enchanting volume highlights how fashion design is adapted for dance to amplify movement and music.The stunning photography by Pari Dukovic features breathtaking images of the dancers in motion, along with detail shots highlighting the couture elements of the costumes. Author Marc Happel, NYCB’s DirTrade Review"The New York City Ballet has staged an annual fashion gala since 2012, bringing together choreographers and fashion designers for collaborations both whimsical and mind-bending. A decade’s worth of their creations are vividly showcased in “New York City Ballet: Choreography and Couture,” with a foreword by Sarah Jessica Parker." — New York Times"The list of designer collaborators for New York City Ballet’s annual Fall Fashion Gala reads like the ultimate fashion Rolodex. Carolina Herrera, Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten, Virgil Abloh, and Sarah Burton are just a few of the 30 names who have designed costumes for the annual celebration of dance and fashion over the past 12 years and whose work is celebrated in a new Rizzoli monograph titled New York City Ballet: Choreography & Couture." ~GRAZIA

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdward Albee was born on 12th March 1928. He was adopted by Reed and Frances Albee at the age of eighteen days. Reed Albee was the heir to a vaudeville empire. In 1949 he moved to Greenwich Village and became involved in the artistic scene there. He has received three Pulitzer prizes for drama and in 2005 received a special Tony Lifetime Achievement Award.Trade ReviewAn intensity, a demoniac misery, a ferocious humour...no one can remain indifferent to its power, its resilience of ideas and its range of language * Sunday Times *Deliciously toxic, acidly funny * Washington Post *There is a great sense of danger in Edward's work, and you never quite know what's going to happen next... I think what is one of the most pronounced ingredients in his work is mischief -- Harold PinterScorching and exhilarating * New York Post *The verbal sparring and violence of Albee's early masterpiece remain astonishing, even frightening, yet bitterly, horribly funny...a classic play * The Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisKrapp''s Last Tape was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre in October 1958, and described as ''a solo, if that is the word, for one voice and two organs: one human, one mechanical. It fills few pages. It is perhaps the most original and important play of its length ever written.'' (Roy Walker)The present volume brings together Krapp''s Last Tape and Beckett''s other shorter works or ''dramaticules'' written for the stage. It will be complemented by a forthcoming Faber edition of dramatic works written for radio and screen. Arranged in chronological order of composition, these shorter plays exhibit the laconic means and compassionate ends of Beckett''s dramatic vision. KRAPP ''Here I end this reel. Box - [Pause.] - three, spool - [Pause.] - five. [Pause.] Perhaps my best years have gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn''t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I w

Read more less