Plays, playscripts, drama
Samuel French Ltd Electrolyte
Book SynopsisWritten in spoken word poetry and underscored entirely by original music created live, Electrolyte is an explosive piece of gig-theatre exploring grief, depression and psychosis.
£10.44
Samuel French Ltd Bright Shadow
Book SynopsisThe retired Colonel, his niece Lesley, and his friend the Major - a retired army medical officer - are living, to all intents and purposes, a happy, quiet life together in the Colonel's country home. The play opens as they are having tea with a close friend of the Colonel's daughter, Diana, who died apparently from an overdose of drugs three years previously. The Colonel has not recovered from the shock and believes his daughter is away for a time. They are disturbed by the arrival of a stranger who is investigating Diana's death and the tranquillity begins to unravel.3 women, 5 men
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Scandalous Affair of MR Kettle and Mrs Moon
Book SynopsisOn his way to work at the bank one morning, the manager Mr Kettle freaks out. He goes back home changes into his casual clothes and sets about enjoying himself. No one apart from Mrs Kettle can understand him and why he is behaving in this way. Mrs Kettle joins him in his rebellion. The bank officials employ a doctor to hypnotise Mr Kettle and get him back to his former self.-3 women, 6 men
£10.44
Samuel French Ltd How Not To Drown
Book SynopsisHow Not To Drown was first performed on 4 August 2019 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.I don''t know why my Dad let me go... I was too young, too weak, to make this journey. I wouldn''t have sent me... He wouldn''t have sent me unless there was a reason.In 2002, in the turmoil after the end of the Kosovan War, Dritan is sent on the notoriously perilous journey across the Adriatic with a gang of people smugglers to a new life in Europe. He relies on his young wit and charm to make it to the UK. But the fight for survival continues as he clings to his identity and sense of self when he ends up in the British care system.Painful yet uplifting, How Not to Drown shares a story of endurance for a little kid who wasn''t safe or welcome anywhere in the world.Award-winning theatre company ThickSkin (Chalk Farm, The Static) returns to the stage with an action packed, highly visual production.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Lifeboat
Book SynopsisWinner! TMA/Barclays Equity Award for Best Show for Children and Young People 2002. Tuesday 17 September 1940: two fifteen-year-old child evacuees, Bess Walder and Beth Cummings, are fast asleep on board a steam passage ship, The City of Benares, sailing away from World War Two torn Britain and relentless German bombing. Just before midnight they are violently awoken when the ship is hit by a German torpedo and starts to sink. Bess and Beth join the stampede to the lifeboats. Then begins their desperate battle to survive, clinging on to an upturned lifeboat for a night and a day, in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Out of ninety children on board The City of Benares, Bess and Beth were among only a few who survived. Based on an extraordinary true story, Lifeboat is a tale of courage in the face of overwhelming danger, lifelong friendship and the will to survive.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Secret of Chimneys
Book SynopsisThe council chambers at Chimneys, the Brent family estate, holds a dark and intriguing secret and someone will stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia.A young drifter finds more than he bargained for when he agrees to deliver a parcel to an English country estate. Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. A sinister plot rife with diamonds, oil concessions, exiled royalty, an elusive master criminal and the combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French S?ret?.There is more than murder in this story; there is a treasure hunt in it, not for gold but a diamond, and the story is suitably staged for the main part at Chimneys, that historic mansion whose secret will be found. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Dont Blame it on the Boots
Book SynopsisNo one would have blamed it on the boots if only Kate had produced Macbeth instead of Hamlet or Ophelia hadn''t been so attractive and naive or Eric had smaller feet and wasn''t the drama group''s prize flirt or Liz''s father hadn''t been an actor who once trod the boards at Stratford in those self same boots.3 women, 1 man
£12.55
Samuel French Ltd Not Bobby A Play
Book SynopsisAnxious to complete yesterday''s newspaper crossword, Frank finds the page missing. His mother, Pam, confesses to using it in the newly acquired rabbit''s cage. Extracting the page Frank is astonished to find the crossword is now complete. Could the rabbit, Bobby, be responsible...?4 women, 1 man
£9.99
Samuel French Ltd You Me and Mrs. Jones
Book SynopsisTwo unemployed teenagers who are uncertain about themselves and the world around them are sent on a quest to find heroes fit to save the day. They encounter a hodge podge of humanity: violent street gangs, cranky religious sects, unscrupulous pop groups, television characters and even a family of vagrants. In this final encounter they appear to find their hero the elusive Mrs. Jones. Unable to persuade her to return with them, they go back to empty handed only to find that their commander has disappeared. Yet all is not lost they have gained knowledge and gone from being Nobody to Somebody.9 women, 10 men
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Playhouse Creatures
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£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Top Girls Acting Edition S
Book SynopsisMarlene has been promoted to managing director of a London employment agency and is celebrating. The symbolic luncheon is attended by women in legend or history who offer perspectives on maternity and ambition. In a time warp, these ladies are also her co-workers, clients, and relatives. Marlene, like her famous guests, has had to pay a price to ascend from proletarian roots to the executive suite: she has become, figuratively speaking, a male oppressor and even coaches female clients on adopting odious male traits. Marlene has also abandoned her illegitimate and dull-witted daughter. Her emotional and sexual life has become as barren as Lady Macbeth''s.Trade Review""Top Girls" has a combination of directness and complexity which keeps you both emotionally and intellectually alert. You can smell life, and at the same time feel locked in an argument with an agile and passionate mind."--"The Sunday Times""A dramatist who must surely be rated among the half-dozen best now writing a playwright of genuine audacity and assurance, able to use her considerable wit and intelligence in ways at once unusual, resonant and dramatically riveting."--"New Statesman" "One of our best writers her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme."--"Spectator"
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Murder in the Studio
Book SynopsisA collection of three radio plays, including a Poirot story, for live performance comprised of Personal Call, Yellow Iris, and Butter in a Lordly Dish.Personal Call sees James Brent haunted by his dead wife when he receives a mysterious telephone call, seemingly from beyond the grave.Yellow Iris marked Hercule Poirot''s debut appearance on radio in which the famous detective is called to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes to solve an old case in which a cold-blooded killer escaped justice and slipped through his fingers.Butter in a Lordly Dish sees eminent prosecution barrister Sir Luke Enderby get his comeuppance in one of Christie''s most gruesome and horrifying murders.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Fabric
Book SynopsisLeah has lost her friends, family, career and dignity. Forced to move for a third time following a harrowing court case, she relives painful events in her past as she sorts through all the stuff that has accumulated in her spare room: clothes she doesn''t wear, books she doesn''t read, things she doesn''t need anymore. Leah desperately tries to unpick just where it all went wrong and who or what is really to blame.FABRIC deals with the aftermath of a rape that isn''t believed and confronts the traditional roles still expected of women; questioning how much has changed since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Grinning Man
Book SynopsisA strange new act has arrived at Trafalgar Fair''s freakshow.Who is Grinpayne and how did he get his hideous smile?With the help of an old puppeteer, his pet wolf and a blind girl, Grinpayne''s tale is told. When word spreads across the capital, everything changes. Desperate to know the terrible secrets of his mysterious past, Grinpayne leaves his true love behind and embarks on a journey into an even crueller world - the aristocracy. The Grinning Man is a fairy tale love story streaked with pitch-black humour, lashings of Gothic horror and swashbuckling adventure. It opened at Bristol Old Vic in 2016 to great acclaim and transferred to the West End''s Trafalgar Studios in 2017 where it achieved cult status and rave reviews.Defies theatrical convention by keeping its hand on its heart and its tongue in its cheek. - The GuardianBlackly comic brilliance. - The TelegraphThe best British
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Boy Who Kicked Pigs
Book SynopsisWhen Robert kicks his sister''s beloved piggy bank, Trevor, out of the window he sets in motion a chain of events that results in the unexpected demise of a local fishmonger. Having developed a taste for blood and sick to death of sneering, imbecilic adults, Robert sets about becoming the real murderer he has always dreamed of being, all the while egged on by the newly-talking Trevor. Meanwhile, in the mind-numbingly boring offices of local paper The Kent Clarion, work experience student Philip Bottering wishes for something, anything to report on - preferably a juicy disaster. Based on the novel by Doctor Who''s Tom Baker, this madly-hilarious, frenetic scream of a show, which includes shark-mauling beach-goers, burning vicars and even waltzing rats, is a multi-rolling masterpiece that tells the gloriously grisly tale of one scoundrel''s attempt at infamy.
£14.42
Samuel French Ltd Vespertilio
Book SynopsisSo there''s a theory that we all have a fi nite number of heartbeats. We all have a billion heartbeats to live. Humans, cats, dogs, rats - all our hearts beat at different speeds but we all have the same amount. A clock with a billion ticks.Inspired by the incredible true story of the last greater mouse-eared bat living in Britain, Vespertilio explores the tender romance between introverted bat-enthusiast Alan and Josh, the charming young runaway he meets in an abandoned railway tunnel. As their relationship develops, these two damaged men might fix one another. If only a little. Vespertilio is a story of love, loneliness and bats, an exploration of the difference between merely surviving and truly living.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd Whats Lost
Book SynopsisWinner of the Alfred Fagon AwardDebra wants a simple candle lit remembrance, Lenny is desperate to forget, and activist Alex thinks it''s everyone''s duty to provoke change. Having missed her mother''s funeral, Gina finally turns up a year late. Amid recurring memories, intensifying relations and mixed news reports on escalating knife crime, each walks in and out on each other, struggling to make sense of an increasingly troubled time. A story of two sisters, responsibility, loss and love
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd May Queen
Book Synopsisnot what a girl should do.not what a queen would do.well f *ck what a queen would do.May Day in Coventry, 2022. Sixteen-year-old Leigh has been chosen as May Queen. She''s buzzin, as is the rest of the city.The cider is flowing and St George''s flag is flying - but during the day''s festivities something happens. Something disturbing, but maybe... unsurprising.As the year moves on in the City of Peace and Reconciliation, Leigh must face up to the events of that hot May Day, and dig deep within herself to ask - how did she get here? And how does she get out?
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Height of the Storm
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£999.99
Samuel French Ltd A Question of Fact
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£10.99
Samuel French Ltd Spike
Book SynopsisIt''s 1950s austerity Britain, and out of the gloom comes Goon mania as men, women and children across the country scramble to get their ear to a wireless for another instalment of The Goon Show. While Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers get down to the serious business of becoming overnight celebrities, fellow Goon and chief writer Spike finds himself pushing the boundaries of comedy and testing the patience of the BBC. Flanked by his fellow Goons and bolstered by the efforts of irrepressible sound assistant Janet, Spike takes a flourishing nosedive off the cliffs of respectability and mashes up his haunted past to create the comedy of the future. His war with Hitler may be over, but his war with Auntie Beeb - and ultimately himself - has just begun. Will Spike''s dogged obsession with finding the funny elevate The Goons to soaring new heights, or will the whole thing come crashing down with the stroke of a potato peeler?
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd You Bury Me
Book Synopsis
£14.42
Samuel French Ltd Percival the Performing Pig
Book SynopsisUnhappy about going to London to sing on the stage, Percival Pig plots with his animal friends for a way to get back to the farm.
£9.49
Samuel French Ltd Awaking Beauty
Book SynopsisThe Prince awakens Princess Aurora and the eager, happy young couple are about to embark on their first night of passionate love when ugly, unloved Carabosse, the wicked witch, butts in having taken a fancy to the Prince. But which one will be the Awaking Beauty?Trade Review" Imagine a fairytale world meeting a saucy seaside postcard and you have something of the flavour of Alan Ayckbourn's 72nd play ... charming moments and some witty ditties ..." Lyn Gardner, Guardian "... it had me appreciating some wry lyrics, chuckling at some mischievous moments, and humming Denis King's larky tunes." Benedict Nightingale, The Times "Age has not withered his [Ayckbourn's] capacity to innovate... here he brings a boldly experimental eye as well as a musical ear and an archly modern and adult sensibility to the evergreen tale of Sleeping Beauty ... spry, knowing lyrics with potent music by Denis King ..." Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph
£8.24
Samuel French Ltd Thrill Me A Musical
Book SynopsisBased on the true story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, two 19-year-olds who murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago in 1924, Thrill Me focuses less on the murder itself than on the relationship between Leopold and Loeb. More than 30 years on, the older Nathan speaks at a parole board hearing, recalling the crime and the dynamics of his friendship with Richard, defined largely by their shared intelligence, their passion for Nietzschean philosophy, and their desire for the ultimate thrill. Stephen Dolginoff''s tense, two-character musical drama explores the unusual love story behind the crime of the century.- 2 men
£13.49
Samuel French Inc Antigone
Book SynopsisFull Length, Tragedy / 8m, 4f Produced in modern dress in New York with Katherine Cornell and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, the Galantiere version of the Greek legend comes from a Paris that suffered under the heel of tyranny. The play''s parallels to modern times are exciting and provocative. Its dimensions are noble, its intentions uncompromising.-Southwestern University, Texas
£999.99
Samuel French Inc Owl and the Pussycat
Book SynopsisFull Length, Comedy Characters: 1 male, 1 female Interior Set In a San Francisco loft, aspiring author Felix focuses his binoculars on a prostitute plying her trade. He complains to the landlord, has her evicted, and finds he has trouble pounding on his door in the form of Doris, not a prostitute but an aspiring model and actress, thank you very much. She figures he owes her a bed for the night, an arrangement that leads to hilarity. Alan Alda and Diana Sands took the roles on Broadway, George Segal and Barbra Streisand on film. The first nighters laughed maniacally.-New York Daily News Animated, vivid, and comic (with) startling intensity and truth.-The New York Times
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Your Flake or Mine
Book SynopsisTony Dawson, a greeting card writer, has lost his wife, Margo, because he speaks in couplets on the wrong occasions. She plans to marry her boss, a breakfast food tycoon. Tony, in a last ditch attempt to win her back, offers to throw a no hard feelings engagement party. His plans are complicated by the arrival of a friend who is a perpetual student, the nightclub singer for whom he is writing special material, and his editor who stops by just before the party to collect his monthly greeting card output. Irv is wearing a towel on his way to the shower, Coral gets her dress ripped off, and the editor in the go-go outfit is stashed in the closet that Tony pretends is a darkroom. Add to this a nightclub full of little waiters, a ghastly television show on which Tony accidentally pans Sagamore''s breakfast cereal, and all manner of people being shoved behind screens, out into halls, into closets and shower stalls, and you have one of the wackiest farces ever seen on a stage.
£10.44
Concord Theatricals Haiku
Book SynopsisThis sublimely beautiful play won the Heideman Award at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Long estranged from the family, Billie hopes to convince her aging mother, Nell, to come and live with her. However, Nell?s relationship to Louise, Billie?s sister who waivers between extremities on the spectrum, is complicated, and Louise has her own desires when it comes to her sister. A play about family and the things we do for love.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd Talk Radio
Book SynopsisComedy Characters: 7 male, 2 female, plus offstage voicesScenery: InteriorNewly revised! Barry Champlain, Cleveland''s controversial radio host is on the air doing what he does best: insulting the pathetic souls who call in the middle of the night to sound off. Tomorrow, Barry''s show is going into national syndication and his producer is afraid that Barry will say something that will offend the sponsors. This, of course, makes Barry even more outrageous. Funny and moving, off beat, outrage
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Afterlife
Book SynopsisCharacters: 6 male, 2 female, plus extras (w/doubling)Multiple SetsA man who has everything. Money, friends, a beautifulhome. And then - pfft! It''s all vanished. Max Reinhardt,one the greatest impresarios of theatrical history, had alifelong ambition - to dissolve the boundary betweentheatre and the world it portrays. Each year at theSalzburg Festival he directed a famous morality play,Everyman, about God sending Death to summon arepresentative of mankind for judgment. The vict
£14.42
Samuel French Ltd Melancholy Play
Book SynopsisIn this chamber musical version of Sarah Ruhl's Melancholy Play, Tilly’s melancholy is of an exquisite quality. She turns her melancholy into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her. One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours. Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so melancholy that she turns into an almond. It is up to Tilly to get her back.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd August Wilsons The Piano Lesson
Book SynopsisWinner! 1990 Pulitzer Prize for DramaWinner! 1990 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding New PlayNominee! 1990 Tony Award, Best PlayNominee! 2013 Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Revival of a PlayNominee! 2013 Drama League Award, Outstanding Revival of a PlayIt is 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck loaded with watermelons to sell. He has an opportunity to buy some land down home, but he has to come up with the money right quick. He wa
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd The Moors
Book SynopsisTwo sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd The Roommate
Book SynopsisSharon in her mid-fifties is recently divorced and needs a roommate to share her Iowa home. Robyn also in her mid-fifties needs a place to hide and a chance to start over. But as Sharon begins to uncover Robyn?s secrets they encourage her own deep-seated desire to transform her life completely. A dark comedy about what it takes to re-route your life ? and what happens when the wheels come off.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd The Doctor in Wonderland
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£999.99
Samuel French Ltd How to Transcend a Happy Marriage
Book SynopsisAt a dinner party in New Jersey, two couples discuss polyamory as brought up by the introduction of a new temp, Pip, in Jane’s office. When they invite Pip and her two male partners, discussion turns to action and the exploration of unexplored desire turns animalistic, and then Jane’s daughter sees it all. How to Transcend a Happy Marriage blurs the lines of monogamy and asks how deeply friends, lovers, and strangers connect.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd Meteor Shower
Book SynopsisCorky and Norm are excited to host Gerald and Laura at their home in the valley outside Los Angeles to watch a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower. But as the stars come out and the conversation gets rolling, it becomes clear that Gerald and Laura might not be all that they appear to be. Over the course of a crazy, starlit dinner party, the wildly unexpected occurs. The couples begin to flirt and insanity reigns. Martin, using his trademark absurdist humor, bends the fluid nature of time and reality to create a surprising and unforgettably funny new play.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd Imogen Says Nothing
Book SynopsisA revisionist comedy in verse and prose featuring Imogen, a character who only appears in the first folio of William Shakespeare’s Much Adoe About Nothing, speaks no lines, and is probably a typo. A feminist hijacking of Shakespeare that investigates the voices that have been absented from our canon, and the consequences of cutting them.
£999.99
Concord Theatricals Rodgers Hammersteins Carousel
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£13.49
Concord Theatricals Leveling Up Virtually
Book SynopsisNew virtual version!From the award winning playwright ofEnd Days Deborah Zoe Laufer comes a story about three twenty-something roommates who are glued to their video games. They are masters of the virtual worlds behind the computer screens in their Las Vegas basement. When one of them uses his gaming skills to land a job with the National Security Agency launching actual drones and missiles online battles begin to have real consequences.Leveling Upis a fresh contemporary look at how we navigate the blurry line between worlds both virtual and real and what it means to grow up.
£12.34
Samuel French Ltd The Glorious World of Crowns Kinks and Curls
Book SynopsisThe Glorious World of Crowns Kinks and Curls is a collection of monologues and scenes exploring the often complex relationship women have with their hair. From Afros to braids weddings and funerals falling in love to grieving a loss these stories serve as a powerful reminder that for Black women in particular hair is both deeply personal and political. These heartbreaking heartwarming and hilarious stories will take audiences on an unparalleled journey into the world of Black womanhood.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd At The Wedding
Book SynopsisYou are cordially invited to the best day of someone else's life... but what if it's also the worst day of yours? Join Carlo as she attempts to make it through the night without drinking too much talking too much or trying to win back the bride.
£13.49
Samuel French Ltd Lend Me a Soprano
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£14.42
Samuel French Ltd Primary Trust
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£19.32
Concord Theatricals Off Off Broadway Festival Plays 48th Series
Book SynopsisAs the nation's leading short play festival, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of emerging writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation. The 48th collection includes:18 by Darius M. BuckleyThis play in verse tells the story of two teenage black boys in juvie reflecting on the lives they once lived and what the unknown future holds. Nub City, USA! by Nicholas HulsteinDwayne and Glen have discovered that, if they take out a life insurance policy before they go hunting and if Glen accidentally loses and limb, the policy will pay out in full they just need to visit Nub City, USA. The Velociraptor's Very Good Day by Sarah Sair Kaufman and Shane DittmarWhen an impossible-to-predict tragedy strikes, it's up to Velociraptor to embrace who they really are and make a discovery that will change the world forever. Dugout Daisies by Julissa Mishay NormentDuring the longest inning of their lives, two bench warmers kill time by chatting about the things that matter most to them: why they are on the sidelines. DRAWBRIDGE by Mallory Jane WeissThe lexicographer is coming! Tuesday and Door have one job: lower the drawbridge. But what if the lexicographer comes bearing language for their feelings this time? A play about the potential power of words and the people that help us find them. Freestyle Hand Entry by Elise WienChes recounts their attempts to get to a bag of Bugles stuck in the vending machine in the JCC rec room.
£999.99
Samuel French Ltd Gaslight
Book SynopsisIn this turn-of-the-century Victorian thriller, strange things start to happen to the newlyweds Bella and Jack as their seemingly perfect marriage devolves into something sinister. Why is the attic door locked? Whose footsteps wander the halls at night? And is that gaslight flickering... or not? Bella's reality is twisted, forcing her to question both the truth and her husband's intentions in this haunting thriller based on the acclaimed play and classic film that gave rise to 2022's word of the year: gaslight.
£999.99
Latoya Robinson Through The Eyes Of A Child A Story Of Domestic
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£9.86
