Plays, playscripts, drama
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC X Modern Classics
Book Synopsis McDowall masterfully plants ideas that grow until they explode into extraordinary shapes. Filthy humour breaks down into a cracked algorithm of letters and loss a play that will gnaw away at you. It's sci-fi and theatre at its best. The StageBillions of miles from home, the lone research base on Pluto has lost contact with Earth. Unable to leave or send for help, the skeleton crew sit waiting.Waiting.Waiting long enough for time to start eating away at them.To lose all sense of it.To start seeing things in the dark outside.X premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Dr Cristina Delgado-García.Trade ReviewAlistair McDowall is, I think, the most exciting playwright to emerge out of English theatre in the past five years...He makes me want to try harder. He makes me want to be better. * Simon Stephens, UK, Playwright *Alistair McDowall is one of the most highly regarded young playwrights writing today * Guardian *
£10.99
Currency Press Pty Ltd Sunshine Super Girl: The Evonne Goolagong Story
Book SynopsisA grimy old ball, a racquet made from a wooden fruit box, a pair of borrowed shoes then the world at her feet. This is the heart-warming story of how Evonne Goolagong CawleyourEvonnerose from humble beginnings in an outback farming town to becomea world-championtennis player by the age of just 19. With a tin wall for a court and a steely determination, little Evonne hits and hits and hits her way out of rural New South Wales and onto the world stage. On the way she must battle prejudice and homesickness and test herself to the very limits. Sunshine Super Girl, byYorta Yorta/Gunaikurnaiwriter Andrea James, is a funny and poignant take on the life of a talented sportswoman with a big dream. Infused with a wry Australian sensibility and a proud sense of belonging, it''s a story that will inspire and delight. ''Sunshine Super Girl explores connection to country and community, while taking an unflinching look at poverty, adversity, and racism in Australia. The story is told with plenty of heart, humour, charm and skill. [This is] captivating theatre that beats with a grounded, organic heart.'' Bryan Andy, Witness Performance
£14.24
Univ of Chicago Behalf Northwestern Univ Pres Venus in Fur A Play
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£16.16
Newest Press Wolf Plays
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£999.99
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Theban Plays
Book SynopsisThis volume offers the fruits of Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff''s dynamic collaboration on the plays of Sophocles'' Theban cycle, presenting the translators'' Oedipus Tyrannus (2000) along with Woodruff''s Antigone (2001) and a muscular new Oedipus at Colonus by Meineck. Grippingly readable, all three translations combine fidelity to the Greek with concision, clarity, and powerful, hard-edged speech. Each play features foot-of-the-page notes, stage directions, and line numbers to the Greek. Woodruff''s Introduction discusses the playwright, Athenian theatre and performance, the composition of the plays, and the plots and characters of each; it also offers thoughtful reflections on major critical interpretations of these plays.
£14.24
Currency Press Children of the Black Skirt
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£14.24
Currency Press Pty Ltd October
Book Synopsis''Don''t mention it to anyone. Not that we are going to do anything. But don''t mention it anyway.'' Tim and Angela are on the edge of something irrevocable. A stranger''s accusation of infidelity has turned their perfect urban dream into a nightmare. Now, every corner of their inner-city apartment hides a menacing secret, every step outside is a step into the unknown. The threat to their existence is killing them. Enter Dick, private eyesmarmy and menacing by turns, a Man Who Makes Things Happen. Though he charges by the hour and his approach is definitely unconventional, Dick may be exactly what the situation requires. But just how far are Tim and Angela willing to go to ensure their personal safety?
£14.24
Currency Press Pty Ltd Babyteeth
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£14.24
Simon & Schuster A Midsummer Nights Dream Folger Shakespeare
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£6.99
Random House USA Inc A Man for All Seasons Vintage International
Book SynopsisThe dramatization of Sir Thomas More's historic conflict with Henry VIII—a compelling portrait of a courageous man who died for his convictions and a modern classic that challenges the mind, and, in the end, touches the heart (New York Times).Sir Thomas More—the brilliant nobleman, lawyer, humanist, author of such works as Utopia—was a long-time friend and favorite of Henry VIII, ascending to the position of Lord Chancellor in 1529. Yet he was also a staunch Catholic, and when Henry broke with the Church in 1531 after the Pope had refused to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, More resigned the Chancellorship. In 1534, Parliament passed a bill requiring all subjects to take an oath acknowledging the supremacy of England's king over all foreign sovereigns—including the Pope. More refused, was imprisoned, and finally was executed in 1535.
£11.99
Ediciones Catedra S.A. LA Dama Boba
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£13.11
Nick Hern Books Sunday in the Park with George
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 *
£12.34
Nick Hern Books Vernon God Little
Book SynopsisA darkly riotous, superbly fast-talking adventure, adapted from the Booker Prize-winning novel. Vernon Little is fifteen years old and lives with his mother in Martirio, a flea-bitten Texan town. His best friend just massacred sixteen of their classmates before killing himself. The town wants vengeance and turns its sights on Vernon, who is arrested at the start of the story. Tanya Ronder's stage adaptation of DBC Pierre's Booker Prizewinning novel Vernon God Little was first performed at the Young Vic, London, in 2007, when it was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play. Rufus Norris's production was revived in 2011, in this revised version, as the centrepiece of the Young Vic's celebratory fortieth anniversary season.Trade Review'Tanya Ronder's clever, fluent, and highly enjoyable theatrical adaptation' * Independent *'Exuberant, inventive, edgy, excitable, original' * Mail on Sunday *
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Harold Pinter Writers Lives S
Book SynopsisA biography of one of the most important writers in English of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. It offers fresh insights into his life and work, concentrating on the themes, patterns, relationships, ideas and language common to his life and creative output.Trade Review"William Baker's Harold Pinter affords readers with a comprehensive, career-spanning analysis of the Nobel Laureate's life and art. A deft and eminently rewarding exploration of one of postwar literature's great masters, Baker's study will become the standard-bearer for our understanding and enjoyment of Pinter's time-eclipsing work." - Professor Ken Womack, Penn State University, USATable of ContentsIntroduction and Acknowledgements; 1. Growing Up; 2. Ireland, Precarious Existence and Marriage; 3. Early Plays; 4. Success; 5. Turning Points; 6. The 1970s and 1980s; 7. The 1990s and Beyond: Political Engagement; 8. Conclusion: Cancer, The Nobel Prize, Mutations of Mortality, Poetry; Bibliography; Index.
£18.74
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Four Tragedies Electra Philoctetes Ajax The Women
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn these new translations Meineck and Woodruff have struck a near-ideal balance between accuracy and readability, formality and colloquialism. Their versions are simply a pleasure to read, conveying with remarkable vividness the powerful characterizations and poetic variety of the originals. The addition of succinct but illuminating notes makes this an exemplary volume for anyone interested in Sophocles' dramatic art. --Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Department of Classics, Wesleyan University[T]his sequel to the same pair's well-received translation of the Theban plays hits an appropriate mean . . . a text that I could happily adopt for teaching. --Malcolm Heath in Greece and RomeTable of ContentsIntroduction; Notes on the Translations; Map: Sophoclean geography; House of Pelops Family Tree; Ajax; Women of Trachis; Electra; Philoctetes; Endnotes.
£13.29
Currency Press Pty Ltd Summer of the Seventeenth Doll
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£14.24
Currency Press Pty Ltd Hotel Sorrento
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£14.24
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Bacchae
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£12.34
Nick Hern Books Superhoe: the hit stage play behind major BBC TV
Book SynopsisThe hit stage play behind major BBC TV drama series Mood. Sasha Clayton is twenty-four and living with her mum, stepdad, and irritating little sister, in Plaistow, East London. She's gone from being the most popular girl at school, to spending most of her time on her own in her bedroom scrolling through social media. She may not have a job or a flat, and, admittedly her boyfriend's not answering her calls – but she's got talent and a dream. When she releases her first EP everything's going to change. Nicôle Lecky's play Superhoe was first staged in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2019, performed by its author and directed by Jade Lewis. It was the first collaboration between Talawa Theatre Company and the Royal Court. The play was adapted by Nicôle Lecky into the six-part BBC television drama series Mood, first broadcast in March 2022.Trade Review'Fiercely clever... equal parts brutally funny and brutally sad... for a story of loneliness, isolation and entrapment, Superhoe is also beautiful and hopeful' * The Stage *'A vivid and touching portrait of millennial angst' * Telegraph *'A terrific piece by rising star Nicole Lecky, full of wit, truth and blazing feeling... smart, of the moment, and very funny' * Metro *'An engaging and hyper-provocative solo piece that shines a light on the perils new generations face' * Broadway World *'A frank, funny, and at times devastating piece which explores class, familial relations, and making ends meet with only your phone' * WhatsOnStage *'Nicole Lecky is a revelation… smart, sweary, authentic and provocative' * Evening Standard *'Astute, aggy and punctuated with rap, Superhoe pins down the financial difficulties of young adults' * Guardian *'Nicôle Lecky is a serious name to watch… this thrilling monologue is clearly the work of somebody who will go very, very far indeed' * Time Out *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books REVENGE After the Levoyah
Book SynopsisA Jewish heist comedy that combines madcap action and biting political satire, winner of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and a Summerhall Lustrum Award.
£10.44
Penguin Putnam Inc Doctor Faustus Signet Classics Paperback
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£8.13
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Woza Albert
Book SynopsisA social satire looks at what would happen if the Second Coming of Christ occurred in South AfricaTrade Review'A satire played with devastating energy in a brilliantly witty staging.' The Guardian 'The most politically potent show ever staged in South Africa.' The Observer
£10.44
Harvard University Press Menander Volume III
Book SynopsisMenander, the dominant figure in New Comedy, wrote over 100 plays, of which one complete play, substantial portions of six others, and smaller but interesting fragments have been recovered. The complete play, Dyskolos (The Peevish Fellow), won first prize in Athens in 317 BC.Trade ReviewAn excellent guide to Menander… Arnott has given us fine texts, clear translations, brief and useful introductions, and the help that is needed to make sense [of the] fragments. -- David Konstan * Scholia Reviews *
£23.70
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC An Experiment With An Air Pump Modern Plays
Book SynopsisShelagh Stephenson's daring and thoughtful new play1799 - On the eve of a new century, the house buzzes with scientific experiments, furtive romance and farcical amateur dramatics. 1999 - In a world of scientific chaos, cloning and genetic engineering, the cellar of the same house reveals a dark secret buried for 200 years.An Experiment with an Air Pump was joint recipient of the 1997 Margaret Ramsay Award and premiered at The Royal Exchange Theatre Company, Manchester in February 1997. Due for a major London production in autumn 1998. Her previous play The Memory of Water won the 1996 Writers' Guild Award for Best Original Radio Play and the 1997 Sony Award for Best Original Drama
£14.19
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 4.48 Psychosis
Book SynopsisThis work is the last play by Sarah Kane, the controversial contemporary British playwright, who died aged 28 in February 1999. A single voice, dragged through therapy and endless medication, reveals the true experience of clinical depression.Trade Review'Is it possible, asks the text, for a person to be born in the wrong body, at the wrong time? Yes, is the answer. But sometimes, from that agony, a great soul can wrestle something as beautiful and true as this remarkable play.' Scotsman (4 November 2008) '4.48 Psychosis still feels immediate, intimate and raw - if anything, the onward march of our confessional culture has made it feel even more contemporary.' Aleks Sierz, Tribune, 7.8.09 'Sarah Kane's last play, written before she killed herself 10 years ago, has been described as a theatrical suicide note. That sells it short. It is so much more: a manifesto for living by one about to die.' Lyn Gardner, Guardian, 25.7.09 'an extraordinary exploration of the human condition, and of psychological disintegration in particular. It exposes the terrifying clarity of the acute depressive's unblinking certainty that their existence is intolerable and can never be otherwise; the play's title refers to Kane's early morning moments of such cruel lucidity.' Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09 'Kane's fractured poetry, lacerating in its anguish and devil-driven dark humour' Sam Marlowe, The Times, 28.7.09
£11.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Churchill Plays 1
Book SynopsisFormerly part of the World Dramatists series of play collections by classic and modern playwrights, including foreign works in workable and accurate translations, this title and seven others are reissued in a new format under the heading, World Classics.Trade ReviewCloud Nine ... ought now to be established as one of the great psycho-sexual comedies of the 20th century. Evening Standard Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine is the cleverist, drollest, most sexily experimental exercise in "compare and contrast" that British theatre has probably ever seen. Daily Telegraph This is the play that established Caryl Churchill as the most imaginatively daring of our major dramatists; and, nearly 30 years after its premiere, it still seems not only remarkably inventive but as sharp about the contradictions of gender as anything that has been written since. The TimesTable of ContentsOwners; Traps; Vinegar Tom; Light Shining in Buckinghamshire; Cloud Nine
£20.89
Cambridge University Press The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson 7 Volume Set
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£999.99
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Adapting Chekhov in the 21st Century
Book SynopsisFrances Babbage is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has published widely on performance, adaptation and rewriting, with monographs including Adaptation in Contemporary Theatre (Methuen Drama, 2017) and Re-Visioning Myth: Modern and Contemporary Drama by Women (2011).
£23.74
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) A Tryal of Witches
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£10.99
Penguin Putnam Inc The Crucible
Book SynopsisA haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural communityA Penguin Classic I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history, Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violen
£12.90
Penguin Books Ltd The Misanthrope and Other Plays
Book SynopsisMolière (1622-73) combined all the traditional elements of comedy—wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire—with a deep understanding of character to create richly sophisticated dramas which have always delighted audiences. Most are built around dangerously deluded and obsessive heroes such as The Would-Be Gentleman and The Misanthrope who threaten to blight the lives of those around them. Such Foolish Affected Ladies and Those Learned Ladies (both newly translated for this edition) expose the extravagant, fashionable fads and snobbery of the Parisian smart set, while the story of the falsely devout Tartuffe and his devoted disciple Orgon attracted huge controversy for its attack on religious hypocrisy. Finally, The Doctor Despite Himself forms a hilarious chapter in Molière's long-standing vendetta against the medical profession. Like Shakespeare, Molière was a true man of the theatre whose comedies blend sharp insight into human nature with Table of Contents"Such Foolish Affected Ladies"; "Tartuffe"; "The Misanthrope"; "The Doctor Despite Himself"; "The Would-Be Gentleman"; "Those Learned Ladies".
£11.69
Washington Square Press Inc.,N.Y. Twelfth Night Or What You Will Folger Shakespeare
Book SynopsisAlong with the text of the play. this volume presents notes and essays to enhance reader understanding of the play and its author.
£8.03
Eyewear Publishing Ubu Trump: A Drama in Five Acts
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£10.44
Univ of Chicago Behalf Northwestern Univ Pres Metamorphoses Play
Book SynopsisThis play is based on Ovid's 15-volume work of transformation myths. Positioned in and around a large pool on the stage, the characters enact adaptations of Ovid's tales, juxtaposing the ancient and contemporary in both language and image. The volume includes a production history and photographs.
£16.96
Beck'sche CH Verlagsbuchhandlung Oscar Beck Faust Der Tragodie erster und zweiter Teil
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£999.99
Edaf Antillas Los Arboles Mueren de Pie
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£999.99
Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd Four Black Revolutionary Plays
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£8.95
Random House USA Inc Three Plays
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£999.99
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc The Electra Plays
Book SynopsisA collection of plays that focuses on three playwrights' - Peter Meineck, Cecelia Eaton Luschnig, and Paul Woodruff - treatment of the same events in the House of Atreus. It is suitable for those interested in Greek literature, theater history, or mythology.Trade ReviewToday good reading and effective performance of ancient drama require a constellation of talents to succeed, and in the four brought together for The Electra Plays we are getting some of the best. Justina Gregory provides a fine critical Introduction to the whole project, and the performance-tested translations of Peter Meineck, Cecelia Eaton Luschnig, and Paul Woodruff are wonderfully readable and speakable--even when the events to be spoken of are not. This is not the usual random gathering of plays, but a volume with a concentrated focus on the three playwrights' treatment of the same events in the House of Atreus. There are parallels and profound differences, all of them endlessly discussable. This ensemble of plays and the team that made it should appeal to anyone interested in Greek literature, theater history, or mythology. --James Tatum, Aaron Lawrence Professor of Classics, Dartmouth College, and author of Plautus: The Darker Comedies (Johns Hopkins University Press)Once again, Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff team up (this time with Cecelia Eaton Luschnig) to produce a thoroughly engaging text with lively translations that prove to be of great value to the college classroom. . . . The clarity of the translations, the unburdensome thoroughness of the introduction, and the judicious selection of footnotes, however, combine to allow students both within and outside the pertinent disciplines to appreciate how The Electra Plays speak directly to the world. --Mitchell M. Harris, Augustana CollegeA useful selection of works that should be considered seriously by any instructor who wishes to engage with the Electra Plays. It presents a good teaching text--one that provides the students with a solid foundation to get them started and then allows the plays to speak for themselves. It will provide instructors and students alike with an effective opportunity to contrast the dramatic approaches and thematic interests of the three playwrights, and presents a vivid illustration of the ability of Attic tragedy to engage its audience both emotionally and intellectually. --John Porter, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, in Mouseion
£13.29
Faber & Faber A Girl Is a HalfFormed Thing Adapted for the
Book SynopsisTakes us into the psyche of a girl with breathtaking fury and intimacy.
£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Stage Door Acting Edition for Theater Productions
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£10.44
Seagull Books London Ltd Tahrir Tales
Book SynopsisThe ten plays in this collection offer unprecedented grassroots perspectives on the jubilation, terror, hope, and heartbreak of mass uprising as seen during and in the wake of the Tahrir Square demonstrations. Collectively tracing events as they unfolded in Egypt from the last days of Hosni Mubarak's regime through Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's ascendance to the presidency, the plays present a picture of Egypt in the midst of epochal change, with all the attendant fear, hope, and uncertainty. Ranging from naturalism to documentary to more avant-garde representations, the plays collected in Tahrir Tales represent contemporary Egyptian drama at its most interesting, and, not coincidentally, most politically, committed.
£32.30
Harvard University Press Menander Volume II
Book SynopsisMenander, the dominant figure in New Comedy, wrote over 100 plays, of which one complete play, substantial portions of six others, and smaller but interesting fragments have been recovered. The complete play, Dyskolos (The Peevish Fellow), won first prize in Athens in 317 BC.Trade ReviewAn excellent guide to Menander… Arnott has given us fine texts, clear translations, brief and useful introductions, and the help that is needed to make sense [of the] fragments. -- David Konstan * Scholia Reviews *
£23.70
Samuel French Inc A Few Good Men
Book SynopsisCharacters: 14 male, 1 female Int. This Broadway hit about the trial of two Marines for complicity in the death of a fellow Marine at Guantanamo Bay sizzles on stage. The Navy lawyer, a callow young man more interested in softball games than the case, expects a plea bargain and a cover up of what really happened. Prodded by a female member of his defense team, the lawyer eventually makes a valiant effort to defend his clients and, in so doing, puts the military mentality and the Marine code of honor on trial. Enormously entertaining.- New York Daily News Plenty of wise cracking humor and suspense. - Time Magazine Fresh and adroitly updated and conditioned to our time and socio-political climate. - NY Post
£999.99
Ivan R Dee, Inc Clown Scenes
Book SynopsisThe intimacy of the one-ring circus produced the classic clown routines that flourished until the mid-twentieth century and then disappeared with the rise of the grand circus. They have been lost until now. By seeking out the little band of surviving clowns who worked in the old tradition and setting down their scenes, Tristan Rémy, the eminent circus historian, has rescued a theatrical treasure. Thanks to Rémy’s persistence, the forty-eight scenes presented here contain not only the spoken words but the manner of line delivery and the physical turns. So they remain superbly suitable for performance. Most of them are written for just three actors—the white-faced clown, August the stooge, and the supercilious ringmaster. Sets are unnecessary. And their combination of the verbal with the physical has timeless appeal. Bernard Sahlins’s translation is masterfully attuned to present-day audiences. In his foreword, Mr. Sahlins notes that these scenes have been continually remounted in Europe, attesting to their fundamental vitality and universality. “Clearly there is a debt, witting and unwitting, owed to the clown of the ring by the great comedians of our century. With this book these scenes and the clowns who invented and played them now take their honored place in our theatrical legacy.”Trade ReviewA welcomed translation...a fascinating perspective on the world of clowns. -- Joel Schechter * Theater Magazine *Admirable and essential. -- Don Stacey * World's Fair *
£999.99
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Euripides Heracles Focus Classical Library
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£12.34
Currency Press Pty Ltd Cosi
Book Synopsis'Nowra has written a terrific play about theatre, madness, illusion, sanity, life: it's a big, splendidly Australian epic.' - Frank Gauntlett, Telegraph Mirror Set in 1971, Cosi is Louis Nowra's second semi-autobiographical play. Lewis has recently left university and takes up a job in a mental institution directing Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. Lewis, the non-participant, becomes emotionally involved with his actors' lives as his operatic production lurches forward and anti-Vietnam protests take place in the streets outside. 'Nowra's generous humour offers up a world of the most extraordinary, ordinary people; and a hilarious situation comedy to boot... [but there are] hints of a darkness that lies beyond the light: the real world.' - Angela Bennie, Sydney Morning Herald
£14.24
Currency Press Pty Ltd The Rivers of China Currency Plays
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£14.24
