Plays, playscripts, drama
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Madmen and Specialists Modern Plays
Book SynopsisA bitterly ironic portrait of Nigeria after Biafra
£16.59
Penguin Publishing Group Eight Great Comedies The Complete Texts of the Worlds Great Comedies from Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century
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£21.47
Meta Brasil Inefável Antologia 20072013
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£14.83
Bluestocking Books NZ The Unofficial Encyclopedia of Desperate Housewives
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£15.19
Anna Elle The Nomadic Wolf
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£13.99
Cambridge University Press Massacre at Myall Creek
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£11.61
Cambridge University Press thealchemist
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£32.37
Cambridge University Press Playforms Seven Scripts for Secondary Drama
Book SynopsisThese short plays illustrate different forms of drama and provide a useful link between improvisation and longer scripted plays at upper secondary level. They give students an opportunity to discover and unravel stylistic conventions in a creative and immediately rewarding manner.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Naturalism: Dog Accident; Morality: Whose Friend Are You?; Absurd: Alas Poor Fred; Melodrama: Tricking the Trickster; Farce: Short Notice; Brechtian: The Old Man Who Liked Cats; Fantasy: Suburban Love Song; Conclusion.
£15.37
Cambridge University Press Sophocles Philoctetes Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama
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£15.86
Cambridge University Press Euripides Hecuba Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama
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£15.86
Cambridge University Press Sophocles Electra Cambridge Translations from Greek Drama
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£15.86
Farrar, Straus and Giroux W.T. a Play
Book Synopsis
£13.50
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl Bach At Leipzig A Play
£8.99
St. Martins Press-3PL Stone Cold Dead Serious And Other Plays
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£17.12
Farrar Strauss & Giroux-3pl Quills and Other Plays
£18.52
Faber & Faber Unicorns Almost
Book SynopsisUnicorns, Almost portrays the short life of World War II poet Keith Douglas, from his childhood through four engagements to his fighting in the Western desert, his accelerated education as a poet and his early death three days after the Normandy D-Day landings at the age of twenty-four. It is the story of his Faustian pact with a war that would nurture his unique poetic voice before taking it away. It is also the story of his desperate race to see his poems in print.Widely recognised as the finest poet of World War Two, Keith Douglas was championed by Ted Hughes as an important influence. Hughes wrote the introduction to Douglas's Collected Poems, published by Faber.Unicorns, Almost by Owen Sheers opened at The Swan Hotel, Hay-on-Wye, in May 2018.
£10.44
Faber & Faber How to Hold Your Breath
Book SynopsisBecause we live in Europe. Because nothing really bad happens. The worst is a bit of an inconvenience. Perhaps not such a good mini break. But really in the grand scheme of life, not so bad.Starting with a seemingly innocent one night stand, this dark, witty and magical play by Zinnie Harris dives into our recent European history.An epic look at the true cost of principles and how we live now, How to Hold Your Breath premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in February 2015.
£10.44
Faber & Faber The Absence of War
Book SynopsisThe Absence of War offers a meditation on the classic problems of leadership, and is the third part of a critically acclaimed trilogy of plays (Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges) about British institutions.Its unsparing portrait of a Labour Party torn between past principles and future prosperity, and of a deeply sympathetic leader doomed to failure, made the play hugely controversial and prophetic when it was first presented at the National Theatre, London, in 1993.The Absence of War is much more than a piece of skilled reporting. It is actually cast as a classic tragedy.'' Guardian
£10.44
Faber & Faber Evening at The Talk House
Book SynopsisAt Ted''s instigation, the old gang gather once more at the almost legendary club The Talk House. Ten years on and presided over still by the kindly Nellie, there''s the same genteel atmosphere, familiar drinks, unchanging special snacks. But the era of Walter Barclay is long gone.A playwright, a composer, an actress.The possibility of a pleasant night.Evening at The Talk House by Wallace Shawn premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2015.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Jane Wenham The Witch of Walkern
Book SynopsisWalkern, 1712. England has been free from witch-hunts for decades until Jane Wenham is blamed for a tragic death and charged with witchcraft. A terrifying ordeal begins, as the village is torn between those who want to save Jane''s life and those who claim they want to save her soul.Inspired by events in a Hertfordshire village, the play explores sex and society''s hunger to find and create witches.Rebecca Lenkiewicz''s Jane Wenham: The Witch of Walkern premiered at Watford Palace Theatre before going on UK tour in September 2015, in an Out of Joint, Watford Palace Theatre and Arcola Theatre co-production, in association with Eastern Angles.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Deathwatch
Book SynopsisThree young convicts share a cell. Locked into a world of dangerous rivalries, criminals Lefranc and Maurice compete for the attention of the charismatic condemned man, Green-Eyes. Informed by his own experience in French prisons, this play is an explosive exploration of the inversion of moral order.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Owen McCafferty Plays 2
Book SynopsisOwen McCafferty''s second collection includes plays that span from the sinking of the Titanic to the lingering aftermath of the Troubles in twenty-first-century Belfast.Absence of WomenA fine example of theatre at its small-scale best.' Evening StandardTitanicOwen McCafferty''s rigorous verbatim play provides an antidote to Titanic fatigue... Two months of hearings from 97 witnesses are whittled down to nine... What remains, even after a century, is a disturbing sense of moral ambiguity: 1, 517 dead and no one to blame.' GuardianQuietlyVibrates with a violent tension so taut that if you were a bystander... you'd hardly dare to breathe.'' New York TimesRemarkable inspired The piece packs sweeping questions about forgiveness and accountability into a tightly plotted encounter.' Daily TelegraphThe most powerful theatrical production I have had the privilege of seeing... McCaffert
£17.09
Faber & Faber Wind Resistance Faber Drama
Book SynopsisAn immersive musical essay. A meditation on sanctuary. A moor walker's journal. A personal memoir of maternity. An archaeology of flight science and football, medieval medicine and compassion. A wonder tale.Karine Polwart's Wind Resistance is co-produced with the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and was originally presented in association with Edinburgh International Festival 2016, supported through the Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.Winner of the Best Music and Sound Award at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) 2017.
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Hogarth Plays
Book SynopsisThe Hogarth Plays catch one of England's most celebrated artists at two crucial points in his career: once at the beginning, and once at the end.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Salt
Book SynopsisWhere our real home might be is tricky to say. In a way that is the point. Some people say that it is the body, but I think the body is more of a channel that leads us home. Ultimate reality is our home. It is here and now.In 2016, two artists embarked a cargo ship and retraced a route of the Transatlantic Slave Triangle Europe, Africa, the Caribbean all the while contemplating the notion of home. Both real and imagined, it was a journey to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, propelled by questions and grief; a journey backwards in order to go forwards, a diaspora. This show is what they brought back. Selina Thompson''s Salt premiered at Southbank Centre in July 2017, and went on to tour in the UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil.Winner of The Stage Edinburgh Award, The Total Theatre Award for Experimentation, Innovation and Playing with Form, and The Filipa Bragança Award. Shortlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Awa
£9.49
Faber & Faber To Have to Shoot Irishmen Faber Drama
Book SynopsisCould peace come after? After what? Who will we be?Easter morning, 1916. Gunshots ring out in the Dublin streets. In her suburban sitting-room Hanna prepares for revolution. Frank walks through the crowds calling for peace, while John recalls the trenches and sees a city soaked in blood. Eighteen-year-old William fearfully reports to the barracks for duty, determined to serve the British army with honour. Inspired by true events, this absorbing play weaves movement and folk song into a stirring tale of militarism, corruption and the power of rebellion.''Vibrant and shocking. A fine new play [with] countless stirring scenes that boils over with the chaos of war. Nunnery wears her research lightly and expresses her ideas in tumbling poetry, lively dialogue and haunting song. Not a syllable or beat is wasted.'' Guardian
£9.49
Faber & Faber Uncle Vanya Faber Drama
Book SynopsisDon''t be miserable, you wonderful woman; be a mermaid. There''s the ocean; throw yourself in. Fall in love with some poor mortal and drag him down with you. Astonish us! On an isolated country estate, Sonia and her Uncle Vanya are committed to a life of ceaseless toil. But when the ageing invalid Serebriakov and his bewilderingly beautiful young wife take up residence, a yearning envelops the household and disturbs the accustomed tedium. Friend and confidant Astrov grows lovelorn, Sonia''s heart breaks and even Vanya falls under the spell. And so they fight, bond, belittle, lament, make peace and contemplate the odd murder.Featuring sex, comedy and unbearable sadness in nineteenth-century Russia, this version of Anton Chekhov''s Uncle Vanya was written and directed by Terry Johnson and opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in November 2018. And having weathered the storm, what''s left? My feelings for you; a few droplets on a window pane, cat
£10.44
Faber & Faber When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other
Book SynopsisGo on then: lock the doors and see what happens. Show me how much power you really have.When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other breaks through the surface of contemporary debate to explore the messy, often violent nature of desire and the fluid, complicated roles that men and women play.Using Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela as a provocation, six characters act out a dangerous game of sexual domination and resistance.When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other premiered at the National Theatre, London, in January 2019.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Writing for Nothing Fiction Short Plays Texts for
Book SynopsisMartin Crimp's Writing for Nothing collects texts written over the last thirty years. Included here are short plays, unmistakably the work of the internationally acclaimed author of Attempts on Her Life; texts for opera, beginning with the modern masterpiece Written on Skin, created with composer George Benjamin; and two stories that provide a new perspective on Crimp, revealing a writer capable of bringing all of his brilliance to prose. Unsettling, elegant and incisive, Writing for Nothing is a vibrant and varied anthology, celebrating a writer with a rare talent for illuminating the power structures behind our everyday world.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Tartuffe the Imposter
Book SynopsisOrgon is the man who has everything. Money, power, a beautiful family. But lately he's been questioning the point of it all. When he invites Tartuffe into his perfect household, he unleashes a whirlwind of deception and seduction that threatens everything.With Orgon under Tartuffe's spell, can his family outwit this charismatic trickster? Are Tartuffe''s wild claims truth or fiction? This mysterious stranger may not be quite the villain he appears.John Donnelly's ferocious new version of Molière's comic masterpiece looks at the lengths we go to find meaning and what happens when we find chaos instead. Tartuffe, the Imposter opened at the National Theatre, London, in February 2019.
£10.44
Faber & Faber In Lipstick
Book SynopsisThings don''t change no matter how much you want them to. You try, you run away, you make things new but they''re not. It''s just the same old shit covered in lipstick.Maud, a woman on the run from her damaged past, has sheltered Cynthia from the outside world for the last few years. But while Cynthia is a recluse, living for their dressing-up box, their fairy tales and Shirley Bassey on YouTube, Maud meets Dennis, a security guard at her office. As Cynthia clings, Maud begins to dream of escaping their isolated and claustrophobic world. Annie Jenkins'' debut play In Lipstick gives savage, funny and heartfelt voice to two women trapped in a fractured city, not quite knowing how to love each other.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Uncle Vanya
Book SynopsisRussia, late summer at the close of the nineteenth century. Vanya and his niece Sonya have worked for years to manage the country estate. Into this ordered and regular household come two new visitors, Sonya''s father, an irritable professor, and his young wife Elena who, in the space of a few months, cause chaos, one by their selfishness, and the other by their sexual allure. Between them, they manage to have most of the inhabitants questioning their purpose in life, their happiness and, at times, their sanity.David Hare''s version of Anton Chekhov''s Uncle Vanya opens at Theatre Royal Bath in July 2019.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Eleutheria
Book SynopsisWritten in French in the late forties before Waiting for Godot, Eleutheria is about a young man at odds with his middle-class family, living alone in a bedsit and refusing to take part in ''normal'' life while accepting handouts from his mother. Often richly comic, it contains elements of high farce and draws on the traditions of French boulevard comedy and melodrama.This new edition includes the notice by Jérôme Lindon, in its original French, which accompanied the first edition in 1995, explaining the circumstances under which the play was first published.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Botticelli in the Fire
Book SynopsisThey're going to kill you. They're going to worship you, don't get me wrong. But they are going to kill you.Playboy Sandro Botticelli has it all: talent, fame, good looks. He also has the ear and the wife of Lorenzo de Medici, as well as the Florence''s hottest young apprentice, Leonardo.But whilst he is at work on his breakthrough commission, The Birth of Venus, Botticelli's devotion to pleasure and beauty is put to the ultimate test. As plague sweeps through the city, the charismatic friar Girolamo Savonarola starts to stoke the fires of dissent against the liberal elite. Botticelli finds the life he knows breaking apart, forcing him to choose between love and survival.Jordan Tannahill's hot-blooded queering of Renaissance Italy questions how much of ourselves we are willing to sacrifice when society comes off the rails.WINNER: Best New Play, Toronto Theatre Critics Award WINNER: Governor General''s Literary Award <
£10.44
Faber & Faber Manor
Book SynopsisThis place is about to blow.A violent storm sweeps the coast. Diana Stuckley and her daughter are struggling to keep the roof on their run-down manor house, when neighbours and strangers begin to appear on their doorstep, seeking shelter from the floods.One of these unexpected arrivals is Ted Farrier, the charismatic leader of a right-wing organisation: he could be Diana's saviour or could pull the fragile household to pieces.Stranded together, this explosive mix of people must survive the weather, and each other.Manor by Moira Buffini premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2021.
£9.49
Faber & Faber An unfinished man
Book SynopsisThis hex has festered,iss roots have been stuckfor almost three decades.I've been obliviousbut now I know.Thuh Lord has made it known.I can't ignore it now iss known.Gotta battle.Gotta fight.Kayode has been unemployed for seven years.
£10.44
Faber & Faber The False Servant
Book SynopsisAre you really surprised to discover that a woman might have a mind of her own?When Lélio thinks he can ditch and cash in on the rich woman he has promised to marry, in order to become the husband of an even wealthier girl from Paris', he enlists the help of his attractive new friend, the Chevalier.What he doesn't know is that the Chevalier is none other than this same girl from Paris' disguised as a man, and that her project is to publicly expose the depths of his sexual cynicism.A self-declared modern', Marivaux is a pioneer in the exploration of human feeling, asking in this play not only what do we hide from others? - but what are we hiding from ourselves?Martin Crimp's version of Pierre Marivaux's The False Servant received its premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2004 and was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in June 2022. Marivaux's scepticism, irony and fascination with money and sex make him seem peculi
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Sun the Moon and the Stars
Book SynopsisThis is bout those menwho stripped him of his crown,treated that charcoal skin like concrete.Peace will only comewhen I make em come undone.
£10.44
Faber & Faber The Apple Family A Pandemic Trilogy
Book Synopsisthey reveal their depression and fears, they mourn lost friends and even watch a dance performance, as the world outside sputters out of control, amidst anger, illness, and a coming election.With an introduction and afterword by the author.
£999.99
Faber & Faber A Splinter of Ice
Book SynopsisMoscow, 1987. As the cold war begins to thaw, an extraordinary reunion takes place between one of the great novelists of the twentieth century, Graham Greene, and his old MI6 boss, the notorious Soviet spy, Kim Philby. It's taken thirty years and the beginnings of a new world order.As the two men raise their vodka glasses under the watchful eye of Philby's last wife, Rufa, Ben Brown's compelling political drama asks whether Philby betrayed his friend as well as his country, and how much the writer of The Third Man knew about Philby's secret life.A Splinter of Ice was filmed on stage at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, for release online in April 2021, before a UK tour.
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Visiting Hour
Book SynopsisYou used to swing me on our garden gate. In and out, in and out out and in, me, on top of the gate, safe because I was in your arms, my father's big strong arms.Recalling events that may or may not have happened, people he may or may not have known, an elderly father weaves his life, funny, angry, poignant, as if in a dream.His daughter, perched outside his window, as close as the pandemic allows, responds with conflicting memories. They sing and argue, they broach dangerous ground, their profound love apparent despite themselves, until the visiting hour is up.Written during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, Frank McGuinness's The Visiting Hour premiered in April 2021 at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in the first online Gate At Home production.
£9.99
Faber & Faber Shedding a Skin
Book SynopsisSometimes you crack.Sometimes you didn't mean to yell that.Sometimes you have to lay low until you've figured it outAnd sometimes, sometimes you have to hibernate until you've healed.This is a new day.Shedding a Skin is a story for our times. It's a play about finding kindness in unexpected places; about understanding what our elders can teach us; it's new skin honouring old. It's a play about joy, healing and protest.Amanda Wilkin's Shedding a Skin is the 2020 winner of Soho Theatre's acclaimed Verity Bargate Award. The play premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in June 2021.
£9.49
Faber & Faber Underwood Lane
Book SynopsisUnderwood Lane the winter sun hangs like a suppurating boil glued to a giant sheet of dirty asbestos above the blackened tenements that rear up from the cobbled street like a row of broken teeth...Brilliantly funny and packed with iconic songs from the early Sixties, this is a new musical play from the writer of the classic Scottish masterpiece, The Slab Boys Trilogy. Telling the tale of a young skiffle band trying to make it, Underwood Lane has it all: style, fierce love rivalry, broken hearts, dodgy dealers, religion, sex and death. It is written in memory of the author's Paisley buddy, Gerry Rafferty, who was born and brought up on the titular street.John Byrne''s Underwood Lane premiered in a co-production between Tron Theatre Company and OneRen with support from Renfrewshire Council''s Future Paisley Programme. The play opened at Johnstone Town Hall, Johnstone, and transferred to the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, in July 2022.
£9.49
Faber & Faber The End of the Night
Book SynopsisI board a plane marked with the swastika and take the noon postal service flight from Stockholm to Berlin. In the final days of World War II, a secret meeting takes place between a member of the World Jewish Congress and one of the most powerful Nazis in Germany - without the knowledge of the FÃhrer. Dr Felix Kersten, Himmler's trusted personal physiotherapist, uses his unique position of influence to facilitate a meeting between the architect of the Holocaust and Swedish Jew Norbert Masur. A meeting which could turn Himmler's thoughts away from the fading FÃhrer and towards a course of action that could save thousands of lives.With battle lines crumbling and lives in the balance, the two men must try to find a way to persuade Himmler to release the last surviving concentration camp prisoners contrary to Hitler's orders that no Jew should outlast the regime.Based on a remarkable true story, Ben Brown's The End of the Night opened at The Park, London, in
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Faber & Faber Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks
Book SynopsisI'm just very very horny.I don't know how else to put it.Saoirse Murphy moves from one chaotic world to another. From her Catholic school in Dublin to a new exciting life in London. She's had a taste of freedom and she's making the most of it; but underneath it all she's struggling to manage big secrets, and there's only one person she can talk to.Sarah Hanly's Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in October 2021. It is co-produced by the Royal Court Theatre, London, and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Her monologue Shower was staged at the Abbey as part of the Dear Ireland series, 2020. She was awarded the 2019 Pinter Commission.
£9.49
Faber & Faber We Started to Sing
Book SynopsisI wish there could be a day where families came together and just said it all to each other. Because then everyone would know it all, and there'd be nothing left to hurt anyone.Sussex. London. Wiltshire. Northamptonshire. Wales. Over three decades, a family spreads across the country, and the chord they made together starts to fray, the distance between them changing the music of their lives.Barney Norris's We Started to Sing is a love song to the people who raised him, and a hymn to the bravery of our brief lives. The play premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London, in May 2022.
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Dance of Death
Book SynopsisPlay something kitty-cat-ish . . . sweet. Imagine I've died and you're galloping through fields.As their thirtieth wedding anniversary approaches, Alice and Edgar are locked in a bitter struggle. They've driven away their children and their friends. Their relationship is sustained by taunts and recriminations. When a newcomer breaks into the midst of the fray, their insular lives threaten to spin out of control.We''re all just bodies and when we''re dead we''re worm food, but as long as your body keep going, flailing or thrashing about, we are duty bound to fight, to scratch and kick, until you''re fucked. That''s my philosophy. Laced with biting humour, The Dance of Death is August Strindberg's landmark drama about a marriage pushed to its limits, adapted in a thrilling new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The Dance of Death opened at the Bath Theatre Royal's Ustinov Theatre in May 2022 before going on UK tour in an Arcola T
£9.99
Faber & Faber A Dead Body in Taos
Book SynopsisWhen they called saying your body had been found, I had one immediate thought. I remember thinking that maybe now I'd be free.Sam hasn't spoken to her mother Kath for three years when she learns that she's been found dead in the New Mexico desert.Travelling to the small town of Taos to identify the body, she discovers Kath had become embroiled in a shadowy enterprise, offering Sam an unimaginable chance to rebuild their broken relationship. But to do so, she must decide whether she can finish what her mother started.David Farr's compelling new play is both an unsettling science fiction and an intimate study of loss and bereavement, examining how artificial intelligence could alter our understanding of death, consciousness and the soul.A Dead Body in Taos opened at the Bristol Old Vic in September 2022.
£9.49
