Plays, playscripts, drama
Samuel French Ltd The Hollow Crown
Book SynopsisThis entertainment by and about the Kings and Queens of England includes music, poetry, speeches, letters and other writings. The Hollow Crown has been performed in America and England by stars from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The four readers enact the writings of royals from William I to Victoria; the three singers intersperse songs from the proper period - some of which are sad tunes on the death of kings while others are uproariously funny.1 woman, 3 men
£10.99
Samuel French Ltd Murder on the Nile
Book SynopsisKay Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a reason to kill. The tension and claustrophobia builds, as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare. As slick a vehicle as any theatre company could wish for. THE NEW YORK TIMES
£12.80
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 Ltd Sex Cells
Book SynopsisIn a busy call centre, the four female employees of Aphrodite, a sex toy manufacturer, take telephone orders for Teasey Maids, Titivators and rotating pearl g-strings. Beneath the cheerful customer service and easy banter, however, these very different women nurse their own desires and disappointments. Sylvie is desperate to have a baby, but her single-minded approach is taking its toll on her marriage and causing friction with the her co-workers. With five children, Janice rarely finds time for herself or her husband. Tiffany is young and single, looking for ''the one'', but wary of sacrificing her independence. Star employee Lily, meanwhile, is stuck in a loveless marriage and estranged from her son, but buries her pain in wisecracks and work. Their gentle and innocent manager Mr Causeway attempts to diffuse the tension between his staff while suppressing a longstanding crush on the oblivious Lily. Sex Cells is a very funny, poignant play about motherhood, friendship, love and loss.
£10.99
Samuel French Ltd Say Something Happened
Book SynopsisThe Social Services Department of the council is preparing a register of the elderly in the area and eager but green June Potter (recently transferred from Transport) is despatched to gather information while obtaining some hands-on experience. Mam and Dad are in their sixties and therefore must be in need of registering - but Mam and Dad, perfectly '' alert'', able-bodied and streetwise, have no intention of being registered. Thrown by Mam''s no-nonsense approach the increasingly desperate June resorts to Mr Farquarson ''s detailed notes on Conduct of Interviews while Mam sorts her out. This highly comic, ironic look at patronizing bureaucracy was first televisied in 1982 starring Thoro Hird, Hugh Lloyd and Julie Waiters and is now available for the stage.
£11.63
Samuel French Inc The Diaries of Adam and Eve
Book SynopsisComedy Characters: 1 male, 1 female Exterior Set Originally broadcast on American Playhouse, this delightful adaptation is set in a Victorian garden and is structured as a series of diary entries by Adam and Eve. The play also works as a reader's theatre piece. At first, Adam is puzzled by the new arrival in the garden and he is suspicious of her disturbing appetite for fruit. Eve, believing herself to be some sort of experiment, is curious about another experiment in the garden, perhaps some sort of reptile or possibly architecture. Eve gives names to everything, much to Adam's annoyance. He tries to ignore her, so she seeks companionship among the animals particularly with a certain snake. Adam and Eve grow to love each other and, in the end, an elderly Adam is filled with a realization of that love as he stands at Eve's grave. Sharp and resourceful...played with freshness and theatricality...charming. -Variety ...endearing...a reminder of Twain's storytelling genius and how much fu
£10.99
Samuel French Ltd The 39 Steps
Book SynopsisFrom the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock, Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby DimonCharacters: 3m, 1fComedyWINNER! 2 Tony and Drama Desk Awards, 2008WINNER! BEST NEW COMEDY Laurence Olivier Award, 2007The 39 Steps, is Broadway''s longest running comedy, playing its 500th performance on Broadway, May 19th, 2009!Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced who
£12.80
Samuel French Inc Suicide
Book SynopsisFull Length, Comedy Characters: 9 male, 5 female, plus various minor roles, gypsies, and extras. 2 Interior Sets/2 Exterior Sets A brilliant and penetrating satire about an unemployed man who contemplates suicide and is besieged by spokespeople of discontented groups, from butchers to intellectuals, who want him to turn his suicide into a gesture on their behalf. Erdman's genius was recognized by his contemporaries including Brecht, Stanislavsky and Meyerhold. The latter two competed to do The Suicide. Stalin gave permission to present the play only after Gorki pleaded with him, but it was not allowed to open following a year of rehearsal. A masterpiece...Lights up the sky. Guardian, London
£10.99
Samuel French Ltd Antigone Sams Trans.
Book SynopsisFull Length, Tragedy Characters: 7 male, 4 female Various sets This incisive translation of the classic drama is by the noted British playwright, translator and director.
£10.99
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
£12.80
Faber & Faber Plays 1 The Birthday Party The Room The Dumb
Book SynopsisThis volume contains Harold Pinter''s first six plays, including The Birthday Party.The Birthday PartyStanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by two strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.''Mr Pinter''s terrifying blend of pathos and hatred fuses unforgettably into the stuff of art.'' Sunday TimesThe Room and The Dumb WaiterIn these two early one-act plays, Harold Pinter reveals himself as already in full control of his unique ability to make dramatic poetry of the banalities of everyday speech and the precision with which it defines character.''Harold Pinter is the most original writer to have emerged from the new wave of dramatists who gave fresh life to the British theatre in the fifties and early sixties.'' The TimesThe HothouseThe Hothouse was first produced in 1980, though Harold Pinter wrote the play
£17.09
Samuel French Ltd The Foreigner
Book Synopsis
£12.80
Hal Leonard Corporation The Tutor
Book Synopsis
£5.99
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 *
£18.04
Focus Publishing/R Pullins & Co Euripides Heracles Focus Classical Library
Book Synopsis
£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
£20.57
Currency Press Pty Ltd The Rivers of China Currency Plays
Book Synopsis
£13.49
Nick Hern Books Scuttlers
Book SynopsisA thrillingly fast-paced play about youthful disaffection, protest and violence, drawing on the history of the Scuttlers, the youth gangs of nineteenth-century Manchester. It's 1882 and the streets of Manchester are crackling with energy, youth and violence. As workers pour into Ancoats to power the Industrial Revolution, 50,000 people are crammed into one square mile. The mills rumble thunderously day and night. The air is thick with smoke. Life is lived large and lived on the street. This is the world's very first industrial suburb and the young mill workers form the very first urban gangs, fighting over their territory with belts, fists and knives. Invisible in history, their lives, deaths, loves, lusts and defiant energy tell stories that will repeat and repeat over the decades that follow. Scuttlers by Rona Munro was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2015. With nine leading roles and a large cast of mill workers and gang members, Scuttlers is well suited to performance by schools and youth groups, who will enjoy its physical energy and dramatic storyline.Trade Review'Dark, grimy, ripe with dangerous excitement... claustrophobic and intoxicating, opening a soot-smeared window into the past, as well as holding up a cracked mirror to our present' * The Times *'The writing is a mix of the lyrical and the iron-clad... invokes the grim, dirty poetry of everyday survival' * Guardian *'Impressive... an uncomfortable eye-opener' * The Stage *'Ha[s] an intoxicating energy... the action sequences are a rush to watch' * Exeunt Magazine *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books Picnic at Hanging Rock
Book Synopsis‘I know you’re there… Miranda? Miranda!’ On a summer’s day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock… In Tom Wright’s chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real. This adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was first co-produced by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth, and first performed at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in 2016. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in 2017.Trade Review'An explosion of theatrical power as fierce as it is contemplative, and so original that no-one who sees it is likely to forget it… Wright's adaptation gives fierce attention to the novel’s sense of the sheer arrogance and inadequacy of imperial British culture, as it tried to "tame" a land so ancient, implacable, and strange. Yet it is brilliant, too, on the infinitely mutable energy of youth, the huge suppressed erotic power and pressure, in these young women, that feels as if it could literally move mountains, and tear its way through a gap in time' * Scotsman *'Emotion, violence and meaning bubble up like magma… mythic in its scope and magical in its appearance... an evocative adaptation that finds horror not in nature, but in the civilising class' * The Stage *'A potently poetic, enigmatic pschyco-drama… Tom Wright's adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel [has] an authentic, snarling economy of polite and prim, petticoat savaged menace… as compelling, visceral and insistent as that wasp in your otherwise perfect picnic jam pot. Unmissable' * The Edinburgh Reporter *'This retelling of the Joan Lindsay cult classic proves the book's theme remains relevant – and will terrify the pants off you' * Guardian *
£10.79
Currency Press Pty Ltd Transparency
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£13.49
Currency Press Pty Ltd Zeal Theatre Collection Three plays
Book Synopsis
£18.69
Nick Hern Books Women Beware Women
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price A Jacobean gore-fest of enforced seduction and ultimate revenge. Written in 1623, two years after The Changeling, Women Beware Women is the second of Thomas Middleton's two great tragedies. It is the story of the corruption of three young people, seduced and destroyed by the lust and treachery of the court of the Duke of Florence. This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and Introduced by Colin Counsell.
£6.07
Nick Hern Books The Railway Children
Book SynopsisMike Kenny's imaginative stage adaptation of E. Nesbit's much-loved children's classic. Famously filmed, this story of a prosperous Edwardian family - mother and three children - forced into near-penury in the rural north of England captures the anxieties and exhilarations of childhood with great tenderness and insight. As Mike Kenny says of his remarkably faithful adaptation, 'You don't need a real train to perform this play… the most powerful prop is the imagination of the audience, the most effective tool the skill of the actors.' So this version of The Railway Children, which offers three plum roles for young performers, is eminently suitable for schools, youth theatres and drama groups - anywhere, in fact, where the cry of 'Daddy! My Daddy!' is likely to provoke a tear. Mike Kenny's version of The Railway Children was first staged at the National Railway Museum in York in 2008, before receiving a major production at Waterloo Station in London in 2010.Trade Review'Lavish, warm-hearted... one of the very finest children's stories of the 20th century, and it is served superbly by Mike Kenny's adaptation' * Whatsonstage.com *'This glorious adaptation... profoundly moving... it never for a moment runs out of steam' * Guardian *'Mike Kenny's script provides everything needed for a cracking evening at the theatre' * Amateur Stage *'Mike Kenny's adaptation shows his mastery of playwriting for children and families... adults and children alike are enthralled by the clever mix of imagination and reality' * Financial Times *
£9.89
Nick Hern Books Mogadishu
Book SynopsisA gripping and urgent play about a well-meaning teacher who intervenes on behalf of a troublesome student, with terrifying consequences. When white secondary-school teacher Amanda is pushed to the ground by black student Jason, she's reluctant to report him as she knows exclusion could condemn him to a future as troubled as his past. But when Jason decides to protect himself by spinning a story of his own, Amanda is sucked into a vortex of lies in which victim becomes perpetrator. With the truth becoming less clear and more dangerous by the day, it isn't long before careers, relationships and even lives are under threat. Vivienne Franzmann's first play, Mogadishu won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2008 and the George Devine Award in 2010. It was first produced at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2011.Trade Review'Outstanding... Franzmann manages to make all the characters credible and well-rounded, even the damaged perpetrator... She gets to the rotten core of what's going on in these melting-pot battlegrounds... The play of the year? In my book, quite possibly' * Daily Telegraph *
£10.79
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc Plautus and Terence Five Comedies
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThese five new translations . . . take to its logical, lively conclusion the long-held but oft-ignored reality that Plautus and Terence were writers for the stage. These versions have verve: playability, liveliness, accessibility, unlike anything on library shelves today. Of modern-day attempts at Plautus-inspired music, for example, only Stephen Sondheim has excelled the inspired zaniness of Douglass Parker’s lyrics. There is much virtue to be measured here. . . . After reading these plays we might spend considerable thought on the possibility that conservative translations in the style of Barsby are less authentic--if such a thing can be measured--than those of Berg and Parker. . . . This is a deceptively important book, meriting a wide, attentive readership. . . . [Berg and Parker's] theater-friendly versions offer a vision of the future of Roman comedy, both scholarly and popular. The profession will be well repaid to take an appreciative look. --David Frauenfelder, North Carolina State UniversityDeena Berg and Douglass Parker’s Plautus & Terence: Five Comedies is a fascinating postmodernist rendition of some of the most postmodernist--metatheatrical, self-referential, sophisticated, stylized--literature classical antiquity has to offer. The sparkling and eminently performable translations are a hard act to precede, but the translator’s delightful introductions are a worthy match for their subjects. . . . Highly recommended. --John Wright, Northwestern UniversityThis splendid sampling of Roman comedy is particularly welcome because Parker and Berg have combined the best known (and perhaps finest) comedies of Plautus and Terence (The Brothers Menaechmus, here 'Double Bind,' and Miles Gloriosus, here 'Major Blowhard,' and Adelphoe, 'The Brothers') with two rarer and rather special comedies: 'The Wild Wild Women,' Plautus' exuberant Bacchides, and 'The Mother-in-Law' (Hecyra), perhaps Terence's most modern comedy, important as evidence from ancient comedy for the evolution of the sentimental or psychological drama of everyday life. The translators are to be congratulated on their choices and their truly up-to-date versions; Parker is a veteran whose punning wit and swashbuckling idiom in his very actable Plautus scripts contrast nicely with the simple elegance of Berg's Terence." —Elaine Fantham, Princeton UniversityTable of ContentsMajor Blowhard = Miles Gloriosus. Double bind = Menaechmi. The wild, wild women = Bacchides / Plautus -- The mother-in-law = Hecyra. The brothers = Adelphoe / Terence.
£33.99
Hackett Publishing Co, Inc The Jew of Malta with Related Texts
Book SynopsisFeatures a modernised text of Marlowe's play with annotation on the page, a comprehensive Introduction, and related texts, including selections from Machiavelli's "Prince", Gentillet's "Anti-Machiavel", and Bacon's "The Advancement of Learning".Trade ReviewA provocative edition, one which belongs on the shelves of student and scholar alike. --Martha Oberle, Frederick Community College, Maryland, in The Sixteenth Century Journal
£11.39
Currency Press Pty Ltd Jack Hibberd Selected plays
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£18.69
Faber & Faber The Inheritance
Book SynopsisThe most important American play of the century. Daily TelegraphInspired by E. M. Forster's novel Howards End, and set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance wrestles with what it means to be a gay man today, exploring relationships and connections across age and social class and asking what one generation's responsibilities may be to the next.Matthew Lopez's The Inheritance premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in 2018, before transferring to the West End's Noel Coward Theatre. It premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2019.This edition includes revisions made for the Broadway production.
£11.69
Seagull Books London Ltd Rechnitz and The Merchants Contracts
Book SynopsisIn Rechnitz, a chorus of messengers reports on the circumstances of the massacre of 180 Jews, an actual historical event that took place near the Austrian/Hungarian border town of Rechnitz. The author brings us a comedy of economics, where the babble and media spin of spectators leave small investors alienated.
£30.60
Josef Weinberger Plays Arsenic and Old Lace
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£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Seeds of Doubt
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£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Playscript Of Mice and Men
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£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Death by Fatal Murder
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£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Death of a Salesman
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£10.44
Nick Hern Books Nora: A Doll's House (NHB Modern Plays)
Book Synopsis'You've lies in the whites of your eyes, Nora. What have you done...?' Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything. Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This bold new version by Stef Smith reframes the drama in three different time periods. The fight for women's suffrage, the Swinging Sixties and the modern day intertwine in this urgent, poetic play that asks how far have we really come in the past hundred years? Nora : A Doll's House was first produced by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in 2019, at Tramway, Glasgow. A new production opened at the Young Vic, London, in February 2020. It was a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, awarded annually to celebrate women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre. 'A radical, stunning reworking which thrums with relevance and power... a wordsmith at the top of her poetic game... a classic play reinvented for our time' - BritishTheatre.com 'An intense, ambitious survey of women's shifting roles, which amplifies each step in Ibsen's elegantly crafted story, as though Nora's stamping through a cathedral in Doc Martens... Smith's ingenious dialogue makes what could be massively complicated feel simple and legible' - Time Out 'Smith's update is smart and thoughtful, balancing a sense of feminist history and activism with the tightness of a thriller and some rich personal drama' - The Stage 'Stef Smith's excellent adaptation... a provocation infused with Ibsen's radical spirit' - Guardian 'A beautiful and explosively significant piece of theatre' - ScotsmanTrade Review'A radical, stunning reworking which thrums with relevance and power… a wordsmith at the top of her poetic game... a classic play reinvented for our time' * BritishTheatre.com *'An intense, ambitious survey of women's shifting roles, which amplifies each step in Ibsen's elegantly crafted story, as though Nora's stamping through a cathedral in Doc Martens… Smith's ingenious dialogue makes what could be massively complicated feel simple and legible' * Time Out *'Smith's update is smart and thoughtful, balancing a sense of feminist history and activism with the tightness of a thriller and some rich personal drama' * The Stage *'Stef Smith's excellent adaptation... a provocation infused with Ibsen's radical spirit' * Guardian *'A beautiful and explosively significant piece of theatre' * Scotsman *
£9.89
Faber & Faber Leopoldstadt
Book SynopsisAt the beginning of the twentieth century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann's extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and - for Austrian Jews - the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn't ended yet.Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt was first performed at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in January 2020.WINNER: OLIVIER AWARD FOR BEST NEW PLAY, 2020WINNER: TONY AWARD FOR BEST PLAY, 2023Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play; the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign
£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays Inherit the Wind by Lee Robert E Author ON
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£10.44
Josef Weinberger Plays terranova
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£10.44
New Directions Publishing Corporation Glass Menagerie Rev New Directions Books
Book SynopsisNo play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie.Trade Review"The revolutionary newness of The Glass Menagerie . . . was in its poetic lift, but an underlying hard dramatic structure was what earned the play its right to sing poetically." -- Arthur Miller"With the advent of The Glass Menagerie . . . Tennessee Williams emerged as a poet-playwright and a unique new force in theatre throughout the world." -- Lyle Leverich in Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams
£9.49
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Master Class
Book SynopsisThe world can and will go on without us but I have to think that we have made this world a better place. That we have left it richer, wiser than had we not chosen the way of art.The 1996 Tony Award winner for Best Play.Terrence McNally''s Master Class presents the legendary opera diva, Maria Callas, as she puts aspiring young singers through their paces in a series of master classes. Both moving and entertaining, this theatrical tour de force dramatizes the Callas phenomenon and is an unembarrassed, involving meditation on Callas''s life and the nature of her art. Such subjects are not easily dramatized, certainly not with this brio. (New York Times)After opening on Broadway in 1995 with Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald, the play premiered in London in 1997 with Patti LuPone. It was last revived on Broadway and in the West End in 2011-12 starring Tyne Daly.Trade ReviewMcNally's well-crafted, quip-filled drama — which depicts Callas teaching at Juilliard, circa 1971 (her voice was virtually destroyed by then) — is less a biography and more a love letter to La Divina. * Entertainment Weekly *Terrence McNally's brusque and brilliant rendering of Callas is the sort of meaty role actresses love to sink teeth and claws into * New York Daily News *
£10.44
Currency Press Pty Ltd Jandamarra
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£14.44
Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies,US Hamlet
Book SynopsisTo thine own text be trueLisa Peterson's translation ofHamletinto contemporary American English makes the play accessible to new audiences while keeping the soul of Shakespeare's writing intact. Lovers of Shakespeare's language take heart: Lisa Peterson's translation ofHamletinto contemporary American English was guided by the principle of First, do no harm. Leaving the most famous parts ofHamletuntouched, Peterson untied the language knots that can make the rest of the play difficult to understand in a single theatrical viewing. Peterson's translation makesHamletaccessible to new audiences, drawing out its timeless themes while helping to contextualize To be, or not tobe:that is the question, and Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, so that contemporary audiences can feel their full weight. This translation ofHamletwas written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translati
£9.46
Samuel French Ltd I Joan
Book SynopsisOh if we can just quiet the world for a moment. And listen within. There''s avoice guiding you. I promise it''s there. And until you can hear it, I''ll be it foryou.The men are all fighting, again. An endless war. From nowhere, an unexpected leader emerges. Young, poor and about to spark a revolution.Rebelling against the world''s expectations, questioning the gender binary, Joan finds their power within, and their belief spreads like fire. I, Joan is apowerful and joyous new play which tells Joan of Arc''s story anew. It''s alive and queer and full of hope.
£11.99
Chiltern Publishing Hamlet
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£18.00
Samuel French Ltd Everybodys Talking about Jamie Vocal Selections
Book SynopsisJamie New is 16 and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn?t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation. Supported by his brilliant, loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies, and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight. Sixteen: the edge of possibility. Time to make your dreams come true. Song List includes: And You Don?t Even Know It, The Wall In My Head, Spotlight, The Legend of Loco Chanelle, If I Met Myself Again, Everybody?s Talking About Jamie, It Means Beautiful, Ugly In This Ugly World, He?s My Boy, and Out of the Darkness
£19.00
Ivan R Dee, Inc James Purdy: Selected Plays
Book SynopsisHailed as "a creative genius" (TLS) and "a singular American visionary" (New York Times ), James Purdy may be best known for his remarkable novels, but he was also an astonishing playwright who wrote nine full-length and twenty short plays. Purdy was one of the few contemporary American writers capable of writing tragedy-Tennessee Williams called him "a uniquely gifted man of the theater." This collection presents four riveting and beautifully crafted works: Brice, The Paradise Circus, Where Quentin Goes, and Ruthanna Elder. Each explores a range of emotional and familial tangles, as fathers betray their sons and squander their inheritances, siblings compete for parental affection, and husbands and wives try to salvage meaning from their broken marriages.Trade ReviewJames Purdy's plays have much of the exciting existentiality that infuses his novels and seem content to take drama to interesting places it does not always want to go. -- Edward AlbeeJames Purdy is an authentic American genius. -- Gore VidalJames Purdy's Selected Plays will break your damaged little heart. -- John WatersPurdy is a writer of the highest rank in originality, insight, and power. -- Dorothy ParkerOne of the greatest writers produced in America during the past hundred years. -- Dame Edith SitwellThese four darkly shimmering plays are a very welcome addition to Purdy's shelf of novels and stories, and once more reveal him to be a pure, unique, and unforgettable voice in the literature of our time. -- Bradford Morrow
£13.49
Ivan R Dee, Inc The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular
Book SynopsisThis entertaining and enlightening book depicts the rise of popular culture in America by brilliantly recapturing the essence and commercial trappings of one of its most vital forms of entertainment—the vaudeville show. Vaudeville was a meeting place, an inclusive form of theatre that flourished especially in New York, where it fostered cultural exchange among the city's ethnic groups. In The Voice of the City, Mr. Snyder reconstructs the famous acts, describes the different theatres, and shows how entrepreneurs created a near monopoly over bookings, theatres, and performers. He also gives us vaudeville's decline, its audiences usurped by musical comedy, radio, and the movies. "A fascinating and highly readable social history....By exploring the place of vaudeville in the neighborhoods and in the city central theatre district, Robert Snyder brilliantly illuminates the way city culture was made and worked in the lives of people at the turn of the century."—Thomas Bender. "The most authoritative book on American vaudeville...also a remarkably good read, filled with colorful details and incisive commentary on American popular culture in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century."—David Nasaw.Trade ReviewFor anyone interested in American entertainment and popular culture, this pioneering history is not only 'must reading' but, like its subject, plenty of fun. -- Kathy PeissThe most authoritative book on American vaudeville...a remarkably good read, filled with colorful details and incisive commentary on American popular culture. -- David NasawA fascinating and highly readable social history. -- Thomas Bender, New York University
£13.49
Hal Leonard Corporation The Mother and Other Unsavory Plays: Including
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£7.59
