A haiku, an ode, a sonnet, a limerick, an elegy ... more poetry,please.
Poetry Books
Poetry Wales Press Christmas in Wales
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Poetry Wales Press Blue Book
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Poetry Wales Press The Zoo Father
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Poetry Wales Press Women's Work: Modern Women Poets Writing in
Book SynopsisAn anthology of women''s poetry in English featuring poets born from 1850 to the present. The poems appear under themed subject headings and reflect women''s lives. Authors from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean are included. With classic poems by Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath to the most recent prize-winners like Alice Oswald and Carol Ann Duffy.
£13.49
Poetry Wales Press The Brittle Sea
Book SynopsisThe Brittle Sea - New and Selected Poems by Welsh writer Paul Henry features a substantial selection from his five previous books along with a section of new work that includes his popular poems on Welsh rugby. Reprint; first published in 2010.
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Scot-Free: New Scottish Plays
Book SynopsisA collection of seven plays from Scottish writers, reflecting the upsurge in Scottish playwriting in the late twentieth century. Selected and introduced by Alasdair Cameron, the collection draws on adventurous theatres such as the Edinburgh Traverse and touring groups including Wildcat and 7:84, as well as looking further afield. The plays included in this volume are: Writer's Cramp by John Byrne Debut play from the author of The Slab Boys. Losing Venice by John Clifford A parable on the consequences of military adventuring. The Letter-Box by Ann Marie Di Mambro A short play about a woman who's been thrown out of her flat. Saturday Night at the Commodore by Rona Munro A woman remembers a painful teenage betrayal. Elizabeth Gordon Quinn by Chris Hannan Modern classic about an indomitable woman fighting to retain her dignity during the Glasgwegian rent-strikes of 1915. Dead Dad Dog by John McKay A short comedy about a trendy young Scotsman pursued by the ghost of his dad. The Steamie by Tony Roper Celebrates women's work in a Glasgow wash-house.Trade ReviewReviews from the Scotland tour of THE STEAMIE by Tony Roper, 2012, published in the volume SCOT-FREE: 'A Glasgow institution in its own right, The Steamie is as Glaswegian as the Gorbals, the People's Palace, deep fried mars bars and the cone on the head of the Duke of Wellington's statue. This wonderful play is a slice of Glasgow's social history delivered eloquently and emotionally in true Glesga patter.' - www.backstagepass.biz 'This remains an immensely important play with obvious resonances today. It is a lament for the death of community. Roper's use of the Scots language is so vivid, his observation of life so astute, that this era of friendship and solidarity is borne again.' - Whatsonstage.com 'one of Scotland's most loved comedy dramas... this play brings together issues of women's rights with the realities of a simpler life with humour, good nature and tenderness... a must see for people of all ages' - publicreviews.com
£17.09
Nick Hern Books Ghetto
Book SynopsisThe true story of the flourishing of a theatre in a wartime Jewish Ghetto. Winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play. Set in the Jewish ghetto of Vilna, Lithuania, in 1942, and based on diaries written during the darkest days of the holocaust, Ghetto tells of the unlikely flourishing of a theatre at the very time the Nazis began their policy of mass extermination. Joshua Sobol's play Ghetto was first performed at the Haifa Municipal Theatre in Israel and the Freie Volksbühne, Berlin, in 1984. This English-language version, adapted by David Lan, was first performed in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London, in April 1989, directed by Nicholas Hytner. This edition of Ghetto includes Jeremy Sams' songs and music from the play, as well as extracts from the original ghetto diary.
£12.59
Nick Hern Books Caryl Churchill: Shorts
Book SynopsisTen short plays by Caryl Churchill, written for stage, radio and TV, selected and introduced by the author. This collection of short plays by one of our leading playwrights opens up a little-known aspect of her writing, and demonstrates her remarkable versatility and breadth of concern. Abortive (Radio 3, 1971) The After-Dinner Joke (BBC TV, 1978) The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution Hot Fudge (Royal Court Theatre, 1989) The Judge's Wife (BBC TV, 1972) Lovesick (Radio 3, 1967) Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (Radio 3, 1971) Schreber's Nervous Illness (Radio 3, 1972) Seagulls Three More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly Theatre, 1980) The volume also includes an introduction by the author.Trade Review'A dramatist who must surely be amongst the best half-dozen now writing' * The Times *
£16.14
Nick Hern Books Cloud Nine
Book SynopsisA landmark play about sexual politics in colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, in which all our assumptions about sex and gender are stunningly exploded. Set in both colonial Africa and modern-day Britain, Cloud Nine is about relationships – between women and men, men and men, women and women. It is about sex, work, mothers, Africa, power, children, grandmothers, politics, and money. Caryl Churchill's play Cloud Nine was first staged by Joint Stock and premiered in London at the Royal Court Theatre in 1979. It has since been staged all over the world.Trade Review'Sharp comedy and a serious purpose are splendidly combined... It unlocks the imagination, liberates the mind, and leaves you weak with laughter' * Time Out *'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 Times *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Playing for Time
Book SynopsisThe extraordinary story of the women's orchestra in Auschwitz, originally filmed for television with Vanessa Redgrave, and adapted for the stage by Miller himself. Fania Fénelon, a Parisian singer, is arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. There, she finds herself swept into the orchestra, composed entirely of female prisoners and founded as entertainment for the camp commandants. As long as the orchestra continues to find favour, its members will be spared the gas chambers. But Fania is struggling with the corruption of what she holds most sacred in the world – her music – and the morals of the orchestra members are being ground down every day. They are, quite literally, playing for time. Arthur Miller's stageplay Playing for Time is adapted from the 1980 CBS television film, written by Miller himself, and based on acclaimed musician Fania Fénelon's autobiography The Musicians of Auschwitz. The television film starred Vanessa Redgrave as Fénelon. The stageplay was first staged at 1-Act Theatre, San Francisco, in 1985.Trade Review'Homing in, like many of Miller's other works, on an individual standing alone, and undergoing extreme dilemmas of personal conscience in the face of a system run mad' * Independent *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Mourning Becomes Electra
Book SynopsisEugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra is a trilogy of full-length plays, reworking themes from Greek tragedy, particularly The Oresteia of Aeschylus, relocated to New England in 1865, just after the end of the American Civil War. Lavinia Mannon (Electra) dotes on her father Ezra (Agamemnon), who has just returned victorious from the war, and despises her mother Christine (Clytemnestra) – especially since Catherine has been making a cuckold of Ezra with Lavinia's ex-suitor, Adam. Lavinia's brother Orin (Orestes), on the other hand, war-wounded and weak, idolises his mother and resents his overbearing father. When Christine and her lover poison Ezra, Lavinia convinces her brother that they must avenge their father's death. But they have spent years soaking in family conflicts and curses of generations past, and fate will be sated... Mourning Becomes Electra was premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre in October 1931. This edition of the play includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.
£12.34
Nick Hern Books Hedda Gabler
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Restless and discontented in her marriage, Hedda Gabler is drawn to a former admirer, Lovborg, now a brilliant writer. But he is more taken with Hedda's old schoolfriend. Driven by jealousy, Hedda destroys Lovborg and his precious manuscript and, finally, herself. This English version of Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.
£6.83
Nick Hern Books Life is a Dream
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price A masterpiece of the Spanish Golden Age. It is foretold that Prince Sigismund will become a tyrant. Alarmed, his father, the king, imprisons him. When he is released for a day as an experiment he proves the omens only too right, and, as a result, is incarcerated once more. Sigismund persuades himself that all that has passed is a dream and emerges to rule wisely and justly. Pedro Calderon's play Life is a Dream was first published in 1635. This English translation by John Clifford was first performed at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1998. It is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.Trade Review'The star of the festival… John Clifford's translation reclaims a Spanish masterpiece for the modern stage' * Guardian *
£5.94
Nick Hern Books Miss Julie
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Bored with her sheltered existence, Miss Julie attempts to seduce the footman, but gets far more than she bargained for... August Strindberg's classic naturalistic play Miss Julie was written in 1888, and first performed at Strindberg's experimental theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1889, despite being banned by the censor. This English version, translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish, is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series. The volume also includes Strindberg's Preface.
£6.23
Nick Hern Books Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika
Book SynopsisPart Two of the two-part Angels in America, Tony Kushner's epic drama set during the Reagan years in America - now recognised as one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century. Perestroika picks up the stories of Prior and Cohn from Part One: Millennium Approaches. Prior, overwhelmed by the responsibilties of 'prophet' placed on him by the angels, wishes that they would leave him alone. Cohn, now dying from the virus, continues to manipulate the system from his hospital bed. But who is left to look after them now? And does anyone still care? With a climax as bittersweet as it is beautiful, we are left wondering who the real angels are in a disparate world. Perestroika was premiered in November 1992 in a production by the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, directed by Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. In November 1993 it received its London debut in a National Theatre production on the Cottesloe stage, in repertory with a revival of Millennium Approaches, again directed by Declan Donnellan. Perestroika won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Play.Trade Review'One of the greatest plays of the 20th century' * New York Observer *'The most ambitious American play of our time' * Newsweek *'A vast, miraculous play, a true millennial work of art' * New York Times *'A victory for the theatre, for the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty' * New Yorker *'A vision of America at large, pulsating with energy and appetites in the shadow of history and the sense of oncoming disaster' * Independent on Sunday *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Jane Eyre
Book SynopsisA bold and theatrically inventive adaptation of the literary classic that puts the interior life of the novel on stage. As a child, the orphaned Jane Eyre is taught by a succession of severe guardians to stifle her natural exuberance. A part of herself is locked away, out of view of polite society... until she arrives at Rochester's house as a governess to his young child. Soon Rochester's passionate nature reawakens Jane's hidden self, but darker secrets are stirring in the attic... Polly Teale's adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was first performed by Shared Experience Theatre Company in 1997.Trade Review'Polly Teale has liberated Jane Eyre in a way that Charlotte Brontë could not... Her most inspired idea is to fuse the mad woman in the attic with Jane's younger self' * Observer *'Puts the interior life of the book on stage as well as its narrative. Adaptations of this quality can't be dismissed as a poor second to reading the book' * Time Out *'One of the finest and most searching stage adaptations I have ever seen... this Jane Eyre succeeds as both a wise distillation of the novel and a thrilling piece of theatre in its own right' * Daily Telegraph *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Separate Tables
Book SynopsisTwo linked one-act plays set in a run-down residential hotel in Bournemouth. In the first of the plays, Table by the Window, a lonely divorcee tracks down her former husband in order to resume a kind of half-life with him. In the other, Table Number Seven, a repressed young spinster offers brave moral support to a fake major accused of importuning women in a local cinema. Terence Rattigan's play Separate Tables was first produced at the St. James's Theatre, London, in September 1954. In an alternative version, only recently discovered among Rattigan's papers, the major's offence was revealed to be homosexual; these 'alternative' scenes are published here for the first time. This edition, edited and introduced by Dan Rebellato, includes a biographical sketch and chronology. 'Few dramatists of this century have written with more understanding of the human heart than Terence Rattigan' Michael Billington
£12.59
Nick Hern Books The House of Bernarda Alba
Book SynopsisGarcía Lorca's drama about the shattering effects of emotional repression on a family of cloistered daughters, in a version by playwright Rona Munro for the critically acclaimed Shared Experience Theatre Company. When Bernarda's husband dies, she locks all the doors and windows. She tells her grown-up daughers to sew and be silent. 'There are eight years of mourning ahead of us. While it lasts not even the wind will get into this house.' But locks can't hold back the growing tide of desire... Rona Munro's version of The House of Bernarda Alba was first staged by Shared Experience Theatre Company at Salisbury Playhouse in March 1999 before a UK tour.Trade Review'Rona Munro's new translation is vigorous and direct' * Sunday Telegraph *
£11.69
Nick Hern Books An Ideal Husband
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price The Rolls-Royce of English comedies, Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband explores corruption and morality, bringing an act of political sin into the heart of the English home. Ambitious government minister Sir Robert Chiltern seems assured of a smooth ascent to the top. Until Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning proof of his past financial chicanery. An Ideal Husband was first staged at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1895. This edition of An Ideal Husband in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Laurie Wolf.Trade Review'Oscar Wilde's ability to satirise the hollowness of our social and political life remains remarkably undimmed' * Daily Express *'Hugely entertaining, a curious mixture of melodrama, Wilde's distinctive epigrammatic wit and sudden moments of deeper feelings' * Daily Telegraph *
£6.23
Nick Hern Books The Winslow Boy
Book SynopsisBased on the real-life court case of a young naval cadet unjustly accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order and first staged in 1946, The Winslow Boy has been revived many times since. Ronnie Winslow is expelled from naval college, having been accused of petty theft. Enraged, his father Arthur engages a lawyer to challenge the Admiralty to prove the charges in court – but public opinion is very much against the Winslows, and each member of the family is suffering... Terence Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy was first produced (after a brief pre-London tour) at the Lyric Theatre, London, in May 1946. This edition includes an authoritative introduction by Dan Rebellato, a biographical sketch and a chronology.Trade Review'As well made an example of a well-made play as you will find anywhere' * Sunday Times *'A sterling example of Rattigan's dramatic skill and humanity... deeply poignant' * Telegraph *'A playwright of acute emotional intelligence, elegant wit, and an extraordinary gift for expressive construction... thrilling' * Independent *'Among Terence Rattigan's finest work' * Evening Standard *'Excellent... its relevance to modern times feels obvious and urgent' * Metro *
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Stones in His Pockets & A Night in November: Two
Book SynopsisTwo plays by award-winning playwright Marie Jones: the smash hit Stones in His Pockets, which ran for four years in London's West End; and an earlier monologue, A Night in November, exploring the subjects of football and sectarianism, set during the 1994 World Cup. Stones in His Pockets is a comedy with a poignant undercurrent, about a small rural town in Ireland where a Hollywood epic is being filmed. The story centres on Charlie Conlon and Jake Quinn, who, like much of the town, are employed as extras for the filming. After a tragic incident concerning a local teenager, Charlie and Jake assume responsibility for giving an account of events, taking on all the roles themselves. A two-hander that delights in exploring the limits of comedy and theatricality, and the collision of romanticised notions of 'Irishness' and the harsher reality, Stones in His Pockets has delighted audiences around the world. Marie Jones's play was first staged at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in June 1999 before opening at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in August 1999. It transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre, London, in May 2000. Stones in His Pockets won the 2001 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. A Night in November is a one-man show following Kenneth McCallister, family man and Ulsterman, on the fateful night in November in Belfast when the Republic of Ireland qualifies against Northern Ireland for the World Cup, and Kenneth finds himself watching the sectarian hatred of the crowd rather than the football. A Night in November was first performed at The West Belfast Festival, Whiterock, Belfast, in August 1994, then toured extensively throughout Ireland, and was also seen in New York. It was staged in London at the Tricycle Theatre in March 1995.Trade Review'[Stones in His Pockets is] a delightful piece... often richly funny' * Daily Telegraph *'[Stones in His Pockets is] an unalloyed source of joy, laughter, tears and delight... Marie Jones's script digs deep and dark while giving us two hours of serious pleasure' * Daily Mail *'[In Stones in His Pockets,] Jones builds an astonishingly complete, acute, funny and humane picture - a complete theatrical tour de force - hilarious, loveable and at times even breathtaking' * Scotsman *'[Stones in His Pockets] is clearly magical, dealing as it does with myths, memories, class and sex, with two actors who create a whole world on stage. The play itself not only sends up the delirious fantasy of film, it becomes a moving and heartfelt tribute to the imaginative power of live performance' * Guardian *'If there is a more cleverly constructed, enterprisingly acted play [than Stones in His Pockets] on offer in London right now, I cannot think of it' * The Times *
£999.99
Nick Hern Books Emma
Book SynopsisA bold, witty and fresh adaptation of Jane Austen's novel which, while thoroughly modern, retains the spirit and much of the language of the original. It is night-time and an exhausted Jane Austen sleeps over the recently completed manuscript of her novel Emma. Her four nieces steal in and decide to act out the text and, after her initial anger on being wakened, Jane herself takes the role of Mr Knightley. The excitable teenage girls often try to take the story into their own realms of fantasy but are always brought back to the real text by Jane. This adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, by Doon MacKichan and Martin Millar, was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 1999, transferring to the Tricycle Theatre, London, in September.Trade Review'Full of life and vitality – an admirably lively, daringly provocative adaptation' * Daily Telegraph *'Ebullient and mischievous' * The Times *
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Six Characters in Search of an Author
Book SynopsisPirandello's classic play, updated for the twenty-first century by Headlong. Blurring the border between fiction and life, between the stage and the world outside, Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author exploded onto the stage in 1921 as one of the unique achievements of twentieth-century drama. Updated and recontextualised in this vertiginous new version, it becomes a dark parable for a media-obsessed age and an exhilarating exploration of how we define art, ourselves and 'reality' in the twenty-first century. This version by Rupert Goold and Ben Power was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in June 2008, in a co-production between Headlong and Chichester Festival Theatre.Trade Review'Exhilarating... stunning' * The Times *'Madly ingenious... gives a remarkable new lease of life to Pirandello's seminal play' * Independent *'Brilliantly inventive... gets to the heart of Pirandello's meaning while making the old play seem fresh to a modern audience' * Daily Telegraph *
£9.99
Nick Hern Books The New Electric Ballroom
Book SynopsisA dark fable of the emotionally stultifying effects of small-town life, from the author of Disco Pigs and The Walworth Farce. Three sisters in a remote fishing village, trapped in the years that have passed since their halcyon days at The New Electric Ballroom, are still obsessed by darker memories of something resembling romance. Enda Walsh's play The New Electric Ballroom was first staged by Druid Theatre Company at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2008 and later at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The production won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was revived on tour in 2009.Trade Review'A beautiful and devastating play of broken hearts and maimed lives... Walsh confirms himself as one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre, and one who has a direct conduit to our wanting hearts' * Guardian *'Shatteringly fine theatre' * Scotsman *'A total work of art, in short: it may make you uncomfortable, and you may even wonder what the hell's going on at moments, but that's what great theatre ought to do' * Arts Desk *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Caryl Churchill Plays: Four
Book SynopsisThe fourth volume of the collected plays of one of the best playwrights alive. Written over a period of ten years and evincing an extraordinary range of topics and techniques, this fourth volume of Caryl Churchill's collected plays confirms her standing as a playwright who is 'amongst the best half-dozen now writing' (The Times). This volume includes: Hotel (Schauspielhaus, Hannover, 1997), an innovative theatre piece combining music, voices and dance, with a text by Caryl Churchill and music by Orlando Gough. This is a Chair (Royal Court Theatre, 1997), a short play about the surreal nature of modern life. Blue Heart (Out of Joint & Royal Court Theatre, 1997), two linked one-act plays, both startlingly innovative, exploring the underpinnings of family relationships. Far Away (Royal Court, 2000), a brilliantly unsettling play about conflict and its unsettling effect on our lives and humanity. A Number (Royal Court, 2002), a fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture. Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Royal Court, 2006),examining US foreign policy and international power politics through the lens of an intense personal relationship. A Dream Play (National Theatre, London, 2005), a spare and resonant version of August Strindberg's 1901 masterpiece.Trade Review'Lasts less than an hour but packs in more emotion, ideas, and disconcerting strangeness, than many dramatists manage in half dozen dramas' * Daily Telegraph on 'A Number' *'Leaves you feeling both chilled and scalded...outstanding' * Sunday Times on 'A Number' *Table of ContentsHotelThis is a ChairBlue HeartFar AwayA NumberDrunk Enough to Say I Love You?A Dream Play
£15.29
Nick Hern Books My Boy Jack
Book SynopsisThe tragic story of how Rudyard Kipling sent his son to his death in the First World War. The year is 1913 and war with Germany is imminent. Rudyard Kipling's determination to send his severely short-sighted son to war triggers a bitter family conflict which leaves Britain's renowned patriot devastated by the warring of his own greatest passions: his love for children - above all his own - and his devotion to King and Country. David Haig's play My Boy Jack was first staged at Hampstead Theatre in 1997. It was revived at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in 2004, and toured the UK. The play was filmed for television in 2007, with Daniel Radcliffe as Jack and the author himself as Kipling.Trade Review'Dramatises Kipling's story beautifully. The family confrontations bristle with life' * Financial Times *
£9.49
Nick Hern Books Abandonment
Book SynopsisA play about love, death, identity and evolution, from the bestselling and highly acclaimed novelist. Elizabeth, forty-something, childless, recently separated, just wants to be alone. She's moved into a converted Victorian mansion, alive with history, character, woodworm and rot. But worse than that she's besieged by invaders of the human kind. Her best friend, her sister, their mother, the builder and a photographer are all determined to make their mark. And a former inhabitant of the house, disturbed from her resting place by Elizabeth's arrival, revisits her own long-forgotten past. Kate Atkinson's play Abandonment was first performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2000.Trade Review'Atkinson has arrived at theatrical customs with a huge amount to declare' * Guardian *'Witty, intelligent and absorbing... terrific comic dialogue' * Scotsman *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books Oedipus
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price The story of the mythical Greek king of Thebes, the archetypal tragic hero who accidentally fulfills a prophecy that he will end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster down upon his city and family. This volume, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, contains two plays by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonos, in English translations by Kenneth McLeish. It also includes an introduction to the plays.Trade Review'Kenneth McLeish's fine translation' * Daily Telegraph *'An unparalleled translator of the Greeks' * Financial Times *
£6.23
Nick Hern Books The Browning Version
Book SynopsisRattigan's well-loved play about an unpopular schoolmaster who snatches a last shred of dignity from the collapse of his career and his marriage. Twice filmed (with Michael Redgrave and Albert Finney) and frequently revived. Andrew Crocker-Harris' wife Millie has become embittered and fatigued by her husband's lack of passion and ambition. On the verge of retirement, and divorce, Andrew is forced to come to terms with the platitude his life has become. Then John Taplow, a previously unnoticed pupil, gives Andrew an unexpected parting gift: a second-hand copy of Robert Browning's translation of Agamemnon – a gift which offers not only a opportunity for redemption, but the chance to gain back some dignity. The Browning Version was premiered at the Phoenix Theatre, London, in September 1948. This volume also contains Harlequinade, a farce about a touring theatre troupe, written to accompany The Browning Version in a double-bill under the joint title, Playbill. 'Few dramatists of this century have written with more understanding of the human heart than Terence Rattigan' Michael Billington This edition includes an authoritative introduction and biographical sketch by Rattigan scholar Dan Rebellato, along with a chronology of his plays.Trade Review'The cruel inequalities of love always absorbed Rattigan; not least here – this is a play that has not dated' * The Times *
£10.79
Nick Hern Books 100
Book SynopsisA strikingly original play combining traditional storytelling with physical theatre, created by The Imaginary Body. Imagine that you must choose one single memory from your life. Imagine that choosing this memory is your only way of passing through to eternity. Imagine that you have just one hour to choose... 100 was first performed at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Fringe First Award. It subsequently went on an extensive international tour, including a sell-out run at the Soho Theatre, London. 'Armed with only five bamboo sticks, the actors created a visual piece of theatre that captured the imagination of every spectator... They all left the theatre thinking about what their 'one memory' would be' Joyce McMillanTrade Review'A theatre show that actually makes you think about your own life... fascinating' * Guardian *'This play moved me more profoundly than anything I can remember seeing' * Scotsman *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books The Miser
Book SynopsisDrama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Molière's story of a covetous old miser, obsessively protecting his hoard of gold and neglecting his long-suffering children. Harpagon is obsessed with the wealth he has amassed and always ready to save expenses. Now a widower, he has a son, Cléante, and a daughter, Élise. Although he is over sixty, he is attempting to marry his son's own sweetheart, Mariane. But it seems that Harpagon's pinchpenny paranoia is finally catching up with him – his gold is missing, and this time it might really have disappeared for good... The Miser was first performed in 1668, at the theatre of the Palais-Royal, Paris. This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classic series, is translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.
£6.23
Nick Hern Books A Dream Play
Book SynopsisCaryl Churchill's spare and resonant version of Strindberg's enigmatic masterpiece. Written in 1901, a mysterious amalgam of Freud, Alice in Wonderland and Strindberg's own private symbolism, A Dream Play follows the logic of a dream: A young woman comes from another world to see if life is really as difficult as people make it out to be. Characters merge into each other, locations change in an instant and a locked door becomes an obsessive recurrent image. As Strindberg wrote in his preface, he wanted 'to imitate the disjointed yet seemingly logical shape of a dream. Everything can happen, everything is possible and probable. Time and place do not exist.' This version of A Dream Play, from a literal translation by Charlotte Barslund, is by leading playwright Caryl Churchill. It was first performed in the Cottesloe auditorium of the National Theatre, London, in February 2005, in a production directed by Katie Mitchell, with additional material by Katie Mitchell and the company. Also included is an introduction by Caryl Churchill.Trade Review'Elegant yet funereal and, like dreams, paradoxically serene and fraught' * Independent on Sunday *'100 minutes of disconcerting theatrical brilliance... spellbinding' * Daily Telegraph *
£11.39
Nick Hern Books Commedia Plays: Scenarios, Scripts, Lazzi
Book SynopsisA unique collection of performance pieces and improvisation exercises in the Commedia style, a companion volume to the author's best-selling Playing Commedia. Commedia Plays offers eight original short plays from across the different periods and styles of Commedia dell'Arte - suitable for performance on stage as well as classroom and workshop study. Also included is a collection of Lazzi, the pieces of 'business' that form the basis of Commedia's comic action, ranging from the 'Double Takes' to 'The Unwanted Proposal'. These can be inserted into the written text or explored and improvised in the drama studio.Trade Review'Exceptionally funny... a useful working manual for the practitioner or teacher, and great fun for the more general reader' * British Theatre Guide *'A good solid addition to the commedia canon... particularly useful for initiating teenagers into the essence of commedia play. In an era in which political theatre and satire are re-emerging, the commedia templates offer a unique opportunity for the exploration of current events in the social and political landscapes' * Total Theatre Magazine *
£16.99
Nick Hern Books Great Expectations
Book SynopsisA gritty adaptation of Dickens' least sentimental love story with a cast of some of his most unforgettable characters. Whilst at his parents' graveside, Pip is accosted by Magwitch, a convict escaped from one of the prison ships. Terrified, he is forced to help the man to get away. An unexpected invitation to the house of rich old Miss Havisham forces him into the path of her beautiful, cruel niece Estella and their strange, ruthless games. After an anonymous benefactor grants him a small fortune, Pip turns his back on his humble life as a blacksmith's apprentice – he moves to London to become a gentleman in the hopes of winning Estella. But he has no idea of the dangers that await him there, or from where his salvation will come. This adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, by Nick Ormerod and Declan Donnellan, was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2005.Trade Review'Expectations fulfilled ... a show that is by turns frightening, funny and deeply affecting' * Daily Telegraph *'A wonderfully involving and eloquent adaptation ... a fine example of fast, fluent ensemble story-telling ... tremendous' * Independent *'Bursting with snappy humour... Donnellan's adaptation beautifully conveys the world as seen by a child' * Sunday Telegraph *
£11.69
Nick Hern Books Bad Girls
Book SynopsisAn energetic, fast-moving adaptation for the stage of this modern children's classic, by the best-selling author and 2005 Children's Laureate. Mandy's been picked on at school for as long as she can remember. That's why she is delighted when cheeky, daring, full-of-fun Tanya picks her as a friend. Mum isn't happy - she thinks Tanya's a 'bad girl' and a bad influence. Mandy's sure Tanya can only get her out of trouble, not into it. But can she? Vicky Ireland's stage adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's novel Bad Girls was first performed at Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, in 2004. 'Vicky has adapted a handful of my books for the stage. I hope she works her magic on many more to come!' Jacqueline Wilson This edition comes with production notes indicating how the play can be staged even with minimal resources - plus a lot of ingenuity!Trade Review'Punchy, stimulating and theatrically ingenious... Bad Girls is a veritable model of theatre for young people' * Manchester Evening News *
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Immaculate (NHB Modern Plays)
Book SynopsisYou're young, free and single and haven't had sex for the last eleven and a half months, then one morning you wake up pregnant, and here is the Angel Gabriel on your doorstep claiming parentage. In Oliver Lansley's "Immaculate", things quickly spiral into farcical confusion with no fewer than three more potential fathers claiming parentage, one of them an ex-boyfriend, one of them a nerdish contemporary from school that you wouldn't want to be seen dead with, and the third being Satan himself. "Immaculate" was first seen at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival, and is now embarking on an extensive tour including two dates in London.Trade Review"'Genuinely a laugh a minute, with some real strokes of comic genius' Metro 'In a Fringe which is filled with comedies, this has to be one of the funniest' British Theatre Guide"
£10.44
Nick Hern Books Ladies' Day
Book SynopsisAn exuberant comedy about four likely lasses from the Hull fish docks on a day trip to the races, from the author of Be My Baby. Work, love and life are just one long, hard slog for the fish-filleting foursome Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda. But their fortunes are set to change when Linda finds tickets to Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot the year it relocated to York. Out go the hairnets, overalls and wellies as the four ditch work, do themselves up to the nines and head off to the races for a drink, a flirt and a flutter. If their luck holds, they could hit the jackpot - and more besides... Amanda Whittington's play Ladies’ Day premiered at Hull Truck Theatre in 2005 and has been revived many times since, including at the Royal Court in Liverpool and the Oldham Coliseum. Ladies' Day is the first in Amanda Whittington's Ladies Trilogy, and is followed by Ladies Down Under (Hull Truck, 2007) and Ladies Unleashed (Hull Truck, 2022), all featuring the same four principal characters, Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda.Trade Review'With its Yorkshire heart and soul it has all the warmth of a Calendar Girls or a Full Monty' * Yorkshire Post *'Hull Truck Theatre Company clearly has a hit on its hands' * Hull Daily Mail *'Exuberantly up-to-the-minute comedy' * Guardian *'A tried-and-tested comedy... the epitome of a crowd-pleaser' * The Stage *
£999.99
Nick Hern Books How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
Book SynopsisThe award-winning play that follows one man's desperate attempts to buck the system, and asks what really makes us who we are in the 21st century. When a young executive reaches breaking point and decides to disappear, he pays a visit to a master of the craft in the form of a seafront fortune teller in Southend. Haunted by visitations from a pathologist who swears he is already lying flat out on her slab, he begins a nightmarish journey to the edge of existence that sees him stripped of everything that made him who he was. Fin Kennedy's play How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found won the 2005 Arts Council’s John Whiting Award and was subsequently staged at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, in March 2007.Trade Review'An unsettling, dangerous play that makes you want to run away from yourself' * Guardian *'The sort of thrilling new work that completely restores your faith in theatre' * Sheffield Star *
£11.39
Rudolf Steiner Press Meditations for the Dead: Connecting to those who
Book SynopsisAs a spiritual teacher, Rudolf Steiner wrote many inspired and beautifully-crafted verses. Often they were given in relation to specific situations or in response to individual requests; sometimes they were offered to assist generally in the process of meditation. Regardless of their origins, they are uniformly powerful in their ability to connect the meditating individual with spiritual archetypes. Thus, the meditations provide valuable tools for developing experience and knowledge of subtle dimensions of reality. Matthew Barton has translated and selected Steiner's verses, sensitively arranging them by theme. In this collection - for maintaining a connection to those who have died - Rudolf Steiner offers hope and consolation to the bereaved. The first section features words of wisdom on death and its deeper, spiritual meaning; the second part consists of verses which stress the continued links between the living and the dead, indicating how our thoughts can help those who have departed earthly life. The final section is devoted to verses which express something of what the dead experience in their new existence.
£7.99
Rudolf Steiner Press Meditations for Harmony and Healing: Finding The
Book SynopsisAs a spiritual teacher, Rudolf Steiner wrote many inspired and beautifully-crafted verses. Often they were given in relation to specific situations or in response to individual requests; sometimes they were offered to assist generally in the process of meditation. Regardless of their origins, they are uniformly powerful in their ability to connect the meditating individual with spiritual archetypes. Thus, the meditations provide valuable tools for developing experience and knowledge of subtle dimensions of reality. Matthew Barton has translated and selected Steiner's verses, sensitively arranging them by theme. In this collection - to promote harmony and healing - Rudolf Steiner helps us discover a renewed sense of our true place in the world. The verses show how we can learn to know ourselves by looking outwards to the substances and processes at work in the cosmos, and in contrast to know the world by looking inwards to the microcosmic depths of the human self. By integrating spirit and matter within, we heal divisions in our relationships with others. For modern people, increasingly divorced from a living relationship with nature, these verses help to unfold a world of interconnections.
£7.99
Rudolf Steiner Press Four Modern Mystery Dramas: The Doorway of
Book SynopsisThe Doorway of Initiation – The Trial of the Soul – The Guardian of the Threshold – The Souls Awaken Rudolf Steiner’s four modern mystery dramas are powerful portrayals of the complex laws of reincarnation and karma, transporting us to landscapes of soul and spirit where supra-sensory beings are visible, active and influential. Through perception of these hidden worlds, we are given tools to comprehend the background to the struggles we face in everyday life – both in human relationships and in our attempts to practise spiritual development. Written between the years 1910 and 1913, during periods of intense inner and outer work, the dramas are powerful testimonies to Steiner’s artistic creativity. By manifesting soul and spirit forms on stage, they foreshadow a dramatic art of the future. Rudolf Steiner planned for all four mystery dramas to be performed in August 1923, but this was no longer possible because of the burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve, 1922. They were eventually performed together for the first time in 1930 and since then have been staged regularly, in many languages, throughout the world. This fresh rendering into English by Richard Ramsbotham also features an extensive introduction by him.
£26.09
Everyman Plays, Prose Writings And Poems
Book SynopsisFamed as a wit and bon viveur, Oscar Wilde lived up to his reputation. This selection of plays, poems and prose writings, introduced by Terry Eagleton, includes "The Importance of Being Earnest", "Lady Windermere's Fan", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "The Critic as an Artist", Apologia", "The Soul of a Man Under Socialism", "Letter to Robert Ross", "Requiescat" and "The Ballad of Reading Goal". Terry Eagleton is the author of "Criticism and Ideology", "Marxism and Literary Criticsm" and "Literary Theory: An Introduction".
£14.24
Everyman Histories Volume 2
Book SynopsisThe Everyman Signet Shakespeare series continues with the second volume of Histories, containing HENRY IV, parts I and II, HENRY V and HENRY VIII. As before, there is an extended introduction by Tony Tanner, a bibliography and author chronology. The plays are lightly annotated and the text is therefore ideal for both students and general readers.
£17.10
Everyman Donne Poems And Prose
Book SynopsisThe major seventeenth-century English poet between Shakespeare and Milton, Donne is chiefly celebrated as a love poet. But he was also the author of magnificent satires and epistles, and a series of religious poems including the Holy Sonnets. All these genres are represented in this volume, together with a selection from his prayers, letters and sermons, presenting a complete portrait of a great poet an an extraordinary man.
£9.99
Everyman Marriage Poems
Book SynopsisSome of the poets included in this anthology: Theocritus, Edmund Spenser, Edward Lear, Robert Browning, Thomas Hardy, John Donne, Philip Larkin, Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, Rossetti, Shelley and Kipling...
£9.49
Everyman Roman Odes, Elegies & Epigrams
Book SynopsisThe great Roman poets of Antiquity wrote some of the most compelling lyrical poetry of all time, to be read privately but also on occasion to be performed publicly on the field of victory, at a banquet or at a public festival. With a freshness that belie the nearly two thousand years that separate us Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Propertius and Catullus write movingly of the pleasures of love, of wine, of nature and the joys of pastoral life, a city and its contrasts, of friendship and of death. This edition brings together an exceptional selection with translations by Christpoher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Abraham Cowley, Robert Herrick, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Alfred Tennyson, A. E. Houseman and Rudyard Kipling. This edition is illustrated with the magnificent classical engravings of Johannes Pine's great edition of Horace of 1737. Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own; He who, secure within, can say Tomorrow do thy worst for I have lived today. Horace's ode iii, tr. by John Dryen
£9.49
Everyman Coleridge: Poems & Prose
Book SynopsisA few magical poems by Coleridge remain among the most celebrated works in the language: KUBLA KHAN, CHRISTABEL and - above all -THE ANCIENT MARINER. All are included in this volume, together with many other superb but lesser-known poems and a selected prose extracts from the BIOGRAPHIA LITERIA and the NOTEBOOKS which show that Coleridge was not only a major poet but also a great critic and prose writer.
£9.49
Carcanet Press Ltd Point No Point: Selected Poems
Book SynopsisSujata Bhatt's first book of poems, the award-winning Brunizem, appeared in 1988. In a very short time she has gained recognition as one of the distinct and reckonable new voices. She has things to say about her native India and her native tongue (Gujarati), about America and Britain, and about Germany where she now lives. She is, the New Statesman declared, 'one of the finest poets alive', and alive in a unique way to language, to issues of politics and gender, to place and history. Her's is a remarkable complete imagination, generous and at the same time unsparingly severe in its quest for the difficult truths of experience.
£999.99
