Search results for ""nick hern books""

A disastrous family reunion is the occasion for a sharp and perceptive look at what has happened to 60s idealists and their children. Kristin Miller is an eminent and successful art historian. As a young mother she followed her politics and vocation, storming Parisian barricades and moving to Florence. Her birthday should be a time for celebration but, when her two sons deliver their versions of the past, everyone must confront the cost of Kristin‘s commitment to her passions. Alexi Kaye Campbell's play Apologia premiered at The Bush Theatre, London, in 2009. It was revived at the Trafalgar Studios, London, in 2017, directed by Jamie Lloyd.

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Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price One of Henrik Ibsen's most powerful studies of female psychology, The Lady from the Sea introduces the character of Hilde Wangel, who reappears in Ibsen's later play The Master Builder. Ellida Wangel cannot give herself fully to her husband because she is overwhelmed by memories of the past and her attraction to the ocean. Will she suffocate on dry land, or find freedom across the sea? This English version of The Lady from the Sea, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated by Kenneth McLeish, with a full introduction by Stephen Mulrine, biography and suggestions for further reading.

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Mona is a young woman on the edge. All she sees is the Earth falling apart, but no one really seems to care. Amidst the chaos of competing and contradictory voices, she sets off on a kaleidoscopic journey to find solutions for the planet – and the truth about her family – in the hope that everything might start to make sense again. Lizzie Nunnery's Heavy Weather is a powerful, timely play featuring songs, about one girl's journey through a world teetering on the brink. The play is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at achieving greater gender equality in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly, or all, female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

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‘Maybe she just doesn’t wanna be found, maybe that last day she felt freedom was when she ran, and she just didn’t stop, maybe that was it.’ When her best friend Jay goes missing, Dee withdraws into a twilight world of fragmented memories and conversations, shattered by her grief. Where should she look for Jay? What did she miss? What did Jay say? And what couldn’t she say? Somalia Seaton’s Red is an unflinching and bold exploration of the internal lives of young women. It is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books, aimed at addressing gender imbalance in theatre. Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

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This anthology, the fifth from Nick Hern Books, comprises five of the best plays from VAULT Festival 2020, London's biggest and most exciting arts festival. Something Awful by Tatty Hennessy is a thrilling play inspired by the true-crime story of the Slenderman. Soph and her best friend Jel love scary stories and hunt for the best online. But then new girl Ellie turns up at school with one of her own. Second Home by Charlotte Chimuanya explores the experiences of growing up mixed-race in twenty-first century Ireland. Naomi is trying to mend her broken heart. But will tackling grief and racism in a place she calls home prove to be the final betrayal? Madame Ovary by Rosa Hesmondhalgh tells the heartbreaking and hilarious true story of Rosa's own ovarian cancer. This five-star sell-out Edinburgh hit is a life-affirming monologue exploring the typical struggles of staying relevant, with the less typical struggles of staying alive. Take Care by Zoë Templeman-Young and Sam McLaughlin follows the real-life story of Pam, a woman struggling to move her mother into a care home that's closer to her. An award-winning Edinburgh smash, it is an astonishing, tragic and uplifting verbatim play about the care system in the UK today. Heroes by Isabel Dixon is a poignant exploration of fallen idols, family secrets and the human price of forgiveness. Set across two timelines, it is the tense and sensitive story of a family torn apart by an unforgiveable act.

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Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a five-act satire on chivalric romances, generally considered the earliest whole parody (or pastiche) play in English. The play's structure is that of a play within a play. The intended performance of The London Merchant - the tale of an apprentice's efforts to win the hand of his master's daughter - is interrupted by a request from the audience to stage the story of a heroic grocer who kills a lion with a pestle. Rafe is dragged from the audience to play this hero. Both stories get muddled up and the conventions of theatre get thoroughly mauled. The play was first performed at Blackfriars Theatre, London, in 1607. This edition in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.

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‘Off you go then and best of luck It’s bound to be different this time though some of it might seem familiar The big questions, we mean The beginnings, middles, endings, et cetera Still, not to worry, it’s all a work-in-progress’ You're born a girl. You grow up. You grow old. You die. But who is in control of your life story? Can you actually choose your destiny? And how do you forge your own identity along the way? Second Person Narrative by Jemma Kennedy is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books aimed at addressing gender imbalance and inequality in theatre. Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by school, college and youth-theatre groups. ‘Drama is an important tool for building confidence and empowering young people. Platform will give girls opportunity to access these benefits as much as their male counterparts.’ - Moira Buffini

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A white-knuckle ride through a nightmare Dublin, where enemies and allies are interchangeable. First we meet Howie. He tells us how, one night, he gets caught up in a gang intent on beating up Rookie. He's supposed to be baby-sitting his five-year-old brother, but he goes just the same. They beat up Rookie. Howie returns to discover a horrible accident has happened to the little boy. Then we hear the story from Rookie's point of view... Mark O'Rowe's play Howie the Rookie was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in February 1999. It won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.

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A brilliant and painfully truthful portrait of Stanley Spencer, the wayward genius of modern British painting. Coming from humble origins, Stanley Spencer never lost his 'rough edges', despite being taken up by the smart set. His stubborn championing of ordinary people and local places as suitable subjects for religious painting was revolutionary. His appetite for life was hugely attractive, though his attitude to women in general and his long-suffering wife in particular was deeply selfish: 'Why can't I have two wives if that's what I need?' Pam Gems' play Stanley was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in February 1996, directed by John Caird and featuring Antony Sher as Stanley. The play won Best Play at the 1996 Evening Standard Awards, and Best New Play at the 1997 Olivier Awards.

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A play about joy and heartbreak, quarries and transmat beams. When Oli arrives at now-forgotten sci-fi icon Marianne's door, he's looking for an autograph – and maybe a friend. Marianne's hoping for the phone to ring, for her best friend to see her differently, for her turn at something more substantial than a half-remembered role on a cult TV show. As they start to explore each other's worlds, they begin to discover what every good relationship needs: time and space. Exploring the complexities of connection, especially in the LGBTQ+ community, and the contrast in lived experiences across generations, Dark Sublime is a love-letter to British sci-fi television – those that make it and those that adore it. Michael Dennis's debut play premiered at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End in 2019, directed by Andrew Keates and starring Marina Sirtis, best known for appearing in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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A moving, bittersweet play from the writer of the classic comedy My Night with Reg. Set over a series of summer evenings in the 1960s and the present day, Twilight Song traces one family's hidden liaisons over half a century. A mysterious stranger turns up in their past and present – could he be the missing piece of the jigsaw they've been yearning for? Hilarious and heartbreaking, Kevin Elyot's evocative final play proves how powerful our past can be in the present. Twilight Song premiered at Park Theatre, London, in 2017.

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It's 1979, rubbish is on the streets of Bristol, and it's tricky being Fiz. She's thirteen, she's got no money, her sister's pregnant and her mum thinks she's a waste of space... Rick remembers what it's like to be a teenager. So he thinks it won't take much to get a bunch of kids to help him build a playground out of junk. He's wrong. It takes everything he's got. But when it's finished, it's going to be something. It's going to be everything... Jack Thorne's honest and witty Junkyard, with music by Stephen Warbeck, premiered in 2017 in a co-production between Headlong, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Theatre Kingston and Theatr Clwyd, and directed by Jeremy Herrin.

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‘Spiders are scary. Terrorists are scary. Cancer is really scary. But… monogamy?’ A comic play about sex and commitment in the 21st century. Rafe and Pete have hit a rut. After seven-and-a-half blissfully happy years, their lack of sexual experience is driving them apart. So when they proposition mutual friend Michael to help out with their problems – knowing full well that Michael has his own partner Andrew – what seems like a simple solution quickly spirals out of control. Jake Brunger's Four Play premiered at Theatre503, London, in February 2016.

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Philip Massinger's 1632 play reworks Shakespeare's Measure for Measure as a waspish city comedy intended to attack the vices of hypocrisy, greed, self-indulgence and social pretension.

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A fast-paced and astute satire exposing just how far people go for the highest-risk jobs in the City. Pressure is mounting on the bond traders' floor. Millions stand to be lost or won. Jess is playing FTSE with the clients, PJ's practising his poker face for bonus day, and superstar trader Donny's in danger of losing his crown to the new boy. Could they be headed for more than a financial crisis? Steve Thompson's play Roaring Trade was first staged by Paines Plough and Soho Theatre at Soho Theatre, London, in 2009.

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Helen, along with sixty-seven million other people, is in lockdown. Unfortunately, Helen's neighbour, Mrs Delgado, is not. Mike Bartlett's funny and poignant play for one actor tells a story of desire, control, raised blinds and lowered boundaries. Mrs Delgado was first performed by Ellen Robertson and directed by Clare Lizzimore in December 2021 at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, where Bartlett's play Snowflake premiered to critical acclaim. This edition also includes the monologue Phoenix, a powerful story of fire and destruction, self-deceit and the corrosion of trust. Phoenix was first performed in 2020 by Bertie Carvel as an audio drama, part of English Touring Theatre and Headlong's Signal Fires storytelling project.

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In Stacy, the sole protagonist finds life confusing in a world of unwritten rules. If there’s no one around to tell him right from wrong, he just has to guess. But he’s never been very lucky, and sometimes he gets his guesses very wrong. Fanny and Faggot presents two distinct moments in the life of Mary Bell.

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Rudyard Kipling's classic jungle tales, in an acclaimed stage adaptation by Stuart Paterson, 'a master of children's theatre' (Scotsman). Saved from the jaws of Shere Khan the tiger, Mowgli must learn the Laws of the Jungle from Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther to survive. A brave little man cub grows into a confident and care-free young boy, but danger is never far away and Shere Khan is hungry for revenge. As Mowgli faces each peril and pitfall, he must decide whether he belongs in the world of men or with the animal kingdom. Stuart Paterson reimagines Kipling's much-loved stories for a new generation in a vibrant, colourful family adventure that's full of surprises. This adaptation was first staged by Birmingham Stage Company in 2004.

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An 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.

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The Shakespeare Folios series - offering the absolute authenticity of the First Folio in a totally accessible form. 'A quite wonderful idea... So blindingly obvious, I can't understand why nobody had thought of it before. I will certainly use the texts myself' - Peter Hall This edition accurately reproduces the text of the Shakespeare First Folio (1623), but in modern type. At a stroke the dust of ages is blown away and what Shakespeare actually intended is revealed to modern readers. Now Shakespeareans everywhere - students, actors, directors - can see for themselves what the Folio really says. As a further aid to understanding, on each opposing page the same text appears in a fully modernised version - a useful safety net whenever the Folio becomes problematic. Each volume also contains: - an introduction to the particular play - textual notes - an appendix giving variant versions from the Quarto where appropriate - a facsimile page from the First Folio

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A treasure trove of drama games and exercises, House of Games has proved itself an immensely valuable resource for teachers, theatre directors and drama workshop leaders. Following on from Keith Johnstone's famous Impro and Augusto Boal's Games for Actors and Non-Actors, Chris Johnston's book provides ideas and guidance for drama groups of all kinds.

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A poignant drama about attitudes to teenage pregnancy in 1960s Britain. Mary Adams, aged 19, is unmarried and seven months pregnant. Forcibly sent to a Mother-and-Baby Home in the north of England by a mother intent on keeping up appearances, Mary – along with the other girls in the home – has to cope with both the shame and the dawning realisation that she will have to give the baby up for adoption whether she likes it or not. Despite this – and an overbearing matron – the girls' youthful effervescence keeps breaking through as they sing along to the girl-group songs of the period. Amanda Whittington's hugely touching play Be My Baby was first performed by Soho Theatre Company at the Pleasance Theatre, London, in 1998. This edition of Be My Baby includes new scenes added for several successful revivals of the play.

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An epic and provocative play about multi-racial Britain, from the UK's leading political playwright. When the District Council of Wyverdale fails to satisfy a government audit, New Labour high-flyer Alex Clifton is despatched from the capital to formulate a robust recovery plan. But racial tensions soar and good intentions have fatal consequences, as what begins as a comedy of misunderstanding soon becomes a chilling drama about multicultural Britain. David Edgar's play Playing With Fire was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in 2005. This edition includes an Afterword by the author.

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‘One no more owes one’s beauty to a lover, than one’s wit to an echo.’ With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the republican ban on organised theatre was lifted – and plays exploded back onto the public stage with newfound relish. The arrival of actresses for the first time encouraged a great sense of release, which expressed itself in the form of sophisticated comedies exploring the sexual behaviour and moralities of society. This volume features three of the most popular Restoration Comedies: The Country Wife by William Wycherley - a supremely bawdy comedy in which the aptly named Horner pretends to be a eunuch in order to seduce women under the noses of their husbands. The Way of the World by William Congreve - a brilliant comedy of manners, complete with dashing suitor, rich heiress and vengeful aunt. The Rover by Aphra Behn - the classic Restoration comedy by one of the earliest and most celebrated female playwrights. There is also a full introduction about the plays, playwrights and the period, and a glossary of unfamiliar words. The Drama Classic Collections bring together the most popular plays from a single author or a particular period. They offer students, actors and theatregoers a series of uncluttered, accessible editions, accompanied by comprehensive introductions.

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A brilliant, haunting play from the multi-award winning author of The Weir. Ian has left the priesthood to become a therapist. John is one of his first clients. John's wife has been killed in a car accident, and he keeps receiving visits from her ghost. John, with Ian's help, starts to recover. But what begins as an unusual encounter becomes a desperate struggle between the living and the dead – a struggle which will shape and define both of them for the rest of their lives. Conor McPherson's play Shining City was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2004.

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A tough but vulnerable play about our crumbling social fabric - and the people who have to pick up the pieces. Protection is a behind-the-scenes look at a team of social workers and their 'clients' in Britain's most misunderstood public service. Angela breaks the rules to get things done - her way. Shirley misses the old days, when protection came without a price. Their manager, Gordon, is screwing Angela whilst busy claiming on expenses. And for newcomer Grace, it's a struggle simply not to piss anyone off. Fin Kennedy's play was first performed at Soho Theatre, London, in 2003.

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An enthralling drama about the man who killed Hendrik Verwoerd, President of South Africa and the architect of South African apartheid. Written by the acclaimed actor and author of Year of the King. I.D. tells the true story of how Demetrios Tsafendas came to assassinate Verwoerd. Of mixed parentage, but classified as "White", Tsafendas is unable to marry the woman he loves because she is classified as "Coloured". Sickened by this injustice and goaded by his monstrous alter ego, Tsafendas stabs Verwoerd on the floor of the House in full view of his wife, his bodyguard and a chamber full of MPs. Antony Sher's play I.D. was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in September 2003 with Sher in the role of Tsafendas. The play was inspired by the book A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden.

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A gripping play about the nature of violence. 15-year-old Kerry and her mum have moved to a council estate. Kerry hates it. She hates her mum's new man too. But when she meets a boy in the playground and asks him to do something about it, she finds herself adrift in a landscape of physical brutality, drugs - and, eventually, love. Robert Holman's play Holes in the Skin was first performed at the Chichester Festival Theatre in June 2003.

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The hit show from Shared Experience Theatre Company based on the tortured and passionate life of Jean Rhys and her most famous book, Wide Sargasso Sea, the prequel to Jane Eyre. In Wide Sargasso Sea – 'one of the works of genius of the 20th century' The Times – Jean Rhys first gave voice to Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester’s first wife in Jane Eyre. Polly Teale's play is a dramatisation of Rhys’ life, placing Bertha on stage throughout as Jean’s alter ego, and giving full vent to her obsession with the 'mad woman in the attic'. After Mrs Rochester was first staged at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in July 2003 by Shared Experience Theatre Company.

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The highly regarded actor training manual by top movement teacher Anne Dennis. This inspirational and instructive book shows how actors can use their body to be as expressive and 'articulate' as they are with words. It attempts to rethink and analyse the actor's physical needs, offering a graded series of exercises aimed at realising those needs and making the body fully articulate as a medium of expression. The book will also be of use to teachers, directors, movement directors and choreographers.

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A fascinating investigation into the wellsprings of improvisation in theatre, dance and music, from the author of the influential House of Games. Packed with exercises and practical techniques, The Improvisation Game explores how improvisation can be used both to create performance and as an end in itself. It reveals the techniques, structures and methods used by key practitioners in the field of improvised drama, music and dance – amongst them Keith Johnstone (author of Impro), Max Stafford-Clark (Out of Joint), Phelim McDermott (Improbable Theatre), Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment), John Wright (Trestle, Told by an Idiot) and Robert Lepage. The book also looks at many famous traditions, events and performances with improvisation at their core, ranging from the Living Theatre to the Scratch Orchestra, from John Cage to Lenny Bruce, and seeks to draw out their significance in the always evolving world of improvisation.

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The Shakespeare Folios series - offering the absolute authenticity of the First Folio in a totally accessible form. 'A quite wonderful idea... So blindingly obvious, I can't understand why nobody had thought of it before. I will certainly use the texts myself' - Peter Hall This edition accurately reproduces the text of the Shakespeare First Folio (1623), but in modern type. At a stroke the dust of ages is blown away and what Shakespeare actually intended is revealed to modern readers. Now Shakespeareans everywhere - students, actors, directors - can see for themselves what the Folio really says. As a further aid to understanding, on each opposing page the same text appears in a fully modernised version - a useful safety net whenever the Folio becomes problematic. Each volume also contains: - an introduction to the particular play - textual notes - an appendix giving variant versions from the Quarto where appropriate - a facsimile page from the First Folio

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Two early plays from the acclaimed Irish writer Enda Walsh. bedbound is a ferocious two-hander about a father-daughter relationship gone horribly and terrifyingly wrong. bedbound was first performed at The New Theatre, Dublin, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 2000. It received its UK premiere at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and was revived at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, in January 2002. misterman is a strange and haunting monologue about a missionary who'll stop at nothing. misterman was first performed by Enda Walsh in a Corcadorca Theatre Company production at the Granary Theatre in Cork in April 1999, directed by Pat Kiernan. A later version was produced by Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival, and performed at the Black Box Theatre, Galway, as part of the Galway Arts Festival, in July 2011.

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A timely, provocative and witty look at the campaign to redefine Britishness for a multicultural society. Who is head of the Church of England? How many members are there in the Welsh Assembly? What is the main function of the Council of Europe? Emma is a dedicated ESOL teacher (English for Speakers of Other Languages), teaching British citizenship to people from Somalia, Serbia, the Congo, India and Egypt. At the same time, Tetyana, Mahmood and Chong have their own, very different reasons for wanting to pass the citizenship test. As the Home Office worries away at the questions in the test, Emma faces a challenge to her deepest-held beliefs. David Edgar's play Testing the Echo was first staged by Out of Joint on a UK tour in 2008.

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A 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.

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A deliciously wicked comedy that proves that the female of the species is not only deadlier, but funnier than the male. From the author of the West End-hit, Honour. Thirty years ago Margot Mason, pioneer of the 1970's Women's Liberation movement and fearless academic, wrote her groundbreaking work, The Cerebral Vagina. Numerous best-sellers and international adulation followed, but now she has writer's block. As she sits in her country house struggling with a deadline, in walks Molly Rivers, student, idealist and daughter of one of Margot's most dedicated followers. Initially flattered, Margot is less pleased when Molly handcuffs her to the desk and pulls a gun... Joanna Murray-Smith's play The Female of the Species was premiered in Melbourne, Australia, in 2006. This revised version was premiered at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End in 2008.

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Nicholas Wright's version of Wedekind's celebrated erotic masterpiece is the first to be based on the author's original text, restoring the clarity, the daring and the sexual explicitness of a modern masterpiece written a hundred years before its time. Lulu is the story of the decline and fall of a young woman possessed of a fatal combination of sexuality and innocence. She passes from German and Parisian high society to the streets of Jack the Ripper's London – destroying, and ultimately destroyed by, her lovers. Wedekind originally wrote his extraordinary 'monster tragedy' a full twenty years before the First World War. Finding no-one prepared to stage it on account of its sexual candour, he toned it down and rewrote it as two full-length dramas, which is how The Lulu Plays were published and produced throughout most of the twentieth century. Nicholas Wright's version, based on Wedekind's original text, reveals the author's original conception for the play. It was premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2001.

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A comedy drama set in the seedily glamorous world of 17th-century London theatre. John Shank is an actor, talent-scout and trainer of boy players in the 1630s, when women's roles are still played by precocious boys. Up to his eyes in debt, Shank's only hope of escaping destitution is an unpromising 14-year-old would-be, Stephen Hammerton. Can he train up Stephen to be the new star of the London stage? Nicholas Wright's play Cressida was first performed at the Albery Theatre, London, in 2000, in a production by the Almeida Theatre.

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A re-invention of George Eliot's classic story of loss, tragedy and the relentless nature of fate. Outgrowing - but still hopelessly devoted to - her family, Maggie befriends the disfigured Phillip Wakem, son of a local lawyer. But their fathers become embroiled in a bitter legal dispute that only the prosperous Wakem can win, and the Tullivers find fate dealing them the first harsh hand of many. With their father dead, the family must face up to their cold future together. Helen Edmundson's stage adaptation of George Eliot's novel The Mill on the Floss was first performed by Shared Experience Theatre Company in 1994.

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Part 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.

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An ominous play set in a cruel world of dark realism, an acknowledged masterpiece from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers. Harry Hope's Saloon is a waterfront bar full of life's failures. They exist barely, living on the knowledge that love is a chimera and despair is perpetual; that the desires they cultivate of an impossible future are only ever pipe dreams, because the only thing to look forward to is death. And then one day Hickey walks in with his own personal brand of hope, and his urge to make them face the truth. Written in 1939, Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh was first staged at the Martin Beck Theater, New York, in October 1946. It had its UK premiere at the Arts Theatre, London, in January 1958. 'A dramatised neurosis, with no holds barred, written in a vein of unsparing implacable honesty' Kenneth Tynan 'O'Neill, the great patriach of Broadway and the playwright who laid out the map on which all contemporary American drama is still written – Iceman is the first truly great epic of the modern American theatre, and its legacy is the intimate stripping of the soul which we now take for granted in drama worldwide' Sheridan Morley This edition of The Iceman Cometh includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.

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The nineteenth-century French classic about the swordsman-poet with the nose too large to be taken seriously, in an acclaimed English translation by Anthony Burgess. This translation of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, London, in July 1983, with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano. Burgess's translation was subsequently used as the basis of the sub-titles for the 1990 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Gérard Depardieu.

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A controversial work of extraordinary power, remarkable length (9 acts), and use of asides to express the characters' unspoken thoughts. An outstanding, somewhat Freudian play from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers. Nina Leeds is a mercurial woman, haunted and broken by the death of her fiancé Gordon Shaw in the First World War – after her father had convinced him to postpone the marriage until his safe return. Always searching for the ever-elusive happiness Shaw gave her, she flirts with the feelings of the various men in her life: her friend Charles Marsden, deeply in love with her, is nevertheless too shy to confess; her new husband Sam Evans, with his own history of mental illness and inability to give her a child; Edmund 'Ned' Darrell, so desperate for her to leave Sam that he gives her the child she craves so badly. And then finally comes little Gordon, the result of Nina's affair with Ned, ignorant of his parentage – the only man she really dotes on whilst the others orbit around her... Eugene O'Neill's play Strange Interlude opened on Broadway in January 1928, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.

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A collection of shorter plays from stage and television by one of the UK's foremost political playwrights. Included are: Blood Sports, five hilarious sketches on sporting subjects Ball Boys, an unlikely match between Marx and tennis Baby Love, a powerful and moving account of a baby-snatcher The National Theatre, 'Three Sisters' in a strip club The Midas Connection, an ironic look at gold dealing Especially suitable for performances by groups with limited time and/or resources, all the pieces engage – however wryly – with important issues. The whole collection sheds fascinating new light on Edgar the dramatist.

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The 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.

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Up-and-coming comics Alex and Ben have been booked in the warm-up spot for a beloved but fading double act's comeback tour. Neither is delighted to be playing to a sparse crowd in a sleepy seaside town – but when it's revealed that a Hollywood director is in the audience, both acts glimpse a final chance for their big break. Cue sabotage, mistaken identity and full-on farcical mayhem, as the performance descends into a desperate battle for the limelight. With the action alternating between offstage and on, and the tone between Noises Off and Morecambe and Wise's old-school charm, The Comeback is a heart-warming exploration of bittersweet nostalgia and the enduring power of friendship. It is the joyful and dazzlingly funny debut play by The Pin's award-winning Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen – 'destined to become one of the great comedy duos' (Radio Times). It opened at the West End's Noël Coward Theatre in December 2020.

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