Search results for ""Author Nick"
Nick Hern Books Red Pitch
'The way they're changing endz is nuts.' Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave. A coming-of-age story about what it means to belong somewhere, Tyrell Williams' fast-paced and sharp-edged play tells a powerful story about gentrification, regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London's communities. Red Pitch received an ecstatic critical and audience response when it was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in February 2022, directed by Associate Artistic Director Daniel Bailey. The production was revived at the Bush in September 2023, with this definitive version of the text. For Red Pitch, Tyrell Williams won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Critics' Circle Theatre Award both for Most Promising Playwright, The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, the George Devine Award, as well as the Off West End Award for Best New Play. An earlier version of the play was presented in June 2019, as part of the Untold Season at Ovalhouse, London.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Grenfell: in the words of survivors
'It was a tower block, but it was home.' The early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017. The north-west corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A twenty-four-storey residential tower. The scene of a national tragedy. This powerful verbatim play is drawn from the testimony of residents – a group of survivors and bereaved – at the heart of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It reveals the impact of the multiple failures that led to the most devastating residential fire in the UK since the Second World War, and asks: how do we stop this ever happening again? Startling, urgent and deeply moving, Grenfell: in the words of survivors explores the courage and resilience of an ill-treated community and their continued campaign for justice. Created from interviews by Gillian Slovo, the play was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in July 2023, co-directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike. 10% of the net proceeds from sales of this book will be donated by the publisher to the Grenfell Foundation, who support the bereaved and survivors in the aftermath of the fire, as well as help them ensure Grenfell is remembered long into the future.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play
'We could stop here. We could stay here. It's not so bad, is it?' Kim is having one of those days. A terrible, very bad, no-good kind of day, and the worst part is… it all feels so familiar. Caught up in a never-ending cycle of events, she looks for the exit but the harder she tries, the worse it gets and she begins to wonder: who's writing this story? She makes a break for it, smashing through a hundred years of bloody narratives that all end the same way. Can she find a way out before it's too late? With breathless hilarity, Kimber Lee's untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play jumps through time, wriggling inside of and then exploding lifetimes of repeating Asian stereotypes, wrestling with history for the right to control your own narrative in a world that thinks it can tell you who you are. Winner of the International Award for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, the play was co-produced in 2023 by the Royal Exchange, Factory International for Manchester International Festival, the Young Vic Theatre and Headlong, and directed by Roy Alexander Weise. It was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, as part of Manchester International Festival, before transferring to the Young Vic Theatre, London.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man
Arriving from his East Midlands beginnings into a London thick with the grime of industrialisation, Joseph Merrick is an anomaly. In a city of factories that churn out uniformity, there is no place for someone like him. But Merrick and the city are evolving into something new. We follow him through the workhouse, the freak show and the hospital, as he searches for acceptance in a society that just wants to stare at him. Powerful, angry and surprising, Tom Wright's acclaimed play imagines an alternative history of the person who came to be known as 'the Elephant Man'. It restores Joseph Merrick to the centre of his own story: a man fighting for his right to be and to belong. The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man was first performed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre, before receiving its European premiere at Nottingham Playhouse in 2023, directed by Stephen Bailey, and supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books When Winston Went to War with the Wireless
In May 1926, Britain grinds to a halt, as workers down tools for the General Strike. With the printing presses shut down, the only sources of news are the government's British Gazette, edited by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, and the independent, fledgling British Broadcasting Company, led by John Reith. The stage is set for a fierce battle over control of the news and who gets to define the truth. Jack Thorne's When Winston Went To War With The Wireless is a gripping play about the birth of a great British institution and its efforts to stay impartial. It premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in June 2023, directed by Katy Rudd, with Stephen Campbell Moore as Reith, Adrian Scarborough as Churchill, and Haydn Gwynne as Stanley Baldwin. 'Jack Thorne never ceases to stimulate and entertain' Evening Standard
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Blackout Songs
'You told me you loved me, once. You said you carried me. You remember that? You still carry me? Or did you drop me, somewhere along the line?' A chance encounter at an AA meeting and they're drawn to one another. Then later, once they're drinking again, they both have this almost-feeling that they might have met before – could even have been together, sometime in the past... They should really get sober together and figure it all out: that would be a worthwhile project. Maybe they will. Just after one last drink... A compassionate and unflinching study of love, addiction and memory, Joe White's play Blackout Songs was first performed at Hampstead Theatre, London, in November 2022, directed by Guy Jones.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Bangers (NHB Modern Plays)
It’s club night and the tracks are spinning. Set against a backdrop of precarious lives in urban London, two headliners crossfade between stories of love, sex, and losing their creative spark. Bangers follows the highs and lows of two strangers as they struggle with their own pasts, while hurtling towards each other’s futures. All the while, the DJ continues to play, dropping samples and words of wisdom. In the end, it’s not the last track that counts, but the one coming up next... Featuring original music inspired by early noughties and present-day R&B and Garage, Danusia Samal’s exhilarating play was first co-produced by Cardboard Citizens and Soho Theatre. It toured community venues across London, before a run at Soho Theatre, London, in 2022.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Happy Meal
'Maybe gender is like life? And like time too? In that it doesn't actually exist, and yet our world revolves around the expectations we put on it.' Starting in the quaint days of dial-up and MSN, Happy Meal is a funny, moving and nostalgic story of transition, following two initial strangers on their journeys from teen to adult; from MySpace to TikTok; from cis to trans... Tabby Lamb's joyful trans rom-com was directed by Jamie Fletcher and produced by Roots and Theatre Royal Plymouth, with ETT and Oxford Playhouse, on a UK tour in 2022, including a run at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Fringe First Award.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books A-Typical Rainbow
'I can change colours of objects by looking at them, hear the symphonies of household simplicities, taste the emotions in a room like sweet or bitter wine, and feel life's every heartbeat breaking through my ribcage in glorious technicolour. Just don't ask me to make eye contact.' An imaginative child's glorious fantasies – of dolphins and dragonflies, gingerbread houses and chocolate rivers – offer him an escape from hostile reality. When reality dictates he has to conform to the 'real world', he has to make a choice. Should he live authentically and risk stigma, or can he continue to hide? Based on real events from the perspective of the writer and the autistic community, JJ Green's A-Typical Rainbow is an uplifting play about the experience of growing up neurodivergent and queer in early 2000s Britain. It premiered at London's Turbine Theatre in June 2022, produced by Aria Entertainment, directed by Bronagh Lagan, and starring playwright JJ Green, who is a passionate advocate for autistic artists like himself. This edition includes the full text of the play along with contributions from the largely – and proudly – neurodivergent cast and creative team.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Taxidermist's Daughter
'The world is stacked against women like me. But things are different now.' 1912. In an isolated house on the Sussex salt marshes, Connie Gifford lives with her father. Robbed of her childhood memories by a mysterious accident, she is haunted by fitful glimpses of her past – whilst her father has become a broken man, taking refuge in the bottle, since the closure of his once-legendary Museum of Avian Taxidermy. A strange woman has been seen in the graveyard – and a few miles away, two patients have, inexplicably, disappeared from the local asylum. As a major storm hits the coastline, old wounds are about to be opened as one woman, intent on revenge, attempts to liberate another from the horrifying crimes of the past. The Taxidermist's Daughter is a thrilling Gothic story of violence, retribution and justice, adapted for the stage by Kate Mosse from her own internationally best-selling novel, and first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2022, directed by Róisín McBrinn. 'A superb, atmospheric thriller, its Gothic overtones commanding attention' Daily Mail on Kate Mosse's novel
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Kabul Goes Pop: Music Television Afghanistan
'Today in Afghanistan there are many important issues that we are facing in our country, and I want us to look at some of these issues. So I am asking you, the audience, to help answer a very important question. Britney or Shakira?' Afghanistan. It's 2004. Farook and Samia broadcast live every day to the whole of Kabul, delivering ninety minutes of musical bliss: Britney, Backstreet Boys and Enrique Iglesias. But when their show starts to make waves, the two young friends must take on repressive forces to build a new Afghanistan. Inspired by the true story of Afghanistan's first youth music programme, Waleed Akhtar's play Kabul Goes Pop: Music Television Afghanistan explores a world following the US invasion that is complex, contradictory and shocking – all to a soundtrack of early noughties' pop. The play premiered at Brixton House, London, in 2022, directed by Anna Himali Howard, before touring the UK. It was presented with HighTide, in association with Mercury Theatre Colchester. Waleed Akhtar was later named Most Promising New Playwright at the 2023 OffWestEnd Awards, for Kabul Goes Pop and The P Word.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Prima Facie (NHB Modern Plays)
Tessa is a young, brilliant barrister. She has worked her way up from working-class origins to the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and winning. But an unexpected event forces her to confront the patriarchal power of the law, where the burden of proof and morality diverge. Prima Facie by Suzie Miller is an award-winning play for a solo actor, taking us deep into a world where emotion and integrity are in conflict with the rules of the game. After several acclaimed productions in Australia and winning the Australian Writers' Guild Award for Drama, the play received its European premiere at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in April 2022. It starred Jodie Comer, the Emmy and Bafta Award-winning star of TV's Killing Eve, making her West End debut.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Sorry, You're Not a Winner
Liam and Fletch grew up together. Born on the same street. Best mates since primary. Inseparable. The only difference was while Fletch was getting suspended from school, Liam was studying. And now he's going to Oxford. But with Liam gone, who's going to keep Fletch out of trouble? Sorry, You're Not a Winner explores aspiration, social mobility and getting caught between classes. It asks: if 'making it' means leaving everything you know and everyone you love behind – what's the point? This powerful and striking play by Samuel Bailey was first produced in 2022 by Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth, in association with the University of Plymouth's School of Society and Culture, before touring nationally.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books The Normal Heart
Larry Kramer's passionate, polemical drama, set during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The Normal Heart traces the story of one man who, while his friends are dying around him, strives to break through a conspiracy of silence, indifference and hostility from public officials and the gay community, and gain recognition for a virus that threatens to change everything. The play received its British premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1986. Thirty-five years after that premiere, the play's prescience and its searing emotional power are beyond doubt. It was revived on Broadway in 2011 (winning the Tony Award for Best Revival) and adapted for television in 2014 (receiving the Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie). This new edition of the play is published alongside a major revival at the National Theatre, London, in 2021, directed by Dominic Cooke. It features the definitive text of the play, extensive supplementary material including a new introduction by critic and broadcaster David Benedict, and tributes to Larry Kramer by Russell T Davies, Tony Kushner and Matthew López, all of whom have also contributed to the canon of dramatic work about HIV/AIDS – with, respectively, It's A Sin, Angels in America and The Inheritance.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Last of the Pelican Daughters
In folklore, pelican mothers feed their young on their own blood. Today, four sisters are trying to come to terms with their mother's death – and divide their mother's house between them. Joy wants a baby, Storm wants to be seen, Sage wants to be paid, Maya doesn't want anyone to find out her secret. Granny's in a wheelchair on day release – and Mum's presence still seeps through the ceiling and the floors. The Pelican Daughters are home for the last time. The Wardrobe Ensemble's play The Last of the Pelican Daughters is a comedy about four sisters trying to come to terms with their mother's death. It combines the company's trademark irreverent humour and lovable characters to tackle the idea of what it means for young people to grapple with inheritance, loss and justice. The Last of the Pelican Daughters was first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. In addition to the full script of the play, this published edition includes an extensive oral history of The Wardrobe Ensemble by its members, and a workshop plan for two people of different generations to communicate and collaborate in person or online.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Little Wars
A dinner party during the Second World War unites celebrated writers Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas – with a mysterious guest. With copious booze flowing, acid-tongued barbs flying, and the threat of global conflict looming, the guests – and the world around them – are close to boiling point. Everyone has a confession. Someone has a secret. Set in the French Alps in 1940, Steven Carl McCasland’s Little Wars is an enthralling, entertaining and ultimately moving portrait of seven exceptional women – and a thrilling fiction based on truth. It was workshopped Off-Off-Broadway, first performed in 2015, and received an acclaimed digital premiere in 2020, featuring Linda Bassett, Sarah Solemani, Juliet Stevenson and Sophie Thompson. It provides glorious opportunities for an all-female cast to play some of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century.
£10.93
Nick Hern Books ear for eye (NHB Modern Plays)
'Marchin' days is over man.' Patience is running out, times have changed. And progress isn't enough. Black British. African American. Here. There. Now. Snapshots of lives, snapshots of experiences of protest; violence vs non-violence, direct action vs demonstrations, ear for eye follows characters navigating their way through society today. debbie tucker green's play ear for eye premiered in October 2018 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, in a production directed by the playwright. ear for eye was a finalist for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A filmed version of ear for eye, written and directed by debbie tucker green, was broadcast on BBC Two in October 2021. 'A furious dissection of racial injustice... overwhelming' - Guardian
£13.99
Nick Hern Books Gloria
New York. A city that runs on ambition – and coffee. In the offices of a notorious Manhattan magazine, ruthless editorial assistants vie for their bosses' jobs and a book deal before they're thirty. But bestselling memoir fodder is thin on the ground, and climbing the career ladder is hard when you're trapped between Starbucks runs, jaded gossip and endless encircling cubicle walls... Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Gloria is a razor-sharp comic drama about ambition, office warfare and hierarchies, where the only thing that matters is selling out to the highest bidder. The play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016, and had its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2017. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins was named Most Promising Playwright at the Critics' Circle Awards in 2018 for his plays Gloria and An Octoroon.
£10.35
Nick Hern Books A Strange Loop
Usher is a Black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a Black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical... Michael R. Jackson's blistering original musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons – not least of which are the punishing thoughts in his own head – in an attempt to understand his own strange loop. A Strange Loop received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 2019. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 2022 Tony Awards – and every other 'Best Musical' award on Broadway. It received its British premiere at the Barbican Theatre, London, in 2023, with Michael R. Jackson winning Best Composer, Lyricist or Book Writer at the 2023 Stage Debut Awards. 'A metafictional musical that tracks the creative process of an artist transforming issues of identity, race and sexuality that once pushed him to the margins of the cultural mainstream into a meditation on universal human fears and insecurities' Pulitzer Prize Committee
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Drama Workshop Leader: A Practical Guide to Delivering Great Sessions
This comprehensive, easy-to-use guide contains everything you need to plan and deliver effective drama sessions, get the best out of your participants, and develop an empowering leadership style that works for you. Drawing on over fifteen years' experience of running workshops – including for the National Theatre, The Old Vic, Barbican, Battersea Arts Centre and National Youth Theatre – Linden Walcott-Burton takes you through everything you need to know, with essential advice on: Your Workshop: How to plan and structure a successful session; how to deliver it effectively, whether in-person or online; how to devise and run an entire course. Your Group: How to motivate and get the best out of your group; how to encourage positive behaviours and manage challenging ones; how to adapt to different groups and needs; how to give and receive feedback. Yourself as a Workshop Leader: How to empower yourself by owning the space and maintaining boundaries; how to use your voice (and not lose it); how to harness the power of humour and fun. Packed with tips and techniques that work with any setting and age group, whether you're running a short session or a longer course, the book also provides specific guidance on delivering workshops in schools, working with disabled people and those with learning disabilities, and safeguarding when working with children and young people. There's also advice on co-facilitating, working with assistants and finding work. Organised in handy, bite-sized chunks allowing you to find just what you need, the book also includes sample workshop plans and content, with additional insights and examples of best practice from many other leading practitioners in the field. Whether you're just starting out and want to learn the basics, or you're a seasoned facilitator looking for fresh ideas, The Drama Workshop Leader is the resource you need to deliver a great session in any room you walk into, no matter what's thrown your way. 'Every practitioner, no matter their level of experience, will gain so much from this book' Jackie Tait, Primary Programme Manager, National Theatre Learning
£15.29
Nick Hern Books truth and reconciliation
Rwanda to Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe to Bosnia, answers are demanded, reconciliation hard to hear and the truth reluctant to be told. 'I will not stay standing to have you accuse me. And I will not sit there and be accused.' debbie tucker green's play truth and reconciliation was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London, in September 2011.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books SAUCE and All honey: Two Plays
Two sweet and saucy comedies from an award-winning Irish playwright. In SAUCE, Mella is a compulsive liar, Maura is a kleptomaniac – and neither has any friends. Recently out of controlling relationships, they are thrust into uneasy freedom. Can they overcome their flaws together to avoid dying alone? Or will their compulsions engulf them in the end? A play about death and rebirth, Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's SAUCE was first staged at Bewley's Café Theatre, Dublin, in 2019 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, and revived there in 2022. In All honey, Ru and Luke are throwing a house-warming party. But their guests are more interested in whispering in the box room than joining the festivities. Explosive characters and unfolding secrets mean the hosts will have to clean up more than red-wine stains and glitter. Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's debut play, All honey is about sex, secrets and suspicion. It premiered at the New Theatre in 2017 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, winning the 2017 Fishamble New Writing Award. It was revived at Bewley's in 2018 and Project Arts Centre in 2020.
£11.69
Nick Hern Books How To Be A Kid
Warning: Contains dancing, chocolate cake and an epic car chase. Molly cooks. Molly does the dishes. Molly gets her little brother Joe ready for school. Molly is only twelve, but she doesn't feel much like a kid any more. Now her mum is feeling better, maybe things will get back to normal. Maybe Molly can learn to be a kid again. A touching and funny story of family, friends and fitting in, Sarah McDonald-Hughes' play How To Be A Kid is ideal for seven- to eleven-year-olds to watch, read and perform. It was first produced in 2017 by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, in a co-production with Theatr Clywd and the Orange Tree Theatre. How To Be A Kid was named Best Play for Young Audiences at the 2018 Writers' Guild Awards.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Oslo
A darkly funny political thriller, winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play. In 1993, in front of the world’s press, the leaders of Israel and Palestine shook hands on the lawn of the White House. Few watching would have guessed that the negotiations leading up to this iconic moment started secretly in a grand manor house in the middle of a forest outside Oslo. J.T. Rogers' play Oslo tells the true story of two maverick Norwegian diplomats who coordinated top-secret talks and inspired seemingly impossible friendships. Their quiet heroics helped lead to the groundbreaking Oslo Accords. The play had a sell-out run in New York in 2016, and received its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in September 2017, prior to a West End transfer.
£13.99
Nick Hern Books BLACK SUPERHERO
'No one. No dark knight in shinin armour. Not even someone I'd let fiddle with me on a regular basis. Went through all my twenties thinkin don't worry he'll come. Well, I'm almost forty now, and he still hasn't, has he?' David is in love with King. But King is a superhero. After an unexpected encounter, David plunges himself into a world of sex, drugs and hero worship in the hope of being rescued, until fantasy and reality merge with devastating consequences. Danny Lee Wynter's play BLACK SUPERHERO is a brutal, unflinching, funny portrait of one man's life spiralling out of control, in an age where our idols are Kings and our superheroes Gods. It was premiered at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London, in March 2023, directed by Daniel Evans and with a cast including Dyllón Burnside and the playwright Danny Lee Wynter.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Dorian (NHB Modern Plays)
Dorian Gray – handsome, hedonistic, narcissistic – sells his soul for eternal beauty. Basil and Henry join him for the ride until it all goes too far, and the hangovers become murderous... Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was a succès de scandale on its publication in 1891, accused of violating the laws of public morality. It immediately captured the minds of its readers, the spirit of the age, and the soul of a man with nothing to declare but his genius. This thrilling stage adaptation by Phoebe Eclair-Powell and Owen Horsley follows one man's descent from glorious debauchery to epic self-destruction, intertwined with Wilde's own life story, his tragic persecution, and ultimate imprisonment in Reading Gaol.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Bacchae
Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price At the whim of Dionysos, a son is torn to pieces by his own mother during the famous women-only Bacchanalian ritual. The story of revenge by the half-man half-god on Pentheus, King of Thebes, and all his people. This version of Euripides' Bacchae is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael.
£6.29
Nick Hern Books A Little Life
'I promise you more patience, more gratitude. I promise you less vanity, less selfishness, less complaining, less fear. I promise you. You just have to survive.' A Little Life follows the complex relationships of four college friends in New York City: Willem, an actor; Malcolm, an architect; JB, an artist; and, at the centre of their group, Jude, a lawyer. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, changed by ambition, addiction and pride. Yet their greatest challenge is Jude himself, whose secrets – and shame – define not just his own life, but that of his friends as well. A bruising and beautiful story of love, the limits of human endurance, and the tyranny of memory, Hanya Yanagihara's novel A Little Life has sold over a million copies and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. The stage adaptation – conceived by Ivo van Hove, and adapted by Koen Tachelet, van Hove and Yanagihara herself – was first performed in a Dutch-language production at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 2018, before transferring to New York in 2022. This English-language version opened in London's West End in 2023, directed by Ivo van Hove and with a cast led by James Norton as Jude.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books The Machine Gunners
An adaptation of the beloved, award-winning children's novel. It's 1940, and Britain is at war. Young Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in town, but desparately wants it to be the best. Amidst the bombs and air raids, Chas and his friends plan their own war effort in their newly built bunker. Friendships are forged and loyalties tested, in the adventure of a lifetime... Robert Westall's The Machine Gunners has been read, studied - and loved - by successive generations of younger readers. It won the Carnegie Medal and was voted one of the most important children's novels of the past seventy years. This thrilling stage adaptation comes from the award-winning playwright Ali Taylor, and premiered at the Polka Theatre, London, in 2011. It provides rich opportunities for discussion in the classroom, and for staging by schools, youth theatres and amateur companies.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books His Dark Materials
A two-play dramatisation of Philip Pullman's extraordinary award-winning fantasy trilogy, first seen at the National Theatre. His Dark Materials takes us on a thrilling journey through worlds familiar and unknown. For Lyra and Will, its two central characters, it's a coming of age and a transforming spiritual experience. Their great quest demands a savage struggle against the most dangerous of enemies. They encounter fantastical creatures in parallel worlds – rebellious angels, soul-eating spectres, child-catching Gobblers and the armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic. Finally, before reaching, perhaps, the republic of heaven, they must visit the land of the dead. This adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, by Nicholas Wright, was first performed at the National Theatre in London in 2003.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Why Is That So Funny?: A Practical Exploration of Physical Comedy
A practical investigation of how comedy works, by a well-respected practitioner and teacher. With a Foreword by Toby Jones. Comedy is recognised as one of the most problematic areas of performances. For that reason, it is rarely written about in any systematic way. John Wright, founder of Trestle Theatre and Told by an Idiot, brings a wide range of experience of physical comedy to this unique exploration of comedy and comedic techniques. The book opens with an analysis of the different kinds of laughter that can be provoked by performance. This is followed by the main part of the book: games and exercises devised to demonstrate and investigate the whole range of comic possibilities open to a performer. Why Is That So Funny? is an invaluable book for teachers and performers, and a fascinating read for anyone interested in how comedy works.
£14.99
Nick Hern Books Poison
‘We’re... A man and a woman Who’ve lost a child Who first lost a child And then... each other Or maybe I should say: Who first lost a child, then themselves and then each other’ An extraordinary play that asks a simple question: is it ever possible to move on? Poison by Dutch writer Lot Vekemans, in this English translation by Rina Vergano, had a critically acclaimed run in New York in 2016, and was premiered in the UK at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in November 2017, directed by Paul Miller. The original Dutch-language version of the play, Gif, was first performed at NT Gent/NL in December 2009.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books The Slaves of Solitude
‘I don’t know how I became so filled with hate. I find it shocking that I did. Somebody said to me that war affects us in all kinds of ways, and that drinking is only one of them. Perhaps hating people is another. Perhaps sex is too.’ 1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, a place as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war effort now consists of a thousand petty humiliations, of which the most burdensome is sharing her daily life with the unbearable Mr Thwaites. But a breath of fresh air arrives in the form of a handsome American lieutenant and things start to look distinctly brighter. Until a new boarder moves into the room next to Miss Roach’s – outwardly friendly, she soon starts upsetting the precarious balance in the house. Nicholas Wright’s play The Slaves of Solitude weaves a fascinating blend of dark hilarity and melancholy from Patrick Hamilton’s much-loved story about an improbable heroine in wartime Britain. The play premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2017.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Follies
Sondheim's landmark musical about a reunion of showgirls, with a book by James Goldman. New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs, and lie about themselves. Including such classic songs as ‘Broadway Baby’, ‘I’m Still Here’ and ‘Losing My Mind’, James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical was originally staged in New York in 1971, and received its British premiere in 1987. This edition was published alongside the major revival at the National Theatre, London, in 2017, directed by Dominic Cooke and starring Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee, Philip Quast and Imelda Staunton.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Bruno has a friend called Shmuel. Like Bruno, Shmuel is nine years old. Their birthdays are on the same day. But Shmuel lives on the other side of a fence, and he's always wearing striped pyjamas... Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a heart-wrenching tale of an unlikely friendship between two innocent boys. Angus Jackson's deeply affecting adaptation was produced by The Children's Touring Partnership and Chichester Festival Theatre on a UK tour in 2015.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Great Expectations
A beautifully simple adaptation of one of Dickens's best-loved novels, bringing it thrillingly to life for the stage. When the orphan Pip meets the convict Magwitch in a graveyard and is forced to help him escape, his life takes a series of unexpected turns. Invited to the house of the mysterious Miss Havisham, he falls in love with her adopted daughter, the beautiful but cold-hearted Estella. Then the generosity of an unknown benefactor sends him to London to become a gentleman. But the truth behind his change of fortune, once revealed, is not what Pip expects... Jo Clifford's adaptation of Great Expectations was first performed at Richmond Theatre, London, in 2012, before transferring to the West End. Eminently actable and stageable, this version is also ideal for schools and amateur theatre companies. This edition contains introductions by Simon Callow, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley (great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens) and Clifford herself.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Small Island
Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica. Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer. Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. Three intimately connected stories, tracing the tangled history of Jamaica and Britain. Andrea Levy's epic novel, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, journeys from Jamaica to Britain in 1948 – the year that HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury. Small Island was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2019, in an acclaimed production directed by Rufus Norris. This revised edition of the play was published alongside the revival of the production in 2022.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books After Life
If you could spend eternity with just one precious memory, what would it be? A group of strangers grapple with this impossible question as they find themselves in a bureaucratic waiting room between life and death. Encouraged by enigmatic officials, they must sift through their past lives to choose their forever. Adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film, After Life is a surreal and powerfully human look at the way we view our lives, and a haunting meditation on what it is to live – and to die. Written by Jack Thorne from a concept by Bunny Christie, Jeremy Herrin and Thorne, After Life was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in June 2021. It was directed by Herrin, in a co-production with Headlong, by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Stage Lighting Design: The Art, The Craft, The Life
The definitive text for today's and tomorrow's lighting designers, covering the complete history, theory and practice of lighting design. With over four hundred illustrations and nearly sixty colour photographs, as well as interviews with many well-known professionals, Stage Lighting Design is a comprehensive, insightful and inspiring book that every designer and would-be designer should own. It is arranged in four sections: Design: the basic principles, illustrated with reference to specific productions History: a brief survey of the historical development of stage lighting The Life: interviews with 14 other lighting designers, plus notes on Pilbrow's own career Mechanics: a comprehensive section dealing with all the technical data today's designer will need.
£24.29
Nick Hern Books Freeing the Natural Voice
The classic voice-training book for actors, teachers of voice and speech and anyone interested in vocal expression – by a pre-eminent voice teacher, actor and director. Fully revised and expanded edition. Linklater's approach is to liberate the voice you have rather than apply vocal techniques from the outside. Her basic assumption is that everyone possesses a voice capable of expressing whatever emotion, mood or thought he/she experiences. This edition incorporates vocal exercises developed over three decades to help the voice connect viscerally with language – a key element in the actors' craft. 'a radical breakaway from the old formal methods... an invaluable new resource... essential' Educational Theatre Journal 'the best and only work of its kind for vocal training' Educational Theatre News
£14.99
Nick Hern Books The Improvisation Book: How to Conduct Successful Improvisation Sessions
A practical guide to conducting improvisation sessions, for teachers, directors and workshop leaders. ***Comes with a full set of improvisation cards to use in any improvisation session The Improvisation Book takes you step-by-step, session-by-session through a graded series of improvisation exercises. Starting with the very first class, it adds a new element at each stage until even the most inhibited students have gained a full vocabulary of improvisational techniques.
£29.00
Nick Hern Books Through The Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre
A step-by-step guide to Physical Theatre in both theory and practice - full of detailed exercises and inspiring ideas. In Through the Body, based on twelve years of teaching physical theatre, Dymphna Callery introduces the reader to the principles behind the work of certain key 20th-century theatre practitioners (Artaud, Grotowski, Meyerhold, Brook and Lecoq, among others) and offers exercises by which their theories can be turned into practice and their principles explored in action. The book takes the form of a series of workshops starting with the preparation of the body through Awareness, Articulation, Energy and Neutrality. A section on Mask-work is followed by further work on the body, investigating Presence, Complicité, Play, Audience, Rhythm, Sound and E-motion. The book - and the work - culminates in sections on Devising and on the Physical Text. There is also a thorough bibliography and a contact list of training courses in the UK and abroad. 'This book offers everything you have ever wanted to know about Physical Theatre. It is very detailed but at the same time very easy to understand. It breaks down every topic to short paragraphs which are informative and simple. A must for any theatre student or lecturer for that matter!' Amazon readers review
£14.99
Nick Hern Books The Complete Brecht Toolkit
A practical, hands-on guide - for actors, directors, teachers and students - to Brecht's theory and practice of theatre, with a full set of exercises to help put theory into practice. The Complete Brecht Toolkit examines, one by one, Brecht's many, sometimes contradictory ideas about theatre - and how he put them into practice. Here are explanations of all the famous key terms, such as Alienation Effect, Epic Theatre and Gestus, as well as many others which go to make up what we think of as 'Brechtian theatre'. The book also explores the practical application of these theories in Acting, Language, Music, Design and Direction. Also included are fifty exercises contributed by Julian Jones, to help student actors investigate Brecht's ideas for themselves, becoming thoroughly familiar with the tools in the Brecht toolkit.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches
Part One 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. Prior, visited by ghosts of his ancestors and abandoned by his lover after his diagnosis with AIDS, is wondering if he is still sane when the angels select him to be their prophet. Powerbroker Roy Cohn also has the virus - but he believes that only the powerless can have that particular illness, and so kicks back against his diagnosis. In the 'melting pot where nothing melted' of modern America, the nation's reaction to the sickness – and its sufferers – is laid bare. Millennium Approaches was premiered in May 1991 by the Eureka Theatre Company, San Francisco, directed by David Esbjornson. In London it was premiered in January 1992 in a National Theatre production at the Cottesloe Theatre, directed by Declan Donnellan. The play received many awards, including Best Play at the 1992 Evening Standard Awards, Best New Play at the 1992 Critics' Circle Awards, Best Play at the 1993 Tony Awards and the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Ah! Wilderness
An affectionate and witty comedy of recollection from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers. Eugene O'Neill's only well-known comedy, Ah! Wilderness is a family-based saga set in the years just before the First World War. Richard Miller is deeply enamoured with his 'best girl', the pretty and pure Muriel. But when her cantankerous father finds out about their plans to spend Independence Day together, he demands that she write to him breaking off the whole thing. Richard is distraught, heartbroken, and seems about ready to knuckle under to strong liquor and fast women... Can his father Nat reach across the generation gap and bring his son back to the family – and Muriel? Eugene O'Neill's play Ah! Wilderness was premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre in October 1933. It was first staged in the UK at Westminster Theatre, London, in 1936. This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books A Table Tennis Play
‘When does it happen?’ A long summer weekend, two strangers, and a full-size table tennis table. Sam Steiner's A Table Tennis Play is a play about how everything and nothing changes as people bat a ball. It premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a production by Walrus in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Wilderness
‘We can do better – can’t we?’ Having both been deeply scarred by their own parents' separations, Joe and Anne never imagined they'd find themselves, years later, in the same position. Determined to place the interests of their son Alistair at the centre of their lives apart, they split with the firm objective of maintaining amicable relations at all costs. But a sudden change in circumstance triggers a chain of events that pushes their best intentions to the limit… Before they know it, they are both teetering dangerously close to the edge of an abyss. Kellie Smith's play Wilderness is a searing exploration of unconditional love and of the personal sacrifices it demands. It premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in March 2019.
£8.99
Nick Hern Books Original Death Rabbit
‘I was a thing, you see. I was a pretty bloody big bloody thing. I was briefly – very briefly – a meme. A craze. One of the first.’ We all have our comfort blankets and coping mechanisms. And if yours happens to be wearing a full-sized rabbit onesie (with ears), what's the problem? You're not bothering anyone. At least, not until you're photographed at the back of a child's funeral. Dressed as a rabbit. And the photo goes viral. Rose Heiney's Original Death Rabbit is a painfully funny play, shining a light on one woman's struggle with the dark side of the internet. Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the play received its stage premiere at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in January 2019.
£9.99