Search results for ""nick hern books""

A celebrated war photographer, whose audience with Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11 shaped his career. A young Syrian, six months pregnant, on an ageing fishing boat in the Mediterranean, sinking fast under the weight of refugees. Through two alternating monologues, Borders provides an urgent, moving and occasionally hilarious commentary on one of the great crises of our time. Henry Naylor's play premiered at the 2017 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Fringe Award and a coveted Fringe First, before North American performances at the Spoleto Festival, Charleston, and New York Theatre Workshop in 2018.

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'Destruction never approaches weapon in hand. It comes slyly, on tiptoe, making you see bad in good and good in bad.' The devastation of war is tearing the Bharata family apart. The new king must unravel a mystery: how can he live with himself in the face of the devastation and massacres that he has caused. In Battlefield, the internationally renowned team of Peter Brook, Marie-Hélène Estienne and Jean-Claude Carrière revisit the great Indian epic The Mahabharata, thirty years after Brook's legendary production took world theatre by storm. An immense canvas in miniature, this central section of the ancient text is timeless and contemporary, asking how we can find inner peace in a world riven with conflict. It was first performed at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, in 2015, before an international tour including a run at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in 2016.

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'Tonight I need you to understand the difference between fiction and the truth. Tonight you will discover that Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is in fact… fact.’ Travelling across Europe, from the dark and sinister Transylvanian mountains to the charming seaside town of Whitby, Professor Van Helsing and his three amateur actors stage a life-changing, theatrical production of Dracula – hoping to establish, once and for all, the bloody truth. The result is a delightfully silly, fast-paced and faithful (-ish) adaptation by John Nicholson (Hound of the Baskervilles, Peepolykus) of Bram Stoker’s novel, originally performed by physical-comedy theatre company Le Navet Bete on a UK tour in 2017. Performed by four actors playing forty characters, Dracula: The Bloody Truth is a full-blooded adaptation offering abundant opportunities for any theatre company or drama group to sink their teeth into.

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If you are born in a country where being yourself can get you killed, exile is your only choice. Frances Poet's play Adam is the remarkable true story of a young trans man having to make that choice and begin his journey. It charts Adam's progress from Egypt to Scotland, across borders and genders, in his search for a place to call home. The play was first performed by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, where it won a Fringe First award. It was directed by Cora Bissett, with music by Jocelyn Pook, and starred Adam Kashmiry, whose story inspired the play. A TV movie based on the play, written by Frances Poet and also starring Adam Kashmiry, was made by Hopscotch Films and National Theatre of Scotland, and was broadcast by the BBC in 2021. The film was the winner in the Television Scripted category at the 2021 BAFTA Scotland Awards.

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A bittersweet and vital play that throws a spotlight on 'Generation Rent' and the lengths they will go to in order to get that first step on the property ladder. Rachel and Ben want to buy a flat in London. And so do their friends, Melanie and Sam. But what with rent, tax, student loans and bills, it's impossible to save for a deposit. So the foursome come up with a fast-track solution to the problem: live together. Sneakily split the rent and bills on a tiny one-bedroom flat for a year. But with paper-thin walls and space growing sparser by the day, which will they sacrifice first – the friendship, the relationship, or the dream of buying their own property? Matt Hartley's play Deposit premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in 2015, and was revived there (in this revised and updated version) in 2017.

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'Do you want to live forever? YES or NO.' Polly and Owen have nailed it. Successful in their careers and wildly in love with each other, they feel ready to take on the world. But when a mysterious new technology, promising a break from the daily grind, creeps into everyone's phones, their world is turned upside down. As the line between physical and digital rapidly dissipates, Polly and Owen are forced to question whether their definitions of reality and freedom are the same. Girl in the Machine is a disturbing but compassionate vision of our potential digital future, and what it might mean for 'life' as we know it. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2017, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Orla O'Loughlin.

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Helen Edmundson's gripping play tells the little-known story of a monarch caught between friendship and duty. 1702. William III is on the throne and England is on the verge of war. Princess Anne is soon to become Queen, and her advisors vie for influence over the future monarch. Who can Anne turn to when even her most trusted friends seem bent on pursuing power? Contending with deceit and blackmail, Anne must decide where her allegiances lie, and whether to sacrifice her closest relationships for the sake of the country. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Queen Anne premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in November 2015, and was revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in 2017.

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'I just don't know if I'm ever happy. Like, really truly happy. Even if you sent me up to space, by day four I'd be worrying if I had enough stuff on my Kindle...' What makes us truly happy? Health? Family? Professional success? Blasting it in the gym? Romance? Pills? Or are we ignoring the bigger stuff? Real life-changing stuff that can devastate the world if we just keep ignoring it. Glenn Waldron's darkly surprising comedy The Here and This and Now takes a look at the pharmaceuticals business, the salaryman and woman, and the quest for happiness. It premiered at Theatre Royal Plymouth in March 2017.

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'My parents are here. In the walls and the floorboards and the bricks of this house. This is not only your street with only your stories.' On a residential street in South East London, reclusive siblings Peppy and Daniel live in a house stuffed full of everything they have ever owned. With their eccentric appearance and their rampant garden hedge, they're not like others on their road. When young Ben from next door comes visiting, looking for friendship, what happens next challenges everyone's idea of neighbourliness. Deborah Bruce's play The House They Grew Up In is a tender, dark and funny look at co-dependency, anxiety, and living alongside those who are different from us. The play was first performed at Chichester Festival Theatre in July 2017 in a co-production with Headlong.

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A divisive left-wing leader at the helm of the Labour Party. A Conservative prime minister battling with her cabinet. An identity crisis on a national scale. This is Britain 1981. One Sunday morning, four prominent Labour politicians – Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen – gather in private at Owen's home in Limehouse, East London. They are desperate to find a political alternative. Should they split their party, divide their loyalties, and risk betraying everything they believe in? Would they be starting afresh, or destroying forever the tradition that nurtured them? Steve Waters' thrilling drama takes us behind closed doors to imagine the personal conflicts behind the making of political history. Limehouse premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2017, directed by Polly Findlay. It is a fictionalised account of real events, and it is not endorsed by the individuals portrayed.

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Made in China. Sold in Britain. Worn by you. From the factory floor to the catwalk, from Shanghai to London, World Factory weaves together the untold stories of people connected by the global textile industry. This published edition adapts the highly successful, provocative and participative theatre production for the page, offering readers the opportunity to play - as individuals or in teams - the managers of a clothing factory in China and recreate the experience of the game. Like a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' novel, the game has multiple routes and outcomes, interlinking questions of ethics, fashion, consumer capitalism, environmental impact, working conditions, migration and globalisation. In a cross between Monopoly and poker, players trade in workers and money, but it is a game about values - will you be an ethical factory owner or will profits always come first? In the rag trade, can anyone ever really win? World Factory was created and produced in 2015 by the performing arts company METIS, in co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre, Young Vic, and Company of Angels. It was performed at the Young Vic, London, and on tour of the UK.

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On a frozen Minnesota lake, the ice is beginning to creak and groan. It's the end of the fishing season, and two old friends are out on the ice, angling for something big; something down there that is pure need. Something that might just swallow them whole. In Nice Fish, celebrated actor Mark Rylance draws on his own teenage years in the American Midwest, in a unique collaboration with critically acclaimed Minnesotan contemporary prose poet Louis Jenkins and the whole company. This sublimely playful, profound and very funny play transferred direct from a sell-out run in New York to the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by Claire van Kampen and starring Rylance and Jim Lichtscheidl.

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‘I know you’re there… Miranda? Miranda!’ On a summer’s day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock… In Tom Wright’s chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real. This adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was first co-produced by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth, and first performed at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in 2016. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in 2017.

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Two explosive plays about the need to be seen. Somalia Seaton's House is a play about family, culture clash, memory and truth. When Pat returns to her childhood home after a five-year absence, she's ready to forgive her mother for the neglect she suffered at her hands, but Mama isn't ready to let the demons back into her home. In Chino Odimba's Amongst the Reeds, two friends scratch out a living on the margins of society. Oni and Gillian have made their home in a disused office block, finding ever more precarious ways to stay hidden from the authorities. But now Gillian is heavily pregnant, and visibility might be the only way to give her baby a chance. Commissioned by Clean Break and produced in association with the Yard Theatre, London, House + Amongst the Reeds premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016, before transferring to The Yard. Acclaimed theatre company Clean Break produces ground-breaking plays with women writers and actors at the heart of its work. Founded in 1979 by two women prisoners who needed urgently to tell their stories through theatre, the company today has an independent education programme delivering theatre opportunities to women offenders and women at risk, in custodial and community settings.

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'I refuse to be a panda. I refuse to go extinct. I want to live, to live well, to live like them.' Bunny, a young woman from the officially designated 'Shangri-La' in the Himalayan foothills of China's Yunnan Province, has witnessed her family's livelihood destroyed by mass tourism. She dreams of escape as a globe-trotting photographer. But what happens when the only thing you have to sell is your culture? When the only way to free yourself is to betray your roots? In Shangri-La, her first full-length play, Amy Ng lays bare the contradictions and private pain of cultural tourism. The play premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2016.

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Getting pissed, getting laid, getting by. The adventures and misadventures of a group of graduates working in a North London call centre: Alice wants to be a singer, Liam wants to travel, Rob wants to make a killing and Sally's been there too long but it's okay, it's not forever, is it? Is it? New Labour is a comedy drama about being young, working in a shit job, living in debt, and all the funny and sad things you do to cope. It's about the modern workforce – the children of New Labour; their hopes, their realities. First performed by students of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London, in 2014, directed by Richard Wilson, it provides rich opportunities for drama schools and youth theatre groups to perform.

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A sensitive, delicate and powerful play that asks what our labour is worth and how life can be lived when the system is stacked against you. ‘I dreamt about this last night. I dreamt that I was packing boxes in boxes in boxes.’ Tamsin packs boxes in a warehouse, on the clock, to a target, with a zero-hour contract. Her brother Dean is housebound, working to obsessive-compulsive rituals of his own. When Dean is declared fit for work, their benefits are cut. There are phone calls to make, appeals to lodge and endless forms to fill in. Tamsin must pack faster, work harder, and fight to get the support she and her brother so desperately need. Katherine Soper's play Wish List won the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and was co-produced by the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and the Royal Court Theatre, London. It premiered at the Royal Exchange in September 2016 and the Royal Court in January 2017, and Katherine Soper was named Best Writer in the 2017 Stage Debut Awards. ‘The play has such eloquence, such quiet craft, such dignity and such compassion’ Sir Nicholas Hytner

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A gripping portrait of a destructive friendship between two women who push themselves to their limits. Luce and Charlene are thirty-something binge-drinking soulmates. Clocking in after a heavy night out on the tiles, they pop caffeine pills and down miniatures on the factory floor, boasting about last night's sexual conquests. When you're living for today, who cares about tomorrow? Kathryn O'Reilly's play Screwed premiered at Theatre503, London, in 2016, in a co-production with KOR.

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A play about families and particle physics. Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron Collider starts up in 2008, she is embarking on the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson particle. Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time Googling. When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos. Lucy Kirkwood's play Mosquitoes premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2017, in a production featuring Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams, and directed by Rufus Norris.

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A complex and intense portrait of the mechanics of a family - and a marriage - through the eyes of four siblings struggling to define themselves beyond their parents' love and expectations. Bob and Fran have worked hard to give their four children the opportunities they never had. Now, with the kids ready to make lives of their own, it's time to sit back and smell the roses. But the change of the seasons reveals some shattering truths, leaving us asking whether it's possible to love too much. Andrew Bovell's beautifully touching, funny and bold play Things I Know To Be True was premiered in Adelaide, Australia, as a co-production between Frantic Assembly and the State Theatre Company of South Australia. It received its British premiere in 2016, co-produced with Warwick Arts Centre in association with Chichester Festival Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith.

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‘I am up for it. All the time. That’s not a boast. Or an opinion. It is bone-hard medical fact.’
 John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Charismatic poet, playwright and rake with a legendary appetite for excess. Yet when a chance encounter with an actress at the Playhouse sends him reeling, he is forced to reconsider everything he thinks and feels. With all the wit, flair and bawdiness of a Restoration comedy, Stephen Jeffreys’ brilliant play is an incisive critique of life in an age of excess. Originally performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1994, The Libertine has been staged around the world, was adapted for radio, and became a film. This edition of the play was published alongside the 2016 production at the Theatre Royal Bath and Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by Terry Johnson and starring Dominic Cooper as Wilmot.

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Rona Munro's vividly imagined historical cycle brings to life three generations of Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the tumultuous fifteenth century. James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock explores the complex character of the colourful Stewart King – poet, lover and law-maker. Captured at the age of 13 and crowned King of Scots in an English prison, James I of Scotland is delivered home 18 years later with a ransom on his head and a new English bride. The nation he returns to is poor: the royal coffers empty and his nobles ready to tear him apart at the first sign of weakness. Determined to bring the rule of law to a land riven by warring factions, James faces terrible choices if he is to save himself, his Queen and the crown. James II: Day of the Innocents depicts a violent royal playground from the perspective of the child King and his contemporaries, in a terrifying arena of sharp teeth and long knives. James II becomes the prize in a vicious game between Scotland’s most powerful families. Crowned when only six, abandoned by his mother and separated from his sisters, the child King is little more than a puppet. There is only one friend he can trust: William, the future Earl of Douglas. As James approaches adulthood in an ever more threatening world, he must fight to keep his tenuous grip on the crown while the nightmares of his childhood rise up once more. James III: The True Mirror, like the King himself, is colourful and unpredictable, turning its attention to the women at the heart of the royal court. Charismatic, cultured, and obsessed with grandiose schemes that his nation can ill afford, James III is by turns loved and loathed. Scotland thunders dangerously close to civil war, but its future may be decided by James’ resourceful and resilient wife, Queen Margaret of Denmark. Her love and clear vision can save a fragile monarchy and rescue a struggling people. Each play stands alone as a unique vision of a country tussling with its past and future; viewed together the cycle creates an intricate and compelling narrative on Scottish culture and nationhood, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality. The James Plays premiered at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2014 as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to the National Theatre, London. The original three-play cycle was named Best New Play at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2014.

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Spain, 2013. Against all odds, young graduate Sofia has got a job as PA to one of the wealthiest bankers in the country. But her mother has her doubts – did Sofia give more than a good interview to get it? In a subtle game of cat and mouse, split loyalties and questionable morals, Alexandra Wood's thrilling two-hander looks at the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship, the growing argument between rich and poor, and a young woman stuck in between. Merit was performed at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2015, and received its London premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2016.

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A raucous family drama about the cost of living the life of our dreams. Gordon and Serena have worked hard to get where they are. He's on the verge of a massive promotion at an energy giant. She's preparing for a move into the house of their dreams. The family appear to be cooking on gas. But behind their perfect front door, light bulbs are blowing, the drains keep blocking, and a phone inexplicably refuses to charge. Not to mention that daughter Rachel’s adored toy polar bear is nowhere to be found. F*ck the Polar Bears premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in September 2015.

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Antler steps out of her front door and throws her phone to the ground. She stamps on it. Then she climbs the tallest tree in the park. She doesn't want to be found, not by anyone. Over the course of one autumnal evening, seven teenagers' lives intertwine as they make their way through the park. And everything that seemed normal becomes extraordinary. A play about protest, power and protecting yourself, Stef Smith's Remote was commissioned as part of the 2015 National Theatre Connections Festival and proved enormously popular with youth theatres and college companies across the UK, returning for the 2023 Connections Festival.

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A funny and passionate play from the author of The Pride and The Faith Machine. April 1967. Greece is in political turmoil. Charlotte and Theo have retreated to a small island in search of peace and inspiration. But when they meet a charismatic American couple at the port they are seduced into making choices with devastating consequences. Alexi Kaye Campbell's play Sunset at the Villa Thalia spans a decade as it explores the impact of foreign influence, planned and unintentional, on a nation and its people. It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by Simon Godwin.

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A deeply provocative thriller set in a blighted landscape where nature is fiercely taking its course, Deluge is a gripping drama from the Papatango Prize-winning author of Coolatully. There's something uncanny going on at Joe and Kitty's farm. Precious feed is mysteriously disappearing from the hay shed and prized livestock is being slaughtered at night whilst sinister shadows lurk in the darkness. With fodder running out and no money left, Joe and Kitty, like their desperate neighbours, will stop at nothing to protect themselves and their cherished land. But at what cost? Fiona Doyle's play Deluge won the 2014 Eamon Keane Full-Length Play Award, and was premiered at Hampstead Downstairs, London, in April 2015.

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She is a young woman in a yellow dress. She has been shot by the police. As a video goes viral, a revolution begins to stir. Ali and Leyla are panicking – they uploaded the footage and now the authorities are after them. Across town, Yasmin is desperate to know if her missing mother is still alive. Halfway around the world, a woman in London wants to help. As a tornado of dissent and violence spreads, everyone's life is going to change. A startlingly theatrical look at what happens when it all kicks off, Elinor Cook's play Image of an Unknown Young Woman premiered at the Gate Theatre, London, in June 2015.

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On 15 October 2011, protest movement Occupy London makes camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. On 21 October 2011, a building that had kept open through floods, the Blitz and terrorist threats closes its doors. On 28 October, City of London initiates legal action against Occupy to begin removing them from outside the Cathedral... Steve Waters' play Temple is a fictional account of these events, set in the heart of a very British crisis – a crisis of conscience, a crisis of authority and a crisis of faith. Temple was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in May 2015 in a production starring Simon Russell Beale, directed by Howard Davies.

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In a housing crisis, a young couple are offered a home of their own. But at what price? Mike Bartlett's provocative play Game invites us to spy on a family as they embark on a dangerous new way to live. Game premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in February 2015.

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An intimate and hedonistic examination of a nineteenth-century love triangle, pamela carter's play slope explores the affair between the poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, and its impact on Verlaine's young wife, Mathilde. Their verbal sparring is scabrous and hilarious, and their rollercoaster relationships as passionate and claustrophobic as they are cruel and ridiculous. Originally produced in 2006 by Untitled Projects, slope returned in a new production by the company at the Glasgow Citizens and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2014.

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'We live in an age of cuts. We are a working-class town, that’s our strength – and in the current climate, our weakness.' An urgent political play from the writer behind Let The Right One In and This is England ’86. Hope is a funny and scathing fable attacking the squeeze on local government. How do you save twenty-two million pounds? Mark and Hilary, the leaders of the Council, are about to find out. Jack Thorne's play Hope premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in November 2014.

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A chilling yet deeply human story about the limits of devotion. Adele and her parents have always been close. But recently, that closeness has been tainted by an increasing sense of mistrust. Tonight, a visit from a stranger will force them to confront the terrifying reality of their relationship. Mark O'Rowe's play Our Few and Evil Days premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in September 2014 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, in a production directed by the author and featuring Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds.

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A gut-wrenchingly funny, achingly sad play featuring jaw-dropping moments of physical comedy. The lives of two men unravel over the course of ninety minutes. Where are they? Who are they? What room is this, and what might be beyond the walls? Enda Walsh's play Ballyturk premiered at Galway International Arts Festival in 2014. It subsequently toured Ireland before opening at the National Theatre, London.

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A frank and funny new play about friendship, feminism and what it means to be successful. Jane and Bella are best friends. They're starting a revolution. But they're falling out of step. Toby dreams of babies, buggies, and home improvement. But he can't even father his cat. And that boy keeps telling Jane to take what she wants. But what is that, exactly? Three young people in their late twenties attempt to make sense of their own uncertain worlds. Even if it means losing sight of each other in the process. Elinor Cook's The Girl's Guide to Saving the World was premiered as part of the HighTide Festival in April 2014.

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The powerful debut play from Alexi Kaye Campbell, winner of an Olivier Award, the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the John Whiting Award for Best New Play. Alternating between 1958 and 2008, The Pride examines changing attitudes to sexuality, looking at intimacy, identity and the courage it takes to be who you really are. The 1958 Philip is in love with Oliver, but married to Sylvia. The 2008 Oliver is addicted to sex with strangers. Sylvia loves them both. The Pride was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in November 2008. This edition of the play was published alongside its revival at the Trafalgar Studios in the West End in 2013.

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From a forested Polish village to the blinding lights of London, A Time to Reap looks at one woman's story against the mountain landscape of an evolving nation and one of Poland's hottest political topics – abortion and the Catholic Church. Anna Wakulik's startling play A Time to Reap was first performed, in this English translation by Catherine Grosvenor, at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in February 2013. The play was developed by the Royal Court from its 2011 International Residency for Emerging Playwrights.

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On a moonless night in August when the sea trout are ready to run, a man brings his new girlfriend to the remote family cabin where he has come for the fly-fishing since he was a boy. But she's not the only woman he has brought here – or indeed the last. A bewitching story from the author of global smash hit Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth's play The River was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2012.

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A fast and funny family drama about intergenerational and cross-cultural relationships - containing plenty of spicy bits… It's the anniversary of John Anyia's death, and the Anyias are packing their suitcases, preparing to head home to Nigeria for a memorial service in his honour. But before they go, they're going to have to get rid of some excess baggage. Janice Okoh's play Egusi Soup was first performed as a script-in-hand performance at Menagerie Theatre Company's Hotbed Festival in July 2009 and, in October 2009, embarked on tour in a co-production with Eastern Angles. It was revived in 2012 in a co-production between Menagerie and Soho Theatre, in association with the Mercury Theatre, Colchester.

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An irresistibly funny and tender play about big dreams and small changes. Amid the dreaming, the dramas and the dirty dishes, something has to give. But will it be Kath or the kitchen sink? Things aren't going to plan for one family in Withernsea, Yorkshire. Pieces are falling off Martin's milk float as quickly as he's losing customers and something's up with Kath's kitchen sink. Billy is pinning his hopes of a place at art college on a revealing portrait of Dolly Parton, whilst Sophie's dreams of becoming a ju-jitsu teacher might be disappearing down the plughole. Tom Wells' play The Kitchen Sink was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2011. It won its author the George Devine Award and the Most Promising Playwright Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. This volume also includes the monologue Spacewang, in which a teenage girl roams the streets of Withernsea in search of aliens.

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A spine-chilling play by Hugh Janes, based on several original ghost stories by Charles Dickens. In an ancient, crumbling mansion, sheltering from the howling winds that tear across the surrounding desolate moorland, two men stumble across a dark and terrifying secret that will change both of their lives. When a young book dealer, David Filde, is employed by a former associate of his uncle to catalogue a private library, he finds an incredible array of rare and antiquated books. But as a series of strange and unexplained events conspires to keep Filde from his work, he realises that if he is to convince his sceptical employer that the mysterious phenomena he is experiencing are real, they must journey together to the very edge of terror, and beyond... Hugh Janes' play The Haunting was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, in 2010. The play offers rich material for amateur theatre companies or student groups who want to introduce their audiences to another side of Dickens' work - and have them jump out of their seats at the same time.

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Poet, playwright and novelist Blake Morrison evokes the lives of the Brontë sisters, with a nod to Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Against the backdrop of a windswept northern village, three remarkable young women live their lives brightly. In Haworth in the 1840s, in a gloomy parsonage, where there are neither curtains nor comforts, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë light up their world with outspoken wit, aspirations, dreams and ideas. And throughout their confined lives intensely lived… they write. With a touch of poetic licence, Morrison shows us the overwhelming humanity, charged emotions and brooding unease which characterise the Brontë household - and that of Chekhov's Three Sisters. Blake Morrison's play We Are Three Sisters was first performed at the Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, in 2011.

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An acerbically brilliant satire that explores the fault line between race and property. In 1959, Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bed for a knock-down price, enabling the first black family to move into the neighbourhood and alarming the cosy white urbanites of Clybourne Park, Chicago. In 2009 the same property is being bought by Lindsey and Steve, a young white couple, whose plan to raze the house and start again is met with a similar response. As the arguments rage and tensions rise, ghosts and racial resentments are once more uncovered... Bruce Norris's play Clybourne Park was first performed at Playwrights Horizons, New York City, in February 2010. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2010, transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End in February 2011. The play received numerous awards, including the London Evening Standard Award for Best Play, the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, the Olivier Award for Best New Play, the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

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The first eight astonishing plays by Enda Walsh, 'one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre' (Guardian). Bursting onto the theatre scene in 1996 with Disco Pigs, Enda Walsh has delivered a sustained fusillade of strikingly original plays ever since. This volume, with a Foreword by the author, contains: The Ginger Ale Boy (1995), Walsh's very first, previously unpublished play, a Cork cabaret about a ventriloquist who loses control. Disco Pigs (1996), his breakthrough play, winner of the 1997 George Devine and Stewart Parker Awards, a play that 'does for Irish kids what Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting did for young Scots' (Daily Telegraph). Misterman (1999, revised in 2012), in which we meet Thomas Magill on his obsessive mission to bring God to the townsfolk of Inishfree. bedbound (2000), his Fringe First Award-winning play, in which a father and daughter are trapped in their own compulsive and claustrophobic story. The Small Things (2005), a 'harrowingly precise and poetic' (Guardian) exploration of language and our need for words to survive. Chatroom (2005), a chilling tale of teenage manipulation that was written for the National Theatre's 2005 Connections season. Also included are two previously unpublished short plays, How These Desperate Men Talk (2004) and Lynndie's Gotta Gun (2005), written during Walsh's time working with European theatremakers.

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The true-life drama of the extraordinary bond between two identical twin girls and their struggle to find a voice. Refusing to speak to adults, identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons communicate in their own private language, their only relationship being their intense and turbulent bond with each other. Inspired by Marjorie Wallace's bestselling book The Silent Twins, Polly Teale and Linda Brogan's powerful play is an astonishing and moving portrayal of the secret world of a very special but ultimately destructive alliance between two sisters. Speechless was first performed by Shared Experience and Sherman Theatre Cymru at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2010. It was the winner of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award.

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A revealing, funny and wonderfully moving portrait of four women who sign up to join the Women's Land Army during World War II. Based on one hundred and fifty letters and interviews with original Land Girls, along with songs from the period, Lilies on the Land charts the personal journeys of four women who join the Women's Land Army – determined to work endless backbreaking hours on farms across the country in a bid to do their best for the War Effort. But how do these women, all hailing from different walks of life, torn from their families and bereft of all basic home comforts, deal with the hardships of farming life and the pressures of war? Maybe work clothes full of mice and toilet rolls falling from the sky are just what it takes for these girls to get through… Lilies on the Land was devised and first performed by the Lions part in a 2001 touring production. It was revived at the Arts Theatre in the West End in 2010, and then toured in 2011 and 2012. This edition includes notes on staging and performing the play.

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A 'how to' book for actors who want to develop a 'can do' attitude to their profession in the face of rejection and intense competition. Feeling despondent about the acting profession? Been out of work for longer than you care to remember? Starting to resent the injustices of the job and the success of other actors? If so, An Attitude for Acting will inspire you to break out of the cycle of despondency and start to view yourself as a creative and autonomous individual who is valuable and employable. The book focuses on: • Maintaining a healthy attitude • Dealing with negative emotions • Keeping productive and motivated • Developing self-belief and getting the support you need • Turning discouragement into activity and opportunity • Coping with nerves • Preparing for auditions • Being included and not feeling left out • Building a value system that includes trust, responsibility, flexibility, creativity, adaptability and courage The book, by theatre director/teacher Andrew Tidmarsh and executive coach/neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart, contains a series of intensely 'hands-on' exercises – some for practising alone, others for doing with friends or colleagues. These techniques will enable you to free yourself from potential states of inertia and hopelessness, and prevent any feelings of worthlessness becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, you will develop a self-confident, 'can-do' mentality that will help you shape the career you want. Whether you've just completed your training and want to start your career with confidence or you’ve been acting a while and are having difficulty planning the next stage, this book will help you on your path to surviving – and thriving – as an actor.

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An urgent play about the senseless killing of a black schoolboy, from one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British playwriting. 'Death never used to be for the young. You get up. You go bout your business. You expect to come back.' debbie tucker green's play random was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London, in March 2008, directed by Sacha Wares and performed by Nadine Marshall. A television adaptation for Channel 4, directed by debbie tucker green and starring Nadine Marshall alongside an expanded cast, was first broadcast in August 2011. It went on to win a BAFTA for Best Single Drama.

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