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A Small Family Business: A Chorus Of Disapproval; A Small Family Business; Henceforward... Man Of The Moment (Contemporary Classics Ser.)
by Alan AyckbournWell, that's one down, isn't it. Nine to go. Next! Thou shalt not kill. What about that then? Let's have a crack at that one next, shall we?Jack McCracken: a man of principle in a corrupt world. But not for long. Moments after taking over his father-in-law's business he's approached by a private detective armed with some compromising information.Jack's integrity fades away as he discovers his extended family to be thieves and adulterers, looting the business from their suburban homes. Rampant self-interest takes over and comic hysteria builds to a macabre climax.A riotous exposure of entrepreneurial greed, Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, premiered at the National Theatre in 1987 and returned there in April 2014.
The Believers
by Bryony LaveryName one certainty . . . one sure thing . . . one thing you truly believe . . .Two families are flung together on a night of cataclysmic weather. Bruised, tired and seduced by the flow of alcohol, they wrestle with their differences until, suddenly, the unthinkable happens. Something unbelievable. As their versions of what happened begin to fall apart and their perspectives become clouded by suspicion, they turn on each other in a desperate fight to understand the truth.Frantic Assembly and Bryony Lavery follow the success of their previous collaborations (Stockholm and Beautiful Burnout) with this thrilling and highly visceral exploration of love and loss.Bryony Lavery's The Believers premiered at The Drum Theatre in February 2014, before touring the UK in a co-production between Frantic Assembly and Theatre Royal Plymouth, in association with Curve Theatre, Leicester.
The Nether: A Play
by Jennifer HaleyI've read the studies. No one has been able to draw a conclusive correlation between virtual behaviour and behaviour in-world.The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination.Winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams.Jennifer Haley's The Nether received its UK premiere in July 2014 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in a co-production with Headlong.
Incognito
by Nick PayneThe brain builds a narrative to steady us from moment to moment, but it is absolutely an illusion. There is no me, there is no you, and there is certainly no self.Princeton, New Jersey. 1955. Thomas Stoltz Harvey performs the autopsy on Albert Einstein - and then steals his brain.Bath, England. 1953. Henry undergoes pioneering brain surgery. The surgery changes Henry's life, and the history of neuroscience.London, England. The Present. Martha is a clinical neuropsychologist. When her marriage breaks down she starts to make radically different choices.Three interwoven stories exploring the nature of identity and how we are defined by what we remember, Incognito is an exhilarating exploration of what it means to be human.Nick Payne's Incognito premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle, in April 2014 in a co-production with nabokov and HighTide Festival Theatre.
Donkey Heart
by Moses RaineWhat's a free telephone, when there are no private words?Moscow, now. A small flat. One family, three generations, the same hangover. Life after communism is utterly different and yet somehow eerily familiar. Petya's dodging the draft, Sasha's jumping with every ring of the bell, Ivan's brought a mysterious stranger home, and now their guest Thomas is asking questions. Who do you trust? The state may not be spying on you, but can you say the same for your nearest and dearest?Tracing the legacy of communism, Moses Raine's Donkey Heart asks what a modern Russia stands for, as the deep bruise of history, once hidden, now works its way to the surface. The play premiered at the Old Red Lion, London, in May 2014.
Hope Place
by Michael WynneSomething's up with Maggie. She's rattling around in the house on Hope Place that she's lived in all her life. Her brothers and sisters flew the nest long ago but everyone's still got a key. Brother Jack keeps turning up with his own Liverpool folklore, invented to delight foreign tourists, but all Maggie wants is to unlock the past and free herself. Her niece's new boyfriend might just have the answer.A story of myths, memories and secrets, Michael Wynne's Hope Place was specially commissioned for the opening season of the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, and premiered there in May 2014.
The Road to Mecca
by Athol FugardA South African pastor and a young teacher from Cape Town battle over the fate of an eccentric elderly widow.The play won the 1988 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
by Christopher HamptonThe scandalous reputation of Laclos's novel, first published in 1782, is based on its chilling portrayal of the mannered decadence and sexual cynicism of the French aristocracy in the last years of the ancien regime. Christopher Hampton has made a masterful adaptation for the stage of the conspiracy to corrupt a young girl barely out of her convent.Les liaisons dangereuses was premiered by Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, on 24 September 1985, and won Christopher Hampton the Evening Standard Award for Best Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play in 1986.
Woman in Mind
by Alan AyckbournThe central character of Alan Ayckbourn's new play is Susan, a parson's wife, 'one of the most moving and devastating that he has created...'Robin Thornber reviewing the first production in Scarborough in the Guardian.
Faith, Hope and Charity
by Odon von HorvathSet in the socially and economically oppressed Vienna of the early thirties, this play is the story of a young girl's struggle to survive in the city, a victim of forces she does not comprehend. As the play opens, she is trying to sell her body to an anatomical institute.
Asking Around: Background to the David Hare Trilogy
by David HareDavid Hare's trilogy of plays - Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War - first presented at the National Theatre, London, in 1993, examines the crises facing three great British institutions - the Church, the Law and the Labour Party. In order to learn about these organisations, Hare amassed a body of hard research from first-hand interviews with many of the people involved: from vicars to high-ranking policemen, from judges to MPs. Asking Around presents a judicious selection of those interviews and also includes a commentary by Hare, describing how he threaded his way through the complex structures of Church, Law and Politics.
Steven Berkoff Plays 2: Decadence; Kvetch; Acapulco; Harry's Christmas; Brighton Beach Scumbags; Dahling You Were Marvelous; Dog; Actor
by Steven BerkoffWritten with characteristic Berkoff flair and an understanding of the subtle power and violence of the English language, this second collection of his plays includes Decadence, described by the Guardian as being 'enthused with Berkoff's violent, imagist, vivid wordplay'. The collection also includes Kvetch, Acapulco, Harry's Christmas, Brighton Beach Scumbags, Dahling You Were Marvellous, Dog and Actor, and is introduced by the author.
Alan Ayckbourn Plays 1
by Alan AyckbournThe first volume of Alan Ayckbourn's collected work contains his morality plays from the 1980s. It includes the plays A Chorus of Disapproval, A Small Family Business, Henceforward . . ., and Man of the Moment.
Communicating Doors
by Alan AyckbournHow Ms Poopay Dayseer, a twenty-first century Specialist Sexual Consultant, whilst peddling her 'services' to an elderly hotel room client unexpectedly finds herself running for her life. How her flight through a communicating door brings her face to face with her own past and with Ruella who apparently died under suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. And how Poopay's gradual friendship with that remarkable woman changes the future for both of them...A time-travelling comedy thriller, Communicating Doors was published to coincide with the West End opening in 1995.
Zenobia: Art Of Success; In The Ruins; Zenobia; Turn Of The Screw
by Nick DearThe Syrian desert. Third century AD. Zenobia, warrior Queen of Palmyra, moves her forces into battle with Aurelian, Emperor of Rome. Meanwhile, her son is engaged in bizarre chemical experiments with Porphyry, a philosophy student with his own secret.A story of love and adventure at the time of the decline of Imperial Rome as Zenobia makes a stand for independence against the Empire.Zenobia was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and premiered at the Young Vic, London, in August 1995.
Timberlake Wertenbaker Plays 1: New Anatomies; Grace of Mary Traverse; Our Country's Good; Love of a Nightingale; Three Birds Alighting on a Field
by Timberlake WertenbakerNew Anatomies, Grace of Mary Traverse, Our Country's Good, Love of a Nightingale & Three Birds Alighting on a Field
Christopher Hampton Plays 1: Total Eclipse; The Philanthropist; Savages; Treats
by Christopher HamptonThis first collection of Hampton's work includes The Philanthropist, which premièred at the Royal Court Theatre in 1970 and went on to become one of the Court's longest-running West End transfers. The volume also contains Treats, Savages and Hampton's deeply affecting drama about the relationship of the French poets Rimbaud and Verlaine, Total Eclipse.
Amy's View: Skylight, Amy's View, Judas Kiss, My Zinc Bed
by David HareIt is 1979. Esme Allen is a well-known West End actress at just the moment when the West End is ceasing to offer actors a regular way of life. The visit of her young daughter, Amy, with a new boyfriend sets in train a series of events which only find their shape eighteen years later. A generational play about the long term struggle between a strong mother and her loving daughter, Amy's View mixes love, death and the theatre in a way which is both heady and original.
An Enemy of the People: A New Version By Christopher Hampton
by Henrik IbsenThe strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.Dr Stockmann attempts to expose a water pollution scandal in his home town which is about to establish itself as a spa. When his brother conspires with local politicians and the newspaper to suppress the story, Stockmann appeals to a public meeting - only to be shouted down and reviled as 'an enemy of the people'. Ibsen's explosive play reveals his distrust of politicians and the blindly held beliefs of the masses. Christopher Hampton's version of Ibsen's classic was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in 1997.
Alan Ayckbourn Plays 2: Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations; Invisible Friends; This is Where We Came In; My Very Own Story; The Champion of Paribanou
by Alan AyckbournA treat to read and a joy to perform, this second collection of Alan Ayckbourn's work is a cornucopia of some of his wonderfully inventive children's plays. From the story of the teenage Lucy in Invisible Friends who revives her childhood imaginary friend when things get difficult at home, onto the storytellers in My Very Own Story and This Is Where We Came In and, finally, to young Ernie who 'illucinates' all sorts of wild and weird happenings with astonishing results.
After Darwin: The Break Of Day, After Darwin, Credible Witness, The Ash Girl, Dianeira
by Timberlake WertenbakerMillie, a director, discusses with her actors, Ian and Tom, how to interpret two famous historical figures from the nineteenth century. It's 1831. The naturalist Charles Darwin is invited to travel with Robert Fitzroy into uncharted waters off the coast of South America aboard 'The Beagle'. Their five year journey is fraught with philosophical and personal tensions. Fitzroy, a staunch Christian, has faith in the unquestionable authority of the Bible; Darwin begins to explore a more radical vision, his theory of natural selection. A meditation on history and human relationships, After Darwin links past and present through these five characters, and raises timeless questions about faith, friendship and how we interpret the past.After Darwin was first performed in July 1998, at Hampstead Theatre, London.
Tony Harrison Plays 1: The Mysteries
by Tony HarrisonThis first collection of Tony Harrison's poetry for the stage is made up of his masterly adaptations of the medieval cycle of The Mystery Plays.Includes The Nativity , The Passion and Doomsday , with an Introduction by Tony Harrison which places these Northern classics both in the context of the original cycle of plays and of Tony Harrison's own poetry.
Damn You England: Collected Prose
by John OsborneWell-known playwright and acerbic wit, John Osborne was a man of trenchant opinions which he was unafraid to express. Ranging from his infamous 1961 letter to Tribune which provides the book with its title to columns written in the last decade of his life, the prose on offer here bear witness to the rage, fury - and great tenderness - that inspired so much of his work.
Marina Carr Plays 1: Love in the Dark; The Mai; Portia Coughlan; By the Bog of Cats...
by Marina CarrThe first collection of plays by Marina Carr introduces the work of a major new voice in playwriting. Love in the Dark'One of the most exciting, new and absolutely original aspects of Carr's writing is the manner in which the sexism of the language and religious imagery is exposed... Marina Carr is a playwright to be watched.' Sunday TribuneThe Mai'The writing is at once gentle and raucous... capable of articulating deep-seated woes and resentments in a manner you rarely find outside Eugene O'Neill.' ObserverPortia Coughlan'A play of precocious maturity and accomplishment.' Irish Times'Portia Coughlan packs a hell of a punch. It hurts to look at it. But it has to be seen.' Irish IndependentBy the Bog of Cats...'A poetic realism steeped in the past... Carr has an extraordinary ability to move between the mythic and the real.' Guardian'A great play... a great work of poetry... the word should soon carry across both sides of the Atlantic.' Independent
A Warwickshire Testimony
by April de AngelisThe past: the 'big house', the servant class, the close-knit family ties of a bygone generation. Rural idyll or claustrophobic hellhole? Desperate to get away from her family and from a culture where everybody knows everything about everybody, Edie moves out but can she ever manage to move on? The present: big business and incomers, no shops and no locals, where nothing stays the same for five minutes and where the 'quaintness' of the cottages is all that's left of village life. For better or for worse?April de Angelis's funny and compassionate new play powerfully illustrates a rapidly changing way of life by focusing on the loves, traumas and disputes of one Midlands family throughout the twentieth century.