I thought everything would change, after the war. And now, no one even mentions it. It is as if we all got together in private and said whatever you do don't mention that, like it never happened.
It's the late 1940s. Calm has returned to London and five people are recovering from the chaos of war. In scenes set in a quiet dating agency, a bombed-out church and a prison cell, the stories of these five lives begin to intertwine and we uncover the desire and regret that has bound them together. Sarah Waters's story of illicit love and everyday heroism takes us from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, towards the secrets that are hidden there. Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Naylor has created a thrilling and theatrically inventive adaptation of a great modern novel. The stage adaptation of The Night Watch was premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 2016.I've been trying to remember a story.
Can you help me?
A long time ago our ancestors told it to us.
I think it has to do with where we belong.
You are a Prince, not a pauper. And before too long the whole of England will be in your hands...
Jemma Kennedy's stage adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper is a dynamic and fast-paced adaptation of Mark Twain's 1881 classic novel of confused identities. Set in a gritty, vibrant Tudor London, the poverty-stricken Tom Canty has a chance meeting with the young heir to the throne, Prince Edward, and - by pure coincidence - they find they look almost identical. The Prince and the Pauper tells the story of what happens when one person is mistaken for the other and what happens to them in the long-term: Tom Canty is forced into the world of the court and power, while Edward is cast down into a world of poverty and thieves, from which he must fight his way back to the court. First produced at the Unicorn Theatre, the UK's leading theatre for young audiences aged 2 - 21 from the 25th November 2012 to the 13 January 2013.Macmillan doesn't shy away from difficult questions about addiction and recovery and, rightly, doesn't answer them ... this is a bold, timely and searching play - Financial Times
Emma was having the time of her life. Now she's in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn't with Emma, it's with everything else. She needs to tell the truth. But she's smart enough to know that there's no such thing. When intoxication feels like the only way to survive the modern world, how can she ever sober up? People, Places & Things premiered at the National Theatre in 2015 before transferring to London's West End and St. Ann's Warehouse in New York. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand new introduction by Naomi Obeng.It's the night before Hogswatch. And it's too quiet.
Superstition makes things work in the Discworld, and undermining it can have consequences. It's just not right to find Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say 'Ho Ho Ho...' It's the last night of the year, the time is turning, and if Susan, gothic governess and Death's granddaughter (sort of), doesn't sort everything out by morning, there won't be a morning. Ever again... Adapted by Terry Pratchett's long-time collaborator Stephen Briggs, this play text version of Pratchett's bestselling Discworld novel Hogfather wittily and faithfully reimagines the story for the stage.The gods never move faster than when punishing men with the consequences of their own actions.
Desperate to gain control over a city ravaged by civil war, Creon refuses to bury the body of Antigone's rebellious brother. Outraged, she defies his edict. Creon condemns the young woman, his niece, to be buried alive. The people daren't object but the prophet Teiresias warns that this tyranny will anger the gods: the rotting corpse is polluting the city. Creon hesitates and his fate is sealed. Sophocles' great tragic play dramatises the clash between the family and the city and, with high poetry and deep tragedy, presents an irreconcilable but equally balanced conflict. Sophoclean heroine Antigone has become a cultural archetype, the symbol of personal integrity and an icon of political freedom, whilst her coprotagonist Creon can be interpreted as either a civic saviour or a ruthless tyrant. This translation by Don Taylor, accurate yet poetic, was made for a BBC TV production of the Theban Plays in 1986, which he directed.Smart and scintillating. Red deftly conjures what most plays about artists don't: The exhilaration of the act. The New Yorker
Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing. Nominated for 7 Olivier Awards (2009) and winner of 6 Tony Awards (2010) including Best New Play, Red is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Michael Grandage.Sharp and funny. Gunderson taps into a buoyant spirit...the touching 'barbaric yawp' (Whitman's phrase) of these two deeply engaging kids. Washington Post
Housebound by illness, Caroline hasn't been to school in months. Confined to her room, she has only social media for company. That is until classmate Anthony bursts in - uninvited and armed with waffle fries, a scruffy copy of Walt Whitman's poetry and a school project due the next day... Caroline is unimpressed, but an unlikely friendship develops and a seemingly mundane piece of homework starts to reveal the pair's hopes and dreams - as well as a deep and mysterious bond that connects them even further. Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2014. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Julie Felise Dubiner.London will do for you for now... And I will do for London.
London, 1956. Newly arrived from Trinidad, Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver is impatient to start his new life. Carrying just pyjamas and a toothbrush, he bursts through Moses Aloetta's door only to find Moses and his friends already deflated by city life. Will the London fog dampen Galahad's dreams? Or will these Lonely Londoners make a home in a city that sees them as a threat? In the first stage adaptation of Sam Selvon's iconic novel about the Windrush Generation, Roy Williams sweeps us back in time to shine a new light on London, friendship, and what we call home. This edition of The Lonely Londoners is published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in February 2024 and the subsequent production at The Kiln Theatre in January 2025.Discover the power, resilience, and indomitable spirit of women who have shaped history.
In her first collected works, Lauren Gunderson demonstrates why she has become one of America's most produced playwrights. Weaving together the extraordinary stories of trailblazing women from various eras, Gunderson provides a unique and necessary perspective on modern American feminism, the beautiful humanism of science, and the power of the heartful heroine. Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight: Passionate. Vivid. Defiant. Tonight, 18th-century scientific genius Emilie du Châtelet is back and determined to answer the question she died with: love or philosophy, head or heart?I looked at her, wanting her to laugh. Wanting her to share in the joke. But she didn't. She just stared. I knew then, in that moment - that she had taken it literally...
Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd has a chilling story to tell about obsession, delusion and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake. This powerful and engaging monologue play portrays a man brought to the edge by the actions of a chance encounter which takes a toll on all aspects of his life. In doing so it asks important questions about victims, the justice system and how one decision has the ability to change your life.Winner of Best Play Revival at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2024
Nominated for Best Revival at the Olivier Awards 2024
Winner of the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Play
Life of Pi will make you believe in the power of theatre (Times). After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, there are five survivors stranded on a lifeboat - a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a Royal Bengal tiger, and a sixteen year-old boy named Pi. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive? Based on one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction - winner of the Man Booker Prize, selling over fifteen million copies worldwide - and featuring breath-taking puppetry and state-of-the-art visuals, Life of Pi is a universally acclaimed, smash hit adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope. Adapted by acclaimed playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, this edition was published to coincide with the Broadway premiere in October 2022.Sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself
(Miles Davis)
In its first two years of production in Italy, Dario Fo's notorious Accidental Death of an Anarchist was seen by over half a million people. It has since been performed all over the world, and become a classic of twentieth-century drama. A sharp and hilarious satire on police corruption, it concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, 'fell' to his death from a police headquarters window.
'I ought to warn you that the author of this sick little play, Dario Fo, has the traditional, irrational hatred of the police common to all narrowminded left-wingers and so I shall, no doubt, be the unwilling butt of endless anti-authoritarian jibes.' (Inspector Bertozzo, Central Italian Police HQ) 'A marvellous concept: a zany political farce.' (Michael Billington) This edition has been adapted by Gavin Richards from Gillian Hanna's translation and features an introduction by Stuart Hood and a preface by Dario Fo.I can tell the difference between who I am and a side effect.
The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction. Following on from the critical and commercial success of Enron, The Effect offers a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart. It received its world premiere at the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in November 2012, starring Billie Piper and Jonjo O'Neill. It is published here in the Modern Classics series alongside an introduction by Miriam Gillinson.This abridged edition is designed for schools and has been adapted for 10 actors playing all of the roles. With a running time of just 90 minutes it is suitable for performance in non-theatre spaces, with minimal technical requirements.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time brings Mark Haddon's best-selling novel to life on stage, adapted by two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens. Winner of seven Olivier Awards including Best Play, along with the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Tony Awards for Best Play, this remarkable and exhilarating theatrical masterpiece originated at London's Royal National Theatre in 2012 before going on to transfer to the West End for multiple seasons, followed by its acclaimed Broadway run. The play has now been seen on five continents around the world with major productions ranging from Mexico, Australia, Canada, Seoul and Japan. This brand new edition of the play has been abridged specifically with schools in mind and published following a 12-week tour of 60 secondary schools in the UK. The play tells the story of Christopher John Francis Boone, who is fifteen years old. He stands besides Mrs Shears' dead dog, Wellington, who has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in a book he is writing to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and distrusts strangers. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that upturns his world.Too frightened of scandal to become involved with a brilliant writer, Hedda Gabler opts instead for a conventional but loveless marriage. But, when her first love returns with a masterpiece that might threaten her husband's career, Hedda decides to take drastic and fatal action.
Universally condemned in 1890 when it was written, Hedda Gabler has subsequently become one of Ibsen's most performed and studied plays. Blending comedy and tragedy, Ibsen probes the thwarted aspirations and hidden anxieties of his characters against a backdrop of contemporary social Habits and hypocrisies. This Methuen Drama Student Edition is published with Michael Meyer's classic translation, and with commentary and notes by Dr. Sophie Duncan. These offer a contemporary lens on the play's gender politics, and consider some key twentieth and twenty-first century productions of Hedda Gabler, which include actresses like Maggie Smith, Harriet Walker, and Ruth Wilson taking on the iconic titular role.A gripping portrait of life in wartime Berlin and a vividly theatrical study of how paranoia can warp a society gripped by the fear of the night-time knock on the door.
Based on true events, Hans Fallada's Alone In Berlin follows a quietly courageous couple, Otto and Anna Quangel who, in dealing with their own heartbreak, stand up to the brutal reality of the Nazi regime. With the smallest of acts, they defy Hitler's rule with extraordinary bravery, facing the gravest of consequences. Translated and Adapted by Alistair Beaton (Feelgood, The Trial Of Tony Blair), this timely story of the moral power of personal resistance sees the Gestapo launch a massive hunt for the perpetrators and Otto and Anna finding themselves players in a deadly game of cat and mouse. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Royal and Derngate Theatre in February 2020.