TCG Books

Summer, 1827. In a red barn in Suffolk, Maria Marten awaits her lover. A year later, hidden in a grain sack under the floor of the barn, Maria's body is found, barely identifiable—and the manhunt begins.

The Red Barn Murder had all the hallmarks of a classic crime drama: a missing body, a country location, a disreputable squire and a village stuck in its age-old traditions. But whilst sending shockwaves throughout the country, Maria's own story was lost.

The Ballad of Maria Marten rediscovers her story, bringing it back to vivid, urgent life. Beth Flintoff's thrilling play was first performed by an all-female cast in a production by Eastern Angles in July 2018. Subsequent national tours were produced with Eastern Angles by Matthew Linley Creative Projects in association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

This special edition of the international hit play Prima Facie features the definitive version of the award-winning script, together with colour photos and exclusive additional content, giving you a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the production and the issues it explores.

In the play, Tessa is a young, brilliant barrister who has worked her way up from working-class origins to the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and winning. But when an unexpected event forces her to confront the patriarchal power of the law—where the burden of proof and morality diverge—she finds herself in a world where emotion and integrity are in conflict with the rules of the game.

After acclaimed productions in Australia and winning the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Drama, Prima Facie received its European premiere in a sold-out run at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End in 2022 starring Jodie Comer in her West End debut. It was named Best New Play at both the 2023 Olivier and WhatsOnStage Awards. A filmed version, released in 2022, went on to become the highest-grossing event cinema release ever in the UK.

This edition, published alongside Prima Facie’s Broadway transfer in 2023, includes contributions from writer Suzie Miller, actor Jodie Comer, director Justin Martin, producer James Bierman and other key members of the creative team, letting you go deeper into the world of the play. There are also essays on the legal context and how the play has become a vehicle for change in attitudes towards the treatment of female victims of sexual assault.

As their lives begin to intertwine, their journey takes us through grand drawing rooms, bustling theatres and rowdy Southwark pubs, where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching, only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World. . .

Our most brilliant, fearless and creative women directors open the door on their craft, discussing their work in the theatre in intimate and illuminating detail.

Through a series of fascinating conversations with many of the leading talents working on British stages, Running the Room explores what it takes to succeed in the field, and how each director approaches the work in their own way.

Each interview focuses on a particular facet of the director's practice, examining not just the 'how' – how to talk to actors, how to create the right rehearsal environment, how to handle cuts and previews, how to work with a living playwright – but also the 'why': why certain approaches work better than others, why there's no 'right' way to direct a play, and why work in theatre anyway?

As this passionate, inspiring book shows, there are myriad ways to be a theatre director. For aspiring or current directors, it will give you the confidence to be uniquely yourself, develop your own approach, and create the work you want to make. For creatives in other disciplines, it will provide insight into directors' processes, along with examples of successful collaboration. And for anyone who loves theatre, this is an unparalleled first-hand account of how brilliant theatre is made – direct from those making it.

With contributions from:

Natalie Abrahami • Annabel Arden • Milli Bhatia • Carrie Cracknell • Tinuke Craig • Marianne Elliott • Nadia Fall • Yaël Farber • Vicky Featherstone • Jamie Fletcher • Sarah Frankcom • Emma Frankland • Rebecca Frecknall • Debbie Hannan • Tamara Harvey • Natalie Ibu • Ola Ince • Lynette Linton • Nancy Medina • Katie Mitchell • Rachel O'Riordan • Emma Rice • Indhu Rubasingham • Jenny Sealey

When the owner of a Sheffield scissor manufacturer dies, the future of the factory site falls into uncertainty. Can it be reborn as a fashionable music venue, converted into luxury apartments, or somehow reinvigorated so the old business can survive?

There's more than just money or bricks and mortar at stake. It's about knowing where you fit in the world – knowing that somewhere there's still a place for you.

Fresh, funny and heartfelt, Rock / Paper / Scissors are three intricately interwoven plays by Chris Bush about family, heritage and legacy. They were first performed simultaneously with the same cast moving between three theatres in Sheffield – the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Studio – as part of Sheffield Theatres' fiftieth birthday celebrations in 2022.

While the three plays can be enjoyed separately, they also offer a uniquely rewarding opportunity for any company looking to take on the challenge of staging them together.

An ordinary Tuesday turns really, really weird when the sky over the school playground suddenly rips open. Pupils and teachers are sucked up to a parallel universe, whilst a new set of people start raining down from above. 'Us' and 'Them' must come together to work out what is going on, and how they can get things back to how they were.

Alison Carr's play Tuesday is funny and playful, with a little bit of sci-fi and a lot of big themes: friendship, family, identity, grief, responsibility – and what happens when an unexpected event literally turns the world upside-down.

Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2020 and 2021 National Theatre Connections Festivals and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size, age and mix of genders.

This bilingual edition includes the original English play with a Welsh-language translation, Un Bore Mawrth, by playwright Daf James.

Un Bore Mawrth

''Wi 'di bod yn aros i rywbeth fel hyn ddigwydd. 'Wi'n synnu'i fod e 'di cymryd mor hir. Ma'r arwyddion 'di bod 'ma ers sbel.'

Dydd Mawrth digon cyffredin yw hi, ond yn sydyn mae'n troi'n ddiwrnod rhyfedd iawn pan mae'r awyr uwch ben yr ysgol yn rhwygo'n agored. Caiff disgyblion ac athrawon eu sugno i fyny i fydysawd cyfochrog wrth i garfan newydd o bobl arllwys i lawr oddi uchod. Rhaid i 'Ni' a 'Nhw' ddod ynghyd i ddeall beth sy'n digwydd ac i ddatrys sut i gael pethau'n ôl fel yr oedden nhw.

Mae'r ddrama wreiddiol hon gan Alison Carr, Tuesday, yn ddoniol ac yn chwareus, gyda phinsiad o ffugwyddoniaeth a thomen o themâu mawr: cyfeillgarwch, teulu, hunaniaeth, galar, cyfrifoldeb – a beth sy'n digwydd pan fydd digwyddiad annisgwyl yn llythrennol yn troi'r byd wyneb i waered.

Wedi'i hysgrifennu ar gyfer pobl ifanc, roedd y ddrama'n rhan o Ŵyl National Theatre Connections yn 2020 a 2021, a chafodd ei llwyfannu am y tro cyntaf gan theatrau ieuenctid ar draws y DU.

Mae'n cynnig cyfleoedd i gastiau mawr, hyblyg o unrhyw faint, oedran a rhywedd.

Mae Tuesday yn waith gosod ar fanyleb TGAU Drama CBAC. Yn y gyfrol ddwyieithog hon, fe welwch y ddrama wreiddiol Saesneg ynghyd â chyfieithiad Cymraeg y dramodydd Daf James, Un Bore Mawrth.

In How Plays Work, distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning.

Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar's analysis starts with the building blocks of whole plays—plot, character-creation, genre and structure—and moves on to scenes and devices. He shows how plays share a common architecture without which the uniqueness of their authors' vision would be invisible.

How Plays Work is both a masterclass for playwrights and playmakers and a fascinating guide to the anatomy of drama. In this revised edition, Edgar brings the book right up to date with analyses of many recent plays, as well as explorations of emerging genres and new innovations in playwriting practice.

The crown meets the criminals. Welcome to England.

Hal wasn't born to be king. Only now, it seems, he will be. His father longs for him to leave behind his friends in the taverns of Eastcheap, most notably the infamous John Falstaff. War is on the horizon. But will Hal ever come good?

Adapted by award-winning writer and director Robert Icke, Player Kings brings together two of Shakespeare's great history plays, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, in a visionary new version.

It opened at the Noël Coward Theatre, London, in 2024, before embarking on a UK tour. It was directed by Robert Icke, with a cast including Toheeb Jimoh, Richard Coyle and Ian McKellen as Falstaff.

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 was produced by Empire Street Productions, directed by Justin Martin, and starred Jodie Comer, the Emmy and Bafta Award-winning star of TV's Killing Eve, making her West End debut.

Jenny and Sam—and their baby Phoebe—have recently moved into their new home. But something feels frightening and wrong. Very wrong. Over the baby monitor, at 2:22 every night, Jenny hears footsteps around her daughter's cot. Could the house be haunted?

When their friends Lauren and Ben come round for a housewarming dinner, they drink wine, relive their pasts, and argue about the existence of ghosts. They decide to stay up until 2:22, to discover the truth. Over one adrenaline-filled night—as the foxes scream outside—secrets will emerge and ghosts may appear…

Spine-chilling, funny and scary, Danny Robins' play 2:22 premiered at the Noël Coward Theatre in London's West End in August 2021, directed by Matthew Dunster, and starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood. It provides rich opportunities for any drama group wanting to make things go bump in the night—and their audiences scream.

You'll remember how much of living is really just forgetting.

The family home is more than a building. It's a destination of pilgrimage, an inherited investment, a repository of memory or magic. But for brother and sister Stephen and Billie, home is all they've got. Mucking along in their decaying farmhouse, they're doing just fine.

That is, until the arrival of an ex-clergyman uncle with an unscrupulous plan, a sister-in-law seeking a miracle, and a prodigal brother hell-bent on trouble…

Conor McPherson's play The Brightening Air is an entrancing tale of fate, family, and unseen forces in 1980s Ireland.

It is 2019, the Year of Return, marking four hundred years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in America. We are at a slave castle in Ghana. Samuel is our tour guide. It's his job to give tourists a really, really authentic experience of the castle's dark history, and to do it all with a smile. Thank you, Samuel!

The tourists are Samuel's guests, and they're on a journey of self-discovery. But they're here, standing on soil, blood and bones, asking for a selfie. They want to buy trinkets from the gift shop. Samuel would never want to hurt the tourists. And they would never want to hurt him.

Rhianna Ilube's Samuel Takes a Break… in Male Dungeon No. 5 After a Long but Generally Successful Day of Tours is a genre-blending play about colonialism, identity and the attempt to preserve the past. It was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Playwriting and the Verity Bargate Award, and was a finalist for the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It premiered at The Yard Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike.

July 1889, London. A flea bites a rat. A rat spooks a horse. A horse kicks a man. As the chain reaction continues, a boy and his mother find themselves swept up in a national scandal that will reshape both their lives – and the country.

James Fritz's play The Flea is a retelling of the Cleveland Street Scandal that shook England – from the streets of Bermondsey to the halls of Buckingham Palace – and features a flea, a horse, a detective, a queen, a pimp, a god, and Charlie, the telegraph boy who knelt before the Crown.

This anarchic and affecting play was first performed at The Yard Theatre, London, in October 2023, directed by Artistic Director Jay Miller.

160 all-new games and exercises from the author of the bestselling companion for drama teachers and workshop leaders, offering more than one million unique and tasty combinations, ready to be put into action!

Simply make a selection from each of the four complementary courses, and your whole drama session will come to life with clarity, intensity and focus:

Appetizers are fast-paced warm-up exercises to energize and enthuse;

Starters are the intermediary course to challenge and kickstart creativity;

Main Courses provide the central part of the session, culminating in a final performance piece;

Desserts are there for when you have space at the end of your session for something sweet.

Every exercise has been devised, tested and selected for its ability to ignite creativity and develop the performing potential of each player. There's also a downloadable Resource Pack (available below) stuffed with a huge range of new stimuli to engage your students and encourage deeper participation.

Drama Menu: Second Helpings has everything you need to spice up your sessions with a variety of new challenges that will invigorate and inspire your students, and ensure that every session is fresh, dynamic and relevant. Bon appétit!

MALAPROP Theatre is an award-winning collective of Irish theatremakers, who seek to challenge, delight and speak to the world we live in (even when imagining different ones). This volume brings together four of their bold, playful and genre-spanning plays, all premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival between 2017 and 2023.

In Everything Not Saved, ex-lovers argue about when they were happiest, police officers rewrite history, and Rasputin dances like no one’s watching. Oh, and also the Queen is there.

Before you Say Anything questions how everyone can be safe at the same time. A time-travelling set of interweaving stories exploring injustice, freedom and bravery.

Where Sat the Lovers is about codes, hallucinations, Isaac Newton, war crimes, seeing meaning where there's none and vice versa. In an age of misinformation, how do you know if you know the right things?

HOTHOUSE tackles climate breakdown with big ideas, a lot of laughs, and some truly grotesque cabaret numbers. Cruise ships, horny/murderous songbirds, fecund/fatalistic rabbits, loving/bruising parents and Minnie Riperton all make an appearance in this play with songs, which asks if things can ever get better.

It's the 1970s, and Fereydoun Farrokhzad's star is blazing bright – he's a sex symbol and chart-topping pop singer. Imagine an Iranian Tom Jones. A decade on and he's living in political exile in Germany, though still selling out the Royal Albert Hall. Then, on 7 August 1992, he's found brutally murdered. The neighbors said his dogs had been barking for two nights. The case has never been solved.

Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is an investigation into the nature of investigation; part free-wheeling lecture, part podcast and part play. It is a thrilling ride down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia and true-crime podcasts, sorting through the tangle of information available online to reveal the limits of the search engines in solving a decades-old cold case.

Originally produced by The Javaad Alipoor Company in 2022, this witty, fast-paced and cutting-edge play, by Javaad Alipoor with Chris Thorpe, was co-commissioned by HOME and the National Theatre of Parramatta. It has toured worldwide, including a run at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the 2023 Festival Fringe.

“With great pleasure Layla & Joel Invite you to celebrate their marriage.

Dress code is smart casual. Doors at 7.30 p.m., followed by the exchange of vows. And at the signal, the entertainment will begin.

(This performance is being staged without a license from the Ministry. We recognize the risk that each and every one of you is taking by attending and we salute your courage.)”

A Mirror is an elusive, explosive play by Sam Holcroft, interrogating censorship, authorship and free speech. It premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2023, directed by Jeremy Herrin, and with a cast including Jonny Lee Miller, Tanya Reynolds and Micheal Ward.

The near future. The climate emergency is gathering pace, and our generation is being judged.

The jurors are children. But are they delivering justice – or just taking revenge?

Dawn King's searing play The Trials was first performed at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in January 2022, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. It received its British premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in August 2022, directed by Natalie Abrahami.

The Trials offers an exciting opportunity for theatre companies to address the climate emergency and intergenerational conflict, as the jury of 12 to 17-year-olds hold the stage alongside three adult defendants.

The story Charles Dickens might have written after drinking too much gin...

Follow half-orphan Pip Bin's remarkable adventures with sisters Pippa and Poppy and best friend Harry Biscuit, as they attempt to escape the scheming clutches of Mr Gently Benevolent and defeat the irrepressible Hardthrasher siblings. Can they avert disaster at every turn? Will evil be vanquished by virtue? Can love triumph over hate?

Mark Evans' play Bleak Expectations is a hilarious, chaotic caper, featuring dastardly villains, preposterous names, pulse-quickening romances, heart-rending death scenes, and, of course, a happy ending.

Based on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, the play opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2022, directed by Caroline Leslie.

It offers rich opportunities to amateur theatre companies looking for a gloriously daft Dickensian romp which will have their audiences joyfully transported and begging for more.

Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he's ever known. Now his imagination is pushing at the limits of his world.

One day, Jimmie appears on the other side of the fence, bringing a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it, she relies on Subhi to unravel her own family's mysterious and moving history. Together, Subhi and Jimmie must find a way to freedom, and they must be braver than they've ever been before...

The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon's powerful and deeply moving novel about the displacement and treatment of refugees and sanctuary seekers, has been widely read and studied around the world since its publication in 2017.

This enthralling stage adaptation by award-winning Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan was first produced on a UK tour in 2022 by Pilot Theatre with York Theatre Royal, Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and Mercury Theatre Colchester.

When Rob was twelve, they attempted a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their Grandma. As Rob donned wigs and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their Dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy.

Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mum mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry. And Ariel's bubble gun didn't work properly. Grandma had a nice time, though.

My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?) is the joyous, chaotic, autobiographical story of actor, writer and social-media sensation Rob Madge as they set out to recreate that parade – and this time, nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on it.

It was first performed at London's Turbine Theatre in June 2021, directed by Luke Sheppard, with music by Pippa Cleary – and starring Rob Madge as Rob Madge, alongside hilarious home movies of the Madge family (plus Granny Grimble).

This edition features the complete text of the play, including links to and transcriptions of the video footage, colour photographs and extra bonus content from the RDM* Productions Archive. It concludes with an afterword by Mum and Dad about the joys to be found in championing the creativity of children – and why playing Tinkerbell, with a smile, might be the best thing you can do for your kids, and for yourselves.

* Robert Dennis Madge

It's Christmas Eve. As the cold, bleak night draws in, the penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the spirit of his former business partner, Jacob Marley.

Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn't too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate. But first he'll have to face three more eerie encounters...

Mark Gatiss' spine-tingling adaptation is faithful to the heart and spirit of Charles Dickens' much-loved festive ghost story—with an emphasis on the ghostly.

Commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, the adaptation premiered there in 2021, starring Nicholas Farrell alongside Gatiss, and directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Adam Penford.

A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story subsequently transferred to Alexandra Palace Theatre, London, produced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions.

When a woman receives an unexpected letter from the British Passport Office, she is forced to confront an old mystery: why does her South African passport not carry her first name? Armed with the wisdom of favourite '90s TV shows, she sets out on a journey that will take her back to the turmoil of Mobutu's Congo, growing up in post-Apartheid South Africa, moving to Ireland, and finding love in a hostile England.

As her journey becomes inextricably linked with the tides of global history, how far will she go to unravel the truth? By turns wickedly funny and strikingly lyrical, Benedict Lombe's Lava is an explosive debut play that will turn the way you see the world on its axis.

It premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in July 2021, performed by Ronke Adékoluejo and directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike.

Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. Angie and Lauren are closing up the café for another winter; the birds have gone south and taken the tourists with them. The last visitor is Dennis, stopping by for his pasty and beans. But there's another arrival – one that's unforeseen and life-changing for them all.

Big Big Sky is a beautifully tender play by Tom Wells, who was originally from Kilnsea. The play explores nature's influence on love, friendship and family – the belief that anyone who's lost can be found, even in the remotest of places. It was premiered at Hampstead Theatre in July 2021, directed by Tessa Walker.

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.

A sometimes comic, sometimes heartbreaking journey into the world of autism.

Sandra is looking for love. Gordon is seeking acceptance. Simon just wants these parents to stop talking for two minutes so he can get on with teaching their kids.

And Casper? Casper is not here.

Jody O'Neill's play What I (Don't) Know About Autism mixes narrative, song, dance and direct address to explore this contentious and often misunderstood subject matter.

What I (Don't) Know About Autism was co-produced by Jody O'Neill and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in association with The Everyman, Cork, and Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre, Bray. It was first performed, with all relaxed performances and a cast of autistic and non-autistic actors, on the Abbey's Peacock Stage, in February 2020, before touring.

Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything.

Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This bold new version by Stef Smith reframes the drama in three different time periods. The fight for women's suffrage, the Swinging Sixties and the modern day intertwine in this urgent, poetic play that asks how far have we really come in the past hundred years?

Nora: A Doll's House was first produced by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in 2019, at Tramway, Glasgow. A new production opened at the Young Vic, London, in February 2020.

It was a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, awarded annually to celebrate women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre.

It's 1972. An era of possibility and polyester and pubic hair. While Ziggy Stardust is on Top of the Pops, Penny is writing an essay on Lady Chatterley's Lover, Christine is watching Deep Throat and Brian is confused.

Devised by The Wardrobe Ensemble, 1972: The Future of Sex incorporates the company's trademark theatricality, irreverent humour and ensemble ingenuity to tell the story of three couples having sex for the first time – and a country on the brink of a sexual awakening.

Commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall, the play was first seen there in 2014, before a UK tour in 2015, including performances at Bristol Old Vic and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was revived at the Bristol Old Vic in 2019.

A brilliant parable for our times, combining impish humour with social fury. —The Stage

Nikita and Riya are two South Asian sisters: insecure, stateless, and desperate for somewhere to call home.

Nikita's work with young migrants requires her to keep her savior complex in check as she negotiates the challenges and hypocrisy of the third sector. Meanwhile, Riya is offered the chance to create an advocate in the form of a homunculus (or fawn), and sees a chance to elevate herself above the cruelty meted out to others.

Sonali Bhattacharyya's play King Troll (The Fawn) is a dark and dystopian exploration of migrant experiences in all their complexity—and the troll that lives within all of us, whispering me, not us, and definitely me first.

Abseiling lesbians! Queers in classrooms! Perverts panicking parents!

Thatcher's Section 28, which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools, was the landmark legislation that silenced a generation, offered a global blueprint for LGBTQ+ oppression, and galvanised a movement.

Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens's After the Act is a funny, camp and unapologetically queer musical about how a moral panic gripped a nation—and a community decided to fight back. Its inspiring and often heartbreaking stories of teachers, students, and activists impacted by the legislation are accompanied by a joyously exuberant score written by Frew and inspired by the music of the 1980s.

Camelot is in trouble. If King Arthur doesn’t turn things around soon, his reign will be remembered as nothing more than a rather dull period in British history. Enter three hapless squires with a plan…and a legend is born.

This hilarious retelling of the Arthurian legends brings to life King Arthur (obvs), the lovely Guinevere, the enigmatic Merlin, the Lady of the Lake and the Lady of Shalott, the evil Morgana and her troublesome son Mordred, and more Knights than you can fit round an oblong table.

Dre and Des. Dream and Destiny.
Young. Gifted. Black.
He stayed. She left.

Now, tragedy brings them crashing back into each other's lives – carrying new secrets and old scars that threaten to rewrite the past and reshape the future.

Benedict Lombe's play Shifters is a fierce, funny and intoxicating romance about the enduring power – and fragility – of memory and love. It was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Artistic Director Lynette Linton.

Meet Fanny Mendelssohn. You'll probably know of her younger brother Felix, from nineteenth-century smash hits like 'The Wedding March'. He was such a huge star that Queen Victoria requested a private concert, during which she sang her favorite of his compositions, a song called 'Italien'.

The only problem is, that particular piece was actually composed by Fanny, though it was published under her brother's name.

When Fanny intercepts the letter inviting Felix to play for the queen, she decides to hide it away, don her brother's clothes, and take his place at the palace…

Calum Finlay's play Fanny is a joyful and irreverent comedy celebrating music, family and – at last – the work of a composer overlooked because of her sex. It opened at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in 2024.

Ash and Anya were happy, just the two of them. Then the baby came.

Ash has spent the first two weeks of his son's life trying to work out where he fits. He watches his mother holding her grandchild for the first time, mesmerized by the mystery and delight of a new life. After she leaves, Ash watches Anya feeding their son – so close, almost intertwined.

As sleepless nights, relentless crying and hushed arguments take their toll, a storm starts to grow as a chasm widens between Ash and his son, his wife and even his own mother.

Lifting the roof off one family's home, The Cord is a brutally honest and moving insight into the challenging truths of family dynamics. It premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2024, written and directed by Bijan Sheibani.

A nasty feud begins, and when Brian's daughter Anne starts demonstrating strange afflictions, an allegation is made: she has been bewitched.

Impassioned and highly theatrical, Dirty Hare's award-winning production of Gunter, co-created by Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan and Rachel Lemon, tells a true story of deception, witchcraft and football.

The play premiered at Summerhall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023, where it was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First Award, Pick of the Fringe from both Playbill and Lyn Gardner, whilst Dirty Hare were named one of The Stage's Fringe Five list of breakout theatremakers. It transferred to the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024.

Katherine Hamilton is a nineteen-year-old woman facing arrest and trial in the King's court, with only her quick wit as defense against execution.

James V: Katherine is a dramatic interpretation of key events during a turbulent time in Scotland's history, events that changed the nation forever. It is also a play filled with hidden histories, deft comedy and a secret love story between two young women.

Rona Munro's renowned James Plays are a breathtaking series of plays set during the reigns of Scotland's generations of Stewart kings. Each play stands alone as a thrilling depiction of a moment in Scottish history, full of playful wit and boisterous theatricality; taken together, the cycle is a uniquely compelling narrative of a nation tussling with its past and future.

James V: Katherine was first staged at Capital Theatres' The Studio, in April 2024, directed by Orla O'Loughlin, before embarking on a Scottish tour. It was a co-production between Raw Material and Capital Theatres, who previously produced James IV: Queen of the Fight.

Rona Munro is a writer who has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television. Earlier works in the James Plays cycle (I–III) have been performed at the National Theatre in London, across the UK and internationally, and have won Evening Standard and Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.

The smallest tremble. A smashed glass. The ripping apart of space and time.

Three couples. Thirty years. Mothers and daughters. Lovers, partners, husbands and wives. Babies, teenagers, birthdays, holidays, honeymoons, fireworks, near-misses, rain. This is a play about all of it.

A devastating and delicately woven piece about violence, love and loss, Phoebe Eclair-Powell's Shed: Exploded View won the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Partly inspired by Cornelia Parker's stunning artwork Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View, it was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2024, directed by Atri Banerjee.

A wild party. A friendship. A cherished pet. And a night that changes everything.

It's Julie's eighteenth birthday, and she's throwing a party in her father's extravagant townhouse. Her boyfriend has just dumped her and her long-suffering best friend Christine is trying to pick up the pieces. As the revelers pile into the booze, down in the kitchen Christine and her boyfriend Jon – son of Julie's cleaner – clear up and dare to dream of the future.

But as the volume goes up and the shots go down, Julie concocts a twisted cocktail of privilege, desire and destruction.

Laura Lomas's play The House Party spins Strindberg's classic play Miss Julie into intense, fizzing life for today's generation. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2024, co-produced with Headlong in association with Frantic Assembly, and directed by Holly Race Roughan.

Hailed as 'the most exciting new British musical in years' (WhatsOnStage), Standing at the Sky's Edge was originally written as a love letter to Sheffield, charting the hopes and dreams of three generations over the course of six tumultuous decades, navigating universal themes of love, loss and survival.

With irresistible songs by legendary singer-songwriter Richard Hawley and a beautiful, hilarious and gut-wrenching book by Chris Bush, Standing at the Sky's Edge reveals the history of modern Britain through the stories of a landmark housing estate. It is a heartfelt exploration of the power of community and what it is we all call home.

It was first performed at Sheffield Theatres in 2019, directed by Robert Hastie, before transferring to the National Theatre in 2023, and then the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London's West End in 2024. It won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production and the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre.

Cover image courtesy of Various Productions; original graffiti copyright © 2001 Jason Lowe

Arriving from his East Midlands beginnings into a London thick with the grime of industrialization, 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 center 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.

Poland, 1949. Zula is bold and brilliant, a singer who ignites the stage. Wiktor is withdrawn and damaged, a composer longing to write. Irresistibly drawn to each other, they dream of escape. But in Communist-controlled Poland, the desire for freedom can be a dangerous thing.

Based on the film by Academy Award winner Paweł Pawlikowski, Cold War is an epic love story spanning the decades and breadth of Europe at its most divided, and a compelling story of passion, redemption, and the journey to be free.

This stage adaptation by Conor McPherson was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in November 2023, directed by Rupert Goold, and featuring traditional Polish songs alongside music by Elvis Costello.

Chasing his runaway shadow, a mischievous young boy who will never grow up crash lands through an open window and meets a headstrong young girl who is desperate to be an adult.

With a sprinkle of fairy dust, they take flight on a whirlwind voyage over pirate ships, through mermaid lagoons and into the heart of Neverland.

Adapted from J.M. Barrie's perennial favorite, this enchanting new version by Evan Placey, with songs by Vikki Stone, premiered in 2023 at Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames, directed by Lucy Morrell. It was commissioned by the Rose to be performed by twenty members of the Rose Youth Theatre alongside four professional adult actors. It offers rich opportunities for other theatre companies who want to keep their audiences hooked with a magical, musical classic.

50% of royalties from the sale of this book and amateur performance licenses are donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

1979. Clarence House, London. The Queen Mother's receptions are in full swing and the champagne is flowing. Guiding the proceedings is William 'Billy' Tallon, page of the backstairs, keeper of the keys, holder of the royal corgis – and the royal secrets.

Outside the palace walls, unemployment, inflation and industrial action are bringing Britain to its knees, and the country is on the verge of changing seismically under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. These two worlds are about to collide, with dizzying consequences for everyone...

Backstairs Billy examines the fifty-year relationship between the Queen Mother and her most loyal, most outrageous servant, who joined her household at the age of fifteen. Marcelo Dos Santos's irreverent comedy was first produced by the Michael Grandage Company at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, in 2023, directed by Grandage and starring Penelope Wilton and Luke Evans.

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.

In the Downing Street Press Office an emergency meeting has been called. The Prime Minister has been ad-libbing on live TV (again) and his words are going viral.

There is a flurry of accusations, and demands for an apology; but as his team debate what to do next, it's already too late. His words have found their way to dinner parties, bus journeys and newspaper columns across the nation – and not everyone is angry.

Rabiah Hussain's play Word-Play explores how language seeps into public consciousness and reverberates with far-reaching consequences that will last for generations. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, in July 2023, directed by Nimmo Ismail.

Five wildly different women gather in the muddy fields of the Highland Games circuit to compete in the obscure art of Backhold Wrestling. Can bold beginners Imogen, Chantelle, Jo, Pamela and Helen transform themselves into a team and win the championship? Or will their differences sabotage them, and send them face-planting into the mud?

The pearls are off, influencer videos posted and 'Gucci' bags from the Barras Market set aside. This is it. Hold on tight.

A poignant, dynamic exploration of belonging and identity, Nat McCleary's play Thrown opened in 2023 at Victoria Hall, Dunblane, directed by Johnny McKnight, before embarking on a Scottish tour which culminated in a run at the Traverse Theatre, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

An irrepressible fraudster known only as the Maniac is brought into Police Headquarters just as the officers are preparing for a judicial review of the recent 'accidental' death of a suspect in custody.

Outwitting his captors, the Maniac dupes them into performing a farcical recreation of the incident, exposing the absurd corruption and terrifying idiocy at the heart of the system.

Dario Fo and Franca Rame's riotous satire has been widely performed around the world since its premiere in 1970. Tom Basden's acclaimed adaptation was first performed at Sheffield Theatres in 2022, directed by Daniel Raggett, and starring Daniel Rigby as the Maniac.

The production transferred to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in 2023, before moving to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London's West End.

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.

It's 1874, and Elizabeth Thompson stuns the artistic establishment with her painting The Roll Call. Five years later, she falls two votes short of becoming the first woman elected to the Royal Academy.

In between, she shoulders the hopes and dreams of female artists across the country, while fighting for her place at a table full of top hats, neckties and mutton chop beards.

A thrilling collision of music hall, cabaret and drag king swagger, Modest tells the true story of a pioneering megastar of the Victorian art scene. Written by Ellen Brammar and with music by Rachel Barnes, it was first produced in 2023 by Middle Child in collaboration with Milk Presents at Hull Truck Theatre before touring.

When 'intimidating' Rachel and eternal 'nice guy' Nick meet at an awkward work Christmas party, what was meant to be a one-night-stand becomes a sexual odyssey of self-discovery… and mutual destruction.

Adrift, isolated and insecure, they scramble for new ways to connect. Can some playful, passionate pegging provide a pathway through the pitfalls of modern relationships and present the possibility of a deeper bond?

A penetrating comedy about the search for sexual knowledge, true love and top-notch Tupperware, Lisa Carroll's play The Misandrist was first produced by Metal Rabbit Productions at the Arcola Theatre, London, in May 2023.

The short play – very traditional to Irish theatre – is a little jewel of a structure, a lightning flash on a different world, the illumination made all the more acute by brevity' Deirdre Kinahan

Deirdre Kinahan is an award-winning playwright and member of Aosdána, Ireland's elected organisation of outstanding artists. This volume brings together five of her short plays, taken from the full span of her writing career, each of them shining a light into a forgotten corner of our humanity, giving voice to irrepressible characters that the world has done its best to overlook.

In Bé Carna (Tall Tales, 1999), five women reflect on their lives as prostitutes on the streets of Dublin, a dark tale inspired by true-life stories, reverberating with humanity, warmth and comic humour.

In Hue & Cry (Tall Tales/Bewley's Café Theatre, 2007), two Dublin cousins, Damian and Kevin, are reunited for a family funeral in a highly charged encounter full of disillusion, denial and dark laughter.

In Bogboy (Tall Tales/Solstice Arts Centre, 2010), originally written as a radio play for RTÉ, two lost souls – a young heroin addict and a reclusive middle-aged farmer – discover a budding friendship in the bogs of Meath, until a terrible secret comes to light.

Wild Notes (Solas Nua, Washington D.C., 2018) explores the impact of colonialism through a meeting between Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave and abolitionist who visited Ireland in the 1840s, and a young Irishwoman hoping to emigrate to the country he's running from.

An Old Song, Half Forgotten (Abbey Theatre, 2023) opens a window into the life and soul of an older actor who is living in care with Alzheimer's disease, rebuilding a man just as he begins to crack and fade.

In a cottage by the sea, four women live in a house made for five. Meals are prepared, stories are shared and the waves break on the shore. When only one of their two expected guests arrives for the summer, life is about to change for all of them...

Cordelia Lynn's Sea Creatures is a haunting play about grief, loss and the power of storytelling. It opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in March 2023, directed by James Macdonald.

On his fifteenth birthday, Noble transforms into a bird. Thousands of miles away, his sister Cleo is stationed on a remote island with the British Antarctic Survey.

But the birds have disappeared and Noble needs to reach her. Lying low until it's safe to take flight, he finds solace in misfit Ellis, while his mum desperately tries to stop their home from falling apart.

The world turns. Dark clouds gather. Chaos is on the horizon...

Billie Collins's play Too Much World at Once is an urgent coming-of-age story for our times – and a lyrical, theatrical journey that spans continents and lives. It was premiered at HOME, Manchester, in March 2023 by Box of Tricks Theatre before a UK tour.

2022 Edinburgh Fringe First Award

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.

Every time you open your mouth on stage you are trying to persuade somebody of something.

Sometimes referred to as "the art of persuasion," rhetoric means using language to communicate your ideas and intentions to other people – and to make sure you are heard, understood and believed. This clear and concise guide explains how it works in plays, and how actors can use it to bring their performances to life on stage.

Drawing on her decades of experience working with actors on major productions, including as Head of Voice at the National Theatre, Jeannette Nelson introduces all the major rhetorical techniques and devices that playwrights use. She offers fascinating breakdowns of dialogue and speeches from across the theatrical canon – from Shakespeare and Ibsen, to Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry and Arthur Miller, right up to contemporary playwrights such as Helen Edmundson and Tanika Gupta. Each chapter also includes a series of practical exercises which combine spoken word with physical action to help you explore and understand these techniques, and harness their power in performance.

Whether you're an actor, a director or a drama teacher, Keeping It Active will empower you with a greater understanding of the ways that language underpins all dramatic works, and will give you the tools you need to unlock the text, understand characters, connect with the audience, and perform with greater confidence, focus and authenticity.

A double bill of plays from the frontline of climate change—an epic portrait of Britain in the grip of unprecedented and catastrophic floods.

In On the Beach, glaciologist Will has followed in his father's footsteps, dedicating himself to studying climate change. Back from Antarctica, he visits his parents on the Norfolk coast. With catastrophic flooding growing more likely by the day, he has news that forces long-submerged secrets to rise to the surface.

In Resilience, Will, freshly appointed as a scientific advisor, is in Westminster and he's out of his depth. Surrounded by ministers manoeuvring to impress, and with the threat of environmental disaster, can he get them to listen before it's too late?

Impressive in scale and chilling as a prediction of our immediate future, the two plays are complementary but can also stand alone.

Steve Waters' The Contingency Plan was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2009, and shortlisted for the John Whiting Award. It was revived, in this fully revised and updated version, at Sheffield Theatres in 2022, directed by Caroline Steinbeis and Chelsea Walker.

Two powerful plays about the shattering impact of war, and the astonishing resilience of those living through it, written by two of Ukraine's leading playwrights.

'They've mobilised all the living now, the fifth call took the last of the living. But the war keeps on. So high command asked us.'

Sasha, a Colonel in the Ukrainian Army, has died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving his relatives Katia and Oksana to mourn for him. But a year later, as war intensifies, the army has resorted to recruiting the dead. Sasha is anxious to be resurrected so he can rejoin the fight, but can his family bear to lose him all over again? Take the Rubbish Out, Sasha by Natal'ya Vorozhbit blends reality and the supernatural in a startling exploration of the effects of war and conflict.

'I want to report a robbery... I was robbed. What was stolen from me? Almost everything... Home, land, car, work, friends, city, faith in goodness...'

Donbas, 2014. A nameless woman stands in the street, trying to sell a basket of kittens. She has lost everything else she holds dear. Her only remaining hope is to find a home for the kittens, since she cannot offer them one herself. Pussycat in Memory of Darkness by Neda Nezhdana is an unflinching examination of Russia's war on Ukraine through the brutalised eyes of one woman.

The two plays were translated by Sasha Dugdale and John Farndon, respectively, and performed in English at the Finborough Theatre, London, as part of their #VoicesFromUkraine season in 2022.

10% of the proceeds from sales of this book will be donated to the Voices of Children Charitable Foundation, a Ukrainian charity providing urgently needed psychological and psychosocial support to children affected by the war in Ukraine.

When Yasmin and her guide, Tshering, return from a perilous expedition to Everest without a member of their party, they have a lot of questions to answer. Where is Yasmin's husband Charlie? What happened on the mountain? Why do Yasmin and Tshering's accounts differ so drastically?

As private investigator Connie tries to distinguish hallucination from reality, and fact from delusion, it's clear that someone, somewhere, is not telling the truth.

Set at an altitude where life hangs by a thread, Carmen Nasr's play The Climbers is a thrilling exploration of the lure of the mountains, the drive to conquer and the price of staying alive. It was first performed in June 2022 at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, directed by Guy Jones.

Raffish, urbane and frequently drunk, David Highland has kept a grip on his remote coastal parish through a combination of disordered charm and high-handed determination.

When his faith impels him to take a hard line with a bereaved parishioner, he finds himself dangerously isolated from public opinion. As his own family begins to fracture, David must face a future that threatens to extinguish not only his position in the town, but everything he stands for.

Stephen Beresford's play The Southbury Child is a darkly comic drama exploring family and community, the savage divisions of contemporary society, and the rituals that punctuate our lives. It was co-produced by Chichester Festival Theatre and the Bridge Theatre, London, in 2022, starring Alex Jennings and directed by Nicholas Hytner.

A small asteroid has hit the capital city. Thousands have been displaced. And in a town far away, a young man called Vin is finding it hard to talk. The only person who seems to notice is Rach, who resolves to find out what's troubling him and help him find his voice again.

But when Rach's family take in an articulate and charismatic survivor of the asteroid incident, Vin's silence is no longer her first priority. How does it feel when the suffering of others seems more legitimate than our own?

James Fritz's Lava is a timely play about grief and the power of expression, rocking with raw emotion and sharp humour. It premiered at Nottingham Playhouse in 2018, in a co-production with Fifth Word who commissioned the play. It was revived on tour in 2022, including a run at Soho Theatre, London.

A trilogy of landmark plays commemorating seven years of warfare in Ireland, from the 1916 Easter Rising to the Civil War which began in 1922.

Wild Sky is a story of interlocking lives: of the politicised Josie Dunne, and of Tom Farrell, who is driven only by his love for her. As the Rising plays out, there are unforeseen consequences for everyone involved...

Embargo focuses on a pivotal moment during the Irish War of Independence in 1920, when dockers and railmen refused to transport armed troops or handle any weapons arriving from Britain.

Outrage follows two sisters, Alice and Nell, who play key roles in organising civic resistance and the propaganda war. Like everyone else in Ireland, they become deeply conflicted as the country spins toward a devastating Civil War.

Each of the three plays was first performed a century after the event which it depicts, and they were commissioned and performed by companies including Fishamble: The New Play Company, Meath County Council Arts Office, Dublin Port Company and Iarnród Éireann.

Together, they challenge the historical narrative, mixing true-life testimonies with powerful drama to create a theatrical hurricane of empathy, action and truth.

It's Year 10's first day back at school. Mark is new and too scared to make friends. Darren is out of control and too scary to make friends. The two of them need each other – but neither would ever admit it.

Worlds apart, but more similar than they realise, the pair form a complex and manipulative relationship. And before they know it, they're embarking on a dangerous experiment that will alter the course of their lives.

Sophie Swithinbank's play Bacon is an unflinching and unexpectedly humorous look at masculinity, sexuality and power, through the dizzying lens of youth.

First developed on the Soho Theatre Writers' Lab, it won the Tony Craze Award in 2018, and was first produced at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2022, directed by Matthew Iliffe.

2024. As America goes to the polls, democracy itself is on the brink. Who takes the White House – and at what cost?

Mike Bartlett's viciously funny and foreboding The 47th is a dazzling glimpse into the underbelly of the greatest political show on earth: the US presidential race.

It was first produced at The Old Vic, London, in March 2022 by The Old Vic, Sonia Friedman Productions and Annapurna Theatre, directed by Rupert Goold, and featuring Bertie Carvel as Donald J. Trump, Tamara Tunie as Kamala Harris, and Lydia Wilson as Ivanka Trump.

Nobody knows where the fish went, and nobody knows why the fish went – but ever since they did, things just haven't been the same. In a committee room on Capitol Hill, three senators have a job to do: they must question a man on charges of trading rare marine commodities, and they must find out what he knows.

Politics and the planet collide in a fiercely original play about the limits of science, the power of myths, and the things we can't control. Marek Horn's Yellowfin premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2021, directed by Ed Madden.

Seventeen-year-old Asha is an emphatic rebel, unafraid of pointing out the hypocrisy around her but less sure how to actually dismantle it. Her younger sister, Bettina, wide-eyed and naïve, is just trying to get through the school day without getting her pocket money nicked.

Between essays, homework and bus journeys home the two sisters meet outside the school gates each afternoon, smarting at the injustice of the world around them.

Bouncing with wit, Sonali Bhattacharyya’s mesmerizing play Two Billion Beats is an insightful, moving and tremendously funny coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don't make the rules.

It premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in February 2022.

An earlier version of the play was performed as part of the Orange Tree's Inside/Outside season, livestreamed in 2021.

Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the center of a terrifying manhunt. In their care is a tiny child called Lyra Belacqua, and in that child lies the fate of the future.

As the waters rise around them, powerful adversaries conspire for mastery of Dust: salvation to some, the source of infinite corruption to others.

Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage is set twelve years before the epic His Dark Materials trilogy. Bryony Lavery's stage adaptation was first performed at the Bridge Theatre, London, in December 2021, directed by Nicholas Hytner, whose groundbreaking production of His Dark Materials was a critical and commercial success at the National Theatre.

A teenage girl has something growing inside her. She doesn't know what it is, but she knows it's not a baby. It expands. It has claws. Eventually it takes over the entirety of her body.

No one must know about it. She has to keep its presence, its possession of her, concealed. She pulls away from her friends. She refuses to speak, in case "The IT" is heard. But she can't contain it forever. Sooner or later something's got to give...

Presented in the style of a direct-address documentary, Vivienne Franzmann's The IT is a darkly comic state-of-the-nation play exploring adolescent mental health and the rage within.

Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2021 National Theatre Connections Festivals and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size and mix of genders.

Your partner's died, could things have been different?

Caryl Churchill's short play What If If Only premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2021, directed by James Macdonald.

This edition also includes the resonant and surreal short piece, Air.

Winston Smith is in prison, found guilty of Thoughtcrimes against Big Brother. As part of his reconstruction, he must re-enact key moments from his past life, with the help of other thought criminals, so that everyone can learn from his mistakes. Including his biggest mistake of all: falling in love with Julia.

George Orwell's classic dystopia 1984 is a still-resonant vision of the tolls of living under totalitarianism. Constructed almost entirely from dialogue taken from the original novel, this bold and powerful dramatization restores the blazing heart of Orwell's work: a doomed love story, with the lovers at its center.

This pre-eminently stageable version, adapted with an eye on economy by Nick Hern for a cast of five or more, is ideal for any school, youth group or amateur company looking to bring Orwell's chilling vision to life on stage.

On the set of a new film about Victorian artist J.M.W. Turner, young actress Lou is haunted by an unresolved history. Meanwhile, in 1840, Londoners Lucy and Thomas try to come to terms with the meaning of freedom.

Moving between London past and present, Winsome Pinnock's astonishing play retells British history through the prism of the slave trade. Fusing fact with fiction, and the powerfully personal with the fiercely political, Rockets and Blue Lights asks who owns our past – and who has the right to tell its stories?

Winner of the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award, the play opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2020, directed by Miranda Cromwell. It transferred to the National Theatre, London, in 2021.

It's the end of the world. The last night on Earth. An asteroid is heading straight for us and there's nothing we can do about it.

Except for maybe host a pub quiz – which is exactly what landlady Kathy and her quizmaster Rav are doing. But, with time ticking, some unexpected guests explode on the scene – Bobby wants to settle old scores, and Fran wants one last shot at love.

The Last Quiz Night on Earth is an innovative comedy-drama featuring a fully interactive pub quiz for the audience to participate in, complete with real teams, real questions and real swapping each other's answers for marking. It was premiered by Box of Tricks in 2020 on a UK tour, taking in a host of theatres, community venues and pubs.

Ideal for performance by amateurs – either in theatres or more unconventional spaces (such as theatre bars and local pubs) – this play offers rich opportunities for audience participation. Quizzing compulsory, alcohol optional.

A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Banished into an indifferent world, Frankenstein's creature desperately seeks out his true identity, but the agony of rejection and a broken promise push him into darkness. Dangerous and vengeful, the creature threatens to obliterate Frankenstein and everyone he loves, in a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunt for his maker.

Rona Munro's 'inventive feminist adaptation' (The Stage) of Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now. It premiered on a tour of the UK in 2019.

An Israeli violinist. Living in her trendy canal-side Amsterdam apartment. Nine months pregnant.

One day a mysterious unpaid gas bill from 1944 arrives. It awakens unsettling feelings of collective identity, foreignness and alienation. Stories of a devastating past are compellingly reconstructed to try and make sense of the present.

First seen at the Haifa Theater, Israel, in 2018, Amsterdam received its UK premiere, in this English translation by Eran Edry, at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2019, directed by Matthew Xia, in a co-production between the Orange Tree, Actors Touring Company and Theatre Royal Plymouth.

The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out.

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is a tender and funny rom-com about what we say, how we say it, and what happens when we can't say anything any more.

This special edition of Sam Steiner's hilarious and provocative play – featuring a revised text, plus an introduction by the author – was published alongside a major revival in 2023 performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End, as well as at Manchester Opera House and Theatre Royal Brighton. It was directed by Josie Rourke and starred Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner.

The play was first performed at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015, and won three Judges' Awards at the National Student Drama Festival before appearing at Latitude Festival, Camden People's Theatre in London, and several runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was a hit with both audiences and critics. It has since been performed around the world, is widely studied and has been translated into multiple languages.

When the young and naive D'Artagnan sets out on his quest to become a King's musketeer, he immediately encounters the dangerous femme fatale, Milady de Winter. After discovering that the musketeers have been disbanded, he makes it his mission to get them reinstated. But will his feud with Milady thwart him? And who the heck is she?

This riotous adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic novel by John Nicholson (Hound of the Baskervilles, Peepolykus) was originally performed by physical-comedy theatre company Le Navet Bete on a UK tour in 2019, with four actors playing over thirty characters. It was co-produced by Le Navet Bete and Exeter Northcott Theatre.

The Three Musketeers will suit any theatre company or drama group looking for a funny, high-energy adaptation of a universally loved story, which is suitable for audiences of all ages. Swashbuckling and rollicking adventure guaranteed – convincing French accents, not so much.

Nell and Oscar meet on a beach in Dorset. It's 1595… or maybe 1610. Oscar has returned from university and Nell is doing fuck-all. They will meet here, again and again, on this beach for the next four hundred years. Stuff will change. As it does with time. They will try to keep up.

The play premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, produced by FullRogue in association with Pleasance Futures and Bristol Old Vic Ferment, and directed by Julia Head. It subsequently transferred to the Bristol Old Vic, and toured the UK in 2020.

As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.

William Thornhill arrives in New South Wales a convict from the slums of London. Upon earning his pardon he discovers that this new world offers something he didn't dare dream of: a place to call his own. But as he plants a crop and lays claim to the soil on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, he finds that this land is not his to take. Its ancient custodians are the Dharug people. 

The Secret River, adapted from Kate Grenville's acclaimed novel by playwright Andrew Bovell, was first performed in January 2013 at the Sydney Theatre, performed by Sydney Theatre Company.

It has its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2019, before coming to the National Theatre, London.

A mysterious accident. A dead husband. People are talking. Secrets are resurfacing from the depths. Is the past ever truly dead?

Nancy Harris's play The Beacon is premiered by Druid in 2019, previewing at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway in September before opening at the Gate Theatre Dublin in October as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2019.

Adapted by Meadhbh McHugh, in collaboration with its director Annabelle Comyn, the play premiered at the Everyman, Cork, in June 2018, before transferring to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. It was produced by Landmark Productions and the Everyman, in association with the Abbey Theatre.

The piece was premiered by Damsel Productions at The Bunker, London, in May 2018.

Solo show Brute tells the true story of a rather twisted schoolgirl. Poppy’s just started at an all-girls state school in a provincial English town, where there are rules with no logic, sadistic jokes that aren’t actually funny, and the most sinister games played out of boredom.

Brute won the 2015 IdeasTap Underbelly Award, had a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and transferred to Soho Theatre with Damsel Productions in 2016.

Bruce Norris's new play Downstate zeroes in on the limits of our compassion and what happens when society deems anyone beyond forgiveness.

Writing a good play is only a small part of making it as a successful playwright; understanding the business side of building a career is just as crucial. Yet most advice for budding writers focuses only on the craft of playwriting, ignoring the practicalities of the industry – which makes it harder for those without connections or know-how to get their work on stage.

Being a Playwright sets out, transparently and honestly, all the factors besides writing that playwrights need to know about to succeed. It includes advice on:

• How to get a script noticed
• Which programming and commissioning opportunities to pursue
• How to approach agents, companies and collaborators

Drawing on Papatango's decade-long experience of discovering and launching successful new writers – who have gone on to win prizes such as BAFTA, OffWestEnd, Royal National Theatre Foundation and Alfred Fagon Awards – this straightforward and accessible book discusses the opportunities and pitfalls of life as a playwright.

Whether you're an aspiring writer wondering how to break into the industry, or a working playwright looking to land bigger commissions, this is your insider road map to navigating the world of professional theatre.