TCG Books

Ben thinks they might be better off without him, but his wife Cat has read her stars: “Today a very special person will appear from out the blue.”

Their daughter Loops is getting ready for a date. It’s her first one, and she has everything crossed.

Start Swimming is a play about occupation, revolution and what the future holds for today’s youth. One step away from disaster, there’s only one thing left to do: start swimming. First staged by the Young Vic Taking Part department, Start Swimming was also performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017.

A young actress meets a powerful film producer in his hotel suite. A revolutionary leads an attack on a colonial club in India. A bereaved mother defends herself against charges of infanticide.

Moving, funny, tragic and empowering, these eight monologues address the constant efforts of women to carve out their rights both in domestic and public spheres – from the criminalisation of marital rape to the first Reclaim the Night march – proclaiming a history of perseverance and resilience shown by women’s rights activists in this country.

Curated by Royal Court Artistic Director, Vicky Featherstone, the monologues for Snatches were commissioned to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom. They were broadcast on BBC Four in 2018, directed by Vanessa Caswill, Vicky Featherstone and Rachna Suri, and starring Jodie Comer, Siobhan Finneran, Romola Garai, Shirley Henderson, Liv Hill, Corinne Skinner-Carter, Kiran Sonia Sawar and Antonia Thomas.

This volume includes:

• Pig Life by E V Crowe
• Tipping Point by Rachel De-lahay
• Pritilata by Tanika Gupta
• Multiples by Zinnie Harris
• Outside by Theresa Ikoko
• Reclaim the Night by Charlene James
• Bovril Pam by Vicky Jones
• Compliance by Abi Morgan

But as the group starts taking action, Grace’s secret becomes harder to hide, and the trust she has built begins to fray. Forced to question the very foundations of her beliefs, Grace finds herself back on the front line, but who is she fighting?

At the local secondary school it’s a different story. Miss Belltop-Doyle can’t control her Year 10s, Mr Pashley has been put in charge of a confiscated Tamagotchi, and Miss Turner is hoping that this muck-up day goes smoother than the last. Tobias, the German language assistant, watches on. Things can only get better.

With close analysis of texts by writers including Shakespeare, Chekhov, Miller, Pinter, and of course Brecht himself, the author demonstrates how Brechtian techniques can provide practical pathways to exploring plays across the canon, as well as non-traditional forms of theatre.

Also included are dozens of exercises to help turn theory into practice, and explore what Brecht’s ideas mean for actors and directors, both in training and rehearsal.

Whether you’re a student, a teacher, an actor or a theatre-maker, this book will change the way you view and work with Brecht.

Out of 37,451 applicants to Eliot University, Angela stands out - but not for the right reasons. An ambiguous event in her past threatens to overshadow her talent, potential, and her future prospects. Can she overcome the prejudices of those judging her application or is she already tainted beyond redemption, regardless of whether she is victim or perpetrator?

Kat gets up one morning, leaves her family behind and travels to London to carry out an act that will change her life and, she hopes, everyone else’s.

Raw, disturbing and compassionate, James Fritz’s searingly powerful play forces a confrontation with some of the most urgent questions we face. What can one individual do to effect change? And where do we draw the line between absolute commitment and dangerous obsession?

2055 – Sylvia’s granddaughter is set to become the first person to walk on Mars.

Witness the adventures of three extraordinary women spanning 80 years, against the backdrop of humanity’s journey to the stars.

A young soldier returning from the trenches of the First World War recollects a love that dare not speak its name. Almost one hundred years later, a groom-to-be prepares for his gay wedding.

Poignant and personal, funny, tragic and riotous, these eight monologues for male and female performers cover major events – such as the Wolfenden Report of 1957, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the debate over the age of consent – through deeply affecting and personal rites-of-passage stories.

Curated by Mark Gatiss, the monologues were commissioned to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men over the age of twenty-one. They were broadcast on BBC Four in 2017, directed and produced by Gatiss, and starring Alan Cumming, Rebecca Front, Ian Gelder, Kadiff Kirwan, Russell Tovey, Gemma Whelan, Ben Whishaw and Fionn Whitehead. They were also staged at The Old Vic in London.

This volume includes:

• The Man on the Platform by Mark Gatiss
• The Perfect Gentleman by Jackie Clune
• Safest Spot in Town by Keith Jarrett
• Missing Alice by Jon Bradfield
• I Miss the War by Matthew Baldwin
• More Anger by Brian Fillis
• A Grand Day Out by Michael Dennis
• Something Borrowed by Gareth McLean

As coffins pile up, a local party leader decides on a radical compensation scheme: a goat for each son martyred.

Developed as part of the Royal Court International Department’s long-term project with writers from Syria and Lebanon, the play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 2017.

Southampton is home to Britain's only hope of victory: the Spitfire. But when the Luftwaffe drops 2,300 bombs in three devastating raids, the city goes up in flames and the Woolston Supermarine Spitfire factory is destroyed. From the ashes, a story of chaos, courage and community spirit emerges.

Jackie is the third generation of Dimmock at her family-run laundry. Polly is the first and only draughtswoman in the Spitfire design office. How will each woman forge her own path in this evolving landscape?

The devastation of war is tearing the Bharata family apart. The new king must unravel a mystery: how can he live with himself in the face of the devastation and massacres that he has caused?

An immense canvas in miniature, this central section of the ancient text is timeless and contemporary, asking how we can find inner peace in a world riven with conflict.

Embroidery is their escape, their sanity, and their expression: of love, loss, artistry and power. For these women’s stitches have the power to change not just their own lives, but the course of English history.

A radical re-imagining by playwright Evan Placey of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, where civilized society meets seedy Soho in a thrilling collision of Victorian England with the here and now.

Critically acclaimed during its run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Lucy Burke’s Glitter Punch – set in Greater Manchester – charts a troubling new relationship between mysterious John and sixteen-year-old Molly, a love that will change their lives forever. “Powerful” (The Stage).

Set in a Wigan taxi, Burkas and Bacon Butties by Shamia Chalabi and Sarah Henley is a heart-warming comedy about taxi-driver Ashraf and his twenty-something daughter, Shaz, as they negotiate the ups and downs of living in a mixed-culture family.

When bereaved mother Mary finds a disembodied arm, a conspiracy builds: maybe her child isn’t quite so dead after all. Shortlisted for Soho Theatre’s Tony Craze Award, Sami Ibrahim’s Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her is an enthralling monologue about love and loss.

The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob is a story of domestic servitude and abuse of power, as authoritarian Kat, her ageing mother, Ma, and their teenaged slave, Maudie, jostle for power – and affection – in their dilapidated London home.

Harry feels like life is beginning to tick down, his autumn years spent quietly caring for the community he loves. Denise thinks life begins in retirement and she's dancing like she's still at high school. When their paths cross at the village hall, their understanding of the time they have left changes irrevocably. What do community, growing old, and falling in love really mean? And who gets to decide anyway?

Winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize, Trestle premieres at Southwark Playhouse, London, in November 2017.

In 1998, Ramona, of Englandshire, has a penchant for Enya and hates bananas. On her geography field trip she meets Jim, a local laddie wearing an anti-pill fleece. He’s obsessed with hermit crabs, rock erosion and making homemade Irn-Bru cocktails.

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, Ramona falls for Jimmy’s awkward charm but gets caught in a scandal that will haunt her for years to come.

Fast forward fifteen years and Jim, of the shittest village in Scotland, has got a girlfriend and something like a functional life. But Ramona still can’t shake the consequences of that fateful trip. Determined to clear her conscience, she heads back to the Highlands to find that neither her nor Jim’s lives have turned out how they had planned.

A university professor is caught in a storm when an image of her in a changing room is shared online. Exploring how images of women are represented in art and social media, Annie Fox’s Woman Caught Unaware is a searing examination of the culture of body-shaming.

Depicting a teenage girl’s solo journey to the North Pole with her father’s ashes, A Hundred Words for Snow by Tatty Hennessy is a complex, epic and undulating story that pitches themes of death and rebirth against a shifting backdrop of climate change, exploration and the uncertain geography of the North.

This collection includes a foreword from actor and playwright Lolita Chakrabarti, one of the judges of the competition, which was organized by Heretic Productions.

The class meets in The Six Bells, which landlady Nora runs as her own community hub. When the pub is threatened with closure, the women refuse to throw in the towel. They commit to an unlicensed Fight Night to raise cash and rally the locals. Yet as the countdown begins, it’s Taylor who finds herself on the ropes.

When he meets Lisa for the first time in years, things get even messier. Oggy wants Lisa. Lisa wants Marc. Marc wants to survive the day.

The nation that receives Mary, Queen of Scots has just outlawed her church and its practices. Its leader is the radical cleric and protestant reformer, John Knox. Both believe themselves ordained by God. Both believe themselves beloved by their people. Both were exiled and returned home… but only one can make Scotland their own.

Linda McLean's Glory on Earth premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in May 2017, in a production directed by Lyceum Artistic Director David Greig.

When Julie finds herself alone on her father's estate, she throws caution to the wind and gate-crashes the servants' party. In the sultry heat of that long, light night, she finds herself in a dangerous tryst with her father's manservant, Jean. What begins as a flirtatious game, as the two vie for power, slowly descends into a savage fight for survival.

Purchased from Russia. Developed in India. Delivered to the UK.

A global transaction over nine months that offers “a lifetime of happiness” for all involved.

So the foursome come up with a fast-track solution to the problem: live together. Sneakily split the rent and bills on a tiny one-bedroom flat for a year. But with paper-thin walls and space growing sparser by the day, which will they sacrifice first – the friendship, the relationship, or the dream of buying their own property?

Matt Hartley's Deposit premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in 2015, and was revived there (in this revised and updated version) in 2017.

There must be more than this. The celebrities that fill her social media feeds are only separated by a screen, but that's as close as she'll ever get to someone like Kanye West. People think he's a God.

But what if everyone thought she was someone else? Someone different. Someone better.

New to the city and in a stopgap job, Dee has the chance to reinvent herself. But how can you change your life when you don't know what you want? Welcome to the secret life of a thirty-three-year-old woman.

Touch was first produced by Soho Theatre and DryWrite at Soho Theatre, London, in July 2017.

Barbs Marshall is a celebrity hairdresser in Glasgow. She is successful and well off, but she is 39 years old and almost deafened by the ticking of her biological clock. To make matters worse, her mother is a nag, her best friend is holding out on her, and her ex-husband has a new 22-year-old girlfriend. Then she meets a 26-year-old stranger who seems more than ready to oblige. But the complications are by no means over...

But when Lorna gets a place at university, and Grace gets pregnant, they suddenly find themselves in starkly different worlds. Can anything bridge the gap between them?

A man and a woman

Who’ve lost a child

Who first lost a child

And then... each other

Or maybe I should say:

Who first lost a child, then themselves and then each other

An extraordinary play that asks a simple question: is it ever possible to move on?

Cicero, the greatest orator of his age, devoted all his energy and cunning to preserve the rule of law, and defend Rome's Republic against the predatory attacks of political rivals, discontented aristocrats, and would-be military dictators.

Molly cooks. Molly does the dishes. Molly gets her little brother Joe ready for school. Molly is only twelve, but she doesn’t feel much like a kid anymore.

Now her mum is feeling better, maybe things will get back to normal. Maybe Molly can learn to be a kid again.

Six young people are caught in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in the heart of London. By turns terrifying, inspiring, brutal, heartbreaking and hilarious, BU21 is verbatim theatre from the very near future.

This published edition adapts the highly successful, provocative and participative theatre production for the page, offering readers the opportunity to play -- as individuals or in teams – the managers of a clothing factory in China and recreate the experience of the game.

Like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel, the game has multiple routes and outcomes, interlinking questions of ethics, fashion, consumer capitalism, environmental impact, working conditions, migration and globalization. In a cross between Monopoly and poker, players trade in workers and money, but it is a game about values -- will you be an ethical factory owner or will profits always come first? In the rag trade, can anyone ever really win?

World Factory was created and produced in 2015 by the performing arts company METIS, in co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre, Young Vic, and Company of Angels. It was performed at the Young Vic, London, and on tour of the UK.

Princess Anne is soon to become Queen, and her advisors vie for influence over the future monarch. Who can Anne turn to when even her most trusted friends seem bent on pursuing power?

Contending with deceit and blackmail, Anne must decide where her allegiances lie, and whether to sacrifice her closest relationships for the sake of the country.

Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, Queen Anne premiered at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in November 2015, and was revived at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in 2017.

The four other plays in this book include:

Apologia, a perceptive look at what has happened to 1960s idealists and their children.

The Faith Machine, an exploration of the relationship between faith and capitalism that asks fundamental questions about the true meaning of love.

Bracken Moor, a haunting tale of grief and denial, set against the economic crisis of the 1930s.

Sunset at the Villa Thalia, a passionate and deeply personal play about the impact of foreign influence, planned and unintentional, on a nation and its people.

David Edgar is one of our greatest living writers. His rich history with the RSC stretches from Destiny in 1976 through the multi-award-winning adaptation of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, to Written on the Heart (2011). Now he returns to Dickens to rediscover the social conscience of this timeless tale.

YES or NO.”

Polly and Owen have nailed it. Successful in their careers and wildly in love with each other, they feel ready to take on the world.

But when a mysterious new technology, promising a break from the daily grind, creeps into everyone's phones, their world is turned upside down. As the line between physical and digital rapidly dissipates, Polly and Owen are forced to question whether their definitions of reality and freedom are the same.

In a dingy London bedsit in the late 1950s, George is planning a night on the town with his friend Gordon. Weaver wants to come too, and soon Mrs Tebbit, the landlady, has been invited. But when Mr Thomas shows up, the night takes a strange and sinister turn...

Mr Thomas premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London, in January 1990, directed by the playwright, and starring Ray Winstone as Weaver. Re-issued in this new edition, the play provides rich opportunities for theatre companies, and is a fascinating insight into the work of one of our best-loved actresses.

What makes us truly happy? Health? Family? Professional success? Blasting it in the gym? Romance? Pills?

Or are we ignoring the bigger stuff? Real life-changing stuff that can devastate the world if we just keep ignoring it.

But here, people are products, movies are money and sex sells. And the rights to your life can be a dangerous commodity to exploit.

A mysterious stranger turns up in their past and present – could he be the missing piece of the jigsaw they’ve been yearning for? Hilarious and heartbreaking, Kevin Elyot’s evocative final play proves how powerful our past can be in the present.

Twilight Song premiered at Park Theatre, London, in 2017.