TCG Books

Jean Rhys was obsessed with Jane Eyre—and more particularly with Bertha Mason, the first Mrs. Rochester and the "madwoman in the attic." Placing Bertha on stage throughout as Jean’s alter ego, Polly Teale’s remarkable dramatization of Rhys’ life gives full vent to this obsession—which was to prove the catalyst for The Wild Sargasso Sea.

Everyone wants to get to the executive suite. Everyone wants the Delhi job. Everyone wants sex, everyone wants love. So they push for it. Published alongside the U.K. premiere at the Royal Court, a sexy new play from an exciting new German writer.

It’s 1967. Alex and Mary are "homers," sent from care homes in Glasgow to live with a new family in the Islands. They are thrown into the kaleidoscope of island life: the teacher who barks in a strange language; the minister and his penchant for Elvis; Andrena with her fetish for Hebridean delicacies.

A Dublin taxi driver is accidentally stabbed with a used hypodermic. He decides not to tell his wife and two teenage kids about the incident until it is already too late. This brings to the surface other lies buried within the family, raising provocative questions of whether it is better to conceal or tell all.

Playwright and former literary manager Tim Fountain guides the budding playwright over the many hurdles involved in getting a play on stage—from finding a story that only you know, through the detailed construction of the play, and on to the strategies you can use to get it on stage.

On the family estate outside Oslo at the turn of the nineteenth century, a man paces up and down an upstairs room. This is John Gabriel Borkman, once a famous entrepreneur, now reduced to penury and self-doubt following a prison sentence for embezzlement. His wife, her twin sister and his son are all entrapped in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the household—one which is bound for explosion.

SMark arrives in a village near Madras to try and find his wife. He does not understand what has driven her to abandon her young son. Jane cannot explain why she needed to escape or how she ended up looking after children in India or what is in the bag she’s been holding on to. It is hot, dusty and poor, and a long way from their comfortable life in London.

Mojo Mickybo is a vibrant and fast-paced tale of two boys growing up in Belfast in the early 1970s—one from up the road, the other from over the bridge. Their friendship centers on playing headers, torturing a cantankerous old man, building huts, spitting from cinema balconies and re-enacting Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Also include the two short monologues, The Waiting List and I Won’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me.

Gus and Honor have been happily married for thirty-two years. She is a successful writer, he is a revered columnist. They have a perfect understanding of each other. Until a pushy young female journalist—on assignment to profile Gus—quite deliberately seeks to undermine that understanding. The fallout is dreadful—but beautifully and convincingly portrayed in all its painful consequences.

Robert Holman’s gripping new play explores the nature of violence and the possibility of redemption.

"Hypnotic . . . a shimmering, wistful evocation of lost innocence."—The London Times

Holman is also the author of Making Noise Quietly and Bad Weather

A dramatization of the time that Van Gogh spent in Brixton in the 1870s—a period before he became a painter and one that changed him completely. Vincent develops a rapport with a widow twice his age, which blossoms into a full-blown love affair, only to be cruelly curtailed by the arrival of his fiercely puritan young sister. From the author of Cressida, Mrs. Klein, and the recent adaptation of Wedekind’s Lulu.

Set in a bedroom in well-to-do Dublin, Communion is about two brothers in their early 30s. Jordan, a trainee doctor, is bedbound and dying of a tumor; Marcus, brilliant and charismatic, has been a psychiatric patient. An ebullient gloom is repeatedly dispelled by the liveliness of the dialogue and characters and by the buoyant humor on display—particularly at the expense of the Catholic Church.

After 15 years in Philadelphia, Ruth has built up a business successful enough to bring her home to Derry, Ireland. But instead of the welcome she longed for, her arrival provokes instant strife. Her widowed mother is being driven to distraction by her own widowed mother, Doddie, who is convinced that Ruth is Doddie’s sister—a woman who got pregnant and eloped with a G.I., only to be abandoned in Liverpool.

The setting is a remote railway station in a remote part of the Boundless Motherland. Stranded there are a young spiv, selling overpriced toasters to the local peasantry, and his heavily pregnant wife. They don’t like the place, they don’t like the people, and they don’t like each other.

Packed with exercises and practical techniques, The Improvisation Game explores how improvisation can be used both to create performance and as an end in itself. It reveals the techniques, structures, and methods used by key practitioners in the field of improvised drama, music, and dance—among them are Keith Johnstone, Max Stafford-Clark, Phelim McDermott, Tim Etchells, John Wright, and Robert Lepage.

Set in Oweney’s barbershop, where the rooms to let above the shop offer refuge to a host of lonely hearts: a recently laid-off hotel night porter, an angry young artist, an orphan girl, a wounded old widower, a likeable bruiser, and the beautiful Maeve. All of them, in their various ways, fall under Oweney’s loving spell. A heartwarming new play from the author of The Wexford Trilogy and Calvacaders.

Vera, feisty but fading, and Ronnie, washed up and permanently half-drunk, preside over a grubby pub/hotel in present-day Belfast. We watch them—and their variously inadequate "regulars"—through one long day in which Ronnie fails to secure the pub’s financial future and Vera looks set to run off with the feckless Iggy.

Andromache takes place in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Andromache has become a concubine to Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, bearing him a child, Molossus. The captive Andromache is haunted by memories of her former life and by her love for Hector and their son Astyanax, both slain by the Greeks who are now her masters.

One Night Stands is Michael Billington’s own selection of theatre reviews from his twenty years of writing for the Guardian from 1971 to 1991. Arranged chronologically, with a 5,000 word introduction on the role of the critic, these reviews and occasional "think pieces" add up to an authoritative yet highly personal history of British theatre over two vital decades at the end of the 20th century.

A simple, step-by-step manual, written by a Royal Shakespeare Company voice coach, offers everything that actors need to work on their voices. Suitable for actors at all levels, from students and young professionals to established and experienced actors. Drama teachers in schools and committed amateur actors who want to increase their vocal skills and understanding will also find it invaluable.

One of Scotland’s most popular writers, the multi-award-winning Liz Lochhead, takes on Molière’s most famous play. Le Misanthrope is a bitter comedy about a sophisticated Parisian who cannot help telling uncomfortable truths about his fellow men. Lochhead transposes the setting to present-day Scotland, and instantly injects the zest and vigor typical of her own comedies, most notably Perfect Days.

The sighting of a rare bird attracts attention to a remote part of the Fens. The visiting birdwatchers cannot know what dangers lie in the freezing darkness of the marshes. In an isolated cabin, Wattmore, bruised and bleeding, is recording the Old Testament onto cassette. Griffin arrives with two bags of chips. Salvation is at hand—a cash prize for winning the university poetry competition and the arrival of a possible lodger.

Only officially attributed to Shakespeare in 1998, Edward III chronicles the beginning of the 100 Years War and acts as a prequel to Richard II.

Ray got away from the far north of Scotland years ago. Now Ray returns home to Chaimg, the man who loved him like a son and who lives a life of quiet old age with his granddaughter. For them, Ray’s unheralded return is a welcome surprise. For Ray, it marks the dawning realization of what he’s become.

In bedbound, a father and daughter share a small bed. He talks frantically about his extraordinary past in furniture sales; she talks no less compulsively about anything at all, to fill the terrifying silence in her head. In misterman, we enter the head of Thomas Magill, an unstable man whose mission is to bring God to his fellow townfolk of Inishfree.

Desmond Olivier Dingle gives us the benefit of his huge and devastating knowledge by charting the history of the world in 58 chapters and three prefaces. Each chapter is replete with erudition: "The Chinese Empire is one of the oldest Empires in the world and existed until recently without anyone knowing about it. Apart from the Chinese, obviously." The man behind Dingle, Patrick Barlow, also penned the National Theatre of Brent’s Love Upon the Throne and The Messiah.

Ronnie is fresh off the plane from Israel, looking to move back into his old room in Dave’s flat and pick up where he left off. But life has moved on. And when his younger sister Cass and her new relationship with Dave become the target of Ronnie’s interference, her belief that blood is thicker than water starts to crack under the strain. Hand in Hand deals with issues of loyalty and betrayal in private and political life.

Florence, 1501. A vast block of Carrara marble known as Il Gigante becomes the center of conflict between two great artists, as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo compete for a prestigious commission to carve a statue of David. A powerful, witty, and moving play exploring the dark interplay between sexuality and creativity.

Bristol, 1995. It is Alice’s 85th birthday. An occasion for celebration. But like many family gatherings, it is also an occasion for parading long-held resentments, as her children attempt to persuade her to relinquish her independence and move to a home. But Alice has other plans...

A new edition of the "tour-de force" (Time Out) based on the life of Quentin Crisp. "The great majority of this absorbing monologue consists of Crisp’s own words...wisely Fountain doesn’t attempt any trudge through the life story...Instead, Crisp treats us to his views on television, oral sex, the nature of style and the secret of happiness"—Daily Telegraph

Condemned and banned for five years in Molière’s day, Tartuffe is a satire on religious hypocrisy. Tartuffe worms his way into Orgon’s household, blinding the master of the house with his religious "devotion," and almost succeeds in his attempts to seduce his wife and disinherit his children before the final unmasking.

A large-scale play co-written by Britain’s leading political playwright, this is a historical romp crossing Jane Austen with Charles Dickens. David Edgar is back with this energetic and wide-ranging story of a whole community in early-nineteenth-century Dorset, with over fifty characters from Mad King George III to laborers and jailbirds.

Part political thriller and part personal drama, The President's Holiday is a gripping and deeply moving play about Gorbachev's final hours as President of the USSR.

One late summer afternoon, a successful middle-aged man sits peacefully with his wife on the veranda of their summer house. Half an hour later, the building is swarming with secret police and heavily armed officers, and he and his family are in fear of their lives.

The man is Mikhail Gorbachev, the President of the USSR, and the date is 18 August 1991.

Penny Gold draws on the diaries of Raisa Gorbachev to tell the story of a family under siege and an idealist who unwittingly destroys everything for which he has fought.

Here are the famous speeches from Juliet—"Come, night! Come, Romeo!"—and from Portia—"The quality of mercy..."—but also less familiar ones from Viola, Hermia, Isabella and Cressida. These younger characters make up the first half of the book, while the second half is devoted to maturer women like Lady Macbeth—"How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me"—Gertrude, Mistress Quickly, Cleopatra and Queen Katherine.

Never seen outside America until 2007, Theodore Ward’s landmark family drama, Big White Fog, remains as poignant today as it was when it burst upon the Chicago stage in 1937. It later went on to New York, where it was produced by the Negro Playwrights’ Company, of which Ward was a co-founder with, among others, Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes.

“A quite wonderful idea …So blindingly obvious, I can't understand why nobody had thought of it before. I will certainly use the texts myself.”—Sir Peter Hall

This brand new edition accurately reproduces the First Folio of the plays of William Shakespeare letter for letter, dot for dot, but does so in modern type. As a further aid to understanding, on each opposite page, the same text appears, but this time in a fully modernized version. Each volume, scrupulously edited by Shakespeare scholar Nick de Somohyi, also contains two introductions, textual notes, an appendix giving variant versions from the Quarto where appropriate, and a fascimile page from the First Folio.

An epic tale of kinship, money and desire, set amongst the Traveller people of the Scottish Highlands.

Summer 1948 in the North West Highlands. Post-war austerity grips the land, but the pickings are rich for Traveller people, as they trade, poach, rustle - and fish for pearls in the clear water of the rivers.

Relations with the local people hang on a fragile thread, as they barter with one another, juggling language and meaning - and sometimes desire. Then one day Jess, a girl from the village, spies Ali the Traveller close up, trawling the river-bed. Jess steals his pearls, and her lover Roderick pledges to make a necklace for her - setting in motion a chain of events which will change both communities for ever.

Half a century later, in the autumn of 2007, the waters have risen, and the story is still being told and re-enacted.

Testing the Echo is a provocative and often satirical look at the overwhelming difficulty of defining what it is to be British. It asks crucial questions about whether fundamentalist Muslims can ever be truly assimilated into a society whose values and assumptions are so very different from their own.

David Edgar is best known for his adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby and is the author of Pentecost.

A powerful play about the growing culture of human exploitation in the UK, delving below the surface to reveal a personal account of life as a migrant worker.

In Ukraine, Victor had a business, a family and a home, but things have changed and he's fled to the UK in search of a better life. Now he's doing everything from gutting fish to picking carrots.

But Victor's a strong-minded man. He's not staying at the bottom of the economic food chain, he's going to build a business of his own and play the gang masters at their own game.

"Liz Lochhead’s stunning new version of Medea is the kind of interpretation—brave, visionary, risky—that blows a well-known text apart and reassembles it in a completely new light... What Lochhead does is to recast Medea as an episode—ancient but new, cosmic yet agonizingly familiar—in a sex war which is recognizable to every woman, and most of the men, in the theatre..."—The Scotsman

A bittersweet drama about life, love, loss, and sculpture.

One night, deep in the forests of 12th-century West Wales, the celebrated rebel Prince Emrys is hunted to his death by his brother Prince Geraint. Eight hundred years later nothing much has happened to the town of Treianto, and the town council have decided to erect a statue to its Prince. But what did he look like? How was he killed? Why was the page left holding the horse? And does any of this matter with a juicy grant cheque in the offing?

A unique, personal guide to William Shakespeare's life and plays told through the experience of a leading classical actor. Michael Pennington illuminates each of Shakespeare's plays with his own considerable understanding of the theater then and now, and the result is an insightful examination of the man and his work.

Published to mark Caryl Churchill’s seventieth birthday, this volume includes: Cloud Nine, Bliss, Hotel, This is a Chair, Blue Heart, Far Away, A Number, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?, and A Dream Play.

Bruising, charged, and spellbound, How to Curse is Ian McHugh’s first play, and received its premiere at London’s Bush Theatre. It is a fascinating, alarming portrait of three young people dangerously near the edge, unaware of the powers they are about to release.

An emotionally involving family play that evokes the poignancy and the poison of the festive season - from the award-winning writer of The Sugar Wife.

A small town in the south east of England. Eddie returns home for a peaceful family Christmas for the first time in many years. But neither he nor his parents can forget or forgive themselves for the death of their other son, Richard, and the unanswered questions that surround it.

But not for much longer - it seems that Richard had secrets that are about to erupt into their lives. Dormant conflicts begin to surface as Eddie's family are confronted with the ghosts of Christmases past - along with some unwelcome revelations about the present.

A searingly funny comedy about fighting for freedom, and climbing the food chain.

West Anglia: the new name for Wales. Three bumbling terrorists cling to their values as the modern world invades the land of their fathers. An archaeological discovery in the valleys leads to the scientific coup of the millennium. And in Sainsbury's, a man who can't even choose a pasta sauce struggles to choose the perfect life.

The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents is the provocative story of a modern family consumed by fear and hope. A disturbing exploration of the politics of social restrictions, it marks the British debut of Swiss-born Lukas Bärfuss, one of the rising stars of contemporary German theater.

Unravelling the Ribbon is a moving, frequently hilarious Irish play for three women about the daily reality of breast cancer. Rosie, in her mid-thirties, with two kids and married to a farmer, discovers a lump in her breast. The things that happen then—chemotherapy, mastectomy, radiotherapy—are narrated with gripping immediacy.

Packed full of insights and tricks of the trade, this book will give you the inspiration and confidence you need, whether you are taking your first steps in the profession or simply want to know what it takes to get a show on the stage.

A raucous comedy and a compelling story about secrets, memory, history and 'cariad' - Welsh for love, beloved one, darling.

Late one night, Blodwen takes smartly dressed, metropolitan Jayne into her home. Jayne is paralytic and Blodwen is delighted that the two childhood friends are reunited after thirty years. But what different lives both women now lead. As Blodwen talks about their childhood, Jayne begins to worry: she doesn't remember their friendship at all. Or does she?

Two universes collide in this radical reworking of Christopher Marlowe’s classic Doctor Faustus. From the white boxes of Britart to the cathedrals of sixteenth-century Europe to the lair of the seven deadly sins, Faustus and the Chapmans challenge the limits of life and art, risking everything in their pursuit of immortality.

An uncompromising account of the heartbreaking choices faced by mothers today and what happens when a distant war comes home.

Like every mother, Gill wants the best for her two sons—to raise them well and to keep them safe. The only way to have the best is to be the best: join the army. As the brutal business of war unfolds, the boys become men their mother doesn't recognize, and maternal love is put to a grueling test.

This is a painfully truthful, occasionally cruel, yet laugh-out-loud funny comedy of social and sexual manners set among the urban, thirty-something middle classes. Happy Now? marks the arrival in the mainstream of an acerbic new playwright with a gift for social comedy.

On six moonlit Montreal balconies on a sultry summer’s evening, eleven people tell their stories of love. Each pieces together the landscape of an affair, tracing the gradations between intoxicating highs and heartbreaking lows. Inspired by the discovery of a lost mass by Berlioz, A Full Moon in Summer dispenses with religious themes but uses the ritual of a traditional mass to lay bare the characters’ overpowering emotions.

Formerly the enfant terrible of the British stage, Howard Brenton has recently returned to the theater with a number of successes, including Paul for the National Theatre and In Extremis for Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Never So Good is his newest epic play on British politics, which premiered in the spring of 2008 at the National Theatre.

This is a sparkling new translation of The School for Wives, Molière’s famous comedy of sexual manners, by popular Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead.

Building on his own experience as an actor, director, and teacher, John Abbott writes with clarity and an infectious enthusiasm that will motivate directors to try the improvisation techniques for themselves. Packed with useful exercises, scenarios, and examples from a wide variety of plays.

An unrivalled unofficial history of the rise, and partial fall, of fringe theater, Mike Bradwell's deadpan story is one of the funniest and angriest books to come out of theater today. As he travels through a counterculture peopled by scheming opportunists, dreamers, and prophets, Bradwell makes us marvel at his resilience and creativity.

Fiona Evans’ electrifying portrayal of a dangerously charged romance and its disturbing implications was the show to see at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, winning a Fringe First Award.

Hilarious, brutal and tragic, Delirium is a radical re-interpretation of The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's classic and compelling tale of family rivalries. The play is the result of a collaboration between acclaimed company theatre o and award-winning playwright Enda Walsh.

The Karamazovs are a train wreck waiting to happen. A hated father and his sons battle it out over women, money and God. They don't so much live as burn up. Behind them lurks a servant, taking note of it all; and to the side, two beautiful women, clinging onto impossible loves.

This volume includes illustrations by Paddy Molloy.