richard nelson

Goodnight Children Everywhere
"Richard Nelson’s new play announces itself almost as if it were Chekhovian . . . the play, like all plays of discovery and purgation, has a translucency and a density that nag, hurt and heal."—London Sunday Times

New England
"Smart, sharp, acridly funny . . . in the sweetest of all ironies, it’s an American writer at the peak of his form who has given London’s RSC the major new play that has eluded them all year."—Variety

Some Americans Abroad
"A sequel to The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain’s caustic view of pretentious Americans abroad: both works indict the well-educated American middle-class for its supine and superficial relationship to Old World culture."—New York Times

Two Shakespearean Actors
"Nelson’s provocative account of the deadly rivalry between two great 18th-century actors."—Variety

Franny’s Way
"Boundaries warp and melt in the dense urban heat that pervades Franny’s Way, Richard Nelson’s sensitively drawn portrait of love in the age of J.D. Salinger."—New York Times

A prolific and varied writer, Richard Nelson is also the author of a screenplay, a television play, the books for musicals and plays for young audiences, as well as a string of radio plays and powerful adaptations from the classic European repertory of Beaumarchais, Brecht, Chekhov, Goldoni, Molière and Strindberg, all of which have influenced the development of his own craft. Among his many awards include the London Time Out Award, two OBIEs, two Giles Cooper awards and numerous grants and fellowships. He is an honorary associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

“A full emotional geography of a family . . . Seemingly light conversation scrapes the skins of the characters in this sharply etched study of dislocation, loneliness and sexual betrayal.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“Nelson is a master of the quiet detail, of the oblique rhythm that transforms emotional diffidence into fascinating character.”—Linda Winer, Newsday

“The early scenes proceed with the closely observed simplicity of Chekhov, whereas the later more wrenching moments evoke the eloquent bitterness of Albee.”—David Cote, TimeOut New York

A new work by leading American playwright Richard Nelson, who for more than 25 years has written prolifically, and with fine detail, on the perplexities of everyday living. In Rodney’s Wife, a fading American actor in Rome for the filming of a 1960s spaghetti Western gathers with family and friends at a rented villa. Over the course of one booze-soaked summer night, jealousies and secrets are revealed that crumble the foundations of their relationships. Inspired by Euripides, the play is a tragedy of exiles who continue to need each other, even as they push away.

Richard Nelson won Britain’s Olivier Award for Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere, and the Tony Award for Best Book for his musical James Joyce’s The Dead. His plays have been widely produced in the U.S. and Great Britain. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama.

Includes: Strictly Dishonorable by Preston Sturges, The Racket by Bartlett Cormack, The Ghost of Yankee Doodle by Sidney Howard and A Slight Case of Murder by Howard Lindsay and Damon Runyon.

"No previous works of theater have been topical in the resonant and specific ways of the Apple Family plays... They are a rare and radiant mirror of the way we live... In another fifty years audiences will be watching these plays to remember how we remembered." - Ben Brantley, New York Times

"The writing is so minutely observed, the portrayal of American life and its politics so current and acute that these plays speak what all of us are thinking (politically, socially, morally), but few are saying." - Alexis Soloski, Village Voice

"Positively shattering... the Apple Family plays cement Nelson's place in American theatrical history." - Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly

This critically acclaimed play cycle about loss, memory and remembrance follows the Apple family of Rhinebeck, New York, as they grapple with events both personal and political in their immediate present: the 2010 election (That Hopey Changey Thing), the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (Sweet and Sad), Obama's reelection (Sorry), and the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's assassination (Regular Singing). Delicately constructed and precisely observed, this quartet of plays — each of which premiered at The Public Theater on the day it was set — is a masterpiece of stage naturalism and a powerful reminder of the theater's unique capacity for civic dialogue and public communion.

Richard Nelson's many plays include Nikolai and the Others, Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award for Best Play), Franny's Way, Some Americans Abroad, Frank's Home, Two Shakespearean Actors and James Joyce's The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical).

“Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English.” —James Wood, New Yorker

Called “the greatest play written in Russian” by Vladimir Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol’s immortal comedy is a pitch-perfect satire of social corruption. Now, renowned American playwright Richard Nelson and the foremost contemporary translators of classic Russian literature Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, collaborate on a revelatory new translation of Gogol’s biting masterpiece. With an introduction and text notes by Richard Pevear, this essential edition marks the first in a series of translations of major works of Russian drama for TCG.

Forthcoming titles include:
A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

Richard Nelson’s many plays include The Apple Family: Scenes from Life in the Country (That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, Sorry and Regular Singing); Nikolai and the Others; Goodnight Children Everywhere (Olivier Award for Best Play); Franny’s Way; Some Americans Abroad; Frank’s Home; Two Shakespearean Actors and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical).

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated the works of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Boris Pasternak and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina won the PEN Translation Prize in 1991 and 2002, respectively. Pevear, a native of Boston, and Volokhonsky, of St. Petersburg, are married and live in France.