Bøger i Contemporary Dramatists serien

This volume contains the complete collection of Sarah Kane's plays, including "Blasted"; "Phaedra's Love"; "Cleansed"; "Crave"; "4.48 Psychosis"; and "Skin".

One of the most exciting young dramatists to emerge in Britain during the 1990s. His three most important plays in one volume

Ten years after the publication of Shinn Plays: One comes this second volume of his plays, bringing together some of the playwright's most acclaimed work to date.The volume includes:Now Or Later (Royal Court, London, 2008) examines religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility, focused around a US presidential election.Four (Royal Court, London 1998) is set on the 4th July public holiday and is about four isolated young people searching for connection.Picked (Vineyard Theatre, New York, 2011) takes as its centre a young actor who is selected to star in a major movie and the impact this then has on his life and identity.On The Mountain (South Coast Rep, Costa Mesa, 2005) is about a teenager whose mother is starting out on a new relationship, while both are battling with the memories of the past.The anthology also features an introduction by the author.

"James Graham is a political playwright so on top of his game that you kind of take it on faith that any play he comes up with will be a banger, regardless of how esoteric the subject." (Time Out) The third collection of James Graham's plays brings together four West End hits and a Tony Award Best Play nominee into one unforgettable anthology of political, national and human stories perceptively told and expertly crafted. INK: "It's a sharply written, vibrantly theatrical, boisterously performed piece of work. And while it vividly recaptures the now extinct world of Fleet Street - with its adrenalized and testosterone-heavy mix of news hounds and hacks, idealism and cynicism, professional pride and boozy waggishness - the play's depiction of the rise of a certain brand of populism and its immediately detrimental effect on British society makes it profoundly of the moment." - Hollywood Reporter Labour of Love: "James Graham [...] has a rare capacity to recreate pivotal moments from our past. In his brilliant new play, however, he adds another weapon to his armoury. He not only provides a portrait of the historic ups and downs of the Labour party; he also charts, with surprising tenderness, a turbulent relationship between an MP and his constituency agent". - Guardian Quiz: "Can we truly believe our eyes and ears, or do we only ever see what we want to see? In James Graham's glittering play you can take your pick from an array of alternative facts, but you might struggle to find the truth among the razzle-dazzle. One thing's for sure, though - Quiz is a winner." - TimesBest of Enemies: "History comes hurtling to life in "Best of Enemies," the latest attempt from the prolific playwright James Graham to put flesh on the bare bones of the past. Chronicling a sequence of televised face-offs that transfixed the United States in 1968, Graham once again shows a gift for mining the annals of politics and journalism for real theatrical gems. The result [...] is the most riveting play in London just now." - New York Times

Multi-award-winning Scottish playwright Kieran Hurley has been making waves since the early 2010s with his vivid storytelling and searing honesty, creating plays acutely concerned with society and community, and deeply enmeshed in Scotland's local political context. Tracking the evolution of Hurley's work from his early solo shows to his later large-cast plays and featuring an introduction by Scottish theatre critic Joyce McMillan, this is an exciting collection showcasing one of the UK's most exciting creators of politically-engaged theatre. The plays collected are:Hitch (2010): a previously unpublished solo show about Hurley's hitchhiking trip to the 2009 G8 meeting in L'Aquila, exploring the meaning of political protest.Beats (2012): a coming-of-age story exploring the aftermath of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act outlawing raves. It was adapted into a film in 2019, garnering nominations for BIFA Best Debut Screenplay and WGGB Best Screenplay.Heads Up (2016): a ferocious piece of storytelling asking what we would do if we found ourselves at the end of our world as we know it. (Winner of the Fringe First Award 2016.)Mouthpiece (2018): an unflinching Edinburgh-centric two-hander which examines whether it's possible to tell someone else's story without exploiting them along the way. (Winner of the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award 2019.)The Enemy (2021): a provocative and timely drama offering a uniquely Scottish take on Henrik Ibsen's timeless work An Enemy of the People.

'Playwright David Ireland challenges people to draw lines between what they find funny and what they find outrageous' (Sydney Morning Herald) This first collection of plays by David Ireland brings together three of his most successful hits that have enjoyed numerous productions around the world alongside two previously unpublished plays: Half a Glass of Water: 'The dialogue is brutal and tender, horrific and humorous ... this is a tough, challenging work, undercut by Ireland's trademark black humour, which asks questions of what a successful post-conflict society looks like.' (Independent) The End of Hope: 'A freewheeling, majestically entertaining, all-too-brief hour that touches on everything from religion and identity to body dysmorphia' (Times)Cyprus Avenue: 'The most shocking play on the London stage ... a blackly comic examination of sectarian hatred - and a subversive drama that has never been more relevant' (Guardian) Ulster American: 'What a brave, savage writer David Ireland is! There are moments in this play that are so shockingly provocative, so laugh-out-loud funny while simultaneously curl-into-a-ball-and cringe-worrying that I found my mouth was actually open. He can't go there, I thought. And then he did.' (WhatsOnStage) Sadie: 'A fascinating account of one woman, her troubles and the Troubles.' (Irish News)David Ireland was Playwright-in-Residence at the Lyric Theatre Belfast 2011-12. He won the Stewart Parker Award and the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright 2016. He won the James Tait Black Prize Award for Cyprus Avenue.

"Stephens writes dramas set in uncaring, uncompromising worlds, whose characters speak in a language at once naturalistic and yet artificially pared-down and whose uncertain attempts to assert their own identities sometimes lead to gratuitous and brutal acts of violence." - Financial TimesA fifth collection of plays by one of Britain's most prolific contemporary playwrights, Simon Stephens, charting his work from 2011-2016, ranging from London's Royal Court Theatre, Manchester's Royal Exchange and Broadway. Wastwater (2011) "Metaphoric, allusive, and thoroughly disturbing in its evocation of suspicion and uncertainty, Wastwater is a thought-provoking play whose quiet intensity stays with you for days - its effect is like that of a ugly stone dropped into a pool, which results in constant ripples of dirty water lapping at your subconscious" (Aleks Sierz)Birdland (2014) "Mega-fame and limitless cash can turn a man into a monster, and Simon Stephens's new play excellently evokes its hero's spiritually shrunken world" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Blindsided (2014) "the dialogue has a rare quality of moment-by-moment intensity" (Telegraph)Song From Far Away (2015) "a meditative monologue - a searching study of impotently self-aware emotional insufficiency" (Independent) Heisenberg (2016) "Mr. Stephens ... is an uncannily subtle dramatist who never wears his depths on the surface ... he probes clichés until they fall apart, before reassembling them into solid but transformed shapes, reminding us why such clichés have become enduring elements of our collective mythology." (Ben Brantley, New York Times)

This second collection of plays by Caryl Churchill includes "Objections to Sex and Violence", "Softcops", "Top Girls", "Fen" and "Serious Money".

Since her early break-through at the Royal Court Theatre in 1995, where she won the George Devine award and was joint winner of the Verity Bargate Award, Judy Upton has proven herself to be one of Britain's most prolific and diverse writers. In this, her second collection, we see work ranging from 1995 through to the 2000s and a collection of short work created during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Bruises (1995) Royal Court Theatre, London - "This is no angry polemic but a subtly atmospheric piece ... Neither writer nor director seeks easy answers in this coolly disturbing view of an issue usually hammered home with both fists." (Evening Standard)The Girlz (1998) Orange Tree, London - "Judy Upton's ever-promising career takes another small leap forward with this tantalising foray into characteristic Upton territory, the febrile world of foul-mouthed, disadvantaged young females from the south-east." (Time Out) Sliding With Suzanne (2001) Royal Court Theatre, London - "Judy Upton probably won't thank me for saying so, but her new play, Sliding with Suzanne, comes over as that rarest of phenomena - a contemporary play with a Right-wing agenda. If Margaret Thatcher went to see it she would be appalled by the language and much of the action but would, I suspect, end up applauding its sentiments." (Telegraph) Gaby Goes Global (2009) New Wimbledon Theatre, London - A wry and mischievous look at the benefits system, and the world of fine art. Gaby is a downtrodden employment advisor at the Benefit Delivery Centre. She tries to get rich by promoting the struggling artists who sign on. But it is Gaby who grabs all the attention - with the sort of exposure she hadn't bargained for...Lockdown Tales (2020) - "a story of struggle, hope, even more struggle and then hope which provides a sensitive and sincere insight into the mind of a key worker during lockdown . a must watch and is the epitome of the type of work that should be produced during lockdown." (A Younger Theatre)

Sabrina Mahfouz has been called 'theatrical dynamite' by The Independent and '[one of] our most interesting playwrights' by Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. As a recent elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she is a playwright, poet, essayist, children's author and activist whose work explores a variety of mediums in challenging and genre-defying ways. Her first play collection brings together a unique mix of published and previously unpublished works for the stage, including a Off West End Award-winning play for children; a Fringe First award-winner; a BBC Radio & Music Best Drama award-winner and a Sky Arts Academy award-winning play. From the explosive poetic monologue play Chef to the rhythmic drive of With a Little Bit of Luck, this collection fizzes with infectious lyricism that captures Mahfouz's work for the stage in a variety of different forms, proving that contemporary theatre remains boundless in terms of its ability to spark debate and move audiences.

Birch Plays: 1 celebrates the work of Welsh writer Brad Birch. Winner of the 2016 Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court Theatre Birch is the writer in residence at Undeb Theatre and is currently on attachment at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. His work has been produced by the Royal Court, Sherman Cymru, Theatre503 and the National Youth Theatre as well as around the world in Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany and Spain.Bringing together plays from throughout his career to date this remarkable collection includes a selection of previously published and unpublished works along with an introduction by the author.Where the Shot Rabbits Lay (Royal Court, 2012) - "There are some lovely grace notes in Brad Birch's intimate father-son tale" (Time Out London)Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall (Soho Theatre, 2013) - "a lovely play of sharp edges, falsehoods and unsaid thoughts, twinning great humour and strong emotion throughout" (WhatsOnStage)The Brink (Orange Tree, 2016) - "short, sharp, shockingly entertaining" (The Guardian)Black Mountain (Paines Plough Roundabout, Edinburgh, 2017) - "This is a real rarity: a psychological thriller that feels psychologically accurate - and it actually thrills too." (Scotsman)

The second collection of work by Olivier award-winning British playwright Laura Wade, bursting with her trademark satirical humour and her sharp, witty insight into gender and privilege. Posh (2010): the cult sensation which propelled Laura Wade onto the national stage and inspired the film The Riot Club (2014). Based on Oxford's real-life Bullingdon Club, the play unfolds during an evening of debauchery in an all-male elite student dining society. Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (2010): a play for voices to be performed with an orchestra, re-imagining Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata as an intimate two-hander. Home, I'm Darling (2018): a dark comedy about marriage and relationships, following one woman in the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The Watsons (2018): a sparkingly funny new take on the unfinished Jane Austen novel, catapulting the characters into a contemporary context whilst dealing with questions of authorship and writer's block.

The sixth collection of plays from award-winning playwright Richard Bean, including the world-conquering hit One Man, Two Guvnors, as well as Young Marx, his riotous take on Karl Marx's life in London, which launched London's new Bridge Theatre and The Hypocrite, a historical-farcical romp that lit up Hull's year as City of Culture.One Man, Two GuvnorsBased on Carlo Goldoni's classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters, sex, food and money are high on the agenda.Winner of the both 2011 Evening Standard Theatre Best New Play & Critic's Circle Best New Play awards.Young MarxCreditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures. His writing blocked, his marriage dying, his friend Engels in despair at his wasted genius, his only hope is a job on the railway. But there's still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx.The HypocriteApril 1642. Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull, is charged by Parliament to secure the arsenal at Hull and deny entry to King Charles I. If only it were that simple. With a Royalist siege outside the city walls and the rebellion of the mob within, Civil War seems inevitable and losing his head more than probable.

Lucy Prebble is one of Britain's foremost writers for the stage and screen. This eagerly anticipated play collection brings together her landmark plays for the first time, showcasing her work from 2003 to 2019. Beginning with her George Devine Award-winning play The Sugar Syndrome it continues through her explosive look at the biggest financial scandal in history, concluding with her pointed dramatization of the one of the most shocking news stories of the 2010s. The Sugar Syndrome (2003) Dani is on a mission. She's just 17, hates her parents, skives college and prefers life in the chatrooms. What she's looking for is someone honest and direct. Instead she finds Tim, a man twice her age, who thinks she is 11 and a boy. What seems at first to be a case of crossed wires, ends up as an unlikely, and unsettling friendship between the two, which culminates in a shocking, and morally challenging revelation.Enron (2009) One of the most infamous scandals in financial history became a theatrical epic in Enron, a dazzling exposition of the shadowy mechanisms of economic deceit. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy and surreal metaphor, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s, and the financial chaos which has spilled over into the new century.The Effect (2012) a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved.A Very Expensive Poison (2019) A shocking assassination in the heart of London. In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life. At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair.

If there is anyone who should be the children's playwright laureate it is David Wood' (Evening Standard)

A second collection of plays from one of Britain's most original dramatists

This volume contains three plays by John Godber: "Bouncers", "Happy Families", and "Shakers".

The "Street of Crocodiles" creates a vision of provincial Poland in the early part of the century as a restless ocean of unending flux. "Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol" offers an unsentimental evocation of peasant life, while an ice-preserved body forms the central image of "Mnemonic".

A collection of plays by Sarah Daniels which includes "Beside Herself", "Gut Girls", "Headrot Holiday" and "The Madness of Esme and Shaz".

First collection by a young dramatist with few peers. This volume showcases the best four early plays by the writer behind the smash hit stage adaptation of Festen Serving It Up - a 'precociously deceptive' debut play about East End loutishness.

This third collection from playwright John Godber includes "April in Paris", "Up 'n' Under" and "Perfect Pitch" and provides a companion volume to John Godber Plays 1 and 2.

A collection of 8 plays by British black comedy writer Lee Hall. It includes: "Spoonface Steinberg", a play on faith, love and the meaning of life; "Cooking with Elvis", the story of a family of an Elvis impersonator now tied to a wheelchair; and "Bollocks!", an examination of lives ruined by war.

Contains Bond's plays from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bond is one of Britain's most widely read and staged playwrights, whose first play, "Saved", made a successful appearance at the Royal Court in 1965. His plays offer political and moral critiques of human society and relationships.

This collection of plays by one of Britain's most controversial dramatists includes "The Ruling Class", "Leonardo's Last Supper and Noonday Demons", "The Bewitched", "Barnes' People: Eight Monologues".

The third volume of Poliakoff's plays in the "Contemporary Dramatists" series contains his award-winning screenplays, "Caught on a Train" (BAFTA for Best Single Play, 1980), and "Close My Eyes" ("Evening Standard" Best Picture of 1991), and the play "Coming in to Land".

Bond Plays: 10 brings together recent work by the writer of the classic stage plays Saved, Lear, The Pope's Wedding and Early Morning. The volume comprises four previously unpublished plays, one previously published play and a comprehensive introduction by the author.Dea, a heroine, has committed a terrible act and has been exiled. When she meets someone from her past, she is forcefully confronted by the broken society that drove her to commit her crimes. In this play, Edward Bond takes from the Greek and Jacobean drama the fundamental classical problems of the family and war to vividly picture our collapsing society. Dea received its premiere at Sutton Theatre in 2016.The Testament of this Day is Edward Bond's third original radio drama. A young man embarks on two journeys, though he is in control of only one. He soon discovers there is no going back, from either. The play is an arresting drama about the world today and was first produced by BBC Radio 4 in 2016.The Price of One is set in among city ruins in a war zone. An occupying soldier carries a baby he has rescued from the rubble and dust. He meets a woman carrying a baby of her own. What ensues is a struggle between two enemies demanding justice in the midst of war. A modern tragedy, this play is an exploration of eternity and madness and the supermarket culture. It received its premiere in 2016.The Angry Roads considers how young people today grow up in a world that their parents never knew. In a flat a teenage boy is sorting through play things from his childhood; he is sorting through his past in search of the truth about an accident that destroyed his family. The Angry Roads was commissioned by Big Brum Theatre Company and premiered in 2015.The Hungry Bowl is a portrait of a a ghost town. Outside a harsh wind rattles the windows. Inside, people go hungry and start boarding up their homes. When a young girl insists on feeding her imaginary friend, a bitter struggle for a future ensues for the power of the imagination to transform lives. The play is a moving and audacious modern fable that explores the impact of hard times on family life, commissioned by Big Brum and premiered in 2012.The volume features an introduction by the author that looks at theatre and culture in a post-Brexit referendum, post-truth and post-Trump era.

A collection of five plays written by Judy Upton: "Ashes and Sand"; "Sunspots"; "People on the River"; "Stealing Souls"; and "Know Your Rights".

This volume contains six plays by Arnold Wesker: "Annie Wobbler"; "Four Portraits - of Mothers"; "Yardsale"; "Whatever Happened to Betty Lemon?"; "The Mistreess"; and "Letter to a Daughter".