Bøker i Modern Plays-serien

Gilbert Is Dead is a Victorian scientific mystery play: a clever, funny and moving portrait of grief, faith and science.

Stark and imperative, but shot through with a sense of warm humanity, Beth Steel's debut play Ditch is a clear-eyed look at how we might behave when the conveniences of our civilisation are taken away, and a frightening vision of a future that could all too easily be ours.

The Usual Auntijies is a bitter-sweet comic drama that visits the lives of four women as they embark on an inspiring, emotional and comic journey to overcome the past abuse and rediscover their sense of life, love and happiness.

Ethereally beautiful, Salt Root and Roe is a heartbreaking, humorous tale of love, age and family against a mythical backdrop. Set on the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales, exhausted lives and childrens' fairytales collide in this exploration of grief, loss and acceptance.

In The Trial of Ubu, Simon Stephens takes the grotesque and amoral megalomaniac dictator from Alfred Jarry's proto-surrealist 1896 play Ubu Roi and places him before a twenty-first century international tribunal. Set in January 2010, at the International Criminal Tribunal sitting in The Hague, it is day 436 of the trial of the dictator Ubu. Sitting before a UN constituted International Tribunal, he is charged with Crimes against Humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Simon Stephens' virtuosic satire examines the often absurd legal wrangling of the international justice system. The Trial of Ubu is a savage comedy that interrogates the assumptions of a Court as it struggles to deal with defendants who are not only opposed to the morality of law, but exist in a different moral dimension altogether.Exploring the central legitimacy and effectiveness of international law, Stephens asks how a civilised society can deal with the perpetrators of unspeakable crime, and wherein lies the legitimacy of any internationally convened tribunal. Taking a wry and intelligent look at the international courts when reduced to senseless and convoluted legal altercations, this funny yet unsettling play asks important questions about legal against moral justice, and the futility of reasoned argument in the presence of a heinous malefactor.

Time, memory and family is explored in this new work from the multi-award winning playwright Charlotte Keatley.

Snookered is funny but probing contemporary depiction of young men navigating what it means to be young, British and Muslim.

The Beloved is a haunting and heartbreaking twist on the story of Abraham and Isaac, which reminds us that this historic tale of sacrifice began with just one family.

Sharp, thoughtful and mysterious, How the World Began is a powerful story about an outsider in a close-knit, devastated community. Looking at the tension between secular religion and evolution, and how this is taught in schools, this provocative, intelligent play explores the clash between faith and science.

A state of the nation play meets a dreamlike memory play by maverick writer Philip Ridley.

An inventive take on the classic myth, Eurydice is by the highly-acclaimed US playwright Sarah Ruhl and includes magical, dreamlike surrealism, lyrical beauty and heart-rending pathos.

A contemporary political play exploring race, identity and the concept of home, by Olivier Award-winning playwright Bola Agbaje.

A collection of three of Tom Murphy's most iconic plays - Famine, A Whistle in the Dark and Conversations on a Homecoming - covering the period from the Great Hunger of the nineteenth century to the 'new' Ireland of the 1970s.

Adapted for the stage by the author, Takin' Over the Asylum is a hilarious, updated and profoundly moving adaptation of Donna Franceschild's Bafta-winning BBC TV-series. Set in a Scottish mental institution, the play reveals hope and joy in the fragile beauty of the human heart. When Ready Eddie McKenna, Soul Survivor and double glazing salesman, arrives to reinvigorate St Jude's defunct hospital radio station he turns more than the ramshackle station upside down. The whisky drinking would-be DJ meets the 19-year-old bipolar Campbell, schizophrenic electronic genius Fergus, OCD Rosalie and the elusive self-harming Francine. Fighting against illness and perception Eddie and the patients of St Jude's strive for their dreams to be accepted.

'I missed first time. I could feel his skull caving in. It was like a shell.' Morning - a play for young people - is the latest offering from acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens, written after a workshop involving actors from the Young Company at the Lyric, Hammersmith and the Theater, Basel, Switzerland.It's the end of summer in a small, claustrophobic town and two friends are about to go their separate ways: one to university; the other will be staying local. But no matter what separates them, they will always share one moment: a moment that changed them forever. This dark coming-of-age play, to be performed by the Lyric Young Company, is a disturbing look at the cruel acts we are capable of committing; our society's numbness to physical pain; and the consequences of our actions.This programme text will coincide with the Lyric's production of the play at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh as part of the Festival (2 - 22nd September) followed by a brief run at the Lyric Hammersmith, London in September.

Vincent Woods's poetic retelling of the Classic Irish story of Deirdre and the Sons of Usna - a story of love, hatred and revenge - transforms this timeless story into a compelling contemporary drama. Published to tie-in with the world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in June 2005.

Set in a modern-day courtroom in New York during a week when there are Middle East peace talks being brokered in town. This humorous play is a courtroom farce which lampoons the American judicial system and exposes the hypocrisy surrounding personal prejudices and political correctness.

The Early Bird taps into the darkest fears of any parent - the disappearance of their child - to brilliantly capture the nightmare of recrimination and loss. It premiered at the Belfast Theatre Festival in October 2006.

Swimming with Sharks, adapted from the George Huang film by playwright Michael Lesslie, is an incisive look into the cut-throat world of Hollywood. The play had its world premiere at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 5 October 2007.

This boisterous and comic new play from Levi David Addai (93.2FM) looks beyond the glossy facade of the high street at the stories and ambitions of the workers within.

Published to tie in with the revival of this classic play by Harley Granville-Barker at the Almeida Theatre, 25 Sept - 15 Nov.

A programme text of a new Bollywood musical adaptation of Bronte's classic novel, published to coincide with a UK tour produced by Tamasha Theatre company in Spring 2009. The scorched desert of Rajasthan is the setting for this musical adaptation of Emily Bronte's timeless tale of passion, jealousy and revenge.

Set on the eve of the Thatcher victory, this new edition of Keeffe's classic, harrowing play coincides with the general election of 2010 and asks what's changed.

Lidless is a work of extraordinary intelligence and finely-balanced sensibility. It marries the implacable logic of a Greek tragedy with an all-too-modern setting.

The Boy on the Swing is essentially a black comedy that confronts the power of a corpororation to brainwash and destroy an individual through the manipulation of emotions, beliefs and the truth. Joe Harbot's play is a brilliant tale of one such individual who ends up entwined in a series of dark power games.

He wants me to fuck about with paper clips in some office with a smile on my face, fuck him . . . but there''s just one thing I''ve got to take care of first. I''ve got to do something to make this right.Four years on from the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and still we find ourselves in crisis. It''s time to work out what''s wrong. It''s time to look at the heart of the system.You Can Still Make A Killing is the story of the normal men and women who fill the City''s institutions, of a world radically altered when right became wrong, and of the private worlds that fall apart when there are no alternatives in sight. This production reunites director Matthew Dunster with playwright Nicholas Pierpan, following their collaboration in 2010 on Pierpan''s play The Maddening Rain (Old Red Lion and Soho Theatre). The cast includes Alecky Blythe (writer of London Road), which marks her much-anticipated return to acting, and Kellie Bright (Love and Money, Royal Exchange and Young Vic). It will run at the Southwark Playhouse in its main house (which holds 150 seats) from 10 October until 3 November 2012. A German production will open at Theatre Ulm in April, 2013.

A strongly issue-led play, Burning Monkey relates the story of a teenage couple and their interactions with an older war veteran, trying to rebuild his fractured relationship with his daughter. While their exchanges initially show a hostile and unsympathetic clash of generations, it soon becomes apparent that they share similar pain - based on their damaged family relationships, and absent parents/children - and they begin to feel empathy for one another's plight. In the background, the presence of war looms; the character of Old is haunted by memories of his time as a soldier and the character of Monkey looks forward to a time when he can escape the depressing realities of his life and join the army. In the midst of this, Shell is fifteen, madly in love with Monkey, and pregnant with his child. Her attempts to try and make the irresponsible, immature Monkey stay with her become increasingly desperate. Burning Monkey is a play that raises important issues for teenagers, addressing themes such as war, violence, separated families and responsibility.

An innovative text combining astronomical insight with themes of sight and blindness.