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This brave and uncompromising play questions the validity of the myth of the martyred soldier and the true worth of survival for those left behind.

A sharp, witty and contemporary debut play by writer and actor Zach Braff.

Landscape with Weapon was presented at the National Theatre in March 2007 and provides a devastating exploration of the moral conflict and issues of public responsibility arising from the creation of a new military technology.

I am Yusuf and This Is My Brother is a powerful, poetic exploration of history, memory and different forms of love.

Beneath a sky full of stars a decision is made. This decision sets off an astonishing chain of events. And a journey involving a talking leopard, a greedy King, a magical bird, a tidal wave, a Sea Witch, a lost soldier, a devious dolphin, a war - and a trail of feathers in the snow . . . Feathers in the Snow, a family show by acclaimed playwright and children's author Philip Ridley, is an epic story of magic and migration. Covering over five hundred years - and with a huge cast - it explores how stories give meaning to random events and of our constant need to find somewhere we call 'home'. Feathers in the Snow reunites director David Mercatali with playwright Philip Ridley, following their collaboration in 2011 on Tender Napalm which was named one of the Guardian, Observer and Time Out's best shows of 2011.

A programme text edition of DC Moore's second play for the Royal Court, The Empire explores the politics of occupation, both at home and abroad.

William de Worde is the Discworld's first investigative journalist. But as he fills his pages with reports of local club meetings and pictures of humorously-shaped vegetables, dark forces are plotting to overthrow the city's ruler, with the help of Mr Tulip and Mr Pin.

A novel for young adults about the complex issue of refugees.

Mess: Josephine is putting on a play - Boris and Sistahl help. It's about anorexia; but don't let that put you off - they are used to the big issues - and today they will tackle a particularly thin elephant in the room. Obsessed with obsession, addiction, and not wanting to get out of bed, Mess is a play with songs from The Stage's 2010 Best Solo Performer Award winner Caroline Horton.You're Not Like the Other Girls, Chrissy: January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiancé. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire. You're Not Like Other Girl's Chrissy is a fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman's experience of love and war. This programme text coincides with China Plate Theatre's production of Mess, which is at the Traverse in Edinburgh for August 2012 and then tours the UK until the end of September. You're Not Like Other Girls, Chrissy will play at the Bristol Old Vic for a week with another week on tour to come after.

''Get, I''m getting outta here, man, I''m getting outta here, the lines getting blurred - it''s blurred - that line between normality and madness is muffled... and rah, I''m getting urges, brov.'' Welcome to the world''s most unusual talent contest. Behind the scenes, competitors are laughing and brawling, parading their hopes and fears in front of each other, their loves and losses. But there''s a bigger fight to be had on stage: who''s going to win? The black, the yellow or the brown guy? This hilariously biting satire by Nathaniel Martello-White, directed by Young Vic Artistic Director, David Lan, exposes the highs and lows of making it as a black actor - a ''blackta''.

Josephine Baker: captivating performer, political activist and international icon, who lived from 1906 to 1975.From the ragtime rhythms of St Louis and the intoxicating sounds of 1920s Paris, to present-day London, Josephine and I intertwines the story of a modern-day girl with that of one of the greatest, yet largely forgotten, stars of the twentieth century.Cush Jumbo stars in the premiere of her debut play, which centres on the legendary American entertainer and her impact on a contemporary young woman. Live music combines with dance to bring to life the contemporary legacy of a woman Ernest Hemingway described as "the most sensational woman anyone ever saw, and ever will."

Really, we don't have to keep worrying about the time, Gordon. Let's just sit here together. Okay? For a little while.London is sinking, there's constant rain, and everyone is trying to escape. Gordon, an American writer, finds himself holed up in the attic room of a half-way house, awaiting forged papers and safe passage back to the States. He becomes trapped with Stella, a mysterious and seductive woman, and a teenage girl called Iris who, between them, take Gordon on an emotional journey through his past and into the present, forcing him to face the painful truth as to why he is there.David K. O'Hara's The Upstairs Room is a modern take on Sartre's play Huis Clos in which a man and two women find themselves confined together in a drawing room for eternity. First produced at the King's Head Theatre from 13 November to 8 December 2012 by Giddy Notion, The Upstairs Room is a compelling and well-written play.

Tomorrow morning, you and Frank Armitage are getting wed. In my opinion, marriage is blind optimism at any time, but especially in wartime. It's an act of faith.Taking its title from a line in Philip Larkin's poem 'MCMXIV', An August Bank Holiday Lark explores the impact of the First World War on a rural community in East Lancashire.Set in the idyllic summer of 1914 rural Lancashire, everyone in the community is excited about Wakes week; a rest from field and mill and a celebration of the Rushbearing Festival with singing, courting, drinking and dancing. The looming war barely registers . . . but it will.Through the lens of traditional rural life, the play follows the stories of the people of the village and witnesses their personal transitions from exuberance to touching naivety as they manage their loss with courage and humanity.An August Bank Holiday Lark received its world premiere on 7 February 2014, in a touring production by Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre.

I'm not afraid, Tom. Sooner or later your life becomes parched. Its rivers run thin. Its mountains have melted into the distance as blue and cool as memories.An ordinary couple with an extraordinary love relive their darkest secrets, deepest passions and heart-breaking truths. Throughout all the moments of doubt that life has thrown at them, as long as they can be together, they wouldn't change a thing. This is their final opportunity to say all the things they never had the chance to say before.

There's nae power on earth can crush the men who can sing on a day like this.A powerful re-imagining of Joe Corrie's neglected classic about a Fife mining community during the General Strike. To raise funds for the soup kitchens feeding the miners and their starving families, Corrie wrote In Time O' Strife in 1926 whilst on strike himself, exposing the brutal lives of a family staring hunger and defeat in the face. Some 87 years later, Graham McLaren has adapted, designed and directed this rarely performed classic play.Created by Graham McLaren (Men Should Weep, A Christmas Carol), the production uses fragments of Corrie's other plays, poems and songs, celebrating his ability as a writer and his contribution to Scottish culture.This edition pairs Corrie's original text with the script created by McLaren's adaptation process.

The world was cruel to Simeon DuffMad and mired in the deepest sloughNobody seemed to give a stuff'bout Simeon, Simeon DuffSimeon Duff is working class, unemployed and desperate. His wife works. He's lost all self-esteem. He's on the scrap heap and wants to end it all . . . and so begins this brilliantly insane comedy about a man on the edge. When word gets out that Duff is going to top himself, a host of ne'er-do-wells crawl out of the woodwork, each wanting to claim his grand gesture for their 'noble cause'. Let's face it, why waste a death? But which cause shall it be . . . love, politics, religion, or the rising price of fish? Will the disillusioned Duff go through with it? Will he really top himself for a dubious cause? Is he worth it? An adaptation of Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide (1928), The Grand Gesture is a witty satire of lobbyists seeking political control.

It's unusual, isn't it, for a girl to grow a tail at my age?Owen can't seem to write, Thom's exhaust pipe is ruined, and Holly is turning into a cow. As the situation worsens Owen is forced to choose between his blunt and exciting friend Thom, or his love for the increasingly bovine Holly. Owen knows the effects Holly's transformation are having on him, but he is scared that if he gives up on the one he loves, he'll be no better than Thom - a man who is the epitome of opportunism and shallow self-interest. The Cow Play is a hilarious, touching and bizarre story, an absurd black comedy about the ethics of trying to save those we love.

I feel like asking him to stay. To never leave this room. But I know that soon he will leave and...I'm going to ring him that night. I'm not going to write anything down. I might not even say anything. Just listen to him breathe.Lucy and Jim are alone. To the world they seem to be doing alright: they have jobs, friends, ambitions (well, sort of). But inside they are drowning. Until their chance meeting on a London night bus leads to a desperate search for redemption, each through the other. Inevitably, though, their hopes for salvation are dashed as deep-rooted insecurities rise to the surface.City Love is an unflinching look at the opposing human needs for companionship and self-destruction. Sharp observations transform the mundane into the epic in this grim, witty and agonizingly real play that will pierce the heart of anyone who has ever been in love.

I gotta keep hold of my MojoHe keeps me bouncingup and down like a yo-yoWhen I'm on a low lowHe makes me ho hoGets me flying out of black holeslike Chewbacca and Han SoloMelody is in the care system and is out of control . . . the only thing that is constant in Melody's life is her toy monster, Mojo. Blessing has come from Nigeria to stay with an 'Aunty', but when the relationship breaks down, she is trapped in the care system and longs to be back with her Nana in Lagos. Rizla has just left the care system. He has been taken in by some older guys in the local hostel and has found his new 'family'.Melody Loses Her Mojo is a bold, gritty and challenging story aimed at young people. It fuses Hip-hop theatre, dance, puppetry and street art to follow the amazing journeys of three remarkable young people, whose stories intertwine in a world full of magical and surreal moments.

And do you know why I was called by that name? Because I decided who would be saved and who would be condemned. I took that responsibility for others and now I take it for myself. I am Black Jesus. I do not crawl.Zimbabwe. 2015. The Mugabe Government has fallen and investigations into its abuses have begun. Eunice Ncube, working for the new Truth and Justice Commission, begins the interviewing of Gabriel Chibamu, one of the most infamous perpetrators of the horrors of the Mugabe regime. As Gabriel's trial and inevitable prosecution approach, Eunice begins to sift through the past - only to find that right and wrong, and guilt and innocence, are far less clear than she first thought . . . This stunning new play by Finborough Theatre Playwright-in-Residence, and one of the UK's leading political playwrights, Anders Lustgarten, is more urgent than ever. Black Jesus unpicks the political complexities of Zimbabwe through the devastating personal journeys of two very different people, both scarred by one of Africa's most notorious dictatorships.

I wish you could just like consider - consider the chance of it being an accident. 'Cos you're so sure. You're so sure that I did this awful thing. Billy is out waiting for love where she last saw it. Her mum is certain love has walked into her life again. Her sister thinks love could still be found somewhere in the house . . . but Billy herself isn't even allowed through the door. In Katie Hims's sweet, stark family elegy, love never dies, but sometimes - like Billy - it has to sleep in the caravan with Frank's ashes and a bear costume. Billy the Girl is a sharp, yet gentle, look at a fractured family dealing with a lifetime of mistrust.

It's 7:03pm on the front line of the NHS ambulance service.Sylvia is on her last shift. Lisa is on her first shift. The two women patrol the city streets, encountering the full spectrum of human experience. An immersive journey into the world of the paramedic, where the audience sit in the back of a moving ambulance and witness all that comes with a twelve-hour night shift. The Kindness of Strangers is a pan-city promenade piece taking you into the curious day-to-day life of the paramedic.

One works. One looks around. One meets people. But very little communication takes place . . . That is the nature of this little island.As five apparently unrelated characters meet in a seemingly insignificant garden, the autumnal sun shines overhead and everybody waits for rain. What they discuss is superficially anything that can pass the time. What is portrayed is the very essence of England, Englishness, class, unfulfilled ambition, loves lost and homes that no longer exist. Storey's timeless play is a beautiful, compassionate, tragic and darkly funny study of the human mind and a once-great nation coming to terms with its new place in the world.

Sometimes we don't live, we cope. I have coped, not lived, for a long time. So have you I think.A passionate love story set between London and Cyprus. Alexandra, a refugee from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, has made a home in London and cocooned herself from ghosts of the past. There, she meets Jonathan, an English classical scholar, who falls deeply in love with her. Against a backdrop of war and the partition of countries, can love overcome the grief of the past?

There will come a point in every witch's life where the scales are tipped so far to one side that the world, nature, humanity - whatever you want to call it - finally fights back. The demons are expelled and we return to the natural state. Sleeping Beauty is the fairytale of the beautiful princess Arabella who pricks her finger on a spindle and sleeps for a hundred years. Here adapted for the stage, you can join a host of characters for a night of magic, romance and laughter. In this quirky and flamboyant new stage version of the traditional story by Jez Bond and Mark Cameron, the battle of good versus evil is given a facelift, bringing this fairytale vividly to life through comedy, drama and original songs.The songs are included at the back of the edition (melody with chord symbols).

The Christian Humanitarian Reading Initiative for Spiritual Theatre (or C.H.R.I.S.T. for short) are putting on a production of The Nativity Story. It's opening night and nothing is going to plan. Despite a collapsing manger, a deranged donkey, and a director on the brink of hysteria, the show must go on.This hilarious tour-de-force is the second farce from Mischief, creators of the critically acclaimed The Play That Goes Wrong. Once again, we watch as order unravels itself and pandemonium ensues in a piece that will be loved both as a piece to perform and one to watch. The Nativity Goes Wrong received its world premiere at Reading Rep on 22 December.

A dynamic collection of three of Sabrina Mahfouz's pieces for the theatre, published alongside a selection of her poetry.Dry Ice A critically acclaimed solo show about a young stripper, which was produced at by the Underbelly (Edinburgh) and the Bush Theatre (London) and directed by David Schwimmer. It played at the Contact (Manchester), the Soutbank Centre (London) and the Bush (London) as part of Madani Younis's debut season in 2012.One Hour OnlyAn 'upmarket' brothel. It's Forensic Biology student Marley's first night at her new job and AJ - twenty-one, good-looking and intelligent - is her unexpected first client. One Hour Only formed part of the Old Vic New Voices' first ever Edinburgh Season at the Underbelly in association with IdeasTap.CleanZainab, Chloe & Katya, London's best 'clean' criminals and perpetrators of victimless crime, are forced together in an unlikely trio. This feisty trio soon become the unlikely action heroes of an adventure left to men. A short play commissioned by the Traverse Theatre, 2012, Clean was part of the A Play, A Pie & A Pint Season at Òran Mor, Glasgow and The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

Danny sleeps rough on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Has done for years. Then one morning he wakes to see a canvas city being erected in front of him. And Danny finds himself swept up in the last occupation of London. Protest Song is a fictional play inspired by real events. Tim Price's funny and savage monologue explores the reality of the Occupy movement.Protest Song received its world premiere in the National Theatre's Shed Theatre on 16 December 2013.This edition features an introduction by the playwright, Tim Price.

We are making little territories in your country, a hostile take-over of your garden sheds, your abandoned houses and your toilets. The occupation has begun!Driven by a desire for belonging, two Romanian immigrants kidnap an Englishman to learn how to be English. Set in a derelict Victorian public toilet, Occupied is a darkly comic play about identity in crisis. The play was first performed at Labfest 2012 and received a full production at Theatre503, London, on 1 April 2014, directed by Anna Mors (winner of the Kevin Spacey Award for Emerging Artists).

Before there is Revolution there must be Revelation.In Lambeth is set against a background of the French and American revolutions. Pursued through the streets of Lambeth by an anti-republican mob, Thomas Paine seeks sanctuary in the garden of William Blake and his wife Catherine only to find them naked up a tree reading Paradise Lost and communing with angels.Originally produced in 1989 and first published the following year, this new edition published to correspond with the revival at the Southwark Playhouse, Lambeth, London in July 2014.