Playwriting

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the most influential of all playwrights, the author of deeply moving dramas that explored human fears, desires and ideals. Written at the age of twenty-one, The Robbers was his first play. A passionate...

Filthy Talk for Troubled Time is one of his earliest plays. A downbeat night at a topless bar exposes the gulf between the twitchy clientele and the waitresses who serve but despise them. The Mercy Seat examines a couple who, on the day after a...

'The writing is beautiful, supple, rhythmical, charged with the slow, sure throb of despair and enchantment... Brian Friel is the most profound and poetic of contemporary Irish dramatists.' ObserverThroughout the remote and forgotten corners of the...

"This collection brings together the four plays that feature Ionesco's everyman protagonist Jean Berenger. In 'The Killer', he comes across a "radiant city", an ideal civilization which is being terrorized by a killer, whom he tries to help apprehend. In...

Camus' sparse parable about the human condition is one of the great stories of the 20th Century, here adapted for the stage by Booker prize winner Ben Okri. A faceless man who can no longer pretend, Mersault commits a senseless murder under the glare...

Spanning the 1950s to the 70s, the plays capture the rebellious mood of a post-war generation growing up to a backdrop of James Dean, Elvis, sharp-suited glamour, hope and despair.John Byrne takes the slab room he worked in and makes it pure theatre: the...

'Wild, thrilling, brutally honest and beautifully tender. This is a truly extraordinary new play.' Lucy KirkwoodWINNER OF THE VERITY BARGATE AWARD 2022A father waits for his son. Kids hang around skipping school. Fights break out after nights of drinking...

The fact is that some of us like women and some like men and that's fine that's good in fact that's good, a good thing, but it seems to me that you've become confused. John is happy in himself, and with his boyfriend, until one day he meets the woman...

Austin, working on his Hollywood screenplay, is disturbed by the arrival of his estranged brother, Lee, just returned from three months in the desert. During a brief spell of uneasy cohabitation in their absent mother's house, Lee employs himself as a...

A collection of four Alan Bennett plays, with an introduction by the author which describes the background to their writing and performance.Alan Bennett Plays 1 includes Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus and Enjoy.About the AuthorALAN BENNETT has...

'Electrifying . . . This four-hour epic of ambition and power is a sinewy reworking of Aeschylus that explodes into a cacophonous climax.' GUARDIAN *****Aeschylus' Oresteia opens with Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to the gods; an act which sets in...

People cross our paths for a reason. That, no doubt, reads like a horrible cliche but I never claimed to be a good writer, only an honest one. I believe the reason I met you was to become comfortable in my own skin. Ever seen a couple of old boys on a...

I know now, Kostya, I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn't fame or glamour, none of the things I used to dream about, it's the ability to endure.The Seagull is one of the great plays about...

I know now, Kostya, I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn't fame or glamour, none of the things I used to dream about, it's the ability to endure.The Seagull is one of the great plays about...

This marks the first of five volumes collecting together the complete work of Brian Friel. The Enemy Within (1962) Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1964)The Loves of Cass McGuire (1966) Lovers (Winners and Losers) (1967) Crystal and Fox (1968) The Gentle...

"Barron paints a wholly plausible picture of teenage insecurity and ambition ... a play that wittily shows how dance can be a source of liberation without ever quelling the tremulous terrors of adolescence." - The Guardian Somewhere in America, a...

Eigengrau / [ay-gen-gr-ow ] - noun. intrinsic light; the colour seen by the eye in perfect darkness Rose believes in true love and leprechauns. Her flatmate Cassie is engaged in a fervent struggle against patriarchal oppression. Across London, Mark...

If the politicians cannot save Russia, then we businessmen must. We have not just the responsibility but the duty to become Russian heroes.1991. The Fall of the Soviet Union.With the dawning of a new Russia, there are winners and losers, and today's...

Do you get to design your boobs? Is it like Build-A-Bear? Meet Lucy and Jess; two best friends who obsess over boys, booze and their boobs. But when her mother dies of breast cancer, Lucy is forced to make a decision that will change her body forever...

Completing the 8 volume Everyman Signet Shakespeare contains Shakespeare series, this final volume contains Shakespeare's four Last Plays - THE TEMPEST, PERICLES, THE WINTER'S TALE AND CYMBELINE. The beautifully produced, single-column text of the plays,...

Obsessed with his own salvation, the hermit Paulo dedicates himself to ten years of prayerful penance. When his faith wavers, the ever-watchful Devil seizes the moment to convince him that he shares the fate of one Enrico, a notorious Neapolitan gangster...

'His drama is a piece of expert dramatic construction. Mr. Miller has woven his characters into a tangle of plot that springs naturally out of the circumstances of life today.' NEW YORK TIMES Three years on from the disappearance of his son,...

Alcestis is the story of a king, Admetus, who is able to escape death because his wife, Alcestis, has volunteered to die in his place. Ted Hughes's version goes beyond translation to an inspired rethinking of the story in terms of his own vision of human...

Nigeria, England, America, Jamaica; are you proud of where you're from? Dark skinned, light skinned, afro, weaves, who are your true brothers and sisters? When two brothers from different continents go down the street to buy a pint of milk, they lift...

"Alice Birch's new play is scored like a piece of music ... It is an extraordinary echoing text, full of pain and strange beauty. The three stories play out simultaneously on stage, the dialogue from one scene overlapping with the other two in a manner...

We are where we come from?' That's not true. That's not true because if that's true there's no hope for any of us.Lori is coming home from her first term at university. It's only been a few weeks and already things have gone badly wrong. But none of the...

Professor John Halder is a 'good' man. But 'good' men must adapt to survive. As the world faces its Second World War, Halder finds himself pulled into a movement with unthinkable consequences. Good is a story about a liberal-minded university...

Happy Days was written in 1960 and first produced in London at the Royal Court Theatre in November 1962.WINNIE: [ . . .] Well anyway - this man Shower - or Cooker - no matter - and the woman - hand in hand - in the other hands bags - kind of big brown...

I like this car.It's sort of horrible but I like it.It's a good place for something bad like abreakdown or -As teenagers, Emma, Joe and Polko thought they'd never grow apart. When Emma returns to the suburb of their childhood ten years later, she...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780573010446Author Noel CowardFormat PaperbackImprint Samuel French LtdPublisher Samuel French LtdWeight(grams) 140g

Midsummer's weekend in Edinburgh. It's raining. Bob's a failing car salesman on the fringes of the city's underworld. Helena's a high-powered divorce lawyer with a taste for other people's husbands. She's totally out of his league; he's not her type at...

But that's what this is, isn't it? The ultimate bitch fight. When John takes a break from his boyfriend, his accidentally meets the girl of his dreams. Filled with guilt and indecision, he decides there is only one way to straighten this out . . . ...

This revised Student Edition includes an introduction by Daniel Ciba, which looks in particular at the play as a piece of realism or experimentalism and considers the play through the lens of Queer Identity. The introduction includes discussion of very...

One wintry morning academic Prudencia Hart sets off to a conference in the Scottish Borders. Stranded there by snow, she is swept off on a dream-like journey of self discovery, complete with magical moments, devilish encounters and wittily wild music...

Sophie and Calliope have never been to school. Their mum ran away from home when she was seventeen to join the New Age movement and the girls were raised in a series of ashrams, communes and impromptu raves.When Sophie gets ill, they return to Birmingham...

Though better known today as a political theorist than as a dramatist, Machiavelli secured his fame as a giant in the history of Italian comedy more than fifty years before Shakespeare's comedies delighted English-speaking audiences. This bilingual...

From the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMESThe stage debut for the legendary detective John Rebus in this brand new, original story by Ian Rankin, written alongside the award-winning playwright Rona Munro.John Rebus is not as young as...

You didn't fancy it then? Fancy what? Getting in the taxi. No. Every story starts somewhere. It's the early hours of the morning and Danny's the last straggler at Laura's party. The flat's in a mess. And so are they. One more drink? David...

Good evening, I'm Inspector Carter. Take my case. This must be Charles Haversham! I'm sorry, this must've given you all a damn shock... The original version of the global hit play created by Mischief. After benefiting from a large and sudden...

Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John depicts the vibrant, cosmopolitan of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad - a world that is as harsh as it is filled with colour and warmth.Esther - if yer have yer head screw on right - No matter where yer go - One night - some...