Böcker i Modern Plays-serien

When he was small and his parents told him if he was good he would get a sweet, the boy knew it was not true. Getting the sweet had nothing to do with being good.'Badger Do Best' has landed, bringing with it a new world of rules and regulations. But the kids in the classroom are fighting back. Tired of being guinea pigs in yet another government scheme, can the class of 4N bring down the education regime set to pacify them?After years working in the classroom, Molly Davies imagines a mutiny of eight-year-olds in her play commissioned by the Royal Court. God Bless the Child received its world premiere in the Upstairs space on 12 November 2014, directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone.

We don't actually drink coffee at my coffee morning. - What do you do, then? - We discuss the violent overthrow of the government. Also, there's flower arranging.In this intensely imaginative and daringly brave-thinking play, award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey imagines a wild road trip across Middle England. Together, Lady Catherine and her young protégé Leo enlist every tearoom, hot yoga class and Women's Institute group on a mission to change the country forever.This play was the 2014 Pinter Commission and the winner of the George Devine Award. It received its world premiere production at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on 10 September 2014, starring Anna Chancellor as Lady Catherine and directed by James Macdonald.

The plot of this play centres around the return of celebrated gangster, Travis Flood, to his old manor after 20 years. Where has he been? And why did he go away in the first place? Philip Ridley won the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award for "The Fastest Clock in the Universe".

Madame Ranevskya returns from Paris as the family estate, including her beloved cherry orchard, is about to be sold to pay for mounting debts. Revelling in past glories and their extravagant lifestyle, the family ignore all offers of help.

There's no-one in the streets but us. You run that way and I'll run this way. Whoever gets back to the front door first without getting shot, wins.In a Palestinian town eleven-year-old Lubna and twelve-year-old Khalil are playing on the empty stairwell in their apartment block. As the siege intensifies outside, fear for their safety becomes as crippling as the conflict itself.Dalia Taha's play offers a new way of seeing how war fractures childhood. Fireworks (Al'ab Nariya) is part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project and received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 12 February 2015.

Antigone, defying her uncle Creon's decree that her brother should remain unburied, challenges the morality of man's law overruling the laws of the gods. The clash between her and Creon with its tragic consequences have inspired continual reinterpretation. This translation was made for a BBC TV production of the "Theban Plays" in 1986.

Sometimes when I''m at work and waiting for customers I think about the two of us living like kings and not bothering about the future. Because there may not be any future to bother about, you know. Not for anybody, one of these days. And it''s a wicked world.Average couple Janet and Howard''s lives begin to unravel when Howard''s photographic memory helps win him a gameshow fortune. Janet doesn''t want their lives to change that much. She''s quite happy working at the supermarket, cooking for her husband three times a day and watching quiz shows in the evening. But once Howard unleashes his photographic brain on the world, the once modest used-car salesman can''t seem to stop. And what he sees as the logical conclusion to his success isn''t something Janet can agree to. Burgess''s 1961 darkly comic satire of drab English consumerism is adapted for the stage by Lucia Cox. This edition was published to coincide with the US premiere at the Brits Off-Broadway Festival, at 59E59 Theatre, New York, in May 2015.

How to Keep an Alien is a funny and tender autobiographical tale in which Irish Sonya and Australian Kate meet and fall in love, but Kate's visa is up and she must leave the country. Together they must find a way to prove to the Department of Immigration that they have the right to live together in Ireland. The paper trail of evidence for 'the visa people' takes them on a global odyssey from County Offaly to the Queensland Bush. It's a tricky business coming from opposite ends of the earth. It takes an Olympian will and the heart of a whale, but above all else, paperwork. How to Keep an Alien is written and performed by Sonya Kelly, with Justin Murphy. Sonya Kelly's debut show, The Wheelchair on My Face, won a Scotsman Fringe First Award in 2012 and was the New York Times Critics' Pick. This edition was published to coincide with a revival of the original production, including performances at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

I cook here, create here,make here be as much of life as I canbecause outside of thisI'm not safe,I don't know the way.Chef tells the gripping story of how one woman went from being a haute-cuisine head chef to a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope. Inspired by an interview Mahfouz conducted with celebrity chef Ollie Dabbous, Chef studies food as the ultimate art form taking stimulus from Dabbous's obsession with simplicity and making something the best it can be. Featuring Sabrina Mahfouz's distinct, lyrical style in abundance, Chef received its premiere at the Underbelly, Cowgate, during the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First, and was produced at the Soho Theatre, London, in June 2015.

Camelot: The Shining City is a modern re-telling of the myth of King Arthur, by award-winning playwright James Phillips.Developed in collaboration with Slung Low, specialists in spectacular theatrical experiences, and Sheffield People's Theatre, Camelot: The Shining City is written for a company of over 150 actors, bringing the medieval story to breathtaking life. An epic story told in three parts, this edition was published to coincide with the world premiere, staged on 9 July 2015.

Shane is another thirty-year-old weekend millionaire, still living at home with his parents. Tonight, he's hitting the town. On Monday, he'll start again.

In a chapel service in rural Wales, all is not what it seems . . . A stage adaptation of one of the most celebrated and controversial short-story collections in the history of Anglo-Welsh literature. Originally published in 1915, the searing stories of My People - darkly comic, poignant, with flashes of savagery - exposed the hypocrisy and avarice nestling side-by-side in a Nonconformist community in the rural West Wales of the early 1900s.First produced n the centenary year of the publication of the original collection, this radical reimagining makes us question whether the events depicted in these remarkable stories are consigned to the past, or can we discern uncomfortable parallels in our modern life?This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere of the stage adaptation on 5 November 2015 at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, in a co-production with Invertigo Theatre.

Remember you saying you could speak to anything if you wanted to. Right? Did you say that? Remember that. Said you could speak to the stars. Just had to know how to do it.It's raining in the Midlands. Again. It won't stop. Someone's standing in it. They're shivering. They're cold. They're waiting for someone they haven't seen in a very long time. They've got a rucksack full of alcohol. And a fish.A touching play about abandoned responsibilities, what we choose to remember and what we thought we'd forgotten.This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Old Red Lion theatre, London on 10 November 2015.

Epic.In small ways. Jason, a wannabe DJ, is making his way through the streets of Dublin on a chemically enhanced trip, stumbling from one misguided misadventure to another. Somewhere between the DJs, decks, drug busts and hilltop raves, he stumbles across a familiar face from the past: his brother, Daniel.Daniel is an educated, homeless addict, living on the streets of Dublin. The brothers haven't seen or spoken to each other in three years but over a lost weekend they reconnect and reminisce over tunes, trips, their history and their city. Two brothers living on the edge, perhaps they have more in common than they think, but how long can this buzz last?This programme text edition of Dublin Oldschool was published to coincide with the revival of the play at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, on 11 January 2016.

I am the Edith fucking Piaf of the empty womb. Je ne regrettay fucking rien.Jude has always known she doesn''t want kids. Her sister Susie isn''t sure if her ovaries are twingeing or if she just needs a wee.One day, in a café full of ''yummy mummies'', Jude loses the plot and kicks a pram. Then gets arrested. Then gets sent to anger management. Susie goes along for the ride and uses the opportunity to confess a secret.This funny and touching play premiered at the Brighton Fringe Festival, before a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, 2015. An unflinching look at what it means to be a modern woman, this programme text was published to coincide with a national tour in spring 2016.

I thought everything would change, after the war. And now, no one even mentions it. It is as if we all got together in private and said whatever you do don''t mention that, like it never happened.It''s the late 1940s. Calm has returned to London and five people are recovering from the chaos of war.In scenes set in a quiet dating agency, a bombed-out church and a prison cell, the stories of these five lives begin to intertwine and we uncover the desire and regret that has bound them together.Sarah Waters''s story of illicit love and everyday heroism takes us from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, towards the secrets that are hidden there.Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Naylor has created a thrilling and theatrically inventive adaptation of a great modern novel.The stage adaptation of The Night Watch was premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 2016.

See in my opinion there are two types of people in the world.There are people who actually do something with their lives?Who have some kind of values or something?And then there are people like you.A small town. Today. Following a long incarceration, Andy returns to her hometown to restart her life. After securing a job at the local slaughterhouse, the challenges of reentry unfold as she reconnects with her teenage son, B, a staunch vegetarian with a life he''s unwilling to share with his mother.Writer Abe Koogler has written a funny, surprising and moving search for connection in modern America. Kill Floor received its world premiere at New York''s LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in October 2015 and played at American Theatre Company, Chicago, from March 2016.

Our China is now the worst of all worlds. Communist politics controlled by greedy capitalists, raw capitalist economics controlled by corrupt Communists. Because they''re all the same people! At least under me, the people knew what they were tightening their belts for.Anders Lustgarten''s epic play covers the years 1949 when Chairman Mao founded the Communist Party of China to the present day when investors swoop in to make money off the land. Following a number of characters and generations through these years, it portrays the foundation of modern China.The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie, from award-winning playwright Anders Lustgarten, received its world premiere on at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 6 April 2016, in a co-production between the Arcola Theatre and HighTide Festival.

They don't care about the truth or changing anything. They just want to discredit us. Bury us under a load of insinuation and then shut us up by paying us off. I can't bear to bleed out my pain and it not mean anything. When Mel meets Dave at a protest, she believes she has met her kindred spirit. Dave soon becomes central to her life and her activist friends. But is he who he appears to be?An emotionally compelling drama that explores love, betrayal, secrets and lies and exposes the brutality of a police policy that used any means necessary to undermine political protest.Based on a true story, Any Means Necessary centres on the events surrounding a group of environmental activists and the 2011 court case that charged them with trespass at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.This real-life event set in Nottingham uncovered a national scandal that has led to a full police apology and an admission that their officers' behaviour was an abuse of the women's human rights. A major public inquiry begins in January 2016 and is expected to run for 3 years.This play was published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at Nottingham Playhouse on 5 February 2016.

Why is everyone so bloody obsessed with hashtags? What on earth do you want to do with a hashtag? Can you use it to shoot your way out of here?Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema are three normal teenage girls who have been best friends forever. But when they are kidnapped from their hometown, each must find their own way to survive. Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday''s news.Theresa Ikoko''s funny and fiercely passionate play is a Verity Bargate Award finalist and winner of the Alfred Fagon Award (2015) and George Devine Award (2016). Girls received its world premiere at HighTide Theatre Festival 2016 on 8 September 2016 in a production by HighTide, Soho Theatre and Talawa.

Where you standing? I say where you standing on this? You think it happened or you don''t think it happened?Generations of secrets have broken the Brook family.Siblings split-up, traded-off, treated differently.Angel, the youngest, has called a family meeting to sift through the wreckage. And she''s not leaving until they''ve confronted the truth about how and why her family failed her.Torn by British playwright and actor Nathaniel Martello-White was published to coincide with its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on 7 September 2016.

It's what life does to you. We don't have time to waste. Worrying over the small stuff while the big stuff takes its toll. You're living and then . . . boom.At 27, History teacher Nick is on the edge.A hidden secret lies under the Brink. Nick can't get it out of his mind. A series of visions force Nick to investigate what lies beneath. Nick's girlfriend doesn't understand. Neither do his fellow teachers. Frustrated, he confides in a Year 10 student but can she be expected to have all the answers?The Brink is an arch but affecting parable for the times we live in. This edition was published to coincide with the play's world premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in April 2016.

Within the next hour, our operatives will isolate, engage and capture or kill the notorious leader of the most extreme, dangerous and contagious ideology to emerge in the modern era, whose terror activities represent the gravest threat to our interests across the region and the wider world. I refer, of course, to the radical preacher and populist demagogue Y'shua Bar-Yessuf - the man known, by way of shorthand to our operatives, as "Jesus". Satan, the narrator of Justin Butcher's one-man play who is looking out for our best interests, is on a mission to harness the ways of the dangerous extremist preacher Jesus. Jesus' radical teachings and popularity have the potential to wreak havoc in the Middle East. This is exactly the sort of man the government warn us of, again and again.This clever and evocative passion play from the devil's perspective considers Jesus' relevance to contemporary issues, and retells the story of Christ's life from the perspective of the enemy. The Devil's Passion received its world premiere in June 2015 at St James's, Piccadilly, and was revived and toured in 2016.

A destitute farmer sells his land to the supermarket chain that drove him out of business.Fifteen years later and a bustling supermarket stands on the same spot. UK managing director Tony is coming to work undercover at the store for a week. Branch manager Vicky is determined to give him a more grimly authentic experience than he'd ever dared wish for. Shelf-stacker Josh dreams of escape and rock stardom. Union organiser Elliot dreams of Josh. By Friday, nothing will ever be the same for them again.Happy to Help is an acerbic comedy about how Britain has become a nation of shop assistants. This programme text edition was first published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at Park Theatre, London, in June 2016.

Hamlet: Who's There is a tightly written highly theatrical adaptation of Shakespeare's great play. Reimagining the action to take place over the course of one night, the play can be produced to last ninety minutes for a small cast of six actors. Featuring much of the original language and the famous soliloquies of Shakespeare's original play, this adaptation is ideal for people seeking a version of the tragedy to be played across a shorter timeframe or by a smaller cast.Adapted by RSC actor and teacher Kelly Hunter, Hamlet: Who's There was toured and produced by Flute Theatre, a company which produces plays by Shakespeare aimed at inclusivity for a range of audiences. This programme text edition of the play was published to coincide with a national and international tour of the play beginning in spring 2016, including dates in London, Romania, Germany and Elsinore, the original location where Hamlet was set.

A doorway to a new future is ready to open. We are the hinge of that moment. We will let the door swing wide.On a beautiful spring evening - when both moons are full - two teenagers vow eternal love. It is a moment that will have cataclysmic consequences. Not just for them, but for the world on which they live. A world where Prom Night is a matter of life or death, where weapons are grown and trained like pets, and where a chosen few are hearing a voice. A voice that speaks of ... Karagula.Philip Ridley's extraordinary, form-shattering Karagula is a play of epic proportions. Written in a fractured timescale, it explores our constant need to find meaning. To believe we're here for a reason. To have faith in something. Faith in ... anything.Karagula received its world premiere on 10 June 2016 at a secret London location in one of the largest productions ever staged in the Off-West End.

Let us not dwell on the past . . . I'm an old man, Charles. Old enough to know the past is only good for one thing - destroying the future. Guy and Kathleen grow their crops, raise their daughter, and pay their taxes. But Africa is changing, country by country. White farmers in Zimbabwe must now answer for history's crimes. When Charles arrives with a smile and a purchase order, there's more than just land at stake. With violence threatening to erupt, he will do whatever it takes to restore their farm to the 'native' population.As truths are revealed and moralities questioned, are things ever more than simply black and white?Inspired by real events in Zimbabwe, May Sumbwanyambe's debut play is an unflinching examination of land ownership, dispossession and justice in a post-colonial world.After Independence received its world premiere at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 4 May 2016, in a production by Papatango Theatre Company.