Böcker i Modern Plays-serien

"Written through devising with the company."

How unbelievably dull my life was. I did everything I was supposed to. I was such a good girl. I lived in the house he chose and cleaned a dead woman's furniture. I bought hats, who the hell wears a hat? And all the time I wanted to scream because I was so bored.On one dark and stormy night in the upper day room of the Silver Retirement Home, five elderly women are trading stories of their remarkable (or sometimes unremarkable) lives. With the storm floods rising and no rescue team in sight, the ladies are faced with the sudden realisation that in order to survive they are going to have to do what they have done for their entire lives - do it themselves!Silver Lining is a hilarious comedy by Sandi Toksvig. It tells the tale of a group of extraordinary yet forgotten women, who come together one treacherous night to recreate The Great Escape - senior-citizen style.It received its world premiere at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, on 3 February 2017 in a production by English Touring Theatre and Rose Theatre, Kingston.

Beau, a pianist expat living in London, meets Rufus, an eccentric young lawyer, at the dawn of the internet dating revolution. After a life spent recovering from the disappointment and hurt of loving men in a world that refused to allow it, Beau is determined to keep his expectations low with Rufus. But Rufus comes from a new generation of gay men who believe happiness is as much their right as anyone else's, and what Beau assumed would be just another fling grows into one of the most surprising and defining relationships of his life.A remarkably moving, brilliantly funny love story, Gently Down the Stream is the latest play from acclaimed playwright Martin Sherman. The play reflects the triumphs and heartbreaks of the entire length of the gay rights movement, celebrating and mourning the ghosts of the men and women who led the way for equality, marriage and the right to dream.It received its world premiere at the Public Theatre, New York, on 14 March 2017 in a production starring Tony-award winner Harvey Fierstein.

The women you've seen play today, we are more than football players, more than athletes and sportspeople of the very highest degree. We are heroines or heroes - or however you wanna say it - and we should be taking our place on posters and platforms and TV stations, changing the way perfect is thought of, changing the way girls can be brought up. Offside tells the story of women's football in the UK through the eyes of a modern professional female footballer as she seeks to find a future in the game through exploring its past.Mickey is alone in the locker room; she deliberates with herself about the biggest decision of her life, her career, her love - her football. But in a world where sexism is rife and a feeling of self-limitation reduces opportunities, fear makes for poor decisions while joy flourishes in the unlikeliest of places.Offside has been researched with top women's teams, Manchester City Women's FC and Millwall Lionesses, where many players, sports scientists and others who are integral to the development of the game have been interviewed to gain an in-depth insight into their world. The play blends a dramatic narrative with performance poetry and chanting to evoke the pace and passion of the women's game.The production, by Futures Theatre, has been developed in partnership with the National Football Museum, Manchester, and the IWM, London.

Common is a dark and disturbing journey into the carnivalesque world of early-Industrial Britain, exploring the personal and public traumas in the period of the enclosure. Written with verve and wit by Olivier Award-nominated and Writers' Guild Award-winning playwright DC Moore, it tells the story of Mary, a woman who has returned to the village of her birth after years of grifting a living on the edge of respectable London society. She is there to confront old enemies and rekindle a former love. But there's trouble in the air as the local Lord struggles to extend the reach of his power by reclaiming the common-land as his personal fiefdom. Will Mary be able to win over those she lost before? Or will the violence of the time seep over into even the purest of missions? Common is an epic, funny and uncanny history play which examines the period of the enclosure, asking what does community mean and if there can ever be resolution in the intractable battle between individual desires and the common good. Common received its world premiere on the Olivier stage of the National Theatre, London, in a coproduction with Headlong, in May 2017.

A fun, silly and sad show for anyone whose brain isn't always on their side. Sally's a happy person. She doesn't let little things get her down and almost never cries. But she's got an illness. It makes her feel like she isn't the person she wants to be....But she doesn't want anyone to know about it. Written by Olivier Award-winner Jon Brittain with original music by Matthew Floyd Jones this new musical comedy mixes storytelling, live music and sketch comedy.

'Music is medication. The elixir of life. It's for injecting into the blood stream to take away the pain.to promote euphoria.to adrenalise us and give us courage and fortitude'In a top London recording studio, Cat, a young songwriter, her producer Bernard, their lawyers and psychotherapists go to battle over who owns a hit song. Amidst a gathering storm of bitter complaints and brutal recriminations Cat and Bernard inflict a devastating toll on each other in a war that only one of them can win.'The music industry isn't about healing heartbreak and vulnerability. It's about selling it'A sly, wry exploration of the dark side of the music industry by the multi-Olivier Award-winning writer of Sunny Afternoon and Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall.This edition was published alongside the world premiere at The Old Vic, London in April 2018, directed by Roger Michell.

Two years after its disastrous opening in 1896, "The Seagull" was successfully revived at the Moscow Art Theatre. Checkhov's self-mocking description of the play was: "A comedy - 3F, 6M, four acts, rural scenery (a view over a lake); much talk of literature, little action, five bushels of love".

First staged in Britain in 1983, 'Glengarry Glen Ross' is the tale of four real-estate salesmen in a cut-throat sales competition. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and was made into a film, starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, in 1992. This Student Edition contains a full introduction, commentary and questions for study.

I think I can feel the world turning a little. It feels like it's just grinding to a halt. Mike is a 16-year-old with a bully of a brother and a mum who doesn't speak. Sarah is a weed-smoking teen who can't wait to get out of their dead-end town. One hot summer their lives collide in a blur of hormones, loneliness and dreaming as they discover that growing up is just as confusing as they say.Funny, poignant and sharply reminiscent of the joy, pain and confusion of growing up, Rails explores what it means to feel lonely in a forgotten and isolated corner of the world. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Theatre By the Lake in Keswick in May 2018.

Each year, the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. This 2021 pack captures the two new plays written for the 2021 festival that are perfect for schools and youth groups to perform and study. Written with flexibility in mind, these are perfect for exploration both virtually and in-person, responding to the restrictions in place due to Covid-19. It also includes National Theatre Connections 2020 anthology which features 9 plays, 8 of which are included in the 2021 festival performances. The plays included in this pack are: Find a Partner by Miriam BattyeLike There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz MyttonWind / Rush Generation(s) by Mojisola AdebayoTuesday by Alison CarrA series of public apologies (in response to an unfortunate incident in the school lavatories) by John DonnellyTHE IT by Vivienne FranzmannThe Marxist in Heaven by Hattie NaylorLook Up by Andrew MuirCrusaders by Frances PoetWitches Can't Be Burned by Silva SemerciyanDungeness by Chris Thompson .

It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights, National Theatre Connections 2021 features work by brilliant artists. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study.This 2021 edition is intended as a companion to the 2020 anthology, which together represent the full set of 10 plays offered by the National Theatre 2021 Festival. The two plays included in this collection are Find a Partner by Miriam Battye and Like There's No Tomorrow, created by the Belgrade Young Company with Justine Themen, Claire Procter and Liz Mytton. The anthology contains two play scripts, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that will give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.

A new comic drama from British playwright Fraser Grace. This new play unravels the epic story of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian creator of the AK-47 - one of the worlds most recognised, enduring, and deadly inventions.

An edited and updated version of the script that ties in with the 2017 Broadway production.

Sadie has a one-night stand with the new office temp, Joao, but it develops into something much more serious when Joao reveals he's in love with her. Sadie is flattered but she has a long history of terrible relationships. She wonders if it's even possible for her to be happy in love? To answer that question, she calls upon her long dead uncle Red and her abusive ex-husband Clark, as well as her new therapist Mairead. Together they help her face some horrifying truths she's kept hidden for too long. Lyric Theatre Belfast, in association with Stephen Rea's Field Day Theatre Company, bring this powerful new play to the stage, to be broadcast on BBC Four as part of BBC Arts 'Lights up' for the new Culture in Quarantine Season - a celebration of British theatre, bringing newly-recorded staged productions from UK theatres to audiences across television, radio, iPlayer and BBC Sounds.Directed by Conleth Hill (Lord Varys, Game of Thrones) it stars award-winning actress Abigail McGibbon.

Something strange happens when the past comes crushing into you, right in the present.April, 1980. The British colony of Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe. A born-free, Tonderai Munyevu is part of the hopeful next generation from a country with a new leader, Robert Mugabe.Mugabe, My Dad and Me charts the rise and fall of one of the most controversial politicians of the 20th century through the lens of Tonderai's family story and his relationship with his father. Interspersing storytelling with Mugabe's unapologetic speeches, this high-voltage one man show is a blistering exploration of identity and what it means to return 'home'.

Sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself(Miles Davis)Two men meet at a funeral. Gil knew the deceased. Benny did not. Before long their families are close. Soon they'll be singing the same tune.Benny is a loner anchored by his wife and children. Gil longs to fulfill his potential. They develop a deep bond but as cracks appear in their fragile lives they start to realise that true courage comes in different forms.Featuring music from Gil and Benny's lives, Lolita Chakrabarti's searching, soulful new play asks what it takes to be a good father, brother or son.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Almeida Theatre in February 2021.

It's the moment of your death. There's a magic button. Do you delete your entire online legacy? Or do you keep it - and leave the choice for someone else? A story of contemporary grief unfolds through this intimate, funny performance that gently interrogates our need for connection.

Seriously William, you're eighteen and you're gay, for Christ's sake. You're meant to swim against the tide. A proper gap year is all about traveling. Seeing the world. Popping your cherry. This is our chance to start living. Me and you.This is the story of Dave; a dad in mid-life freefall who takes his repressed, gay, teenage son William on a wild adventure to Thailand. Gay love, straight love, trans love, buddy-love, drinking games and beer bellies. Fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a mad one!

Sex is easy. Intimacy is hard.A tender, funny and uplifting love story for the post-chemsex generation. Hunky dream boy Lex and bright spark Bradley are falling for each other. Big time. After three months, Lex has decided that tonight's the night. but Bradley's not so sure he wants to go all the way. With wisdom, wit and honesty, Tom Wright's bold new play explores the delicate emotions, moral dilemmas and personal demons we all take to bed with us.

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. A story that spans ten years, Lucy Light is a powerful duologue between two women that offers a nostalgic look at our relationship with our bodies, the hereditary nature of cancer, and the strength of female friendships.My front crawl is a bit f***ing feminineTumble Tuck is a funny, brutal and honest one person piece about body image, mental health and relationships, that seeks to examine what it means to be successful in a world where medals matter.In these two complementary new plays, Sarah Milton offers up two strong female led narratives with dynamic, complex characters.This edition was published to coincide with the London production of Lucy Light at The Vault Festival 2019.

Can you ever really trust a machine? It is the near future. A couple are struggling to conceive, but fortunately their company has the perfect solution. A woman waits in a VR metaverse to do homework with her young daughter.In a care home staffed by advanced AIs, a woman struggles to make a connection with her android carer.Interference is a trilogy of near-future plays. Staged in an empty office block transformed with vivid projection and atmospheric soundscapes. It asks the question: will technology interfere with what we really need from each other? This edition was published to coincide with National Theatre of Scotland's 2019 production.

All the girls love a bastard.Tom Jones follows the adventures of a young man of illegitimate birth through a tale of love, deception and mistaken identity; a feast of human nature, served up in the plain and simple manner of the West Country with all the high French and Italian seasoning of sex and vice. Will he gain his darling Sophia's hand? Will he escape the hangman's noose? Will he ever learn to keep it in his trousers.?Henry Fielding's comic picaresque novel 'A History Of Tom Jones, a foundling' caused a stir upon first publication in 1749. Often referred to as the first novel in the English language, this cunning new stage version tells the escapades and exploits of the infamous protagonist through an accessible and highly entertaining adaptation.

A housing crisis, a hung Dáil and an unlikely alliance.Haughey|Gregory follows the deal made between Tony Gregory and Charles Haughey in 1982, when Gregory took a surprise Dáil seat - and suddenly found himself holding the balance of power. Dublin's Inner City is devastated by unemployment and addiction - and the planners' solution is simply to bulldoze it. But the general election results in the novice TD, Tony Gregory, holding the balance of power. Can Gregory use his vote to achieve something for his constituents? To do so, he will have to face off against the dominant personality of Irish politics - Charles J Haughey.