Böcker av Rodney Ackland

Based on a short story by Somerset Maugham, Before The Party tells the story of a family attempting to return to normal in the wake of the Second World War. With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed but not alone, they prepare for the latest social gathering. Amidst the never-ending whirl of hats and dresses and below stairs skirmishes, Laura reveals a shocking secret that threatens to ruin more than one party on the climb to social success.

A new edition following the first London production in 80 years of this work by a renowned West End playwright.

Two plays -- The Dark River and After October -- by a master of the British stage. In The Dark River, set in the late 1930s, the flamboyant characters are cocooned in a Thames backwater, ignoring the turbulent events of a politically unstable Europe. After October is Ackland's most personal, autobiographical play.

Condemned as a "libel on the British people" when it was first produced in 1951, "Absolute Hell" is set in a decaying West End drinking club at the end of the Second World War. The 1995 production at the Royal National Theatre starred Judi Dench and was directed by Anthony Page.