Books in the Modern Classics series

In John Willett's translation, this edition contains expert notes on the author's life and work, historical and political background to the play, photographs from stage productions and a glossary of difficult words and phrases

Re-issue of this 60s classic

An essential text in the development of modern British drama

1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and Writers' Guild for Best West End Play

"Closer" is a play which views love and sex like politics: its not what you say that matters, still less what you mean, but what you do.

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.

Wedekind's play about adolescent sexuality is as disturbing today as when it was first produced

Hugo, a young Communist Party member, is assigned the task of working for a "deviationist" Party leader, and shooting him. But has he camouflaged a political assassination as a "crime passionel"? On his release from prison, he tries to explain to a former comrade exactly what his motives were.

Inspired by the Chinese play Chalk Circle, and written at the close of World War II, this parable is set in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia. It re-tells the tale of King Solomon and a child claimed and fought over by two women.

You are not at liberty to avenge the pornography industry in this country. We have the censorship laws for that.Masterpieces opens on three couples having dinner in a restaurant, exchanging sexist jokes. The response is varied: some of them laugh uproariously, some of them uncomfortably, and one is deeply unhappy. Their domestic discussion about the morality of pornography is suddenly amplified a thousand-fold in the next scene in which Rowena is on trial for murder. She had just been to see a 'snuff' film in which a porn actress is actually mutilated and killed on screen, and on her way home is approached threateningly by a man who she ends up pushing under a train because he was harassing her. The play is the story of Rowena's journey, through seeing a porn magazine for the first time to a thwarted attempt to help an unhappy prostitute, from uncomfortable laughter to radical and disgusted protest at female subjugation.Masterpieces is an angry and defiant play, first staged in 1983, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London. It earned Daniels a London Theatre Critics Award for Most Promising Playwright.This edition introduces Sarah Daniels into the Modern Classics series and features an introduction by Elaine Aston, Professor of Contemporary Performance at Lancaster University.

Written between 1939-1942 "The Messingkauf Dialogues" are among the most concise, witty and light-hearted of all Brecht's theoretical discussions of theatre.

-A Lyric Hammersmith production ... First performance of this production at the Lyric Hammersmith on 07 October 2016---Added title page.

A Student Edition of McDonagh's The Lonesome West, the final part of his trilogy set in a fictionalized and impoverished western Ireland village called Leenane, first produced in 1971.

This play was published to coincide with its British premiere, directed by Harold Pinter, at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

A single-volume re-issue of the well-known play Educating Rita. The story centres on a working-class Liverpudlian woman's hunger for education.

Robert Bolt's tense play of conscience, made into a film starring Paul Scofield, charts the dramatic events leading to the execution of Sir Thomas More in 1535. More enters into political and moral conflict with King Henry VIII over king's intention to divorce Catherine of Aragon.

A play set in London in the 60s reflecting a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estate

In Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition of Brecht's anti-war masterpiece translated by John Willett features an extensive introduction and Brecht's notes and textual variants.

Right, you know the rules, watch the low blows, if it's a knock-down no messing about, go straight to your corner, and don't come out till called for, are we clear? Touch gloves, let's go.In the red corner: Leon Davidson - Black British champ or Uncle Tom? In the blue corner: Troy Augustus - American powerhouse or naive cash cow? Having spent their youth in the same London boxing gym, vying for the favouritism of inspirational, foul-mouthed trainer Charlie Maggs, the two former friends step into the ring and face up to who they are. Boxing has dominated their lives with an unhoped-for structure and meaning, but it becomes clear that it is no substitute for their health, family, and friends. Roy Williams' Sucker Punch looks back on what it was like to be young and black in the 1980s and asks if the right battles have been fought, let alone won. With an introduction by Harry Derbyshire, Lecturer in English and Drama at the University of Greenwich.

The Pitchfork Disney heralded the arrival of a unique and disturbing voice in the world of contemporary drama. Manifesting Ridley's vivid and visionary imagination and the dark beauty of his outlook, the play resonates with his trademark themes: East London, storytelling, moments of shocking violence, memories of the past, fantastical monologues, and that strange mix of the barbaric and the beautiful he has made all his own.The Pitchfork Disney was Ridley's first play and is now seen as launching a new generation of playwrights who were unafraid to shock and court controversy. This unsettling, dreamlike piece has surreal undertones and thematically explores fear, dreams and story-telling. First produced in 1991, it has gone on to be recognised as the annunciation of Ridley's dark and seductive world.

Thamesmead is a tough estate for Jamie and Ste to grow up on, with Jamie's mother's latest unlikely boyfriend and Ste's violent, alcoholic father. This screenplay explores the flowering of love between the two boys on their South London estate as they discover their homosexuality.

A reissue of Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist - a sharp satire on police corruption. The play concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, 'fell' to his death from a police headquarters' window.

Abraham Heschel is a seminal name in religious studies and the author of Man Is Not Alone and God in Search of Man. When The Prophets was first published in 1962, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of biblical scholarship.The Prophets provides a unique opportunity for readers of the Old Testament, both Christian and Jewish, to gain fresh and deep knowledge of Israel's prophetic movement. The author's profound understanding of the prophets also opens the door to new insight into the philosophy of religion.

"Stags and Hens" takes place in the gents and ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, where Dave and Linda, unbeknownst to each other, hold their stag and hen partie

Two plays by the Lancashire playwright Jim Cartwright, author of Road. Two is an evocation of English pub life, in which two actors play a series of characters. Bed is a surreal journey into old age and sleep.

This is David Hare's version of Brecht's classic play which was premiered by the National Theatre, London, in November 1995.

"Joe Orton's last play, What the Butler Saw, will live to be accepted as a comedy classic of English literature" (Sunday Telegraph)

This Student Edition of Willy Russell's successful folk opera, the story of two Liverpudlian brothers who grow up on opposite sides of the social tracks, includes biographical notes and an introduction to the play with guidance on its interpretation.

The story is of one of the most famous investigations ever conducted by science into the mysteries of the world - and its disastrous ending in the even stranger mysteries of the world within.

First issued by Methuen in 1959, this play was the first title in the "Modern plays" series aimed at the burgeoning readership of young theatregoer This title and five others are reissued, representing the range and vitality of the list of titles in print .