Books in the Modern Classics series

Reissue of a classic Methuen Modern Play in a newly restored version with a new Introduction by Joan Littlewood

When Fox comes up with an idea for a blockbuster movie, he and Gould think they've made it. For one blissful day the world seems about to open its arms to embrace them. This play is more than an anti-Hollywood satire - it is a comedy about a world where language is out of synch with emotion.

The press and politicians. A delicate relationship. Too close, and danger ensues. Too far apart, and democracy itself cannot function. Pravda (which means "truth") is a satire written at the height of Thatcherism when huge political changes were afoot. The play essentially studies, through black humour and close scrutiny, the tabloid ethic and the media industry as a get-rich-quick-fix. In the programme for the original 1985 production of Pravda, Brenton wrote: "Pravda means 'the truth'. English newspapers aren't propaganda sheets. The question is, why do so many of them choose to behave as if they are?"The character of Lambert Le Roux is a South African newspaper tycoon and the owner of several companies, striding his way through the regional papers en route to Fleet Street. Turning broadsheets tabloid, dumbing down the message, and stretching the truth, Le Roux takes no prisoners as he manipulates politicians and creates a media monopoly out of a once-respected industry.Le Roux is bent on dominating England's press as he has elsewhere in the world. As we see Le Roux accomplish his aims, we see also how the press is not the organ of truth we like to think it is. The dissemination of the truth is no longer its primary goal under the 'Lambert Le Rouxs' of our world. What is important now is what sells.The play is an epic satire on the media in the Thatcher era; a morality tale about how Andrew, a young liberal journalist, finally succumbs to Le Roux, who makes him editor of a tabloid; and - allegedly - the play is a direct representation of Rupert Murdoch who, even in 1985, was a major force in media ownership. Howard Brenton's and David Hare's first collaboration since Brassneck in 1973, Pravda was premiered at the National Theatre in May 1985, starring Anthony Hopkins and directed by David Hare, and was awarded the London Standard Best Play Award, the City Limits Best Play Award, and the Plays and Players Best Play Award.This Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Philip Roberts, Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds, and a foreword by Jonathan Church.

If you go, I don't think you should come back.On a startlingly bright autumn night in 2006, Harper Regan walked away from her home, her husband and daughter, and kept walking. She told nobody that she was going. She told nobody where she was going. She put everything she ever built at risk. For two lost days and nights, until it looked as though her entire life might unravel, she didn't turn back.From Uxbridge to Stockport to Manchester and back again, Harper Regan navigates the UK, exploring family, love and delusion. It received its world premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2008.

It's 1958. Beatie Bryant has been to London and fallen in love with Ronnie, a young socialist. As she anxiously awaits his arrival to meet her family at their Norfolk farm, her head is swimming with new ideas. Ideas of a bolder, freer world which promise to clash with their rural way of life.Roots is the remarkable centrepiece of Wesker's seminal post-war trilogy. It was first performed in 1959 at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, before transferring to the Royal Court. It is the second play in a trilogy comprising Chicken Soup with Barley and I'm Talking About Jerusalem. It went on to transfer to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End.A true classic, Roots is an affecting portrait of a young woman finding her voice at a time of unprecedented social change. This Modern Classic edition features an introduction by Glenda Leeming.

The village has lied. William has lied. It is not because I am undeserving. Not because I am young and they are old. God has given them nothing. I know this now. Knives in Hens is a brutal fable set in a timeless spartan rural community. First staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in June 1995, before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London, in November 1995, the play was playwright David Harrower's first professionally produced work. It has been staged in twenty-five countries around the world and is widely acknowledged as a modern Scottish classic.A remarkable play about the transformative power of knowledge and an emerging consciousness as the world moves from rural to the urban and industrial.With an introduction by Mark Fisher.

This bittersweet comedy about growing up is presented in the Methuen Drama series, with a new introduction by Professor Dan Rebellato.

A Modern Classic edition of this First World War play with supporting notes for students including a full introduction exploring the work's themes, context and history, classroom activities and a chronology.

Brecht's operatic play produced with Hauptmann, Neher and Weill was first staged in 1930. Translated and with commentary by Steve Giles, this critical edition is the first translation into English of the approved Versuche text of 1930/1.

A revised edition of this satirical study of the effects of the Big Bang, which caused the inhabitants of London City to applaud and decry its presentation of their lives. Since then it has provoked city financiers the world over to heated debate.

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

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.