Books in the Modern Plays series

The text of the new Poliakoff play to be premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company, London, in the summer of 1998.

Two plays by a young British playwright who is fast making a name for himself. Williams is winner of the 1998-99 John Whiting Award for Best New Play and 1998 Alfred Fagon Award (both for Starstruck) and 1996 TAPS Writer of the Year Award

An ordinary man is forced to confront both his own demons and the manifestation of the supernatural beyond his comprehension and control

When his fingers slip away from his father's hand, one boy's destiny changes forever. In the chaos of border crossing between India and the newly formed Pakistan, a small boy called Pali suddenly finds himself lost and alone. Taken in to a Muslim family he is given a new name, and a new faith - Islam.

The Crimson Hotel is a hilarious absurdist comedy by one of Britain's greatest living playwrights. The play has its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London, on 25 July 2007. The volume also features the 1991 one-act play, Audience.

Set in a mythical Chicago, Saint Joan of the Stockyards tells the story of a Salvation Army lieutenant who challenges the power of Pierpoint Mauler, the meat king. The play, which was never staged in Brecht's lifetime, is published here with a new translation and introductory notes.

Godfrey's "The Blue Ball" is a large-scale work which presents an imaginative investigation of the experience of space travel. It is a play which shows overwhelming emotion meeting obsessive scientific routine, and explores the wonder and shock of the imagination made real.

"A poet of the theatre, shaping a new language out of broken words: an emotional seismograph registering the tremors which shake the substratum of human life" (The Times)

This monologue features Cathar heretics, a mysterious female French book thief and an oriental violinist who does pig impressions.

Kwame Kwei-Armah's third play for the National Theatre opens in November 2007 and takes a punchy, provocative look at the Black British experience and the need, or not, for solidarity.

Opening at Teatr Dramatyczny, Warsaw, in November 2007 in a production by the internationally acclaimed director, Robert Wilson, Symptomes is Gabriella Maione's first full length play.

Davey has seen something he can't forget. Anita has been forced to flee her home. These two have never met. Tonight their paths cross with devastating consequences. Vincent River received its West End premiere at the Trafalgar Studios on 30 October 2007.

My Child is a gut-wrenching exploration of the lengths a father will go to to have access to his child. It was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 2007.

Set in late 13th-century Italy, where power struggles erupt between the Church, the propertied and the landless. The conflict inspires such characters as the spineless Charles II, a paid killer, a mad woman and Pope Celestine V to provoke a crisis of faith. Barnes also wrote "The Ruling Class".

The only full-length stage play by the acclaimed novelist and critic Malcolm Bradbury

A programme text of this tender, moving play about the aftermath of a family tragedy, which has its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre, London, in October 2008.

A programme text edition of Leo Butler's new two-hander for the Royal Court that opens in October 2008.

"Being on a tightrope is living, everything else is waiting."When Gary Maddocks rejoins Mike Evans and his Counter IED Team in Afghanistan he is pleased. He has been finding life back home with Emma dull and is impatient to get back to the job he loves, but if he had known what fate had in store for him would he have been so eager? Of course he would: it's like an addiction, and if your luck runs out there's nothing you can do about it, is there? But was it bad luck, faulty equipment, or something worse? Mike has been acting strange lately and Emma appears to be hiding something.When you step on a pressure plate you think you hear the click, or you think you feel it, but you don't know for sure. And you can't know because what you remember . . . well some of it isn't real.Ross Ericson's play Casualties explores how love, friendship and truth are not so certain in the context of war.

A revised edition of Michael Frayn's comedy set in a provincial newspaper office, Alphabetical Order won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy when it transferred from the Hampstead Theatre to the West End in 1975.

When Franz's mother escaped to the West with one of her identical twin boys, she left the other behind. Now, twenty-five years later, Karl crosses the border in search of his other half. Mark Ravenhill's visceral new play examines the hungers released when two countries, separated by a common language, meet again.

An epic family drama, shot through with dark humour, The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant tells the tragic story of a family disintegrating, having lost its moral values. The latest play by leading Irish playwright Tom Murphy, it was produced at the Abbey Theatre in June 2009.

A programme text of two short plays that examine the darker side of Scottish families and which were presented as a double-bill at the Traverse Theatre in November 2009.

Moonfleece is an intense and thrilling exploration of memory and identity, and is the most directly political play to date by leading playwright Philip Ridley. Set in an abandoned council flat, Moonfleece centres on a young, right-wing activist forced to reassess his personal and political beliefs.

Philip Ridley's multi-award-winning play caused a sensation when it premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 1992. A provocative and edgy drama, it is now regarded as a contemporary classic. Set in a strange room in East London, party preparations are underway but the presence of a very, very sharp knife does not bode well for an entirely happy birthday.

A programme text edition of Billy Wonderful published to coincide with the world premiere at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, on 12 March 2009.