Books in the NHB Modern Plays series

A short play by one of the UK's leading dramatists. Premiered at the Royal Court in October 2012. 'No one could blame me. I've been hurt. You're a monster.' A child is shut in her room, a dog is dead in the road, someone is kissing her brother in law. A family locked in hatred is sending a son to war. And meanwhile in another country... 'The best short play since Harold Pinter's Mountain Language' Mark Lawson, Front Row 'As always Churchill seems inventive, coolly socialist, bleak yet dazzling, a bit of a shaman' Evening Standard 'An intriguing work, with an underlying atmosphere of unease and menace reminiscent of Pinter... it nags away in the memory long after you have left the theatre' Telegraph

A stunningly ambitious work from one of the UK's most influential playwrights. Someone sneezes. Someone can't get a signal. Someone shares a secret. Someone won't answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone's not ready to talk. Someone is her brother's mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone's never felt like this before. In this fast-moving kaleidoscope, more than a hundred characters try to make sense of what they know. Premiered at the Royal Court in September 2012. 'This exhilarating theatrical kaleidoscope... What is extraordinary about Churchill is her capacity as a dramatist to go on reinventing the wheel' The Guardian 'The wit, invention and structural integrity of Churchill's work are remarkable... She never does the same thing twice' The Telegraph 'A wonderful web of complex emotions, memories, secrets and facts' A Younger Theatre

Four boys face the tricky transition to adulthood in Ella Hickson's riot of a play. Premiered at High Tide Festival 2012, then Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, and Soho Theatre, London. The Class of 2011 are about to graduate and Benny, Mack, Timp and Cam are due out of their flat. Stepping into a world that doesn't want them, these boys start to wonder whether there's any point in getting any older. How will they find the fight to make it as adults? Before all that they're going to have one hell of a party. It's hot and there'll be girls. Predict a riot. 'Marvellous... a play that both powerfully captures the mood of a generation and addresses permanent truths with exhilarating flair' Independent 'Will leave you with laughter lines' Time Out 'Heartfelt directness of writing that taps into a generation torn between action and inertia' Guardian

A brilliant and unsettling play from one of the UK's leading dramatists. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2000. At the opening of the play, a young girl is questioning her aunt about having seen her uncle hitting people with an iron bar; by the end, several years later, the whole world is at war - including birds and animals. Far Away is a howl of anguish at the increasing - and increasingly accepted - levels of inhumanity in a world seemingly perpetually involved in conflict. 'You know you are in the hands of a master' The Sunday Times 'Churchill was expected to produce something explosive, but... she has exceeded the critics' highest expectations' The Observer

Rattigan's well-loved play about an unpopular schoolmaster who snatches a last shred of dignity from the collapse of his career and his marriage. Twice filmed (with Michael Redgrave and Albert Finney) and frequently revived. Andrew Crocker-Harris' wife Millie has become embittered and fatigued by her husband's lack of passion and ambition. On the verge of retirement, and divorce, Andrew is forced to come to terms with the platitude his life has become. Then John Taplow, a previously unnoticed pupil, gives Andrew an unexpected parting gift: a second-hand copy of Robert Browning's translation of Agamemnon - a gift which offers not only a opportunity for redemption, but the chance to gain back some dignity. This edition also contains Harlequinade, a farce about a touring theatre troupe, written to accompany The Browning Version in a double-bill under the joint title, Playbill. The plays are presented with an authoritative introduction, biographical sketch and chronology by Dan Rebellato.'The cruel inequalities of love always absorbed Rattigan, not least here - this is a play that has not dated.' The Times

A simple and delightfully inventive re-telling of the stories from the Arabian Nights. This revised edition was published alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company's production in 2009. It is wedding night in the palace of King Shahrayar. By morning, the new Queen Shahrazad is to be put to death like all the young brides before her. But she has one gift that could save her - the gift of storytelling. With her mischievous imagination, the young Queen spins her dazzling array of tales and characters. On her side are Ali Baba, Es-Sindibad the Sailor and Princess Parizade - adventurers in strange and magical worlds populated by giant beasts, talking birds, devilish ghouls and crafty thieves. But will her silver-tongued stories be enough to enchant her husband and save her life? 'Superb... weaves a potent spell of enchantment as it moves from cruelty to happiness and from the blissfully ribald to the deeply affecting' Telegraph 'A masterful piece of storytelling... a truly magical piece of theatre that delights the senses' Whatsonstage.com 'The family show to see this le' Guardian

Mary Shelley: daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft; lover of Shelley; author of Frankenstein' Helen Edmundson's compelling play explores a crucial episode in the early life of Mary Shelley - her meeting and scandalous elopement aged sixteen with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and its consequences for her sisters, her stepmother and above all, her troubled father, the political philosopher William Godwin. 'Gripping... without ever reducing Mary Shelley to an issue drama, Edmundson suggests the destructive nature of a life lived without compromise' The Times

An urgent play about the senseless killing of a black schoolboy, from one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British playwriting. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2008. Death never used to be for the young. You get up. You go bout your business. You expect to come back. random was adapted for television in 2011, winning a BAFTA for Best Single Drama. 'debbie tucker green's writing is so raw and immediate that it can feel as if she's hacking into your heart with a rusty tin opener.' Time Out

An epic dramatic trilogy set during the American Civil War, by one of America's leading playwrights.

A play about three old friends and a neighbour having tea in the back yard, and contemplating catastrophe.

A delightfully unfestive comedy about a group of recent graduates doing seasonal work selling Christmas trees.

An uplifting portrait of human hope and vulnerability, weaving resonant drama out of a friendship, a marriage, a holiday, and a death.

In the overcrowded city, nature is getting out of control. Stef Smith's play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016.

Jim's writing messages. In pepperoni. On top of pizzas.His life is going nowhere. But after watching the film I Hired A Contract Killer, Jim's found a solution - he'll just put out a hit on himself. What could possibly go wrong?Alan Harris's play For The Grace Of You Go I is a darkly funny, quick-witted, fast-moving comedy. It premiered at Theatr Clwyd, Mold, in June 2021, directed by James Grieve.

A psychological drama that asks if the cycle of generational trauma can ever be broken. Can queer, Black femmes find love and belonging when the soil beneath them - and the climate around them - is hostile?

When Rob was twelve, they attempted a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their Grandma. As Rob donned wigs and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their Dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy.Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mum mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry. And Ariel's bubble gun didn't work properly. Grandma had a nice time, though.My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?) is the joyous, chaotic, autobiographical story of actor, writer and social-media sensation Rob Madge as they set out to recreate that parade - and this time, nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on it.It was first performed at London's Turbine Theatre in June 2021, directed by Luke Sheppard, with music by Pippa Cleary - and starring Rob Madge as Rob Madge, alongside hilarious home movies of the Madge family (plus Granny Grimble).This edition features the complete text of the play, including links to and transcriptions of the video footage, colour photographs and extra bonus content from the RDM* Productions Archive. It concludes with an afterword by Mum and Dad about the joys to be found in championing the creativity of children - and why playing Tinkerbell, with a smile, might be the best thing you can do for your kids, and for yourselves.* Robert Dennis Madge

When a woman receives an unexpected letter from the British Passport Office, she is forced to confront an old mystery: why does her South African passport not carry her first name? Armed with the wisdom of favourite '90s TV shows, she sets out on a journey that will take her back to the turmoil of Mobutu's Congo, growing up in post-Apartheid South Africa, moving to Ireland, and finding love in a hostile England.As her journey becomes inextricably linked with the tides of global history, how far will she go to unravel the truth? By turns wickedly funny and strikingly lyrical, Benedict Lombe's Lava is an explosive debut play that will turn the way you see the world on its axis.It premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in July 2021, performed by Ronke Adekoluejo and directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike.

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorious second wife, who helped change the course of the nation's history. Premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Best New Play, Whatsonstage.com Awards Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King's bed or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne - and her ghost - are seen in a very different light in Howard Brenton's epic play. Rummaging through the dead Queen Elizabeth's possessions upon coming to the throne in 1603, King James I finds alarming evidence that Anne was a religious conspirator, in love with Henry VIII but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. She comes alive for him, a brilliant but reckless young woman confident in her sexuality, whose marriage and death transformed England for ever. 'This is no dry and dusty history lesson... a witty and engrossing impression of the times that gave birth to our first Elizabethan age, and the subsequent reformation' British Theatre Guide 'The play bursts through the constraints of costume drama'The Independent 'What an absolute delight... a beautifully-written piece of theatre that instantly draws you in into the life and times of both Anne Boleyn and King James I' Whatsonstage.com

The gruesomely fascinating musical about the 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street', one of Sondheim's greatest hits.

The true story of the flourishing of a theatre in a wartime Jewish Ghetto.

A rip-roaring, swashbuckling, family-friendly retelling of a classic story.

An hilarious and heartbreaking true story. First Time smashes through the stigma and shame of HIV, to present an uplifting and inspirational guide to staying positive in a negative world.

Five of the most exciting voices in theatre explore the pressures on our public services as one young woman buckles under pressures of her own.

A double bill by Terence Rattigan, featuring two plays of striking contrast that display his astonishing range as a writer.

The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. Sam Steiner's award-winning play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons imagines a world where we're forced to say less.

A play about conflicted desire and dangerous loyalties in a world trembling in the grip of a devastating epidemic.