Books published by Currency Press Pty Ltd

Three sisters reunited after ten years in different worlds, again feel the constraints of family life. "Hotel Sorrento" looks at conflicting concepts of national identity and family loyalty. (2 acts, 4 male, 4 female).

Forty years ago, a young playwright muscled his way onto the scene with a clutch of time-defining plays, including Don's Party. With this sequel, David Williamson celebrates four decades of telling the tribe their story. It is 21 August 2010, the night of yet another federal election and, of course, yet another election night party at Don's place. Over the decades, as he and his friends watched governments come and go, they have also closely followed the incoming results from each other's lives: the tallies of luck and misfortune, the unexpected swings for and against. And through it all, the lesson that this crowd of superannuated baby boomers never seemed to learn is that politics and strong personalities should never be mixed with alcohol. (4 male, 5 female).

Every week somewhere in Australia news headlines proclaim yet another tragedy of young lives lost in a car wreck. Communities are shocked, politicians duck for cover and families are torn apart . . . the same story again and again. Set a month after the crash, Engine is the story of 'Grumpop' who lost a grandson and Natasha who lost a brother. "Engine" is a highly charged theatrical event about family, friends and cars and of fixing what's broken and celebrating life. (1 act, 9 male, 2 female).

In 2002, a young man rehearses for his first armed robbery on a bookstore in Newcastle. On the other side of the world, Chechen rebels hold siege of the Moscow Theatre, demanding liberation. One is a local, small time theft and the other an international political crisis, but both are born of a similar futility and powerlessness to be heard. Moving back and forth between Moscow and Newcastle, these real events are the basis for this exploration on what drives such acts of terror and the impact they hold on the victims. This AWGIE-award winning play observes with sensitivity and humour the perspective from both ends of the gun. (1 act, 2 male, 2 female).

Two one-act plays by Daniel Keene. "Citizens" is set at the dividing wall of an unspecified war-torn country. Over the course of the play, the fragility and nobility of the human spirit at its most vulnerable is carefully probed and laid bare (1 act, 9 male, 5 female). "Soldiers" has been commissioned for the STC Actors Company as a companion piece to Citizens. Set in an echoing Air Force hangar, family members gather to receive the bodies of their sons, brothers and friends lost in an unspecified conflict abroad (1 act, 9 male, 5 female).

The play that launched Michael Gow's playwriting career returns to the stage. In blazing heat, a stolen Mini hurtles towards Sydney. Inside, three unstable teenagers from the country -- Snake, Aspro and Dean -- plan a future that will begin when they collect Aspro's accident compensation from the Department. Joined by Donald, an opera fanatic desperate for a change of scene, they travel to the city to take up residence in 'the largest block of flats in the Southern Hemisphere'. As bush fires rage on the edge of the city, they meet Desiree, a young girl from downstairs with apocalyptic predictions. Sparks fly. Tensions escalate. Twilight approaches...

"Songket" -- What happens when one person's culture is another's crime? Koua Neng Vang, a Hmong migrant is accused of raping Chan, a young textile designer. Was it sexual assault? Or did Koua recognise, in Chan's confused signals, the enduring rituals of courtship? "Songket" is about different cultural notions of love and how the law does, or doesn't, accommodate cultural diversity. "This Territory" -- was developed in the wake of the 2005 Cronulla riots through a six-month research and consultation process with young people across Sydney. The play centres on a violent incident witnessed by a large group of young people, but they disagree about its details and their significance. In trying to get the story straight, the characters start to navigate relationships across the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, education and prejudice. They are Australia -- a hotbed of cultures, and they are on fire.

Set in a small isolated outback town, this moving and gutsy play is a confronting look at the impact of a young man''s suicide on the lives of the family and friends that are left behind. The work was developed over two years with the Mosman Park Arts Foundation along with collaboration from health professionals to help address the issue of youth suicide in Australia. (2 acts, 3 male, 1 female).

A thug and his junior partner in crime take a late night train from Perth to Fremantle, menacing passengers along the way. For an hour they own the train.

A savage comedy of manners, "It Just Stopped" explores our relationship to art, globalisation, death, technology, America, Campari, cardboard boxes and slavery. Sewell''s play is funny and shocking in turn. It holds the mirror up to the things we value today and asks the questions: what will we value the day the world just stops, and what would we be willing to trade for our own survival? To describe Stephen Sewell''s dark comedy as a cautionary tale does it scant justice, given the anger and apocalyptic vision driving its mayhem and fun. "It Just Stopped" is a whimsical, argumentative, satirical and deeply serious play. Written with searing passion and dazzling momentum, "Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America" reverberates with the aftershocks of September 11. With compelling drive and theatrical daring, we are swept from cocktails at the Guggenheim to the hungry vacuum of Ground Zero. Stephen Sewell demands answers to some of the most urgent questions of our times. Where is the line between patriotism and nationalism? What happens when the Land of the Free makes such uncompromising statements as: ''You''re either with us or against us''?

Four country children waiting in the rain for the school bus take turns telling stories. In an unusual twist, Anna''s story takes the children to Nazi Germany. An intriguing tale about Heidi, a young girl caught in the turmoil of World War II, whose father was one of the most dreaded men in history. One of the children, Mark, becomes engrossed in Heidi''s story. In his conversations with his friends, his teacher and with his parents, he explores the moral and ethical issues it raises. This intriguing play poses powerful questions about a frightening period in history and forces us to examine moral issues in relation to society''s fears and prejudices in a fresh, compelling light. 1 act, 3 male, 3 female.

"Bastard Boys" is the story of the fight that stopped the nation -- the 1998 battle for Australia''s waterfront. More than just a dispute over reform, it became a campaign for the hearts and minds of all Australians. Controversial, all-consuming and combative, it forced people to pick a side and fight for their beliefs. Political thriller, war film, buddy movie, love story and courtroom drama all rolled into one, this is the story of the people behind one of the most significant events in Australia''s recent past. Iconic Australian actors Jack Thompson and Colin Friels lead an outstanding cast that includes: Geoff Morrell, Dan Wyllie, Justine Clarke, Rhys Muldoon and Lucy Bell. "Bastard Boys" has been written with the co-operation and participation of all parties to the dispute. It is the first time participants such as former Patrick CEO, Chris Corrigan and ACTU Secretary, Greg Combet have agreed to tell their stories. 4 acts, 8 male, 3 female.

After the murder of her husband, Celia has shut herself and her 16-year-old daughter Zoë away, toiling on a peach farm in the middle of nowhere. The arrival of two young people to help during picking season heralds the beginning of the end for Celia''s safe existence. Her daughter falls in love with enigmatic, erratic Kieran, but when the relationship is threatened, they run away together. The safe, perhaps smothering, world that Celia has created unravels; her paranoia and insecurities amplified to full volume. Playing out alongside her fear, we see the increasingly degrading and dangerous lifestyle that the two elopers have fallen into. 2 acts, 2 male, 4 female.

In the 1870''s a girl is born under a tree -- her birth tree -- chosen to give her strength and wisdom. When the tree is cut down she follows it into the white man''s world, working as a cook for the big house on the island. Her tree has become a kitchen table, one she will pass down through successive generations as a legacy -- a way of carving out her family stories. Now, generations later, a young man and his mother fight for ownership of the table. Directed by Marion Potts, the play is full of humour and is deeply affecting. Gently peeling away the layers of storytelling, it reveals the communal binds that lie beneath them. A moving testament to culture lived, lost and found, the strength of family, adapting and gathering together. 2 acts, 2 male, 2 female.

Tim, an airline pilot and Angela, his young, beautiful wife, live the successful urban dream in a streamlined apartment in the inner city. One night a friend of Angela''s, Dez, pays them a visit. There''s just one problem: Angela flatly denies she''s ever met him, and despite Dez''s growing protestations, she wants him out. Rejected and humiliated, Dez leaves. But not before making some seemingly ominous threats. Now Angela and Tim are having trouble readjusting. Dez has thrown their comfortable lives out of kilter and fear of future incursions escalates. Enter Dick, private eye -- smarmy and menacing by turns, a Man who Makes Things Happen. Though he charges by the hour and his approach is definitely unconventional, Dick may be exactly what the situation requires... 9 scenes, 3 male, 1 female.

"The Piano", written and directed by Jane Campion, is one of the most honoured films of the new Australian cinema, and is considered by many critics to be a modern masterpiece. Campion won the Palme D''Or at Cannes in 1993 for the film, making her the first woman ever to win this prestigious award; it also won Best Original Screenplay (Campion), Best Actress (Holly Hunter) and Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin) at the 1994 Oscars. In 1880 the widowed, and mute, Ada (Holly Hunter) and her young daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin) leave their native Scotland and travel to New Zealand''s remote South Island, as the arranged family of Stewart (Sam Neil), an Englishman who lives and works the land there. With them come Ada''s piano which serves as her outlet of expression, her ''voice''. Despite fierce insistence from Ada, Stewart leaves the piano on the beach after he decides it is too heavy to carry back to his homestead. Stewart''s neighbour Baines (Harvey Kietel) makes a deal with Stewart for the piano and lessons with Ada, which has dire repercussions for them all. Gail Jones'' essay brings a fresh and original vision to this acclaimed film in Currency''s Australian Screen Classics series.

Randolph Stow is acknowledged as one of Australia''s finest writers and his fifth novel, "The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea", first published in 1965, remains his most popular in Australia. It''s a semi-autobiographical account of Rob Coram''s growth from the age of six to fourteen, in the West Australian coastal town of Geraldton, and its surrounding pastoral districts, in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Benedict brothers are on opposite sides of the political divide. Eggs is the Minister for Home Security and prime minister-in-waiting. Tom is a refugee advocate and the head of a charitable foundation. The brothers have a relationship based on affection and respect. And in the jumble of family life they have managed to accommodate their ideological differences. But then, an Indonesian fishing boat, packed with refugees, goes down in the Indian Ocean on Christmas Day. Two hundred and fifty people drown, but one man survives. "Two Brothers" is a story about what happens when one family produces two powerful, passionate, socially-committed sons whose rival senses of duty bring them into deadly conflict. Most of all, it is a story about the struggle between compassion and security in an age of terror. Part political thriller, part family drama, "Two Brothers" is written with Hannie Rayson''s characteristic insight and humanity. Includes introductions by Katharine Brisbane and Tony Kevin. 2 Acts, 7 male, 2 female.

STILL ANGELA is an unpredictable portrait of a contemporary Australian woman at three ages. On the cusp of Angela''s birthday, we are invited on a real and imagined journey: up the garden path of her childhood; into the Simpson Desert where she confronts her nemesis; into the kitchen with her lover; and at the chess board with her mother. Finally, we share in her extraordinary, surreal birthday party. 5 male; 4 female.

Abusive, cantankerous and burned out by booze, Leo Bailey is one of Australia''s national treasures. A gifted painter and chronic alcoholic, he can no longer take care of himself. His resentful daughter has been through a succession of minders, until Therese comes along, fresh out of jail and determined to make a go of her limited options. This is a tough, funny and big-hearted play. It''s about shame and judgement, about who deserves to be loved and forgiven. It looks at how people exploit each other and where they find the beauty; and the qualities of transcendence, letting go and forgiveness. (2 acts, 2 male, 2 female).

In 1931, Alice, a white station owner, goes riding with her Aboriginal head stockman and friend, Jim. During the course of the afternoon, they come to an agreement about the running of the property, Ambertrue, and its ownership. Many years later, in an environment of white paranoia fed by misinformation, Alice's great nephew Lon is running Ambertrue. When Lon receives a letter announcing a native title claim in the area, he is terrified that his dream of passing the family property on to his son-in-law will be shattered. (2 acts, 3 male, 3 female).