Books published by Nick Hern Books

A remarkable exploration of faith and community in the modern world, which asks profound questions about what we believe and why.

Against the backdrop of the aurora borealis and suffused with Norse mythology, Valhalla explores the boundaries of scientific research and tests the endurance of human love.

The definitive guide to writing music for the stage, by the Composer-in-Residence at the Donmar Warehouse.Music has played a vital part in drama since the earliest days of theatre. For composers, writing music for the stage is an opportunity to exercise their utmost creativity and versatility: a good musical score will both support and enhance the play it serves, and can lift a prosaic moment into something quite extraordinary.In this book, Michael Bruce takes you through the entire process - from initial preparation, through composition, rehearsals and recording, and finally to performance. He covers everything a composer needs to know, including:Getting started - spotting when and how music might be used in a play, doing research, considering form and contentBuilding a 'sound world' - finding and using source music, creating incidental music, choosing the best instrumentation, scoring, utilising technology, writing music to accompany song lyricsWorking on the production - understanding the composer's role in rehearsals, collaborating with key creatives, employing actor-musicians, getting the show onRecording - knowing when to record, booking and working with musicians - and the studio engineer, running a recording sessionAlso included is key practical advice on how to get work as a theatre composer and build your career.Throughout the book, the author draws on his own experience of creating music for a wide variety of plays at the Donmar Warehouse, the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway, including detailed case studies of his work on The Recruiting Officer, Coriolanus, Privacy, The Winslow Boy, Noises Off and Strange Interlude, illustrated by online recordings from his scores.An essential companion for all composers - amateur, student or professional - Writing Music for the Stage is also invaluable reading for other theatre professionals, including directors, playwrights, producers, actors, designers and sound designers - in fact, for anyone seeking to understand how music helps to create worlds and tell stories on stage.

A new title in the ever-growing, increasingly popular Drama Games series - another dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book, packed with dozens of drama games that can be used in rehearsals.

Playwright Alecky Blythe collaborates with composer Adam Cork to tell the true-life stories of a small community thrust into the spotlight by a series of murders in their midst. Premiered at the National Theatre in 2011.

Publication coincides with a swelling tide of revivals to celebrate Rattigan's centenary.

Publication coincides with a swelling tide of revivals to celebrate Rattigan's centenary. This edition also includes Less Than Kind.

Terence Rattigan's first play, published for the first time in this edition to mark the centenary of Rattigan's birth.

Schiller's masterpiece of power and politics in a new version by Mike Poulton (Morte D'Arthur, Don Carlos) explores the battle between honour and corruption, between truth and betrayal. This new version debuted at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2011.

A 'how to' book for actors who want to develop a 'can do' attitude to their profession in the face of rejection and intense competition.

The Unthinkable is a play about 'not noticing'; not noticing that one's ideals have become warped; not noticing that being active in party politics is different from being engaged in political activity; not noticing that amassing a personal fortune and professing socialism might be a contradiction in terms; and not noticing that.

On the morning of his 30th birthday, Joseph K wakes to find he's under police arrest. He has no idea what he's done, but is determined to clear his name.

Join Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis as they tell the story of how they became The Railway Children. One of the country's best loved novels is brought thrillingly to life to life in Mike Kenny's brilliant stage adaptation.

A superlative account of how theatre is made, in the words of the very people who make it. In Talking Theatre, Richard Eyre uses his unrivalled access to leading theatre people to allow us to eavesdrop on the stories behind many of the most important productions and performances in the theatre of recent times: John GielgudPeter BrookMargaret 'Percy' HarrisPeter HallIan McKellenJudi DenchTrevor NunnVanessa RedgraveFiona ShawLiam NeesonStephen ReaStephen SondheimArthur LaurentsArthur MillerAugust WilsonJason RobardsKim HunterTony KushnerLuise RainerAlan BennettHarold PinterTom StoppardDavid HareJocelyn HerbertWilliam GaskillArnold WeskerPeter GillChristopher HamptonPeter ShafferFrith BanburyAlan AyckbournJohn BuryVictor SpinettiJohn McGrathCameron MackintoshPatrick MarberSteven BerkoffDeborah WarnerWillem DafoeSimon McBurneyRobert LepageJohn Johnston (Britain's last Theatre Censor)'A mine of first-hand theatrical information and insight and, better still, a wonderful compendium of high-grade gossip' --Telegraph 'Truly various and never less than fierce critical thinking condensed into one endlessly entertaining volume' --Sunday Times Theatre Book of the Year

A collection of new plays exploring life in the Middle East.

A passionate, heartfelt play about surviving in a time of civil war, by a leading American dramatist. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

A sassy, offbeat comedy-drama about rebelling against your roots.

A practical approach to breaking through the barriers of restraint and incomprehension when faced with Shakespeare.

A dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book for teachers and workshop leaders working with difficult or reluctant students, youth groups, young offenders, and all those who seem intent on saying 'no' to whatever is offered them.

Me, As A Penguin is a new play from a young Northern writer. A sprightly piece of absurd realism it premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse bbefore transferring to London.

A study guide on Timberlake Wertenbaker's modern classic play Our Country's Good. In the Page to Stage series of authoritative introductions to classic texts by theatre professionals. Ideal for A-Level students and their teachers, as well as actors, directors and theatregoers encountering the play.

Ibsen's classic tragic masterpiece, in a new version by Richard Eyre. Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father. But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of Alving's dissolute life. Richard Eyre's scintillating new version of perhaps Ibsen's greatest play premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London in October 2013. 'raw and unsparing, but also devastatingly true to the spirit of the original... theatre seldom, if ever, comes greater than this' Sunday Telegraph 'both humorous and deeply affecting... the most lucid and affecting version of the play I have ever seen' Time Out 'Richard Eyre's new stripped-down 90-minute version has glories too many to list' The Times

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

A reworking of Shakespeare's great love story. Re-imagining some of Shakespeare's greatest poetry, it presents an account of the depth and power of the capacity for love.

A play that explores the life of an Eastern European woman forced into the sex trade in London.

When a woman disappears, four marriages become entangled in a web of love, deceit, sex and death. Who will survive?