Books published by Nick Hern Books

Dornoch, in Sutherland, northern Scotland, 1727. The eccentric widow, Janet Horne boasts that she can cure beasts, call the wind and charm fish out of the sea. As her refusal to deny witchcraft incenses the local community, her crippled daughter steps dangerously into the fray.

Words Into Action shows actors how they can bring the text of a play to life on stage. It looks at action and intention, stillness and movement, sentences and rhetoric, and punctuation and pauses. There are also chapters on masks, on language as character, and on verse and prose, taking Hamlet as a model.

A penetrating play about belonging, family and the limitations of communication, Tribes is an exciting follow-up to Raine's successful debut, Rabbit, and follows such hits as Enron and Jerusalem into the Royal Court Theatre.

The second in a fascinating collection of plays that look mat the position of women in politics in English History.

The first of two volumes in which nine established female playwrights grapple with the complexities of women and politics in Britain's past and present.

A powerful play from one of Ireland's most innovative writers. Enda Walsh's extraordinary update of a section of The Odyssey sites four belligerent, self-made men in an empty, dilapidated swimming pool and watches them strut, posture and compete to outdo each other with every hilariously overweening speech.

In this wildly distinctive comedy set in 17th-century France, a vulgar and impossibly self-obsessed writer/perfomer attempts to win the favour of a Royal Personage and ignominiously oust his high-minded rival. All is accomplished in a virtuoso cascade of rhyming couplets!

Robert Tressell's pre-First World War account of the working lives of a group of housepainters and decorators has become a classic of working-class literature. Howard Brenton's vivid stage adaptation lays bare the many social injustices perpetrated on these men but captures their individual characters with touching truth to life.

Presents an inside account of forty years of Fringe Theatre. This book provides an account of working with theatre legends such as Mike Leigh and Ken Campbell and the story of running a pre-eminent London Fringe venue, The Bush Theatre.

A funny, painful and deeply moving play about loss - and cooking.

A classic drama based on the true story of Alma Rattenbury who was tried with her 18-year-old lover for the murder of her husband. Cause Celebre was Terence Rattigan's last play. Published alongside a production at the Old Vic during the centenary year of Rattigan's birth.

A play of psychologically and physically murderous vengeance, Medea is one of the most powerful and perennially produced of all ancient drama.

First staged at the national theatre in 1988, this title is reissued in a new edition alongside the 21st anniversary revival at the Almeida Theatre in the autumn.

Offers insight and experience in a series of exercises and games that are designed to free up creativity and release the imagination.

A blackly funny, absurd, hilarious, razor-sharp and fast-paced new comedy from playwright Tom Basden.

The valiant teacher battles on with biology revision. Outside the classroom, the world is in the middle of a long and bloody war. One by one pupils and teacher are pulled under, as their hopes and dreams float away from them. But in her biology lesson the teacher has taught her pupils that, like the cockroach, the fittest will survive.

"Overspill".

Set in rural Ireland of the early 60s, this work takes us into the burlesque world of Delaney's Travelling Roadshow and in particular its boxing hall where prizefighter Dean takes on all comers on a nightly basis. That is, until a challenge from a professional fighter upsets the apple-cart.

A brand new adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic - one of the most loved short stories ever written. In one ghostly Christmas night, cold-hearted businessman Ebenezer Scrooge learns to pity himself and to love his neighbour - but is that enough? A brand new adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company of the Christmas classic.

New York. A film studio. A young woman has an urgent story to tell. But here, people are products, movies are money and sex sells. And the rights to your life can be a dangerous commodity to exploit.

The blackly comic story of a closeted homosexual in 1950s London, Mr Thomas is Kathy Burke's first play, premiered at the Old Red Lion in Islington in 1990 starring Ray Winstone.

Eight compelling monologues offering a state-of-the-nation group portrait for the stage. First seen on the Edinburgh Fringe, the play was produced in the West End in 2012. Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2008 Carol Tambor 'Best of Edinburgh' Award From Millie, the jolly-hockey-sticks prostitute who mourns the loss of the good old British class system, to Miles, a 7/7 survivor, and Danny, an ex-squaddie who makes friends in morgues, Eight looks at what has happened to a generation that has grown up in a world where everything has become acceptable. In its original performances, each audience voted for four of the eight monologues that they wished to see, resulting in a different line-up at every performance. A ninth unperformed monologue is included in this edition. The monologues are ideal for performance by student and amateur groups; any number and any combination can be performed. They also provide excellent opportunities for actors looking for audition material. 'Hickson's writing remains astonishing, with a huge, angry energy and poetry' The Scotsman 'Ella Hickson has already found her voice and it's a powerful one - a potent show indeed' New York Times 'One of the most self-assured, startlingly well-written and moving pieces of theatre around' Herald