Books published by Nick Hern Books

John Gay's bawdy and burlesque pastiche of classical Italian opera, often regarded as the world's first ever musical.

A newly published translation by Kenneth McLeish, with an introduction by Stephen Mulrine.

Elizabeth I is at death's door. Conspirators are everywhere. A politically-sensitive trade delegation is on its way to London. Who can be trusted to entertain them? Comedian Lucius Bodkin thinks he'll hit the big time but he's reckoned without the Tudor backstabbers and the City wide-boys.

An explosive and thought-provoking piece of play exploring what happens when buried secrets catch up with you. But when it comes to sex and consent, are there really any blurred lines?

This collection features four urgent and explosive plays by award-winning playwright Evan Placey, each tackling issues facing young people today. They provide ideal material for teenagers to read, study and perform.

A fierce, achingly tenders play that charts one farm's struggle to survive the march of history, from the bloodbath of the foot-and-mouth crisis to developers consuming land for real estate.

A funny and surreal family drama about the power of the individual in a world obscured by politics.

Based on Ian Kelly's award-winning biography, Mr Foote's Other Leg is a riotously funny play exploring our obsession with celebrities, through the true story of the Oscar Wilde of the eighteenth century.

The highly regarded actor training manual by a top movement teacher.

A funny, sad and truthful romantic comedy about beating the biological clock.

The epic story of Peer's quest for the meaning of life as he staggers from the fjords of Norway to the deserts of Africa and back. Written in 1876.

Jo Clifford's beautifully simple adaptation of one of Dickens's best-loved novels brings it thrillingly to life for the stage. Eminently actable and stageable, this version is also ideal for schools and amateur theatre companies.

Set in a Mother and Baby Home in 1964 in the north of England and peppered with songs from the period, the book follows the fortunes of Mary Adams, unmarried and seven months pregnant. Forcibly sent to the home by a mother intent on keeping up appearances, Mary has to cope with the drawing realisation that the baby has to be given up for adoption.

Full of fresh speeches from Shakespeare's plays, this is the ideal guide for actors of all ages and experience. As an actor at any level you are likely to be called upon to perform a speech from Shakespeare. A great deal will depend on your coming up with something fresh that is suited both to your particular performing skills and to the purposes of the audition. This is where this volume of The Good Audition Guides comes in.Drawing on his extensive experience as a theatre director and in drama training, Luke Dixon has chosen fifty monologues for female actors from across the whole of Shakespeare's canon. Featured here are some of the very best-loved works (such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V and Hamlet) alongside many less well-known (and often more intriguing) speeches from plays like Love's Labour's Lost and The Merchant of Venice. Each monologue is prefaced with a neat summary of the vital information you need to place the piece in context and to perform it to maximum effect and in your own unique way. The volume also features a user-friendly introduction on the whole process of selecting your speech, tackling Shakespeare's language and approaching the audition itself.'Sound practical advice for anyone attending an audition' Teaching Drama Magazine on The Good Audition Guides.

Six brilliantly funny and perceptive monologues about the stresses of modern female life, from the author of the National Theatre and West End hit, Honour.

New adaptation of Ibsen's classic by Richard Eyre, who ran England's National Theatre from 1988-97.

Drawing on diaries, photos, and interviews, this book recreates the evolution of nine of Max Stafford-Clark's famous and influential productions, three from each of his three main companies. It not only assesses Stafford-Clark's own role as director, but also the roles of actors and writers in this essentially collaborative creative process.

The National Theatre's mega-hit in a new version.

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding. Alceste, the misanthrope, hates all mankind, and despairs of its hypocrisy and falseness. He believes that the world could be perfected if people were more honest with each other. But when his honesty starts to make him enemies, and the target of malicious gossips, it is his world and his life which suffer. He alienates his love, elimene, and reproaches her coquettish, flirty ways; he is summoned before the court of marshals to defend a candid opinion about Oronte's terrible poetry - a case which he knows he will lose despite the justness of the cause. He begins to realise that the only way to be left out of gossip is to get out of society - but will elimene go with him, or is she just like everybody else? Translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine

The Drama Classic edition of Sophocles' version of the Electra myth.

Lulu is the personification of the spirit of unbridled nature. Each of the first four acts of the play sees her married to a different man, each one of whom dies at the end. In the fifth act, Lulu has become a prostitute in late-Victorian London where she encounters Jack the Ripper.

Neil is a TV reporter struggling to re-integrate into domesticity. Back from Darfur with a head full of nightmares, he takes a hammer to his life - and his 15 years of marriage. But is his extra-curricular relationship with Sarah going to mend anything... This hilarious play is set in modern-day Dublin, a city full of celebrity chefs.

Following on from Keith Johnstone's famous "Impro" and Augusto Boal's "Games for Actors and Non-Actors", this book provides ideas and guidance for drama groups of various kinds. It is intended for teachers, theatre directors, and drama workshop leaders.

David Edgar's breakthrough play, Destiny (1976), looked at the rise of racism and the National Front - and wondered about the future shape of a multicultural society in Britain. Now, thirty years on, Edgar looks at the realities of this multiracial nation in a brilliantly layered new play.

Features an investigation - with exercises and techniques - into the wellsprings of improvisation in theatre, dance and music by the author of "House of Games". This book also looks at many famous shows, events and performers with improvisation at their core, ranging from "Commedia dell' Arte" to "The Living Theatre", John Cage, and Lenny Bruce.