Books published by Nick Hern Books

Alex and Rupert aren't a conventional match, but a caffeinated meeting on the Underground ignites a spark. Skip forward to them fighting over baby names, nursery colours and ways to save money. All the signs of a normal family in waiting.Then Alex goes into labour, their baby is born still - and their world implodes. What follows is a window into how a couple find the strength to move forward, the will to stay together, and the determination to keep alive the memory of their child.Anything is Possible if You Think About It Hard Enough takes us to the depths of grief to find hope, and to the edge of insanity to find reason. There is humour, too, in the most unexpected places.Cordelia O'Neill's play was first presented by Small Things Theatre at Southwark Playhouse, London, in September 2021.

When his friend becomes embroiled in a rape allegation, Chris Quinn offers his support. Only the rules keep changing, nothing is clear-cut, and Chris finds himself caught in a tussle between loyalty, love and doubt. Duck Duck Goose is a viscerally charged play examining the nature of consent, trust and trial by social media.

The story of a young slave girl who lives through the final turbulent days of slavery on a sugar plantation in 19th-century Jamaica. Adapted from Andrea Levy's award-winning novel.

Mostar, Yugoslavia, 1988. Mili, a boy from out of town, dives from the famous Old Bridge. Mina, a local girl, watches. As he falls, she begins falling for him.Mostar, Bosnia, 1992. In a town of growing divisions, Mina and Mili never doubt that their future lies together. But nor can they imagine the dangers that future will bring.Winner of the 2020 Papatango New Writing Prize, Igor Memic's play Old Bridge is an epic love story exploring the impact of a war that Europe forgot, and the love and loss of those who lived through it. It was first produced by Papatango at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2021, directed by Selma Dimitrijevic.

A tie-in edition of the smash-hit stage adaptation - with a twist - of the Jane Austen classic. Published alongside the West End production at the Criterion Theatre.

An unflinching look at race in the twenty-first century.Thirty-somethings Leo, Misha, Ralph and Dawn have been inseparable since college. Their connection with each other is stronger than anything else - until Leo is assaulted by the police in a racially motivated incident, and he brings to the group an extreme proposition...

A young Jewish physicist and an activist poet meet at a party and fall in love. As society splinters around them, the couple's struggle to survive erupts into violence.Cordelia Lynn's play Love and Other Acts of Violence is a subversive and intimate love story about inheritance and the cycles of politics and history. It premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in October 2021, directed by Elayce Ismail.

Larry Kramer's passionate, polemical drama is set during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. It follows the efforts of one man, while his friends are dying around him, to break through a conspiracy of silence, indifference and hostility from public officials and the gay community, and gain recognition for a disease that threatens to change everything. This definitive edition, with a revised text and new introductory material, was published twenty-five years after the play's 1986 British premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London. A quarter of a century after that premiere, the play's prescience and its searing emotional power are beyond doubt. The play's 2011 Broadway revival opened to an etatic critical reception, and won the Tony Award for Best Revival. It was adapted for screen in 2014, first broadcast on HBO starring Mark Ruffalo and Julia Roberts. 'burning, argumentative, witty and contentious play about the political and emotional consequences of the AIDS crisis' Observer 'informative, heart-rending, witty, revelatory, poleaxing, a work of utter topicality and transcendent power' The Listener

Nobody knows where the fish went, and nobody knows why the fish went - but ever since they did, things just haven't been the same. In a committee room on Capitol Hill, three senators have a job to do: they must question a man on charges of trading rare marine commodities, and they must find out what he knows.Politics and the planet collide in a fiercely original play about the limits of science, the power of myths, and the things we can't control. Marek Horn's Yellowfin was premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2021, directed by Ed Madden.

"e;I'd watch you eat. I'd eat you up. You're not like them, are you? You're real."e;Lori is a professional chef. Bex waits tables to make ends meet. One night together in a walk-in fridge and the rest is history.Lori has big plans, but Bex is struggling. If we are what we eat, then Bex is in real trouble. It's not her fault though - the system is rigged. No-one on minimum wage and zero hours has the headspace to make their own yoghurt.Chris Bush's Hungry is a play about food, love, class and grief in a world where there's little left to savour.It was premiered by Paines Plough on a UK tour in July 2021.

Lola is sixteen years old, sharp-witted and has her whole life ahead of her - until she's diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Now her brilliant mind is rapidly turning into useless mush.So she's promised herself two things before she dies:1. She's going to get All The Sex and2. She'll definitively discover the Meaning of Life.Stuart Slade's play Glee & Me is an unexpectedly optimistic portrayal of love and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. It won the Judges Award in the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in September 2021.

This anthology brings together six plays, all written or performed since 2017, by six brilliant Black British writers - Travis Alabanza, Firdos Ali, Natasha Gordon, debbie tucker green, Arinze Kene and Chinonyerem Odimba. The plays explore themes including politics and protest, grief and colonisation, relationships and gender.

In How Plays Work, distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning.Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar's analysis starts with the building blocks of whole plays - plot, character-creation, genre and structure - and moves on to scenes and devices. He shows how plays share a common architecture without which the uniqueness of their authors' vision would be invisible.How Plays Work is both a masterclass for playwrights and playmakers and a fascinating guide to the anatomy of drama. In this revised edition, Edgar brings the book right up to date with analyses of many recent plays, as well as explorations of emerging genres and new innovations in playwriting practice.'A brilliantly illuminating, bang-up-to-date, unmissable read' April De Angelis'A book of real theoretical heft written by a major working playwright' Steve Waters'An essential accompaniment for anyone fascinated by the craft of dramatic storytelling' John Yorke'Every theatremaker should read this book' Pippa Hill, Literary Manager, Royal Shakespeare Company'Even if you've read the book before, it demands to be reread' Simon Callow'Combines theoretical acumen with the assured know-how of a working dramatist' Terry Eagleton, Times Literary Supplement

'Folk say you can trick a brain. Placebo power. I'm going to stand up and it'll feel better.'Across Edinburgh, five souls stagger towards each other, hoping to be transformed.Gaynor's got to leave the house if she wants to meet her newborn granddaughter. Stillness has been the only way to deal with her chronic pain but now it's time to move.Gilly's not sure what her dying dad's feeling but the one thing she knows from experience is that it's best not to Google it.Dougie and Ciara have spent their last NCT class preparing for the labour pains ahead, but now it's time for one last night on the dance floor.And then there's Mick, who wakes up on Portobello Beach in the early hours of the morning with two gold rings in his pocket. He can't remember what they're for but he knows it's something important. He'll work out what if only his old pal, Pat, will stop buying him drinksFull of tenderness and humour, Frances Poet's play Still is a cathartic story of life, loss and joy.It was premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2021.

How long have you been here, John?- I don't know.And what brought you here?- That's difficult to answer.John Kane is sitting on a hospital gurney, and very shortly a jazz percussionist, two women called Mary, a very old man and a giant lobster will arrive. Then everything will start.Enda Walsh's new play Medicine is a dark and frequently absurdist work that shatters the boundary between cast and audience. It is a devastatingly funny and moving meditation on how, for decades, we have treated those we call mentally ill.It was premiered by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2021 prior to its opening at the Galway International Arts Festival in September. Medicine is published here alongside Enda Walsh's 2017 play The Same.

Love freely. Love freedom. Love.Meet Aurora and Orion: Sister and Brother. Constellations in time. More than blood. More than just fam.They look after each other in their small London flat, filled with the memories of their parents' Black Love.When that love is threatened, they have to find their way back to each other and to what it means to love whilst Black. Using real-life stories, imagined worlds and new songs inspired by an R&B heritage, they begin a journey to confronting their own worst fears.Chinonyerem Odimba's Black Love is an explosion of form-busting storytelling, an ode to Black music, and those real stories we rarely hear.It was premiered by Paines Plough on a UK tour in July 2021.

The myths of Metamorphoses have inspired generations of writers, including Shakespeare. Over two thousand years later, they are reimagined for our world by three leading British playwrights, and feature anarchy, shape-shifting and a burning chariot of fire.

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?

A clear, supportive and comprehensive guide to writing a play - based on the author's long-running playwriting masterclasses, as taught at the UK's National Theatre.

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.

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 fierce and exhilarating exploration of faith and truth, a hymn to community, and a testament to the power of young people.

The Motherhood Project draws together dramatic monologues and real-life reflections by some of the UK's leading writers, artists and thinkers, and explores all the guilt, joy and absurdity, the regrets, pressures and taboos surrounding motherhood.

A dinner party during the Second World War unites celebrated writers Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas - with a mysterious guest. Set in the French Alps in 1940, Little Wars is an enthralling and ultimately moving portrait of seven exceptional women.