Books published by Nick Hern Books

In Shangri-La, her first full-length play, Amy Ng lays bare the contradictions and private pain of cultural tourism.

A powerful comedy-drama about a family gathering at Thanksgiving, from a gifted young American playwright. Winner of four Tony Awards for 2016, including Best Play.

Georgia Christou's play How To Spot An Alien is ideal for space cadets age five and up to watch, read and perform. It was first produced in 2018 by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, in a co-production with Theatr Clwyd.

Crackling with anger, humour and authenticity, Ed Edwards' play The Political History of Smack and Crack chronicles the fallout for communities crushed by the heroin epidemic at the height of Thatcherism.

The only two children born in a North Yorkshire village for a generation cannot imagine ever being apart, but as their lives shift, so too do the ties that bind them. A contemporary, lyrical love story, Blackthorn explores the changes and choices that pull us from the places and people we love.

A night of debauchery and delicate connection in a play set in the city that never sleeps.

Using Shakespeare's orginal lines, alongside new text, Jeanie O'Hare retells The Wars of the Roses through the eyes of the extraordinary Margaret of Anjou.

A satire on yuppie moral and emotional bankruptcy and a bleak, black comedy thriller.

Just in time for Christmas, the distinguished historian and thespian, Desmond Olivier Dingle and his assistant Raymond Box, bring us their version of the greatest story ever told. Thrill at the mystery of the virgin birth, gasp at the miracles, and be moved by the Sermon on the Hill.

A funny, touching and thought-provoking comedy drama about the members of a village choir.

Kate Bowen's taut, funny and powerful play follows three pioneering young women in the world's most dangerous workplace.

A riotous celebration of sisterhood, showing that while life may throw up unexpected turbulence, friendships will last the course.

A tense, revealing play that explores what it means to care for one another and asks who, in a time of increasing disconnect, we expect to look after us.

A new play from the writer of Consent and Tribes. A touching and funny story about the fertilisation of an idea. How do you have a baby when you're 39 and single? You decide. But what happens next?The story, like a child, has a life of its own. The story becomes stories...

Greasy fish n chips, sticks of rock and pot-bellied Spiderman is throwing himself off the pier. The annual `Birdman' competition is in full flight. Caterpillar is a darkly funny, searing and tender drama about when we find ourselves standing on the edge, do we dare to step off?

Pop Music is an emotionally contagious rollercoaster. A night at the theatre like no other.

Brian and Donna's son is nine years old and he's struggling. That's what his teacher says. Says he should see a psychologist. But Brian and Donna - recently separated - never liked school, never liked teachers... Class is The critically acclaimed hit-drama about learning difficulties: in school, in life, wherever. New writing at its finest.

A selection of the best work of Stephen Jeffreys. Included here are his first big success, Valued Friends, The Clink, A Going Concern, and Jeffreys' smash-hit, The Libertine. Rounding off the volume are two previously unpublished plays: Interruptions, and a short autobiographical monologue, Finsbury Park.

The unidentified body of a young man with fatal head injuries is found face down in a suburban street. Who is he and where did he come from? He has no ID and nobody witnessed anything. It's as if he has just fallen from the sky... The Strange Death of John Doe is a powerful and poignant new play, inspired by real events.

A unique collection of everything that Ibsen wrote about the theatre.Three new productions of plays by Henrik Ibsen open somewhere in the world every week. Moreover, they are adapted into multiple genres: Chinese and Western Opera, Japanese Noh theatre, puppet plays, musicals, dance performances, tourist spectacles, promenade performances, applied theatre, community events, and every possible screen technology.The more successful Ibsen became as a playwright, the more reluctant he was to make public pronouncements about the practice of theatre, but his thoughts on the art form can be gleaned by mining his prefaces, letters, speeches and newspaper articles.For the first time, these fragments have been gathered together in one volume. Arranged chronologically, they throw a unique light on Ibsen's views on theatre production, casting, translation, the business of theatre, and most importantly his own plays. The result is an invaluable resource for those who seek to know what Ibsen himself thought about his work and about the theatre of his time.Ibsen on Theatre is edited, introduced and annotated by Frode Helland and Julie Holledge, with new translations by May-Brit Akerholt. Also included is a foreword by Richard Eyre.Ibsen on Theatre is in the Nick Hern Books ...On Theatre series: what the world's greatest dramatists had to say about theatre, in their own words.'For anyone interested in Ibsen's plays-actors, directors, students, audiences-[this is] a marvellously accessible compendium of the thoughts of a man I now unhesitatingly describe as a very great playwright.' Richard Eyre, from his Foreword

Legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece Fanny & Alexander is translated to the stage by BAFTA award-winning writer Stephen Beresford. As creative freedom and rigid orthodoxy clash, a war ensues between imagination and austerity in this magical study of childhood, family and love.

An inspiring and interactive workbook to help you develop skills for longform improvisation, by one of the UK's top improv performers and teachers. Ideal for improvisers at any level. Invaluable to anyone looking to discover more about this popular, thrillingly creative and empowering form of performance.

A once close-knit family of four reunite after a long period of estrangement. This time, this time, it must go right. A warm and touchingly comic new drama

A funny, heartfelt and compelling play, that asks what family means in a modern society, delicately weaving in questions of racial identity, economic privilege, and the lottery of birth.

A collection of monologues that document, remember and bear witness to a century of struggle for progress and equality for women in the United Kingdom.

Can a younger generation, dispossessed and disenfranchised, truly empathize with the old - especially when their future is at stake?