Books published by Samuel French Ltd

A contemporary Cinderella story set in Greenwich Village, reminiscent of the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s. Christopher, a shy and eccentric young electrologist, helps an elderly millionaire, Mr. Rosenberg, when the old man faints in the street. Rosenberg, touched by the young man's generous spirit, becomes his benefactor and sends Christopher off to a fabulous charity ball where he meets his Prince Charming, in the form of a neurotic young publicist. Fate takes a turn when Mr. Rosenbe

In France, 1940, an unlikely pair team up to evade the approaching Nazis. Little Jacobowsky, a Polish Jewish intellectual, has been one step ahead of the Nazis for years. Stjerbinsky is an aristocratic, anti-Semitic Polish colonel who's trying to get to England. Jacobowsky has a car but can't drive; the colonel can. And so begins their adventurous journey - set against a backdrop of lively and lovely songs and dances - that takes them to a carnival, a Jewish wedding, and, when the car breaks down, onto a train. Accompanying them is Marianne, the colonel's girlfriend with whom Jacobowsky falls in love. But it is not to be.

Using music as an integral part of the storytelling, Blue spans nearly twenty years in the life of the affluent African American Clark family in rural South Carolina. Events are seen through the eyes of the eldest son Reuben, who evolves from a preteen trumpet player into an adult artist. His mother, a relentlessly chic matriarch with dark secrets who is out of place in the her provincial surroundings, holds court at family gatherings. She lays out grandiose plans for her two sons while the mesmerizing music of sexy jazz singer Blue Williams adds a unique dimension. Meanwhile, her husband runs a profitable funeral home, grandmother offers unsolicited advice and Ruben's brother runs with the girls. This humorous family portrait abounds with tenderness, acceptance and the search for unconditional love while introducing audiences to an African American family the likes of which is seldom portrayed on stage or screen.

When Eleanor and Sarah found each other, they were forced to leave theirhomes and cast out by society. Taking up residence in Llangollen they becameminor celebrities, forced to witness their own lives written about by thosewho could never understand. Now, they are back, ready to take back the storythat's rightfully theirs - on their own terms.A play based on the true story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby.

Lotus Beauty follows the intertwined lives of five multigenerational women, inviting us into Reita's salon where clients can wax lyrical about their day's tiny successes or have their struggles massaged, plucked or tweezed away. But with honest truths and sharp-witted barbs high among the treatments on offer, will the power of community be enough to raise the spirits of everyone who passes through the salon doors?

Clayton James, a 17-year-old Nottingham lad, dreams of becoming the next Viv Anderson. With a prodigious talent, the offer of a professional contract at a First Division club and a growing romance with girlfriend Serena, he appears to have the world at his feet.But life in the late 70s isn't easy for Clayton and his family, trying to make it in an era of racism and hooliganism. And Clayton's steelworker dad Patterson faces an uncertain future as the Thatcher government faces off against the unions.When his charismatic and powerful former coach, Lafferty, returns after four years away, Clayton is forced to confront painful memories of the past. Can he protect his loved ones from the truth of what he endured?A world premiere, inspired by the recent football abuse scandals, First Touch is a gripping and heartfelt drama about what it takes to fulfil your dreams, by screenwriter Nathaniel Price (BBC's Noughts and Crosses and Sky's Tin Star).

After fifteen years of marriage, Daniel and Sylvia find themselves drifting further apart with each passing day. Until one morning, they find themselves abruptly united by every parent¿s worst nightmare¿The shoes have been polished, the vases are full and the phone is ringing off the hook, but there¿s one thing they¿re still missing¿answers. Forced into a confrontation, years of resentment and things long left unsaid rise to the surface as they question the circumstances that brought them to this point, and what happens to your relationship when the only thing holding you together, threatens to tear you apart.A timely spotlight on love and loss, Til Death Do Us Part is the debut play of Safaa Benson-Effiom, and was a finalist in the 2020 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award and Soho Theatre¿s 2019 Tony Craze award. Originally presented as a Theatre503 and Darcy Dobson Productions coproduction.

This is a comedy of prosperous suburbia, with corruption as its theme and core. A charming, apparently happily married couple, the Actons, live comfortably in their newly-furnished home, but feeling always that life owes thein just a little more: a car, an expensive lawnmower, money for parties and so on. Temptation comes in the shape of Leonie Pimosz, a very high class brothel-keeper. It is not long before pretty, sweet Mrs Acton becomes involved with her and the Acton fortunes are startlingly improved. Soon it becomes clear that Mrs Acton's new career is by no means unusual; indeed, the wives of all their friends are acquainted with Madame Pimosz, and the husbands are quite content to keep up with the Joneses in this as in everything else. But the denoument is startling and horrific.

Bonfire night 2019, Sheila, Denise, Julie, and Fay are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.''s annual outward bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District.Our intrepid heroines fi nd themselves manufacturing weapons from cable ties and spatulas, and create a rescue fl ag with plastic plates and a toasting fork.Questions are asked; truths are told; dirty washing is aired.Is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress and a sleeveless jumper? What is Julie''s husband really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this bloody team building exercise when they could be at a spa?

In dusty, time-warped Indian villages, the last camels plough the land, last charkhas spin and last handlooms weave. The global ¿outside¿ pushes in via Western culture, technology, huge land and agro-chemical contracts and the desire for a ¿number 2¿ illegal route abroad.Zameen (Land) is set in the cotton fields of Punjab, India. Baba, an ageing Sikh cotton farmer, toils away in his fields, struggling against the vagaries of nature and the modern world. His dutiful daughter Chandni dreams of escaping her fate. Her wastrel brother Dhani dreams of ¿Amrikä. When the moneylender Lal¿s son Suraj returns from the outside world, Chandni and Dhani reflect on faded lives and aspirations and reach for ¿phoren¿ dreams. A final reckoning on Babäs land draws out truths, forcing the family to the brink of collapse, in a world changing fast and losing its values.Rooted in Punjabi farming and folk culture, ancestral land and soil, Zameen was written before mass Indian farmer protests against the increasing corporatisation of agriculture, rising farmer suicides and decimation of small farmers. Facing a climate change catastrophe, Zameen captures a world in transition, as nature, tradition and globalisation violently collide around small village lives ¿ lives steeped in a history of toil, struggle ¿ and resilience.

'Sometimes it feels so exposing just walking in the village. I told Jimmy toignore it at first, he tried to, but it's isolating he said, eyes on you, not a wordspoken. Even when you meet their eyes they don't look away. Like they have aright to, like you're a spectacle, an object.'Olivia has recently moved into her great-uncle's farmhouse. She's not local, butshe knows her way around. Matty is a gamekeeper, but he doesn't often tellanyone. He's wary of newcomers.These unlikely strangers find themselves beside a stream on the longest nightof the year.Pentabus and Theatre by the Lake present a brilliant new drama from award-winningplaywright Lorna French that explores loss, love, prejudice, race andbelonging.

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"Why does living where you're from have to be such a political act?"On a farm on the border, a fence is in need of repair after being destroyed by vandals. When Sinead finds Henry hungover in her field, she ropes him in to help. But rebuilding a fence is more complicated than it seems. What begins as a simple task soon turns to talk of their past, a reliving of old memories, and a relentless competition to come out on top.A timely and powerful reflection on 100 years of the border in Ireland and how it has impacted those who live along it. Inspired by 100 testimonies from real people who live on the border.

Winner of the Alfred Fagon AwardDebra wants a simple candle lit remembrance, Lenny is desperate to forget, and activist Alex thinks it's everyone's duty to provoke change. Having missed her mother's funeral, Gina finally turns up a year late. Amid recurring memories, intensifying relations and mixed news reports on escalating knife crime, each walks in and out on each other, struggling to make sense of an increasingly troubled time. A story of two sisters, responsibility, loss and love

Balancing the high expectations of the previous generation, the doctrines of their Muslim community, and the demands of secular Western culture, Azeem Bhatti and his wife Saima struggle to straddle the gap between their Pakistani heritage and their British upbringing.With deep compassion, Hammaad Chaudry brings to life a recognizable and unforgettable family, and with sharp intellect, asks potent questions about the challenges of integration and assimilation for immigrants in today's global world. As witnesses, we are all forced to confront pressing questions about the nature of belonging and our own internal prejudices about that which is "other."

Five women get together for their birthdays, each with her own story, to drink, celebrate, commiserate and support each other as they negotiate through marriage, work, divorce, birth and kids, while solving the problems of the world.Cheryl, Karen, Monica and Abbie started Birthday Club five years ago when their friend Jennifer was diagnosed with cancer, as a support group to help her get through it. When Jennifer recently passed away, they had an opening for a new member. However, it's not easy to join Birthday Club. Birthday Club is very exclusive, and there's a three-year waiting list. They bring in Sarah as a potential member, but first Sarah must make it through the "interview," and agree to abide by the eight rules of Birthday Club, to be considered an official member.One by one, they reveal their personal, work and family issues, and when one of them admits she went out with another's husband, the vodka hits the fan. The question is: Will Birthday Club survive, or will Rule #5 end it forever?

not what a girl should do. not what a queen would do. well f *ck what a queen would do.

Lynchburg, Virginia. The former site of a thriving cotton mill is now an impoverished neighborhood. Deeply affected by all the recent killings of young black men like himself, Ruffrino, a 14-year-old militant, incites riots at school and online. As Ruffrino grows more and more at odds with his mother and grandfather, his anger builds beyond containment. Meanwhile, the family home literally sinks into the cotton field, and no one but Ruffrino seems to notice.

3 m / Drama / Interior Nelson is the story of a young man caught between two worlds. By day, he works as a low-level assistant to a film talent agent. By night, Nelson is the camera man for an underground, gang-related videotape series. As the videos become increasingly dangerous and popular, Nelson develops an overwhelming obsession with a C-List actress. Eventually, Nelson's two worlds collide with disturbing, unsettling results. The play is a darkly comic look at the guilt dream of a man trying to find something authentic in a world of two very different kinds of film. "A funny-creepy play by Sam Marks" - Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times "Marks continues to offer a fresh urban voice. Nelson grabs your ear from the outset with its halting staccato street talk, and in the fine office scenes, Nelson's racist boss attacks him with a Mamet-like patter of disdaining sarcasm." - Time Out New York