Books published by Samuel French Ltd

An unpredictable, wealthy eccentric employs a succession of young men to talk to, and dismisses the most recent because the novelty is wearing off. However, the successor, a gauche ex-tie salesman, blossoms and is happy in the paternal atmosphere, until he strangles his dismissed predecessor in a horrifyingly casual manner. The employer tries to send the young man away but he is to prove fatal to his host. First staged in 1965, the play was revived at the Playhouse Theatre, London, in 2006 starring Ian Richardson.|5 men

It is the final night of the tour and as the sun sets gently over the mountains of the Austrian Tyrol, the women forget their differences as they exchange amusing holiday anecdotes, feelings of happiness and sadness, worries and past histories.

The usual high jinks are promised at the Christmas party at Harrison Hosiery. However events take a downward spiral when Julia appears with a black eye and Barbara, hiding a pregnancy, is discovered in a pool of her blood. But a helping hand is extended from a most unexpected quarter.5 women

Come Out To Play is a play for five women. Emily has been brought up by her Aunt Helen in a strict belief in the wickedness of time-wasting amusements and the necessity for constant "good-works" and ceaseless committees for the improvement of everybody. Above all, her long-dead father has been held before her as a shining example of rigorous puritanism. Dutifully, Emily follows Aunt Helen's teachings, even if she reads Marie Corelli novels in secret. The unexpected arrival of Connie Clayton-flamboyant ex-Gaiety girl and one-time close friend of Emily's father, however, reveals a different picture of him and precipitates a crisis.|5 women

Set in 1920's England, Airswimming is based on the true story of two women (Miss Kitson and Miss Baker), who have been incarcerated in a hospital for the "criminally insane" for having borne illegitimate children. Forgotten by their families and not released until the 1970's, Dora and Persephone adopt alter-egos, Dorph and Porph, to enact their fantasies and survive the silence of incarceration.2 women

Set against the dramatic wartime backdrop of the internment camp at Port Erin on the Isle of Man, this play takes place during the summer of 1940. It raises issues about a little-recorded part of British domestic history in which the characters are sustained by their hopes and dreams which we, the audience, finally realize will not be fulfilled.

Dora is a seaside landlady with special healing skills. Her friend, George is a small time personal manager. Danny, one of his clients, is a brilliant young snooker player with a big future ahead of him. But, Danny has a lot of pain in his past, which, George believes threatens his career, and so, he introduces him to Dora.

Forklift drivers Bill's and Bob's banter at work masks their domestic difficulties. Bill and his wife Jane mourn the cot death of their baby, and Jane turns to alcohol for release. Bob's wife Mo is looking for a change in her life now that the children have grown. Contains strong language. Running time approximately one hour.|2 women, 2 men

Katie and Edward are on a bird-watching holiday in Belize. They are at a critical point in their relationship and important decisions have to be made. Matters are complicated by Sam, a tour guide who has met and become involved with both Katie and Edward before, on separate visits.

Geraldine and her lover Doug are preparing for the visit of her daughter Sydney who Geraldine is certain is sexually promiscuous. When Sidney arrives, she brings with her Alex who purports to be a cockney living in a squat, however no one in this play is entirely truthful.

Hoping to revive their flagging marriage, and celebrate twenty-five years together, Dougie takes Lorna back to their honeymoon hotel in Majorca. The hotel is still managed by the same couple and Lorna is reminded of her liaison with Miguel, the hotel owner and local Romeo. Out of the memories of Lorna, Miguel and his 'wife', Regietta, step their younger selves to re-enact the events of twenty-five years ago and we eavesdrop on earlier decisions with the knowledge of what happens later!-4 women, 3 men

Armstrong Armstrong, struggling to become a writer, is convinced that he is ugly and scarred - her only forms of escape are the cinema and her absent fathers' collection of records. This surreal, dream-like, black comedy-drama is written by the author of "Straight and Narrow".

The egocentric and eccentric heroine of this play by the author of Rose is principal of a teachers' college in England. She fights with every fiber of her being against mediocrity in public education and in the world in general. Her world is falling apart: the Directors plan to merge the school with the local Polytechnic, giving her a faculty chair but no authority. Prin is also on shaky grounds with her lover, a shy, quiet woman who wants to marry the science teacher. While Prin lords it over one and all, one and all are making plans to be free from her. Prin emerges as a character whose noble ideals are doomed by her arrogant insensitivity.|3 women, 3 men

It is 1989; Czechoslovakia is struggling with its new-found freedom. In London, Pavlicek and Tomas, two Czechoslovakian émigrés, become involved in the tangled relationship between Diana and Adrian Harrington, who purvey British culture across the globe via the World Service. Betrayals - of friends, loves, countries and ideals - abound in this emotionally exacting and politically stringent comedy.|1 woman, 3 men

Here is a hilarious look at the artistic pretensions of the young and the rich that charts a decade in the life of a London family transplanted to an idyllic country setting. A literary agent and his wife buy a Devon cottage where she can write, children will be happy, and they can relax. Into their world walks the local vicar a classically comic character who tends their magnificent garden and their emotional if not spiritual needs as the outside world intrudes with failure and disillusionment.|3 women, 5 men

Rose has been fighting cancer over a long period of time, and - on the advice of her councellor - comes to a lonely cottage where she will live alone for a week. Remembering and re-living her life via tape recorder, she meets Ralph - a very unusual odd-job man.

In the Havencrest Nursing Home, Harry Troop insists he is not the humble Harold of his childhood, but Harry, the music hall entertainer. His flashes of comic talent intrigue nurse Stephaine and she helps him revive his memories. Through flashbacks of singing, dancing and laughter, we learn of Harry's modest success, much helped by his talented but tragic partners.|2 women, 1 man

In Vienna of 1777, a gifted young pianist is sent to Doctor Mesmer in the hope that his unorthodox methods will cure her blindness. Mesmer's treatment is based on transferring a spiritual fluid that restores physical and mental harmony. To the disquiet of her parents, he insists that Maria stay in his house during treatment. Maria's sight is restored, but gossips read more into the relationship than that of doctor and patient. The treatment ends in scandal with most of Vienna convinced that Mesmer is a charlatan. Unable to see once again, Maria returns to her parents and resumes her career as the blind pianist. Mesmer leaves for Paris, still deeply committed to the his miraculous healing powers.|5 women, 3 men

Frank Vickery's poignant, yet humorous study of the destructive power of an obsessive maternal love was presented at the Duke of York's Theatre, London in 1989. Iris is fussy, houseproud and dictatorial. To add to her own, and her family's problems, she also nurtures an intensely possessive love for her only child Simon, a medical student. Impatiently awaiting his arrival for a weekend visit, Iris frets, worries and berates her ever-patient husband Ron whose calmness only serves to fuel her irritation. When Simon does come, unexpectedly accompanied by a girlfriend, Deryn, Iris's joy quickly turns to jealousy and suspicion and despite Deryn's determined effort to get on with Iris, it isn't long before the two are at loggerheads.|2 women, 2 men

Spoiled and cossetted over the years by her devoted mother, Cuckoo's future is thrown into crisis by the death of Mam. But it's not just Cuckoo's future which then bcomes doubtful ¿ what of sister Lydia's plans to marry wealthy Jerome, and those of her aunt Madam, and the physically disabled Uncle Powell?|4 women, 3 men

As the New York Post outlines: "It is set in a real Rome. A Rome you really miss...It is set there because a young, conservative, slightly stuffy American businessman has come to retrieve the body of his father, who was killed in an automobile accident...what it adds up to is grown-up entertainment...so well done and so basically diverting that it can only be taken for the pleasurable thing it is."-2 women, 7 men

Thomas Tallis is a portrait of the life of one of Britain's most successful composers set against the tumultuous political backdrop of the renaissance. Living under four monarchs, Tallis was forced to adapt his compositions to suit their religious demands, but at what cost? In Swale's vividly imagined play, we follow the contrasting fates of Tallis and a young priest, from the dissolution of the monasteries through Mary's bloody reign, via encounters with a young Elizabeth and the mysterious Dr Dee, to their dramatic conclusion.

Set in the border ''bandit'' country of County Monaghan, The Mushroom Pickers tells the story of Laura, an accomplished actor who leaves her career in London when her life unexpectedly changes course. A self-confessed ''square peg in a round hole,'' she returns home to joinher father, Philip, to work in the local mushroom tunnels. Here Frank McElroy, manager of the family-run business and proponent of the wilder variety of mushroom, takes a shine to Laura and shares with her his dream of wooing the restaurateurs of Ireland and beyond. But Frank has a secret - and so does Laura

Based on the story of a real-life crime that happened at the tail-end of the longest recession in Ireland''s history, Leopoldville is a play about a gang of young men who rob a pub in a border town. Damaged lives are revealed and friendships profoundly tested as their crime spiralshorrifically out of control.

John and Susan Pearson have rented their usual holiday cottage in France; Susan is particularly looking forward to this holiday as she is recovering from a nervous breakdown. Shortly after their arrival, the cottage's owner turns up to check that everything is in order. She runs out of cigarettes and John leaves to buy her some. Thus begins Susan's confusion and terror, starting with the appearance of a man who says he is John and culminating in her being taken to the mental wing of the local hospital. It transpires that Susan is about to inherit all her late father's money, on condition that she is "of sound mind'. Is she the victim of an elaborate plot?

The central characters are Bob and Jeff. The cosy domesticity of these lovers is threatened by Jeff''s crisis. Jeff is considering leaving Bob.... but for a woman, so that he can become a father. Meanwhile, Bob contends with meddling family members who are ignorant of his living situation. His mother, a domineering comic creation, complicates matters by pressing Bob to get married. She refuses to recognize that there is anything about her son which might upset her conventional sensibilities. Can Bob''s family - Lois and Bill, Nona and Arthur and matriarch, Vera - help to rescue the situation? And will Bob be able to tell the seemingly ignorant Vera that the ''straight and narrow'' is not the life for her favourite little boy...?|3 women, 4 men

Sequel to Sailor Beware. A couple await their wedding day amidst surprise telegrams and misunderstandings.|5 women, 4 men

In The Importance of Being Earnest Jack Worthing discovers every obstacle has been removed from marriage to Gwendolen. Or so he believes. Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell, confesses her own bizarre family history, revealing she is not Gwendolen's mother, she is her father! Paul Doust has produced a perfect simulation of Wilde's characteristically epigrammatic wit in this splendid role for an actress - or actor!1 woman, 1 man