Books published by Samuel French Ltd

Staff Nurse Kitty, popular, good-natured and ever willing to help, is giving evidence at a medical tribunal investigating a patient''s death. Suddenly she finds herself carried along by events that she hardly comprehends and is condemned before she can even defend herself. Support which she felt that she could count on diminishes in the cause of self-interest, and helpful deeds performed at the time are misinterpreted. Based on a true-life incident, we see the pattern of her life in flashbacks, using imaginative lighting, heightened dialogue and delightful theatrical effects.|3 women, 1 man

Four English students gather for a picnic in Germany in 1938. Then Esther, a Jewess, appears, hunted by Karl of Hitler Youth. She is dragged away and thunderclouds form over what had previously been a fine day. A Narrator tells us of the fate of five of the party but we can only guess at Esther''s fate.|3 women, 3 men

Margaret and Arthur, a retired couple, are preparing dinner for their neighbour, Albert, whose wife, Enid, left him abruptly two months ago. This light-hearted comedy takes a darker turn when Arthur, aware that Albert has an eye for Margaret, suggests their neighbour''s smelly bonfires could indicate Albert has done away with Enid...|1 woman, 2 men

Four thespian enthusiasts find themselves in a dusty attic in Droitwich. Their guide explains that Shakespeare, aged ten, lived there. Then there emerges a Tudor-looking man, the ghost of Terry Shakespeare, embittered by his brother William''s literary thievery. To prove his point, he puts the visitors in a trance, making them perform scenes from the plays he has written.|4 women, 2 men

The Writer types ''Curtain'', completing his first play: a rage against life... But when the script is enacted before his eyes it turns out to be a very funny piece. The hilarity must stop, the Writer commands, and so rewrites it as a funeral. But this, too, brought to life, becomes an hilarious comedy. The Writer vows he will re-cast!|13 women, 9 men

Ruby''s boarding house is home to an odd mix of characters in this moving and well-observed play about four lonely people: Abe, the middle-aged divorcee, Chas, the Northerner forced to find work in the South, Fleur, put there by her social worker and Holly, struggling to save enough money to move out.|3 women, 2 men

Often hilarious, with moments of pathos, Cards brings to life the vulgar, bouncy, leering characters of traditional seaside postcards painted by artist Donald McGill.|2 women, 2 men

Three married couples, accompanied by the son of one and daughter of another, assemble on a hill near Dublin to picnic. During the afternoon the various relationships between them, on the surface and beneath it, become apparent, while the young people regard their elders somewhat sardonically across the generation gap. Six years pass, and the group come together again - but the place has changed, as they have. In their various ways all show the passage of the years.|4 women, 4 men

After a prison break, convict Jubilee, with two companions, takes over a small roadside café. The owners are temporarily absent; however, a special party of their friends is expected to lunch. After serving the visitors lunch, the gang tells them they are prisoners. The mutual reactions of ''respectables'' and ''villains'', the mounting tension of the situation, and instinctive groping towards some sort of understanding, form the basis of the events that follow.|7 women, 3 men

When two unexpected guests, Jane and Brian, drop in on Sheila and Andrew, a devoted middle-age couple, what ensues is a complicated and hilarious series of misunderstandings and mistaken identities as Sheila and Andrew begin to weave an elaborate web of lies and half-truths to hide their own possible infidelities.|3 women, 2 men

This drama about a sensitive, driven, turbulent and mystical playwright uses a fictional play-within-a-play device to create the environment within which its director/subject - Strindburg - works out his relationships with his lovers and his cast.

Nigel Burke, aspiring playwright, has writer's block. When he is visited by the mysterious Potter, who knows of his interest in Byron and is given a goblet used by the poet, there are subtle changes in Nigel's confidence and manner, but then Byron himself appears!

A very English modern play, reeking of real tragedy, real humour and real life. The Common Pursuit chronicles the erosion of the ambitions of a smug, elitist group of Cambridge frien''s. Stuart is editor of a literary magazine and the pursuit of excellence is shown to be economically a bad proposition in this world. The magazine collapses and the characters'' fates vary as the play proceeds. An ironic epilogue returns to the early days in Cambridge with the young people planning their futures.|1 woman, 5 men

Dilys Parry, an inconsolable Crimean War widow, lives in Blestin, a village which has no children, sin''s no son''s, and worships no god since a disaster snatched away all its youth. She is gradually re-awakened to life once a Miracle boy''s influence begins to permeate her home and the village. A flashy showman turns up intending to exploit the boy but becomes his world-forsaking disciple. The boy restores a dead man to life but dies himself in agony.|4 women, 4 men

George Clarke is a civil servant, a respected member of the Establishment, once married, now on his own. He lives in a flat in a converted Hampstead house. The apartment above is inhabited by hippies, and their noise often disturbs his peace. One evening young Louise Hamilton arrives on his doorstep. She has had a row with young Davey in the "pad" upstairs. She is also very pregnant. The clash between the happy and the square types is at full strength when Louise suddenly starts labour pains.|2 women, 3 men

Philip gives a small party for his fiancee Celia and a few friends. Afterwards Celia leaves with the others, while another young lady offers to help wash up, later revealing more intimate intentions. Celia discovers what happened and breaks things off, revealing that she spent the night of the party with another man. Philip then joins another couple for dinner, apparently deciding to re-enact the end of his deceased friend John''s original play, which had been responsible for John''s suicide.|3 women, 4 men

Forget-me-not Lane'' is a bittersweet play about fathers, families and nostalgia - about (in Nichol''s words) a youth which was bitter to live through but sweet to remember. It was first performed in 1971 at the Greenwich Theatre, London.|4 women, 5 men

12 Principals (1 boy). Chorus. Various simple settings A highly entertaining retelling of the well-known nursery rhyme.

Norman Robbins'' fun-packed pantomimes tell the traditional stories in a clear fast-moving style and can be staged simply or elaborately, as required. The choice of music is left to the director.|Large flexible cast

Class 6 are well-behaved, hard-working... and bored. Every day is much the same and then Mr Parker, the supply teacher, sets them an interesting project: to re-enact Sir Francis Drake''s circumnavigation of the world in 1577. Within minutes the room is transformed into an Elizabethan sailing ship and the brave adventurers set sail!|30 women or men

The sequel to Captain Blackboot''s Island opens with the Captain and his crew puzzling over the whereabouts of their octopus, Oliver. Luckily James, Sally and Victoria arrive, overhear some wreckers plotting and discover that Oliver is to be made into an octopus stew! A happy ending is assured, however, following their victorious battle with the wreckers, and when Oliver appears from the sea, it seems that the Wallamagrumba may not be so bad after all.|9 women, 13 men

Charles has been arrested for shoplifting. When a police officer asks him whether the offence was "a cry for help", he denies it. Later, he begins to wonder whether, in fact, this first-ever act of rebellion is showing him that, rather than lamenting the loss of his job and the collapse of his marriage, he should be rejoicing - for he is free.

A gang of women posing as nuns are operating a successful shoplifting racket. The trouble is that at home in their convent they have to look the part, and when two nuns seeking accommodation appear at the door they can''t turn them away. However, the newcomers aren''t what they seem either.|7 women

A hangman, a prostitute, a murderer and murderer''s stricken parents are the ingredients in this taut drama. In a fascinating chopped time sequence they spin a strange web of sex and death.|2 women, 3 men

Anxious to complete yesterday''s newspaper crossword, Frank finds the page missing. His mother, Pam, confesses to using it in the newly acquired rabbit''s cage. Extracting the page Frank is astonished to find the crossword is now complete. Could the rabbit, Bobby, be responsible...?|4 women, 1 man

From the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman and Hugo von Hofmannsthal''s Jedermann. Everywoman is a ruthless, successful careerist who has sacrificed everything for her own advancement. When Death appears, her successes fail her; only Faith, her deserted husband, and Crystal, her child, remain by her. Her eyes are opened, she repents, and is saved.|Large flexible cast

Family poverty robs Eliza of her dream of becoming a violinist. She transfers her ambition on to her son but he does not wish to learn. After a long absence he returns for his violin unprepared for an encounter with a girl who has befriended his mother or the rush of memory this meeting produces. A delicate and moving drama.|1 woman, 1 man, 1 girl

A man facing a terminal illness comes to a deserted beach, despondent and raging. He meets a woman who tells him that in the 5th century, Dwynwen, maid-in-waiting to the queen, deserted her faithless lover to live there. Dwynwen appears to the man and opens his eyes to the love and care of others.

When Ferris agrees to look after his sister's seedy hotel during her temporary absence in Benidorm he does not anticipate the arrival of a notorious journalist who writes a critical column about hotels in a Sunday newspaper.

The action in this comedy of the strains and stresses of property buying and selling alternates between two locations and should be familiar to anyone who has ever experienced house buying!