Books published by Samuel French Ltd

Winner! 2010 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards: Best Production, Best Direction, Best Ensemble PerformanceWinner! 2010 LA Garland and 2009 LA Weekly Theatre Awards for Playwriting Winner! Boston IRNE AwardWinner! 2006 Black Theatre Alliance Award, Best Play Finalist! 2008 Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeNominee! 2012 Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding New Broadway PlayThe affluent, African-American LeVay family is gathering

Our Walk Through The World is a collection of six short plays examining the absurdities, tragedies and small triumphs of modern life.

Just a year into marriage and with a young baby to care for, Joe is one of three million unemployed looking for work every day - when he'd much rather be spending time with his young wife, Madge.

Daniel Defoe''s famous eighteenth-century novel about a girl born in Newgate Gaol: "Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia" who"at last grew Riche, liv''d in Honest and died a Penitent" is brought to the stage in this rumbustious musical written by Claire Luckham.|4 women, 5 men

Middle-aged Myra and Mavis return home for their mother''s second marriage to a young waiter Ricardo, insisting on a low-key register office ceremony. But Mother is having none of this and makes her own arrangements helped by the charlady and they both have the last laugh.|5 women

A period comedy set in 18th century England. A cowardly young gentleman named Lucidus initiates a pistol duel then finds that he can't go through with it. He hires a common criminal to fight in his place, only to have the scoundrel make a bloody mess of things. As duel follows duel with many shots fired, this coward finds his reputation growing beyond his wildest expectations. Nominee! Four 2011 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play

The Ants and The Grasshoppers - A Greek Musical Comedy is a hilarious twist on the classic Aesop's fable! When those goof-off grasshoppers arrive in Ancient Greece, the ants discover all the forbidden fun they've been missing, but when Winter arrives, the Queen leaves those good-for-nothing grasshoppers out in the cold and the ants become bored beyond belief and unable to accomplish their precious work!!! Now it's up to Eddie, the Queen's son, to lead a search party to rescue the grasshoppers and save the colony from dying... from boredom! With memorable characters, side-splitting silliness and toe-tapping tunes, this Greek musical comedy is the perfect show for any season!

The Ants and The Grasshoppers - A Greek Comedy is a hilarious twist on the classic Aesop''s fable! When those goof-off grasshoppers arrive in Ancient Greece, the ants discover all the forbidden fun they''ve been missing, but when Winter arrives, the Queen leaves those good-for-nothing grasshoppers out in the cold and the ants become bored beyond belief and unable to accomplish their precious work!!! Now it''s up to Eddie, the Queen''s son, to lead a search party to rescue the grasshoppers a

In She Stoops to Comedy, Alexandra Page, a self-involved actress, known for her portrayals of tragic heroines, disguises herself as a man in order to play Orlando opposite her girlfriend, Alison Rose, who has been cast as Rosalind in an out-of-town production of As You Like It. Because the role of Alexandra is played by a man, her transformation does not require the use of drag. And because the other actors in the As You Like It cast are friends of Alexandra and Alison - and

A decaying drive-in comes to life with stories of lighthouses, naughty little girls, and places you imagine remembering. So sit back, relax, refrain from loud talking and rough-housing, turn off your headlights, enjoy some tasty popcorn, put litter in its place, keep an eye on your children, think about how happy we could be, and remember that this country is full of dark, dark places along dark, dark roadways where dark, dark things can happen.

When their wives join the Women''s Peace Movement, Nobby, Tommy and Ken, pals in the Territorial Army, treat it as a joke. But as the women become more involved in demonstrations the men become the laughing stock of their TA battalion. Finally, the women, attempting to make their husbands give up the army, go on sexual strike with the slogan "No Nooky Against the Nukes". A wry, amusing look at the nuclear disarmament issue set in the author''s North of England.|4 women, 3 men

Bernard has foolishly asked his mistress, Brigit, to his home on her birthday despite the fact his wife Jacqueline is present. He has also invited his oldest friend, Robert and asks him to pretend Brigit is his mistress. Robert refuses as he is having an affair with Jacqueline, but Bernard cunningly involves him anyway.|3 women, 2 men

Norma Green, a 45-year old working-class Mancunian conceals a desperate sense of wasted time beneath her strong-willed but vulnerable exterior. Trying to find her Mr Wonderful through a dating agency, the story unfolds as she meets three men and tries to cope with her bedridden, controlling mother.

He considered himself the superman. She allowed him to believe it. Engaging Shaw is the hilarious true story of Irish playwright Bernard Shaw's relationship with wealthy heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend. According to her, "no man can resist a woman once she has set her sights upon him, unless thwarted by another woman." But confirmed bachelor Shaw may prove to be more than she bargained for. Can she romance an unromantic man? Can Shaw reconcile his intellectual theories with emotional re

Bothered and Bewildered is a comic drama that follows Irene and her two daughters Louise and Beth as they begin a long journey in which the girls lose their mum in spirit but not in body. As her family struggle to come to terms with her Alzheimer''s, Irene''s past passion for romantic fiction blurs with reality. She discusses with her unseen and witty companion Barbara Cartland (Irene''s favourite and now deceased world famous romantic novelist) how best to write her ''memory book'', disclosing to Barbara long kept family secrets that she would never reveal to anyone else.

Four people live together in a large old house in London. They include Sherry a wacky girl trying to make it as a comedienne; Paul a pop music journalist; Paul''s girlfriend Marion; and Howard, who is writing a left wing analysis of the corruption of capitalism under the Thatcher government. They all are perfectly content living where they are; until, that is, a developer offers them a huge sum of money to vacate. Soon, their talk about music and idealism gives way to heated discussions about real estate, capital appreciation and negotiating tactics.|2 women, 4 men

It's Christmas: the best time of year for toys and stories. But all over the world, the magic of Make Believe is fading. Only the toys know the truth: the Queen and King of Mouses have stolen the Christmas Star, and used its magic to turn the Prince of Make Believe into a wooden Nutcracker. Can Clara and her brother Fritz bring the Nutcracker back to life, help him defeat the House of Mouse, and restore him to the throne? First, they must believe...Large flexible cast

When her husband Dermond plans to be away in Cork with his partner Fintan, Grainne decided to seize the opportunity of spending the night with an ex flame, now a TV personality. She also involves the partner's wife, Niamh, in the plot. Things begin to go wrong when Niamh's furiously jealous husband returns unexpectedly and finds her performing what seems to him to be an exceedingly compromising task. Matters are further complicated by the new manageress of the new motel turning out to be the spurned love of the TV personality.3 women, 4 men

This triple bill of one-act murder mysteries combines: the light-hearted comedy Afternoon at the Seaside, in which a detective attempts to find a priceless emerald necklace and the culprit who stole it; The Rats, a dark and chilling tale in which a pair of adulterous lovers find themselves lured to a flat, trapped like rats and framed for murder; and finally, The Patient, a tense thriller in which a woman has been hospitalised after seemingly falling from her balcony."Three thrilling d¿nouements for the price of one."THE DAILY TELEGRAPH"A trio of playlets devoted, like the rest of her work, to whetting one's appetite for retribution."THE OBSERVER"They are, without exception, the work of an experienced and artful cook, whose interest is to please."THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

In this merry comedy of marital mishaps the, scene is set for an evening and morning of riotous misunderstandings and mistaken identities as the guilty parties in question try desperately to keep their romantic secrets secret!|3 women, 3 men

Seizing the opportunity, while her parents are out, Doreen decides to invite round Eric, her boyfriend. However, the evening is doomed to failure for all concerned: Doreen tries to calm Eric's passions while Mam and Dad overcome a ruined hair-do, the losing of all-important tickets and the car's flat battery only to find that they have the wrong night.2 women, 2 men

Why sould Ron Corley MP, the Minister for the environment, be searching for the seaside bungalow of his ex-mistress Donna on a Friday afternoon in the summer? And where does the pizza boy fit in? All is explained in this farcical drama.

In the wake of public spending cuts, Arthur wrestles with the methods set out in Montgomery Swank's 28 Ways to Terminate Your Existence and Questions You May Have, the one book he has salvaged from the closure of his beloved library.

Mrs Weston, an elderly widow, has been robbed, or at least believes she has - the trouble is, she is so very forgetful. Rosemary a young policeman, investigates, helped by her jokey and somewhat ambiguous colleague, Derek.

Set in 1890s Paris and very typically Feydeau in style, this lively and fast-moving play revolves around the idea of mistaken identity. Lucille awaits her new music teacher but the man who walks into her apartment is Edouard, in the mistaken belief that he is attending a rendezvous with his mistress. A series of hilarious misunderstandings and double entendres ensues.|4 women, 1 man

Who dreamt the Midsummer Night's Dream? What were the reactions of the Artisans' relatives to their play-acting activities? The author considers the play from the point of Bottom - and the women as members of the audience. Bottom and his wife are discovered settling down for the night - as twelve o'clock strikes, Bottom dreams a 'most rare vision'.Large flexible cast

A stage adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd". Bathsheba Everdene, a young, spirited farm-owner, is beloved of three men: Gabriel Oak, a stoical shepherd, William Boldwood, a neighbouring farmer, and the dashing but irresponsible Captain Troy.

Three actors. One desk. Three chairs. Theatre at its most elemental. Seven Interviews offers up seven different short plays, each with an interview format, and each of which illuminates some aspect of the human condition. The seven pieces range from the broadly comic to the achingly tragic. Among the situations set up in the seven pieces are a job interview to replace a secretary who is giving her employer nightmares, a biographer's horrible realization that she doesn't know her subject a

So Mr. Lockwood, the unfortunate builder of this modern monstrosity, gets his Sales Manager, Nigel Pitt, to pretend to be the current owner in order to make a more effective 'sell' to the first prospective buyers in years. To give an additional touch of authenticity he engages an actress to play the part of Nigel's wife, just while Sir Lindsay and Lady Cooper have their look round. But the real complications start when the Coopers are fogbound and have to stay the night-and turn out not to be husband and wife at all.-6 women, 6 men

Sarah and Phil had recently separated when their son, Joe, was killed while playing football alone in a playground. Now Phil visits the same playground every day and sits on a bench, waiting for Joe to appear so he can talk to him.1 woman, 1 man, 1 boy