Best of
Plays

2019

Fairview


Jackie Sibblies Drury - 2019
    Beverly is organizing the perfect dinner, but everything seems doomed to go awry--the silverware is all wrong, the radio is on the fritz, and the rest of the family can't be bothered to lift a hand to help. And yet, what appears at first to be a standard family dramedy takes a sharp, sly turn into a startling examination of deep-seated paradigms about race in America.

Cyrano de Bergerac: in a free adaptation


Martin Crimp - 2019
    While Roxane is in love with the beautiful but inarticulate Christian.Cyrano's generous offer to act as go-between sets in motion a poignant and often hilarious love-triangle, in which each character is torn between the lure of physical attraction and the seductive power of words.Martin Crimp's adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac premiered at the Playhouse Theatre, London, in November 2019.

seven methods of killing kylie jenner


Jasmine Lee-Jones - 2019
    When The Discourse turns on her, the line between internet personas and IRL relationships blurs, and the heightened scrutiny she comes under puts her real-life friendship under strain...seven methods of killing kylie jenner combines theatre with gifs, memes and emojis to explore stereotypes of Black womanhood, white capitalist exploitation, and the politics of social media activism.

Downstate


Bruce Norris - 2019
    A man shows up to confront his childhood abuser--but does he want closure or retribution?Bruce Norris's new play Downstate zeroes in on the limits of our compassion and what happens when society deems anyone beyond forgiveness.

Baby Reindeer


Richard Gadd - 2019
    Wanting her to share in the joke. But she didn't. She just stared. I knew then, in that moment - that she had taken it literally...Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Richard Gadd has a chilling story to tell about obsession, delusion and the terrifying ramifications of a fleeting mistake.This powerful and engaging monologue play portrays a man brought to the edge by the actions of a chance encounter which takes a toll on all aspects of his life. In doing so it asks important questions about victims, the justice system and how one decision has the ability to change your life.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning


Will Arbery - 2019
    They've returned home to toast their mentor Gina, newly inducted as president of a tiny Catholic college. But as their reunion spirals into spiritual chaos and clashing generational politics, it becomes less a celebration than a vicious fight to be understood. On a chilly night in the middle of America, Will Arbery's haunting play offers grace and disarming clarity, speaking to the heart of a country at war with itself.

Ghost Stories


Jeremy Dyson - 2019
    It returned to the West End in 2014, before touring Australia.A film version was released in 2017, starring Andy Nyman, Paul Whitehouse, Alex Lawther and Martin Freeman.This edition of the play is published alongside its return to the Lyric Hammersmith in 2019.

Wolfie


Ross Willis - 2019
    Children are being raised by animals. A mother is slowly sinking in the bath. The trees are left doing the paperwork. The air is filled with screams of children howling for help. And some twins want to tell you a story about how everything got so fucked up.A spiralling odyssey of dizzying theatricality, Wolfie is a bold, fantastical fairytale following two twins separated at birth and asks who is truly responsible for society's most vulnerable children.Ross Willis's debut play is a wildly imaginative, irreverent look at life in and after the care system. It was premiered at Theatre503, London, in March 2019, directed by Theatre503 Artistic Director Lisa Spirling.

Cambodian Rock Band


Lauren Yee - 2019
    Thirty years later, he returns in search of his wayward daughter, Neary. Jumping back and forth in time, thrilling mystery meets rock concert as both father and daughter are forced to face the music of the past.From playwright Lauren Yee comes a story filled with horror, humor, pathos, and songs by the best unknown rock band in Cambodia!

Hansard


Simon Woods - 2019
    But all is not as blissful as it seems. Diana has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden, and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts as gentle ribbing and the familiar rhythms of marital sparring quickly turns to blood-sport.A witty and devastating new play.Hansard premiered at the National Theatre, London, in August 2019.

Kill Move Paradise


James Ijames - 2019
    As they attempt to make sense of their new paradise, Isa, Daz, Grif, and Tiny are forced to confront the reality of their past, and how they arrived in this unearthly place. Inspired by the ever-growing list of slain black men and women, KILL MOVE PARADISE illustrates the potential for collective transformation and radical acts of joy.

Collected Plays Three


Alfian Sa'at - 2019
    This volume collects plays written and staged in Malay, and translated to English for the very first time. In Nadirah, a young woman is shocked to find out her mother wants to marry a non-Muslim. In Parah, a group of students can no longer ignore the stereotypes and prejudices that divide the races, and the strain it puts on their friendship. In Geng Rebut Cabinet (GRC), we’re transported to an alternate reality where the Chinese are the minority in Singapore. And in Your Sister’s Husband, five sisters try their hardest to reckon with their superstitious, old-fashioned eldest to farcical ends, raising questions about black sheep, outcasts and sociopaths.

What a Young Wife Ought to Know


Hannah Moscovitch - 2019
    Sophie, a young working-class girl, falls madly in love with and marries a stable-hand named Jonny. After two difficult childbirths, doctors tell Sophie she shouldn't have any more children, but don't tell her how to prevent it. When Sophie inevitably becomes pregnant again, she faces a grim dilemma. In an unflinching look at love, sex, and fertility, and inspired by real stories of mothers during the Canadian birth-control movement of the early twentieth century, one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights vividly recreates a couple's struggles with reproduction.

The Niceties


Eleanor Burgess - 2019
    They’re both liberal. They’re both women. They’re both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they’re in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen – and facing stunning implications that can’t be undone.

Sugar in Our Wounds


Donja R. Love - 2019
    It protects James, a young slave, while he reads newspapers about the imminent possibility of freedom, as the battle rages on. When a brooding stranger arrives, James and his makeshift family take the man in. Soon, an unexpected bond leads to a striking romance, and everyone is in uncharted territory. But is love powerful enough to set your true self free?

God Said This


Leah Nanako Winkler - 2019
    The father, James, is a recovering alcoholic seeking redemption, and the two daughters are struggling to overcome their differences—Sophie is an ardent born-again Christian, while Hiro lives a single’s life in New York City. John, an old high school classmate of Hiro’s who is now a single dad, worries about leaving a legacy for his son. Wry and bittersweet, God Said This vividly captures the complexities of a familial reconciliation in the throes of crisis and looks deeply at the meaning of family—Japanese, Southern, and otherwise.   This is the first Yale Drama Series winner chosen by Pulitzer prize–winning playwright Ayad Akhtar, who describes the play as conveying “a deeply felt sense of the universal—of the perfection of our parents’ flawed love for each other and for us; for the ways in which the approach of death can order the meaning of a human life.”

The Doctor


Robert Icke - 2019
    How do we defend the "truth" when no one agrees what it is and many have reason to undermine it?

Suicide Forest


Kristine Haruna Lee - 2019
    Written to be performed by a Japanese heritage cast, Suicide Forest is a bilingual play that breaks through the silence and submissiveness often associated with Japanese and Japanese American identity, exploring questions of emotional, psychic and social suicide through the playwright's lived stories and inner landscape.

Mother's Daughter


Kate Hennig - 2019
    But Mary’s mother appears from the vaults of memory, and adamantly questions the motives of Mary’s cousin Jane and her half-sister Bess, despite Mary’s affection for them both. As the kingdom splits along Roman Catholic and Protestant lines, Mary walks a gauntlet of squabbling ethics and politics, and is forced to make some tough decisions. Should she execute her opponents before it’s too late, the way her father did? Should she scramble to find a husband who can give her a rightful heir? And can she trust her mother, her sister, or even herself?

A German Life


Christopher Hampton - 2019
    Or very little. No more than most people. So you can't make me feel guilty.Brunhilde Pomsel's life spanned the twentieth century. She struggled to make ends meet as a secretary in Berlin during the 1930s, her many employers including a Jewish insurance broker, the German Broadcasting Corporation and, eventually, Joseph Goebbels. Christopher Hampton's play is based on the testimony she gave when she finally broke her silence to a group of Austrian filmmakers, shortly before she died in 2016. Maggie Smith, alone on stage, plays Brunhilde Pomsel. Christopher Hampton's play is drawn from the testimony Pomsel gave when she finally broke her silence shortly before she died to a group of Austrian filmmakers, and from their documentary A German Life (Christian Kr�nes, Olaf M�ller, Roland Schrotthofer and Florian Weigensamer, produced by Blackbox Film & Media Productions).

Three Sisters (Oberon Modern Plays)


Inua Ellams - 2019
    Months before, two ruthless military coups plunged the country into chaos. Fuelled by foreign intervention, the conflict encroaches on their provincial village, and the sisters long to return to their former home in Lagos.Following his smash-hit Barber Shop Chronicles, Inua Ellams returns to the National Theatre with this heartbreaking retelling of Chekhov's classic play.

Lost Girl


Kimberly Belflower - 2019
    Along the way, she meets other girls who went to Neverland and learns she is not alone. A coming-of-age exploration of first love and lasting loss, Lost Girl continues the story of J.M. Barrie's beloved character - the girl who had to grow up.

Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light: A Play by Joy Harjo and a Circle of Responses


Joy Harjo - 2019
    Harjo blends storytelling, music, movement, and poetic language in Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light--a healing ceremony that chronicles the challenges young protagonist Redbird faces on her path to healing and self-determination. This text is accompanied by interviews with Native theater artists Rolland Meinholtz and Randy Reinholz, as well as an interview with Harjo, conducted by Page. The interviews highlight the lives and contributions of Meinholtz, a theater artist and educator who served as the drama instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts from 1964-70 and a close mentor and friend to Harjo; and Reinholz, producing artistic director of Native Voices at the Autry, the nation's only Equity theater company dedicated exclusively to the development and production of new plays by Native American, First Nations, and Alaska Native playwrights. The new interview with Harjo focuses on her experiences working in theater.Essays on Harjo's work are provided by Mary Kathryn Nagle--an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee nation, playwright, and attorney who shares her insights on the legal and historical frameworks through which we can better understand the significance of Harjo's play; and Priscilla Page--writer, performer, and educator (of Wiyot heritage), who looks at indigenous feminism, jazz, and performance as influences on Harjo's theatrical work.

The Chinese Lady


Lloyd Suh - 2019
    Allegedly the first Chinese woman to set foot on U.S. soil, she has been put on display for the American public as "The Chinese Lady." For the next half-century, she performs for curious white people, showing them how she eats, what she wears, and the highlight of the event: how she walks with bound feet. As the decades wear on, her celebrated sideshow comes to define and challenge her very sense of identity. Inspired by the true story of Afong Moy's life, The Chinese Lady is a dark, poetic, yet whimsical portrait of America through the eyes of a young Chinese woman.

After the Blast


Zoe Kazan - 2019
    Nature is now simulated through brain-implanted chips, and fertility is regulated to keep the surviving population in balance. Anna and Oliver want to have a baby, and their options are running out.

Superhoe (NHB Modern Plays)


Nicôle Lecky - 2019
    She's gone from being the most popular girl at school, to spending most of her time on her own in her bedroom scrolling through social media.She may not have a job or a flat, and, admittedly her boyfriend's not answering her calls; but she's got talent and a dream – when she releases her first EP everything's going to change.Nicôle Lecky's play Superhoe was premiered by Talawa Theatre and the Royal Court at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2019.

White Pearl


Anchuli Felicia King - 2019
    Now the whole world is going crazy."In Singapore, Clearday(TM) has developed from a small start-up company to a leading international cosmetic brand in less than a year. But when a draft of the company's latest skin cream advert is leaked, the video goes viral globally for all the wrong reasons.This play is a twisted corporate comedy about selling Whiteness and how the beauty industry monetizes women’s shame. The original staging depicts intra-racial racism by casting six different Asians of varying backgrounds, skin tones and English proficiencies.White Pearl marks writer Anchuli Felicia King's international playwriting debut. It premiered in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 10 May 2019 in a production directed by Nana Dakin.

The People's Republic of Valerie, Living Room Edition


Kristen Kosmas - 2019
    Part boot-camp space-travel memoir, part how-to manual for the construction of a paradise, The People's Republic of Valerie, Living Room Edition is an attempt to transform feelings of despair, grief, and rage into something of value, into positive action, into something of beauty that might uplift and create space and occasion for imagination and community.

Sender: A Play


Ike Holter - 2019
    While each is at a different stage of “growing up,” one of the friends has disappeared and has been presumed dead. Yet, at the beginning of the play, he returns and completely upends the balance established in his absence. This witty, foul mouthed, and razor-sharp play asks: “What does growing up mean . . . and is it even desired in this day and age?” Sender is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. Holter’s plays are set in Chicago’s fictional fifty-first ward. The other plays in the cycle are Exit Strategy, Lottery Day, Prowess, Red Rex, Rightlynd, and The Wolf at the End of the Block.

Out of Water


Zoe Cooper - 2019
    Claire and her wife Kit have moved from the confines of London to the wide open coasts of South Shields.To be nearer family, to be nearer the sea, to put down roots. To have a baby.Claire's new job at the local school is a step up, and she wants to make a real difference, but she soon discovers that she has as much to learn from her students as they have from her.A tender new play about gender, wild swimming, and how we define who we are.

Socrates


Tim Blake Nelson - 2019
    This powerful play is an intellectual thrill ride from the philosopher’s growing prominence in democratic Athens through the military and social upheavals that led to one of the most infamous executions in Western history. SOCRATES is a passionate tribute to the man who continues to inspire us to question authority and defend freedom of belief.

Plot Points in Our Sexual Development


Miranda Rose Hall - 2019
    Theo and Cecily want to be honest about their sexual histories, but what happens when telling the truth jeopardizes everything? A contemporary queer love story, Plot Points in Our Sexual Development explores gender, intimacy, and the dangers of revealing yourself to the person you love.

The Hiding Place: Stage Adaptation


A.S. Peterson - 2019
    

Awakening to Wildfire: Stories of the Mendocino Lake Complex Fire


Jannah Minnix - 2019
    At11:36 PM a spark from a downed power line hit dry vegetation and started a small fire. It grew into a raging, racing inferno that would consume a massive part of a small town in northern California. The fire would forever change the lives of the people of Redwood Valley and their neighbors in nearby communities. Nine lives were lost, and hundreds of structures destroyed. This became known as the Mendocino Lake Complex Fire, or Redwood Valley Fire. During and following the fire, what stood out were peoples' stories of their escapes, sorrows, miracles, and blessings: Friends lost; pets found; midnight drives on windy dirt roads through a smoky haze; flowers blooming in the ash-everyone had a memory to share. Awakening to Wildfire captures dozens of these stories and presents them to you in written and visual mediums.Through this we hope to convey an idea of the magnitude and key moments of the fire, as well as the strength, courage, and resilience of those who survived it.

Princess & the Hustler


Chinonyerem Odimba - 2019
    

Paradise Blue


Dominique Morisseau - 2019
    But where does that leave his devoted Pumpkin, who has dreams of her own? And what does it mean for the club's resident bebop band? When a mysterious woman with a walk that drives men mad comes to town with her own plans, everyone's world is turned upside down. This dynamic and musically-infused drama shines light on the challenges of building a better future on the foundation of what our predecessors have left us.

The Niceties


Eleanor Burgess - 2019
    They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen – and facing stunning implications that can't be undone.

In Search of Lost Time (10-part BBC Radio 4 dramatisation)


Timberlake Wertenbaker - 2019
    The young Marcel takes beautiful walks with his parents and has his first sighting of the young Gilberte Swann, daughter of family friend and well-connected Parisian Dandy, Charles Swann and his wife, the courtesan and seductress Odette de Crecy.Cast:MARCEL (narrator) ………Derek JacobiFATHER ………Oliver CottonFRANCOISE ………Susan BrownMOTHER ………Sylvestra le TouzelGRANDMOTHER ………Joanna DavidTANTE LEONIE .……Pamela MilesGILBERTE (girl) ………Mary GlenODETTE ..............Bessie CarterSWANN ………… Paterson JosephMADEMOISELLE VINTEUIL/PROSTITUTE .... Charlotte BlandfordTHE DUCHESS DE GUERMANTES (Oriane) …………… Fenella WoolgarMADAME DE VERDURIN ………Frances BarberPIANIST …………Daniel WhitlamDOCTOR COTTARD …………Lloyd HutchinsonMARCEL(boy) ………Isaac WattsMONSIEUR VERDURIN …………Jeff RawleFEMALE FRIEND……….Phoebe MarshallTranslated and adapted from the French by Timberlake WertenbakerProduced and directed by Celia de WolffProduction Co-ordinator: Sarah TomblingRecording and Sound Design: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason BrownExecutive Producer: Peter HoareA Pier production for BBC Radio 4(copied -- along with image -- from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...)

On Bear Ridge


Ed Thomas - 2019
    But owners John Daniel and Noni are not leaving.They are defiantly drinking the remaining whiskey and remembering good times, when everyone was on the same side and the old language shone. Outside in the dark, a figure is making their way towards them.A semi-autobiographical story about the places we leave behind, the indelible marks they make on us, and the unreliable memories we hold onto.“An excellent tragicomic play” – The Stage“[A] potent study of the places we leave behind.” – Observer

Honour Beat


Tara Beagan - 2019
    Together they confront one another, their own identities, and what will remain when their mom leaves this world. A contemporary look at the significance of faith and family, Honour Beat evokes both laughter and tears as three women grapple with one of life's most difficult inevitabilities.

Five Plays


Goran Stefanovski - 2019
    Things like that don't just vanish. (from Shades of Babel) Goran Stefanovski (1952-2018) was an internationally recognised ex-Yugoslav playwright. Four of his five plays published here have never been available in English before. They all illustrate Stefanovski’s characteristic use of source material, particularly folk tales and myth, to present a striking vision of the human condition, especially in the extreme circumstances of war, exile and political insecurity. Except for the elegiac Sarajevo, these plays are written in the playwright’s favourite genre of tragi-comedy. The short scenes and robust dialogue mark them out as the work of a connoisseur of the language of theatre. The Black Hole, the first play in this collection, is considered by the Italian theatre director Paolo Magelli to be the best European play of the 1980s and is still regularly performed in theatres worldwide. The Conrad Press is proud to be publishing this remarkable, highly engaging, intensely dramatic collection of plays by a master playwright.

Crocodile Fever (Oberon Modern Plays)


Meghan Tyler - 2019
    A farmhouse window smashes, and rebellious Fianna Devlin crashes back into the life of her pious sister Alannah. Together for the first time in years, when they're forced to confront their tyrannical father’s hideous legacy, all hell breaks loose.Fuelled by Taytos, gin, 80s tunes and a chainsaw, Meghan Tyler’s surreal Crocodile Fever is a grotesque black comedy celebrating sisterhood whilst reminding us that the pressure cooker of The Troubles is closer than we imagine.

i will still be whole (when you rip me in half)


Ava Wong Davies - 2019
    A young mother walks out of a small house in Shepherd’s Bush and doesn’t look back.2019. A daughter lies in a bath and stares at a crack in the ceiling.Joy and EJ prepare for their first meeting in twenty-two years. They run, they bathe, they inhale, they wait.i will still be whole (when you rip me in half) is the debut play by acclaimed theatre critic Ava Wong Davies: a lyrical interlinking of monologues devoted to blood ties, the cycle of trauma, and what we inherit from our parents.

Soft Animals


Holly Robinson - 2019
    Frankie doesn't go to her lectures. In the aftermath of the tragic accident that brought them together, neither expects to find solace in the other's company.Between hate mail and novelty teddy bears, the two women become something like friends. They want to punish themselves. They might just save each other.A tender and unflinching story about motherhood, self destruction and the way women help each other heal.Holly Robinson's debut play soft animals premiered at Soho Theatre in February 2019.

There Are No Beginnings


Charley Miles - 2019
    

The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon


Don Zolidis - 2019
    

J'Ouvert


Yasmin Joseph - 2019
    The streets of Notting Hill are alive with history and amongst the pulsating soca, dazzling colour, and endless sequins and feathers, Jade and Nadine are fighting for space in a world they thought was theirs.A timely reflection on the Black British experience and sexual politics of Carnival, J'Ouvert is a piercing, hilarious and fearless story of two best friends, battling to preserve tradition in a society where women's bodies are frequently under threat.

The Greek Plays: 33 Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Modern Library Classics)


Aeschylus - 2019
    Not only is the influence of Greek drama palpable in everything from Shakespeare to modern television, the insights contained in Greek tragedy have shaped our perceptions of the nature of human life. Poets, philosophers, and politicians have long borrowed and adapted the ideas and language of Greek drama to help them make sense of their own times.

Yell


Jeremy O. Harris - 2019
    This is a "true" story.

A Doll's House


Tanika Gupta - 2019
    Niru is a young Bengali woman married to an English colonial bureaucrat – Tom.Tom loves Niru, exoticising her as a frivolous plaything to be admired and kept;  But Niru has a long-kept secret, and just as she thinks she is almost free of it, it threatens to bring her life crashing down around her.Tanika Gupta reimagines Ibsen’s classic play of gender politics through the lens of British colonialism, offering a bold, female perspective exploring themes of ownership and race.

Contemporary Plays by African Women: Niqabi Ninja; Bonganyi; Unsettled; Silent Voices; I Want To Fly; Mbuzemi; Not That Woman


Sophia Kwachuh MempuhAmy Jephta - 2019
    These plays, which are selected from writers across the continent, give a rich portrait of identity, politics, culture and society in contemporary Africa from some of today's finest writers.The playwrights and plays included are:Sara Shaarawi - Niqabi Ninja (Cairo) is set in Cairo during the chaotic time of the Egyptian uprising. Sophia Kwachuh Mempuh - Bonganyi (Cameroon) depicts the effects of slavery through the story of a slave girl, who is a singer and dancer, and wants to win a competition and so free her family from slavery.JC Niala – Unsettled (Kenya) deals with gender violence, land issues and relationships between Kenyans living in and out of the countryAdong Judith – Silent Voices (Uganda) is a one-act play based on interviews with the LRA Rebel Victims of Northern Uganda. Thembelihle Moyo - I Want To Fly (Zimbabwe) tells the story of an African girl who wants to be a pilot. It looks at how patriarchal society shapes the thinking of men regarding lobola (bride price) and how women endure abusive men and the role society at large plays in these issues.Koleka Putuma – Mbuzemi (South Africa) A story of four girl orphans (aged eight to twelve), their sisterhood, and their fixation with death and burials. It explores the unseen force that governs and dictates the laws that the villagers live by.Tosin Jobi-Tume - Not That Woman (Nigeria) addresses issues of violence against women in Nigeria, and its attendant conspiracy of silence. The play advocates zero-tolerance for violence against women, and urges women to bury shame and speak out rather than die in silence.Each play also includes biographies of each playwright and the writers' own artistic statements; a production history of each play; and a critical contextualisation of the theatre from which each woman is writing.

Tae Sung's Peculiar Life: Tae Sung and the Flattened Snake


Elizabeth O'Carroll - 2019
    Tae Sung's life went from an average everyday kid, to possessing abilities that extend far beyond anything he had ever bargained for.Tae Sung can never look back to the way his life was. His life and the lives of those around him are forever changed.

The Monstrous Heart


Oliver Emanuel - 2019
    It's an unremarkable life, save for the enormous bear carcass on the kitchen table.But when her estranged daughter Beth turns up on the doorstep having been freshly released from prison, the past becomes terrifyingly present - and the bear isn't the only thing with a dangerous bite.

Stage Fright: Selected Plays from San Francisco Poets Theater


Kevin Killian - 2019
    Poetry. LGBTQIA Studies. Art. California Interest. Being the selected plays of Kevin Killian, who has for decades won laurels for his novels, his poetry, and his work in the poets theater of the San Francisco bay area. Drawing from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, this is the first representative selection of Killian's plays. Once describing his productions as a form of blanket permission, Killian added, I think people might come away thinking, I could do that! Isn't that the best kind of work, something generative? Action painting was sort of like that... This is a book to read, where reading means catching some action.

Next Lesson


Chris Woodley - 2019
    They’re not promoting anything.”In 1988, 14-year-old Michael comes out as gay. Later he returns as a teacher. In the background: the notorious Section 28 of Thatcher’s Local Government Act, which prohibited schools from “promoting homosexuality”. The narrative of the play spans from 1988 to 2003.

My Lord, What a Night


Deborah Brevoort - 2019
    With nowhere to go, Albert Einstein invites her to stay in his home, beginning an intimate friendship between two icons that lasts a lifetime. Based on actual events during a turbulent time in our nation’s history, Deborah Brevoort’s new play offers a rare glimpse into what transpired that fateful evening.

Gloria: A Life (Tcg Edition)


Emily Mann - 2019
    Emily Mann's new play traces the progress of Steinem's extraordinary life, from her undercover Playboy Bunny expos� in the 1960s, through her founding of Ms. Magazine in the 1970s, to her activism in today's women's movement.

Guarded Girls


Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman - 2019
    In another time, an older inmate named Kit talks to an unseen audience about a coming visitor and how she'll stop at nothing to see them, even if that means bringing down the entire prison system. In another place, three girls wait as visitors, each one thinking about the complicated positions their mothers are in. At times playful and mysterious, Guarded Girls is about the stories we tell to survive, and how the same stories can also destroy us.

The Arrival (NHB Modern Plays)


Bijan Sheibani - 2019
    

Prowess: A Play


Ike Holter - 2019
    In this heartfelt yet fantastical homage to Chicago, award-winning playwright Ike Holter introduces us to a quartet of “average” citizens who have been the victims of violence and felt powerless because of it. In the face of the city’s seemingly intractable ills, the play’s characters join forces to rescue Chicago—and themselves. But how? With heart, wit, and wisdom, Holter explores how one responds to violence. Does a person focus on self-defense and personal survival? Or fight back—with more violence? Pulsating and physical, Prowess is about vulnerability, vigilantism, heroism, and self-knowledge. Prowess is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. The other plays in the cycle are Rightlynd, Exit Strategy, Sender, The Wolf at the End of the Block, Red Rex, and Lottery Day.

Does My Bomb Look Big in This?


Nyla Levy - 2019
    When Yasmin suddenly disappears to Syria, Aisha embarks on a mission to uncover the truth and decide whether there is any hope in Yasmin's new-found world.First conceived in 2016 after being cast in roles as a 'jihadi bride' or 'terrorist girlfriend' and generally dissatisfied with the narrative being told, Nyla Levy ran research workshops with school children and interviewed muslim community leaders as well as terrorism defence solicitor Tasnime Akunjee. The result voices the complexities of the choices made by disaffected youth, their vulnerability, and how the decisions made can changes lives, communities and countries forever.With fierce wit and disarming honesty, Does My Bomb Look Big in This? cleverly unveils a human story behind the headlines and questions how close or far we are from multicultural harmony.

Elsewhere: A Play


Adam Szymkowicz - 2019
    When Teddy comes to Celia’s house to deliver a package, he doesn’t expect to be invited for dinner. When he comes to dinner, he doesn’t expect to be invited to live with her. When he starts to live with her, he doesn't expect to fall in love with her sister Amanda. And he definitely doesn't expect to be drugged ... or buried alive.

You Stupid Darkness!


Sam Steiner - 2019
    Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.Sam Steiner's You Stupid Darkness! is an urgent play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a world falling apart. It was first seen at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2019, in a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth.

7th Cousins: An Automythography


Erin Brubacher - 2019
    A stranger asked if we were walking to learn how to work and be together. This was certainly part of it.In July 2015, Erin Brubacher and Christine Brubaker, two politically left, secular, Canadian women traced the migration route of their Mennonite ancestors by walking from Pennsylvania to Ontario, through the American Bible Belt. Along the way they were hosted by a series of people with whom they had next to nothing in common. They were welcomed into strangers' homes and treated as family. On their journey they encountered folks with religious and political beliefs very different from their own and learned to question what conversations to enter and how far to take them. They accomplished this and so much more while navigating their own relationship and the challenges of being with another person, on foot, for 32 days. 7th Cousins: An Automythography documents the walk itself and the performance text they generated afterwards. Included throughout are photo essays from the journey and commentaries from their collaborators Christopher Stanton, Andrea Nann, Kaitlin Hickey and Erum Khan.Praise for 7th Cousins:"7th Cousins is a sharp, very personal and insightful work of documentary theatre that embodies a kind of honest female friendship that is so important to experience in our current moment, as well as a journey into the U.S. that gives trenchant insights far beyond what I was expecting." —Jacob Wren, author of Authenticity is a Feeling: My Life in PME-ART and Rich and Poor

The Canary and the Crow


Daniel Ward - 2019
    Winner of the 2020 George Devine AwardMiddle Child present The Canary and the Crow, brand new gig theatre about the journey of a working class black kid who is accepted to a prestigious school.A lyrical, semi-autobiographical piece from writer and performer Daniel Ward - using grime, hip hop and theatre, he tells the story of his struggle between a new environment that doesn't accept him and an old one that has no opportunity.

A Clean Escape


John Kessel - 2019
    Or does she? When treatment becomes a struggle for power, who can separate reality from illusion, lies from truth, sanity from insanity, guilt from innocence? And what is at stake in the world outside the room?

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka


Tori Sampson - 2019
    But they’ll be damned before they let her be the leading lady in this story. A decidedly contemporary riff on a West African fable, Tori Sampson’s explosive epic is brimming with live music and dance, as these frenemies jockey for their rank in a culture built on ideals forever out of reach.

The Bérenger Plays


Eugène Ionesco - 2019
    

The Mouseiad and other Mock Epics


Ignacy Krasicki - 2019
    Krasicki towers over all forms of eighteenth-century literature in Poland like Voltaire, Swift, Pope, and LaFontaine all rolled into one. While his fables constitute his most well-known works of poetry, in the words of American comparatist Harold Segel, ‘the good bishop’s mock-epic poems […] are the most impressive examples of his literary gifts.’ This English translation by Charles S. Kraszewski is rounded off by one of Krasicki’s lesser-known works, The Chocim War, the poet’s only foray into the genre of the serious, Vergilian epic.

The King of Hell's Palace


Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig - 2019
    As corrupt health officials cut costs to maximize profits, safety standards are ignored, bringing potential catastrophe to China's most vulnerable population. Inspired by true events, this gripping drama explores the conflicts that arise when a community's greatest source of capital becomes their own bodies. Focusing on the personal repercussions of the cover-up, The King of Hell's Palace questions how political and medical decisions are made and how both a family and an entire country can look to recover from traumatic events.

After Edward


Tom Stuart - 2019
    He has no idea where he is, or how he got here, but he does have an ominous feeling that something is wrong. As that feeling grows, so too does the threat on the other side of the auditorium doors.Locked inside the theatre with some rather anarchic fellow inmates – Gertrude Stein, Harvey Milk and Quentin Crisp – Edward can’t escape what seems to be coming for him…A daring new play written specifically for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in response to Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, After Edward welcomes us into a chaotic world of pride and shame; a place where Queer politics collide with imagined and personal experience.

Botticelli in the Fire


Jordan Tannahill - 2019
    They're going to worship you, don't get me wrong. But they are going to kill you.Playboy Sandro Botticelli has it all: talent, fame, good looks. He also has the ear - and the wife - of Lorenzo de Medici, as well as the Florence's hottest young apprentice, Leonardo.But whilst he is at work on his breakthrough commission, The Birth of Venus, Botticelli's devotion to pleasure and beauty is put to the ultimate test. As plague sweeps through the city, the charismatic friar Girolamo Savonarola starts to stoke the fires of dissent against the liberal elite. Botticelli finds the life he knows breaking apart, forcing him to choose between love and survival.Jordan Tannahill's hot-blooded queering of Renaissance Italy questions how much of ourselves we are willing to sacrifice when society comes off the rails.Botticelli in the Fire made its European premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in October 2019.

A Museum in Baghdad


Hannah Khalil - 2019
    Doing what is right. Being where I'm needed. I've started a job and I must finish it. I owe it to the people of Iraq. In 1926, the nation of Iraq is in its infancy, and British archaeologist Gertrude Bell is founding a museum in Baghdad. In 2006, Ghalia Hussein is attempting to reopen the museum after looting during the war.Decades apart, these two women share the same goals: to create a fresh sense of unity and nationhood, to make the world anew through the museum and its treasures. But in such unstable times, questions remain. Who is the museum for? Whose culture are we preserving? And why does it matter when people are dying?A story of treasured history, desperate choices and the remarkable Gertrude Bell. This edition of Hannah Khalil's epic new play was published to coincide with the world premiere at the RSC's The Other Place in 2019.

Thanks for Giving


Kevin Loring - 2019
    Old wounds and new realities collide, and sibling rivalry is stoked, but the enduring spirit that guides this family charges on, ever fierce. Thanks for Giving offers plenty to chew on. This intimate and restorative new play from Governor General’s Literary Award winner Kevin Loring, the first ever Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre of Canada, is about legacy – the legacy of our personal and collective histories, and a family’s legacy as it moves into an age where the assumptions of the old ways surrender to new possibilities. But if the play’s main course is legacy, the dessert is pumpkin pie. Tuck in!

Enough (NHB Modern Plays)


Stef Smith - 2019
    They're here for your safety, your comfort and your pleasure. Or so you think. But 30,000 feet below them their seemingly perfect lives are rapidly unravelling.In the sky, over the sea and in cheap hotel rooms around the world, they can feel the ground shake beneath them. Something is rising up, something which cannot be ignored. And it's calling out for them. If they're going to survive what's coming, something needs to change.Poetic, unpredictable and explosive, Stef Smith's play Enough is a fragmentary and intense journey into female friendship, and unearths what happens when you can no longer be the woman people want.Enough premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

For All I Care (NHB Modern Plays)


Alan Harris - 2019
    Two very different women. Two complicated lives. Both having a very bad day.Mental health nurse Nyri's woken up hungover with a younger man. Meanwhile, Clara has developed a compulsive wink and can't remember if she's taken her meds.Nyri needs to get to Ebbw Vale Hospital via Greggs, and Clara's got to get cracking with her shoplifting list for The Devil.Interweaving and unexpected connections collide in Alan Harris's fast-moving, touchingly funny play. Originally performed by one actor, as part of National Theatre Wales' celebration of the NHS, the play subsequently transferred to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Be Here Now


Deborah Zoe Laufer - 2019
    Now back in her rural hometown, her despair has reached new levels—and so have her recurring headaches. Somehow they are giving her bizarre, almost religious experiences that are making her feel… happy… ecstatic… and in love? They’re also killing her. Now, Bari must decide whether it’s better to live a short, joyful life, or risk a lifetime of depression. From acclaimed playwright, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Be Here Now is a comedic look at what we’re willing to do for love and happiness and to create meaning in our lives.

F*ck You, Pay Me


Joana Nastari - 2019
    An evening of shameless entertainment,of divine feminine fury.A burial of preconceptions,a night of Sex-Witch Anarchy.Featuring a live score and nightly special guests, Joana Nastari's award-winning debut F*ck You Pay Me is a love letter to strippers and a surreal collision of comedy, poetry and live music exploring power, money and sisterhood.

The Hamburg Plays


Martin Crimp - 2019
    As Thebes braces itself for civil war, a group of terrifying young women wrest control of the action from the power-players of Greek myth. 'A brilliant new interpretation of Euripides' ancient drama.' S�ddeutsche Zeitung'Innovative and gripping theatre.' Hamburger AbendblattThe Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema was voted Best Foreign Play 2013 by Theatre heute magazine. In Men Asleep, the late-night arrival of a younger couple at Julia and Paul's tasteful townhouse apartment exposes the fault line between generations and probes our assumptions about gender and power. 'A mysterious and disquieting "nocturne" about human relationships.' Die Welt'Martin Crimp is less interested in deconstructing the bourgeoisie than in investigating the altered relations between men and women . . . The ending of his intelligent and entertaining play is ambiguous and potentially terrifying.' Der Freitag

This Island's Mine


Philip Osment - 2019
    In the capital, Mark is sacked because of fears about colleagues working with ‘someone like him’. His boyfriend, Selwyn, faces being beaten up both by the police and at home by his own stepbrother. Meanwhile, Debbie battles with her son, who doesn’t want to live with her and her girlfriend. And retired piano teacher Miss Rosenblum – who once found refuge in this country from a terror that swept away half her family in 1930s Vienna – has seen this sort of hatred and fear before.Soon, these individual stories – of first loves and old flames, alliances and abandonment, missed opportunities and new chances – intertwine to paint a vivid picture of Eighties Britain.This Island’s Mine was originally performed by Gay Sweatshop in 1988. Now, three decades after the introduction of Section 28 banning positive representations of homosexuality, Philip Osment’s passionate and lyrical play, of outsiders, exiles and refugees, is all too resonant.