Best of
Plays

2020

Slave Play


Jeremy O. Harris - 2020
    It's an antebellum fever-dream, where fear and desire entwine in the looming shadow of the Master's House. Jim trembles as Kaneisha handles melons in the cottage, Alana perspires in time with the plucking of Phillip's fiddle in the boudoir, while Dustin cowers at the heel of Gary's big, black boot in the barn. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems.

Leopoldstadt


Tom Stoppard - 2020
    But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann's extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and - for Austrian Jews - the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn't ended yet.Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt was first performed at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in January 2020. 'One of Britain's greatest living playwrights to provide his most personal play yet.' The Times'The news that Tom Stoppard has written a new drama ranks as top-end seismic activity.' Daily Telegraph

Small Island (Stage Version)


Helen Edmundson - 2020
    Hope and humanity confront cold reality in three intricately connected stories: Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.Helen Edmundson’s stage adaptation of Andrea Levy's novel traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK throughout the Second World War until 1948 – the year HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.

A Very Expensive Poison


Lucy Prebble - 2020
    In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life.At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair.Lucy Prebble (Enron, The Effect) brings a shocking story to the stage, adapted from the book by Luke Harding, with an astute mix of real events, vaudeville and thriller. This edition was published to coincide with the play's World Premiere at the Old Vic Theatre, London, in 2019.

Good Grief


Ngozi Anyanwu - 2020
    GOOD GRIEF follows Nkechi, or N- a med-school dropout, a first generation Nigerian, a would-be goddess- as she navigates first loves and losses, and tries to find answers in her parents, the boy next door, and the stars.

The Sound Inside


Adam Rapp - 2020
    As their lives and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella makes a surprising request of Christopher. Brimming with suspense, Rapp's riveting play explores the limits of what one person can ask of another.

The High Table


Temi Wilkey - 2020
    Look- there's no easy way of saying this, but… Leah and I are getting married.The dresses are chosen, the venue's been booked and the RSVPs are flooding in. But with her wedding to Leah drawing nearer, Tara's future is thrown into jeopardy when her Nigerian parents refuse to attend. This kind of love is unheard of, they say. It's not African.High above London, suspended between the stars, three of Tara's ancestors are jolted from their eternal rest. Stubborn and opinionated, they keep watch as family secrets are spilled and the rift widens between Tara and her parents. Can these representatives of generations passed keep the family together? And will Tara's decision ever get their blessing?An epic family drama played out between the heavens and earth, The High Table is the hilarious and heart-breaking debut play from Temi Wilkey.

Lucy Prebble Plays 1: The Sugar Syndrome; Enron; The Effect; A Very Expensive Poison


Lucy Prebble - 2020
    This eagerly anticipated play collection brings together her landmark plays for the first time, showcasing her work from 2003 to 2019. Beginning with her George Devine Award-winning play The Sugar Syndrome it continues through her explosive look at the biggest financial scandal in history, concluding with her pointed dramatization of the one of the most shocking news stories of the 2010s. The Sugar Syndrome (2003) Dani is on a mission. She's just 17, hates her parents, skives college and prefers life in the chatrooms. What she's looking for is someone honest and direct. Instead she finds Tim, a man twice her age, who thinks she is 11 and a boy. What seems at first to be a case of crossed wires, ends up as an unlikely, and unsettling friendship between the two, which culminates in a shocking, and morally challenging revelation.Enron (2009) One of the most infamous scandals in financial history became a theatrical epic in Enron, a dazzling exposition of the shadowy mechanisms of economic deceit. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy and surreal metaphor, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s, and the financial chaos which has spilled over into the new century.The Effect (2012) a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved.A Very Expensive Poison (2019) A shocking assassination in the heart of London. In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life. At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair.

Death of England


Roy Williams - 2020
    He wanted to be a better man himself. He was lied to. Just like you are being lied to. A family in mourning. A man in crisisAfter the death of his dad, Michael is powerless and angry.In a state of heartbreak, he confronts the difficult truths about his father's legacy and the country that shaped him. At the funeral, unannounced and unprepared, Michael decides it is time to speak.Death of England is a powerful new monologue play by Roy Williams and Clint Dyer that explores family feelings and a country on the brink. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2020.

Three Kings


Stephen Beresford - 2020
    Years later – recalling that meeting, and the revelations that followed – Patrick traces the events of his father’s life – and takes us on a journey of grandiose plans, aching disappointments and audacious self delusion.By turns, hilarious and heartbreaking, Three Kings is about fathers and sons, the gifts and burdens of inheritance, and the unfathomable puzzle of human relationships.

Underground, Monroe, and The Mamalogues: Three Plays


Lisa Thompson - 2020
    Thompson, author of Single Black Female. In these three plays, the black feminist playwright and scholar thoughtfully explores themes such as the black family, motherhood, migration, racial violence, and trauma and its effect on black people from the early twentieth century to the present. The works showcase Thompson’s subversive humor and engagement with black history and culture through the lens of the black middle class.   The thriller Underground explores the challenges of radical black politics among the black middle class in the post-Obama era. Monroe, a period drama about the Great Migration, depicts the impact of a lynching on a family and community in 1940s Louisiana. The Mamalogues, a satirical comedy, focuses on three middle-class black single mothers as they lean in, stress out, and guide precocious black children from diapers to college in a dangerous world. This collection will be compelling to readers interested in African American studies; drama, theater, and performance; feminist and gender studies; popular culture and media studies; and American studies.

DIVINE WRECKS and other morally questionable tragedies


Chloë Whitehorn - 2020
    An anthology of tragic love stories written for the theatre, Chloë Whitehorn's plays rival Romeo and Juliet in heartbreak and conflict. The lovers in these plays defy society’s expectations, embracing the taboo moments in their lives, and sacrificing what matters most.This collection of plays, originally premiered on Canadian stages, includes:Divine WrecksFull length drama, 3F 3M There are many different types of love: first love, true love, obsessive love, and that other type of love. A high school god falls for the wrong girl. His teacher. A modern take on a classic story, this dark tale of heart break and revelations explores the nature of love without boundaries.Mourning After the Night Before Full length drama, 3F 2M When a family moves to a small coastal town to recover from a tragedy, they struggle to rediscover who they are and if they're worth saving. Lucy doesn't know who she is anymore. Everett is falling in love. Drew has lost so much already. Fenwick is just trying to keep her family afloat. And Pippa, well Pippa is drowning. Mourning After the Night Before explores the rippling impact of loss and the repercussions of drowning in every way a person can drown.The Deepest Trench One-act comedic drama, 2F 1M An almost love story about the ways we protect the people we love, trench warfare as a version of a fairy tale ending, and a pair of ducks.Waltzing With PuppetsOne-act drama, 1F 1MWhen searching for the man of your dreams, why would you marry someone who reminded you of the man in your nightmares?The PigeonFull length drama, 2F 1M What could Jegger, a young punk, and Malone, a past middle-aged woman, possibly have in common? Drawn together by their mutual hatred for the woman who damaged them both, they plot her destruction. Some say revenge is bittersweet, and sometimes it’s like a box of chocolates. *Listed as one of the 10 Best Toronto Productions of the year it premieredLove, Virtually Full length dramatic comedy, 3F 4M A play about our storybook romance expectations and how real life struggles to live up to the fantasy lives we've created for ourselves. It's like Shrodinger's cat. As long as you stick to online dating without really getting to know someone, you're perfect together without actually being in a relationship.*Toronto Best of Fringe How to Not Die Horribly in a FireMonologue, 1F Claire has just been proposed to. As she considers her response she reflects on advice her mother gave her in an ice cream shop, her gold star rating system for men, and how likely she is to die in a fire.trigger warnings: suicide, mental illness, rape

The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro: Electricidad: A Chicanx Tragedy of Family, Feminism, and Fury; Oedipus El Rey; Mojada


Luis Alfaro - 2020
    This unique anthology features definitive editions of all three plays alongside a comprehensive introduction which provides a critical overview of Luis Alfaro's work, accentuating not only the unique nature of these three 'urban' adaptations of ancient Greek tragedy but also the manner in which they address present-day Chicanx and Latinx socio-political realities across the United States.A brief introduction to each play and its overall themes precedes the text of the drama. The anthology concludes with exclusive supplementary material aimed at enhancing understanding of Alfaro's plays: a 'Performance History' timeline outlining the performance history of the plays; an alphabetical 'Glossary' explaining the most common terms in Spanish and Spanglish appearing in each play; and a 'Further Reading' list providing primary and secondary bibliography for each play.The anthology is completed by a new interview with Alfaro which addresses key topics such as Alfaro's engagement with ancient Greek drama and his work with Chicanx communities across the United States, thus providing a critical contextualisation of these critically-acclaimed plays.

BLKS


Aziza Barnes - 2020
    Waking up to a shocking and personal health scare, Octavia and her best friends June and Imani go on a crusade to find intimacy and joy in a world that could give a fuck about them or their feelings. This 24-hour blitz explores what it is to be a queer blk woman in 2015 New York, how we survive and save ourselves from ourselves.

all of it


Alistair McDowall - 2020
    This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Royal Court in February 2020, performed by Kate O'Flynn.

Sovereignty: A Play


Mary Kathryn Nagle - 2020
    In present-day Oklahoma, a young Cherokee lawyer, Sarah Ridge Polson, and her colleague Jim Ross defend the inherent jurisdiction of Cherokee Nation in the U.S. Supreme Court when a non-Indian defendant challenges the Nation’s authority to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence. Their collaboration is juxtaposed with scenes from 1835, when Cherokee Nation was eight hundred miles to the east in the southern Appalachians. That year, Sarah’s and Jim’s ancestors, historic Cherokee rivals, were bitterly divided over a proposed treaty with the administration of Andrew Jackson, the Treaty of New Echota, which led to the nation’s removal to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears.   A direct descendant of nineteenth-century Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Major Ridge, Mary Kathryn Nagle has penned a play that twists and turns from violent outbursts to healing monologues, illuminating a provocative double meaning for the sovereignty of both tribal territory and women’s bodies. Taking as its point of departure the story of one lawyer’s passionate defense of the rights of her people to prosecute non-natives who commit crimes on reservations, Sovereignty opens up into an expansive exploration of the circular continuity of history, human memory, and the power of human relationships.

The Deception Of Kathryn Vask


Mark Steensland - 2020
    But when her husband conspires with the family pastor to hire actors and fake the proceedings, things don't go as planned...or do they?THE DECEPTION OF KATHRYN VASK is a tightly-woven thriller that follows in the twisty footsteps of Ira Levin's DEATHTRAP and Anthony Shaffer's SLEUTH.

How to Defend Yourself


Liliana Padilla - 2020
    They learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Learning self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire – lots of desire. HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF explores what you want, how to ask for it, and the insidious ways rape culture steals one's body and sense of belonging.

Rockets and Blue Lights


Winsome Pinnock - 2020
    

Scenes with girls


Miriam Battye - 2020
    22 scenes.Other friends have come, got boyfriends and gone. So what? Tosh and Lou have each other. They'll never be like the other girls. They won't sit in a narrative someone else thought up.This is love. This is enough. This is enough.Scenes with girls by Miriam Battye premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2020.

The Bérenger Plays: The Killer, Rhinocerous, Exit the King, Strolling in the Air


Eugène Ionesco - 2020
    In ‘The Killer’, he comes across a “radiant city”, an ideal civilization which is being terrorized by a killer, whom he tries to help apprehend. In ‘Rhinoceros’, he is the only person in a provincial town who is not affected by a condition that turns its victims into the eponymous horned beast. In ‘Exit the King’, he is the powerful King Bérenger the First, who refuses to accept that he is dying. And in ‘A Stroll in the Air’ he acquires the capacity of flight and sees another world lying beyond the clouds.While each play in the Bérenger cycle is unique, they are all prime examples of Ionesco’s conception of the theatre of the absurd, and touch on themes that preoccupied the author throughout his career, such as mortality, alienation, freedom and the evils of Fascism. This volume constitutes a perfect introduction to one of the twentieth century’s most original and influential playwrights.

Antigone


Lulu Raczka - 2020
    The traitors have been punished. People feel more alive than they have in a long time. They are ready to start again.But Antigone is not. She will not move on, and she will not forget. She will drag everyone back if she has to.Lulu Raczka's searing adaptation of Sophocles' classic text hands the reins to the young women at its heart, creating something messy, irreverent and vital.

Dragonflies


Stephanie Sonalini Street - 2020
    Donald Trump has been re-elected US President for a second term. Brexit is in full effect and causing chaos all over Europe. In the wake of escalating wars in the Middle East, famine in West Africa, and relentless terrorist attacks by radical extremists, the UK—and many nations around the world—has enforced a ban on all immigration.With the coastline around him and life as he knows it crumbling to dust, Leslie Chen is forced to abandon his home in England and move his family back to his birthplace, Singapore. Confronting a country that is a world apart from the one he knew as a child, he is now made to question the meaning of home. As the crises and conflicts escalate, one thing is certain, come hell or high water, and possibly both, he must protect his family.Dragonflies is the story of a family fighting for survival in a hostile world, looking for somewhere to call home, and something that might look like hope.

I Think We Are Alone (NHB Modern Plays)


Sally Abbott - 2020
    

Faustus: That Damned Woman


Chris Bush - 2020
    She travels through time and changes the course of human history, but can she escape eternal damnation?Chris Bush's devilishly provocative new play is inspired by the works of Marlowe, Goethe and other versions of the Faust myth - and explores what women must sacrifice to achieve greatness, and the legacies that are left behind.

Bears


Matthew MacKenzie - 2020
    Pursued by the RCMP, he heads through the Rockies for Burnaby, BC, along the route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. By the time he reaches the Pacific, Floyd has experienced changes: his gait widening, muscles bulging, sense of smell heightening…A multidisciplinary dark comedy about the Trans Mountain Pipeline, Bears asks what the hell it is we think we’re doing here.

Our Lady of Blundellsands


Jonathan Harvey - 2020
    Frozen in time in her Blundellsands house, she inhabits a fantasy world that never was. Garnet, her sister, is older and wiser – and wearier, with her shopping lists and tired love. She's always fanned the flames of Sylvie's fantasies. Because if she didn't… who knows where they'd both end up?But now the whole family's up in Liverpool for a birthday, and Garnet's got a secret of her own to pass on. There'll be a party… but it's not going to be pretty.Welcome to a family more messed up than your own.

Before I Was A Bear


Eleanor Tindall - 2020
    She notices someone in the corner. She recognises them. It's her celebrity crush. It can't be them though, can it? It isn't. This doesn't happen.She won't go over. She won't...A darkly comedic coming-of-age solo play, Before I Was A Bear is a modern myth about the power dynamics of sexuality and shame, women's relationships with each other, and an affair with a hot TV detective.

Greater Clements


Samuel D. Hunter - 2020
    Hunter, award-winning playwright of "The Whale", published in its entirety by "American Theatre".

A Taste of Oz


Robin Blasberg - 2020
    Along for the ride are the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, who believe the Wizard will grant their wishes too. It’s just a matter of a little stroll down the Yellow Brick Road. Or so they think. But does the Wizard have other plans? Did Glinda set them up? And what if Toto turns out to be the greatest threat of all?

Sweet Tea: A Play


E. Patrick Johnson - 2020
    Patrick Johnson’s Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History, a groundbreaking text for the fields of Black studies, queer studies, and southern oral history and ethnography. Between 2004 and 2006, Johnson edited a series of narratives from Black gay men who were born and raised in the South and have continued to live there. While the scholarly text of Sweet Tea has enjoyed wide circulation, Johnson knew that the stories of these individuals weren’t able to come fully alive on the page. He transformed the text into a theatrical performance, which originally toured the country as Pouring Tea; the oral history has also been adapted into a feature-length documentary, Making Sweet Tea. Based on several tours and individual stagings, Sweet Tea: A Play invites readers, students, theater practitioners, and audiences from different backgrounds to engage with the lives of eleven men and one gender-nonconforming person—incredible characters all originally played by the author in a one-man show.

The Last Quiz Night on Earth


Alison Carr - 2020
    The last night on Earth. An asteroid is heading straight for us and there's nothing we can do about it.Except for maybe host a pub quiz – which is exactly what landlady Kathy and her quizmaster Rav are doing. But, with time ticking, some unexpected guests explode on the scene – Bobby wants to settle old scores, and Fran wants one last shot at love.Alison Carr's play The Last Quiz Night on Earth is an innovative comedy-drama featuring a fully interactive pub quiz for the audience to participate in, complete with real teams, real questions and real swapping each other's answers for marking. It was premiered by Box of Tricks in 2020 on a UK tour, taking in a host of theatres, community venues and pubs.