The Odd Couple


Neil Simon - 1965
    This classic comedy opens as a group of the guys assembled for cards in the apartment of divorced Oscar Madison. And if the mess is any indication, it's no wonder that his wife left him. Late to arrive is Felix Unger who has just been separated from his wife. Fastidious, depressed and none too tense, Felix seems suicidal, but as the action unfolds Oscar becomes the one with murder on his mind when the clean-freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilarious results as The Odd Couple is born. "His skill is not only great but constantly growing...There is scarcely a moment that is not hilarious." - The New York Times "Fresh, richly hilarious and remarkably original. Wildly, irresistibly, incredibly and continuously funny." - New York Daily News

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Stage Adaptation)


Tim Supple - 1998
    With the help of David Tushingham, he has adapted Salman Rushdie's classic children's novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories for the stage. Set in an exotic eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Rushdie's novel inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Haroun sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way he encounters many foes, intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.

Godspell


Stephen Schwartz - 1971
    13 selections from one of the most popular musicals ever. Includes: All Good Gifts * Bless the Lord * By My Side * Day by Day * Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord) * and more.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time


Simon Stephens - 2012
    I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507. Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down.Simon Stephens's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling, award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time offers a richly theatrical exploration of this touching and bleakly humorous tale.

Talley's Folly


Lanford Wilson - 1980
    Matt Friedman, an accountant from St. Louis, has arrived to plead his love to Sally Talley, the susceptible, but uncertain daughter of the family. Bookish, erudite, totally honest and delightfully funny, Matt refuses to accept Sally's rebuffs and her fears that her family would never approve of their marriage. Charming and indomitable, he gradually overcomes her defenses, telling his innermost secrets to his loved one and, in return, learning hers as well. Gradually he awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, it is clear that they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other two "lame ducks" who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships.

Man Equals Man: And the Elephant Calf


Bertolt Brecht - 1926
    Using Kiplingesque imagery, Brecht explores personality as something that can be dismantled and reassembled like a machine, in a parable that the critic Walter Kerr credited with a "curious foreshadowing of the art of brainwashing." This edition also includes The Elephant Calf, which was originally part of the main play. This translation by Gerhard Nellhaus (and by Brecht himself, who made his own English version of the first scene) has been equipped by the editors, John Willett and Ralph Manheim, with Brecht's own notes and relevant texts as well as with an extensive editorial commentary on the genesis and variant versions of the play.

The Sugar Syndrome


Lucy Prebble - 2003
    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.

Our Man in Havana


Clive Francis - 2015
    So when the British Secret Service asks him to become their ‘man in Havana’ he can’t afford to say no. There’s just one problem…he doesn’t know anything! To avoid suspicion, he begins to recruit nonexistent sub-agents, concocting a series of intricate fictions. But Wormold soon discovers that his stories are closer to the truth than he could have ever imagined… In Clive Francis’ adaptation, Graham Greene’s classic satirical novel becomes a wonderfully funny and fast-moving romp.

Harvey


Mary Chase - 1944
    Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey, a six and a half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family, from future embarrassment. Problems arise, however, when Veta herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the fringe of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! The doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.

Bent


Martin Sherman - 1979
    Martin Sherman's worldwide hit play Bent took London by storm in 1979 when it was first performed by the Royal Court Theatre, with Ian McKellen as Max (a character written with the actor in mind). The play itself caused an uproar. "It educated the world," Sherman explains. "People knew about how the Third Reich treated Jews and, to some extent, gypsies and political prisoners. But very little had come out about their treatment of homosexuals." Gays were arrested and interned at work camps prior to the genocide of Jews, gypsies, and handicapped, and continued to be imprisoned even after the fall of the Third Reich and liberation of the camps. The play Bent highlights the reason why - a largely ignored German law, Paragraph 175, making homosexuality a criminal offense, which Hitler reactivated and strengthened during his rise to power.

Cabaret: The Illustrated Book and Lyrics


Joe Masteroff - 1999
    Surely one of the most acclaimed and beloved plays of all time, this modern classic is honored for the first time in a lavishly illustrated book. Here is the complete musical book by Joe Masteroff and all the words of the songs written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. It is illustrated with more than 100 photographs and drawings (including 74 in full color) of the original cast of the Roundabout 's smash Broadway production by Joan Marcus, never-before- published backstage photographs by Rivka Katvan, and archival photos of past productions. The accompanying text explores the evolution of the play in all its incarnations, from the 1930 stories of Christopher Isherwood to two films and three stage adaptations. Here are all the fantastic artists who have brought this play to life: Julie Harris (the original Sally Bowles), Joel Grey, Liza Minnelli, Natasha Richardson, Alan Cumming, Ron Rifkin, and directors Hal Prince, Bob Fosse, Sam Mendes, and Rob Marshall. Also featured are original drawings by costume designer William Ivey Long and set designer Robert Brill. For theatre lovers and film fans, for those who've seen the play and those who haven't, this book is an exclusive insider's glimpse into a stage and film phenomenon, one of the most astonishing artistic achievements of our time.

Consent (NHB Modern Plays) (Nick Hern Books)


Nina Raine - 2017
    The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs. At home, their own lives begin to unravel as every version of the truth is challenged.Consent, Nina Raine’s powerful, painful, funny play, sifts the evidence from every side and puts Justice herself in the dock. It premiered as a co-production between the National Theatre and Out of Joint, directed by Roger Michell at the National Theatre in 2017.

Further Than the Furthest Thing


Zinnie Harris - 2000
    When the outside world comes calling, intent on manipulation for political and economic reasons, the islanders find their own world blown apart from the inside as well as beyond. Further Than The Furthest Thing is a beautifully drawn story evoking the sadness and beauty of a civilisation in crisis.Further Than The Furthest Thing premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in August, 2000.

Talking With...


Jane Martin - 1983
    is a series of women's monologues tackling many different aspects of the complex female psyche.

After the End


Dennis Kelly - 2005
    Louise wakes up to find herself trapped with Mark, who has saved her life. Mark is always prepared for the worst and has everything he thinks they will need to survive; tinned chilli, Dungeons and Dragons and a knife - now all they need to do is to wait until it's safe to go outside. Can they survive the attack? Can they survive each other?After The End received its world premiere at The Traverse Theatre in August 2005.