Book picks similar to
What If If Only by Caryl Churchill


plays
muni
plays-and-theatre
plays-by-women

Three Restoration Comedies: The Man of Mode; The Country Wife; Love for love


Gamini Salgado - 1968
    Artificial, irreverent, and bawdy, the Restoration theatre came as a violent reaction to the strict ordinance of the Commonwealth.

Rosmersholm


Henrik Ibsen - 1886
    But his increasingly liberal ideas make him an object of suspicion to the local worthies, who also disapprove of the presence in his house of a much younger woman, Rebecca West, formerly his wife’s companion. As their relationship deepens and their isolation builds, the increasing moral pressures they face force them inexorably towards their fate...

Earthquakes in London


Mike Bartlett - 2010
    It is a fast and furious metropolitan crash of people, scenes and decades, as three sisters attempt to navigate their dislocated lives and loves, while their dysfunctional father, a brilliant scientist, predicts global catastrophe.Mike Bartlett's contemporary and directed dialogue combines a strong sense of humanity with epic ambition, as well as finely-aimed shafts of political comment embedded effortlessly into every scene. Earthquakes in London represents modern playwriting at its most exciting and ambitious.It's Cabaret, we've got our heads down and we're dancing and drinking as fast as we can. The enemy is on its way, but this time it doesn't have guns and gas it has storms and earthquakes, fire and brimstone…. You were the glimmer. At the end of the tunnel. And you went out.

Plays 1: Mistero Buffo / Accidental Death of an Anarchist / Trumpets and Raspberries / The Virtuous Burglar / One Was Nude and One Wore Tails


Dario Fo - 1992
    Mistero Buffo, or The Comic Mysteries, is based on research into mediaeval mystery plays; The Accidental Death of an Anarchist concerns the "accidental" (or not) death of an anarchist railwork who "fell" (or was pushed) to his death from a police headquarters window in 1969; Trumpets and Raspberries is "A deeply subversive farce" (The Guardian) in which the boss of Italy's biggest car manufacturer FIAT, is mistaken for a left wing terrorist.

Hello Out There


William Saroyan - 1941
    

hir


Taylor Mac - 2015
    Isaac’s father, who once ruled the family with an iron fist, has had a debilitating stroke; his younger sister, Maxine, is now his brother, Max; and their mother, Paige, is committed to revolution at any cost. Determined to be free of any responsibility toward her formerly abusive husband—or the home he created—Paige fervently believes she can lead the way to a "new world order." Hir, Taylor Mac’s subversive comedy, leaves many of our so-called normative and progressive ideas about gender, families, the middle class—and cleaning—in hilarious and ultimately tragic disarray.

Dealer's Choice


Patrick Marber - 1995
    It won the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and, the Writers' Guild for Best West End Play."An exceptionally accomplished first play . . . though I know nothing about poker, I testify to the compulsive grip this play exerts and to the accumulation of meanings it ignites in your head."—Financial Times"Patrick Marber's enthralling close-up of the demons which drive compulsive gamblers is among the finest new plays in many a year."—Daily Mail

Lazarus: The Complete Book and Lyrics (NHB Modern Plays)


David Bowie - 2015
    Years later he's still stranded here, soaked in cheap gin and haunted by a past love. But the arrival of another lost soul brings one last chance of freedom...Inspired by the book The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and its cult film adaptation starring David Bowie, Lazarus brings the story of Thomas Newton to its devastating conclusion.Written by Bowie with the playwright Enda Walsh, and incorporating some of Bowie's most iconic songs, Lazarus was first performed at New York Theatre Workshop in 2015, starring Michael C. Hall and directed by Ivo Van Hove. The production transferred to London in 2016.‘Ice-bolts of ecstasy shoot like novas through the fabulous muddle and murk of Lazarus, the great-sounding, great-looking and mind-numbing new musical built around songs by David Bowie’- Ben Brantley New York Times‘Wild, fantastical, eye-popping. A surrealistic tour de force’ - Rolling Stone Data Lookups Explore 'I'm a dying man who can't die.' Thomas Newton came to Earth seeking water for his drought-ridden planet. Years later he's still stranded here, soaked in cheap gin and haunted by a past love. But the arrival of another lost soul brings one last chance of freedom...Inspired by the book The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and its cult film adaptation starring David Bowie, Lazarus brings the story of Thomas Newton to its devastating conclusion.Written by Bowie with the playwright Enda Walsh, and incorporating some of Bowie's most iconic songs, Lazarus was first performed at New York Theatre Workshop in 2015, starring Michael C. Hall and directed by Ivo Van Hove. The production transferred to London in 2016.‘Ice-bolts of ecstasy shoot like novas through the fabulous muddle and murk of Lazarus, the great-sounding, great-looking and mind-numbing new musical built around songs by David Bowie’- Ben Brantley New York Times‘Wild, fantastical, eye-popping. A surrealistic tour de force’ - Rolling Stone

Brilliant Traces


Cindy Lou Johnson - 1989
    As a blizzard rages outside, a lonely figure, Henry Harry, lies sleeping under a heap of blankets. Suddenly, he is awakened by the insistent knocking of an unexpected visitor who turns out to be Rosannah DeLuce, a distraught young woman who has fled all the way from Arizona to escape her impending marriage, and who bursts into the cabin dressed in full bridal regalia. Exhausted, she throws herself on Henry's mercy, but after sleeping for two days straight, her vigor and combativeness return. Both characters, it develops, have been wounded and embittered by life, and both are refugees from so-called civilization. Thrown together in the confines of the snowbound cabin, they alternately repel and attract each other as, in theatrically vivid exchanges, they explore the pain of the past and, in time, consider the possibilities of the present. In the end their very isolation proves to be the catalyst that allows them to break through the web of old griefs and bitter feelings that beset them both and to reach out for the solace and sanctuary that only hard-won understanding, self-awareness and compassion for the plight of others can bestow.

The Portable Arthur Miller


Arthur Miller - 1971
    This essential collection also includes the complete texts of After the Fall, The American Clock, The Last Yankee, and Broken Glass, winner of the Olivier Award for Best Play of 1995, as well as excerpts from Miller's memoir Timebends. An essay by Harold Clurman and Christopher Bigsby's introduction discuss Miller's standing as one of the greatest American playwrights of all time and his importance to twentieth-century literature.Contents:Biographical notesIntroduction to the Original Edition by Harold ClurmanIntroduction to the Revised Edition by Christopher BigsbyTimebends (excerpt from the autobiography) (1987)The Golden Years (excerpt from a play) (1939-1940)Death of a Salesman (1949)The Crucible (1953)After the Fall (1964)The American Clock (1980)The Last Yankee (1993)Broken Glass (1994)

Collected Plays 2 {The Lion and the Jewel; Kongi's Harvest; The Trials of Brother Jero; Jero's Metamorphosis; Madmen and Specialists}


Wole Soyinka - 1975
    This second volume of Wole Soyinka's plays traces the ironic development and consequences of 'progress'.

A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window


Lorraine Hansberry - 1966
    With A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry gave this country its most movingly authentic portrayal of black family life in the inner city. Barely five years later, with The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Hansberry gave us an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice. These two plays remain milestones in the American theater, remarkable not only for their historical value but for their continued ability to engage the imagination and the heart.With an Introduction by Robert Nemiroff

Concord Floral


Jordan Tannahill - 2016
    But hidden there is a secret no one wants to confront, and when they stumble upon it the friends set off an unstoppable chain of events. A supernatural thriller of suburban teenagers fleeing a mysterious plague.

The Teahouse of the August Moon


John Patrick - 1954
    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award and the Critics' Circle Award, this is one of the most successful plays of the modern theater.

Bachelorette


Leslye Headland - 2011
    Fueled by jealousy and resentment, the girls embark on a night of debauchery that goes from playfully wasted to devastatingly destructive. Their old fears, unfulfilled desires and deep bonds with each other transform a prenuptial bender into a night they'll never forget. A wicked black comedy about female friendship and growing up in an age of excess.