Drama Theatre Texts: 21st Century

This brilliant new collection of ten plays for young people will prove indispensable to schools, colleges and youth theatre groups. Specially commissioned by the National Theatre for the Connections Festival 2011 involving 200 schools and youth theatre groups across the UK and Ireland, each play is accompanied by production notes and exercises.

The Pied Piper re-imagined, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, witches in seventeenth century Norfolk, a giant baby on the rampage, an extraordinary day in an ordinary school are just some of subjects covered in the thrilling and varied new plays created by talented writers for young actors to perform in National Theatre Connections 2011.

The plays in this anthology offer a huge variety of stories and styles to ignite the imagination of young casts and creative teams. Themes are both teenage and universal - ambition, dashed hopes, fear and confidence, loyalty and betrayal. These new plays embrace a huge range for their inspiration: they plunder classics and imagine the future.

A freight container, somewhere in Europe. Inside are five people with one common aim: to reach England and start a new life. Can they trust the agent to get them there? Can they rely on each other? And how far will each of them go to get what they want?
The Container was originally staged inside an actual container lorry, during the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Clare Bayley's other plays include The Woman Who Swallowed a Pin, Northern Lights and a new version of Victoria Benedictsson's The Enchantment which premiered at the National Theatre in 2007.

Steven Berkoff has been variously described as controversial, thrilling, electric and dynamic. A Renaissance man of the theatre, he is known equally for his writing, directing and acting.

Collecting together nineteen one-act plays, this volume presents never-before-published material. Abusive, shocking and endlessly surprising, these sharply written pieces showcase Berkoff's trademark controversy, black humour and dramatic dialectics.

Themes that haunt much of his work are present: his luxurious verbosity; his counterpoint of crude street-patter and elegiac proclamation; sex wars; class wars; dislocation and abandonment of love in a thankless and unyielding world. The selection of plays allows the performer and reader to experience Berkoff's fluid anarchic poetry at its most profane within the complete and pithy structure of the one-act play.

Established plays such as The Biblical Tales (which enjoyed success in their 2010 run at the New End Theatre, Hampstead) stand alongside previously unpublished material, giving the range of Berkoff's work full expression, from his established thematic concerns to his new and unseen work.

Perfect for student and amateur performances, this volume contains a full introduction by Geoffrey Colman, Head of Acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre in Pieces: politics, poetics and interdisciplinary collaboration is an innovative compilation of seven highly acclaimed productions by key practitioners of non-playwright-driven theatre. Each playtext is reproduced in full and accompanied by extensive notes from members of the original producing theatre. A substantial introduction by Anna Furse provides an overview of the works and contextualizes their reading by revealing how a script can emerge from or provoke a collaborative devising process. The works featured include: Hotel Methuselah, Imitating the Dog/Pete Brooks; Don Juan. Who?, Athletes of the Heart; A Girl Skipping, Graeme Miller; Trans-Acts, Julia Bardsley; US, Bouffes du Nord/Peter Brook; Miss America, Split Britches and 48 Minutes for Palestine, Mojisola Adebayo and Ashtar Theatre. The notion of writing for interdisciplinary collaboration is at the core of the selected plays which makes this a very unique collection and the extensive Introduction and notes make this an invaluable resource for any student of theatre and performance.

Viewed through the eyes of those on the ground, Black Watch reveals what it means to be part of the legendary Scottish regiment, what it means to be part of the war on terror, and what it means to make the journey home.This book contains Gregory Burke's award-winning script, with production notes by the director John Tiffany and colour photographs that capture the powerful and inventive use of movement in this urgent piece of theatre.The National Theatre of Scotland's production of Black Watch opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006, where it won a Herald Angel, a Scotsman Fringe First, the Critics' Circle Award and the South Bank Show Award for Theatre. During a world tour it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

"It's like being at a crossroads - a point of absolute, unequivocal change. It makes the blood rush."


Olivier-award winning actor Adrian Lester plays Ira Alridge in the world premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's new play, Red Velvet, which launches Indhu Rubasingham's reign as the Tricycle Theatre's new Artistic Director. The play is set in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor, Ira Aldridge, has been asked to take over the role. But, as the public riot in the streets, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?

Written by the 2012 Most Promising Playwright (Evening Standard Awards) Lolita Chakrabarti, Red Velvet uses imagined experiences based on the often-forgotten, but true, story of Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who, in the nineteenth century, built an incredible reputation on the stages of London and Europe.

A play that sets the rampant technology of the modern world against the conservatism of a traditional society. The British debut of a writer from Chennai, India.

When a well-behaved Indian girl is filmed with a boy in her classroom, the video clip spreads like a virus. Transmitted from person to person it infects firstly the local community and then seemingly the whole of India with a burning moral outrage.

A painfully truthful, darkly comic take on contemporary life and how to survive it.

A chance encounter at a conference hotel plays upon Kitty's mind as she struggles to balance personal freedom with family life, fidelity and a testing job. Her husband seems more interested in misplaced apostrophes than his marriage, her parents are looking down the barrel of oblivion and, although she might toy with joining a gym, Kitty's running out of time for big changes.

Your Last Breath: 1876 - Christopher leaves his young family behind to work in Norway. He will map the uncharted mountains for the very first time. 1999 - Anna's body freezes after an extreme skiing accident and her heart stops. But doctors gradually warm her until it miraculously starts beating again. 2011 - Freija, a successful business woman, has just lost her father. She travels to scatter his ashes in Norway. 2034 - Nicholas explains a medical breakthrough which saved his life as a baby, whereby the human body can be 'suspended in animation.' Spanning 150 years, Your Last Breath piece fuses movement, live piano score and video unravelling the landscapes of the heart and our own personal geographies. It was a Fringe First Winner in 2011 and will be touring, potentially to Scandinavia, in the Spring.
After the Rainfall: Throughout history, the study of ants (myrmecology) has been used as an analogy for human behaviour. This piece uses myrmecology as a prism through which to view the present day. Navigating the arid Egyptian desert, continental Europe, the British Museum and a quiet village green, this piece is a patchwork of multidimensional narratives about the aftermath of the Empire. Curious Directive conjure a world where multimedia, movement and sound unpick Britain's relationship to artefacts, mining and the secret life of ants. An epic, thumping, passionate story asking questions about the relationship between our past, present and into eternity. A collaboration between Curious Directive, Watford Palace Theatre and Escalator East to Edinburgh, and it will play at the Edinburgh Festival (Pleasance Dome, 4-27 August) followed by a run at the Watford Palace Theatre.
Olfactory: Over 10,000 different smells drift across our planet in various configurations. Olfactory gives you a choice to craft your identity and to decode the invisible molecules floating through the air. Who do you want to be in the future? This miniature explores our invisible relationship with perfumes and smell.

Snookered probes into the lives of young Muslim men and their fragile masculinity, burdened by cultural expectations yet charged with personal dreams. In a volatile political climate, Ishy Din opens a timely window into a strand of British Muslim life that often remains unseen.

The plot follows four friends who, every year, meet on the anniversary of their mate's death for a game of pool and a few drinks. As they excavate the past and measure their own lives, secrets are revealed and allegiances shift as quickly as the drinks are downed. Can they put to rest their guilt over the untimely death of their friend? And will their friendship survive the final betrayal?
One of the very few plays written both by and about British Muslims, Snookered explores their camaraderie, life decisions, and their self identity within their close-knit Muslim community of extended families and network of friends. The sharp, pace-filled dialogue captures the Punjabi-English urban patois that is currently developing in northern towns but is rarely seen onstage. The result is that the characters are both alive and relevant, and moments of sharp wit collide with emotionally searing exchanges.

Developed by the theatre company Tamasha, whose manifesto is to explore British Asian perspectives and identities, Snookered is unafraid to feature difficult and significant themes such as religion, drug addiction, misogyny, poverty and racism. Against this backdrop, Snookered is first and foremost a psychologically detailed but razor-sharp depiction of young men finding their paths in life, whilst navigating what it means to be young, British and Muslim.

An electrifying portrayal of a dangerously charged romance between a fifteen-year-old and their teacher.

Fringe First Award, Edinburgh 2007

Step into a faded hotel room where a couple is having an illicit weekend away. Amidst the peeling wallpaper, they laugh, quarrel and make love, but they don't dare go out. After all, at just fifteen years old, one of them is just a child... the other their teacher.

The play was produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2008 in an expanded, two-part version, but could equally be performed as a one-act play for two actors.

The Methuen Drama Book of Plays by Black British Writers provides an essential anthology of six of the key plays that have shaped the trajectory of British black theatre from the late-1970s to the present day. In doing so it charts the journey from specialist black theatre companies to the mainstream, including West End success, while providing a cultural and racial barometer for Britain during the last forty years.

It opens with Mustapha Matura's 1979 play Welcome Home Jacko which in its depiction of a group of young unemployed West Indians was one of the first to explore issues of youth culture, identity and racial and cultural identification. Jackie Kay's Chiaroscuro examines debates about the politics of black, mixed race and lesbian identities in 1980s Britain, and from the 1990s Winsome Pinnock's Talking in Tongues engages with the politics of feminism to explore issues of black women's identity in Britain and Jamaica. From the first decade of the twenty-first century the three plays include Roy Williams' seminal pub-drama Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads, exploring racism and identity against the backdrop of the World Cup; Kwame Kwei-Armah's National Theatre play of 2004, Fix Up, about black cultural history and progress in modern Britain, and finally Bola Agbage's terrific 2007 debut, Gone Too Far!, which examines questions of identity and tensions between Africans and Caribbeans living in Britain.

Edited by Lynnette Goddard, this important anthology provides an essential introduction to the last forty years of British black theatre.

A radical reworking of Marlowe's classic Dr Faustus - here the original story of the man who sells his soul to the devil collides with a horrifying act of provocation by 21st-century artists the Chapman Brothers.

Heidelberg, Germany, 1509. John Faustus, doctor and scholar, pledges himself to the dark art of necromancy and vows to conjure the devil. So begins his descent into a world of demons and angels, a journey across space and time and a blood pact which jeopardises his eternal soul...

Hoxton, London, 2001. Jake and Dinos Chapman, artists and provocateurs, prepare to break the ultimate taboo, by 'rectifying' a priceless set of etchings by Francisco Goya. Confronting an act which cannot be undone, a statement of intent which cannot be taken back, the Brothers' world changes forever...

Two universes collide as Faustus and the Chapmans challenge the limits of life and art, risking everything in their pursuit of immortality.

Written with a vivid immediacy that captures the wonderfully observed idiosyncrasies of an ordinary family starting what they think is an ordinary day, Random is another provocative tour de force from Britain's leading black female playwright. It premiered on the main stage of the Royal Court Theatre, where Debbie Tucker Green's controversial Stoning Mary has already been seen.

Mess: Josephine is putting on a play - Boris and Sistahl help. It's about anorexia; but don't let that put you off - they are used to the big issues - and today they will tackle a particularly thin elephant in the room. Obsessed with obsession, addiction, and not wanting to get out of bed, Mess is a play with songs from The Stage's 2010 Best Solo Performer Award winner Caroline Horton.

You're Not Like the Other Girls, Chrissy: January 1945. Paris has been liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiancé. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible mademoiselle recounts the story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied English teacher from Staffordshire. You're Not Like Other Girl's Chrissy is a fond, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman's experience of love and war.

This programme text coincides with China Plate Theatre's production of Mess, which is at the Traverse in Edinburgh for August 2012 and then tours the UK until the end of September. You're Not Like Other Girls, Chrissy will play at the Bristol Old Vic for a week with another week on tour to come after.

Jane, recently widowed, wealthy, and determined to avenge her brutal upbringing, returns to confront her abusive step-father. Isolated in a room above the city, their disturbing, sexually charged encounter heads inexorably towards violence as they struggle to come to terms with their different versions of the past.

The family under Leigh's microscope are prosperous middle-class Jews of liberal Left-wing persuasion whose Jewishness has absolutely nothing to do with religious faith. Although they lived on an Israeli kibbutz years ago, they now eat bacon, holiday in Rome, and agonise despairingly over the Israeli overnment's rough treatment of Palestinians. So when Danny, a fiftysomething dentist, and his wife Rachel observe that their troubled 28-year-old son Josh has taken to wearing a capple (skull cap) and praying in Hebrew in the conservatory, they react with all the horror of concerned parents who discover their beloved child is shooting up heroin.

Based on the motion picture Humpday (written & directed in 2009 by Lynn Shelton), Straight is a razor-sharp new comedy from acclaimed writer D. C. Moore about male friendship, sexuality and how the two things can be blurred more easily than one might think . . .

Lewis and Waldorf were inseparable at university. Ten years on and a lot has changed. In the middle of a drunken night out, they make a bet that will take their friendship to whole new level. You'll never look at your best friend in the same way again . . .

Adapted for the stage by award-winning writer D. C. Moore, author of Town, Honest, Alaska, and The Empire (all published by Methuen Drama) Straight premieres in the Crucible Lyceum Studio, directed by Richard Wilson.

A hilarious social satire about liberal hypocrisy from an American writer whose work has been staged by the world famous Steppenwolf Theatre.

A cosy family Thanksgiving dinner for six. But someone - or something - is leaving bite marks in the avocados. Clay and Kelly's daughter Kayla has an itch and Carol can't remember who played Gandhi.

The Pain and the Itch holds up a mirror to those who want it all: moral superiority and a widescreen TV.

Dramascripts is an outstanding series of playscripts that are ideal for mixed class reading and performance. This extensive series of scripts encourages students to explore language and a variety of dramatic genres including myths and legends, classic Shakespeare, adventure, thriller, romance and more. Each edition provides guidance and activities alongside the text.
A Play Based on the Poem by Geoffrey Chaucer John O'Connor. SCENE 2.

On the surface, Steven has everything. A beautiful wife, a successful business, a brand new home. But beneath the glittering veneer lies a monstrous secret . . .

'You believe him cos he wraps all the painful stuff in feathers and flowers. Makes it all safe and cosy. You can't feel the broken glass inside.'

Leaves of Glass is a rich, complex play about two brothers and the hold that the past and memory has on them. Haunted by the death of his father and a car accident involving a young child, Steve finds his life unraveling and his pregnant wife unable to comprehend his pain and sense of loss.

Known for his dark disturbing dramas, Ridley's latest play is a deeply human drama that shifts between elegy for the past and a chilling exploration of the power of loss and grief.

A young couple are moving into their new home. A soldier is being held hostage. Two boys are searching for monsters. All these things are connected by both family and time but what story can be told when family and time are broken?

Set over the course of twelve years, Shivered unpicks the story of two families and then re-weaves it into something new and startling. Seven people, one war, a derelict car plant and mysterious lights in the sky come together in the Essex new-town of Draylingstowe, where the view from green hills once offered hope and prosperity for all.

An oblique and startlingly anachronistic piece, the timeframe is an emotional, rather than linear sequence, reflecting the characters’ broken memories and shattered lives. Depicting a panorama of people and time, connecting links of friendship, family and encounters eddy around each other in a tantalising, surprising and intelligent way. Shivered is a state of the nation play meets a dreamlike memory play.

I could squeeze a bullet between those lips. Point first. Press it between those rosebud lips. Prise it between your pearly whites. Gently. I wouldn't break a single tooth.

Philip Ridley's first new play since 2008 marks a change of direction for the acclaimed, ever restless and maverick writer. Tender Napalm is a high-impact, high-concept two handed play which explores the landscape that is a relationship between a man and a woman. Explosive, poetic, brutal and ultimately redemptive, the play weaves a compelling theatrical tapestry to re-examine and re-define the language of love.

This abstract play is cool, slick and savagely romantic. There are no defined settings, narratives or characters. Instead, Tender Napalm is 70 minutes of real time drama: simply a man and woman dissecting their relationship through a mixture of memory, fantasy, and a mixture of the two. And, by doing this, they touch upon zeitgeist concerns of violence, war and faith. Tender Napalm is a showcase of the imaginative, fantastical and magical poeticisms Ridley can achieve from the bleak and brutal themes of war and destruction.

This volume also contains five poems from the performance sequence Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures, publishing for the first time extracts from Philip Ridley's cycle of love poetry.

I missed first time. I could feel his skull caving in. It was like a shell.'

Morning - a play for young people - is the latest offering from acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens, written after a workshop involving actors from the Young Company at the Lyric, Hammersmith and the Theater, Basel, Switzerland.

It's the end of summer in a small, claustrophobic town and two friends are about to go their separate ways: one to university; the other will be staying local. But no matter what separates them, they will always share one moment: a moment that changed them forever.

This dark coming-of-age play, to be performed by the Lyric Young Company, is a disturbing look at the cruel acts we are capable of committing; our society's numbness to physical pain; and the consequences of our actions.

This programme text will coincide with the Lyric's production of the play at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh as part of the Festival (2 - 22nd September) followed by a brief run at the Lyric Hammersmith, London in September.

Salvage is the third part of The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michael Bakunin, who was to challenge Marx for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev, author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky; and Alexander Herzen, a nobleman's son and the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia, who becomes the main focus of this drama of politics, love, loss, and betrayal. In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard presents an inspired examination of the struggle between romantic anarchy, utopian idealism, and practical reformation.

Shipwreck is the second part of The Coast of Utopia, Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michael Bakunin, who was to challenge Marx for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev, author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky; and Alexander Herzen, a nobleman's son and the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia, who becomes the main focus of this drama of politics, love, loss, and betrayal. In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard presents an inspired examination of the struggle between romantic anarchy, utopian idealism, and practical reformation.

Nobody can ignore the fact that Myra is dying, but in the meantime life goes on. There are boilers to be fixed, cats to be fed and the perfect funeral to be planned. As a mother researches burial spots and biodegradable coffins, her family are forced to communicate with her, and each other, as they face up to an unpredictable future. Laura Wade's family drama was first performed at Soho Theatre, London.