After Life


Book Description

A new play by Jack Thorne adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film




Julie


Book Description

Wild and newly single, Julie throws a late night party. In the kitchen, Jean and Kristina clean up as the celebration heaves above them. Crossing the threshold, Julie initiates a power game with Jean. It descends into a savage fight for survival.Polly Stenham reimagines August Strindberg's Miss Julie in contemporary London.Julie premiered at the National Theatre, London, in May 2018.




London Road


Book Description

The extraordinary work of verbatim musical theatre about the impact of the Ipswich prostitute murders.




Frankenstein, based on the novel by Mary Shelley


Book Description

Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein's bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, adapted for the stage by Nick Dear, premiered at the National Theatre, London, in February 2011.




Beginning


Book Description

“A wry, funny and touching meditation on loneliness, that private shame of the singleton in the era of the dating app and of fraudulent boasting on social media ... written with a real depth of insight, humour, compassion and a keen sense of the ridiculous...” The Independent It's the early hours of the morning in the aftermath of Laura's housewarming party. Danny, 42, divorced and living with his mother, is the last remaining guest. The flat is in a mess and so are they. One more drink? This sharp and astute two-hander takes an intimate look in real-time at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Both comedic and tender, it asks questions about mutual loneliness and human connections. Beginning premiered at the National Theatre, London in October 2017. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Sarah Grochala.




The Great Wave


Book Description

This Student Edition is ideal for any teacher coming to Francis Turnly's 2018 play for the first time or those who already have some familiarity with it. Spanning 1979 to 2003, The Great Wave looks at the mysterious disappearance of a Japanese schoolgirl and her mother and sister's tireless search to find her again. The girl – Hanako – is discovered living in captivity in a compound in North Korea, employed to teach a young woman Japanese language and culture. Francis Turnly's gripping play is based on a a true story and it conveys, not only the magnitude of these events globally, but also the beating human heart at the centre of this story. The commentary in the edition unpacks: This edition is invaluable in helping to make sense of this thematically and contextually rich play for students, and to bring it alive through the discussion of its inherent theatricality and production opportunities.




The Antipodes


Book Description

A group of people sit around a table theorising, categorising and telling stories. Their real purpose is never quite clear, but they continue on, searching for the monstrous. Part satire, part sacred rite, Annie Baker's play The Antipodes asks what value stories have for a world in crisis. First seen at Signature Theatre, New York, in 2017, the play had its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2019. 'The most original and significant American dramatist since August Wilson' Mark Lawson, The Guardian




John


Book Description

The week after Thanksgiving. A bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching. John, an uncanny play by Annie Baker, was first seen Off-Broadway in 2015. The play had its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in 2018, in a production directed by James Macdonald. Annie Baker's other plays include Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick, The Antipodes, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Aliens, and an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. She has won many other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Grant.




Common


Book Description

Common is a dark and disturbing journey into the carnivalesque world of early-Industrial Britain, exploring the personal and public traumas in the period of the enclosure. Written with verve and wit by Olivier Award-nominated and Writers' Guild Award-winning playwright DC Moore, it tells the story of Mary, a woman who has returned to the village of her birth after years of grifting a living on the edge of respectable London society. She is there to confront old enemies and rekindle a former love. But there's trouble in the air as the local Lord struggles to extend the reach of his power by reclaiming the common-land as his personal fiefdom. Will Mary be able to win over those she lost before? Or will the violence of the time seep over into even the purest of missions? Common is an epic, funny and uncanny history play which examines the period of the enclosure, asking what does community mean and if there can ever be resolution in the intractable battle between individual desires and the common good. Common received its world premiere on the Olivier stage of the National Theatre, London, in a coproduction with Headlong, in May 2017.




Absolute Hell


Book Description

Condemned as a "libel on the British people" when it was first produced in 1951, Absolute Hell is set in a decaying West End drinking club at the end of the Second World War. The 1995 production at the Royal National Theatre starred Judi Dench and was directed by Anthony Page.