Birch Plays: 1


Book Description

Birch Plays: 1 celebrates the work of Welsh writer Brad Birch. Winner of the 2016 Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court Theatre Birch is the writer in residence at Undeb Theatre and is currently on attachment at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. His work has been produced by the Royal Court, Sherman Cymru, Theatre503 and the National Youth Theatre as well as around the world in Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany and Spain. Bringing together plays from throughout his career to date this remarkable collection includes a selection of previously published and unpublished works along with an introduction by the author. Where the Shot Rabbits Lay (Royal Court, 2012) - "There are some lovely grace notes in Brad Birch's intimate father-son tale" (Time Out London) Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall (Soho Theatre, 2013) - "a lovely play of sharp edges, falsehoods and unsaid thoughts, twinning great humour and strong emotion throughout" (WhatsOnStage) The Brink (Orange Tree, 2016) - "short, sharp, shockingly entertaining" (The Guardian) Black Mountain (Paines Plough Roundabout, Edinburgh, 2017) - "This is a real rarity: a psychological thriller that feels psychologically accurate – and it actually thrills too." (Scotsman)




We Want You to Watch


Book Description

PIG / SISSY: ‘Are you finding this harder to hear, is this more difficult on your stomachs because we are women.’ This is about pornography. This is an interview. This is an intervention. This is an interrogation. We’re recording now.We want to pull its plug out. We want to stop its heartbeat. We want to blow its brains out and begin again. We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re not stupid. An unsettling, powerful new piece of theatre tackling pornography and violence against women.




Performing Site-Specific Theatre


Book Description

This book investigates the expanding parameters for site-specific performance to account for the form's increasing popularity in the twenty-first century. Leading practitioners and theorists interrogate issues of performance and site to broaden our understanding of the role that place plays in performance and the ways that performance influences it




Anatomy of a Suicide


Book Description

"Alice Birch's new play is scored like a piece of music ... It is an extraordinary echoing text, full of pain and strange beauty. The three stories play out simultaneously on stage, the dialogue from one scene overlapping with the other two in a manner that borders on the choral ... Birch has provided a text that explores these ideas in a formally invigorating way." The Stage Three generations of women. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings with it a painful legacy. A powerful, unflinching look at a family afflicted with severe depression and mental illness. Presented as a triptych of plays performed side by side, this groundbreaking play reverberates with audiences and readers. Published for the first time in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand new introduction by Ava Davies.




Black Mountain


Book Description

I think I want you to hurt. I'm sorry but that's what I want. I want you to really hurt. Rebecca and Paul are running away. Away from memories and mistakes. They're trying to save their relationship. They need time and space. An isolated house in the country is the perfect place to work things out. They set themselves rules: they have to be honest, they have to listen and they have to be fair. But you can't run forever. Especially when you're being followed. Black Mountain is a tense psychological thriller about betrayal and forgiveness by winner of the Harold Pinter Commission Brad Birch. A Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and Orange Tree Theatre production, Black Mountain was first performed at Theatre Clwyd, Mold, in July 2017.




The White Girl


Book Description

A searing new novel from leading Indigenous storyteller Tony Birch that explores the lengths we will go to in order to save the people we love.Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, Odette has managed to stay under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves. In The White Girl, Miles-Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.




I Kissed Alice


Book Description

"Rivals-to-lovers, mistaken identity, and slow, slow burn... A loving homage to fandom and queer girls." —Victoria Lee, author of The Fever King For fans of Leah on the Offbeat and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, Anna Birch's I Kissed Alice is a romantic comedy about enemies, lovers, and everything in between. Rhodes and Iliana couldn't be more different, but that's not why they hate each other. Rhodes, a gifted artist, has always excelled at Alabama’s Conservatory of the Arts (until she’s hit with a secret bout of creator’s block), while Iliana, a transfer student, tries to outshine everyone with her intense, competitive work ethic. Since only one of them can get the coveted Capstone scholarship, the competition between them is fierce. They both escape the pressure on a fanfic site where they are unknowingly collaborating on a webcomic. And despite being worst enemies in real life, their anonymous online identities I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are starting to like each other... a lot. When the truth comes out, will they destroy each other's future? An Imprint Book "The swoony queer romcom of my heart... Pitch-perfect." —Rachel Hawkins, New York Times-bestselling author of Prince Charming and Her Royal Highness




Many Moons


Book Description

Juniper is looking for love, Robert is trying to avoid it, Ollie doesn't know what it is and Meg has resigned herself to never having it. As these four people move through a July day in London, they orbit each other, unaware that they are hurtling towards one moment that could devastate them all. Many Moons opened at groundbreaking Theatre 503 in summer 2011.




Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again


Book Description

Through a series of arresting vignettes and a collection of nameless characters, Alice Birch examines the language, behaviour and forces that shape women in the 21st century. The play asks what's stopping us from doing something truly radical to change them? Written in response to the provocation that well-behaved women seldom make history, the play is an assault on the language that has fueled violence against women throughout history. Problematic language frequently attached to women is interrogated, from lazy sexist clichés to the conventions around a marriage proposal. Through doing so, the play rails against the conventions of work, sex, motherhood, aging and love. Revolt. She said. Revolt again was first performed at the 2014 Midsummer Mischief Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. It transferred to the Royal Court Upstairs and was more recently produced at New York's Soho Rep. It is published here in a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Marissia Fragkou, who locates the play in our contemporary political and cultural context (including second- and third-wave feminism, and the #MeToo movement).




Wednesday Wilson Gets Down to Business


Book Description

Meet the unbeatable hero of a fresh new early chapter book series — Wednesday Wilson! The most important thing to know about Wednesday Wilson is that she’s an entrepreneur. Well, she almost is. She and her best friend, Charlie, are hard at work thinking up business ideas to make it big. Only now there’s been an incident with the Emmas (whose last initials happen to spell M.E.A.N.) involving a bearded dragon named Morten and a piece of kale . . . it’s a long story. But maybe this is just the opportunity Wednesday and her friends needed. Maybe they’ll invent something brilliant that will save the day and make them millionaires. Or . . . not? It’ll take more than one incident with the Emmas to keep this girl down. Wednesday Wilson is bound for success!