Modern Drama: Plays of the '80s and '90s

Mark Ravenhill is one of the most distinctive contemporary UK playwrights. He burst on to the theatre scene in 1996 with the huge hit Shopping and Fucking. He has continued to garner critical acclaim for plays that include Some Explicit Polaroids, Mother Clap's Molly House, and most recently Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (National Theatre, Royal Court, Paines Plough, The Gate Theatre, April 2008). Martin McDonagh's first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane was the 1996 winner of the George Devine Award, won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Fringe Play and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. The play was nominated for six Tony awards, of which it won four, and the Laurence Olivier Award. Terry Johnson's previous plays for the Royal Court are Hitchcock Blonde, Hysteria and Insignificance. Other work includes an adaptation of The Graduate (Gielguld Theatre), Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick (National Theatre/winner Olivier Award for Best Comedy 1998), an adaptation of The London Cuckolds (National Theatre), Dead Funny (Hampstead Theatre/Vaudville/Tour/winner Critic Circle Award for Best Play, Time Out Drama Award 1994), Imagine Drowning (Hampstead/winner of the John Whiting Award 1991), Cries From The Mammal House (Leicester Haymarket/Royal Court), Unsuitable For Adults (Bush).

"Top Girls 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' Guardian Hysteria 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' Sunday Times Blasted 'Her dialogue is both sparse and stunning. They will call her mad, but then they said that about Strindberg' Mail on Sunday Shopping and F***ing 'A real coup de theatre' Evening Standard The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'The most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist... a born storyteller' New York Times"

• Top Girls; Hysteria; Blasted; Shopping & F***ing; The Beauty Queen...