Laura Wade – författare

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world’s most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: “how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?” The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre’s most prolific dramatists.

The second collection of work by Olivier award-winning British playwright Laura Wade, bursting with her trademark satirical humour and her sharp, witty insight into gender and privilege. Posh (2010): the cult sensation which propelled Laura Wade onto the national stage and inspired the film The Riot Club (2014). Based on Oxford's real-life Bullingdon Club, the play unfolds during an evening of debauchery in an all-male elite student dining society.Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (2010): a "play for voices" to be performed with an orchestra, re-imagining Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata as an intimate two-hander.Home, I'm Darling (2018): a dark comedy about marriage and relationships, following one woman in the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.The Watsons (2018): a sparkingly funny new take on the unfinished Jane Austen novel, catapulting the characters into a contemporary context whilst dealing with questions of authorship and writer's block.

In an oak-panelled room in a rural Oxford gastropub, ten young undergraduates with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule - and on getting totally "chatueaued". Members of The Riot Club, an elite student dining society, the fraternity starts to fray when they discover they're a guinea-fowl short and the prostitute they've hired is suddenly banished. An apparent spoof on Oxford's notorious Bullingdon Club, whose past members include Boris Johnson, George Osborne and David Cameron, Posh is a satirical play about power, politics and privilege, and how these elements interact within British institutions. The play is published here as a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Henry Bell. Posh premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2010 and two years later opened in the West End. It was nominated for Best New Play at both the Evening Standard Awards and for the Theatregoers' Choice Awards. It was subsequently made into a film called The Riot Club (2014), starring Sam Claflin, Max Irons and Douglas Booth.

What happens when the writer loses the plot?Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She’s been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast. If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife.Luckily there are plenty of potential suitors to dance with, from flirtatious Tom Musgrave to castle-owning Lord Osborne, who’s as awkward as he is rich.So far so familiar. But there’s a problem: Jane Austen didn’t finish the story. Who will write Emma’s happy ending now?Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what can characters do when their author abandons them?

Amy's found another body in a hotel bedroom.There's a funny smell coming from one of Jim's storage units.And Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police.There's no going back after what they've seen.Breathing Corpses was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2005.

‘If one of the problems facing new playwrights is the expectation that each of their plays should be similar in style, Wade…proved that you could radically change both form and content… Not every writer delivers on their early promise. As this collection clearly shows, Wade certainly has.’ Aleks Sierz, from his IntroductionColder Than Here: ‘Laura Wade’s play is a 90-minute masterpiece, a jewel, dark bu ttranslucent. It is a play of love, death and grief: the grief that is hardest to bear, because it begins before the loved one dies.’ Sunday TimesBreathing Corpses: ‘The tension, the emotions and the sense of absurdity and fear are brilliantly handled... A terrifying tour de force.’ Sunday TimesOther Hands: ‘This is an extraordinary feat – a vicious satire with a heart of gold –wrought with peculiar subtlety and intelligence.’ The Spectator

“I’ve got a new law for you mate, it’s called survival of the fittest, it’s called fuck you we’re the Riot Club.”In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn’t the last huzzah: they’re planning a takeover. Welcome to the Riot Club.

How happily married are the happily married?Home, I’m Darling is a dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife.Judy has Johnny's slippers waiting for him when he arrives home from work, the kitchen's clean, the rooms are aired...yet this is not the 1950s, but a 21st-century 'arrangement' agreed between the two of them. With clothes, furniture and a (faulty) fridge from the 1950s, Judy and Johnny try to 'live the dream', with specific roles and a perfectly ordered life.

"I walked in and she's sat in the coffin. In the middle of the living-room floor and she's - she's watching telly and laughing"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 bio-degradable coffins, her family are finally forced to communicate with her, and each other, as they face up to an unpredictable future. Laura Wade's beautifully poised family drama was first performed at Soho Theatre, London.

“A scalpel-wielding dissection of the fetishisation of wifeliness." - The GuardianEvery couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling. Judy and Johnny are living the 1950s dream, but behind the gingham curtains, being a domestic goddess is not as easy as it looksA dark comedy about sex, cake, and the quest to be the 'perfect' housewife, Laura Wade's incisive study of the idealization of gender norms remains as topical as ever as it asks how happily married are the happily married?Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Home, I'm Darling is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Tamara Harvey.

I can’t help it if you were careless with your cigarette case. I was extremely careful with your heartConstance has everything. A loving family, a beautiful home, a fulfilling career, and a husband as devoted to her as he is to his mistress. When her perfect set up is threatened, Constance fights back but refuses to play by the rules. Can she withstand society’s expectations? And can society withstand the force of a woman determined to do things her own way?Laura Wade (Posh, Rivals) reunites with RSC Co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey (Pericles) after their Olivier Award-winning collaboration, Home, I’m Darling, to reimagine Somerset Maugham’s subversive comedy, The Constant Wife, in a sparkling new version.This edition was published to coincide with the RSC production at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in June 2025.

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