Naomi Wallace – författare

Two imprisoned young women, one African American and the other white, form a perilous bond. As they serve time they forge a plan for survival. They practice hard. If they don't get it right they'll lose everything: the outside world is even more dangerous to their friendship than the jail itself.Exploring the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reality of adulthood in 1950s segregated America, Naomi Wallace's And I and Silence premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in May 2011.

You haven't asked, but yes, you both may stay in our house for the time being. And use our things. I figure it'll take a war to settle it all.A compelling story of two families - one Palestinian, one Israeli - forced by history into an intimacy they didn't choose.'[Returning to Haifa] offers a moving confrontation between two sets of displaced people and an utterly unsentimental exploration of the complexities of home, history and parenthood . . . its call for reciprocal awareness and acknowledgement of past injustice seems more necessary than ever.' GuardianIn 1948, Palestinian couple Said and Safiyya fled their home during the Nakba. Now, in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War, the borders are open for the first time in twenty years, and they dare to return to their home in Haifa. They are ready to find someone else living where they once did, but nothing can prepare them for the encounter they both desire and dread with the son they had to leave behind.Ghassan Kanafani's classic novella Returning to Haifa has been adapted for the stage by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi. The play premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in February 2018 to coincide with the seventieth anniversaries of both the Nakba or 'catastrophe' - the mass dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 - and the foundation of the State of Israel.

They won't even know we won this game. Only you and I will know that we Topped Their Love.Love has no limits for the Diggs siblings: there's nothing that seventeen-year-old Jude won't do to keep her younger brother Acton safe. Growing up in the turbulence of 1970s America, Jude works nights and weekends to pay the bills, just so that they can stay together with their mother. But when Acton's troublesome pals form a club in their basement, a foolish game threatens to upend Jude's plans and derail their lives forever. Jude will do anything to protect her brother, but someone may have to pay the price. As trust and loyalty are put on the line, hindsight proves devastating in Naomi Wallace's riveting drama. The Breach opened at Hampstead Theatre, London, in May 2022.

In your hearts you know the truth: I was here among you three hundred years ago . . . Had you chosen differently then - before slavery and greed breathed their venom so deeply into our souls - we would be living in another world now. It is not too late to purge these poisons.Benjamin Lay - shepherd, sailor, prophet, and the British Empire's first revolutionary abolitionist - returns from the grave almost three hundred years after his death, as feisty and unpredictable as ever.A four-feet-tall 'Little David' confronts the 'Goliath' of slavery once again as he pleads to be readmitted into the Quaker community that has disowned him and who still believe him to be dangerous.Now, 'trembling at the edge of playing God himself', how far will Benjamin go as he stares down his accusers?The Return of Benjamin Lay sweeps across the centuries in a bold exploration of an utterly impossible man. The play opened at the Finborough Theatre, London, in June 2023.

Young Blood is a collection of plays for young people with the following aims:•to publish some of the most interesting, challenging, contemporary writing for young performers in one volume.•to extend the life of the plays beyond their first production.•to make them available to young people throughout the UKTo develop performing skills young people need to work on the best scripts available; to have the opportunity to explore the ideas, form and language of exceptional writers. Young people in schools, youth theatres and colleges need to work on plays that excite, stretch and inspire them. The response from young people to the final selection has been remarkable. Several have been chosen by students to be performed as part of their GCSE practical exams.This collection doesn’t include production or teachers' notes. There are no fixed rules about how to use the plays. Produce the whole play to a paying audience or work on scenes. Play about with the casting. Double parts or have six people playing the same character. The most important thing is to have fun with the language, characters and staging so that young people enjoy working on the plays. All of the plays in this collection have a unique theatrical vision. Combine that with the energy, commitment and imagination of a group of young people and the results will definitely be worth watching!Includes the plays The Girl who fell through a hole in her jumper by Naomi Wallace and Bruce Mcleod, The Search for Odysseus by Charles Way, Darker The Berry by J.B.Rose, Geraniums by Sheila Yeger, and, Out of their Heads by Marcus Romer.

Celebrating 10 years of the London New Play Festival, featuring six plays:Wild Turkey by Joe Penhall: Two small businessmen struggle to keep their flagging burger bar afloat, in the face of increasingly savage and bizarre forces.Everlasting Rose by Judy Upton: Terrified of ageing, a caravan Casanova changes wives every decade, until a woman of the 90's challenges his routine.Strindberg Knew My Father by Mark Jenkins: Life becomes farce as Strindberg loses control over his characters while writing 'Miss Julie'.In the Fields of Aceldama by Naomi Wallace: When their only child dies in an accident, Mattie and Henry draw on her spirited past to find the strength to go on.Two Horsemen by Biyi Bandele: Baja and Langbaja trade stories about life, sex and god in a run-down shack. Will their stories sustain them, or trap them forever?Maison Splendide by Laura Bridgetman: House-sitting for gangsters, Honey and Moon enact a 'let's pretend' lesbian white wedding, parodying suburban customs.

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women’s lives through theatre.Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon.Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women’s theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Four very different plays that study the effect of war on very different individuals.