Nick Hern Books – förlag

Jez Butterworth's hugely acclaimed, prize-winning play - a comic, contemporary vision of life in England's green and pleasant land.On St George's Day, the morning of the local country fair, Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, local waster and Lord of Misrule, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants to be taken to the fair, a vengeful father wants to give him a serious kicking, and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol.Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in July 2009 in a production directed by Ian Rickson and starring Mark Rylance. It transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in January 2010, and played on Broadway in 2011.Jez Butterworth's play won the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Critics Circle and Whatsonstage.com awards for Best New Play.

A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Suzan-Lori Parks' play Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.Topdog/Underdog was first performed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, in 2001. Its UK premiere was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2003.

In The Viewpoints Book, first published in the United States, acclaimed theatre directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau introduce the history, terminology and philosophy of Viewpoints, and offer a step-by-step recipe for using it as both a training tool and a rehearsal technique.Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the post-modern dance world, allowing actors to learn to function spontaneously and intuitively. It was first articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, whose ideas have been expanded and developed by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, adapting them for the use of actors.Over the last twenty years, Viewpoints has ignited the imaginations of actors, directors, designers, choreographers, dramaturgs and writers. It is taught all over the world and used by countless theatre-makers in the rehearsal process to develop flexibility, articulation and strength in movement, and to enrich ensemble playing.An invaluable resource for theatre-makers, as well as for anyone with an interest in collaboration and the creative process, whether in art, business or daily life.'Viewpoints is timeless – a system belonging to the natural principles of movement, time and space. It is a philosophy translated into a technique for training performers, building ensemble, and creating movement for the stage' Anne Bogart and Tina Landau

The Bronze Age. The Iron Age. The Age of Oil.The Stone Age didn't end for want of stones.Oil follows the lives of one woman and her daughter in an epic, hurtling collision of empire, history and family.Ella Hickson's explosive play drills deep into the world's relationship with this finite resource. It is 'the single most gloriously audacious piece of playwriting of the last few years' (Evening Standard) and won the Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play in 2013.Oil premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in October 2016, in a production directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Anne-Marie Duff.

It's a perfect day for brunch.Leo and Marianne Brink have found the ideal spot to take their friends. With great reviews, impeccable service and an extensive menu, it seems like nothing could go wrong.But as their meal is interrupted by a series of increasingly strange events, they come to realise they've bitten off more than they can chew. Here We Are is the last work by Stephen Sondheim, written shortly before his death in 2021, with a book by playwright David Ives and inspired by the films of Luis Buñuel.It was first performed in 2023 at The Shed in New York City, directed by Joe Mantello, and received its UK premiere at London's National Theatre in 2025. This first publication of the complete book and lyrics of Here We Are is accompanied by a substantial and revelatory essay by David Ives on 'Writing with Sondheim'.'Sondheim not only dared to change musical theatre, but succeeded, forever' Guardian

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.Originally premiered in Britain at the National Theatre, London, where it won the Evening Standard Best Play Award, Tony Kushner's Angels in America went on to win two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.This volume contains both Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika, plus 45 pages of bonus material including a new introduction by the playwright, a full production history, deleted scenes, and notes on staging. It was published alongside a new production in 2017 at the National Theatre, London, directed by Marianne Elliott and starring Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle and Russell Tovey.

Fall in love with your voice. Get to know how it works. You will soon feel how good it is to sound like you.In The Voice Exercise Book, Jeannette Nelson - Head of Voice at the National Theatre - shares the voice exercises she uses with many of Britain's leading actors to help to keep their voices in shape. Her belief is that all of us, not just actors, can learn to use our voices well.Whether you perform professionally or you just want to be understood clearly and easily, you can improve your voice by knowing how it works and by practising simple exercises. The aim is not to 'fake it' – to try to sound like someone else. It is to find your authentic voice: to be honestly and clearly you in any situation.'Jeannette’s warm-up sessions are tremendous and this book extends those exercises.' Zoë Wanamaker CBE'Jeannette’s knowledge is astonishing, and her approach so gentle and effective.' Derren Brown'She makes voice production endlessly fascinating and fun. There is no one better.' Rory Kinnear'A must for anyone who is serious about producing a strong, clean noise from their voice box.' Sir Lenny Henry

A brilliant and unsettling play from one of the UK's leading dramatists.At the opening of the play, a young girl is questioning her aunt about having seen her uncle hitting people with an iron bar; by the end, several years later, the whole world is at war - including birds and animals.Caryl Churchill's play Far Away is a howl of anguish at the increasing – and increasingly accepted – levels of inhumanity in a world seemingly perpetually involved in conflict.The play was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London, in November 2000.

A new edition of the hugely successful musical by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, published alongside its West End premiere and featuring exclusive content.A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to belong. Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, Dear Evan Hansen is a groundbreaking musical about truth, fiction, and the price we're willing to pay for the possibility to connect.The production opened in Washington DC in 2015, off-Broadway in 2016, and on Broadway later that year, before winning six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score, and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.This official West End edition is published alongside the production's transfer to London's Noël Coward Theatre in 2019. It features the complete book and lyrics of the show, plus exclusive bonus content and colour photographs of the West End production.'Dear Evan Hansen lodges in your head long after you've seen it or heard it or read it. It feels like a pure expression from young writers at a crossroad of coming to terms with who they are and what they want to say about the world' James Lapine, from his Foreword

Another Romeo and another Juliet in a strikingly different love story.Ben Power weaves the text of Romeo and Juliet into a provocative new tale of love and sacrifice. Re-imagining Shakespeare's story, A Tender Thing is an elegiac yet ultimately hopeful account of the human capacity for love. Shakespeare's timeless poetry provides the backdrop for this delicate and moving account of old age, memory and the demands we make of those we love. When a married couple discover that their lifetime together is drawing to a close, they realise they cannot contemplate being apart.A Tender Thing was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Northern Stage, Newcastle, in 2009.

'There is no acting, only reacting to the space.'In his bestselling book The Actor and the Target, Declan Donnellan laid out a fresh and radical approach to acting that has inspired actors around the world.Now, in The Actor and the Space, he develops and extends those ideas, exploring that most profound source of vitality in life as well as performance: the space around us.Tackling fundamental questions that face any actor – What makes performance better? How do I create a space for my character to live in? How do I tap into that space, and draw energy from it? – Donnellan offers a universal set of keys to unlock the mysteries of performance.Full of insightful precepts, acute psychology and practical, hands-on advice, the book presents a bold new way of thinking about acting, illustrated throughout with line-by-line analysis of scenes from Macbeth to show how it works in rehearsal and performance.Essential reading for any actor or theatre director, The Actor and the Space is also a fascinating distillation of the work of a world-leading director that will reward and enrich anyone with an interest in theatre.'A hand grenade of a book. It contains all the humility and chutzpah you need to work in the theatre.' Cate Blanchett'A wonderful book. Few directors think as deeply or perceptively about the art of acting as Declan Donnellan. This is an essential text for the actor, supremely useful, practical, elegant and profound.' Matthew Macfadyen'Beautifully clear. This generous vision takes a very complex art form and makes it all seem so simple. The whole book is a key. Unlocking the problems actors face as they try to accept another reality long enough to let the audience get a glimpse of the best our art can offer – a glimpse into themselves.' Adrian Lester 'Declan Donnellan's profound insight and point of departure is that great theatre, like a child's sandcastle, inhabits a vulnerable and ever-changing space between the safe and the dangerous. There is a whole lot of wisdom in this book – about tragedy, human psychology, words, dread and about how great acting really works – conveyed with remarkable clarity and simplicity. It's worth sharing with non-actor friends for its insights into Macbeth alone. Most of all, it's a distillation of hard-won lessons learned from decades of immersion in the mysteries of theatre by one of the great directors of our day.' James Shapiro, Shakespeare scholar and author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

Hafsah and Bilal aren't looking for love. Hafsah has her faith, her books, her dreams. Bilal's just trying to get through uni. Studying in London, far from their hometowns of Bradford and Birmingham, they find common ground over a peanut butter and blueberry sandwich.But just as their connection is growing, the world around them becomes harder to ignore. As competing opportunities, obligations and injustices get in the way, will they be able to choose each other?Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan's play Peanut Butter & Blueberries is a tender and bittersweet love story that explores how to love when the weight of the world is on your shoulders. It was first performed at Kiln Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Sameena Hussain.

A revised and updated edition of Declan Donnellan's bestselling book, a fresh and radical approach to acting by a world-famous director.'Cuts open every generalisation about acting and draws out gleamingly fresh specifics' Peter Brook'Explains Donnellan's highly practical system and sheds unique light on one of the greatest directors of acting in our time' Le Monde'Hugely practical and never gets lost in theory' El Pais'A gripping read, as acute about the psychology of lying as it is about the art of acting' Guardian'Rooted in modern theatre, modern psychology and, above all, modern reality' Izvestia'Unpretentious, straightforward, and pierced with acute insight' Kommersant

A true modern classic from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers, Long Day's Journey into Night is an intensely autobiographical, magnificently tragic portrait of the author's own family - a play so acutely personal that he insisted it was not published until after his death.One single day in the Tyrones' Connecticut home. James Tyrone Snr is a miser, a talented actor who even squanders his talent in an undemanding role; eldest son Jamie is an affable, whoremongering alcoholic and confirmed ne'er-do well; youngest son Edmund is poetic, sensitive, suffering from a respiratory condition and deep-seated disillusionment; and their mother Mary, living in a haze of self-delusion and morphine addiction.Existing together under this roof, and the profound weight of the past, they subtly tear one another apart, shred by shred.'Set in 1912, the year of O'Neill's own attempted suicide, it is an attempt to understand himself and those to whom he was irrevocably tied by fate and by love. It is the finest and most powerful play to have come out of America' Christopher BigsbyEugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey into Night was written in 1939-41, and first published in 1956 (after O'Neill's death in 1953). It was first performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in February 1956, and had its first American production at Helen Hayes Theater, New York, in November that year. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, and O'Neill was posthumously awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.

'I never know what to say when I have to go over all this. It starts to sound like some story I tell that's about some other person entirely.'From the outside, they're the picture of a nice, normal family. Inside, they're in crisis. At their heart is Diana Goodman, a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar disorder and haunted by her past. How far will she go to keep her family's world intact?With powerful lyrics and an electrifying score of more than thirty original songs, next to normal is an intimate exploration of family and loss. It opened in New York in 2008, and transferred to Broadway in 2009, winning three Tony Awards including Best Original Score, and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.This new edition features the complete book and lyrics of the musical, and exclusive new material, including testimonials on creating the show by James Lapine, Michael Greif, Alice Ripley, David Stone and Michael Longhurst, an essay on its presentation of mental health, and the lyrics to a dozen deleted or alternative songs.It was first published alongside the acclaimed 2023 London premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, which was nominated for four Olivier Awards including Best New Musical, and transferred to the West End in 2024.

The definitive text for today's and tomorrow's lighting designers, covering the complete history, theory and practice of lighting design.With over four hundred illustrations and nearly sixty colour photographs, as well as interviews with many well-known professionals, Stage Lighting Design is a comprehensive, insightful and inspiring book that every designer and would-be designer should own.It is arranged in four sections:Design: the basic principles, illustrated with reference to specific productionsHistory: a brief survey of the historical development of stage lightingThe Life: interviews with 14 other lighting designers, plus notes on Pilbrow's own careerMechanics: a comprehensive section dealing with all the technical data today's designer will need.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceA classic Italian comedy that remains blisteringly hilarious and relevant, over two hundred and fifty years after it was written.Disguising herself as her dead brother, Beatrice travels to Venice to find Florindo, the man responsible for his death. However, her servant, Truffaldino, enters into the pay of Florindo, and struggles to keep his two lives and masters separate.Carlo Goldoni's play The Servant of Two Masters (Il servitore di due padroni) was written in the 1740s, though later revised by its author. It draws on the tradition of Italian commedia dell'arte.This English version in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is translated by Stephen Mulrine.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceJohn Gay's bawdy and burlesque pastiche of classical Italian opera, often regarded as the world's first ever musical.Peachum the thief-catcher is horrified when he discovers his beloved daughter Polly has married Macheath the highwayman; he and his wife plot Macheath's death in the knowledge that they would be entitled to their daughter's inheritance once he was out of the way. But Lockit the prison warden is also after the highwayman's treasures, and daughter Lucy his crown jewels...The Beggar's Opera was premiered at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London, in January 1728.This edition of The Beggar's Opera is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell

'I'd get freaked out here, alone in the dark. Wondering what's lurking at the bottom of the bed, ready to grab your feet.'Jenny and Sam – and their baby Phoebe – have recently moved into their new home. But something feels frightening and wrong. Very wrong. Over the baby monitor, at 2:22 every night, Jenny hears footsteps around her daughter's cot. Could the house be haunted?When their friends Lauren and Ben come round for a housewarming dinner, they drink wine, relive their pasts, and argue about the existence of ghosts. They decide to stay up until 2:22, to discover the truth. Over one adrenaline-filled night – as the foxes scream outside – secrets will emerge and ghosts may appear…Spine-chilling, funny and scary, Danny Robins' play 2:22 – A Ghost Story was premiered at the Noël Coward Theatre in London's West End in August 2021, directed by Matthew Dunster, and starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood. It went on to win Best New Play at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards, and was nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards.2:22 – A Ghost Story provides rich opportunities for any drama group wanting to make things go bump in the night – and their audiences scream.

A vital companion for actors in rehearsal - a thesaurus of action-words to revitalise performance, with a foreword by Terry Johnson. Finding the right action is an essential part of the process of preparation for the actor. Using this thesaurus of active verbs, the actor can refine the action-word until s/he hits exactly the right one to help make the action come alive. The method of 'actioning' is widely used in rehearsal rooms, but has never before been set down in a systematic and comprehensive way.'If you want to act, or act better, Actions will take you a long way on the journey to excellence' Terry Johnson

Packed with insights from a lifetime of directing theatre, Words into Action is a fascinating read and a vital masterclass for actors and directors.Renowned theatre director William Gaskill was one of the founders of the Royal Court, whose ethos, as Christopher Hampton says in his Foreword, 'this book goes a long way towards defining'.Gaskill's acclaimed work as a director always began with the words of the playwright, and here, starting with a chapter on 'Trusting the Writer', he takes the actor through the vital steps needed to find the life of the play and then to articulate it on stage.Drawing instances from his own work in the theatre and from teaching at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he looks at action and intention, stillness and movement, sentences and rhetoric, punctuation and pauses. He pays detailed attention to staging Shakespeare's plays, and there are also chapters on masks, on language as character, and on verse and prose. Gaskill was, says Maggie Smith, ‘the best teacher in the world.'

'Something is shifting between you – again.Something terrifyingand comforting.'Dre and Des. Young. Gifted. Black. He stayed. She left.Years later, Des and Dre come crashing back into each other's lives, carrying new secrets and old scars. With the clock counting down until Des has to leave again, memories of their past collide with their present and they're forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason.Benedict Lombe's play Shifters is a fierce, funny and beautifully intoxicating celebration of the enduring power of memory and first love. It was performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Artistic Director Lynette Linton, before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End. It went on to win Best Production (Play) at the 2025 Black British Theatre Awards, and was staged in an Off-Broadway production in 2026.

In 1969 Loren McIntyre, a National Geographic photographer, found himself lost among the people of the remote Javari Valley in Brazil. It was an encounter that was to change his life, bringing the limits of human consciousness into startling focus.  Inspired by the book Amazon Beaming by Petru Popescu, The Encounter traces McIntyre’s journey into the depths of the Amazon rainforest, incorporating innovative technology into a solo performance to build a shifting world of sound. The Encounter opened at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2015 performed by Simon McBurney, and received its London premiere at the Barbican in February 2016 before embarking on a world tour.

'A part we have played is like a person we once met, grew to know, became intimately enmeshed with and finally moved away from. Some of these characters remain friends, others are like ex–lovers with whom we no longer have anything in common. All of them bring something out in us that will never go back in the box.'In a varied and distinguished career, Harriet Walter has played almost all of Shakespeare's heroines, notably Ophelia, Helena, Portia, Viola, Imogen, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice and Cleopatra, mostly for the Royal Shakespeare Company. But where, she asks, does an actress go after playing Cleopatra's magnificent death? Why didn't Shakespeare write more – and more powerful – roles for mature women?For Walter, the solution was to ignore the dictates of centuries of tradition, and to begin playing the mature male characters. Her Brutus in an all–female Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse was widely acclaimed, and was soon followed by Henry IV. What, she asks, can an actress bring to these roles – and is there any fundamental difference in the way they must be played?In Brutus and Other Heroines, Walter discusses each of these roles – both male and female – from the inside, explaining the particular choices she made in preparing and performing each character. Her extraordinarily perceptive and intimate accounts illuminate each play as a whole, offering a treasure trove of valuable insights for theatregoers, scholars and anyone interested in how the plays work on stage. Aspiring actors, too, will discover the many possibilities open to them in playing these magnificent roles.The book is an exploration of the Shakespearean canon through the eyes of a self-identified 'feminist actor' – but, above all, a remarkable account of an acting career unconstrained by tradition or expectations. It concludes with an affectionate rebuke to her beloved Will: 'I cannot imagine a world without you. I just wish you had put more women at the centre of your world/stage… I would love you to come back and do some rewrites.''A glorious reminder that genuine diversity on stage offers astonishing creative benefits… Harriet Walter is mesmerising in one play after another, bringing her classical training to bear as a conflicted Brutus, then a Henry IV who wears his crown heavily, and finally a Prospero who knows that the steel bars of prison are resistant to all magic… this is genuinely art to enchant' The Guardian on the Donmar Warehouse's Shakespeare Trilogy

Harriet Walter's wonderfully practical - and personal - introduction to acting.'Acting is what I do with who I am', writes Harriet Walter. And in this book she takes us step by step through the processes involved in performance. Each step of the way is illuminated with brilliantly precise examples from her own career.So we are introduced to the Workshop, the Rehearsal, and the Roots and Pathways into a role. Then follows the main meat of the book: six Keys to the Development and Exploration of character. The closing section deals with Performance on stage and screen. Every insight, every suggestion is firmly rooted in the author's own experience.Harriet Walter's book is full of unparalleled insights into the everyday working life of an actor, and into quite how much hard work is needed before they can convincingly put themselves in other people's shoes.'My advice to a young actor: read this book' Richard Eyre

'I spend the night in an officer’s barracks, where no woman has ever set foot.' In the darkest recesses of Ukraine, a war is raging.A journalist takes a research trip to the front line. Teenage girls wait for soldiers on benches. A medic mourns her lover killed in action.Natal'ya Vorozhbit's play Bad Roads is a heartbreaking, powerful and bitterly comic account of what it is to be a woman in wartime.It was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, in November 2017, in a production directed by Vicky Featherstone. It was developed by the Royal Court International Department, and translated by Sasha Dugdale.Natal’ya Vorozhbit is the leading Ukrainian playwright of her generation and has worked with the Royal Court since 2004. Her work includes The Khomenko Family Chronicles, Maidan Diaries (Royal Court) and The Grain Store (RSC).

‘I know you’re there… Miranda? Miranda!’On a summer’s day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock…In Tom Wright’s chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic novel, five performers struggle to solve the mystery of the missing girls and their teacher. Euphoria and terror reverberate throughout the community, as the potential for history to repeat itself becomes nightmarishly real.This adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock was first co-produced by Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth, and first performed at Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in 2016. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in 2017.

Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica. Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer. Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. Three intimately connected stories, tracing the tangled history of Jamaica and Britain.Andrea Levy's epic novel, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, journeys from Jamaica to Britain in 1948 – the year that HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.Small Island was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2019, in an acclaimed production directed by Rufus Norris. This revised edition of the play was published alongside the revival of the production in 2022.

She's more than just a wicked old witch. Baba Yaga is a legend, usually known as that elderly woman who lives alone in the woods and grinds the bones of the wicked. But what if she was actually a sexy, smart, modern woman operating off of morally ambiguous motives?A detective finds himself in a small, isolated town asking what the disappearance of a young heir to a yoghurt empire has to do with some random lore about an old witch? Matched by an apprehensive local sheriff, a university professor with a taste for younger men, and a whole cast of curious characters, the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga twists into a new labyrinth of secret lives, ancient magic, and multiple suspects.This genre-bending comedic fairy tale meets thrilling whodunit gives voice to an antihero of epic proportions while interrogating how her story has historically been told by men. From now on, you'll remember the name Baba Yaga for the right reasons.Kat Sandler's play Yaga was first performed in Toronto, Canada, in 2019. In 2026, it was adapted as a major television series for Crave, and broadcast on Sky in the UK. It was adapted by Kat Sandler and starred Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo and Hudson Williams.