Drama Classics – serie

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceA masterpiece by one of the greatest writers of the Spanish Golden Age.When the people of the town of Fuente Ovejuna revolt against their tyrannical overlord and murder him, the authorities attempt to find out who is responsible, leading to one of the most memorable acts of resistance in world drama.First published in Madrid in 1619, Lope de Vega's play Fuente Ovejuna is believed to have been written between 1612 and 1614.This edition in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is an English translation by Laurence Boswell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceFrank Wedekind's famously banned German play written in 1891 focuses on a group of classmates and explores adolescent sexuality and the emotional consequences if suppressed.This edition of Spring Awakening in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is an English translation by Julian Forsyth and Margarete Forsyth.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceSet in a country weighed down by political, ideological and spiritual stagnation, Chekhov's compelling early play is rooted in the revolutionary atmosphere of Russia at the turn of the 20th century.Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov was first performed in 1887 at the Korsh Theatre in Moscow.This English version, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine, with notes on Further Reading, a Chronology and a Pronunciation Guide.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceWhen the amorous Sir Harcourt Courtly prepares to wed an heiress several decades his junior, he hasn't reckoned on the superior charms of her cousin, the foxhunting Lady Gay Spanker...Dion Boucicault, the Irish genius of London theatre in the age of Dickens, wrote the brilliantly funny London Assurance in 1841 and thereby created – in Sir Harcourt and Lady Spanker – two of the great comic roles of the English stage.A classic comedy of manners that borrows from Sheridan and anticipates Oscar Wilde, the play is a small comedic masterpiece and is regularly revived.This edition of London Assurance, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Trevor R. Griffiths.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceAn intense and powerful drama, set in a Nottinghamshire mining town.Elizabeth Holroyd is an educated woman with refined sensibilities, struggling to make a good home for her two children in the grime and poverty of a Nottinghamshire mining town.Poverty is not the only problem she faces. Her husband, a miner, is a brutish man, prone to fighting, drinking and spending his evenings in the pub. When Blackmore, a mine electrician, recognises Mrs Holroyd as a kindred spirit, he asks her to leave her husband for him, with the promise of a new life for her and her children in faraway Spain.It's a promise that Mrs Holroyd is almost ready to accept...D.H. Lawrence's second play, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd was written in 1910 but went unpublished until 1914. It was staged for the first time in 1916, by the Players Producing Company at the Little Theatre in Los Angeles, USA. In 1920 it was staged in Britain, in an amateur production at the Garrick Theatre in Altrincham.This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, includes an introduction by Colin Counsell, a glossary of difficult words, a chronology and suggestions for further reading.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceAn idealistic doctor, Stockmann, discovers that the waters from which his native spa town draws its wealth are dangerously contaminated. As the citizens realise the financial implications, Stockmann comes under increasing pressure to keep silent.Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People was published in 1882 and first performed in 1883. This edition of An Enemy of the People in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceA startling domestic thriller from the seventeenth century, one of the first tragedies ever to be written about ordinary people.Thomas Heywood's play A Woman Killed with Kindness strips bare two women's lives, with forensic realism. It was first performed by Worcester's Men in 1603.This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Trevor Griffiths.

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 PriceLuigi Pirandello's 1921 play about the nature of theatre and the problems of theatricality, in which six characters, whose author has abandoned them mid-process, turn up at a rehearsal and demand to be played by the actors present in order to resolve their tragedy and become 'real'.This edition of Six Characters in Search of an Author, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceOne of the best-known eighteenth-century comedies of manners, Sheridan's first play, and still his most popular.Lydia Languish, a young woman from a good family, holds to an impossible romantic ideal of love, and resolves only to marry a pauper. So Jack Absolute pretends to be a poor soldier in order to win her hand. Meanwhile, Jack's father is attempting to procure the match through the proper channel of Lydia's guardian, and Jack becomes a rival to himself, before he is finally challenged to duels by rival suitors in both his identities...Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London, in 1775.This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceGeorge Farquhar's immortal comedy about two young gentlemen with a misguided plan to get enrich themselves at the expense of a series of young heiresses.A pair of London gentlemen, Archer and Aimwell, pose as a Lord and his servant in order to procure one handsome dowry to split between them. While Aimwell, the 'lord', works on the affections of Lady Bountiful's daughter Dorinda, his 'servant' Archer makes his bid for her son's wife.George Farquhar's play The Beaux Stratagem was first produced at the Theatre Royal, London, in 1707.This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Simon Trussler.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceAeschylus' great trilogy of Greek tragedies about the end of the curse on the House of Atreus, The Oresteia comprises Agamemnon, Choephori (Libation-Bearers) and Eumenides (The Furies).A fourth play, Proteus, originally formed part of a tetralogy, but has not survived.The trilogy was first performed at the Dionysia festival in Athens in 458 BC, where it won first prize.This English version of The Oresteia, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price A classic satire of provincial bureaucracy, which only saw the stage after the personal intervention of Tsar Nicholas I.A small, corrupt Russian town receives a letter informing them of the imminent visit of a government inspector travelling incognito. When a passing civil servant is mistaken for the inspector, panic soon sets in.This English version of Nikolai Gogol's play The Government Inspector, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceOne of the most performed and influential plays in German theatre, Georg Büchner's Woyzeck is a modern classic that remains frighteningly relevant today.Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial German town, is bullied by his superiors and starved by the regiment's doctor in the name of scientific experiment. His only pleasures in life are his lover Marie and their innocent young son. But when Woyzeck learns that Marie has been unfaithful with the regiment's handsome Drum Major, he murders his lover in a fit of rage and hopelessness. Based on a real-life murder trial that took place in Germany in the 1820s, Woyzeck was written in 1837 but not staged until 1913.This English translation by Gregory Motton is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series. The edition includes an introduction by Kenneth McLeish, a chronology and suggestions for further reading.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceA masterpiece of the Spanish Golden Age.It is foretold that Prince Sigismund will become a tyrant. Alarmed, his father, the king, imprisons him. When he is released for a day as an experiment he proves the omens only too right, and, as a result, is incarcerated once more. Sigismund persuades himself that all that has passed is a dream and emerges to rule wisely and justly.Pedro Calderon's play Life is a Dream was first published in 1635. This English translation by John Clifford was first performed at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in 1998. It is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMiddleton and Rowley's masterpiece, a tale of murder, lust, seduction and blackmail in the seventeenth century.Alsemero has fallen in love with the beautiful Beatrice after a chance meeting in a church – but Beatrice has already been promised to another man. Unable to marry the man she loves, she employs the hated De Flores, her father's servant, to murder the man her father bids her marry. As payment, De Flores demands Beatrice. And then things get worse...Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's play The Changeling was mostly likely first performed in 1622.This edition of the play in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Trevor Griffiths.Set Text >> The Changeling is a set text for AQA Drama and Theatre Studies A/AS Level, AQA English Literature A/AS Level, OCR English Literature A/AS Level and WJEC English Literature A/AS Level.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceBen Jonson's comedy, one of the finest of the Jacobean era.Volpone is a Venetian aristocrat, a loveable rogue who enjoys the cunning pursuit of wealth more than money itself. Pretending to be mortally ill, he watches as his greedy neighbours swarm around him with expensive gifts in the hope of inheriting his fortune.Volpone was premiered by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1606.This edition of Volpone, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited by R.B.Parker, and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceChristopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta is a drama of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set on the island of Malta and taking place against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean.The payments made by Malta to the Turks have fallen in arrears, and the Governor decrees that the entire sum should be paid by the Jews, or they will be forced to accept Christianity. When Barabas objects to this, his goods are seized and his house converted into a nunnery. Barabas embarks on an elaborate plan of revenge, but events do not go entirely his way...This edition of The Jew of Malta, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Peter J. Smith.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceBored with her sheltered existence, Miss Julie attempts to seduce the footman, but gets far more than she bargained for...August Strindberg's classic naturalistic play Miss Julie was written in 1888, and first performed at Strindberg's experimental theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1889, despite being banned by the censor.This English version, translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish, is published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series. The volume also includes Strindberg's Preface.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceJ.M. Synge's extraordinary play about a young man on the run, and his unexpected elevation to folk hero.A stranger, Christy Mahon, arrives in a village bar in County Mayo in the West of Ireland, claiming to have killed his father. The locals are impressed – some can even directly relate to the deed – and Christy is lauded as a folk hero. He can't believe his luck, and confidently pursues the affections of the barmaid Pegeen, until the arrival of his not-so-dead father takes the winds out of Christy's sails...The Playboy of the Western World was first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in January 1907, causing riots across the city.This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is introduced by Margaret Llewllyn Jones.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceChekhov's masterpiece of provincial claustrophobia, translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.Living in a provincial army barrack town, Olga, Masha and Irina are finding life dull and long for the vitality of Moscow. Meanwhile their brother's wife begins to take over their house and their lives.Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters was first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre.This translation by Stephen Mulrine, published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, was first staged by Bristol Old Vic and Out of Joint on tour in 1995.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceFace, Subtle and Dol Common are three rogues intent on conning the gullible out of their money. Setting up a quack-doctor's practice in Lovewit's house they promise miraculous services that cost their customers dear. Everything goes swimmingly, until Lovewit returns and the three turn against each other.Ben Jonson's classic comedy The Alchemist was first performed by the King's Men in 1610.This edition of the play in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited by Simon Trussler, with an introduction by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PricePug, a junior demon, persuades his master Satan to let him spend a day in London. Taking over the body of a recently hanged thief, Pug becomes servant to a squire from Norfolk, Fitzdottrel, who doesn't believe that Pug is a devil but is happy that he asks no wages.Ben Jonson's comedy The Devil is an Ass was first performed by the King's Men in 1616.This edition of The Devil is an Ass in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited by Peter Happé, and introduced by Simon Trussler.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe annual fair for St Bartholomew's Day is a bawdy celebration peopled by tricksters, thieves, prostitutes, pedlars and entertainers. Also drawn to the festivities are a group of ordinary citizens who find their respectable lives turned upside down, and their intolerant attitudes challenged by what they experience.Ben Jonson's Jacobean comedy was first performed at the Hope Playhouse in London in 1614.This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe women of Greece go on a sex strike to force their husbands to end the Peloponnesian Wars.This edition of Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is translated by Patric Dickinson, and edited and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe classic story of the learned Doctor Faustus who sells his soul to the devil.This edition of Christopher Marlowe's play contains two self-contained versions, known as the A-text and the B-text, allowing readers to compare the available versions, and performers to choose the version that suits them best.It also contains a full introduction, notes on further reading, a chronology and a glossary of difficult words.Edited by D. Bevington & E. Rasmussen, and introduced by Simon Trussler.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceA classic Restoration-era comedy about the sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, as they go about their task of recruiting soldiers in the town of Shrewsbury.George Farquhar's play The Recruiting Officer was first staged at Drury Lane in 1706. It was an immediate hit and went on to become one of the most frequently performed plays of the 18th century.This edition in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Simon Trussler.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe Italian Court is riddled with corruption in this classic Jacobean tragedy.The Duke Brascino is openly seducing a married woman, Vittoria, while plotting the murder of his own wife. Vittoria's brother Flamineo, a cold-blooded murderer, tries to exploit his position as Brascino's servant and pander. Finally Brascino's enemies, outraged by his perversions, seek a vicious revenge.John Webster's play The White Devil was first performed at the Red Bull Theatre, London, by Queen Anne's Men in 1612.This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited by J.R. Brown, with an introduction from Simon Trussler.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceMolière's comedy about the notorious womaniser, in a fresh and performable translation by Kenneth McLeish.Set in Sicily, Moliere's play retells the famous myth of Don Juan, the womaniser with no morals and a scorn for religion. It charts his relationship with his servant Sganarelle, his romantic philandering, his false conversion and his ultimate punishment.Don Juan was first performed in 1665 in the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris, with Molière playing the role of Sganarelle.This version in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is translated and introduced by Kenneth McLeish.