NHB Collected Works – serie

Five ambitious and exciting plays by the multi-award-winning playwright, hailed as ‘one of the prime movers in a new golden generation of British playwrights’ (Independent), and introduced by the author.Earthquakes in London (National Theatre & Headlong, 2010) is an epic drama about climate change, population explosion, social breakdown and worldwide paranoia, travelling from 1968 to 2525 and back again. ‘The theatrical equivalent of a thrilling roller-coaster ride’ (Daily Telegraph)Love, Love, Love (Paines Plough & Drum Theatre Plymouth, UK tour, 2010; Royal Court & Paines Plough, 2012) examines the baby boomer generation, from coming-of-age in the 1960s to retirement-age more than forty years later, in a play that ‘does the clash of generational world views with a devastating precision’ (Guardian).The Enemy is a short play in which a journalist seizes an opportunity to interview the man who shot Osama bin Laden. It was staged by Headlong as part of Decade (St Katherine’s Dock, London, 2011), exploring 9/11 and its legacy.13 (National Theatre, 2011) is a panoramic drama in which a young man returns to London, a city riven by social protest and upheaval, with a radical vision for the future. Premiered on the National’s largest stage, it confirmed Bartlett’s ability to tackle epic themes with supreme assurance: ‘His ambition is distinctive and immense’ (Evening Standard).Medea (Headlong, UK tour, 2012) is a startlingly modern version of Euripides’ tragedy, exploring a woman’s private fury at her husband’s infidelity, while imprisoned in her marital home. ‘A savage play for today, superbly well done’ (Mail on Sunday)

After the breakout success of his early work for stage and screen, Jack Thorne turned for inspiration to his own family for a series of plays about hope, idealism and domestic politics. The work in this collection – five full-length plays and two shorts – showcases his extraordinary ability to combine electrifying dialogue with heartfelt warmth, candour and humour.Hope (Royal Court Theatre, 2014) is a funny and scathing fable about the leaders of a local council faced with savage funding cuts. 'A surprisingly entertaining state-of-the-nation drama' The StageThe Solid Life of Sugar Water (Graeae/Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2015) is an intimate, tender play about loss, hurt and rediscovery. 'Startlingly good... an adult play in the very best sense' The TimesJunkyard (Headlong, 2017) is a joyful celebration of imaginative play, a musical drama about a group of young people tasked with building a playground out of junk. 'Genuinely funny and poignant' WhatsOnStagethe end of history... (Royal Court, 2019) is a moving and sophisticated portrait of the impact of political idealism on a family. 'Clever and highly intriguing' IndependentAlso included are Burying Your Brother in the Pavement, written for the National Theatre Connections Festival in 2008, which tackles complex themes of grief, violence and sexuality with fierce compassion and wild imagination; and two short plays: Whiff Whaff and Boo.'I think these plays are about love, about heroes, about trying to understand how to be heroic, about trying to understand how to lead a good life' Jack Thorne, from his Introduction'Jack Thorne is Britain's hottest playwright and screenwriter' The Times'Jack Thorne never ceases to stimulate and entertain' Evening Standard'Thorne is a writer of immense emotional intelligence and his dialogue regularly devastates' The Stage

Four full-length plays and two previously unpublished shorts from the multi-award-winning author of Jerusalem.Jez Butterworth burst onto the theatre scene aged twenty-five with Mojo, 'one of the most dazzling Royal Court main stage debuts in years' (Time Out). This first volume of his Collected Plays contains that play plus the three that followed, as well as two short one-person pieces published here for the first time – everything in fact that precedes Jerusalem, 'unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century' (Guardian).Plays One includes:Mojo, staged in 1995 but set in the Soho clubland of 1958, 'superbly captures the atmosphere of the infant British rock and roll scene where seedy low-lifers hustle for the big time' (Daily Telegraph). It is 'Beckett on speed' (Observer) by a 'dramatist of obvious talent and terrific promise' (The Times).The Night Heron (2002) is set in the Cambridgeshire Fens amongst assorted oddballs, birdwatchers and the local constabulary. 'It's funny, it's sad, it's haunting and it also strangely beautiful. Above all, it is quite unlike anything you've ever seen before' (Daily Telegraph).In The Winterling (2006) a gangland fugitive is visited by two associates from the city who have other things on their mind than a jolly reunion. 'The dialogue is testosterone taut, a sense of menace invades every conversation... and as tales of torture and treachery unfold, the black comedy never misses' (Time Out).Leavings (previously unpublished), a short monologue about an old man whose dog has gone missing.The housing estate in Parlour Song (2008) is 'a place of illicit desire and painful memories, of bad dreams and mysterious disappearances... a play that combines the comic, the erotic and the downright disconcerting with superb panache' (Daily Telegraph).The Naked Eye (previously unpublished), a short monologue about a family preparing to watch Halley's Comet as it passes through the night sky.Introducing the plays is an interview with Jez Butterworth specially conducted for this volume.

This collection of plays written and introduced by actor-turned-writer Ayub Khan Din charts the development of a writer able to turn the tumultuous experience of life in modern Britain into satisfying, humane and often richly comic drama.Whether drawing on his own childhood, growing up in an Anglo-Pakistani family in Salford, or on E.R. Braithwaite's account of racial tensions in the East End in To Sir, With Love, he depicts the struggles of individuals to come to terms with their conflicting cultural legacies – and he does so with unerring warmth and compassion.East is East (1996) is an irresistible comedy set in multiracial Salford in 1970, where the Khan children are buffeted this way and that by their Pakistani father’s insistence on tradition, their English mother’s laissez-faire and their own wish to be citizens of the modern world. The film adaptation that followed, with a screenplay by the author, became one of the most successful British films ever made. The version included here is the revised text first performed at the Trafalgar Studios in 2014.The short, elegiac play, Notes on Falling Leaves (2004), is an emotionally tender depiction of a young man as he loses his mother to dementia, 'overwhelming in its emotional impact' (Telegraph).In All the Way Home (2011), a quarrelsome group of siblings gathers at the family home under the shadow of impending loss. Amidst the cut and thrust of spiky Salford banter, long-harboured resentments rise to the surface and family bonds unravel and unwind.To Sir, With Love (2013), based on E.R. Braithwaite's autobiographical novel, is the uplifting story of a talented, idealistic young teacher discovering the reality of life as a black man in Britain after the Second World War as he struggles to find a way to connect with his students at a tough but progressive East End school.

Since her debut in 2008, Lucy Kirkwood has firmly established herself as a leading playwright of her generation, the writer of a series of savagely funny, highly intelligent and beautifully observed plays that tackle the pressing issues of our times.This collection, with an introduction by the author, brings together five of her plays, starting with the wild and riotously funny farce, Tinderbox (Bush Theatre, 2008), a disturbing vision of a dystopian future where England is dissolving into the sea, realised with 'off-kilter imaginative flair' (The Times).Written for Clean Break theatre company, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Arcola Theatre, 2009; winner of the John Whiting Award) is a devastating report from the hidden world of Eastern European women trafficked to London to work in the sex industry.The previously unpublished small hours (Hampstead Theatre, 2011), a collaboration with Ed Hime, directed by Katie Mitchell, is an intimate dissection of the claustrophobic world of a new mother struggling to cope on her own.The sharply satirical NSFW (Royal Court, 2012) is a 'richly absorbing and inventive' (Telegraph) look at power games, privacy and gender politics in the media.The volume concludes with Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and West End, 2013), a gripping and provocative examination of the shifting balance of power between East and West. Winner of multiple awards, including the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chimerica is 'gloriously rich and mind-expanding' (Guardian), and a 'tremendously bold piece of writing' (Evening Standard).'Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation' Independent

Very few playwrights can be identified from a single line of dialogue – debbie tucker green is one of them. This collection of her first six plays, together with a short introduction by the author, shows a dramatic artist in full control of her craft.born bad (Hampstead Theatre, 2003; winner of the Olivier Award for Best Newcomer) dives headlong into the heart of a conflicted family, unleashing wit, ferocity and verbal dexterity on the way. 'One of the most assured and extraordinary new voices we’ve heard in a long while. Electrifying' Independent on Sundaydirty butterfly (Soho Theatre, 2003) is a mesmerising study of voyeurism, power and guilt. 'There is a sly, controlled power in this writing… And now I cannot get it out of my head' Guardiangenerations (National Theatre Platform performance, 2005; Young Vic, 2007) follows three generations of a Black South African family comparing cooking skills – but food isn’t the only topic and the family numbers are declining. 'Devastating… will last you a lifetime' Guardianstoning mary (Royal Court Theatre, 2005) confronts the reality of global conflicts, transposing them to the West. 'The words fly around the theatre piercing the dark like gleaming shards of shrapnel' The Stagetrade (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2005) shines a light on the world of female sex tourism. 'Poetry laced with shards of broken glass' Guardianrandom (Royal Court Theatre, 2008) is set over one day, following one family and the effects of one random act of violence. 'The writing seems to penetrate the very heart of grief' Telegraph'debbie tucker green uses language as deftly as a composer might use notes.' Financial Times

A selection of the best work of Stephen Jeffreys, whose career stretches from an award-winning play at the National Student Drama Festival in 1977 through to an adaptation of The Alchemist for the RSC in 2016.Included here are his first big success, Valued Friends, a comedy of manners about the property market which won both the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards; a riotous farce set in the time of Elizabeth I, The Clink, in which a stand-up comedian becomes involved in the political skulduggery surrounding the ailing queen; an autobiographical drama set in 1966, A Going Concern, about a washed-up family business; and Jeffreys’ smash-hit, The Libertine, a Restoration romp about the licentious Earl of Rochester, much revived and also filmed with Johnny Depp.Rounding off the volume are two previously unpublished plays: Interruptions, inspired by Jeffreys’ interest in the collective aspect of politics and his fascination with the Japanese aesthetic principle of Jo-ha-kyu; and a very likable, short autobiographical monologue, Finsbury Park.Together, all six plays represent the impressively wide range of topics and styles that Jeffreys embraced. Above all, each one of them is intensely and enjoyably theatrical to its very core.‘I had the great pleasure of working with Stephen Jeffreys on his play, The Libertine. Would that all playwrights had his openness, his talent, his hard-headedness, his experience, his enthusiasm, his complexity, and perhaps best of all his talent and interest in eliciting the best in others’ John Malkovich‘Stephen’s plays always bear the kitemark of unique, handcrafted quality’ Ian Rickson

‘Come, you drunken spirits. Come, you battalions. You fields of ghosts who walk these green plains still. Come, you giants!’When Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2009, it served notice of an astonishing development in the career of a writer whose debut, Mojo, had premiered on the same stage nearly fifteen years before.Unearthing the mythic roots of contemporary English life, and featuring Mark Rylance in an indelible central performance as Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, the play transferred to the West End and then to Broadway, before returning to the West End in 2011. 'Storming… restores one's faith in the power of theatre' Independent. 'Unarguably one of the best dramas of the twenty-first century' Guardian.Jerusalem was followed by the bewitching chamber play The River (Royal Court, 2012), a 'magnetically eerie, luminously beautiful psychodrama' Time Out. 'A delicately unfolding puzzle… all of it is wrapped in marvellous language… extraordinary' The Times.This volume concludes with the multi-award-winning The Ferryman (Royal Court and West End, 2017; Broadway, 2018), an excavation of lives shattered by violence, set in a farmhouse in Northern Ireland in 1981. 'A richly absorbing and emotionally abundant play… an instant classic' Independent. 'A magnificent play that uses, brilliantly, the vitality of live theatre to express the deadly legacy of violence' Financial Times.Also included here is the screenplay for the short film The Clear Road Ahead (2011), published here for the first time, and an edited transcript of a conversation between Butterworth and the playwright Simon Stephens.

Described as 'America's greatest living playwright' (Wall Street Journal), Kenneth Lonergan is internationally acclaimed for his trademark humour and his genius for capturing the real heart and soul of human interactions. This volume gathers together three of his landmark plays.This Is Our Youth (1996) is a wildly funny, bittersweet and lacerating look at three days in the lives of three affluent young Manhattanites in the 1980s. Its West End premiere in 2002 was notable for its successive casts of young Hollywood stars, including Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Paquin and Summer Phoenix. 'A rambunctious and witty play… caustic, cruel, compassionate' The New York Times.The Waverly Gallery (1999) is a poignant, generous and frequently hilarious play about a feisty grandmother's last battle against Alzheimer's disease. More than a memory play, it captures the humour and strength of a family in the face of crisis. It was a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and revived on Broadway in 2018 to widespread acclaim. 'Both one of the most beautiful things you'll ever see in a Broadway theatre and one of the most profoundly sad' Chicago Tribune.Lobby Hero (2001) tells the story of a luckless young security guard trying to get his life together after being thrown out of the navy. But working in a lobby proves to be no sanctuary from the world, as he is unwittingly drawn into a murder investigation. The play received its British premiere at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2002, and was also revived on Broadway in 2018. 'Artfully intertwines private and public issues… [Lonergan] has the lightest of touches and writes with deft humour' Guardian.Kenneth Lonergan is an American film director, playwright and screenwriter. He wrote and directed the films You Can Count On Me, Margaret and Manchester by the Sea, for which he won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. This collection, published alongside the UK premiere of Lonergan's The Starry Messenger in 2019, also features an exclusive introduction by the author.'Lonergan's ear for the crosscurrents of love and recrimination, of accusation and confession, is as fine as that of any American dramatist' Washington Post

Ten short plays by Caryl Churchill, written for stage, radio and TV, selected and introduced by the author.This collection of short plays by one of our leading playwrights opens up a little-known aspect of her writing, and demonstrates her remarkable versatility and breadth of concern.Abortive (Radio 3, 1971)The After-Dinner Joke (BBC TV, 1978)The Hospital at the Time of the RevolutionHot Fudge (Royal Court Theatre, 1989)The Judge's Wife (BBC TV, 1972)Lovesick (Radio 3, 1967)Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (Radio 3, 1971)Schreber's Nervous Illness (Radio 3, 1972)SeagullsThree More Sleepless Nights (Soho Poly Theatre, 1980)The volume also includes an introduction by the author.

Spanning almost ten years and embracing a remarkable range of style and subject matter, this third volume of Churchill's Collected Plays, introduced by the author, contains:Icecream - an unsettling look at British attitudes to America, and vice versaMad Forest - Churchill's response to the Romanian RevolutionThe Skriker - a 'spellbinding' piece combining English folk tales with modern urban lifeThyestes - a 'bleakly eloquent new translation of Seneca's Roman tragedy' (Sunday Times).Plus two collaborative pieces combining word and dance:Lives of the Great Poisoners - a libretto to music by Orlando Gough and choreography by Ian SpinkA Mouthful of Birds - written with David LanCaryl Churchill has been hailed as 'a dramatist who must surely be amongst the best half-dozen now writing' The Times

The fourth volume of the collected plays of one of the best playwrights alive.Written over a period of ten years and evincing an extraordinary range of topics and techniques, this fourth volume of Caryl Churchill's collected plays confirms her standing as a playwright who is 'amongst the best half-dozen now writing' (The Times).This volume includes:Hotel (Schauspielhaus, Hannover, 1997), an innovative theatre piece combining music, voices and dance, with a text by Caryl Churchill and music by Orlando Gough.This is a Chair (Royal Court Theatre, 1997), a short play about the surreal nature of modern life.Blue Heart (Out of Joint & Royal Court Theatre, 1997), two linked one-act plays, both startlingly innovative, exploring the underpinnings of family relationships.Far Away (Royal Court, 2000), a brilliantly unsettling play about conflict and its unsettling effect on our lives and humanity.A Number (Royal Court, 2002), a fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture.Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (Royal Court, 2006),examining US foreign policy and international power politics through the lens of an intense personal relationship.A Dream Play (National Theatre, London, 2005), a spare and resonant version of August Strindberg's 1901 masterpiece.

The second collection of plays from the multi-award winning author.Included in this volume is Conor McPherson's The Weir, one of the most successful plays of recent years. In a bar in a remote part of Ireland, the local lads are swapping spooky stories to impress a young woman from Dublin newly moved into the area... 'A spellbinder that transfixes you... No praise in fact is too high' GuardianDublin Carol is set on Christmas Eve, when a Dublin undertaker is visited by his estranged daughter urging him to face up to the past. 'McPherson writes like a dream.... The play works an ingenious spell' Daily MailPort Authority tells of three interwoven lives: a boy leaves home for the first time; a man starts a job for which he is unqualified; a pensioner is sent a mysterious package... 'Overwhelmingly poignant... desolate, searing eloquence' Evening StandardAnd in Come on Over, published here for the first time, a Jesuit priest, sent to investigate a 'miracle' in his home town, re-encounters the woman who loved him thirty years before. 'Piercingly evocative, powerfully exploring the tension between human and divine love' Daily TelegraphThe volume also contains an Afterword by the author.