NHB Collected Works – serie

Since her play Steel opened in her native Sheffield in 2018, Chris Bush has rapidly become one of the UK's most successful and widely staged playwrights, with her plays on stage at the National Theatre, in the West End, and across Europe. Celebrated for her spirited dissections of power, female agency and northern identity, her work is infused with wit, empathy, and a powerful sense of place and belonging.Included here are five of her plays, all first performed between 2018 and 2021, together with a revealing introduction in which she reflects on the tumultuous period from which they emerged.Steel (Sheffield Theatres, 2018) is a political epic constructed from minimal resources, a two-hander spanning three decades of women in politics. 'Sharp, witty and uncannily topical' The StageFaustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong, 2020) is a radical reimagining of the classic tale, asking what women must sacrifice to achieve greatness. 'Original, ambitious and fantastically revisionist' GuardianNine Lessons and Carols (Almeida Theatre, 2020) is a play, with songs by Maimuna Memon, about connection and isolation, forged during the Covid pandemic, exploring what we hold on to in troubled times. 'A reminder of the power of theatre and our need for it' TelegraphHungry (Paines Plough, 2021) is a pithy two-hander about food, love, class and grief in a world where there's little left to savour. 'Reconfirms Chris Bush as one of our greatest, most relevant contemporary playwrights' Broadway WorldNot the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin, 2021) is a daringly theatrical investigation of the climate crisis through the perspectives of class, patriarchy and colonialism. 'Staggering… Bush's remarkable text melds a ruthless structural concept with exquisite lyricism' Guardian'One of our most prolific and arresting writers' Evening Standard'A writer of great wit and empathy' The Times

The first eight astonishing plays by Enda Walsh, 'one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre' (Guardian).Bursting onto the theatre scene in 1996 with Disco Pigs, Enda Walsh has delivered a sustained fusillade of strikingly original plays ever since. This volume, with a Foreword by the author, contains:The Ginger Ale Boy (1995), Walsh's very first, previously unpublished play, a Cork cabaret about a ventriloquist who loses control.Disco Pigs (1996), his breakthrough play, winner of the 1997 George Devine and Stewart Parker Awards, a play that 'does for Irish kids what Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting did for young Scots' (Daily Telegraph).Misterman (1999, revised in 2012), in which we meet Thomas Magill on his obsessive mission to bring God to the townsfolk of Inishfree. bedbound (2000), his Fringe First Award-winning play, in which a father and daughter are trapped in their own compulsive and claustrophobic story.The Small Things (2005), a 'harrowingly precise and poetic' (Guardian) exploration of language and our need for words to survive.Chatroom (2005), a chilling tale of teenage manipulation that was written for the National Theatre's 2005 Connections season.Also included are two previously unpublished short plays, How These Desperate Men Talk (2004) and Lynndie's Gotta Gun (2005), written during Walsh's time working with European theatremakers.

This volume of Conor McPherson's collected plays, covering a decade of writing, celebrates a fascination with the uncanny which has led him to be described as 'quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation' (New York Times).In Shining City, a man seeks help from a counsellor, claiming to have seen the ghost of his dead wife. The play, premiered at the Royal Court, London, is 'up there with The Weir, moving, compassionate, ingenious and absolutely gripping' (Daily Telegraph).The Seafarer, premiered at the National Theatre before going on to become a Tony Award-winning Broadway hit, tells the story of an extended Christmas Eve card game, but one played for the highest stakes possible. 'McPherson proves yet again he is both a born yarn-spinner and an acute analyst of the melancholy Irish manhood' (Guardian)Set in 'the big house' in 1820s rural Ireland, The Veil is McPherson's first period play. Seventeen-year-old Hannah is to be married off in order to settle the debts of the crumbling estate. But when Reverend Berkeley arrives, determined to orchestrate a séance, chaos is unleased. 'A cracking fireside tale of haunting and decay' (The Times)The Birds, hauntingly adapted from the short story by Daphne du Maurier, is 'deliciously chilling, claustrophobic, questioning, frightening; and with a twist' (Irish Independent). It is published here for the first time, as is The Dance of Death, a new version of Strindberg's classic, which premiered at the Trafalgar Studios in London. 'A spectacularly bleak yet curiously bracing drama that often makes you laugh out loud' (Daily Telegraph).Completing the volume is a Foreword by the author.

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

When her first play, Eight, transferred from student theatre in Edinburgh to the West End and then New York, Ella Hickson was still in her early twenties. She has since built on that promise with a series of engaged and engaging dramas that pit romanticism and optimism against the realities of life as a young person in Britain.Eight (Edinburgh Fringe, 2008), that astonishing first success, is included here: a state-of-the-nation group portrait in monologues, ‘an interactive Talking Heads for 21st-century teens and twentysomethings’ (Independent).Also included is Hot Mess (Edinburgh Fringe, 2010), a dark and lyrical tale about twins born with just a single heart between them, and Precious Little Talent (Edinburgh Fringe, 2009; West End, 2011), about two young adults graduating into a world that’s sold them down the river.In Boys (HighTide Festival, Nuffield Theatre Southampton and Soho Theatre, 2012), the Class of 2011 faces a tricky transition to adulthood in a play that ‘powerfully captures the mood of a generation’ (Independent).The volume also contains an introduction by the author and two short plays: the previously unpublished PMQ, part of the Coalition season at Theatre503, London, in 2010; and Gift, first seen as part of Headlong’s immersive theatre production Decade in 2011.‘On the cusp of greatness’ 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.

A collection of shorter plays from stage and television by one of the UK's foremost political playwrights.Included are:Blood Sports, five hilarious sketches on sporting subjectsBall Boys, an unlikely match between Marx and tennisBaby Love, a powerful and moving account of a baby-snatcherThe National Theatre, 'Three Sisters' in a strip clubThe Midas Connection, an ironic look at gold dealingEspecially suitable for performances by groups with limited time and/or resources, all the pieces engage – however wryly – with important issues. The whole collection sheds fascinating new light on Edgar the dramatist.