NEW PLAYS, BOOKS AND MUSICALS
Samuel French Ltd (A Concord Theatricals Company)
T: 020 7054 7285 (Amateur Groups)
T: 020 7054 7285 (Schools and Youth Groups)
T: 020 7054 7289 (Universities and Drama Schools)
W: www.samuelfrench.co.uk | F: samuelfrenchuk | T: @SamuelFrenchLtd
Better Off Dead by Alan Ayckbourn
Full-length Comedy
Larger than life and highly irascible author, Algy Waterbridge is hard at work on his 33rd crime novel featuring blunt Yorkshire cop DCI Tommy Middlebrass. But it’s been a while since Tommy was on the TV, Algy’s wife is getting frighteningly forgetful and his adoring PA sometimes oversteps the mark. With constant interruptions, it’s almost the last straw when old acquaintance Gus Crewe turns up to interview him for the press, with alarming consequences.
But as Algy’s fictional characters take over and real people introduce themselves into the dramatic climax of his novel, the lines become blurred and it might just be that fiction, misunderstandings and mistaken identity are closer to the truth than they seem.
A comedy of confusion about a grumpy old man who might not be so grumpy after all.
A Brief History of Women by Alan Ayckbourn
Full-length Comedy, 3M 3F, 978 0 571 34828 2, £18.99 (Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 6)
Contained in Alan Ayckbourn: Plays 6
A comedy in four parts about an unremarkable man and the remarkable women who loved him, left him, or lost him over sixty years; and of the equally remarkable old manor house that saw and heard it all happen.
A Brief History of Woman charts the life of Anthony Spates: from his first job as an adolescent footman at a country manor house through to his retirement as manager of the hotel the manor house became. Over the course of six decades, the play follows him and the remarkable women he has loved, left and lost over the years.
A Brief History of Woman premiered in September 2017 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.
Consuming Passions by Alan Ayckbourn
Full-length Comedy
Consuming Passions is a thriller in which a woman believes she overhears a murder being planned. But has she really and, if so, can she prevent it?
A Daughter’s a Daughter by Agatha Christie
Full-length Play/Melodrama, 4M 5F, 1930s, PMS0000000209, £14.99 (pre-publication manuscript)
The love between a mother and daughter turns to jealousy and bitterness in this intense and personal drama.
Ann Prentice falls in love with Richard Caulfield and hopes for a new life and happiness. Only her daughter, Sarah, takes an instant jealous dislike to him. Resentment slowly corrodes their relationship as each seeks comfort in the formidable and knowing Dame Laura Whitstable who remarks, “the trouble with sacrifice is that once its made its not over and done with.”
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie by Dan Gillespie Sells, Tom MacRae, Jonathan Butterell
Full-length Musical, 10M 8F, Contemporary, 978 0 573 70689 9, £9.99
This title is not currently available for performance. To be informed as soon as it becomes available in the future, please submit a license application.
Jamie New is sixteen and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation.
Supported by his brilliant, loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies, and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight.
Sixteen: the edge of possibility. Time to make your dreams come true.
Please note: the acting edition currently sold is intended for perusal only and may not be used in performance.
Fabric by Abi Zakarian
Monologue, 1F, Contemporary, 978 0 573 13211 7, £9.99
Leah has lost her friends, family, career, and dignity. Forced to move for a third time following a harrowing court case, she relives painful events in her past as she sorts through all the stuff that has accumulated in her spare room: clothes she doesn’t wear, books she doesn’t read, things she doesn’t need anymore. Leah desperately tries to unpick just where it all went wrong and who or what is really to blame.
Fabric deals with the aftermath of a rape that isn’t believed and confronts the traditional roles still expected of women; questioning how much has changed since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Farinelli and the King by Claire van Kampen
Full-length Drama, 6M 1F, 16th Century / Elizabethan, 978 0 573 70790 2, £10.99
Depressed and plagued by insomnia, King Philippe V of Spain lies awake in his chamber. The queen, desperate to find a cure, hears of Farinelli – a castrato with a voice so divine it has the power to captivate all who hear it. Even Philippe is astonished when Farinelli sings, and he begs him to stay. But will Farinelli, one of the greatest celebrities of his time, choose a life of solitude over fame and fortune in the opera houses of Europe? And will his extraordinary talent prove to be a curse rather than a blessing?
Fiddlers Three by Agatha Christie
Full-length Play, Melodrama, 8M 3F, 1970s, License only
Trying to get their hands on more than a little inheritance, a group of young people hide the body of a dead tycoon. But what starts as a lark quickly becomes all too serious when they discover that the body is in fact a murder victim.
A comedy about business and finance, with a strong undercurrent of criminal activity, the play combines humour, intricate plotting and a confounding murder.
Hangmen by Martin McDonagh
Full-length Play, Melodrama, 12M 2F 2M/F, 1960s, 978 0 571 32887 1, £9.99
In his small pub in Oldham, Harry is something of a local celebrity. But what’s the second-best hangman in England to do on the day they’ve abolished hanging? Amongst the cub reporters and sycophantic pub regulars, dying to hear Harry’s reaction to the news, a peculiar stranger lurks, with a very different motive for his visit.
Don’t worry. I may have my quirks but I’m not an animal. Or am I? One for the courts to discuss.
If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet by Nick Payne
Full Length Drama, 2M 2F, Contemporary, 978 0 571 25597 9, £9.99
Surviving school as a fat kid is tough enough. When your mum’s a teacher, it’s hell. What’s more, Anna’s dad is obsessed with saving the world and her maverick uncle Terry is dossing on the couch. When Anna hits back at the bullies, she suspended from school and stuck at home with hapless Terry trying to save her. But Terry needs saving himself and, as the bond between the two deepens, Anna is swept up in a friendship she can’t live without. If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet by Nick Payne is premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in October 2009.
Once you have applied for your licence, email your licensing representative so that they can send you the most up-to-date version of this script necessary for production. No other version of the script is approved for production.
Incognito by Nick Payne
Full-length Drama, 2M 2F, 1960s, Enquire for details
Four actors play a combined twenty-one characters within Incognito’s three interwoven stories. A pathologist steals the brain of Albert Einstein; a neuropsychologist embarks on her first romance with another woman; a seizure patient forgets everything but how much he loves his girlfriend. Incognito braids these mysterious stories into one breathtaking whole that asks whether memory and identity are nothing but illusions.
The brain builds a narrative to steady us from moment to moment, but it is absolutely an illusion. There is no me, there is no you, and there is certainly no self.
Princeton, New Jersey. 1955. Thomas Stoltz Harvey performs the autopsy on Albert Einstein – and then steals his brain.
Bath, England. 1953. Henry undergoes pioneering brain surgery. The surgery changes Henry’s life, and the history of neuroscience.
London, England. The Present. Martha is a clinical neuropsychologist. When her marriage breaks down she starts to make radically different choices.
Three interwoven stories exploring the nature of identity and how we are defined by what we remember, Incognito is an exhilarating exploration of what it means to be human.
Mikey and Addie by Robert Alan Evans
Short-length Play, 1M 1F, Contemporary, 978 0 573 12015 2, £9.99
He walks about with his head in the stars, believing that his dad is up there somewhere, in space, working for NASA. However, when Addie shatters his dreams she starts to realise that with the truth comes responsibility and that, like it or not, she is going to have to do everything she can to help this boy. Even if it means breaking all the rules she holds dear.
Mystery of Dumsey Meadow by David Perkins, Caroline Dooley
Full-length Musical, 8M 8F 1M/F, 1930s, 978 0 573 11525 7, £9.99
When the pupils of St Winifred’s and St Albert’s arrive for a camping trip at the beautiful Dumsey Meadow, deep in the heart of the English countryside, they find themselves in a spot of bother – there has been a double booking and only one school may camp there.
Whilst trying to decide which of them should stay, they become aware of some mysterious things happening around them: What is the peculiar smell in the air? Why is the Farmer always singing? Why do the cows and sheep appear to be laughing? Why did the Dumsey apple harvest fail for the first time in 300 years? And who is the hooded woman with the horrible cackle? With sleuth-like commitment the children attempt to find answers to these puzzling questions.
Set in the 1930s with a cast of colourful characters, this is a musical play for mystery lovers everywhere with a flexible performing age range of eight to adult.
No Knowing by Alan Ayckbourn
Full-length Comedy, Enquire for details
A supremely funny comedy written in 2016, we see Elspeth and Arthur celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary. We go back to the previous Christmas and wince as their grown-up children reveal murky and (often) hilarious truths about both parents.
One Day When We Were Young by Nick Payne
Full-length Drama, 1M 1F, WWII & 2002, 978 0 571 28395 8, £9.99
I am scared, that once this war is over, and I am sent home, that you won’t be here. That you will have left.
Leonard and Violet, young, restless and in love, spend their first night together knowing it may also be their last. It’s 1942 and, in a hotel room in Bath, they dream of their future while preparing for Leonard’s departure to the war. But the bombs begin to fall and their world will never be the same again. In the year 2002, the couple look back at what might have been.
Examining the impact of the Second World War on two ordinary lives and a love that spans more than sixty years, Nick Payne’s One Day When We Were Young premiered at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield, in October 2011 in a Paines Plough production.
Once you have applied for your licence, email your licensing representative so that they can send you the most up-to-date version of this script necessary for production. No other version of the script is approved for production.
Personal Call by Agatha Christie
Radio Play, Melodrama, 9M 5F, 1950s, Enquire for details
James Brent receives a chilling telephone call seemingly from beyond the grave. His dead wife, Fay, is waiting for him at the very place she met her grisly end. At his new wife’s insistence, they go to meet her as requested and in the process discover a terrifying and disturbing truth.
Part of the live radio triple bill Murder in the Studio which also includes Butter in a Lordly Dish and Yellow Iris.
A Poirot Double Bill by Agatha Christie
A double-bill of short Poirot plays, 7M 2F, 1930s, PMS0000000216, £14.99 (pre-publication manuscript)
In The Wasp’s Nest, Hercule Poirots come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. In Yellow Iris, A distressed phone call from a mystery woman brings Hercule Poirot to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the four-year anniversary of his wife’s sudden death – a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed. Gathered is everyone present on that fateful night and now Poirot must find a killer in the midst, before they strike again.
Rule of Thumb by Agatha Christie
A triple-bill of short contrasting plays, 5M 4F, 1930s, PMS0000000217, £14.99 (pre-publication manuscript)
This triple bill of one-act murder mysteries combines: The Wasp’s Nest which sees Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place; The Rats, a dark and chilling tale in which a pair of adulterous lovers find themselves lured to a flat, trapped like rats and framed for murder; and finally, The Patient, a tense thriller in which a woman has been hospitalised after seemingly falling from her balcony.
The Same Deep Water As Me by Nick Payne
Full-length Drama, 5M 6F, Contemporary, 978 0 571 31100 2, £9.99
Had an accident at work? Tripped on a paving slab? Cut yourself shaving? You could be entitled to compensation. Andrew and Barry at Scorpion Claims, Luton’s finest personal injury lawyers, are the men for you. When Kevin, Andrew’s high school nemesis, appears in his office the opportunity for a quick win arises. But just how fast does a lie have to spin before it gets out of control?
Once you have applied for your licence, email your licensing representative so that they can send you the most up-to-date version of this script necessary for production. No other version of the script is approved for production.
The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
Full-length Play, Melodrama, 10M 4F, 1920s, Enquire for details
The Council Chambers at Chimneys, the Brent family estate, holds a dark and intriguing secret and someone will stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia.
A young drifter finds more than he bargained for when he agrees to deliver a parcel to an English country estate. Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. A sinister plot rife with diamonds, oil conessions, exiled royalty, an elusive master criminal and the combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French Surete.
Starlings by Nick Payne
Full-length Play, 3M 2F, Enquire for details
Melissa wants to get on with her life but never knows when her father is going to turn up next. Over thirty years she struggles to overcome her past while her family, torn apart by alcohol, try to repair the damage. Nick Payne’s new play about history and hope is a poignant, unflinching reflection on the ties that bind us.
Once you have applied for your licence, email your licensing representative so that they can send you the most up-to-date version of this script necessary for production. No other version of the script is approved for production.
The Wasp’s Nest by Agatha Christie
Short-length Play, Melodrama, 3M 1F, 1930s, PMS0000000235, £12.99 (pre-publication manuscript)
This classic Christie short story sees Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place.
Available to buy as an individual title or as part of the collections Rule of Thumb and A Poirot Double Bill.
Nick Hern Books
T: 020 8749 4953
W: www.nickhernbooks.co.uk | E: info@nickhernbooks.co.uk
F: NickHernBooks | T: @NickHernBooks
Box Clever by Monsay Whitney
Full-length play, 1F 1F/M (larger cast possible), Can be simply staged, 978 1 848 42694 8, £9.99 (£7.99 direct from publisher)
Offering a challenging role for a lead female performer, plus a diverse chorus of characters for one multi-roling performer or a larger cast, Box Clever is a moving, truthful and darkly comic play. Marnie is stuck in a women’s refuge, trying to escape toxic relationship patterns, just wanting to do the best for herself and her daughter. But how do you get out of a rut when everyone you know is a liability? ‘A superb piece of writing, bubbling with bitterness yet bursting with heart, simultaneously funny and infuriating’ The Stage
Drawing Crosses on a Dusty Windowpane by Dylan Coburn Gray
Full-length play, 1F, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50212 2, £3.99 – epub (£3.19 direct from publisher)
A play for a solo female performer about losing someone close to you, about the human need to remember and connect. From the Verity Bargate Award-winning playwright Dylan Coburn Gray. ‘Entrancing… sumptuous and sinuous writing’ Irish Times on Citysong
The House Keeper by Morna Regan
Full-length play, 2F 1M, Can be simply staged, 978 1 848 42272 8, £9.99 (£7.99 direct from publisher)
A woman stripped of everything she has ever worked for takes a stand, only to find she has disturbed a hornet’s nest of unimagined proportions. The House Keeper is a darkly humorous psychological thriller exploring the nature of possession, inheritance and corruption for three performers. ‘Potent… Regan’s humour is ink-black and bladed’ Exeunt Magazine
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, adapted by Jessica Swale, music by Joe Stilgoe
Full-length play, 6F 3M, 9+F/M (flexible; smaller/larger cast possible), Can be simply staged, 978 1 848 42925 3, £9.99 (£7.99 direct from publisher)
Rudyard Kipling’s beloved tale of family, belonging and identity has been reimagined in this acclaimed version by Olivier Award-winning playwright Jessica Swale. This musical adaptation with original songs by Joe Stilgoe is packed with memorable characters, catchy tunes and brilliant storytelling, offering rich opportunities for all school, college, youth-theatre and amateur groups looking for a fresh, ambitious and inventive retelling of a much-loved classic. ‘Swale has given us a Jungle Book for the present day, one ready to enchant and educate in equal measure’ WhatsOnStage
Mud by Robert Holman
Full-length play, 1F 4M, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50232 0, £4.99 – epub (£4.00 direct from publisher)
A surreal and touching play for a small cast about a group of lonely people converge on the North Yorkshire moors. George, recently retired and grieving for his wife, has come on holiday to fish. Harold, son of the local squire, has come to shoot. Alan and Pauline have come to escape prying eyes. Hopes, dreams and fears play out in a Beckettian landscape as RAF fighter planes tear across the sky. ‘Holman’s instinct for truth, and an unaffected ability to spot what’s poignant in it, is what one remembers’ The Times
The Natural Cause by Robert Holman
Full-length play, 2F 4-7M plus additional voices, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50231 3, £4.99 – epub (£4.00 direct from publisher)
A dark and disturbing portrait of mental illness, and its effects on a young family. Barry and Mary are expecting a child. Barry is a bus conductor, but he’d like to drive the bus one day instead. His mother keeps telling Mary that Barry’s not right, and that she should leave him. But Mary chooses to stick with Barry, for better or in fact for worse.
Other Worlds by by Robert Holman
Full-length play, 4-5F 5-8M, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50231 3, £4.99 – epub (£4.00 direct from publisher)
A gorilla is taken for a French spy by an Eighteenth Century fishing community on the isolated North Yorkshire coast. Robert Holman’s play explores the suspicions, antipathies and fears of the unknown that divide communities, and the bonds that can transcend those divisions.
The Overgrown Path by Robert Holman
Full-length play, 3F 3M, plus several children, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50235 1, £4.99 – epub (£4.00 direct from publisher)
Nicholas Marks, an aspiring academic from Yorkshire, arrives on the Greek island of Tinos to interview reclusive scientist Daniel Howarth about his work on the atomic bomb. But as he tries to tease apart fact and fantasy, science and mythology, chance and destiny, Nicholas discovers a surprising truth about himself. The Overgrown Path is about history, and the stories we tell each other to make sense of ourselves.
Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Cordelia Lynn
Full-length play, 5F 9M plus extras, Can be simply staged, 978 1 848 42860 7, £9.99 (£7.99 direct from publisher)
A fresh and intelligent adaptation that makes Chekhov’s characters feel like contemporary young women. In a room in a house in a provincial town, three sisters wait for their lives to begin. Olga, the eldest. Masha, the middle child. Irina, the youngest. The clock strikes. A candle is lit. The clock stops. Something catches fire. The clock strikes. They wake up.
Today by Robert Holman
Full-length play, 5-6F 7-9M, Can be simply staged, 978 1 788 50234 4, £4.99 – epub (£4.00 direct from publisher)
From the lawns of King’s College, Cambridge, where two shy young men from opposing backgrounds confront the reality of their attraction to each other, to the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, where courage, idealism and solidarity are tested in the furnace of conflict, Today is a panoramic study of life, desire and the search for a fundamental self in the midst of a shifting, uncertain world. Written for a large ensemble cast.
Music Theatre International (Europe)
T: 020 7580 2827
W: www.mtishows.co.uk | E: shows@mtishows.co.uk
F: mtieurope | T: mtieurope
Shrek – The Musical
Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book & Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Based on the DreamWorks Animation Motion Picture and the book by William Steig.
Available for performances after 1 January 2021. Based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film, Shrek The Musical is a Tony Award-winning fairy tale adventure featuring all-new songs from Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline or Change) and a sidesplitting book by David Lindsay-Abaire. Shrek brings all the beloved characters you know from the film to life on stage, and proves there’s more to the story than meets the ears.
“Once upon a time, there was a little ogre named Shrek…” And thus begins the tale of an unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue. Throw in a short tempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude, and over a dozen other fairy tale misfits, and you’ve got the kind of mess that calls for a real hero. Luckily, there’s one on hand…and his name is Shrek.
Shrek presents a treasure trove of creative opportunities including costumes, sets, puppets (there is a fire-breathing dragon after all), and more! Irreverently fun for the whole family, Shrek proves that beauty is truly in the eye of the ogre.
Josef Weinberger Ltd
T: 020 7927 7322
E: shows@jwmail.co.uk | W: www.josef-weinberger.com
The Guardsman by Ferenc Molnar, in a new adaptation by Bonnie J. Monte, from the unabridged English translation by Gabor Lukin
Full-length Play, 3M 4F, 2 Sets, 978 0 856 76376 2, £9.99 (RRP)
A beautiful actress has married her handsome leading man, and their best friend is a critic. A recipe for marital bliss for denizens of the theatre world – until a dashing guardsman enters the scene and starts sending the actress roses. In this new version of The Guardsman, Molnar’s “romantic comedy” finally receives the treatment it deserves as a “comedy of agony.”
The Guardsman is an anguished farce which inspired the work of Pirandello and Pinter. Even as it poses disturbing questions about identity, voyeurism, reality, perception, the masks we wear, and the pain of love, it elicits gales of laughter.
The Musical Company
T: 020 7240 0880
W: www.themusicalcompany.com | F: themusicalco
E: laura.hall@reallyuseful.com | T: @themusicalco
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Full length musical, Principals: 6M 1F (Narrator); Featured: 11M 1F; Choir (Men/Women); Children’s Chorus (Boys/Girls), “way, way back many centuries ago, not long after the Bible began” in the land of Canaan and Egypt.
Orchestration:
- 10 Piece Novello Version (60 minutes) – 1974
- 10 Piece Version (90 minutes) – 1991
- 15 Piece Version (90 minutes) – 1991
- Backing Track Edition (60 minutes)
For the first time, adult amateur societies are being given the opportunity to apply to perform one of musical theatre’s best-loved and most popular shows of all time. The performing window is throughout 2020 and only applies to productions taking place outside the M25 and in auditoriums with less than 1,000 seats.
To date, Joseph… has only ever been available to schools, colleges and youth groups so we hope The Really Useful Group is preparing to be inundated with requests to perform the show which played to sell-out audiences at The London Palladium last summer.
First performed as a 15-minute school pop-opera in 1968, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is based on the story of Joseph from the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Today, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sung-through musical has been on a virtual non-stop tour for years, which is one of the reasons why it has never been available to amateur companies.
Featuring songs from just about every musical genre, there can’t be many people who don’t recognise the show’s numbers, which include: Any Dream Will Do; Joseph’s Coat; One More Angel in Heaven; Close Every Door; Go, Go, Go Joseph; Song of the King; Those Canaan Days and Benjamin Calypso.
Arts On the Move
T: 0161 881 0868
W: www.artsonthemove.co.uk | F: artsonthemove.co.uk
E: info@artsonthemove.co.uk | T: @artsonthemoveco
Nickolai of the North by Lucy Daniel Raby. Music by Geoff Tinniswood
Full-length Christmas Play with Music, 24. KS2 KS3, 120 minutes, £60.00 (download) £20 (license, up to 5 performances)
Have you ever wondered who filled Santa’s stocking when he was a boy? Or why he carries out his Christmas mission every year? All is revealed in this two-act Christmas play with music.
A refreshing alternative to panto, it tells the magical story of Santa’s childhood. When villainess Magda destroys his home at the North Pole, young elf Nickolai is rescued by a flying reindeer. We follow his adventures as he grows up amongst humans, realises he is different and returns to the North Pole to seek his destiny and ultimately save the world’s children from Magda’s evil.
With fourteen sensational songs from established composer Geoff Tinniswood, including backing tracks and vocals and containing traditional seasonal ingredients such as heroes, villains, witches, fairies, reindeer, wolves and goblins, ‘Nickolai’ is a sparkling family show that provides a fabulous opportunity for ensemble work.
The package includes mp3 music files of backing tracks, vocals and incidental music for performance and practice; lyrics; vocal music score (vocal line only) and the playscript with production notes and lyrics.
Brown, Son and Ferguson Ltd
T: 0141 883 0141
W: www.scottishplays.co.uk | E: info@skipper.co.uk
F: Brown-Son-Ferguson-Ltd-1684294391792165 | T: @skipper_uk
A Bit of Land by Agnes Adam
Short-length Comedy, 4M 2F, 978 0 851 74837 5, £1.00
Tommy Boyle, thinking his father has died, persuades Dan Murphy to impersonate the dead man for the purpose of making a will. After a hurried make-up, Dan jumps into bed and poses as the dying man. The schoolmaster arrives to make the will. Finally, he starts to make a new will, but old Andy, the supposed dead man, appears on the scene.
This is rollicking comedy in Ulster dialect at its raciest, but is playable in any dialect.
Building Bridges by Marie Dunlop
Full-length Play, 2M 2F, 978 1 849 27085 4, £5.00
Building Bridges is set in 1965 in Anderston, Glasgow and examines the reaction of deserted husband, Billy Speirs and his family to the return of his estranged wife, Bernie, whose mother has been taken seriously ill.
It is a tale of bitterness and betrayal but also of the absolute enduring strength of love at a time when a community was being sliced up to make way for a stretch of inner city motorway and the Glasgow Kingston Bridge. Just as the earmarking of Anderston as a Glasgow Comprehensive Development Area faced mixed reactions, the couple’s tentative and nervous steps back to one another face opposition and difficulty and like the opinion of much of the community at that time, it was clear that things were never going to be the same again.
The heart was getting ripped out of the place, just as it had been ripped out of Billy. Decisions have to be made, loyalties examined and painful truths faced. Better days were coming, however, in the promise of new corporation housing and it is against this backdrop of demolition and renewal that Building Bridges opens.
False Widows by Rebecca Bond
Two-act Play, 2M 5F, 978 1 849 27069 4, £5.00
It’s 1955 and Roland Ayre, the Earl of Dunshire has passed away; but at his funeral his family find out he was not the man they thought. In the forty-eight Hours that follow Heathersett House is turned into a battle ground as his families go head to over the inheritance – and things take a very strange turn.
Redemption in Salamanca by Rebecca McCallum
Three-act Play, 6M 1F, 978 1 849 27086 1, £5.00
The soul of Don Félix de Montemar, a young Spanish aristocrat, is on the brink of damnation as he makes his way through the night streets of Salamanca in the direction of the Carnaval. On his travels, he encounters a duel, a gambling den, a lost lover and the wraiths and priests who will fight over his soul.
Adapted for the stage from the Romantic poem by José de Espronceda, which is a variation of the Don Juan legend, the play brings to the fore the question of mortality, faith, eternal law and redemption.
Scobie Raeburn had a Ten Pound Note by Alistair Ferguson
Six-act Play, 5M 8F, 978 1 849 27082 3, £5.00
Scobie’s rent is due. While paying he produces a £10 note from his sock, but changes his mind and decides to hold on to that one – it’s his lucky one and has some kind of sentimental value. During passionate negotiations with his landlady the note is torn, making it quite identifiable. Scobie manages to retain the £10 note, which he then decides to spend at the shops instead.
The note then goes on an adventure, seeing a few snapshots into people’s lives, before ultimately finding its way back to Scobie, who ends the play quite philosophically.
Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie. Stage Version by James Scotland
Full-length Play, 16M 8F, 978 1 849 27086 1, £4.00
October, 1941. The Hebridean islands of Great Todday and Little Todday are sunk deep in the doldrums of a spiritless wartime existence, till the S.S. Cabinet Minister runs aground nearby, and by a miracle there is uisghe beatha gu leoir.
Various young couples find the path of true love smoothed and the village schoolmaster slays his personal dragon, but the commander of the local Home Guard finds his duty becoming harder every day. Compton Mackenzie’s immortal tale is world-famous. He expressed his warm approval of this stage version, which was first performed at the 1966 Edinburgh Festival by the Edinburgh People’s Theatre.
Smith Scripts
T: 0844 997 1000
W: www.smithscripts.co.uk | E: info@smithscripts.co.uk
F: smithscripts | T: @smithscripts
A Carol’s Christmas by Keith Badham
Full-length Comedy, 4M 8F, Contemporary, £5.00 (download only)
Carol is struggling to organise her Christmas with a dysfunctional family, friends and neighbours. A surprising discovery changes her Christmas and her relationships. Shock announcements, catering issues and the odd game of charades make the perfect Christmas menu. Based very loosely on A Christmas Carol, A Carol’s Christmas is a bittersweet comedy that is perfect for the festive season.
Hollywood The Musical by Shaun Blake
Full-length Jukebox Musical, 8M 13F plus extras – may be performed by 15 M/F with doubling, Contemporary, £5.00 (download only)
Hollywood the Musical is the tale of Bryan and Jennifer who make it into the movie industry in Hollywood for the first time. There they meet several people along the way, some who will help them to success and others who will show them the possibly scandalous side of the industry. A jukebox musical set to many of your favourite film soundtracks.
Ride a White Swan by Tom Kelly
One-act Play, 2M, Contemporary/Simple staging, £3.50 (download only)
Joe returns to the family home, after his divorce and has to share with his younger brother Mark, who has been living alone since the death of their parents. After years of being apart, they have to learn to live together and find that adjustment is difficult.
Mark has a passion for the music of Marc Bolan as a way of coping with a lack of parental love. The brothers bicker, drink and reflect on their lives, family and growing slowly and sometimes painfully closer together.
Six Views by Max Porter
Six Short Plays, Min. 2M 2F. Max. 8M 4F, Contemporary/Simple staging, £5.00 (download only)
Six ten-minute two-handers all set on a bench in a park overlooking a town. May be performed individually or in groups.
Some serious, some serious, but all with a slight twist in the tale, these duologues are suitable for a variety of ages and all in a very easily staged.
Bloomsbury – Methuen Drama
T: 01256 302699
W: www.bloomsbury.com | E: direct@macmillan.co.uk
F: BloomsburyPublishing | T: @bloomsburybooks
Theatre Books
Actors’ and Performers’ Yearbook 2020 – Essential Contacts for Stage, Screen and Radio | Edited by Lloyd Trott
978 1 350 10757 1, £11.89 (Online price, paperback)
This well-established and respected directory supports actors in their training and search for work on stage, screen and radio. It is the only directory to provide detailed information for each listing and specific advice on how to approach companies and individuals, saving hours of further research. From agents and casting directors to producing theatres, showreel companies, photographers and much more, this essential reference book editorially selects only the most relevant and reputable contacts for the actor.
With several new articles including The multi-hyphenate comedy actor-performer-writer; Ignition, inspiration and the imposter; Be prepared for publicity; and Equity pension scheme, Actors’ and Performers’ Yearbook 2020 features aspects of the profession not previously covered, as well as continuing to provide valuable insight into auditions, interviews and securing work alongside a casting calendar and financial issues. This is a valuable professional tool in an industry where contacts and networking are key to career survival.
All listings have been updated alongside fresh advice from industry experts.
“A map, compass, guide-book” Simon Callow. “Use of this book will save you time and money” Samuel West
Plays
Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays: 60th Anniversary Gift Set by Shelagh Delaney, Edward Bond, John McGrath, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Kwame Kwei-Armah, James Graham
978 1 350 13666 3, £56.00 (Online price, hardback)
Published in a limited-edition box set, this special celebratory set includes the following plays:
A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney (1959)
Saved by Edward Bond (1960s)
The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil by John McGrath (1970s)
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill (1980s)
Blasted by Sarah Kane (1990s)
Elmina’s Kitchen by Kwame Kwei-Armah (2000s)
This House by James Graham (2010s)
Methuen Drama’s iconic Modern Plays series began in 1959 with the publication of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey and has grown over six decades to now include more than 1,000 plays by some of the best writers from around the world. This new limited-edition hardback box set of seven plays celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Modern Plays series and features a play from each decade from 1959 to 2019.
Starting with Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, the six other plays were chosen by public vote from a shortlist of plays from each decade. The resulting collection tells a unique story of British theatre from a period of restriction and censorship through to a period of radical retaliation against the status quo and norms of theatrical storytelling. The box set brings together first plays by remarkable women, the first Black British voice in London’s West End, often-revived classics, student favourites and contemporary Olivier Award nominees to offer a diverse picture of British playwriting. Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays series has been at the heart of British theatre for the past 60 years and looks forward to publishing landmark plays of future decades.
Stagescripts Ltd
T: 0345 686 0611
W: shop.stagescripts.com | E: sales@stagescripts.com
F: Stagescripts | T: @stagescripts
A Very Scottish Play by John Waterhouse
Full-length Play, 3M 3F (30s – 50s), Contemporary/Simple staging, £7.95 (printed)
Terry, a highly stressed businessman, decides to go away with his wife for some rest and relaxation on a remote Scottish island. Soon after arriving, he discovers the idyllic looking cottage in the brochure is actually very uncomfortable and has a strange atmosphere. To make matters worse, Sid, the landlord, who is also the local undertaker, describes a host of natural hazards on the island, from sudden fog to quicksand and this is in addition to numerous dangers from local animals and insects.
Terry’s wife, Angela, is determined that they will enjoy their holiday and they venture off to a local pub, only to fall into bogs whilst a mysterious woman in black arrives and just stares at them. Sid believes that they have seen the ghost of the ‘dark lady’ and this is confirmed by Valerie, a curious clairvoyant who checks into the guest house that evening. The ghost is seen pointing at Terry and this is interpreted by Valerie as a warning. Then Gerald a flamboyant American film producer arrives looking for set locations, accompanied by his girlfriend Fenella. The old guesthouse is exactly what he needs for his latest film.
The ghost of the dark lady makes further appearances and Terry believes that his life is in danger. Sid knows of a reclusive medium called Gertie who lives on a remote island, who can exorcise the spirit that is tormenting Terry, for a fee. Gerald is fascinated in the ghostly background to the guesthouse and hopes to film the dark lady’s next appearance.
Valerie emerges as a lady of many talents and Gerald puts her in his film, finding her surprisingly athletic for a clairvoyant and arousing jealousy from Fenella, who is the star of the film.
Will Terry and Angela be freed from the attentions of the ghost? Is Valerie really just a clairvoyant writer? What is Sid really up to? And why is this island the focus of paranormal activity?
Oberon Books
T: 020 7607 3637
W: www.oberonbooks.com | E: permissions@oberonbooks.com
F: OberonBooksLondon | T: @oberonbooks
[BLANK] by Alice Birch
978 1 786 82948 1, £17.99 paperback
She can’t stay awake. She sold drugs. She’s good at interrogations. She drinks in the mornings. She ate a rabbit. She smashed up a shop. She stabbed a man. She used a hammer. She had a baby. She can’t find her mother. She’s covered in blood and doesn’t know why.
Alice Birch’s heartbreaking new play reaches across society to explore the impact of the criminal justice system on women and their families.
Cyrano by Peter Oswald
4 – 13M 3 – 7F, 978 1 786 82945 0, £9.99 paperback
A new version of the classic French romantic comedy from Peter Oswald.
Cursed with the looks of a clown, he weaves his secret longing into love letters of exquisite beauty that he will never dare to send. All he needs is a perfect nose to match his perfect prose. The handsome Christian has also fallen for Roxane – but while he looks like a god, he sounds like a fool. Sacrificing physical love for fantasy, Cyrano hands his words of love to Christian to speak for them both. Will Roxane fall for the ‘perfect’ man? Can Cyrano exist with only half her heart? Is true love more than skin deep?
Dirty Crusty by Clare Barron
1M 2F, 978 1 786 82976 4, £9.99 paperback
“We must be the women of the future standing here in this bathroom because we look like sex and power, we look like sex and power, and you don’t even know it, standing there in that motherfucking pantsuit.”
Jeanine is determined to improve her life. With sex. With dance. With new hobbies, like horticulture. But self-improvement is hard. Reclaiming your dreams is hard. And personal hygiene is really, really hard.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Glyn Maxwell, Robert Louis Stevenson
2M, 2F, 978 1 786 82951 1, £9.99 paperback
A new version, from award-winning poet Glyn Maxwell, of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic masterpiece. A decent man finds himself stalked and confronted by his own evil alter-ego.
Essex Girl by Maria Ferguson
1F, 978 1 786 82987 0, £9.99 paperback
“Essex Girl: a young working-class woman from the Essex area, typically considered as being unintelligent, materialistic, devoid of taste and sexually promiscuous.” Collins English Dictionary.
Kirsty is a sixteen-year-old girl growing up in ’00s Brentwood. She likes WKD, Elton John, Pie & Mash and Charlie Red body spray. She’s on a quest to win Sexy Ricky’s heart and pass her GCSEs. She also has a secret to tell you. One she can’t tell anyone else.
Follow Kirsty’s story through the house parties and Irish pubs of Essex. From West Ham matches to choir practice, pre-drinks to registration, she will tell you what it’s really like to be an Essex Girl.
Feeding the Dragon by Sharon Washington
1F, 978 1 786 82626 8, £9.99 paperback
‘Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a library…’
Deep in the bowels of a New York Public Library lies a dragon: the monstrous coal furnace that Sharon’s father, the live-in custodian, must feed every night.
A moving examination of family secrets, forgiveness, and the power of language, Feeding the Dragon explores Sharon’s life growing up in the library and the fire she never allowed to fade.
Five Guys Chillin’ by Peter Darney
978 1 786 82003 7, £9.99 paperback
A graphic, gripping, funny and frank verbatim drama exposing the chill-out chem-sex scene. “Wanna pair of shorts? Shot of G? Line of Meth?” From surgeons to students, couples to kink; guys that love it and lost guys longing to be loved. An original look into a drug-fuelled, hedonistic, highly secret world of Grindr, and instant gratification.
for all the women who thought they were Mad by Zawe Ashton
978 1 786 82958 0, £9.99 paperback
“they like to see us fall, to slip on branches full of fruit we have not tasted”
Lately, it’s small things. Pop songs. The radio. Every day, anguish becomes madness. Call on your family. Call on the ancestors. Can they guide you home?
for all the women who thought they were Mad is an urgent piece of theatre examining the myriad of forces that collide and conspire against women of colour in Britain today.
Gail Louw: Plays Three by Gail Louw
978 1 786 82959 7, £17.99 paperback
A third collection of plays by South African writer, Gail Louw.
Includes the plays The Ice Cream Boys, Being Brahms, A Life Twice Given, and Killing Faith.
Gods & Kings by Paul Whittaker
1M, 978 1 786 82778 4, £9.99 paperback
At the age of 23, Paul walks into a psychiatrist’s office believing he is either a God, or a King. He leaves with a diagnosis of bi-polar manic depression, and facing a life-changing decision: take the pill and live, or don’t take the pill and die.
Challenging perceptions of what it is to live with mental illness, Gods & Kings is a bracingly honest and darkly funny real-life tale, expressing what it is to live a life ruled by mental illness.
This special edition also contains a range of materials from the National Centre of Mental Health, covering diagnoses and issues raised in the play.
The Ice Cream Boys by Gail Louw
2M 1F, 978 1 786 82940 5, £9.99 paperback
There are some enemies you’d wait a lifetime to see face-to-face. Charismatic, corrupt and dangerous, Jacob Zuma was until recently President of South Africa. But before Zuma came to power, Ronnie Kasrils masterminded the intelligence services. Now at last they’re alone together. When you’ve been betrayed, it’s never too late to settle old scores.
It’s True, It’s True, It’s True by Breach Theatre
4F, 978 1 786 82662 6, £9.99 paperback
Fringe First and Total Theatre Award- winning Breach (Tank, The Beanfield) restage the 1612 trial of Agostino Tassi for the rape of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
Based on surviving court transcripts, this new play dramatises the seven-month trial that gripped Renaissance Rome, and asks how much has changed in the last four centuries. Blending myth, history and contemporary commentary, this is the story of how a woman took revenge through her art to become one of the most successful painters of her generation.
Mephisto (A Rhapsody) by Chris Campbell, Samuel Gallet
3M 5F, 978 1 786 82953 5, £9.99 paperback
In the town of Balbek the far right are about to seize power. At the local theatre, Aymeric dreams of celebrity; Lucas longs for a liberal revolution; Michael is seduced by the extremists. Juliette Demba is in fear for her life.
As this political earthquake ripples through the town, Aymeric must make his choice: resist the forces of hatred or harness them for his own success.
Based on the real life story of Gustaf Gründgens, whose dreams of fame led him to betray everything, and at the peak of his career, perform Faust for Hitler, Mephisto [A Rhapsody] is a searing contemporary response to Klaus Mann’s banned, and fiercely political cult novel. Samuel Gallet’s urgent new play asks: what would you sacrifice to do the right thing?
The Monstrous Heart by Oliver Emanuel
3F, 978 1 786 82955 9, £9.99 paperback
Mag lives in a rustic cabin in the Canadian wilds, far from neighbours and further from her past. It’s an unremarkable life, save for the enormous bear carcass on the kitchen table.
But when her estranged daughter Beth turns up on the doorstep having been freshly released from prison, the past becomes terrifyingly present – and the bear isn’t the only thing with a dangerous bite.
The Monstrous Heart is a play about motherhood, the cycle of trauma, and how you can never really leave your past behind.
The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess
2F, 978 1 786 82965 8, £9.99 paperback
At an elite East Coast university, an ambitious young black student and her esteemed white professor meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They’re both liberal. They’re both women. They’re both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they’re in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen – and facing stunning implications that can’t be undone.
Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats by Sh!t Theatre
2F, 978 1 786 82978 8, £9.99 paperback
In 2018, island-monkeys Becca and Louise got invited to Valletta, the European Capital of Culture in Malta. They thought they were going to drink rum with Brits abroad, celebrating their final year as Europeans, and make a play. Instead they found corruption, hypocrisy, and murder in the fight to be European.
Shuck ’n’ Jive by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, Simone Ibbett-Brown
2F, 978 1 786 82942 9, £9.99 paperback
Opera singer Simone very quickly discovers that London is not the BNP-free utopia she’d always dreamed of. Meanwhile, actress Cassi battles it out for the illustrious roles of ‘Sassy Friend’, ‘Spunky Slave’ and ‘Third Crack Whore From The Left’ at every audition.
Desperate to be seen as they are, not as the colour of their skin, they decide to take control and write their own story.
With songs and searing honesty, Shuck ’n’ Jive is the laugh-out-loud story of two friends trying to break out of racist typecasting and create a story for themselves.
Terra Firma by Barbara Hammond
5M 1F, 978 1 786 82961 0, £9.99 paperback
Inspired by a real-life event and its aftermath, Terra Firma is set in a not-so-distant Beckettian future–years after a conflict known as the Big War, in which a tiny kingdom wrestles with the problems of running a nation – and opposing notions of what makes a citizen, a country, and a civilization.
There’s A Room by Three Performance Texts By Third Angel
978 1 786 82752 4, £17.99 paperback
There Is A Room brings together three works by Third Angel: Where From Here, Presumption and What I Heard About the World.
Taken chronologically, these shows turn their attention outward, from the intensity of personal relationships and our domestic lives, to the overwhelming number of stories and events taking place in the world beyond.
The Watsons by Laura Wade
8 – 10M 8F, 978 1 786 82638 1, £9.99 paperback
What happens when the writer loses the plot? Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She’s been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast. If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife.