Bøger i Modern Plays serien

What happens when someone tells you that you''re the answer to the riddle of life? What happens when a stranger in Starbucks gives you something that will change your world forever? What happens if the world starts to fall asleep, hour by hour?City Stories is a new type of cabaret drama, a sequence of interwoven love stories, and a love-letter to London. Composed up of five discrete yet interwoven stories, each taking the form of a monologue or duologue, and performed with specifically composed songs, City Stories looks at a variety of experiences of love and loss via a range of people living in the UK''s capital. Elegantly written and beautifully constructed, these pieces look at the varieties of love and how it might save us, showing James Phillips''s writing at his very best. City Stories received its world premiere at St James''s Theatre, London, in 2013 and has since gone on to establish a year-long residency at the theatre.

We have all stared up at the stars and desperately tried to put into words what it is that we are feeling. This mission is an articulation of that wonder. It's 2029: the first human mission to Mars has disappeared without a trace; a reclusive Indian billionaire has funded Ghara I, a new attempt to achieve this dream; in Siberia, two Russian brothers reconnect by driving a Lada Sputnik 1.3 in search of the birth of space travel; at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, Maartje holds on to a secret about her sister;and on Mars, Imke and Oskar, a young Dutch couple, are mysteriously separated.Pioneer shuttles you from the Garden of Eden to mission control, and on to the surface of Mars.A sci-fi thriller, this edition was published to coincide with curious directive's national tour, which opened in March 2015.

How to Keep an Alien is a funny and tender autobiographical tale in which Irish Sonya and Australian Kate meet and fall in love, but Kate's visa is up and she must leave the country. Together they must find a way to prove to the Department of Immigration that they have the right to live together in Ireland. The paper trail of evidence for 'the visa people' takes them on a global odyssey from County Offaly to the Queensland Bush. It's a tricky business coming from opposite ends of the earth. It takes an Olympian will and the heart of a whale, but above all else, paperwork. How to Keep an Alien is written and performed by Sonya Kelly, with Justin Murphy. Sonya Kelly's debut show, The Wheelchair on My Face, won a Scotsman Fringe First Award in 2012 and was the New York Times Critics' Pick. This edition was published to coincide with a revival of the original production, including performances at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh.

She could teach more folk round 'ere about what's bloody well important in their lives - when it comes down to it. What matters . . . That precious bit of you that gets buried in shit, and she's there clearin' it all away.Delie is special and she's won a trophy for picking up litter from the mayor. Every summer she goes on her holidays to her Aunty Brenda who runs a women's domestic abuse refuge in a Yorkshire mining village. Delie and her Aunty Brenda and a pawnbroker called George who wears a dress are The Flannelettes - a Motown tribute band. Delie is in her twenties but with a mental age of ten; when she meets Roma - who used to live on the streets in Rotherham - the two become best friends, sharing each others' secrets. By the award-winning writer of The Glee Club, The Flanelettes is a tough, uncompromising play which looks at love and violence in a shattered community, all playing to a bittersweet soundtrack of Sixties soul.

We wanted to be someone. Some . . . I dunno . . . thing.Nig and Wee Joe used to be soldiers. They have done monstrous things. Now nobody is listening and nobody gives a fuck either way. Their lives are full of cognitive behavioural therapy, valium and guilt.One last operation offers the chance to bring meaning to their actions. It also brings them face to face with 'L', who represents the new and unpredictable reality of war in Northern Ireland.This tense and darkly funny play from Jimmy McAleavey takes a fearless look at why men go to war. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 4 June 2015.

I cook here, create here,make here be as much of life as I canbecause outside of thisI'm not safe,I don't know the way.Chef tells the gripping story of how one woman went from being a haute-cuisine head chef to a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope. Inspired by an interview Mahfouz conducted with celebrity chef Ollie Dabbous, Chef studies food as the ultimate art form taking stimulus from Dabbous's obsession with simplicity and making something the best it can be. Featuring Sabrina Mahfouz's distinct, lyrical style in abundance, Chef received its premiere at the Underbelly, Cowgate, during the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First, and was produced at the Soho Theatre, London, in June 2015.

Trees don''t have ears.How are you so sure?As they attempt to flee the Best Nation in the World, North Korean sisters Minhee and Junhee are torn apart at the border. Each must race across time and space to be together again - navigating the perilous Land of the Free and the treacherous terrain of personal belief.Food has learned to sprint. Money is so fast it doesn''t wait to be printed. Gossip travels swifter than germs.You For Me For You was first presented in the US at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington D.C., in Autumn 2012 and received its UK premiere at London''s Royal Court in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on 3 December 2015.

Camelot: The Shining City is a modern re-telling of the myth of King Arthur, by award-winning playwright James Phillips.Developed in collaboration with Slung Low, specialists in spectacular theatrical experiences, and Sheffield People's Theatre, Camelot: The Shining City is written for a company of over 150 actors, bringing the medieval story to breathtaking life. An epic story told in three parts, this edition was published to coincide with the world premiere, staged on 9 July 2015.

Shane is another thirty-year-old weekend millionaire, still living at home with his parents. Tonight, he's hitting the town. On Monday, he'll start again.

Some poems are better written in flesh . . .After Wall Street and Tahrir Square, after ISIS and the NSA, after Ferguson and Eric Garner: here come the poets.In a downtown poetry slam with a place on the team to be won, eight young poets prepare to do battle. But backstage it's all kicking off with love triangles, families to feed and wounds to rip open. And in the end, is it about winning - or finding the words that need to be said?Octagon received its world premiere at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 16 September 2015.

In a chapel service in rural Wales, all is not what it seems . . . A stage adaptation of one of the most celebrated and controversial short-story collections in the history of Anglo-Welsh literature. Originally published in 1915, the searing stories of My People - darkly comic, poignant, with flashes of savagery - exposed the hypocrisy and avarice nestling side-by-side in a Nonconformist community in the rural West Wales of the early 1900s.First produced n the centenary year of the publication of the original collection, this radical reimagining makes us question whether the events depicted in these remarkable stories are consigned to the past, or can we discern uncomfortable parallels in our modern life?This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere of the stage adaptation on 5 November 2015 at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, in a co-production with Invertigo Theatre.

Remember you saying you could speak to anything if you wanted to. Right? Did you say that? Remember that. Said you could speak to the stars. Just had to know how to do it.It's raining in the Midlands. Again. It won't stop. Someone's standing in it. They're shivering. They're cold. They're waiting for someone they haven't seen in a very long time. They've got a rucksack full of alcohol. And a fish.A touching play about abandoned responsibilities, what we choose to remember and what we thought we'd forgotten.This programme text edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Old Red Lion theatre, London on 10 November 2015.

And strange smells would arrive on the wind. So it seemed that there was some kind of magic in this field. Some said that there was a dragon underneath that had been woken by the lightning. Some said there was treasure down there too. Fracking. How far down do you own the land beneath your feet? How much does where you live inform the person you become? What happens when someone else comes along and stakes their claim?For young couple Bea and Joseph this is a story of fracture: of fractured hearts, lives and lands.This Land digs down through the history - and the future - of a patch of earth and everything that has and will happen there. This programme text edition was published to coincide with the play's premiere by Pentabus Theatre Company, Shropshire, in March 2016.

One minute I'm in The Elk watching the footie the next minute I'm at the beach with a Polish supermodel. Fucking come on.Lena meets Robbie. Girl meets Boy. Head over heels. Eyes only for each other. They don't speak the same language, but they both know the language of love, and surely that's enough for a while - until the unspeakable happens and the truth comes spewing out. As their marriage hurtles towards oblivion, Lena and Robbie desperately attempt to find a common language and save their shared history.The Session is a heartfelt play about how couples communicate, taking in twenty years of a relationship that is based on misunderstanding and crossed wires. It received its world premiere at Soho Theatre on 3 November 2015.

I SEE YOU (English) NGIYAKUBONA (Zulu) EK SIEN JOU (Afrikaans) NDIYAKUBONA (Xhosa)I don't need your sorries white boy, yes. You heard right. You know white people think we are the same? We both look black. But only one of us is black . . . Speak to me in your mother-tongue and I will let you go.Post-Apartheid South Africa, after dark.Ben meets Skinn for a night out. But the party is interrupted by the police. Ben, a young student who doesn't know his own history, is accused of a crime he didn't commit. And Officer Buthelezi, a former freedom fighter, can't let it go.Based on a real encounter.This programme text was published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at the Royal Court Theatre, Upstairs, on 25 February 2016.

Epic.In small ways. Jason, a wannabe DJ, is making his way through the streets of Dublin on a chemically enhanced trip, stumbling from one misguided misadventure to another. Somewhere between the DJs, decks, drug busts and hilltop raves, he stumbles across a familiar face from the past: his brother, Daniel.Daniel is an educated, homeless addict, living on the streets of Dublin. The brothers haven't seen or spoken to each other in three years but over a lost weekend they reconnect and reminisce over tunes, trips, their history and their city. Two brothers living on the edge, perhaps they have more in common than they think, but how long can this buzz last?This programme text edition of Dublin Oldschool was published to coincide with the revival of the play at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, on 11 January 2016.

I am the Edith fucking Piaf of the empty womb. Je ne regrettay fucking rien.Jude has always known she doesn''t want kids. Her sister Susie isn''t sure if her ovaries are twingeing or if she just needs a wee.One day, in a café full of ''yummy mummies'', Jude loses the plot and kicks a pram. Then gets arrested. Then gets sent to anger management. Susie goes along for the ride and uses the opportunity to confess a secret.This funny and touching play premiered at the Brighton Fringe Festival, before a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, 2015. An unflinching look at what it means to be a modern woman, this programme text was published to coincide with a national tour in spring 2016.

I thought everything would change, after the war. And now, no one even mentions it. It is as if we all got together in private and said whatever you do don''t mention that, like it never happened.It''s the late 1940s. Calm has returned to London and five people are recovering from the chaos of war.In scenes set in a quiet dating agency, a bombed-out church and a prison cell, the stories of these five lives begin to intertwine and we uncover the desire and regret that has bound them together.Sarah Waters''s story of illicit love and everyday heroism takes us from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, towards the secrets that are hidden there.Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Naylor has created a thrilling and theatrically inventive adaptation of a great modern novel.The stage adaptation of The Night Watch was premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 2016.

See in my opinion there are two types of people in the world.There are people who actually do something with their lives?Who have some kind of values or something?And then there are people like you.A small town. Today. Following a long incarceration, Andy returns to her hometown to restart her life. After securing a job at the local slaughterhouse, the challenges of reentry unfold as she reconnects with her teenage son, B, a staunch vegetarian with a life he''s unwilling to share with his mother.Writer Abe Koogler has written a funny, surprising and moving search for connection in modern America. Kill Floor received its world premiere at New York''s LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in October 2015 and played at American Theatre Company, Chicago, from March 2016.

The night before the funeral was when he told us that he was getting the lot and I said, I said only then in retaliation, you know, and I am not proud of this, but how Dad had, how he had smashed his glass and cried, cried for Simon when he rang home to tell him how he had failed his exams, how it broke his dad's heart.Simon and Sean's dad is dead. Returning home from London, Simon is shocked to find Sean in a relationship with a man called Aidan. Sean is irritated by Simon's new cosmopolitan ways. And Aidan? He just wants to be part of the family.This is a play for anyone who ever left home and comes back to find everything changed. And for anyone who never went away in the first place.Attempting to find common ground, they head out for a booze-fueled night in Gateshead. Before long they are arguing. What is it about the memory of a childhood trip to Whitby that sets them off? Darts, pints and fists fly across the room, as past and present collide with dizzying consequences.Petrification received its world premiere at Live Theatre, Newcastle, on 23 May 2016, before a UK tour, presented by Telltale in association with LittleMighty.

Our China is now the worst of all worlds. Communist politics controlled by greedy capitalists, raw capitalist economics controlled by corrupt Communists. Because they''re all the same people! At least under me, the people knew what they were tightening their belts for.Anders Lustgarten''s epic play covers the years 1949 when Chairman Mao founded the Communist Party of China to the present day when investors swoop in to make money off the land. Following a number of characters and generations through these years, it portrays the foundation of modern China.The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie, from award-winning playwright Anders Lustgarten, received its world premiere on at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 6 April 2016, in a co-production between the Arcola Theatre and HighTide Festival.

Just wanna be a better mother, that's all. some sort of a decent mother.Tina can't get through to her son. Stuck on the drink and tormented by her past, what will she do to get his attention? Paddy is a quiet man just looking for someone to talk to. He's a Republican, but he'll shake his fist at anything these days. When Queen Elizabeth II makes her first visit to Ireland, Tina's post-protest party brings out the worst in everyone. What lengths will people go to, to make a connection?Tina's Idea of Fun was first published to coincide with the world premiere on the Peacock stage of The Abbey Theatre, Dublin in April 2016.

They don't care about the truth or changing anything. They just want to discredit us. Bury us under a load of insinuation and then shut us up by paying us off. I can't bear to bleed out my pain and it not mean anything. When Mel meets Dave at a protest, she believes she has met her kindred spirit. Dave soon becomes central to her life and her activist friends. But is he who he appears to be?An emotionally compelling drama that explores love, betrayal, secrets and lies and exposes the brutality of a police policy that used any means necessary to undermine political protest.Based on a true story, Any Means Necessary centres on the events surrounding a group of environmental activists and the 2011 court case that charged them with trespass at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.This real-life event set in Nottingham uncovered a national scandal that has led to a full police apology and an admission that their officers' behaviour was an abuse of the women's human rights. A major public inquiry begins in January 2016 and is expected to run for 3 years.This play was published to coincide with the world premiere of the play at Nottingham Playhouse on 5 February 2016.

Sometimes when I can't stand on my own two feetOr the voices in my head feel cracked and incompleteI turn up the volume of my Broken BeatsThe Big Heavy Bass sends moves flowing to my feetMelodic rhymes fill my head and make me feel oh-so-sweetCos my Broken Beats help me feel aliveAnd not so Broke and Beat. The Broke 'n' Beat Collective is a unique mash up of hip-hop, theatre and puppetry which brings together four amazing artists: beat-boxer Hobbit, b-boy LoGisTics , singer/rapper Elektric and puppeteer Mohsen to form The Broke 'n' Beat Collective.Written by Keith Saha, a playwright and the co-artistic director of 20 Stories High, and Sue Buckmaster, the Artistic Director of Theatre-Rites, The Broke 'n' Beat Collective is a unique theatrical experience filled with gripping tales, transfixing poetry and hip-hop puppetry. Funny and moving, it is a raw and moving play that explores the hardships faced by young people in the UK today.This edition was published to coincide with a national tour of the play which opened in February 2016 in a coproduction between 20 Stories High and Theatre Rites.

Why is everyone so bloody obsessed with hashtags? What on earth do you want to do with a hashtag? Can you use it to shoot your way out of here?Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema are three normal teenage girls who have been best friends forever. But when they are kidnapped from their hometown, each must find their own way to survive. Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday''s news.Theresa Ikoko''s funny and fiercely passionate play is a Verity Bargate Award finalist and winner of the Alfred Fagon Award (2015) and George Devine Award (2016). Girls received its world premiere at HighTide Theatre Festival 2016 on 8 September 2016 in a production by HighTide, Soho Theatre and Talawa.

Where you standing? I say where you standing on this? You think it happened or you don''t think it happened?Generations of secrets have broken the Brook family.Siblings split-up, traded-off, treated differently.Angel, the youngest, has called a family meeting to sift through the wreckage. And she''s not leaving until they''ve confronted the truth about how and why her family failed her.Torn by British playwright and actor Nathaniel Martello-White was published to coincide with its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs on 7 September 2016.

It's what life does to you. We don't have time to waste. Worrying over the small stuff while the big stuff takes its toll. You're living and then . . . boom.At 27, History teacher Nick is on the edge.A hidden secret lies under the Brink. Nick can't get it out of his mind. A series of visions force Nick to investigate what lies beneath. Nick's girlfriend doesn't understand. Neither do his fellow teachers. Frustrated, he confides in a Year 10 student but can she be expected to have all the answers?The Brink is an arch but affecting parable for the times we live in. This edition was published to coincide with the play's world premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in April 2016.

Within the next hour, our operatives will isolate, engage and capture or kill the notorious leader of the most extreme, dangerous and contagious ideology to emerge in the modern era, whose terror activities represent the gravest threat to our interests across the region and the wider world. I refer, of course, to the radical preacher and populist demagogue Y'shua Bar-Yessuf - the man known, by way of shorthand to our operatives, as "Jesus". Satan, the narrator of Justin Butcher's one-man play who is looking out for our best interests, is on a mission to harness the ways of the dangerous extremist preacher Jesus. Jesus' radical teachings and popularity have the potential to wreak havoc in the Middle East. This is exactly the sort of man the government warn us of, again and again.This clever and evocative passion play from the devil's perspective considers Jesus' relevance to contemporary issues, and retells the story of Christ's life from the perspective of the enemy. The Devil's Passion received its world premiere in June 2015 at St James's, Piccadilly, and was revived and toured in 2016.