International Plays
TheatreBooks stocks plays in English from around the world and, of course, all
plays published in Canada. We stock and sell plays from Samuel French Ltd., Dramatists Play Service and Dramatic Publishing Co., and the leading play publishers
in Great Britain. We carry books on all aspects of theatre production, as well
as opera and dance.
If you don't find the title or playwright you are looking for, please stop by the
store and ask, or contact us at action@theatrebooks.com,
by phone at 416.922.7175, toll-free at 1.800.361.3414 or by fax at 416.922.0739.
See also: American Plays; UK Plays
 When the Rain Stops Falling
Andrew Bovell
An epic play spanning four generations and two hemispheres. When the Rain Stops Falling moves from the claustrophobia of a London flat in 1959 to the windswept coast of southern Australia, and into the heart of the Australian desert in 2039. Softcover, 80 pp. $22.95.
 Plays from the Arab World
Various playwirghts
Withdrawal by Mohammad Al Attar (Syria); 603 by Imad Farajin (Palestine); Damage by Kamal Khalladi (Morocco); The House by Arze Khodr (Lebanon); Egyptian Products by Laila Soliman (Egypt). Softcover, 226 pp. $37.95.
 Luigi Pirandello: Plays - Volume 1
Luigi Pirandello
The first of three volumes collecting the complete plays of Luigi Pirandello. Includes Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Life That I Gave Thee, As You Desire Me, A Woman in Search of Herself, Caps and Bells, Honest as Can Be, Clothe the Naked, Think it Over, Giacomo!, Lazarus, Limes From Sicily, The Man With the Flower in his Mouth, The Vice, and A Dream - Or is it? Softcover, 586 pp. $21.50.
 The Kreutzer Sonata
Leo Tolstoy
A play about death, desire and Betthoven. Written in 1889, Leo Tolstoy's novella became instantly notorious, and was banned in both the US and Russia. Tolstoy hoped one day to see it staged to live music. In this adaptation by Nancy Harris the story comes to life for the stage. Softcover, 64 pp. $22.00.
 Enjoy
Toshiki Okada
The static lives of several GenX comic book store clerks are thrown out of balance by a younger, female co-worker who rightly makes them question the meaning of their lives in a shifting socio-economic landscape. 6M 4F. Softcover, 55 pp. $11.99.
 Havana Journal
Eduardo Machado
A disillusione writer and radical leaves the halls of American academia to travel to Cuba to find people who validate her beliefs and share her struggle. 3M 1F. Softcover, 56 pp. $11.99.
 The Good Person of Szechwan
Bertolt Brecht
Three gods come to earth hoping to discover one truly good person. No one can be found until they meet Shen Te, a prostitute with a heart of gold. Rewarded by the gods, she gives up, she gives up her profession and buys a tobacco shop, but finds it impossible to be a good person in a corrupt world without the support of her ruthless alter ego, Shui Ta. Brecht's parable of good and evil was first performed in 1943 and remains one of his most popular and frequently produced plays worldwide. This unique bilingual edition allows students to compare the original German text with a translation by one of the world's leading playwrights, Tony Kushner. Softcover, 268 pp. $26.00.
 Heldenplatz
Thomas Bernhard
Austria, 1988. For the Schuster family -- intellectual, Jewish, Viennese to the core -- the country remains as unhabitable as it was when they fled in 1938. Forty years on from World War II, irrational hatred, neurosis and decadence still reign. In his final play, Thomas Bernhard explores the shared isolation of people who have lost their bearings along with most of their illusions. m4, f6. Softcover, 132 pp. $22.95.
When the Rain Stops Falling
Andrew Bovell
When the Rain Stops Falling Gabriel York is awaiting the arrival of his grown son whom he hasn't seen since he was seven. With four generations of fathers and sons, their mothers, lovers and wives, the play is epic in its scope, yet at the same time extraordinarily intimate. Softcover, 80 pp. $22.95.
 Labiche & Co.
Eugene Labich, translated by Norman Shapiro
Collected here are fourteen eminently playable one-acts from the French comic master Eugene Labiche. Translated by Norman Shapiro, each of these short farces are sure to fill the stage with brilliant comic energy. Softcover, 488 pp. $26.99.
 The Bungler
Richard Wilbur
The Bungler was Moliere's first recognizably great play, and the first to be written in verse. This charming farce is set in Sicily, and born of the great Italian tradition of the commedia dell'arte. Richard Wilbur's remarkable English verse translation is published here for the first time in a quality paperback edition. Softcover, 126 pp. $19.95.
 Biography
Max Frisch
Middle-aged behavioural researcher Kurmann is given the chance to start over with his life at any point and 'correct' any previous choices he made -- from his failed marriage, his lack of political conviction and his successful academic career, to his poor attention to health and the colour of his living room furniture. Yet, despite his intention to apply whatever wisdom he acquired, Kurmann finds himself inexorably trapped by the same decisions. Switzerland. m3, f2. Softcover, 121 pp. $14.99.
 Japanese Plays
Edited by A.L. Sadler
In this groundbreaking collection, A.L. Sadler translates the mysteries of Noh, Kyogen, and Kabuki. The beauty and power of Japanese theatre is strongly conveyed with his wonderful selection. Softcover, 296 pp. $20.95.
 The Old Guard: A Play
Mieczyslaw Lurczynski
The Old Guard focuses on a Buchenwald prisoner who attempts to uphold the values of Western civilization in the most depraved of conditions. Brutally and unflinchingly honest in its depiction of the effects of concentration camp life on the human psyche, this play is one of the earliest works of Holocaust literature and one of the few works written by a non-Jew who was also the survivor of the camps. Softcover, 102 pp. $17.95.
 The Female of the Species
Joanna Murray-Smith
This deliciously wicked comedy deftly walks the tightrope between satire and farce, proving the female of the species is not only deadlier, but funnier than the male. M-3, F-3. Softcover, 80 pp. $21.95.
 Seven
Various playwrights
Seven is based on interviews with seven women leaders of the Vital Voices Global Partnership network who have triumphed over huge obstacles to create major changes in human rights in their home countries. Collaborated on by seven award-winning female playwrights, including Anna Deveare Smith, these stories fascinatingly reveal the comonality of those with the courage to rise up. 7W. Softcover, $11.99.
 Five Modern No Plays
Yukio Mishima
Having been compared to Stendhal, Dostoevsky and Beckett, Yukio Mishima has established himself as one of the finest writers to emerge from post-war Japan. Here he combines the form, austerity and mystery of traditional Japanese No drama with contemporary settings and sensibilites to create true masterpieces of dramatic writing for the stage. Softcover, 200 pp. $18.95.
 Akbar Ahmed: Two Plays
Akbar Ahmed
These two plays, Noor and Dara Shikoh, explore the crisis of modern Islam, as well as voice a heartfelt need for religious tolerance. Softcover, 134 pp. $17.50.
 Back Back Back / Celebrity Row / Outrage
Itamar Moses
In this anthology of three new plays, Moses blurs the line between fact and fiction, dramatizing today's most infamous news stories. In Back Back Back, the pressures of performance and reputation get the best of three professional baseball players when they are forced to reveal their not-so-natural secrets to winning the game. In Celebrity Row, Moses imagines what Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, the 1993 World Trade bomber Ramzi Yousef, and the Latin Kings leader Luis Felipe would have philosophized about when they were inhabitants of the same maximum security prison in Colorado. Finally, in Outrage, the dangerous, teacher-disciple relationship calls all of academia into question with the help of none other than Socrates and Bertolt Brecht. Softcover, 311 pp. $24.95.
 The Dramatic Literature of Nawal El Saadawi
Edited by Adele S. Newson-Horst
Both God Resigns and Isis incorporate key themes to Nawal El Saadawi's work: that all religions are inimical to women and the poor, that the oppression of women is reprehensible and not uniquely characteristic of the Middle East or the "Third World", and that free speech is fundamental to any society. Softcover, 206 pp. $17.50.
 All About My Mother
Pedro Almodovar & Samuel Adamson
All About My Mother is a passionate hymn to the strength and spirit of women; a kaleidoscopic drama embracing motherhood, love and desire; a homage to the great Hollywood movies. Samuel Adamson's new play brings Pedro Almodovar's multi-award-winning film to the stage. Softcover, 115 pp. $16.00.
 Masked
Ilan Hatsor
An explosive Israeli play about three Palestinian brothers, Masked tackles the cultural divide at the heart of the Middle East conflict. Softcover, 69 pp. $13.99.
 Theatre As Witness: Three Testimonial Plays From South Africa
Yael Farber
Yael Farber's trilogy of plays bears powerful testimony to the personal truths of those who lived through the brutal Apartheid regime in South Africa. Plays in this volume are Woman in Waiting, based on the life of Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise, based on the lives of Thallo Chokw, Roelf Matlala, Bongeka Mpongwana, Philip Tindisa and Jabulile Tshabalala, and He Left Quietly, based on the life of Duma Kumalo. Softcover, 238 pp. $23.00.
 Blood Wedding
Methuen Student Edition
Federico Garcia Lorca
Blood Wedding is set in a village community in Lorca's Andalusia, and tells the story of a couple drawn irresistably together in the face of an arranged marriage. Written when Lorca was at the height of his powers, it is the play on which his international reputation was founded. Softcover, 92 pp. $17.00.
 The House of Bernarda Alba
Methuen Student Edition
Federico Garcia Lorca
The House of Bernarda Alba is Federico Garcia Lorca's last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real-life characters and described by Lorca as 'a true record of village life', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women ruled by a tyrannical mother. Softcover, 240 pp. $18.00.
 The Bald Soprano and The Lesson
Eugene Ionesco, translated by Tina Howe
Often called the father of the Theatre of the Absurd, Eugene Ionesco wrote groundbreaking plays that are simultaneously hilarious, tragic, and profound. Now his classic one acts The Bald Soprano and The Lesson are available in an exciting new translation by Tina Howe, award-winning heir of Ionesco's absurdist vision, acclaimed by Frank Rich as "one of the smartest playwrights we have." Softcover, 96 pp. $16.50.
 Escape & The Man Who Questions Death
Gao Xingjian
In Escape and The Man Who Questions Death, Gao Xingjian describes the encroachment of politics and commercialism on the individual and the arts, and uses this as the basis to comment on the existential challenges facing mankind. Hardcover, 114 pp. $41.95.
 Silent Cry
Madani Younis
Silent Cry unashamedly tackles the issues that face a family on the
verge of imploding, and tells the story of a mother's journey that
begins as her son's life ends. A death in police custody leads to
an ordinary
family looking for justice from a system that has no answers.
Softcover, 69 pp. $19.99.
 The Flowering Spirit: Classic Teachings on the Art of No
Zeami
Along with this modern translation of Fushikaden, William Scott Wilson
includes a comprehensive introduction describing the historical background
and the main features of No. He also includes a new translation of one
of Zeami's most beautifully written plays, Atsumori, a poetic and moving
account of the death of an elegant young warrior, and the redemption
of his soul through the prayers of the older seasoned warrior who took
his
life. Hardcover, 183 pp. $27.95.
 Blood Wedding
Federico Garcia Lorca
The bride has chosen well. The man of her future is a glass of clear water.
But the muddy river of her past can't stop flowing. This new version
of Lorca's Blood Wedding by Tanya Ronder premiered at the Almeida
Theatre, London, with Gael Garcia Bernal, directed by Rufus Norris.
M-6, F-7.
Softcover, 56 pp. $22.95.
 In the Bag
Wang Xiaoli
Modern-day Beijing. In a 31-day month, a young office executive finds himself
rostered to work 39 days. His wife has a spending habit she can
manage and a pregnancy she can't. His older brother, a novelist
whose book is never
quite finished is trying to leave his girlfriend but never gets
as far as the door. Although she can't leave him, she's already
engaged to someone
else. Someone rich. M-2, F-2. Softcover, 68 pp. $22.95.
 Three Plays: Blood Wedding / Yerma / The House of Bernarda Alba
Federico Garcia Lorca
Few modern playwrights rival Federico Garcia Lorca in the creation of poetic
drama. In these three plays, his acknowledged masterpieces, he searched for a
contemporary mode of tragedy and reminded his audience that dramatic poetry --
or poetic drama -- depends less on formal convention than on an elemental, radical
outlook on human life. Translated by Michael Dewell and Carmen Zapata. Softcover,
303 pp. $25.50.
 The Fat Boy
Tony Ayres
Trevor's just a lonely boy looking for love. But love has made
a detour around him. Is it because he's fat, gay and squeals like a
girl? The Fat Boy is a hilarious domestic horror story about
love, desire and other monstrous appetites, that will worm its scandalous
way into your heart. M-3, F-3. Australia. Softcover, 74 pp. $16.95.
 Scenes from a Separation
Andrew Bovell & Hannie Rayson
Mathew and Nina have been married for twelve years. He is forty
and a successful publisher. Nina is thirty-eight and a journalist.
She hasn't worked since the birth of the children. So when Mathew suggests
she takes on the biography of Lawrence Clifford -- tycoon, philanthropist
and now Australian of the year -- she throws herself into the project
with an all-consuming enthusiasm. A play about love, betrayal and sex.
M-2, F-5. Softcover, 94 pp. $18.95.
 References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot and Other Plays
Jose Rivera
Softcover, 262 pp. $26.95.
 Interesting Times
Terry Pratchett
Softcover, 102 pp. $18.95.
 Tasso / Clavigo
Goethe
Softcover, 142 pp. $29.95.
 Cyrano de Bergerac
Edmond Rostand
Softcover, 223 pp. $6.99.
 The Oriki of a Grasshopper and other plays
Femi Ofofisan
Winner of the first Association of Nigerian Authors drama prize in 1983, Femi
Osofisan is an important, emerging voice in contemporary theatre. This collection
of his work includes: The Oriki of a Grasshopper, Esu and the Vagabond
Minstrels, Birthdays Are Not For Dying, and Morountodun. Softcover,
195 pp. $32.99.
 My Friend Hitler and other plays by Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
Though best known for his novels, Yukio Mishima also wrote more than sixty plays.
For English readers, these works have been one of Japan's best-kept secrets -- until
now. In addition to My Friend Hitler, Hiroaki Sato has also translated for
this collection, The Decline and Fall of the Suzaku, The Terrace of the
Leper King, The Flower of Evil: Kabuki, and A Wonder Tale: The Moonbow.
Softcover, 316 pp. $31.95.
 Chikamatsu: 5 Late Plays
Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Contains the plays: "Twins at the Sumida River", "Lovers Pond in Settsu
Province", "Battles at Kawa-nakajima", "Love Suicides on the
Eve of the Koshin Festival", and "Tethered Steed and the Eight Provinces
of Kanto. " Edited and translated by C. Andrew Gerstle. Softcover, 534 pp. $40.95.
 Half a Century of Japanese Theatre
Volume Two
Edited by Japan Playwrights Association.
This volume features seven translated plays that begins with the contemporary theatre
of the 1990s and moves back through the decades to the mid-twentieth century. Softcover,
$65.95
 Contemporary Australian Plays
Edited by Russell Vandenbroucke
This volume features five of the most popular Australian plays of the last twenty
years: Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson, Dead White Males by David Williamson,
Two by Ron Elisha, The 7 Stages of Grieving by Wesley Encoh & Deborah
Mailman, and The Popular Mechanicals by Keith Robinson and Tony Taylor.
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