Plays from the United Kingdom

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.

Confusions
Methuen Student Edition
Alan Ayckbourn
Ayckbourn's series of five interlinked one-act plays typifies his interactive comedies of human behavior. The plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the problem of loneliness. Whether the comedy concerns marital conflict, infidelity, or motherhood, is set on a park bench, or at a village fete, the characters are immediately familiar and their cries for help instantly recognisable. Softcover, 65 pp. $18.00.

Landscape with Weapon
Joe Penhall
To his family's horror, Ned reveals he's the brains behind a new military technology so sophisticated, it will revolutionise the nature of warfare. It's only when the Ministry of Defence demands intellectual ownership that Ned begins to question himself, resisting the might of the weapons industry with frightening consequences. Landscape with Weapon is a wry account of private anguish, public responsibility and a problem with no solution. Softcover, 85 pp. $18.00.

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found
Fin Kennedy
When a young executive reaches breaking point and decides to disappear, he pays a visit to a master of the craft in a seafront fortune teller's in Southend. Haunted by visitations from a pathologist who swears he is already lying flat out on her slab, he begins a nightmarish journey to the edge of existence that sees him stripped of everything that made him who he was. Softcover, 108 pp. $22.95.

Black Watch
Gregory Burke
Viewed through the eyes of those on the ground, Black Watch reveals what it means to be part of the legendary Scottish regiment, what it means to be part of the war on terror, and what it means to make the journey back home again. This book contains Gregory Burke's award-winning script, with production notes by the director John Tiffany and colour photographs that capture the powerful and inventive use of movement in this visceral, complex and urgent piece of theatre. Softcover, 73 pp. $23.95.

Dumb Show
Joe Penhall
Courted at the end of his show by bankers John and Jane, TV star Barry believes he is to get the five-star treatment that he deserves. However, urged to provide a candid account of his offstage life and views, the Barry that emerges is the least of the surprises in the tense game of power and manipulation that ensues. Softcover, 56 pp. $11.99.

The Pain and the Itch
Bruce Norris
With a young daughter in serious need of attention and a ravenous creature possible prowling the upstairs bedrooms, what begins as an average Thanksgiving for one privelaged family unravels into an expose of disastrous choices and less-than-altruistic motives. The Pain and the Itch is a scathing satire of the politics of class and race, a controversial, painfully human examination of denial and it consequences. Softcover, $11.99.

Restoration
Edward Bond
Restoration is set in 18th-century England: a world of cruelty, injustice and iron privelage. Lord Are is forced by poverty into an unwanted marriage with the daughter of a wealthy mine owner. One morning during breakfast, he commits a bizarre and fatal crime. He seeks to pin responsibility for it on his guileless, illiterate footman, Bob Hedges. A battle ensues between Bob's black, justice-hungry wife and the fortified privelage of the ruling class. Softcover, 79 pp. $18.00.

pool (no water)
Mark Ravenhill
In pool (no water) a famous artist invites her old friends out to her luxurious new home and, for one night only, the group is back together. However, celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers a horrific accident. As the victim lies in a coma, an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: could her suffering be their next work of art? Pool (no water) is a visceral and shocking new play about the fragility of friendship and the jealousy and resentment inspired by success. Softcover, 88 pp. $18.00.

On the Shore of the Wide World
Simon Stephens
Stockport 2004. Peter Holmes' dad is mastering his card tricks. His sons are plotting ways of leaving home. His wife has never looked so tired. And something is about to happen that will change all their lived irrevocably. Set over the course of nine months, On the Shore of the Wide World is a play about love, family, Roy Keane and the size of the galaxy. It is also a play about recovery. Softcover, 136 pp. $19.50.

Eden's Empire
James Graham
Fifty years ago, Britain propelled itself into a disastrous war in the Middle East. Condemned by the UN and accused of falsifying intelligence, the Prime Minister was left fighting for his political life against a Party disillusioned, a public betrayed, and a wiley Chancellor with ambitions to take his place. Eden's Empire is an uncompromising political thriller exploring the events of the Suez Crisis and the tragic story of its flawed hero - Churchill's golden boy and heir apparent - Anthony Eden. Softcover, 88 pp. $18.00.

Days of Significance
Roy Williams
Written in response to Much Ado About Nothing, Days of Significance is set in market-town England and the deserts of Iraq. On the eve of their departure for active service, two young soldiers join their friends to binge drink the night away. Their complex love lives and mortal fears directly impact on their tour of duty and reveal how the naive and malformed moral codes of these young men have catastrophic reverberations for the West's moral authority. Softcover, 98 pp. $18.00.

93.2 FM
Levi David Addai
Coach and Bossman are a dynamice duo tearing up the airwaves at Borough FM. Together they have become radio heroes, but someone's getting above their station and putting Borough FM in the shade. 93.2 FM is a sharp comedy about friendship, dreams and the conflict awakened by ambition. It's about achieving your goals and what may, or may not be compromised along the way. Softcover, 79 pp. $18.00.

Closer - Student Edition
Patrick Marber
Four lives intertwine over the course of four and a half years in this densely plotted, stinging look at modern love and betrayal. Dan, an obituary writer, meets Alice, a stripper, after an accident on the street. Eighteen months later, they are a couple, and Dan has written a novel inspired by Alice. While posing for his book jacket cover, Dan meets Anna, a photographer. He pursues her but she rejects his advances despite their mutual attraction. Dermatologist Larry is brought into the story through an internet escapade with Dan. This sets up a series of pass-the-lover scenes in which this quartet struggle to find intimacy but can't seem to get closer. Softcover, 126 pp. $18.00.

Darwin in Malibu
Crispin Whittell
Malibu, California. The present. One hundred and twenty years after his death, Charles Darwin is hanging out in a beach house overlooking the Pacific with a girl young enough to be his daughter. His peace is rudely disturbed when his old friend Thomas Huxley washes up on the beach closely followed by the Bishop of Oxford. And Darwin suddenly finds himself entangled in an enthralling and thought-provoking comedy about God, science, and plastic surgery. Softcover, 52 pp. $10.99.

The Al-Hamlet Summit
Sulayman Al-Bassam
Original playscript in English and Arabic. Softcover, 174 pp. $24.95.

There Came a Gypsy Riding
Frank McGuiness
The McKenna family gathers at their remote west of Ireland holiday home to mark the twenty-first birthday of their late son Gene. Cousin Bridget appears along the causeway, inviting herself for birthday cake and conversation, ready to expose a family secret. Even the powerful personalities of Gene's parents can't hold things together in the face of an unexpected visit from the past. Softcover, 78 pp. $21.95.

Don Juan in Soho
Patrick Marber
The infamous, amoral hedonist in a society entranced by sensation, Moliere's farcical, tragic, anarchic Don Juan (1665) is the inspiration for Patrick Marber's new play in which the action of the original is relocated to present-day Soho, London. Whereas Moliere condemned his anti-hero to a literal Hell, Marber condemns him to a hell of his own making. Softcover, 83 pp. $20.95.

Henry (After Pirandello)
Thomas Kilroy
Actor Richard McMillan is Henry, a man of enormous wealth and privilege, who believes he is the eleventh-century Holy Roman Emperor and German King Henry IV. A fortress is built and actors are hired to carry out his fantasy. But is he mad or are we? Adapted from Luigi Pirandello's Enrico IV, Kilroy's version transports Pirandello's main character into twenty-first-century Hollywood with sensationally dramatic results. 6M, 3W (flexible casting). Softcover, 43 pp. $10.99.

Blowing Whistles
Matthew Todd
Nigel loves his hedonistic lifestyle - he has a long-term boyfriend, goes clubbing and has lots of sex in their open relationship. Jamie, his partner of ten years, isn't sure things are so great... The night before Gay Pride Day, the couple make contact with a stranger on the Internet, a mysterious young man who seems too good to be true. They make plans for a night of casual sex, but their young guest has a very different agenda... Softcover, 63 pp. $10.99.

Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?
Caryl Churchill
Jack would do anything for Sam. Sam would do anything. Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006. Softcover, 42 pp. $21.95.

The Ecstatic Bible
Howard Barker
Parables without morality and a testament to the millenium, The Ecstatic Bible sweeps through a landscape shaped by the European political and social turmoil of the twentieth century. A series of interlocking narratives charts a strange world inhabited by amoral but passionate characters. Provocative imagery and poetic language are suffused with a rich, dark humour. Hardcover, 332 pp. $49.95.

The Fence In Its Thousandth Year
Howard Barker
A state attempts to define its character by erecting a fence against outsiders, but it is violated both by strangers and by the transgressive appetite of its ruling class. In the fever of its decadence, the kingdom is revealed to have at its core a scandal which is itself the consequence of the breaking of sacred boundaries. Photo, the sightless protagonist of this latest work, is the most sophisticated of adolescents, and his blindness is abolished by his acute sensibility. But there is one darkness in his life that cannot be revealed... Softcover, 72 pp. $19.95.

The Seduction of Almighty God
Howard Barker
Set at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the English Reformation, The Seduction of Almighty God describes the spiritual ascendancy of an adolescent priest and the apalling discovery that he possesses the power of life and death over others, both religious and secular. Victimised by his brethren and eventually murdered by his female followers, the youth Loftus argues himself into the belief that God, weary of His own impotence, has developed His powers upon him... Softcover, 64 pp. $22.95.

The Coast of Utopia
Tom Stoppard
A collection of three of Tom Stoppard's plays: Salvage, Shipwreck and Voyage. Hardcover, $64.99.

Breathing Corpses
Laura Wade
Amy's found another body in a hotel bedroom. There's a funny smell coming from one of Jim's storage units. And Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police. There's no going back after what they've seen. 4M, 3W. Softcover, 47 pp. $10.99.

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Colder Than Here
Laura Wade
Nobody can ignore the fact that Myra is dying, but in the meantime life goes on. There are boilers to be fixed, cats to be fed and the perfect funeral to be planned. As a mother researches burial spots and biodegradable coffins, her family is forced to communicate with her, and each other, as they face up to an unpredictable future. 1M, 3W. Softcover, 53 pp. $10.99

The Pull of Negative Gravity
Jonathan Lichtenstein
Wounded in the war in Iraq, a farmer's boy turned soldier returns home with injuries that have extraordinary consequences for his fiancee and his family. 2M, 2W. Softcover, 55 pp. $10.99.

The Seafarer
Conor McPherson
It's Christmas Eve, and Sharky has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible, ageing brother, who's recently gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky are holed up at the house too, hoping to play some cards. But with the arrival of a stranger from the distant past, the stakes are raised ever higher. In fact, Sharky may be playing for his very soul. Softcover, 105 pp. $22.95.

Frost/Nixon
Peter Morgan
Following the scandalous 1972 break-in at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, David Frost's televised interview with Richard Nixon drew a record-breaking audience. This exciting play investigates whether or not the British talk-show host, with no know political convictions and a playboy reputation, was able to elicit an apology from the man who committed one of the biggest felonies in American political history. M-7, F-3. Softcover, 82 pp. $21.95.

The Lightning Play
Charlotte Jones
North London at Halloween. Celebrity ghost-writer Max Villiers and his wife Harriet, a talented shopper, host a party. As Max connects his first plasma TV, the evening is hijacked by interference from the past. There are trick-or-treaters at the door and strangers on the brand new rug. A shocking and darkly humorous play. M-4, F-4. Softcover, 105 pp. $21.95.

Mary Stuart
in a new version by Peter Oswald
Friedrich Schiller
Schiller's play of 1800 pits Mary Queen of Scots against her rival Elizabeth of England. The meeting never happened but, as Goethe said, 'It will be good to see those two whores alongside each other.' Schiller's Mary redeems her youthful crimes through an ordeal that lifts her into realms of spiritual serenity, while Elizabeth descends deeper into rage, revenge, and deception. Softcover, 106 pp. $17.99.

Woman and Scarecrow
Marina Carr
Leaving behind her eight children and a remorseful husband, a passionate Woman, now gaunt and weak, surveys her like as she faces death and asks what she could have been. Full of mordant, bitter humour, this is a fierce and beautiful lament from one of Ireland's leading playwrights. Softcover, 77 pp.$21.99.

Visible
Sarah Woods
Visible boldly challenges how we guard our wealth and our 'right' to happiness. Striving so hard to live a good life and acquire the trappings of success, do we sometimes lose sight of the world around us? Rob and Hattie's Sunday lunch is about to take an unexpected turn... Softcover, 95 pp. $22.99.

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Last modified July 15, 2003 .
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.