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Plays from the United Kingdom
A to C by playwright
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.
 Baghdad Wedding
Hassan Abdulrazzak
From cosmopolitan London to the chaos of war-ravaged Baghdad, this is the comic tale of three friends, torn between two worlds, and a wedding that goes horribly wrong. Softcover, 108 pp. $23.00.
 The People Next Door
Henry Adam
Premiered at The Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, The People
Next Door is a play about what happens when someone else's
global problem becomes your local one. Henry Adam's play is a coherent,
lively, frightening and ultimately inspiring tale of coersion,
responsibility and loyalty. 3M, 1W. Softcover, 85 pp. $19.95.
 Some Kind of Bliss
Samuel Adamson
Small-time hack and seeker of minor adventure Rachel sets off down the Thames Path to Greenwich to interview Lulu for her tabloid's glossy supplement. But between London Bridge and the celebrity's mirrored hallway lies a series of unpredicted events. This is a play about how a walk on an everyday Wednesday can become an odyssey that turns your life upside down. Softcover, 52 pp. $19.00.
 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.
 The Al-Hamlet Summit
Sulayman Al-Bassam
Original playscript in English and Arabic. Softcover, 174 pp. $24.95.
 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.
 Whenever
Alan Ayckbourn
This children's play tells the story of Emily and her inventor uncle
Martin, who lived an idyllic existence until the arrival of Uncle Lucas
and Aunt Charity, two scheming cads who plan to kill Martin, and take
the credit for his creations. Softcover, 111 pp. $19.99.
 House & Garden
Alan Ayckbourn
The latest plays from England's master playwright combine hilarity and hurt with
brilliant ingenuity. SC $19.99.
 Comic
Potential
Alan Ayckbourn
A comedy set in the foreseeable
future when everything has changed but human nature. $18.99.
 Waste
Harley Granville Barker
Radical politician Henry Trebell sees his personal and political lives collide as a casual affair with a married woman threatens his power and passionate ideals. Her insistence on a woman's right to choose brings private scandal into the public spotlight. Softcover, 112 pp. $16.50.
Howard Barker: Plays Four
Howard Barker
Howard Barker is one of the most significant and controversial dramatists of his time. His plays challenge, unsettle and expose. This anthology includes such titles as I Saw Myself, The Dying of Today, Found in the Ground, and, The Road, the House, the Road. Softcover, 270 pp. $35.50.
 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.
 Howard Barker: Plays One
Victory - The Europeans - The Possibilities - Scenes
From an Execution
Howard Barker
Exploring the tragic form defined by Barker as Theatre of Catastrophe,
three of the plays speculate on human behavior in moments of historical
crisis. The plays in this collection are among his best-known works,
and their energy, poetic language and imagination have fixed them firmly
in the international repertoire. Softcover, 284 pp. $31.99.
Howard Barker: Plays Two
The Castle - Gertrude - The Cry - Animals
in Paradise - 13 Objects
Howard Barker
The Castle is set at the end of the Crusades and describes the clashes
that occur when returning soldiers bring home with them as a prisoner
an Arab architect. Gertrude - The Cry, is a fascinating re-writing
of the Hamlet story, focusing on the ill-fated Queen of Denmark. Animals in Paradise was commissioned by the Swedish and Danish governments
to
celebrate their connection by bridge. Barker's unexpected treatment
of the theme provoked unrest on its first showing. 13 Objects movingly
reveals the investment we make in inanimate things, their power to
unsettle us, and how their talismanic qualities license new ways
of
seeing the
world. Softcover, 326 pp. $31.99.
 Dead Hands
Howard Barker
Eff arrives too late to witness the death of his father. He becomes preoccupied
with the idea of seducing the dead man's mistress, but Eff's ecstasy is accompanied
and then undermined by a growing suspicion that he is being manipulated from
beyond the grave. Is the woman genuinely drawn to Eff, or is she a sinister
legacy? In Dead Hands, Barker explores the idea that death - instead of oppressing
the spirit, produces a surge of passion for existence that is exaggerated,
bordering on grotesque. A disturbing analysis of death and desire. Softcover,
72 pp. $23.95.
 The Routledge Anthology of Renaissance Drama
Simon Barker and Hilary Hinds
Ten non-Shakespearean Renaissance plays and a masque have been brought together for
the first time in what is a major text for students of English drama of the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Each play is prefaced by an introductory
headnote discussing the thematic focus of the play and its textual history, and is
cross-referenced to other plays of the period that relate thematically and generically.
Softcover, 457 pp. $41.95.
 England People Very Nice
Richard Bean
A riotous journey through four waves of immigration from the 17th century to today, as the French Huguenots, the Irish, the Jews and the Bangladeshis in turn enter the chaotic world of Bethnal Green. The emerging pattern shows that 'white flights' and anxiety over integration is anything but new. Softcover, 124 pp. $22.95.
 Philaster
Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher
Even though this tragicomic rewrite of Hamlet is notorious for its hero's emotional excesses, one should not ignore the play's potent political content. In addition to a clear and authoritative version of the play, this edition offers detailed scholarship, including a fresh assessment of the play's changing political valences across time and its presentation of deviant sexuality. Softcover, 340 pp. $25.00.
Watt
Samuel Beckett
In prose possessed of the radically stripped-down beauty and mordant wit that characterize his work, this early novel by Nobel Prize-winner Samuel Beckett recounts the grotesque and improbable adventures of a fantastically logical Irish servant and his master. Watt is a metaphysical black comedy that, at its core, is rooted in the searing vision that made Beckett one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Softcover, 214 pp. $20.50.
Krapp's Last Tape & Other Dramatic Pieces
Samuel Beckett
The stage play, Krapp's Last Tape, is a shattering drama that emerges through the monologue of a man who, on his sixty-ninth birthday, plays back the autobiographical tape he recorded on his thirty-ninth. Also included are four of Beckett's dramatic pieces, including a one-act stage play, two radio plays, and two mimes. Softcover, 87 pp. $18.95.
 Waiting for Godot/En Attendant Godot
Bilingual Edition
Samuel Beckett
Originally published as En Attendant Godot, Waiting
for Godot has been
a plural, bicultural, international work from its inception. Now it is
possible to enjoy and compare the two versions with this special bilingual
edition. Hardcover, 357 pp. $30.95.
 Endgame
and Act Without Words
Samuel Beckett
Endgame, which Beckett originally wrote in French and later translated into English, is considered by many critics to be his greatest one-act play. A pinnacle of Beckett's characteristic philosophical distillation, it presents an antagonistic scenario of the devastating and comic repetitiousness of life. Act Without Words I, first performed following the premiere of Endgame, speechlessly portrays the frustration of existence in a hostile environment. Softcover, 100 pp. $18.95.
 The Rover
New Mermaids Edition
Aphra Behn, edited by Robyn Bolam
The New Mermaids collection is a modernized and fully annotated series of classic English plays. Each volume includes the playtext, in modern spelling, edited to the highest bibligraphical and textual standards, textual notes recording substantive changes to the copytext and variant readings, glossing notes elucidating obscure words and word-play, critical, contextual and staging notes, photographs of the productions where applicable, a full introduction which provides a critical account of the play, the staging conventions of the time and recent stage history; discussed authorship, date, sources and the text; and gives guidance for further reading. Softcover, 126 pp. $18.00.
 The History Boys
Alan Bennett
An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form boys in pursuit of sex, sport and
a place in university. A maverick English teacher at odds with the young and
shrewd supply teacher. A headmaster obsessed with results; a history teacher
who thinks he's a fool. In Alan Bennett's new play, staff-room rivalry and
the anarchy of adolescence provoke insistent questions about history and how
you teach it; about education and its purpose. M-11, F-1. Softcover, 109 pp. $21.00.
 The History Boys: Audio Performance
Alan Bennett
At a boys' school in Sheffield, England, eight boys are being coached to nab acceptance at Oxford or Cambridge. It is the mid-eighties, and the main concern of the unruly bunch of bright teenagers is getting out, starting university, and starting life. This dramatization of Alan Bennett's phenomenally successful, Tony Award-winning play stars Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, and Frances de la Tour as part of the National Theatre cast. CD. $24.95.
 Rolling Home
Alan Bennett
Softcover, 226 pp. $33.00.
 The Laying on of Hands
Alan Bennett
Hardcover, 199 pp. $22.00.
 The
Lady in the Van
Alan Bennett
She parks her van in Bennett's
back garden for three months and stays 15 years. $16.99.
 Pure Gold
Michael Bhim
Pure Gold is an exquisitely crafted and searing new play from Michael Bhim, past winner of the prestigious Alfred Fagon Award. It premiered in a co-production between Talawa Theatre Company and Soho Theatre. A thrilling portrait of a character forced to choose between gold and his family. Softcover, 97 pp. $16.95.
 The Girlfriend Experience
Alecky Blythe
Tessa has set up a business: a brothel where mature women specialise in offering the "Girlfriend Experience," a surprisingly caring and sympathetic service. As the women stoically strive to make a living in a competitive market, their personal lives start to crumble. Will they ever have loving relationships outside work and enjoy being girlfriends themselves? Softcover, $22.95.
 The Grouch: A Modern version of Le Misanthrope
Ranjit Bolt
In this witty, cutting version of Le Misanthrope, Moliere's angry hero Alceste becomes Alan - a journalist, intellectual and free spirit - who finds himself adrift in a social whirl of false flattery and schmooze. In a world where nobody calls a spade a spade, how can the cantankerous but high-minded Alan secure the affections of Celia - a spoiled, feckless, fickle socialite, who happens to be the love of his life? Softcover, 80 pp. $20.95.
 The Sea
Edward Bond
A wild storm shakes a small East Anglian seaside village and sets off a series of events that changes the lives of all its residents. Set in the high Edwardian world of 1907, The Sea is a fascinating blend of wild farce, high comedy, biting social satire and poetic tragedy. Softcover, 69 pp. $16.50.
 Saved
Edward Bond
Described by Edward Bond as 'almost irresponsibly optimistic,' Saved is a play set in London in the sixties and reflects a time of social change. Its subject is the cultural poverty and frustration of a generation of young people on the dole and living on council estates. Softcover, 132 pp. $16.50.
 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.
 Paul
Howard Brenton
A divine revelation on the road to Damascus moves Saul to renounce
his former life. He changes his name, converts to Judaism, and devotes
himself to preaching the Gospel. Taking the remarkable life and moral
teachings of this profound religious thinker, Howard Brenton explores
the extraordinary phenomenon of faith. M-10, F-1. Softcover, 84 pp.
$22.95.
 Terry Pratchett's "Maskerade"
Stephen Briggs
Terry Pratchett's phenomenally popular Discworld novel, Maskerade, has been skillfully adapted by Stephen Briggs with suitably dramatic panache. Quirky and original characters, a labyrinthine plot and numerous witty one-liners make this a treat for Discworld fans and uninitiated theatregoers alike. Softcover, 100 pp. $12.99.
 Moira Buffini: Plays 1
Moira Buffini
Four dynamic plays by Moira Buffini in one accessible collection.
This anthology includes Blavatsky's Tower, Gabriel, Silence, and Loveplay. Softcover, 379 pp. $34.50.
 Mammals
Amelia Bullmore
Jane and Kev don't have secrets, there's no room for them. Their children
take up all the space. Dirty laundry and weekend guests just have
to be squeezed in. But when Kev comes home from a business trip with
something
on his mind, he starts a confessional chain reaction which has shattering
consequnces. Mammals is a sardonic glimpse of the breeding generation.
Softcover, 84 pp. $23.95.
 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.
 The Straits
Gregory Burke
The Straits is the tale of an extraordinary summer in the lives of four
teenagers living in Rosia Bay, Gibraltar, 1982, just as war was beginning in
the South Atlantic. Premiering at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August
2003, The Straits displays the same confident playwriting evidenced
in Burke's first play, Gagarin Way. m:3 f:1. Softcover, 96 pp. $20.00.
Gargarin Way
Gregory Burke
A first play from a Scottish writer which premiered in Edinburgh and was also
presented at the Royal National Theatre in London. Featuring four male characters,
Burke explains in the preface that he didn't expect it to be a comedy, "but
when you consider the themes which emerged when I wrote it -- Marxism and Hegelian
theories of history, anarchism, psychopathology, existentialism, mental illness,,,
and the crisis in masculanity, then it couldn't really be anything else." $19.99.
 Got to be Happy
Simon Burt
With gutzy dialogue and a wonderful ear for dialect, Simon
Burt has written a fast-paced play about people who work together,
play together, and try to maintain the routine of everyday life.
The heat from the pub's kitchen isn't the only thing that's boiling
hot in Got to be Happy. 2M, 2W. Softcover, 78 pp. $19.95.
 Scaramouche Jones
Justin Butcher
The strangely pale-faced child of a gypsy whore, Scaramouche was always fated
to be a clown. His entire life has been a vivid odyssey through extraordinary
adventures, crumbling empires and the darkest episodes of the 20th century.
Now, as he is about to give his last and most important performance, he peels
away his outer disguises and reveals the loves, brutalities, ecstasies and
tragedies that created the seven white masks of Scaramouche Jones. M-1. Softcover,
34 pp. $19.95.
 Leo Butler Plays 1
Leo Butler
Includes the plays Made of Stone, Redundant, Lucky Dog, and The Early Bird. Softcover, 315 pp. $21.95.
 Nova Scotia
John Byrne
Thirty years since we last met him and Lucille in The Garden of Remembrance, Phil McCann faces the New Millenium with fortitude and good humour. The leading arts correspondent of the day is on her way to the far north to record a radio profile, which Phil is confident will relaunch his career as a painter and establish him once and for all as a colossus of contemporary Caledonian culture. Softcover, 100 pp. $18.00.
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Gong Donkeys 
The Pride
On Blindness
Defender of the Faith
Woman and Scarecrow
Bell in Campo & The
Sociable Companions: Two Plays
A Night at the Dogs
The Mousetrap and Selected Plays
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?
A Disappearing Number
Love For Love
The Way of the World
Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie
My Name is Rachel Corrie
Four Restoration Libertine Plays
Tonight at 8:30
Present Laughter
The Noel Coward Audio Collection
The City
