Series: Modern Plays

‘That is the story of our beginning. And this is the story of…the end’ Lovesong is the story of one couple, told from two different points in their lives – as young lovers in their 20s and as worldly companions looking back on their relationship. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. All...

If there's a God, which at the moment I doubt, I want you to curse him. If there's any justice, I want them - both of them - in a car crash. Her husband's gone and her future isn't bright. Imprisoned in her marital home, Medea can't work, can't sleep and increasingly can't cope. While her child plays, she plots...

In The Memory of Water (winner of the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy), three sisters meet on the eve of their mother's funeral. As the conflicts of the past converge, everyday lies and tensions reveal the particular patterns and strains of family relationships. "Combines a flair for witty dialogue with a relish for the dynamics of theatre ......

Country is cool now – I think it's cool Conor is 17. He lives with his mum in Croydon. He works at a leisure centre. He’s gay. Life is not what he expected, and he’s worried he might be… well, a loser. He dreams of moving away, of being noticed, of being a somebody. When he hears about an opportunity...

Iphigenia in Splott ‘What gets me through is knowing I took this pain, and saved all of you from suffering the same.’ Stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m. drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you'd avoid eye contact with, silently passing judgement. We think we know her, but we don't know the half of it. Effie's life spirals...

Winner of a OneOff Special Award for 2023 at the Offies Awards 2024Finalist for Best Production (Plays) at the Offies Awards 2024 This is just me joining the family business exposing massive global injustice. Latinx Women from South London take centre stage and dare you to call them invisible. Vogue balls. When four different worlds collide, identity, history and status...

Oh What a Lovely War is a theatrical chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the period. Devised and first performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London in 1963, it received the acclaim of London audiences and critics. It won the Grand Prix of the Théâtre des Nations...

“Macmillan doesn’t shy away from difficult questions about addiction and recovery and, rightly, doesn’t answer them ... this is a bold, timely and searching play” - Financial Times Emma was having the time of her life. Now she’s in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn’t with Emma, it’s with everything...

Ever since Peter Pan flew in through Wendy Darling's nursery window and took her off to Never Land, Barrie's classic adventure story has thrilled and delighted generations of theatre-goers. J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan first as a work of prose and then adapted it for the stage. John Caird and Trevor Nunn first adapted Barrie's book and play in the...

I think I’d sleep a lot easier if I knew none of us would wake up tomorrow. Ollie’s sister is missing. Searching Manchester in desperation, she finds all roads lead to Pomona - an abandoned concrete island at the heart of the city. Here at the centre of everything, journeys end and nightmares are born. A sinister and surreal thriller...

Winner of the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play 2023 Mr Parks, this isn’t just a movie, it’s a whole movement. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. The Golden Age of Hollywood. Behind closed doors, aspiring actor Sidney Poitier is offered a lucrative contract that could make him a superstar. But what is he willing to sacrifice?...

1986. Ghana’s prestigious Aburi Girls Boarding School. Queen Bee Paulina and her crew excitedly await the arrival of the Miss Ghana pageant recruiter. It’s clear that Paulina is in top position to take the title until her place is threatened by Ericka – a beautiful and talented new transfer student. As the friendship group’s status quo is upended, who will...

There's a hole running through the centre of my stomach. You must have all felt a bit awkward because you can probably see it. Sea Wall is a delicate monologue, completely devastating and beautifully powerful. Alex’s story, spoken directly to the audience, begins full of clear light and smiles, as he speaks about his wife, visiting her father in the...

How unbelievably dull my life was. I did everything I was supposed to. I was such a good girl. I lived in the house he chose and cleaned a dead woman’s furniture. I bought hats, who the hell wears a hat? And all the time I wanted to scream because I was so bored. On one dark and stormy night...

My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred. Almost. South London in the late seventies. High unemployment, high inflation, food shortages and strikes. But despite the winter of discontent, 17-year-old Karim’s life is about to explode into glorious technicolour as he navigates a path to enlightenment. Or at the very least, Beckenham. Emma Rice adapts...

I’m really looking forward to robbing this bank! Mischief's smash-and-grab hit The Comedy About a Bank Robbery is a fast, fabulous comedy caper and the funniest show in the West End! Summer 1958. Minneapolis City Bank has been entrusted with a priceless diamond. An escaped convict is dead set on pocketing the gem with the help of his screwball sidekick,...

An intimate portrait of a life Australia 1943 to London 2021, and everything in between. Alice is learning to be herself against the times. But how do the times shape who we are? Playing out over a tumultuous eight decades, Alice’s complex relationships become a common thread in her personal journey, in this intimate portrait of a life. Alexander Zeldin...

I am not your punch bag! I am a Member of Parliament! An MP with an instinct for compassion. An ex-serviceman with a life in free fall. And a parliamentary protection officer who’s having none of it. This volatile new play by Olivier Award-winner Joe Penhall deconstructs politics, panic alarms, and the conflict between public service and personal safety. Published...

I became what I am today at the age of twelve. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a mud wall on a frigid winter day in 1975... looking into a deserted alley. It’s wrong what they say about the past, about how you can bury it, because the past claws its way out. I realise I’ve been looking into...

I can’t explain it. I can’t explain any of it to you. The line of beauty which led me to him… to here. London. Summer, 1983. Nick Guest moves into the grand Notting Hill home of his university friend Toby — and into the dazzling world of Toby’s father Gerald, a newly elected Tory MP, his elegant wife Rachel, and...

The city burns in the heat of civil war and a servant girl sacrifices everything to protect an abandoned child. But when peace is finally restored, the boy's mother comes to claim him. Calling upon the ancient tradition of the Chalk Circle, a comical judge sets about resolving the dispute. But in a culture of corruption and deception, who wins?...

Winner of the 1992 Evening Standard Best Comedy Award and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Comedy, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is a cracker, original, hilarious and hauntingly sad (Daily Telegraph). "Like everything Cartwright writes, Little Voice is playful, magical and terrifying, a view of the world from an unexpected angle, perpetrated by an imagination that notices...

Based loosely on The Science of Discworld II: the Globe, Lords & Ladies, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Shakespeare Codex is a new Discworld stage adaptation written to commemorate Terry Pratchett's life and works. Discworld’s motley band of characters team up and stop the elves taking over our world, make Shakespeare write A Midsummer Night's Dream... and ensure the...

All cats are alike in the dark. At the height of the Cold War, disillusioned British spy Alec Leamas is persuaded to stay out ‘in the cold’ for one last risky operation against the powerful leader of the East German Secret Service. But Leamas has committed a cardinal error: he’s fallen in love. After a lifetime of deception and betrayal,...

Complicite not only open our eyes to Bruno Schulz but turn his densely impressionistic stories into a piece of vividly imaginative theatre (Michael Billington, Guardian). The Street of Crocodiles is inspired by the life and stories of Polish writer Bruno Schulz (1892-1942). Originally co-produced by Théâtre de Complicité and the Royal National Theatre, it opened at the Cottesloe in 1992...

Winner of the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright 2023Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre at the Olivier Awards 2024 You need to meet the other special people. There are so many of us. You’ll fall in love every day. Annie is happy at last – she’s engaged to Bel, the love of her life, and counting down...

This hilarious volume brings together three funny, vibrant and theatrical monologue plays for female performers. The Wheelchair on My Face by Sonya KellySonya tells her story about growing up with poor vision that went undiagnosed until she was seven years old. Combining memoir, theatre and stand-up comedy, this delightful story of a myopic child shows us how we can better...

Written as a vehicle for Coward’s own acting talents alongside his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, Tonight at 8:30 is Coward’s ambitious series of ten one-act plays which saw him breathe new life into the one-act form. From vaudeville to satire, from farce to intricate comedy of manners, from melodrama to romance, these plays span the full, glorious range of...

Oh, Misha, it's terrible to be an educated woman. An educated woman with nothing to do. What am I here for? Why am I alive? They should make me a professor somewhere, or a director of something ... If I were a diplomat I'd turn the whole world upside down ... An educated woman ... And nothing to do. Village...

Twenty monologues for women Twenty monologues in this volume which range from the deeply serious to the extravagantly comic and accessible to a wide range of audiences. "The pieces are comic, grotesque, on purpose. First of all because we women have been crying for two thousand years. So let's laugh now, even at ourselves" - Franca Rame "Set at the...

Every love story has a final chapter Alfie and Julie’s love story has been one of music, laughter, and heartache. On one early morning in June, they must write their ending. Following the critically acclaimed Beginning and Middle, End is the final play in David Eldridge’s trilogy exploring love and relationships. This edition was published to coincide with the National...

Tonight Neverland is fleshed out with plenty of plant life, certainly bettering 2011's production of Jack and the Bean-Cactus. So, with no further ado, please put your hands together for J.M. Barrie's Christmas classic: Peter Pan! The inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society set out to present J. M. Barrie's classic tale of Peter Pan, their most audacious production...

If I get run over tomorrow, how are you paying the Amex off? If you get run over tomorrow, why should I care because I am flinging myself into the road after you. Nora and Torvald’s marriage vows are a binding contract, but when scandal threatens to wreck their lives, it’s time to renegotiate the terms. Money, sex, power –...

There’s this unspoken thing right? I dunno... I guess, this resistance to admitting that someone else’s trauma can be traumatising... Ria is a singer-songwriter. She’s talented. She’s ambitious. And she’s driven—quite literally—all the way from Lancashire to London, to start afresh in Camden Town. Charting the rise and fall of a rollercoaster relationship, Ria is recording her debut album with...

I reckon, believe in yourself needs to have some, what d’you call it, caveats attached, you know what I mean? Because if you’re someone who’s like me, like, in general, a bit rubbish, the motto should be, ‘Believe in yourself . . . within reason’. Aidan’s lost. His best mate’s starting uni, his mum can’t get out of bed, and...

I know that’s what I’m saying, you seem like the sort of person who might believe a dog is haunted, but actually you’re much more grounded in reality than the impression you initially give off. Uma’s running a struggling countryside castle, and everything’s finally falling into place for Pemfort’s first Living History event. Glenn’s got his sword-fighting down, Ria’s befriended...

A shocking assassination in the heart of London. In a bizarre mix of high-stakes global politics and radioactive villainy, a man pays with his life. At this time of global crises and a looming new Cold War, A Very Expensive Poison sends us careering through the shadowy world of international espionage from Moscow to Mayfair. Lucy Prebble (Enron, The Effect)...

Innocent or guilty? You decide. Jeffrey Archer's play, The Accused, is a tense courtroom drama with a difference. The audience will act as the jury, as if they were in the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey. You will have to decide... Did Dr Sherwood murder his wife? Was Jennifer Mitchell his mistress? Which of his alibis should you...

Susie Salmon is just like any other young American girl. She wants to be beautiful, adores her charm bracelet, and has a crush on a boy from school. There's one big difference though – Susie is dead. Now she can only observe while her family manage their grief in their different ways. Susie is desperate to help them and there...

Nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards 2026Nominated for Best New Play at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2026 '911, what’s your emergency?’‘My husband... they shot him... they all did.’ July 10th, 1981, Missouri. Smalltown bully, Ken Rex McElroy rules Skidmore with an iron fist. His ten-year reign of terror has involved theft, intimidation, assault, abduction, and attempted...

Brian Epstein and The Beatles. Their rise. His fall. When Brian Epstein steps into the Cavern Club, he finds more than just a band – he finds his life’s calling. Captivated by the charismatic frontman, John Lennon, Brian sets out to make the Fab Four the most famous group on earth. But beyond the spotlight, he wrestles with secrets, longing,...

‘Everything human beings do finishes up bad in the end. Everything good human beings ever make is built on something monstrous. Nothing lasts. We certainly won't…’ Based on his experience as a teacher, Stephens describes his play as ‘The History Boys on crack’. It explores the underlying tensions and potential violence in a group of affluent, articulate seventeen-year-old students. Contemporary...

You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. 1. Ice Cream 2. Kung Fu Movies 3. Burning Things 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose 5....

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Being sensible can be excessively boring. At least Jack thinks so. While assuming the role of dutiful guardian in the country, he lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algy takes on a similar facade. Unfortunately, living a double life has its drawbacks, especially when it comes to love. Hoping...

How happily married are the happily married? Home, I'm Darling is a dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. Judy has Johnny's slippers waiting for him when he arrives home from work, the kitchen's clean, the rooms are aired... yet this is not the 1950s, but a 21st-century 'arrangement' agreed between the two...

This poignant coming-of-age tale follows Meena, a young girl growing up in the only Punjabi family in a 1970s Black Country mining village. Meena spends her days happily getting into scrapes with the other local children until one day the impossibly cool Anita enters her life. Suddenly, Meena knows exactly who she wants to be, but is Anita all that...

Tracey Gordon, the 67 bus, friendship, sex, UK garage, school, music, teachers, friendship, periods, emergency contraceptive, arse and tits, friendship, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship. Aaron, Candice, sex and Connor Jones. Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood. Written and performed by Michaela Coel, who spent her childhood in...