This is the first collection from critically acclaimed playwright Duncan Macmillan, containing the plays Monster, Lungs, 2071, Every Brilliant Thing and People, Places and Things.

'I could fly to New York and back every day for seven years and still not leave a carbon footprint as big as if I have a child. Ten thousand tonnes of CO2. That's the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I'd be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower.'In a time of global anxiety, terrorism, erratic weather and political unrest, a young couple want a child but are running out of time. If they over think it, they'll never do it. But if they rush, it could be a disaster.They want to have a child for ...

Nominated for Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play at the Olivier Awards 2026If you live a long life and get to the end of it without ever once feeling crushingly depressed, then you probably weren't paying attention.You're seven years old. Mum's in hospital. Dad says she's 'done something stupid'. She finds it hard to be happy. You start a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for. You leave it on he...

"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 TimesEmma 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 else. She needs to tell the truth. But she's smart enough to know that there's no such thing. When intoxication feels...

If you live a long life and get to the end of it without ever once feeling crushingly depressed, then you probably haven't been paying attention.You're seven years old. Mum's in hospital. Dad says she's 'done something stupid'. She finds it hard to be happy. You start a list of everything that's brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for. You leave it on her pillow. You know she's read it because she's corrected your spelling.A child attempts to...

"You put it in the freezer, so when you transfer it to the boiling water it doesn't feel a thing. I suppose that this is how I've felt recently. I've been in some deep freeze and suddenly I can feel steam in my face, I'm falling headlong into scalding water."It's 2005, the sun is shining and Loretta is planning to make her daughter's favourite meal. But when Sophie stops talking to her, children start vanishing, and rooms begin to cry, Loretta can't help feeling that someth...

"He's got zero empathy. You could be having a conversation and start choking to death and he'd just think, 'Well, this conversation's over. He'd probably just sit there and finish eating whatever you were choking on."An inexperienced teacher is given the job of saving a disturbed and violent fourteen-year-old boy from permanent exclusion. Alone in the classroom, an intense battle of wills takes place. But what can be done when a child cares for no one and is afraid of nothi...

Duncan Macmillan's romantic comedy drama about the end of the world, a woman who falls in love with the moon, and her husband who falls back in love with her. Starring Bill Nighy as Keith, Amelia Bullmore as Tilda and Harry Child as Oscar. Directed by Sam Hoyle.

April, 1984. Winston Smith thinks a thought, starts a diary, and falls in love. But Big Brother is watching him, and the door to Room 101 can swing open in the blink of an eye.Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell's fiction is often said to be our reality. The definitive book of the 20th century is re-examined in a radical new adaptation exploring why Orwell's vision of the future is as relevant as ever.

When reclusive crime writer Daniel Quinn receives a mysterious call seeking a private detective in the middle of the night, he quickly and unwittingly becomes the protagonist in a thriller of his own.As the familiar territory of the noir detective genre gives way to something altogether more disturbing, Quinn becomes consumed by his mission, and begins to lose his grip on reality.

Duncan Macmillan's stunning and resonant adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Rosmersholm. This revival of a masterpiece charts love, politics, past and future, with plenty of twists thrown in for good measure.Rosmersholm is positioned against the backdrop of a looming election, an atmosphere of uncertainty and a bloodthirsty press. In the grand house of an influential dynasty, John Rosmer holds the future in his hands. As he wanders the line between idealism and a painful past, he finds h...

When celebrated actress Irina Arkádina arrives at her family's country estate for the summer, she finds herself caught in a perfect storm of conflicting desires.Her playwright son, Konstantin, is struggling to step out of her shadow to pursue his own artistic ambitions. Her lover Trigorin, a famous novelist, has entranced the aspiring young actress Nina, with whom Konstantin is in love. And complicating everything is Arkádina's own need to take centre stage, in her personal life as...