Play the man, not the cards.Sunday night. Stephen hosts a weekly poker game in the basement of his failing London restaurant. All the usual suspects are there; the chef, the waiters, the errant son . . . but tonight a stranger has come to play.Patrick Marber's acclaimed 1995 debut won the Evening Standard Award (Best Comedy) and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award (Best West End Play). Dealer's Choice has since been performed in more than fif...

Drawing together the work of 10 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology features work by some of the most exciting and established contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays collected offer young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study.Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department with the young performer in mind. The ...

Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays.Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.Each play has been specific...

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skilful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to cause his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to believe they are...

Enter the timeless world of William Shakespeare — a universe of passion, power, poetry, and human truth that has defined literature for over four centuries. The Complete Works of Shakespeare gathers every play, sonnet, and poem from the most influential writer the world has ever known, presented in a beautifully formatted edition ideal for students, scholars, performers, and lovers of classic literature. Experience the full breadth of Shakespeare's genius: • The tragedies — Hamlet, Macbeth...

Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" masterfully critiques the Victorian norms surrounding identity, marriage, and social expectations through razor-sharp wit and comedic brilliance. Set in the context of late 19th-century England, this play employs paradox, satire, and epigrammatic dialogue to explore themes of deceit and the frivolity of societal conventions. The dual lives of its protagonists, Jack and Algernon, serve as a vehicle for Wilde's exploration of authenticity and t...

The action takes place in late August 1833 at a hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag, an Irish-speaking community in County Donegal. In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the Royal Engineers, making the first Ordnance Survey. For the purposes of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be recorded and rendered into English. In examining the effects of this operation on the lives of a small group, Brian Friel skillfully reveals the far-reaching personal and...

See? All we need is... a map and...some kind of plan.This overcoat is neutral darling, neither Bolshevik nor Menshevik. Just essence of Prole.In Kiev during the Russian Civil War, the Turbin household is sanctuary to a ragtag, close-knit crowd presided over by the beautiful Lena. As her brothers prepare to fight for the White Guard, friends charge in from the riotous streets amidst an atmosphere of heady chaos, quaffing vodka, keeling over, declaiming, tak...

Oscar Wilde's philosophy leads him on a path to destruction. The Judas Kiss describes two pivotal moments: the day Wilde decides to stay in England and face imprisonment, and the night when the lover for whom he risked everything betrays him.With a burning sense of outrage, David Hare presents the consequences of an uncompromisingly moral position in a world defined by fear and conformity.Originally produced in the West End and on Broadway, this new edition coincid...

Exactly one year ago, I stood in that crumbling pulpit in Riverside and shouted that this war would be our own violent undoing, freedom's suicide . . . Well, I'll tell you, there weren't too many Amens that Sunday. But who is a man who does not speak his mind? He is not a man, but I am a man.The night before his assassination, King retires to room 306 in the now-famous Lorraine Motel after giving an acclaimed speech to a massive church congregation. When a mysterious young...

In this clear and detailed reading guide, we’ve done all the hard work for you!Waiting for Godot is one of Samuel Beckett’s most famous plays. It shows how Vladimir and Estragon wait for a mysterious character called Godot. Nothing happens aside from the dialogue between the two protagonists, yet the implications of this very successful play are numerous.Find out everything you need to know about Waiting for Godot in just a few minutes!

I can tell the difference between who I am and a side effect.The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limi...