The hope is what matters.In a disused bunker on the edge of an imaginary city in the aftermath of an apocalypse, Ashton and Reece have spent years looking for hope in the stories they act out. And then one day, from nowhere, a stranger arrives. He has a generator. He has fresh meat. And he has a gun.The staggering new play from Tony and Olivier award-winning playwright Simon Stephens is part thriller, part excavation of the soul.This edition was published t...

“When we travel abroad we see our home with a clarity that we may never have been offered before.” (Simon Stephens)In this compelling international collection, Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens continues his bold interrogation of human fragility, connection, and transformation across cultures and continents.From the haunting intimacy of A Dark, Dark, Dark, Dark Blue, to the lyrical solitude of Maria, the existential ...

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 . . .William Carlisle has the world at his feet, but its weight on his shoulders. He is intelligent, articulate and f***ed. In the library of a grammar school, William and his fellow sixth-formers are preparing for their mock A-Levels while navigating the pressures of teenage life. They are educated and aspirationa...

Is this the strangest thing that two people have ever done in the history of the world?In this uncertain world, who can predict what brings people together? When two strangers meet by chance amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, their lives are changed forever.Multi-award-winning British playwright Simon Stephens brings his hit Broadway play to London for the first time. Brimming with blazing theatrical life it explores the uncertain and often comica...

LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME YOU'LL NEVER LEAVE ME.A woman wakes up with a stranger beside her. A student argues with his lover. A single mother fights to feed her baby. A married man flirts with two younger women. And far away, one devastating event is about to change all their lives forever.Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom says goodbye to the Royal Exchange with an extraordinary new play by Simon Stephens, with original music by Jarvis Cocker. Connecting five r...

Something is about to happen that will change one family forever. Set over the course of nine months, On the Shore of the Wide World is an epic play about love, family, Roy Keane and the size of the galaxy.

'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 and unnerving, with elements of The Catcher in the Rye, Punk Rock...

Harper Regan follows a woman's road trip through the heart of England in a violent and comic exploration of the moralities of sex and death. Quietly harrowing, this play is a barometer for our times exploring dark secrets and familial estrangement.Marine Parade is a musical about sex, betrayal and hope, set in a run-down B&B on Brighton's waterfront. A moving and poignant play, it 'captures the peculiar aroma of Brighton, with its mix of the bracing and the melanc...

Simon Stephens' explosive play Rage was written as a counterpoint for Elfriede Jelinek's Wut. Composed as31 high-energy scenes, each one is based on a series of photos by Joel Goodman which captured the excitement and the mayhem of New Year's Eve 2015/16 in Manchester city centre. Published in the Manchester Evening News the photos quickly went viral in capturing a vital cross-section of a country on the edge.As the clock strikes twelve the celebratory mood turns ...

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 South of France, having a daughter, photography, and the bottom of the sea. His tone is natural, happy and eng...

First collection from the 2004 Pearson Award-winning playwrightSimon Stephens Plays: 1 brings together four of the early plays from the winner of the 2002 Pearson Best New Play Award. Since Bluebird in 1998, Stephens has gained recognition for humane plays that display a sharp observation and compassionate response to the lives of ordinary people in urban locations.Bluebird: Cabbie Jimmy overhears the weird, wonderful and violent tales of his passengers he c...

Fatherland is a bold, ambitious show about contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions. Created by Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens (Punk Rock, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), this daring collage of words, music and movement confronts the complexities and contradictions of contemporary fatherhood.A vivid, urgent and deeply personal portrait of 21st-century England at...