'With great pleasure Leyla & Joel Invite you to celebrate their marriage.Dress code is smart casual. Doors at 7.30 p.m., followed by the exchange of vows. And at the signal, the entertainment will begin.(This performance is being staged without a licence from the Ministry. We recognise the risk that each and every one of you is taking by attending and we salute your courage.)'A Mirror is an elusive, explosive play by Sam Holcroft, i...

A dark and compelling vision of a world infected by violence.A seemingly normal detention in a seemingly normal modern-day comprehensive school. A teacher valiantly battles on with biology revision. She believes only education will set her pupils free. For outside the classroom, the world is in the middle of a long and bloody war.Despite her best efforts, the tide of conflict is soon lapping at the school gates and, one by one, pupils and teacher are pulled under as their h...

A gripping journey through British history that shows how our country was shaped and how connected we are with our past.Across seven centuries, small groups of children seek sanctuary in the same solid old wardrobe. It's the safest place they know – but is it safe enough?Sam Holcroft's play The Wardrobe was commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK. With a variety of roles for young actors,...

A collection of wide-ranging and ambitious short plays reflecting the complexities of women and political power in the United Kingdom.The five plays in this volume look at the impact and influence that women have today.In Acting Leader by Joy Wilkinson, Margaret Beckett finds herself Acting Leader of the Opposition after the sudden death of John Smith.The Panel by Zinnie Harris is about the power politics underlying the selection of any candidate.

Two careers hang in the balance. Self-made millionaire Kim Keen is one of the most successful businesswomen in the country. As she prepares to launch her latest range on national television an unexpected visitor arrives in her dressing room with a different set of priorities to promote.Sam Holcroft's short play Pink was first performed at the Tricycle Theatre, London, as part of the Women, Power and Politics season in June 2010.

Double Feature brings together – in two volumes of paired short plays – four of the most exciting new voices in UK theatre, in their first commissions for the National Theatre.This volume, Double Feature: One, contains:***Edgar & Annabel***by Sam HolcroftAn Orwellian dystopian fable about a group of freedom fighters attempting to stand up to a repressive regime, while being continuously subjected to surveillance.A young couple prepare dinne...

An Orwellian dystopian fable about a group of freedom fighters attempting to stand up to a repressive regime, while being continuously subjected to surveillance.A young couple prepare dinner – but something isn't right. In a city not so different from our own capital, a group of freedom fighters attempts to stand up to an Orwellian establishment in increasingly perilous circumstances. The story that unfolds brings into question relationships, identities and the nature of reality it...

Six plays by some of the most exciting and distinctive female voices in British theatre, exploring the heartbreaking truth about the lives of women in the criminal justice system.The plays were commissioned and premiered by Clean Break, a theatre and education company working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.Included in this volume:Fatal Light by Chloë Moss, about a young mother's inability to cope with separation fro...

Everyone creates their own coping strategies or rules for living. But what happens when an extended family gathers in the kitchen for a traditional Christmas and they each follow those rules, rigidly?As long-held mechanisms for survival are laid bare, even Mum, who's been preparing this lunch since last January, becomes embroiled. Time-honoured rivalries and resentments will out. Accusations fly, relationships deconstruct, the rules take over.In Sam Holcroft's theatrically ...

Drawing together the work of ten leading playwrights - a mixture of established and emerging writers - this National Theatre Connections anthology is published to coincide with the 2014 festival, which takes place across the UK and finishes up at the National Theatre in London. It offers young performers between the ages of thirteen and nineteen everywhere an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study.Each play is specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's liter...

A short play laying bare the twisted loyalties and violence in teenage gangs.Sam Holcroft's Dancing Bears was first performed at Soho Theatre, London, as part of Clean Break's Charged season in November 2010.

She fell in love with him, they married and then she found out who he was: a conman who was determined to destroy her.The instant bestselling story of Lee Mackenzie, who was a capable and confident young woman, studying broadcast journalism and honing her skills of observation and objectivity. She was also a little unworldly, the product of a small, rural Western Canadian community where doors were never locked and life was simple and direct. On a backpacking trip ...