This is the first book-length study of the work of contemporary writer Bernard Kops. Born on November 28, 1926 to Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Bernard Kops became famous after the production of his play The Hamlet of Stepney Green: A Sad Comedy with Some Songs in 1958. This play, like much of his work, focuses on the conflicts between young and old. Identified as an “angry young man,” Kops, like his contemporaries John Osborne, Shelagh Delaney, and Harold Pinter, belonged to the so-called new ...

"In celebrating the spirit of optimism that shines through the thoughts and dreams of one extraordinary thirteen-year-old during the darkest of times, Bernard Kops has created a dramatic masterpiece" (Time Out)"This play has been a catalyst in stimulating young people not only to question the past but also to confront the very real issues of racism today." (Jenny Culank, Artistic Director of Classworks Theatre, Cambridge)In 1942 Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, was forced i...

The Dream of Peter Mann was first produced at the Edinburgh Lyceum in 1960 and is a bold exploration of what it is to live in a world threatened by nuclear annihilation.In Enter Solly Gold, an irreverent and much lighter work, Kops' protagonist fleeces a family of vulgar snobs, reducing them to penury but also introducing them to an enjoyment of life.Who Shall I Be Tomorrow? was a hit at the Greenwich Theatre in 1982 with J...

An anthology of plays and original radio dramas from the prolific playwrightBorn and brought up in the East End of London, Bernard Kops came to fame in the late 1950s as part of British drama’s ‘New Wave’. A lyrical chronicler of Jewish family life, he is often compared to Arnold Wesker and Harold Pinter, though his work is more sentimental and surreal.In a 50-year career, he wrote 10 novels, numerous poetry collections, two autobiographies and over 40 stag...