Harry wants to leave an Inheritance for his sons. So, going against life-long political convictions, he joins the property-owning class. Then the economic crisis hits.A timely, comic and poignant exploration of how a worldwide recession impacts on the lives of ordinary people, Mike Packer's Inheritance opened at Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in November 2010.

As portrayed in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War. As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures around the Mediterranean - slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, ...

This comprehensive eBook presents significant works of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook - easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate: • A Doll's House: a play • Hedda Gabler • Ghosts • En folkefiende. English • A Doll's House • Bygmester Solness. English • When We Dead Awaken • The Lady from the Sea • Figures of Several CenturiesArthur Symons • Ghosts: A Domestic Tragedy in Three Acts • Pillars of Society • Rosmersholm • Little Eyolf • John Gabriel Borkman • Early Plays — Catiline, the...

A concise guide to playwriting to awaken creativity, from a playwright who has taught the subject for over a decade."If you want to be a playwright, here's your bible." —David Lindsay-Abaire, author of Fuddy Meers and Wonder of the WorldDuring the more than ten years that Sturt Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular guides contain...

Pygmalion (1913) is a play by George Bernard Shaw based on the Greek myth of Pygmalion. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics (based on phonetician Henry Sweet), who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. In the process, Higgins and Doolittle grow close, but she ultimately re...

This "gripping, disturbing, and often blackly comic drama" explores the historic connection between Stalin and Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov ( The Daily Telegraph, UK).A "rare and special" play by the screenwriter of Trainspotting and Shallow Grave, Collaborators is inspired by the true story of another play: one that Mikhail Bulgakov was forced to write in commemoration Joseph Stalin's sixtieth birthday ( The Times, U...

Write a Play - and Get It Performed is designed for would-be writers of every level and for all types of motivation by two prize-winning professionals. Whether writing for the specific needs of an amateur drama group, community event, political campaign or simply for personal or professional development, this is a guide to the craft of playwriting. It offers guidance on the creative principles of scripts, characters, plot, structure and dialogue and explains the principles of staging and s...

Bill Johnson uses reviews of Romeo and Juliet, The Heidi Chronicles, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and The Iceman Cometh to teach the art and craft of writing powerful plays. Using these plays, he shows how new playwrights can learn the craft of writing for theater from masters of the stage.Bill is author of the website, A Story is a Promise, where he writes about popular novels, films, and plays. He's also the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, a popular h...

Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright David Mamet’s Romance is an uproarious, take-no-prisoners courtroom comedy that gleefully lampoons everyone from lawyers and judges, to Arabs and Jews, to gays and chiropractors.It’s hay fever season, and in a courtroom a judge is popping antihistamines. He listens to the testimony of a Jewish chiropractor, who’s a liar, according to his anti-Semitic defense attorney. The prosecutor, a homosexual, is having a domestic squabble with his love...

I have spoken very clearly with her and I have told her that she is new here and that she must live how we live.'A woman arrives in a rural village in pre-industrial England. Her desire is to sew and learn from their simple way of life. But the group soon begins to suspect she is not who they thought she was.'There's no point in just making quilts. They have to serve the village. They have to DO something.

In the aftermath of the massacre of a clan, an epic story of self-sacrifice and revenge unfolds as a young orphan discovers the shattering truth behind his childhood. Sometimes referred to as the Chinese Hamlet and tracing its origins to the 4th century BC, The Orphan of Zhao was the first Chinese play to be translated in the West.James Fenton's adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao premiered with the RSC at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in November 20...

Misalliance is a play written in 1909-1910 by George Bernard Shaw. Misalliance takes place entirely on a single Saturday afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house in Hindhead, Surrey in Victorian era England. It is a continuation of some of the ideas on marriage that he expressed in 1908 in his play, Getting Married. It was also a continuation of some of his other ideas on Socialism, physical fitness, the Life Force, and "The New Woman": i.e. women intent on escaping Victorian...