“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 ...

2014 was a spectacular year for playwright Simon Stephens, who has been described by the Independent as 'a brilliant writer of immense imagination' and by the Financial Times as having 'emerged in this millennium as an outstanding playwright'.2014 was a year for Simon Stephens which featured a high number of world premiere plays including one for the theatre of his birthplace, Manchester's Royal Exchange, a major new play for the Downstairs space at London's Royal Court, and a Chek...

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...

'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...

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...

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.

Winner of Best Revival at the Olivier Awards 2024Winner of Best Play Revival at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2024Can you imagine if it was possible to completely change the way you live your life? To look at your life and ask yourself what you would do if it died. If your old life died. It ended. And then take what's left of your real life and live it properly. How can I do that, Michael? Where do I start?Chekhov's classic tale o...

A beautifully illustrated history of the early ship models of the Royal Navy that are prized today as works of art.From about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Royal Navy's administrators began to commission models of their ships that were accurately detailed and, for the first time, systematically to scale. These developed a recognized style, which included features like the unplanked lower hull with a simplified pattern of framing that emphasized the sha...

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...

My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507.Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, bu...

I drank three glasses of scotch and ginger ale before we'd even cleared Coney Island. I didn't want to come home. It was then that I decided to write you these letters.On a crisp winter day in New York, Willem gets the call. It's Mum. Pauli's died. Come back to Amsterdam.An unforgettable homecoming to an estranged family, a lost love, unsettling sex and an unexamined life.One of Stephens's most poetic plays to date, Song from Far Away received its ...

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...