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Contemporary Australian Plays Russell Vandenbrook (ed.) Methuen, 2006 $45.00pb
Contains - The Hotel Sorrento (Hannie Rayson), Dead White Males (David Williamson), Two (Ron Elisha), The 7 Stages of Grieving (Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman) & The Popular Mechanicals (Keith Robinson). 320 pages |
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Mikhail Bulgakov’s The White Guard in a version by Andrew Upton Andrew Upton Faber, 2010 $24.99pb
Drawing closely on Bulgakov's personal experiences of the horrors of civil war as a young doctor, The White Guard takes place in Kiev, 1918, a time of turmoil and suffocating uncertainty as the Bolsheviks, Socialists and Germans fight for control of the city. It tells the story of the Turbins, a once-wealthy Russian family, as they are forced to come to terms with revolution and a new regime. 112 pages |
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Modern Drama: Plays of the 80s and 90s Various Methuen Drama, 2006 $45.00pb
With an introduction by Graham Whybrow, literary manager of the Royal Court Theatre, this anthology collects the defining plays of the 1980s and 1990s in one volume - Top Girls 'The best British play ever from a woman dramatist' (The Guardian) Hysteria 'One of the most brilliantly original and entertaining new plays I have seen in years' (The Sunday Times) Blasted 'Her dialogue is both sparse and stunning. They will call her mad, but then they said that about Strindberg' (Mail on Sunday) Shopping and F***ing 'A real coup de theatre' (Evening Standard) The Beauty Queen of Leenane 'The most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist . . . a born storyteller' (New York Times) The result is a collection of must reads that's excellent value for students and theatre fans alike. 436 pages |
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The One-Act Play Companion: a guide to plays, playwrights & performance Ken Walford & Colin Dolley A&C Black, 2006 $39.95pb
The
one-act play stands apart as a distinct art form with some well known writers
providing specialist material, among them Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Harold
Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Albee and Tennesee Williams.
There are also lesser-known writers with plenty of material to offer, yet
sourcing one-act plays to perform is notoriously hard. |
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The Oxford Guide to Plays Michael Patterson Oxford University Press, 2007 $34.95pb
Ideal for students, scholars, theatre professionals, amateur drama enthusiasts and theatre-goers, The Oxford Guide to Plays provides essential information including title, author, dates of composition and first performance, genre, composition of the cast, plot synopsis and a brief commentary on 1,000 of the best-loved and most important plays in world theatre. An index of characters helps the reader to find particular characters and to trace the trajectory of major historical and legendary characters, and an index of playwrights enables the reader to find details of all the plays included by the author. The most significant plays – from The Oresteia to Waiting for Godot – are dealt with in more detail. 560 pages |
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The Book of Everything Richard Tulloch/ Guus Kuijer Currency Press, April 2010. $18.95pb
Thomas is nine and has started writing a book. His father says all important books are about God. Even so, Thomas writes down all the interesting things he sees that other people seem to ignore: tropical fish in the canal, a deluge of frogs, the Son of God popping in for a chat... He also writes down his greatest determination: When I grow up, I’m going to be happy. Featuring Jesus, the angels, the Bottombiter, the startling Mrs Van Amersfoort and a beautiful girl with a leather leg, this is a totally magical story about a child learning to act when faced with fear and wrong. 80 pages |
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The Caucasian Chalk Circle Bertolt Brecht Methuen Modern Plays, 2010 $24.99pb
The city burns in the heat of civil war and a servant girl sacrifices everything to protect an abandoned child. But when peace is finally restored, the boy's mother comes to claim him. Calling upon the ancient tradition of the Chalk Circle, a comical judge sets about resolving the dispute. But in a culture of corruption and deception, who wins? Written by the grand master of storytelling and peopled with vivid and amusing characters, this is one of the greatest plays of the last century. 144 pages |
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The Complete Plays – Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov/ Laurence Senelick (trans) W. W. Norton, 2007 $32.95pb
This stunning new translation presents the only truly complete edition of the plays of one of the greatest dramatists in history. Anton Chekhov is a unique force in modern drama, his works interpreted and adapted internationally and beloved for their brilliant wit and understanding of the human condition. This volume contains work never previously translated, including the newly discovered farce The Power of Hypnotism, the first version of Ivanov, Chekhov's early humorous dialogues, and a description of lost plays and those Chekhov intended to write but never did. 1136 pages |
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The Habit of Art Alan Bennett Faber, 2009 $27.99pb
Alan Bennett's first play since the runaway success of The History Boys is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. 112 pages |
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Japanese Plays: Classic Noh, Kyogen and Kabuki works A.L Sadler (trans., ed) Tuttle Publishing, 2010 $28.00pb
Nothing reflects the beauty of life as much as Japanese theatre. It is here that reality is held suspended and emptiness can fill the mind through words, music, dance, and mysticism. A.L. Sadler translates the mysteries of Noh, Kyogen, and Kabuki in his groundbreaking book, Japanese Plays. A seminal classic, it provides a cross section of Japanese theatre that gives the reader a sampler of its beauty and power. 360 pages |
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Monks, Bandits, Lovers and Immortals: eleven early Chinese plays Stephen West (ed) Hackett Publishing, 2010 $31.95pb
This magnificent collection of eleven early [1250–1450] Chinese plays will give readers a vivid sense of life and a clear understanding of dramatic literature during an extraordinarily eventful period in Chinese history. Not only are the eleven plays in this volume expertly translated into lively, idiomatic English, they are each provided with illuminating, scholarly introductions that are yet fully intelligible to the educated lay reader. 512 pages |
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Bruckner’s “Pains of Youth” Martin Crimp Faber, 2009 $27.99pb
A discontented post-war generation diagnose youth to be their sickness and do their best to destroy it. A shocking, erotically charged play by Austrian writer Ferdinand Bruckner, presented in a compelling new version by Martin Crimp. 96 pages |
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Scarlett O’Hara & Let the Sunshine David Williamson Currency Press, 2009 $24.95pb
Scarlett is a 36-year-old waitress who lives with her mother, has no boyfriend, and spends too much time watching old romantic movies. As Scarlett drifts deeper into her reveries of Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, she takes her place as the heroine in each of their movies. Let the Sunshine asks what happens when people of widely different political views are forced to co-exist. Toby, a maker of hard-hitting documentaries, flees Sydney with his wife after a blow up with the press. He arrives at his old childhood haven only to find the simple town has been transformed into a playground for the wealthy and his old friend has become married to a wealthy property developer. The scene is set for a vintage Williamson comedy. 160 pages |
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Strandline Abbie Spallen Faber, 2009 $27.99pb
Following the recent death of her husband, Mairin, an artist and an outsider living in a small coastal village in Northern Ireland, gathers three local women to her house. Each of the women has a reason for being there and a bloody good reason not to be there. These women have secrets. This community has secrets. And, as the evening passes, Mairin learns more than she bargained for about the man she had loved. Abbie Spallen was awarded the Dublin City Council Bursary for Literature in 2005 and made the Sunday Tribune's annual 'Most promising young people in Irish Theatre' list in 2002. 96 pages |
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Tales of Ballycumber Sebastian Barry Faber, 2010 $27.99pb
A startling and intimate portrayal of two unlikely companions connected more closely than they realise, both haunted by the plague of solitude and the Tales of Ballycumber. 96 pages |
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Tonight at 8.30: ten one-act plays Noel Coward Methuen Drama, 2009 $45.00pb
A collection of Coward's ambitious series of ten one-act plays - a sparkling, fast paced and remarkably varied selection of theatrical gems. Written as a vehicle for Coward's own acting talents, alongside his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, Tonight at 8:30 is his ambitious series of ten one-act plays with which he breathed new life into the one-act form. 304 pages |
