A new sparkling and witty version by Roger McGough of Molière's comedy published as a programme text to accompany the premiere at the Liverpool Everyman on 9 May 2008. Tartuffe is a beacon of piety and in the home of wealthy merchant Orgon he has his feet firmly under the table. But all is not as it seems and as Orgon becomes more enraptured with his new companion the whole city is chattering. Is he a friend, a fraud, a miracle or a hypocrite? The family smell a rat and amidst the frills and frivolity of seventeenth century society they hatch a cunning plan to outwit the wily deceiver before he brings their house crashing down. Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664 but the play was banned following its first production in Paris; it wasnt until 1669 that it was revived and became one of his greatest successes.

It's Mother's Day and mother is dead. Now her two sons gather in her home to argue about the truth of their childhood. But a storm is approaching. . . with violent truth all of its own

A programme text edition of Brecht's famous parable, this new translation by David Harrower is published to accompany the production at the Young Vic, London, in May 2008 and is based on a previously unpublished version of Brecht's play. Three Gods are on a journey to find out if there are any good people left on earth. Only Shen Te, a good-hearted prostitute, offers them shelter. With the money they give her she opens a tobacco shop. At once everyone needs her help. Her livelihood is in danger. Worse, she is falling in love with Sun, a pilot, who is robbing her blind. Her hard hearted cousin Shui Ta arrives to protect her. Who is he and how can good people stay good in a world of poverty and cruelty?

Mark Ravenhill's Daily Special: A bite-sized premiere for each day of the Fringe. Freshly rehearsed with a sizzling cast, accompanied by the aroma of coffee and bacon butties. Treat your tastebuds to a new sensation every day.

In her late forties, Harper Regan suddenly leaves her family in the suburbs of West London and sets off on a mission to see her father before he dies. Her journey becomes a road trip through the heart of England in this violent and comic exploration of the moralities of sex and death.

This second volume of plays brings together five plays from 2001-07. It includes Mother Clap's Molly House, a black comedy and celebration of human sexuality that premiered at the National Theatre in 2001; Citizenship, a bitter-sweet comedy about growing up that was developed by the National Theatre's Shell Connections programme in 2005; The Cut, a disturbing political fable that opened at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006; Product, Ravenhill's one man satire on the media industry that since its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005, has been produced around the world, and Pool (no water), a shocking examination of the fragility of friendship and the jealousy and resentment inspired by success.

Arguably the twentieth century's finest playwright, Arthur Miller's landmark works include Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. The Man Who Had All The Luck, Miller's first play to be produced, premiered in New York in November 1944. The first UK production was in April 1960. This publication will coincide with the opening of the Donmar Warehouse production on 28 February 2008. Blessed with good fortune, David Beeves' life can't get much better. But as the lives of those around him begin to crumble, he starts to question his own destiny. Arthur Miller's great American fable follows one man's struggle to change his fate, and asks the question - is there such a thing as too much luck?

House of Agnes is the second play by Levi Addai, described as 'an attractive new talent' by the Independent after his 2005 debut 93.2FM. The play is published as a programme text to coincide with the production by Paines Plough that opens at the Oval House, London in March 2008. After forty years of building a home in London, Agnes is retiring and moving back to Ghana. Her final wish is for her sons to live together under the same roof when she is gone. But her eldest, Sol, is living with a girlfriend Agnes loathes, and he won't move home until Agnes accepts her, and younger brother Caleb will do whatever it takes to inherit the house - except share it with Sol. As her departure draws closer, tensions in Agnes' house rise to breaking point. Will she trust her twenty-first century boys and finally allow them to be men? Who will own the House of Agnes?

A dark love story, written in response to The Tempest, Leo Butler's I'll Be the Devil is set in occupied Ireland in 1775. Knowing that her soldier lover is leaving for England, a local woman unleashes a sequence of events that will result in tragedy for both their children. With a poetic fearlessness Leo Butler looks at what happens when a brutal foreign power is in intimate and callous contact with the primitive heart of an ancient society. This is an epic play that marks an exciting departure from the stark realism of Butler's earlier work and that provides a powerful demonstration of Butler's maturity and ambition as a writer.

Sixteen-year-old Kelly has never known her Dad. Turns out he's from Iraq, which her mum never mentioned, and he's brought an ancient Mesopotamian vase as some kind of present. But Kelly doesn't want a vase. She wants her dad to stay and get to know her. It's not the reunion either of them expected and for Kelly, it's the beginning of an epic and dangerous journey.

Blue/Orange: An incendiary tale of race, madness and power set in a psychiatric hospital. 'Britain's best new play since Michael Frayn's Copenhagen ... thrillingly original' Financial Times Dumb Show sees TV star Barry caught in a tense game of manipulation and entrapment in this satire on the fame game and the media industry: 'Penhall brings the same sharpness and wit to Dumb Show that he did to his hugely successful Blue/Orange' The Times Wild Turkey (1993): a characteristically taut work about the acrimonious relationships of people in a late-night burger bar.

Butler Plays: 1 brings together into one volume four of the major plays by this award-winning author. Praised for the gritty detail and realism of his work, Leo Butler has quietly established a reputation in recent years as a potent and skilfull documenter of contemporary social and moral issues. Made of Stone produced in the Royal Court Young Writers' Festival 2000, was praised for its 'rock-hard characterisation with buzzing dialogue' (Evening Standard). In Redundant 'Butler boldly creates a psychologically complex female lead, surrounding her with unjudged dead-beats, each distinctively vocalising caustic Sheffield Vernacular. He also looks to be a master of stage craft, subtly manipulating his audience and characters with dramatic reversals, before arriving at an ending that is inevitable, surprising and loaded with pity and fear.' (Evening Standard). Lucky Dog is a startlingly sensitive depiction of one couple's relationship. Michael Billington commented, 'I am still astonished by Butler's profound understanding of marital solitude. Nothing much happens on the surface, yet underneath a lot goes on as Sue and Eddie, a Sheffield couple in their late fifties, share a solitary Christmas.' (Guardian). The Early Bird taps into the darkest fears of any parent " the disappearance of their child " to brilliantly capture the nightmare of recrimination and loss. It premiered at the Belfast Theatre Festival in October 2006.

A wild storm shakes a small East Anglian seaside village and sets off a series of events that changes the lives of all its residents. Set in the high Edwardian world of 1907, The Sea is a fascinating blend of wild farce, high comedy, biting social satire and bleak poetic tragedy.

Roy Williams has a deserved reputation as one of the most exciting young writers whose plays have electrified the sort of audiences most theatres rarely see: streetwise urban youth. 'His plays have brought the experience of black urban youth onto the stage' (Observer).This third collection of plays, introduced by the author, showcases the diversity, the moral probing and the fine ear for authentic dialogue characteristic of his writing:

From bringing him coffee to getting him laid, it's up to new assistant and aspiring screenwriter Guy to satisfy every whim of the incendiary Buddy Ackerman, powerful movie producer and the boss from hell. Blinded by the promise of a fast track up the Hollywood ladder, Guy is about to find out that moviemaking is not for the faint-hearted. If he's going to rise to the top, then he'll need to play by Buddy's rules. And Buddy plays dirty. An incisive look into the cut-throat world of Hollywood.

Joe Boateng, the 'David Beckham' of his generation, is Ghanaian. Naomi, his childhood sweetheart is British and of Jamaican parentage. With Joe's escalating celebrity status comes huge sacrifices, accusations of selling out, temptations and life changing choices. Joe Guy is a stark and powerful contemporary story exploring the historical tension and bitter prejudices existing between African and Caribbean British communities. It looks at how young descendants from Africa distance themselves from a unified urban Black Britain. This urgent examination of identity and celebrity is told in Tiata Fahodzi's renowned visceral style.

Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful. The Ugly One is a scalpel sharp comedy on beauty, identity and getting ahead in life

'A red button. From a red coat. . . I collected them. From every coat of every new arrival at the orphanage, before they were sold to the rag man. And I would wait until they were at their homesick worst. A penny to hold it, a shilling to keep it' Flower Girls is the funny, beautifully observed and uplifting story of a group of disabled women who live and work at The Crippleage, Edgware. Inspired by the personal testimony and reminiscences of real-life Flower Girls, the play shifts effortlessly between the unsettled early years of World War II and the seemingly more liberated world of 1965. Their stories reveal an indomitable spirit and a fierce determination to find their place in the world, a world that prefers to keep them at a safe distance.

At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered. And all hell breaks loose.

It's not easy keeping your head above water in Deptford. How do you impress your son when you can barely put food on the table? What Simon's got is worth more than gold; but he needs to stop his home, his family and his future from slipping through his fingers.

Ireland's award-winning Rough Magic Theatre Company present this modern comedy of sexual policy and emotional manners at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin Theatre Festival. When Daniel walks up to shop assistant Cathy and tells her he wants to buy a bra 'for himself' it's their first step in a passionate affair. Meanwhile, their respective partners, Kay and Paul, are having sex together during lunch. But if everyone is getting what they want, why is no-one happy? Kay's friend Angela thinks she has all the answers - but does she? Is this about Sex? is a modern relationship comedy about the serious matter of sex and what it means to be a man or a woman in a world that's just not as simple as it used to be...

In this absurdist comedy two lovers escape to a discreet and charming Parisian hotel ,conjured from a desert landscape. As the walls, door and crimson curtains of Room 322 materialise around the playwright and his lead actress,a fumbling of fastenings ensues. But they're not the only couple intent on escaping from reality. . .The Crimson Hotel has its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London, on 25 July 2007. The volume also features the 1991 one-act play, Audience.

Frank is an ordinary bloke who likes smoking, history and playing House of the Dead 3. He can put up with his job on a cinema kiosk until a new supervisor arrives who is younger than him. And Asian. The conflict that arises provokes a spiral of lies and eventual violence that uncovers Franks façade and raises questions about identity and race in modern Britain.

Qualms? Oh yeah, sure, I have qualms. Everybody has qualms. But I'll overcome them. To his familys horror, Ned reveals hes the brains behind a new military technology so sophisticated, so extraordinary, it will revolutionise the nature of warfare. Its only when the Ministry of Defence demands intellectual ownership that Ned begins to question himself, resisting the might of the weapons industry with frightening consequences. Landscape with Weapon is a wry account of private anguish, public responsibility and a problem with no solution. The play premiered at the National Theatre on 20 March 2007.

Thou shalt not kill 168 and live.' A famous author comes face-to-face with America s most notorious terrorist. One has a story to write,the other has a story to tell. As the clock ticks on Death Row, the bond between the two men grows. Terre Haute is a haunting dramatisation based on the relationship between Gore Vidal and Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh whom he visited while on Death Row. A scorching new play by one of America s greatest living writers, it premiered to critical acclaim at the Edinbrugh Fringe Festival in August 2006, before touring the UK in spring 2007.

Based on the Booker-shortlisted novel by Rohinton Mistry and adapted by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith, this programme text edition of A Fine Balance is published to coincide with Tamasha Theatre Company's 2007 revival and tour of the hit play. India, 1975, and a callous government has declared a State of Emergency. In these uncertain times Dina Dalal - a spirited Parsi widow determined to avoid a second marriage - takes a student boarder and two Hindu tailors into her ramshackle flat. As the cruel policies of slum clearances and enforced birth control bring chaos to the city, the four strangers whose lives have become inextricably linked find themselves crossing divides of caste, class and religion to form the most unexpected of friendships. A Fine Balance vividly captures an astonishing moment in Indias history with a tender story of exceptional human spirit. Produced by Tamasha - creator of the groundbreaking East is East and the award-winning musical Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral - it was first seen at Hampstead Theatre in 2006, where it enjoyed a sell-out run.

A two-play edition featuring Anthony Neilson's companion plays, The Wonderful World of Dissocia (2004) and Realism (2006), both produced by the National Theatre of Scotland. Produced originally for the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival, The Wonderful World of Dissocia wowed critics and audiences alike. This is a hugely original play, both magical and moving, that confirmed Anthony Neilson as one of major voices in contemporary British Theatre. The entire original cast and creative team have been reunited for this keenly anticipated revival. Lisa Jones is on a journey. It's a colourful and exciting off-kilter trip in search of one lost hour that has tipped the balance of her life. The inhabitants of the wonderful world she finds herself in ' Dissocia ' are a curious blend of the funny, the friendly and the brutal. As Neilson himself put it, 'If you like Alice in Wonderland but there's not enough sex and violence in it, then Dissocia is the show for you'. Realism premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2006. It follows the life of one man during an ordinary day but veers off from the commonplace to become a deliriously surreal trip inside his wayward imagination. It was described by the Guardian as a 'bold and utterly distinctive all-singing, all-dancing show, like nothing else you'll ever see'

A programme text produced with the National Theatre of Scotland to coincide with the UK tour, Aalst is a powerful and disturbing drama about two parents who murder their children. The play is based on real events from the Belgian town of Aalst in 1999 where the ensuing high profile and dramatic trial led to much soul-searching in the Belgian media. A young couple check into a hotel with their two small children. A week passes before the police make a chilling discovery. In 2005 Belgian theatre company, Victoria, dramatised the case, working from source material including statements and interviews, TV footage of the trial and a documentary on the murder investigation. Produced in theatres and festivals across Europe, Aalst has built a reputation as a powerful and complex piece of modern theatre which raises disturbing questions that have no easy answer.

A real man is strong. A real man is driven. A real man provides. A father finds himself being phased out of his son's life. Denied access to his only child, he goes to extraordinary lengths to hold on to him. My Child throws us into a violent world where good intentions count for very little, and offers an incisive, honest look at what it means to be a good parent. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, this is a remarkably powerful and affecting work from a writer hailed by The Stage as 'one of the most exciting new talents to emerge in recent times'.

On the surface, Steven has everything. A beautiful wife, a successful business, a brand new home. But beneath the glittering veneer lies a monstrous secret . . . 'You believe him cos he wraps all the painful stuff in feathers and flowers. Makes it all safe and cosy. You can't feel the broken glass inside.' Leaves of Glass is a rich, complex play about two brothers and the hold that the past and memory has on them. Haunted by the death of his father and a car accident involving a young child, Steve finds his life unraveling and his pregnant wife unable to comprehend his pain and sense of loss. Known for his dark disturbing dramas, Ridley's latest play is a deeply human drama that shifts between elegy for the past and a chilling exploration of the power of loss and grief.

"It's not just what he's done that makes me want to kill him. It's everything about him that makes me want to kill him. Listen to me. And me a May Queen an' all" Frank Donohue is dead. Murdered. And as the culprits bury his death in the chaos of the Blitz, Theresa Donohue prays for revenge. Revenge for her father, her brother and herself. But if vengeance is the Lord's then who will pull the trigger? The May Queen is a dark and brutal thriller set against the backdrop of wartime Merseyside. In his professional homecoming, award-winning Liverpool writer Stephen Sharkey, whose work has been produced in London and Edinburgh, brings us a story of love, family and the price of retribution. The play is a programme text produced with the Liverpool Everyman Theatre where it opens in May 2007.

A student edition of five one-act plays by Britain's most popular playwright. Ayckbourn's series of plays for 4-5 actors typify his black comedies of human behaviour. The plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the problem of loneliness. The Mother Figure shows a mother unable to escape from baby talk; in The Drinking Companion an absentee husband attempts seduction without success; in Between Mouthfuls, a waiter oversees a fraught dinner encounter. A garden party gets out of hand in Gosforth's Fete whilst A Talk in the Park is a revue style curtain call piece for the five actors. Whether the comedies concern marital conflict, infidelity or motherhood and take place on a park bench or at a village fete, the characters are familiar and their cries for help instantly recognisable.

A first volume of four plays from the Amercian playwright whose play Dying City was a critical and popular success at the Royal Court Theatre in May 2006. · Other People is set in New York among a twenty-something generation whose lives and hopes are blighted by disillusionment born of affluence and impotence in the face of the unknown. The play premièred in March 2000. · Where Do We Live, set in a post-September 11 world, asks to what extent New York's liberal multicultural society is under threat and how much we should care about the state in which our neighbours live. · The Coming World moves from Shinn's usual Manhattan environment to the coast of New England, where Dora is persuaded, against her better judgement, to help her ex, Ed, in a desperate attempt to escape from spiralling debt. Produced at the Soho Theatre in 2001. · Dying City shifts between 2004 and 2005 - the eve of one brother's departure for Iraq and the day that his twin brother visits his now widowed sister-in-law. The play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in May 2006 to great critical acclaim.

Yerma (meaning 'Barren') is one of three tragic plays about peasants and rural life that make up Lorca's 'rural trilogy'. It is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. The woman's barrenness becomes a metaphor for her marriage in a traditional society that denies women sexual or social equality. Her desperate desire for a child drives her to commit a terrible crime at the end of the play. This Student Edition comes complete with a full introduction; plot synopsis; commentary on characters, context and themes; bibliography; chronology, and questions for study.