Marlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill’s play prompts us to question our notions of women's success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women's choices and restrictions regarding career and family. This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind.

In this collection of plays from one of our finest dramatists, Caryl Churchill demonstrates her remarkable ability to find new forms to express profound truths about the world we live in. Complete with a new introduction by the author.

Included in this volume are Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, about witchcraft in the seventeenth century; Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, an account of the lives of four young women by Pam Gems; Louise Page's Tissue, about breast cancer; and Aurora Leigh, adapted by Michelene Wandor herself from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's verse novel. Each play has an afterword by its author, and the volume opens with an introduction by the editor.

Distinguished playwright David Edgar examines the mechanisms and techniques which dramatists throughout the ages have employed to structure their plays and to express their meaning. Written for playwrights and playgoers alike, Edgar's analysis starts with the building blocks of whole plays - plot, character creation, genre and structure - and moves on to scenes and devices. He shows how plays share a common architecture without which the uniqueness of their authors' vision would be invisible. What does King Lear have in common with Cinderella? What does Jaws owe to Ibsen? From Aeschylus to Alan Ayckbourn, from Chekhov to Caryl Churchill, are there common principles by which all plays work? "How Plays Work" is a masterclass for playwrights and playmakers and a fascinating guide to the anatomy of drama.

'Postwar' is both a period and a state of mind, a sensibility comprised of hope, fear and fatigue in which British society and its writers paradoxically yearned both for political transformation and a nostalgic re-instatement of past securities. From the Labour landslide victory of 1945 to the emergence of the Cold War and the humiliation of Suez in 1956, this was a period of radical political transformation in Britain and beyond, but these changes resisted literary assimilation. Arguing that writing and history do not map straightforwardly one onto the other, and that the postwar cannot easily be fitted into the explanatory paradigms of modernism or postmodernism, this book offers a more nuanced recognition of what was written and read in the period. From wartime radio writing to 1950s travellers, cold war poetry to radical theatre, magazine cultures to popular fiction, this volume examines important debates that animated postwar Britain.

A brilliant adaptation of Stoker's timeless work that inspired many horror genres, gothic drama, theatrical, film and TV interpretations.

Excerpt from Little Women: Or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy

'Magical' Daily Mail'I finished it with an ache in my heart and a tear in my eye' SpectatorFrom the author of Cider With Rosie, Village Christmas is a moving, lyrical portrait of England through the changing years and seasons. Laurie Lee left his childhood home in the Cotswolds when he was nineteen, but it remained with him throughout his life until, many years later, he returned for good. This collection brings to life the sights, sounds, landscapes and traditions of his home - from centuries-old May Day rituals to his own patch of garden, from carol singing in crunching snow to pub conversations and songs. Here too he writes about the mysteries of love, living in wartime Chelsea, Winston Churchill's wintry funeral and his battle, in old age, to save his beloved Slad Valley from developers. Told with a warm sense of humour and a powerful sense of history, Village Christmas brings us a picture of a vanished world.'Brings to life the landscapes and traditions of Lee's home in Gloucestershire, from centuries-old May Day rituals and carol-singing on Christmas Eve, to his battle in old age to save his beloved Slad valley from developers' Guardian'Simply written, observant and shot through with Lee's characteristic humility ... Against his whitewashed prose are touches of beauty' The Times Literary Supplement

Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, set during the English Civil War, tells the story of the men and women who went into battle for the soul of England. Passionate, moving and provocative, it speaks of the revolution we never had and the legacy it left behind. In the aftermath of the Civil War, England stands at a crossroads. Food shortages, economic instability, and a corrupt political system threaten to plunge the country into darkness and despair. The Parliament men who fought against the tyranny of the King now argue for stability and compromise, but the people are hungry for change. For a brief moment, a group of rebels, preachers, soldiers and dissenters dare to imagine an age of hope, a new Jerusalem in which freedom will be restored to the land. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1976, the play was revived at the National Theatre in 1996 and again in 2015, in a production directed by Lyndsey Turner.

From esteemed British playwright Caryl Churchill - a fast moving kaleidoscope - in which more than a hundred characters try to make sense of what they know. Someone sneezes. Someone can't get a signal. Someone shares a secret. Someone won't answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone's not ready to talk. Someone is her brother's mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone's never felt like this before.

A short play about death by Caryl Churchill. A funeral party for a man with an adventurous past and a ginger cat that needs a home. Where is he now? Is his heart lighter than a feather? How did he die? And what happens to his friends? Here We Go premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2015.

"I'm walking down the street and there's a door in the fence open and inside there are three women I've seen before." Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

A fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture. Bernard thought he was an only child. One day he learns the shocking truth: he is just one of a number of clones. Together, he and his father confront epic questions of identity, intimacy and belonging.

Two exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one act plays from one of the UK's leading playwrights.Heart's Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter's return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions.Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek's plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus.In Caryl Churchill's ever inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships.This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its Royal Court premiere, in a co production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.

A fascinating meditation on human cloning, personal identity and the conflicting claims of nature and nurture. Bernard thought he was an only child. One day he learns the shocking truth: he is just one of a number of clones. Together, he and his father confront epic questions of identity, intimacy and belonging. A Number pushes the boundaries of science and ethics with an astonishing twist on the dynamics of the father/son relationship. It was originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play. This edition was published alongside a revival by the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, which subsequently transferred to the Young Vic, London, in 2015, and featured real-life father and son John and Lex Shrapnel.

Caryl Churchill's The Skriker is an extraordinary collision of ancient fairytale and fractured urban England. This edition of the play was published alongside its revival at the 2015 Manchester International Festival. In a broken world, two girls meet an extraordinary creature. The Skriker is a shapeshifter and death portent. She can be an old woman, a child, a young man. She is a faerie come from the Underworld to pursue and entrap them, through time and space, through this world and her own. The Skriker was originally produced at the National Theatre, London, in 1994. It was revived at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2015, as part of the Manchester International Festival, starring Maxine Peake, directed by Sarah Frankcom and featuring specially commissioned music by Nico Muhly and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons.

Die englische Dramatikerin Caryl Churchill ist die erfolgreichste und experimentierfreudigste Theaterautorin der Welt. Bisherige Deutungen demonstrieren eine Tendenz zu Verwirrtheit und grober Vereinfachung. Stolls offene Interpretationen zeigen das Streben nach menschlicher Selbstverwirklichung als Grundthema aller Werke Churchills auf. Darin erweist sie sich als Feministin. Postmodern ist Churchills Feminismus in der Problematisierung von Selbstverwirklichung, im Aufzeigen der Bruchigkeit konventioneller Normen und der totalen Offenheit beim Experimentieren mit neuen Moglichkeiten."

This book of contemporary monologues for women includes pieces from the best of the last three decades of contemporary playwriting, from Caryl Churchill and Michael Frayn to Martin McDonagh and Sarah Kane. Including pieces by award-winning British playwrights, here are pieces both serious and comic providing the actor with all the challenges of performing contemporary plays. The book is an invaluable resource for auditions, acting class, competitions and rehearsals. A fuller appreciation of each monologue is provided by Chrys Salt's invaluable commentaries, giving clues as to possible direction and setting each piece in the context of the play as a whole.Praise for Chrys Salt's Make Acting Work: "A really useful book for every actor to own" Prunella Scales; "This book should be part of every resourceful actor's armoury" Annette Badland