In an oak-paneled room in Oxford, ten young punks with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and good wine. Welcome to the Riot Club.

Posh

Humor & Entertainment

Wade, Laura

Humor

Dramatist's Play Service

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world's most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: "how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?" The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre's most prolific dramatists.

Theatre in Times of Crisis: 20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times (Methuen Drama Play Collections, 39)

Literature & Fiction

Washburn, Anne

McDowall, Alistair

Ya-Chu Cowhig, Frances

Stephens, Simon

Thorpe, Chris

Bhatti, Gurpreet Kaur

Bond, Edward

Gupta, Tanika

Crouch, Tim

Adebayo, Mojisola

Ridley, Philip

Graham, James

Shinn, Christopher

Ellams, Inua

Prebble, Lucy

Malcolm, Morgan Lloyd

Patel, Vinay

Khalil, Hannah

Bhuchar, Sudha

Cooper, Zoe

Dramas & Plays

Methuen Drama

The second collection of work by Olivier award-winning British playwright Laura Wade, bursting with her trademark satirical humour and her sharp, witty insight into gender and privilege. Posh (2010): the cult sensation which propelled Laura Wade onto the national stage and inspired the film The Riot Club (2014). Based on Oxford's real-life Bullingdon Club, the play unfolds during an evening of debauchery in an all-male elite student dining society. Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (2010): a "play for voices" to be performed with an orchestra, re-imagining Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata as an intimate two-hander. Home, I'm Darling (2018): a dark comedy about marriage and relationships, following one woman in the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. The Watsons (2018): a sparkingly funny new take on the unfinished Jane Austen novel, catapulting the characters into a contemporary context whilst dealing with questions of authorship and writer's block.

Laura Wade Plays 2: Posh; Home, I'm Darling; The Watsons; Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Contemporary Dramatists)

Posh (Student Editions)

About the Author\nLaura Wade's plays include The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory), Home, I'm Darling (Theatr Clwyd, National Theatre and West End),Posh (Royal Court Theatre and West End), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Alice (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Globe Theatre, Sydney Opera House and Australian tour), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and MCC Theatre New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), Catch (Royal Court Theatre, written with four other playwrights), Young Emma (Finborough Theatre), 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement) and Limbo (Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield). Films include The Riot Club. Awards include the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura Wade's plays have been performed in the UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico.\nWhat happens when the writer loses the plot?\nEmma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast. If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife.\nLuckily there are plenty of potential suitors to dance with, from flirtatious Tom Musgrave to castle-owning Lord Osborne, who's as awkward as he is rich.\nSo far so familiar. But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now?\nBased on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what can characters do when their author abandons them?

The Watsons (Modern Plays)

Amy's found another body in a hotel bedroom.There's a funny smell coming from one of Jim's storage units.And Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police.There's no going back after what they've seen.Breathing Corpses was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2005.

Breathing Corpses (Modern Plays)

'If one of the problems facing new playwrights is the expectation that each of their plays should be similar in style, Wade...proved that you could radically change both form and content... Not every writer delivers on their early promise. As this collection clearly shows, Wade certainly has.' Aleks Sierz, from his IntroductionColder Than Here: 'Laura Wade's play is a 90-minute masterpiece, a jewel, dark bu ttranslucent. It is a play of love, death and grief: the grief that is hardest to bear, because it begins before the loved one dies.' Sunday TimesBreathing Corpses: 'The tension, the emotions and the sense of absurdity and fear are brilliantly handled... A terrifying tour de force.' Sunday TimesOther Hands: 'This is an extraordinary feat - a vicious satire with a heart of gold -wrought with peculiar subtlety and intelligence.' The Spectator

Laura Wade: Plays One (Oberon Modern Playwrights)

About the Author\nLaura Wade's plays include The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory), Home, I'm Darling (Theatr Clwyd, National Theatre and West End),Posh (Royal Court Theatre and West End), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Alice (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Globe Theatre, Sydney Opera House and Australian tour), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and MCC Theatre New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), Catch (Royal Court Theatre, written with four other playwrights), Young Emma (Finborough Theatre), 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement) and Limbo (Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield). Films include The Riot Club. Awards include the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura Wade's plays have been performed in the UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico.\nHow happily married are the happily married?\nHome, I'm Darling is a dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife.\nJudy has Johnny's slippers waiting for him when he arrives home from work, the kitchen's clean, the rooms are aired...yet this is not the 1950s, but a 21st-century 'arrangement' agreed between the two of them. With clothes, furniture and a (faulty) fridge from the 1950s, Judy and Johnny try to 'live the dream', with specific roles and a perfectly ordered life.

Home, I’m Darling (Modern Plays)

Colder than Here (Modern Plays, 6)

Parenting & Relationships

How happily married are the happily married?Every marriage needs a little fantasy to keep it sparkling. But behind the gingham curtains, being a domestic goddess isn’t as easy as it looks…Home, I’m Darling is Laura Wade’s new dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife

Home, I’m Darling (Oberon Modern Plays)

Oberon Books

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