Nick Hern Books

Drama Classics series

The world's great plays at a great little price

Each pocket-sized volume contains:

  • a full introduction
  • an author biography
  • notes on historical and theatrical context
  • a plot synopsis
  • key dates
  • a further reading list
  • a glossary of unusual words and phrases (English-language texts)

The texts are presented uncut (with the exception of Faust, which is adapted for staging in a single evening) and uncluttered with footnotes; the translations are accurate and actable.

See also Drama Classic Collections.

Showing 73-94 of 94 items.
The Shoemakers' Holiday

The Shoemakers' Holiday

By Thomas Dekker

A rumbustious Elizabethan comedy featuring identity fraud, love triangles and a marriage proposal disguised as a shoe fitting. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author

By Luigi Pirandello Translated by Stephen Mulrine

Pirandello's most famous play, about the nature of theatre and the problems of theatricality. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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Slave Ubu

Slave Ubu

By Alfred Jarry

The third and final part of The Ubu Plays, Alfred Jarry's surreal and hilarious satire of power, greed, and bourgeois pretension. Slave Ubu concludes the adventures of Pa Ubu.

Published in volume Ubu
    The Spanish Tragedy

    The Spanish Tragedy

    By Thomas Kyd

    A ghoulish and bloody 16th-century tragedy. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Spring Awakening

    Spring Awakening

    By Frank Wedekind Translated by Julian Forsyth and Margarete Forsyth

    Frank Wedekind's famously banned German play about adolescent sexuality.

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    Summerfolk

    Summerfolk

    By Maxim Gorky Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    Gorky's magnificent play about the Russian bourgeois social class and the changes occurring around them in the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Tartuffe

    Tartuffe

    By Molière Translated by Martin Sorrell

    Moliere's comic masterpiece about an irreclaimable hypocrite - one of the most famous French plays of all time.

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    Three Sisters

    Three Sisters

    By Anton Chekhov Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    Chekhov's masterpiece of provincial claustrophobia, translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

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    'Tis Pity She's a Whore

    'Tis Pity She's a Whore

    By John Ford

    A classic tragedy of incestuous love between brother and sister. Published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    Ubu

    Ubu

    The Ubu Plays: King Ubu, Cuckold Ubu & Slave Ubu

    By Alfred Jarry Translated by Kenneth McLeish

    Alfred Jarry's trilogy of plays about the comically grotesque character of Pa Ubu, satirising power, greed, and bourgeois pretension.

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    Uncle Vanya

    Uncle Vanya

    By Anton Chekhov Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    Chekhov's great play about an elderly professor whose plans to sell off his rural estate threaten the livelihoods of those who have worked tirelessly to keep the estate going.

    • Paperback£3.99 £3.19
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    Volpone

    Volpone

    By Ben Jonson

    Volpone is a Venetian aristocrat, a loveable rogue who enjoys the cunning pursuit of wealth more than money itself. Pretending to be mortally ill, he watches as his greedy neighbours swarm around him with expensive gifts in the hope of inheriting his fortune.

    The Way of the World

    The Way of the World

    By William Congreve

    A classic comedy of manners from the Restoration period. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    The White Devil

    The White Devil

    By John Webster

    The Italian Court is riddled with corruption in this classic Jacobean tragedy. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd

    The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd

    By D H Lawrence Introduction by Colin Counsell

    An intense and powerful drama set in a Nottinghamshire mining town. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Wild Duck

    The Wild Duck

    By Henrik Ibsen Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    Ibsen's masterpiece of modern tragicomedy, in an English translation by Stephen Mulrine. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    A Woman Killed with Kindness

    A Woman Killed with Kindness

    By Thomas Heywood Edited by Trevor Griffiths

    A startling domestic thriller from the seventeenth century, one of the first tragedies ever to be written about ordinary people. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    A Woman of No Importance

    A Woman of No Importance

    By Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Wilde's audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of a long-concealed secret. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    Women Beware Women

    Women Beware Women

    By Thomas Middleton

    A Jacobean gore-fest of enforced seduction and ultimate revenge. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Women of Troy

    Women of Troy

    By Euripides Translated by Kenneth McLeish

    Euripides' great tragedy, covering themes of religious scepticism, the injustices within roles for women and the destructive power of war. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Woyzeck

    Woyzeck

    By Georg Büchner Translated by Gregory Motton

    One of the most performed and influential plays in German theatre, a modern classic that remains frighteningly relevant today. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Yerma

    Yerma

    By Federico García Lorca Translated by Jo Clifford

    Lorca's tale of an impassioned, childless woman who is driven by madness to commit a heinous crime. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.