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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 19-36 of 94 items.
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
    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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    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.

    She Stoops to Conquer

    She Stoops to Conquer

    By Oliver Goldsmith

    The best-loved English comedy of the 18th century, a lighthearted farce full of entanglements and misunderstandings, all set over the course of single, eventful night. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    The Servant of Two Masters

    The Servant of Two Masters

    By Carlo Goldoni Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    A classic Italian comedy that remains blisteringly hilarious and relevant, over two hundred and fifty years after it was written. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Seagull

    The Seagull

    By Anton Chekhov Translated by Stephen Mulrine

    Chekhov's early tragedy, translated and introduced by Stephen Mulrine.

    The School for Scandal

    The School for Scandal

    By Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    A classic comedy of manners, ridiculing affectation and pretentiousness. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Scapino

    Scapino

    By Molière Translated by Jeremy Sams

    A superlative farce by the master of the form, Molière, written at the height of his powers, a masterclass in comic construction. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    The Rover

    The Rover

    By Aphra Behn

    A classic Restoration comedy by one of the earliest and most celebrated female playwrights. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    Rosmersholm

    Rosmersholm

    By Henrik Ibsen Translated by Kenneth McLeish

    Ibsen's play about idealism and liberalism undermined by a deeply conservative society. In an English translation by Kenneth McLeish, published in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Rivals

    The Rivals

    By Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    One of the best-known eighteenth-century comedies of manners, Sheridan's first play, and still his most popular. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

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    The Revenger's Tragedy

    The Revenger's Tragedy

    By Cyril Tourneur

    A Jacobean tale of personal vengeance in a morally bankrupt world. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Recruiting Officer

    The Recruiting Officer

    By George Farquhar

    A classic Restoration-era comedy about the sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, as they go about their task of recruiting soldiers in the town of Shrewsbury.

    The Playboy of the Western World

    The Playboy of the Western World

    By J.M. Synge

    J.M. Synge's extraordinary play about a young man on the run, and his unexpected elevation to folk hero. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    Phedra

    Phedra

    By Jean Racine Translated by Julie Rose

    Racine's reworking of Euripides' Hippolytus, celebrated for its tragic construction and the richness of its language.

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    Peer Gynt

    Peer Gynt

    By Henrik Ibsen Translated by Kenneth McLeish

    Ibsen's mighty epic, by turns fantastic and tragic, based on the Norwegian fairy tale Per Gynt. In the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series.

    The Oresteia

    The Oresteia

    By Aeschylus Translated by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton

    Aeschylus' great trilogy of Greek tragedies: Agamemnon, Choephori (Libation-Bearers) and Eumenides (The Furies).

    Oedipus

    Oedipus

    By Sophocles Translated by Kenneth McLeish

    Two plays, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonos, telling the story of the mythical Greek king of Thebes.

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