Created in collaboration between Nick Hern Books and fellow drama publishers Bloomsbury, Faber and Concord Theatricals, the (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play Lists highlight fantastic plays by writers of colour, selected by a panel of expert advisors, which are great for 11-18 year-olds (and beyond) to read, study and perform.
The Play Lists aim to support schools to create more representative and inclusive drama experiences within the English and Drama curricula. They form part of the wider Lit in Colour campaign founded in 2020 by Penguin and The Runnymede Trust.
Click on the images below to read the 2024 and 2023 Play Lists – plus, scroll further down to find a gallery featuring all of the NHB-published titles included across the Lists to date.
Nine Night
A touching and very funny exploration of the rituals of family, set amidst a traditional Jamaican Nine Night wake.
The P Word
A sharp-witted and devastating play charting the parallel lives of two gay Pakistani men as they negotiate everything from casual hook-ups to the UK's hostile environment.
Princess & The Hustler
A play about a cheeky 10-year-old with a plan to win the Weston-super-Mare Beauty Contest, against the backdrop of Black British Civil Rights marches in 1960s Bristol.
Princess Essex
By Anne OdekeA riotous, satirical comedy based on the amazing true story of the first woman of colour to enter a beauty pageant in the UK. First performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in 2024.
Pronoun
By Evan PlaceyA love story about transition, testosterone, and James Dean - commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK.
Ramona Tells Jim
By Sophie WuA darkly comic debut play about confession and the gravity of young love.
Rockets and Blue Lights
The Alfred Fagon Award-winning play that retells British history through the prism of the slave trade.
Run
Stephen Laughton's one-man play about a gay Jewish seventeen-year-old explores what it means to love, to lose, and how to grow from a boy into a man.
Shifters
A fierce, funny and intoxicating play about the enduring power – and fragility – of memory and love. Published alongside the 2024 West End transfer.
A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain
By Sami IbrahimA poetic fable for the stage, about an impenetrable immigration system that mirrors our own.
Sweat
By Lynn NottageA topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America's economic decline. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Best Play at the 2019 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
Tribes
By Nina RaineA penetrating play about belonging, family and the limitations of communication.
truth and reconciliation
A play about the aftermath of violence, in conflicts around the world from Rwanda to Northern Ireland, and from Zimbabwe to Bosnia.
Two Billion Beats
An insightful, heartfelt coming-of-age story and a blazing account of inner-city, British-Asian teenage life.
Word-Play
A play about what happens when a Prime Minister ad-libs on live TV, exploring how language seeps into public consciousness and reverberates with far-reaching consequences that will last for generations. Premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
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