NHB Modern Plays

The NHB Modern Plays series features the pick of modern and contemporary plays from leading UK and international playwrights. Championing quality, accessibility and diversity, it takes the best writing for the stage and gives it enduring life on the page.

Showing 37-54 of 1,565 items.

Seagulls

A woman with an extraordinary gift begins to fear her powers are waning.

Published in volume Caryl Churchill: Shorts

    The Lament for Arthur Cleary

    Bestselling novelist Dermot Bolger transposes an old story of love and death to modern-day Dublin.

    Published in volume The Crack in the Emerald

      Low in the Dark

      A witty and absurdist play that dismantles the myths of motherhood and exposes the sexism of language and religious imagery.

      Published in volume The Crack in the Emerald

        Misogynist

        A powerful anatomy of misogyny, by 'one of the most significant new Irish writers of his generation' (Sunday Times).

        Published in volume The Crack in the Emerald

          The Hamster Wheel

          When one partner in a marriage becomes unable to look after themselves and is completely dependent on the other, what happens to the relationship between them?

          Published in volume The Crack in the Emerald

            Acts

            A short play about an old couple whose son returns after years of absence.

            Published in volume Family: three plays

              The Visitor

              A short play about a schoolmaster on the verge of retirement, confronted by a mysterious young man wishing to pay his respects.

              Published in volume Family: three plays

                Prickly Heat

                A surreal and sensuous comedy by a young Scottish writer-performer.

                Published in volume First Run

                  Inventing a New Colour

                  A war-time Exeter family takes in an evacuee from London.

                  Published in volume First Run

                    The Guid Sisters

                    Germaine Lauzon has won a million Green Shield stamps. She invites her female friends and relations to a party to paste the stamps into the books. The temptation to pilfer the stamps is irresistible and an enormous fight breaks out.

                      Manon / Sandra

                      A controversial but humane play about an obsessively religious girl and a sex-obsessed transvestite, by the renowned Quebecois writer.

                        Albertine in Five Times

                        A simultaneous portrait of a woman at five different ages. Five actresses portray Albertine at different times of her life whilst conversing freely with each other and with their sister Madeleine.

                          PMQ

                          A short play set in a Westminster dressing room, as Prime Minister Dave prepares for his first ever bout of Prime Minister's Questions.

                          Published in volume Ella Hickson Plays: One

                            When Cows Go Boom

                            A short play by Stacey Gregg, an oblique parable of love set against the backdrop of a horrific landscape.

                            Published in volume Irish Shorts

                              Love in a Glass Jar

                              A short play from an acclaimed Irish playwright, about a sterile liasion in a hotel room that threatens to spill over into real life.

                              Published in volume Irish Shorts

                                Meeting Miss Ireland

                                A short play commissioned and performed as part of The Fairer Sex, a series of play readings at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in June 2009.

                                Published in volume Irish Shorts

                                  Salad Day

                                  A short play about an elderly couple who, trapped in a nursing home, plot a daring escape into the sunshine.

                                  Published in volume Irish Shorts

                                    Nineteen Ninety-Two

                                    A short play about two brothers biding their time to savour revenge - but how can they be sure they've got the right girl?

                                    Published in volume Irish Shorts