Writing at the end of his own long life, in Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles depicts his doomed hero's final hours; at the moment of his death the aged Oedipus is free at last. Envisaging this meditation on mortality as a rousing service in a black church, Lee Breuer has created a remarkable text based on Robert Fitzgerald's splendid translation.

David Hwang invokes the age in which his great grandfather broke with Confucian tradition by converting to Christianity and unbinding his daughter's feet. Golden Child explores the impact of these momentous decisions  on succeeding generations.

A hard-hitting play about the Philippines in the Marcos era, adapted by Jessica Hagedorn from her own novel of the same name.

The world's first ever musical, The Beggar's Opera, is performed on board a creaking convict ship bound for Australia.

A short play written in response to the situation in Gaza at the time of writing in January 2009.

An adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company of Sir Thomas Malory's classic telling of the Legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

The gripping story of the sensational, real-life case in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle found himself playing detective.

A funny yet melancholic look at the frustrations, secrets and guilt of middle-class respectability in 1950s England.

A waspish city comedy attacking the vices of hypocrisy, greed, self-indulgence and social pretension.

Inspired by real-life stories, Home Death is a courageous, compassionate play about how our society deals with the reality of dying, raising urgent questions about palliative care in the UK.

A play written in response to the Romanian revolution of 1989, exploring the reactions of ordinary people to events.

Nicholas Wright's sensitive version of Ibsen's late play, about a family brought low by the disgrace and imprisonment of its patriarch.