We're currently inviting applications to license Nick Hern Books plays for amateur online performance.
As we all navigate these unprecedented times, an online performance is the perfect way to bring your members or students together to keep sharing your passion, experience great new plays by today's most exciting writers, and stay active and connected. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting, ever-changing restrictions, means it can be difficult to plan productions with confidence right now – and so online performances can offer certainty and peace of mind, freeing you up to focus on making fantastic theatre.
Whether you're looking to share a play you've always been passionate about (maybe even getting a former cast together for a revival!), test out a show you've had your eye on for a future, fully staged production, or try something completely different, we're here to support you in making that happen.
Online performance licences are available for both livestreamed performances and broadcasts of recorded productions. If you're able to perform your show to a physically present audience, we can also discuss options to present it online, allowing you to reduce the impact of social distancing on your audience capacity.
For more information on how the whole process works, check out:
- our Online Performance FAQs page
- our full Performing Rights Terms and Conditions (which you'll need to read and agree to before your licence can be granted)
- our Online Performance Advice and Compliance Guide, providing technical guidance and links to external resources and support where necessary, plus some things to think about for your production
We know there's lots to think about at the moment when planning your production – so if you have any further questions, please email our friendly Performing Rights team at rights@nickhernbooks.co.uk.
See below for some suggestions of great plays to consider for online performance. This is just a starting point, however – you can also use the Play Finder on this website to search through our full list of plays by lots of different criteria (genre, cast size, length etc.), or get in touch so we can help find the right show for you.
Please note that, as usual, you'll need to secure approval and a licence for your production. Just because a play is included in the suggestions list below doesn't mean it's automatically available, and all applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Once you're ready to apply for your performance licence, you can do so here.
We want to say a huge thanks to all of the brilliant authors and agents who've worked hard with us to make these online performances possible.
Blue Stockings
A moving, comical and eye-opening story of four young women fighting for education and self-determination against the larger backdrop of women’s suffrage.
Brontë
By Polly TealeA compelling literary detective story about the turbulent lives of the Brontë sisters - dramatised by Polly Teale and Shared Experience, the team behind After Mrs Rochester and Jane Eyre.
BU21
By Stuart SladeSix young people are caught in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in the heart of London. By turns terrifying, inspiring, brutal, heartbreaking and hilarious, BU21 is verbatim theatre from the very near future.
The Changing Room
By Chris BushA play about being a teenager, written specifically for young people, part of the 2018 National Theatre Connections Festival.
Consent
By Nina RaineA powerful, painful, funny play about the meaning of justice and consent when two friends take opposing briefs in a rape case.
Darknet
A fascinating - and terrifying - drama that explores the world of data commodification and the uncharted deep web.
Di and Viv and Rose
A warm and funny play about female friendship, crackling with wit and poignant observation.
Education, Education, Education
A theatrical love letter to the schools of the 1990s, asking big questions about a country in special measures, exploring what we are taught and why, and where responsibility lies. Full of inventive theatricality and irreverent humour.
Epic Love and Pop Songs
A smart, funny play about love, friendship and growing up, from the author of WINK and Fury.
Foxfinder
By Dawn KingA darkly comic, spell-binding dystopian drama, winner of the 2011 Papatango New Writing Prize.
Jane Eyre (Shared Experience stage version)
By Charlotte Brontë Adapted by Polly TealeA bold and theatrically inventive adaptation of the literary classic that puts the interior life of the novel on stage.
Kindertransport
A modern classic about one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past - brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of 9 and brought to England with the promise of a new life...
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons
By Sam SteinerA play about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons.
Mermaid
By Polly TealeA bold reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of love, loss and desire, transported to a contemporary setting.
Nell Gwynn
Jessica Swale's play Nell Gwynn charts the rise of an unlikely heroine, from her roots in Coal Yard Alley to her success as Britain’s most celebrated actress, and her hard-won place in the heart of the king.
Pentecost
By David EdgarA valuable mural is discovered in a church in war-torn Eastern Europe. Part of David Edgar's trilogy of plays about post-Communist Eastern Europe.
Pressure
By David HaigAn intense real-life thriller centred around the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare.
The Railway Children (stage version)
By E. Nesbit Adapted by Mike KennyAn imaginative stage adaptation of E. Nesbit's much-loved children's classic.
Ross & Rachel
By James FritzA dark and uncompromising play about romance, expectation and mortality, James Fritz's Ross & Rachel takes an unflinching look at the myths of modern love.
Scorch
By Stacey GreggA touching and provocative story of first love though the eyes of a gender-curious teen, inspired by recent UK cases of 'gender fraud'.
Tribes
By Nina RaineA penetrating play about belonging, family and the limitations of communication.
Us/Them
By Carly WijsAn extraordinary, award-winning account of the Beslan School Siege, exploring the entirely individual way children cope with traumatic situations.
When They Go Low
A play about everyday feminism, consent and the changing face of teenage sexuality in an online world. Written for the National Theatre Connections Festival.
The Container
By Clare BayleyA harrowing, intense drama about people-trafficking, set inside a container lorry.
The Lottie Project (stage version)
By Jacqueline Wilson Adapted by Vicky IrelandAn adaptation for the stage of this modern children's classic by the best-selling author and 2005 Children's Laureate.
Machinal
A powerful expressionist drama from the 1920s about the dependent status of women in an increasingly mechanised society, based on the true story of Ruth Snyder.
Nora : A Doll's House
By Stef Smith Original author Henrik IbsenA bold new version of Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood.
The Wardrobe
By Sam HolcroftA gripping journey through British history that shows how our country was shaped and how connected we are with our past. Part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival.
Newsletter Sign UpSign up to our newsletter for the latest titles, competitions and special offers...