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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:

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. 

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Medea (Headlong version)

By Euripides Adapted by Mike Bartlett

A bold new version of the classic tragedy by one of Britain's hottest playwrights.

Glory Dazed

A moving and darkly comic story of an Afghanistan veteran's search for redemption, and a fascinating insight into the plight of ex-servicemen in modern Britain.

Forever House

A darkly comic drama of buried secrets and new beginnings, with three linked scenes all set in the same terraced house.

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.

The Girl's Guide to Saving the World

A frank and funny new play about friendship, feminism and what it means to be successful.

Pressure

An intense real-life thriller centred around the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare.

The Wardrobe

A 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.

The Distance

A painfully funny play about motherhood (and fatherhood), about keeping control, and about letting go.

Scuttlers

A thrillingly fast-paced play about youthful disaffection, protest and violence, drawing on the history of the Scuttlers, the youth gangs of nineteenth-century Manchester.

Game

A provocative play that invites us to spy on a family as they embark on a dangerous new way to live.

Mermaid

A bold reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of love, loss and desire, transported to a contemporary setting.

buckets

Wry, emotive, funny and heartfelt, buckets is a play with a unique perspective on a universal dilemma: how do you deal with the fact that time always runs out?

Second Person Narrative

A play about growing up, and forging your own identity. Part of Platform, a series of big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by school, college and youth-theatre groups.

Ross & Rachel

A dark and uncompromising play about romance, expectation and mortality, James Fritz's Ross & Rachel takes an unflinching look at the myths of modern love.

So Here We Are

A play about what can happen when nothing happens, a compassionate look at young lives cut short and a touching portrait of childhood friendships under strain in adult life.

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

A 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.

Eggs

A dark comedy about female friendship, fertility and freaking out, by Florence Keith-Roach, 'rising star of the London theatre scene' (Evening Standard).

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.

Poppy + George

A romantic drama with music inspired by the days of music hall and beyond, from the author of the modern classic Kindertransport.

Darknet

A fascinating - and terrifying - drama that explores the world of data commodification and the uncharted deep web.

Crush: The Musical

An outrageously fun musical set in an all-girls school in the 60s, from the team behind Bad Girls: The Musical.

Epic Love and Pop Songs

A smart, funny play about love, friendship and growing up, from the author of WINK and Fury.

Love, Lies and Taxidermy

An offbeat love story about Mr Tutti Frutti, a stuffed owl and the struggle to fit in.

Scorch

A touching and provocative story of first love though the eyes of a gender-curious teen, inspired by recent UK cases of 'gender fraud'.

How to Date a Feminist

A hilarious new spin on the Hollywood romcom featuring two proposals, two weddings, an elopement and a cast of unforgettable characters.

Wish List

A sensitive, delicate and powerful play that asks what our labour is worth and how life can be lived when the system is stacked against you. Winner of the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.

Here I Belong

A moving, funny and charming play that takes you through decades of history seen through the eyes of one village resident.

New Labour

A comedy drama about being young, working in a shit job, living in debt, and all the funny and sad things you do to cope.