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.
Emma (stage version)
A bold, witty and fresh adaptation of Jane Austen's novel which, while thoroughly modern, retains the spirit and much of the language of the original.
Eight
By Ella HicksonEight compelling monologues offering a state-of-the-nation group portrait for the stage.
Eggs
A dark comedy about female friendship, fertility and freaking out, by Florence Keith-Roach, 'rising star of the London theatre scene' (Evening Standard).
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.
The Distance
A painfully funny play about motherhood (and fatherhood), about keeping control, and about letting go.
Di and Viv and Rose
A warm and funny play about female friendship, crackling with wit and poignant observation.
Darknet
A fascinating - and terrifying - drama that explores the world of data commodification and the uncharted deep web.
Crush: The Musical
By Maureen Chadwick and Kath GottsAn outrageously fun musical set in an all-girls school in the 60s, from the team behind Bad Girls: The Musical.
Cornermen
By Oli ForsythAn exhilarating play about human triumph, ambition, self-doubt, and pride, set in the world of boxing.
The Container
By Clare BayleyA harrowing, intense drama about people-trafficking, set inside a container lorry.
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.
CLASS
By Iseult Golden and David HoranFunny, heartbreaking and beautifully observed, CLASS is an award-winning play about learning difficulties: in school, in life, wherever.
The Changing Room
By Chris BushA play about being a teenager, written specifically for young people, part of the 2018 National Theatre Connections Festival.
Chalet Lines
A shockingly funny journey through five decades of birthdays, weddings and hen dos, that asks if we can ever cut the apron strings that tie us to our parents.
buckets
By Adam BarnardWry, 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?
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.
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.
Boudica
A brand-new ancient-history play in verse that tells the story of one of Britain's most iconic women: a queen, a warrior and a rebel.
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.
Arabian Nights (RSC stage version)
A simple and delightfully inventive re-telling of the stories from the Arabian Nights.
Angel
By Henry NaylorInspired by the extraordinary true story of the Angel of Kobane, Angel is part of Henry Naylor's Arabian Nightmares trilogy.
All the Little Lights
By Jane UptonA poignant, moving and darkly funny play about young girls slipping through the cracks in society. Joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.
After the Dance
Rattigan's brilliant attack on the hedonistic lifestyle of the ‘bright young things’ of the 1920s and 30s.
1972: The Future of Sex
A devised play about three couples having sex for the first time – and a country on the brink of a sexual awakening.
100
A strikingly original play combining traditional storytelling with physical theatre, created by The Imaginary Body. Winner of a Fringe First Award at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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