UPDATE, 1pm Friday 19 March – this 40% Off Sale has now finished. Thank you so much to everyone who took part!
Choose from hundreds of top plays and books, and support freelancers affected by the impact of COVID-19
On 16 March 2020, as the COVID pandemic continued to spread across the UK, hundreds of theatres nationwide were forced to shut their doors. At the time, we all thought it would only be for a few weeks – but incredibly, a full year on, these treasured stages are still dark. That was also the day we temporarily shut down the NHB office, as our team switched to working remotely. Twelve months later, those doors remain closed, too.
So as the theatre community prepares to mark this unexpected anniversary, we've ventured back to NHB HQ to raid our shelves and offer you the chance to save 40% on hundreds of great playscripts and theatre books, and raise money for hard-hit theatre-workers and freelancers, in our special Sale.
Due to incredible demand, we've extended the Sale by an extra 24 hours, so it now finishes at 1pm GMT on Friday 19 March. No voucher code is required – just fill your basket with as many of the brilliant titles below as you like, head to checkout, and your discount will be automatically applied. This offer applies to paperback and hardback editions only (ebooks are not included), and all orders over £40 receive free UK delivery.
Plus, £1 from every book sold in our Sale will go to the Theatre Artists Fund, which continues to provide emergency support for theatre-workers and freelancers across the UK affected by the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the theatre sector.
We've put together an incredible selection of almost SIX HUNDRED titles, all currently available at 40% off – choose from famous, award-winning hits; wonderful, lesser-known plays we just know you'll love; brilliant shows that were sadly forced to close due to COVID; books to develop your skills or learn new ones; fascinating reads by leading names, and much more.
Pick up something you always had your eye on at a special price, or try something you've never heard of before – who knows, you might be about to discover your new favourite writer...
Everything included in the Sale has been handpicked from the shelves at NHB HQ, and stock is strictly limited. So if you see something you want, move fast to avoid missing out – because once it's gone, it's gone!
Head to the bottom of this page the entire range – or check out our curated Sale Selections, bringing together books and playscripts on different subjects and themes – and be sure to grab your bargains before our Sale ends on Friday.
It's been a really rough year for everyone connected to theatre, but we've been constantly inspired by the resilience and creativity shown by so many across the community, and with venues starting to announce re-opening plans, there's genuine hope that the lights might come back on soon. So join us to celebrate the art form we all love, and thank you for helping support freelancers at this really difficult time.
Some key info:
- This Sale runs from 1pm GMT on Tuesday 16 March to 1pm GMT on Friday 19 March only.
- Only titles listed on this page are available at a 40% discount. This offer applies to the physical editions (paperback, hardback and CD) only; ebooks are not included.
- Stock of all titles included in the Sale is strictly limited. If your order contains a title that has already sold out, we will get in touch to ask if you would like to: a) swap for an item of the same value, or b) receive a refund for the value of that item.
- All Sale orders will be dispatched from Monday 22 March. From this point, our standard delivery times will apply – please click here for more information.
- £1 from every book sold will be donated to the Theatre Artists Fund, which provides emergency support for theatre workers and freelancers across the UK.
With almost six hundred titles included in our Sale, there's a lot to choose from.
So to help you browse through what's available, we've put together fifteen curated selections of playscripts and books on different subjects and themes, and for different readers – each packed with fantastic titles we just know you'll love. Explore tailored lists for actors, backstage practitioners and drama teachers, plays impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic you can still enjoy on the page, plays in translation, adaptations, tie-in and special editions, and more.
Click here to browse the selections – or see below for the entire range of what's available at the 40% discount.
The Here and This and Now
A darkly surprising comedy about the pharmaceuticals business, the salaryman and woman, and the quest for happiness.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Run
Stephen Laughton's one-man play about a gay Jewish seventeen-year-old explores what it means to love, to lose, and how to grow from a boy into a man.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Junkyard
By Jack ThorneA brilliantly honest and witty coming-of-age drama, with music by Stephen Warbeck.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.Ebook£10.99£8.79Limehouse
By Steve WatersA thrilling drama that takes us behind closed doors to imagine the personal conflicts behind the making of political history.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun)
Three couples. What might be. What once was. What could have been.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99All Change Please
A Practical Guide to Achieving Gender Equality in Theatre
By Lucy Kerbel Foreword by Rufus NorrisA book about the need for change in theatre, to reflect the gender balance of the world it seeks to represent, and how, with everyone's help, we can achieve it.
- Paperback
£12.99£10.39Add to basketEbook£12.99£10.39Mr Thomas
By Kathy BurkeA gritty, darkly funny look at attitudes to homosexuality in the 1950s, a portrait of repressed sexuality and alcoholism – and an homage to the great masters of British theatre, Wilde, Coward, Pinter and Orton.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Speech & Debate
A fiercely funny play by the Tony Award-winning author of The Humans.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99
Ugly Lies the Bone
An honest and funny play about a wounded veteran seeking rehabilitation through an experimental virtual reality therapy, from an award-winning American playwright.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Low Level Panic
A funny, unapologetic play about the effects of society's objectification of women.
- Paperback
£11.99£9.59Add to basketEbook£11.99£9.59All 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.
- Paperback
£11.99£9.59Add to basketEbook£11.99£9.59Arabian Nightmares: Three Plays
By Henry NaylorThree timely one-act plays, showing the brutal and bloody impact of the current Middle Eastern crisis on ordinary people: The Collector, Echoes and Angel.
- Paperback
£13.99£11.19Add to basketEbook£13.99£11.19Contemporary Duologues: Two Women
Edited by Trilby JamesA selection of the best contemporary scenes for two female actors. In the Good Audition Guides series.
- Paperback
£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£14.99£11.99Abigail
By Fiona DoyleA man in his forties and a woman in her twenties meet on a trip to Berlin. Across a fractured timeline where past and present collide, the story of their relationship, their love and their struggle unravels.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99There is limited availability of this title. Please enquire before placing your order.Ebook£9.99£7.99Picnic at Hanging Rock (stage version)
By Joan Lindsay Adapted by Tom WrightA chilling adaptation of Joan Lindsay's classic novel about the disappearance of three Australian schoolgirls in the summer of 1900.
- Paperback
£11.99£9.59Add to basketA4 Spiral-bound£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£11.99£9.59BU21
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.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79Brainstorm: The Original Playscript
And a Blueprint for Creating Your Own Production
A unique theatrical investigation into how teenagers' brains work, and why they’re designed by evolution to be the way they are.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79Nice Fish
By Mark Rylance and Louis JenkinsA sublimely playful, profound and very funny play, by celebrated actor Mark Rylance and Minnesotan contemporary prose poet Louis Jenkins.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99The Children
Two ageing nuclear scientists in an isolated cottage on the coast, as the world around them crumbles. Then an old friend arrives with a frightening request.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketA4 Spiral-bound£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79Feldenkrais for Actors
How to Do Less and Discover More
A practical guide to the Feldenkrais Method, for actors. Written by an experienced actor, theatre-maker and Feldenkrais practitioner.
- Paperback
£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£14.99£11.99Lazarus: The Complete Book and Lyrics
By David Bowie and Enda WalshThe extraordinary musical inspired by the book The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and its cult film adaptation starring David Bowie, and incorporating some of Bowie's most iconic songs.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79The Acedian Pirates
By Jay TaylorA play that challenges our understanding of mythology, and forces us to ask vital questions about military occupation.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Brutus and Other Heroines
Playing Shakespeare's Roles for Women
Award-winning actress Harriet Walter shares insights gleaned from her vast experience of performing some of Shakespeare's most famous roles - both male and female.
- Paperback
£12.99£10.39Add to basketEbook£12.99£10.39Drama Games for Rehearsals
A dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book in the bestselling Drama Games series offering dozens of ideas and exercises to energise and inspire a bold, creative rehearsal process for any play, of any period or genre.
- Paperback
£12.99£10.39Add to basketEbook£12.99£10.39What Shadows
By Chris HannanA searing look at identity and immigration within a bitterly divided country.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99Oil
By Ella HicksonAn explosive play that drills deep into the world's relationship with this finite resource.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79Broken Biscuits
By Tom WellsA beautiful, heart-warming, laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story for our times.
- Paperback
£11.99£9.59Add to basketEbook£11.99£9.59Fleabag: The Original Play
The outrageously funny play that became the wildly successful and 'utterly riveting' (Guardian) BBC television series.
- Paperback
£10.99£8.79Add to basketEbook£10.99£8.79Drama Games for Young Children
From the bestselling Drama Games series, this dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book – packed with over 200 individual games – is perfect for teachers, playgroup leaders and drama facilitators who want to inspire and entertain children, aged 3 and up, with vibrant and engaging drama experiences.
- Paperback
£14.99£11.99Add to basketEbook£14.99£11.99The Nest
By Franz Xaver Kroetz Translated by Conor McPhersonA fable about the moral and environmental cost of our materialistic nesting instincts.
- Paperback
£9.99£7.99Add to basketEbook£9.99£7.99
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