books to read

A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power. The publicity seems to turn every act into a performance and every platform into a stage. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve ... The Rehearsal is an exhilarating and provocative novel about the unsimple mess of human desire, at once a tender evocation of its young protagonists and a shrewd expose of emotional compromise.

The Rehearsal

Poster for the <n>National Theatre</n>’s 2014 production of <n>A Taste of Honey</n> by <n>Shelagh Delaney</n>.

Cover for <n>Elisa Levi</n>'s novel <n>That's All I Know</n>, designed by <n>Lauren Peters-Collaer</n>.

Cover for <n>Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives</n> by <n>Stephen Graham Jones</n>, designed by <n>Damon Zaiter</n>.

The book cover for <n>The Hounding</n> by <n>Xenobe Purvis</n>.

Cover for the play <n>The Treatment</n> by <n>Martin Crimp</n>.

by Martin Crimp
New York. A film studio. A young woman has an urgent story to tell. 
But here, people are products, movies are money and sex sells. And the rights to your life can be a dangerous commodity to exploit. 
Martin Crimp's razor-sharp satire, The Treatment, was first seen at the Royal Court Theatre in 1993. It was revived at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2017, in a production directed by Lyndsey Turner. 

The Treatment

Poster for the <n>National Theatre</n>’s <n>The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other</n>, 2008. Design by <n>Bob Carling</n>.

The book cover for <n>Audition for the Fox</n> by <n>Martin Cahill</n>. Art and design by <n>Elizabeth Story</n>.

The Slip by Miriam Webster is an electrifying debut short story collection brimming with dark humour, empathy and a sharp eye for the uncanny.

The Slip by Miriam Webster — Aniko Press

The playtext cover for <n>Peter Pan Goes Wrong</n> by <n>Henry Lewis</n>, <n>Jonathan Sayer</n>, and <n>Henry Shields</n>.

by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields
In one of Chris' productions, due to an ill-timed haircut Rapunzel had to be imprisoned in a bungalow. But now with no further ado, please put your hands together for J.M. Barrie's Christmas classic: Peter Pan!The inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society set out to present J. M. Barrie's classic tale of Peter Pan, their most audacious production to date. Flying? Pyrotechnics? Sharp hooks? What ensues is two acts of hysterical disaster. You'll laugh, they'll cry. Something so wrong has never been so right.From the mischievous minds of the West End and Edinburgh hit The Play That Goes Wrong comes this highly original, chaos-filled re-telling of J.M. Barrie's much-loved classic.Peter Pan Goes Wrong received its world premiere at the Pleasance Theatre, London, on 10 December 2013 and transferred to the West End on 4 December 2015. The show opened on Broadway on 19 April 2023, and this updated edition was published to coincide with the show returning to the West End for a limited 2023 Christmas season.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong Playtext

by Mark O'Halloran
Multiple award-winning Mark O'Halloran is one of Ireland's most celebrated writers. Two play spanning 12 years of work come together in one published edition to coincide with the New York premiere. 
CONVERSATIONS AFTER SEX You remind me of someone though. I mean you're not like him. Not physically like him. Nowhere near. But there's something there. Your voice or how you hold yourself. Your hands. In a series of unexpected and unguarded conversations after anonymous sexual encounters, a woman discovered men with the same deep need to communicate and connect in the lonely, atomised city. 'A portrayal of grief that is unforgettable in its rawness' - The Guardian 
TRADE "This is just this. It isn't real. It's money." In a guesthouse in Dublin's north inner city, a vulnerable and confused young rent-boy sits with a middle-aged client. It's not the first time they've met but today the older man has blood on his shirt. A lot has happened since they last met. 'It closes around your heart like a fist' - The Irish Times

Conversations After Sex and Trade Playtexts

The <n>Penguin Modern Classics</n> edition of <n>Arthur Miller</n>'s play, <n>Death of a Salesman</n>.

The cover for <n>Margie Sarsfield</n>'s novel, <n>Beta Vulgaris</n>.

Cover for <n>Harold Pinter</n>'s play <n>The Birthday Party</n>, published by <n>Faber and Faber</n>.

by Harold Pinter
Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare. The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world.

The Birthday Party

Poster for <n>David Eldridge</n>'s play <n>Beginning</n> at the <n>National Theatre</n>, 2017. Photo by <n>Felicity McCabe</n>.

The cover for <n>Bryan Washington</n>'s novel, <n>Palaver</n>.

<n>Are Prisons Obsolete?</n> by <n>Angela Y. Davis</n>.

The book cover for <n>Casanova 20: Or, Hot World</n> by author <n>Davey Davis</n>.

The cover for <n>Ava Pickett</n>'s play, <n>1536</n>, published by <n>Nick Hern Books</n>.

The book cover for <n>Are We There Yet? Virtual Travel and Victorian Realism</n> by <n>Alison Byerly</n>.

The cover for <n>Joni Murphy</n>'s novel <n>Barbara</n>, designed by <n>Frances DiGiovanni</n>.

Playtext cover for <n>The Enfield Haunting</n> by <n>Paul Unwin</n>, starring <n>Catherine Tate</n> and <n>David Threlfall</n>.

Poster for the <n>Mischief Theatre</n> play <n>The Comedy About Spies</n> by <n>Henry Lewis</n> and <n>Henry Shields</n>.

Playtext cover for <n>David Ireland</n>'s <n>Ulster American</n> starring <n>Woody Harrelson</n>, <n>Andy Serkis</n>, and <n>Louisa Harland</n>.

by Jackie Sibblies Drury
A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the twentieth century. As the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, what seemed a far-away place and time is suddenly all too close to home. Just whose story are they telling?Pulitzer Prize award-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury collides the political with the personal in a play that is irreverently funny and seriously brave.We Are Proud To Present . . . premiered off-Broadway at Soho Rep in 2012.This Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Leonor Faber-Jonker.


We Are Proud To Present ... Playtext

The cover for <n>Bruce Holsinger</n>'s novel <n>Culpability</n>, an <n>Oprah's Book Club</n> pick for 2025.

Poster for the <n>National Theatre</n> production of <n>Peter Gynt</n> by <n>David Hare</n> after <n>Henrik Ibsen</n>.

Cover for <n>Kat Dunn</n>'s novel <n>Hungerstone</n>, featuring <n>Henry Fuseli</n>'s painting <n>The Shepherd's Dream</n> (1793).

The cover for <n>Dorian Lynskey</n>'s book, <n>Everything Must Go</n>. Design by <n>Luke Bird</n>.

The cover of the play <n>God's Dice</n> by author <n>David Baddiel</n>.

by David Baddiel
Science and religion go head to head in David Baddiel's debut play: a ferociously funny battle for power, fame and followers. 
When physics student Edie seems to prove, scientifically, the existence of God, it has far-reaching effects. Not least for her lecturer, Henry Brook, his marriage to celebrity atheist author Virginia – and his entire universe. 
God's Dice is an electric tragicomedy about the power of belief and our quest for truth in a fractured world. It premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in October 2019, starring Alan Davies as Henry, and directed by James Grieve.