Stumbling upon a hidden and forgotten garden, three young friends find themselves transported to World War One, and caught up in the shocking truth of young soldiers sent to fight for their country. Beautifully illustrated by Kate Greenaway winner Michael Foreman, this thought-provoking play helps to bring the First World War into modern day.
Targeting teenage audiences, this collection features four plays that tackle pressing social issues such as gender identity, AIDS awareness, disability, relationships, ethnic conflict, crime, substance abuse, and bullying. Each play offers a unique perspective on these critical topics, engaging young readers and encouraging dialogue around the challenges faced by their generation.
Set against the backdrop of Beachy Head, the story follows an off-duty police officer and a woman with a cat box as their lives intersect one fateful night. Through their unexpected encounter, they explore themes of connection and the transformative power of hope, revealing the profound impact that even brief moments can have on one's life.
A touching and sometimes comic story of five friends' journey into the Irish countryside to scatter the ashes of a friend who died of AIDS.
A modern re-imagining of Hans Christian Anderson's tale, The Ugly Duckling.
Hearing Things explores the dilemmas of psychiatry from the points of view of patients, relatives and staff. Based on experiences of psychiatrists and patients, the healthy' and the ill', the play examines how and if people heal and recover inside institutions.
1988. THATCHER'S BRITAIN. Seventeen-year-old Luke runs away to London – away from homophobic playground slurs, headlines that scream 'Don't Teach Our Children To Be Gay' and a family who wouldn't understand him – to Uncle Martin, who he once saw with his arms around another man at a march. In the capital, Mark is sacked because of fears about colleagues working with 'someone like him'. His boyfriend, Selwyn, faces being beaten up both by the police and at home by his own stepbrother. Meanwhile, Debbie battles with her son, who doesn't want to live with her and her girlfriend. And retired piano teacher Miss Rosenblum – who once found refuge in this country from a terror that swept away half her family in 1930s Vienna – has seen this sort of hatred and fear before. Soon, these individual stories – of first loves and old flames, alliances and abandonment, missed opportunities and new chances – intertwine to paint a vivid picture of Eighties Britain. This Island's Mine was originally performed by Gay Sweatshop in 1988. Now, three decades after the introduction of Section 28 banning positive representations of homosexuality, Philip Osment's passionate and lyrical play, of outsiders, exiles and refugees, is all too resonant.