Timberlake Wertenbaker: 14 books

New Anatomies, Grace of Mary Traverse, Our Country's Good, Love of a Nightingale & Three Birds Alighting on a Field

Torn between army politics and the love of his soldiers on the front line, a legendary leader spirals out of control. Inspired by Sophocles' classical play, Our Ajax draws on interviews with contemporary servicemen and women to create a modern epic of heroism, love and homeland. Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Ajax premiered at the Southwark Playhouse, London, in November 2014.

Impetuous Nero has lost all restraint: bored with being loved, he wants to be feared. Agrippina, widow of Emperor Claudius, has paved the way for her son Nero to succeed to the throne ahead of his step-brother Britannicus. But as his taste for power grows, Nero begins to slip from his mother's...

The Midsummer Mischief festival was produced at The Other Place at the Courtyard in summer 2014. The Ant and the Cicada: A mysterious investor has set his sights on a prime piece of Greek real estate.Owned by two sisters whose lives and beliefs are at odds, and with debts rising all the time,...

He suddenly looks different, less bent, less old, less broken, what a strange man. Is there some magic here? Is he a wizard? Old man . . . No that's not right. Telemachus' father left long ago to fight a war. Telemachus doesn't remember him. Now the man of the house, he must step up to defend...

Eight short plays, commissioned and developed as part of the Women Centre Stage Festival, that together demonstrate the range, depth and richness of women’s writing for the stage. Selected by Sue Parrish, Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre, these plays offer a wide variety of rewarding roles...

When an invitation to The Ball arrives at the Ash girl's house, from Prince Amir, she can't bring herself to believe that she, like her sisters, can go. With her mother dead and her father away, she must learn to fight the monsters that have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind....

America. 1776. Christian is a Quaker. His family came to America to live in peace. But he is a young man fired up by dreams of revolution. Should he defy his community and pick up a gun? Thomas Jefferson is an idealist, with a vision of liberty for all. But America is a fractured coalition of...

Heroism is danger and risk, and frankly, until now, it's been male. In the near future a group of women gather in a half-built structure on Winter Hill in Bolton. Is it a chance to have a drink with friends? Is it a book club discussing famous heroines? Or is it a revolution? Set in...

How did you learn to draw a line that is so ferocious and so supple? There is no question Mademoiselle . . . You are one of us. From unexpected quarters in nineteenth century France, a bright new talent emerges: confident, penniless, and a woman. But circumstance is no obstacle to Suzanne Valadon....

What is the Custom of Your Grief? by Timberlake Wertenbaker features an English schoolgirl who is befriended online by an Afghan girl after her brother is killed while on active duty in Afghanistan. The play is taken from Women Centre Stage; a collection of eight short plays, commissioned and...

A young man flees to a distant land and vanishes. His mother follows, certain she will find him, but in this unfamiliar place all certainties seem to crumble. In this story of love and loss, Wertenbaker explores passions simmering in contemporary Britain: the longing for identity, the despair of fragmentation...

On the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, four short plays inspired by the celebrated document. RANSOMED In the sleepy Cathedral City of Melchester, a crime has been committed. The Cathedral’s prize possession, a copy of the original Magna Carta, has been stolen in a daring heist. Who...

Millie, a director, discusses with her actors, Ian and Tom, how to interpret two famous historical figures from the nineteenth century. It's 1831. The naturalist Charles Darwin is invited to travel with Robert Fitzroy into uncharted waters off the coast of South America aboard 'The Beagle'. Their...