Nick Hern Books: 842 books

A short play written during the author's time working with European theatremakers, from the writer of Disco Pigs, Misterman and Ballyturk.

A riveting and savage take on the classic Greek myth of Penelope, wife of Odysseus. It's 11.30 a.m. and already it's thirty-three degrees Celsius. At the bottom of a drained swimming pool, four ridiculous men face their inevitable deaths, and play for an unwinnable love. Fringe First...

Enda Walsh's very first, previously unpublished play, is a Cork cabaret about a ventriloquist who loses control. First staged by Corcadorca Theatre Company at Granary Theatre, Cork, 1995.

Follow acclaimed theatre director Joe Hill-Gibbins throughout preparation and rehearsals for his production of The Glass Menagerie at the Young Vic, London, described by the Telegraph as ‘a deeply felt, beautifully judged production of a masterpiece’. First published as part of Getting Directions:...

'People like us are unhappy in this world and in the next: if we made it to heaven, we'd have to help make it thunder.' The multi-award-winning Jack Thorne, the playwright behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, breathes new life into Georg Büchner's Woyzeck, one of the most extraordinary...

A practical investigation of how comedy works, by a well-respected practitioner and teacher. With a Foreword by Toby Jones. Comedy is recognised as one of the most problematic areas of performances. For that reason, it is rarely written about in any systematic way. John Wright, founder of Trestle...

Cicero, the greatest orator of his age, devotes all his energy and cunning to preserve the rule of law, and defend Rome’s Republic against the predatory attacks of political rivals, discontented aristocrats, and would-be military dictators. Imperium is a backstage view of Ancient Rome at...

‘I know you’re there… Miranda? Miranda!’ On a summer’s day in 1900, three Australian schoolgirls on a picnic expedition to the remote Hanging Rock abscond from their group. They are last seen heading towards the beckoning Rock… In Tom Wright’s chilling adaptation of Joan...

The dark underside of the Greatest Story Ever Told. In Testament, Tristan Bernays presents four overlooked Bible characters – a ragtag group of women, children, outcasts and thieves – and relocates them in modern-day America, giving these lesser-known voices a chance to tell their side of the story. Testament was first performed at the 2017 VAULT Festival, London.

Evan Placey's Banana Boys is a play about the challenges of being on the school football team – and secretly gay. It was commissioned and produced by Hampstead Theatre’s heat&light company in 2010.

A love story about transition, testosterone, and James Dean. Josh and Isabella are childhood sweethearts. They were meant to spend their gap year together, they were meant to be together forever. But Isabella has now become a boy. Pronoun was commissioned as part of the 2014 National...

Holloway dreams of being a world-class BMXer, but she is held back by the tough reality of a parent in prison. Evan Placey's play Holloway Jones was commissioned by Synergy Theatre Project, toured schools and the Unicorn Theatre in 2011, and won the 2012 Brian Way Award for Best Play for Young People.

Everyone has another face they hide behind… A radical re-imagining by playwright Evan Placey of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, where civilised society meets seedy Soho in a thrilling collision of Victorian England with the here and now. Written for the National Youth Theatre,...

A tale of friendship, love and rivalry over thirty years from award-winning playwright Elinor Cook. Lorna and Grace do everything together. They share crisps, cigarettes and crushes. That's what happens when you're best friends forever. But when Lorna gets a place at university, and...