Nick Hern Books: 842 books

Will truth out? Set over one evening, Rathmines Road by Deirdre Kinahan is a play that rages in a tiny room. Fraught, funny and ferocious, it testifies to the pain of carrying the memory of sexual assault throughout a lifetime. A play about secret trauma and public revelation, Rathmines...

A devastating new play about loss and families, by Deirdre Kinahan, one of Ireland's most exciting playwrights. What does it feel like to lose everything? To explain? What does it take to forgive the unforgivable? In small-town Ireland, father-of-one Conor is desperate to hold on to...

In 1919, Badgersbridge Village Hall is Margaret’s domain and the last place she expected to come face to face with Grace, who knew and loved Margaret’s brother. This chance meeting results in an unlikely pairing that will change the course of both of their futures. Fast-forward to 2019....

On the eve of her coronation, Victoria is having a bath. Out of her chimney falls Edward ‘The Boy’ Jones. Again. Adored by the tabloids and hated by the establishment, his repeated break-ins to the palace remain a mystery to all. Except Victoria. An epic romcom, Victoria’s Knickers tells...

The twisted loyalties and violence in teenage gangs is laid bare. This play was originally published in the volume Charged, a collection of plays about the lives of women in the criminal justice system, and was commissioned and premiered by Clean Break, a theatre and education company working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.

Love, lust, prostitution and slavery in a 19th-century Quaker household. Winner of the 2006 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize A devout Quaker, her wealthy husband, a freed American slave and her emancipator come together in 1840s Dublin. As they interact, each is revealed to be rather less...

Thrown, a play by Jodi Gray, sees a child-psychologist attempting to record what she's spent her whole life trying to forget, as the memories of former patients collide with her own. It was first performed as part of the 2019 VAULT Festival, London. Also available in the collection Plays from VAULT 4.

A raucous family drama about the cost of living the life of our dreams. Gordon and Serena have worked hard to get where they are. He’s on the verge of a massive promotion at an energy giant. She’s preparing for a move into the house of their dreams. The family appear to be cooking...

A comedy about growing up and manning up. Tobes is young, free and having a ball. Off. He's successfully ignored his lump for two years but it's starting to get in the way – cramping his style and, worse, affecting his sex life. So now there are pants to be dropped, and decisions to be made......

Alcatraz by Nathan Lucky Wood is a thrilling play about family and social care that follows Sandy on her daring, Christmas mission to emulate Clint Eastwood and bust her gran out of lock-up. It was first performed as part of the 2019 VAULT Festival, London. Also available in the collection Plays from VAULT 4.

Jericho by Malaprop Theatre is an off-kilter, high-energy, form-pushing play about what pro-wrestling and politics have in common. It asks big questions in weird ways, like what can a pop-culture journalist do to stop the world burning down? It was first performed at Bewley's Cafe Theatre,...

Essie's lost her job. Her girlfriend's left. But she's alright. Except lately she feels more like a chair than a person. One of those folding chairs. Solid one minute. And then. Margaret Perry's play Collapsible is a funny, furious monologue about holding on in this collapsing world. It was...

3 Billion Seconds, a play by Maud Dromgoole, is a hilarious, macabre love story about a pregnant couple of activists attempting to offset the carbon footprint of their unborn baby's life. It was first performed as part of the 2019 VAULT Festival, London. Also available in the collection Plays from VAULT 4.

Mary Barton, a pioneer of fertility treatment, thought her husband was perfect. And doesn’t every child deserve the perfect father? So Mary used her husband’s sperm to impregnate up to a thousand women, and then burnt all the records. A thousand resulting children, the 'Barton Brood', with no...