Caroline Bird

Suhayla El-Bushra

Chris Thorpe

Lulu Raczka

Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter, Clytemnestra must try to stop him, Iphigenia must accept her fate, the Chorus must watch. Ships lie dormant in harbours, and thousands of troops sit on the shore, growing restless and unruly. Helen is gone, and pursuit of her has been stalled by windless seas. To raise the winds to send his fleet to Troy, Agamemnon is commanded by the gods to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia. But his deceit of his wife, Clytemnestra and the killing of his child, will end up tearing him and everything around him to pieces. Euripides’ story of a father moved to murder his daughter, Iphigenia at Aulis, is one that has been reinvented and retold anew throughout history. The Iphigenia Quartet sees four of the UK’s most exciting and radical playwrights - Caroline Bird, Suhayla El Bushra, Lulu Raczka, and Chris Thorpe – create explosive responses to this classical tragedy. Each play is a reimagining this story of familial catastrophe from the differing perspectives of the key characters in the play: Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia and the Chorus.

The Iphigenia Quartet

Alice Birch

Katherine Chandler

Sarah Daniels

Deborah Bruce

Katie Hims

Sonya Hale

Linda Brogan

Clean Break is a British theatre company set up in 1979 by two women in prison. It exists to tell the stories of women with experience of the criminal justice system and to transform women's lives through theatre. Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon. Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women celebrates the opportunities inherent when women represent themselves. Offering female performers a diverse set of monologues reflecting a range of characters in age, ethnicity and lived experience, the material is drawn from a mix of published and unpublished works. This book is for any performer who does not see themselves represented in mainstream plays, for lovers of radical women's theatre and for rebels everywhere who believe that the act of speaking and being heard can create change.

Celebrating 40 Years of Clean Break Theatre Company

Rebel Voices: Monologues for Women by Women

Roy Williams

Moira Buffini

Set amongst the vibrant, intense cacophony of North West London, NW Trilogy is a collection of three vivid stories, told over one performance, that remember and celebrate people who changed the course of history. The personal is political in these soulful explorations of what it means to be part of one of the most dynamic communities in the world. First, we reel to a dance hall in 'County Kilburn' in Moira Buffini's Dance Floor where the Guinness flows, the music never stops and for homesick Aoife, there's far more at stake than a dance. In Roy Williams' bittersweet Life of Riley, Paulette is on a journey to connect with her estranged father Riley, a reggae musician once part of the influential Trojan Records scene, who can't seem to let go of the past. And, Suhayla El-Bushra's Waking/Walking introduces us to Anjali, a wife, mother and newly arrived migrant following Idi Amin's expulsion of the Asian minority from Uganda, who is torn between not making a fuss and seizing her moment to take a stand as the Grunwick dispute unfolds. NW Trilogy is powerful, funny and epic and shows us how we can change the world from our doorstep. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere as NW Trilogy at Kiln Theatre, London, in August 2021.

Dance Floor; Life of Riley; Waking/Walking

NW Trilogy

Winsome Pinnock

Sabrina Mahfouz

Bryony Lavery

Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Natasha Marshall

Chinoyerem Odimba

Rena Owen

Rebecca Prichard

Chloe Moss

Ursula Rani Sarma

Shelley Silas

Sandrine Uwayo

Anna Reynolds

Somalia Seaton

Naomi Wallace

Lucy Kirkwood

Jacqueline Holborough

Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm

Daisy King

Vivienne Franzmann

Lin Coghlan

Annie Caulfield

Raina Dunne

Danni Brown

Laura Lomas

Theresa Ikoko

Lizzie Nunnery

Patrick Marber

Tim Etchells

Alistair McDowall

Anders Lustgarten

Robin French

Kellie Smith

Harriet Braun

Matthew Bulgo

Drawing together the work of 10 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology features work by some of the most exciting and established contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays collected offer young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department with the young performer in mind. The anthology contains 10 play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups. This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Suhayla El-Bushra, Anders Lustgarten, Robin French, Tim Etchells, Patrick Marber, Kellie Smith, Lizzie Nunnery, Harriet Braun and Alistair McDowall.

Three; #YOLO; Fomo; Status Update; Musical Differences; Extremism; The School Film; Zero for the Young Dudes!; The Snow Dragons; The Monstrum

National Theatre Connections 2017

Suhayla El-Bushra

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