"The greatest American dramatist of our age" (Evening Standard) In the waiting room of a State mental institution sit two men, there to visit their wives who are both suffering from depression. Frick, a no-nonsense successful businessman is shocked to find that the younger man, Leroy Hamliton, though descended from one of the Founding Fathers of the USA is, by profession a carpenter and a fairly contented one to boot. As we meet their respective wives, the play opens up some of the psycho-moral paradoxes haunting contemporary life."The Last Yankee reasserts Miller's unquestionable dominance of American drama it has the same brooding, powerful quality as all his work: it is a hard, dark elegy of American life, a pensive diagnosis, a requiem with a fugitive bass-note of hope." (John Peter, The Sunday Times)

The last Yankee (A Methuen modern play)

ARTHUR MILLER

A&C Black Pod

Set in Nigeria, amid the scenes of everyday racketeering and general disquiet, the police try to clear the area of undesirables, as a traditional wedding between two illustrious and ambitious families is about to take place. This play is by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka.

The beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian kaleidoscope (Methuen Modern Plays)

Literature & Fiction

Wole Soyinka

World Literature

At the age of 38, Dora Carrington (1893-1932) committed suicide, unable to contemplate living without her companion, Lytton Strachey, who had died a few weeks before. The association with Lytton and his Bloomsbury friends, combined with her own modesty have tended to overshadow Carrington's contribution to modern British painting. This book aims to redress the balance by looking at the immense range of her work: portraits, landscapes, glass paintings, letter illustrations and decorative work.

The Art of Dora Carrington

Arts & Photography

Hill, Jane

History & Criticism

'Ladies and gentlemen, as some of you may know, my name is Edward Gant: prodigy, soldier, traveller, poet - but always and ever a showman.' In 1881, the famed and enigmatic impresario Mr Edward Gant presented his renowned travelling show for the final time. The opiate-addicted actor manager showcased his troupe creating a spectacle of grotesquery, black comedy, mystery and magic realism. Over a century later, playwright Anthony Neilson has reconstructed this intriguing and fantastic historical event in a theatrical piece that combines the melodrama and extravagance with the painful loneliness that characterised a Victorian freak show. Neilson's play offers a strange and beautiful exploration of sadness and mortality, probing even the nature of theatre itself. 'Without further ado, I present for your astonishment the Extraordinary! The Terrible! The AMAZING FEATS OF LONELINESS.' Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness was first produced at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, in 2002, and was revived by Headlong Theatre and the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in February 2009.

Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Anthony Neilson

Thrillers & Suspense

Darker Shores is a Victorian ghost story which manages to be playfully intelligent, emotionally resonant and also quite scary. Its ghoulish atmosphere, biblical fanaticism and dark, knowing wit results in a piece which is both menacing and funny. The plot is as follows: it is Christmas 1875 and Professor Gabriel Stokes takes lodgings at The Sea House, on a desolate stretch of the East Sussex coast. No sooner has he arrived than the troubled history of the house comes to the fore with unexplained and mysterious happenings. Having enlisted the help of Tom Beauregard, an American spiritualist, the two embark on a terrifying journey to discover the truth. Following the traditions of the finest ghost stories, Darker Shores is a gripping and shadowy tale of suspense. Published to coincide with its world premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London 3 Dec 2009 -16 Jan 2010.

Darker Shores

Punter, Michael