Yobbo Nowt by John McGrath

Cast: 20, 9 female, 11 male, doubling possible plus band

"Nails the old myth that left-wing theatre must necessarily be grey."
Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Never forgets to be entertainment."
The Daily Telegraph

Available: April 2009

ISBN: 978-1-906220-29-7
Price: £6.99

  

Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun by John McGrath

Cast: 11, all male

"This play is a study of seven men, six gunners and an eighteen year old lance bombardier, trapped in a futile situation which drives the wildest of them to increasingly extreme subordination. It is Germany in 1954, a bitterly cold winter. The gun they guard is obsolete. The woeful events of the play are unfolded with biting irony.
This isn't just a piece about falling out between lonely soldiers, or about a particular idiocy of cold war strategy. It is about a man who sees his own life as ludicrous and outworn because he has been placed in a situation so dehumanised that he can only react mockingly."
Penelope Gilliatt, The Observer

Available: April 2009

ISBN: 978-1-906220-30-3
Price: £6.99

  

Four Short Plays by John McGrath

Cast:
Out of Sight, 3, 2 female and 1 male
Hover Through the Fog, 5, 2 female and 3 male
Oranges and Lemons, 2, 1 female and 1 male
If You Want to Know the Time, 4, 2 female and 2 male

Available: April 2009

 

ISBN: 978-1-906220-31-0
Price: £6.99

 

The Game's a Bogey by John McGrath

"Only superlatives can describe The Game's a Bogey by John McGrath."
Aberdeen Evening Express

"Song, pantomime, direct exhortation, uproarious and ribald parody are used to tell the bitter story."
The Herald

"The fun and hard-hitting satire are immediate."
The Guardian

"Irresistible."
The Financial Times

Available from 10 April 2008

ISBN: 9781906220181
Price: £6.99

 

Little Red Hen by John McGrath

"The latest skirmish in a continuing war against capitalism and the ills thereof ... full of vitality, humour, good songs and music, polemical overstatement and blistering home truths ..."
Cordelia Olivier, The Guardian

"Gets cheerfully away from ... the anti-fun bias of English Socialism."
Michael Billington, The Guardian

"Like a breath of fresh air."
The Financial Times

Available from 10 April 2008

ISBN: 9781906220198
Price: £6.99

 

Nightclass by John McGrath

"Nightclass showcases the formidable range of John McGrath's skills. Songs and agitprop are intercut deftly, often to ironic effect, with nuanced interplay between the five characters, the dialogue switching between sharp wit and painful revelation. Four lonely people drift into a night class on the English or British constitution. Each hopes that for a few quid a qualified expert will show them how that elusive monster holds the secrets to their plights and desperation. McGrath quickly has them relating to each other on the basis of rules as deep and unwritten as those of the notoriously elusive constitution itself. Their youngish, patronising lefty lecturer persuades them to fiddle the class numbers so that he will be paid. He tries and fails to get off with the young, grieving woman in between his attacks on the Monarchy and bogus Democracy. The lady wife of a local magistrate takes the hump and rats on him, precisely at the point that the others sense they've a lot they can learn from each other. The beauty of this piece lies in three things. There are the tensions between positions asserted and the nuances of how the interactions unfold. There is the craft with which it is tied together. There is the ending in which the characters, regretting again what might have been, wander off through the corridors of powerlessness. Nightclass is an excellent place to study and appreciate John McGrath's huge talents."
Bob Tait, Reviewer and Critic

Available from 10 April 2008

ISBN: 9781906220211
Price: £6.99

 

The Road to Mandalay by John McGrath

"The idea for The Road to Mandalay came from the students in their first workshops with John [McGrath] and Liz [MacLennan]. But this is not a play that 'dumbs down' as many plays for children do. This play is also great fun for adults and communities. When I read the second and third drafts, I did, as a headteacher, have some anxieties on whether this was within their scope. It expects the very highest commitment and skill. But our students rose to the challenge and particularly after their workshops turned in performances that professional actors would be proud of. It remains a pivotal experience in their lives and mine."
Dame Tamsyn Imison, Headteacher Hampstead School 1984-2000

Available from 10 April 2008

ISBN: 9781906220228
Price: £6.99