Laura Wade

“I've got a new law for you mate, it's called survival of the fittest, it's called fuck you we're the Riot Club.” In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, ten young bloods with cut-glass vowels and deep pockets are meeting, intent on restoring their right to rule. Members of an elite student dining society, the boys are bunkering down for a wild night of debauchery, decadence and bloody good wine. But this isn't the last huzzah: they're planning a takeover. Welcome to the Riot Club.

Posh

Breathing Corpses - Colder Than Here - Other Hands

Plays One

"I walked in and she's sat in the coffin. In the middle of the living-room floor and she's - she's watching telly and laughing" Nobody can ignore the fact that Myra is dying but in the meantime life goes on. There are boilers to be fixed, cats to be fed and the perfect funeral to be planned. As a mother researches burial spots and bio-degradable coffins, her family are finally forced to communicate with her, and each other, as they face up to an unpredictable future. Laura Wade's beautifully poised family drama was first performed at Soho Theatre, London.

Colder than Here

Amy's found another body in a hotel bedroom. There's a funny smell coming from one of Jim's storage units. And Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police. There's no going back after what they've seen. Breathing Corpses was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2005.

Breathing Corpses

What happens when the writer loses the plot? Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast. If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife. Luckily there are plenty of potential suitors to dance with, from flirtatious Tom Musgrave to castle-owning Lord Osborne, who's as awkward as he is rich. So far so familiar. But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now? Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what can characters do when their author abandons them?

The Watsons

Michael Wade

And Then it Happened

Books for Boys

Each volume contains stories guaranteed to provide enjoyment, action, and fun!

And Then It Happened

'I don't tingle anymore. I used to. To tingle. Everything I feel, feels like it's in my hands. Rest of me's totally....numb.' In a world of systematic, high-speed technology, some people expect to live life as efficiently as the machines they depend on... and when a machine breaks down, there is usually someone with the skills to fix it. But in an age where things that don't work and can't be mended are thrown away, what do we do with something as human and messy as love? Laura Wade's plays, Colder Than Here and Breathing Corpses played simultaneously at Soho Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre respectively, and are both published by Oberon Books. Breathing Corpses earned her the Pearson Best Play Award 2005 and she was joint winner of the 2005 George Devine Award.

Other Hands

How happily married are the happily married? Home, I'm Darling is a dark comedy about sex, cake and the quest to be the perfect 1950s housewife. Judy has Johnny's slippers waiting for him when he arrives home from work, the kitchen's clean, the rooms are aired...yet this is not the 1950s, but a 21st-century 'arrangement' agreed between the two of them. With clothes, furniture and a (faulty) fridge from the 1950s, Judy and Johnny try to 'live the dream', with specific roles and a perfectly ordered life.

Home, I’m Darling

THE STORY: In a world of systematic, high-speed technology, some people expect to live life as efficiently as the machines they depend on...and when a machine breaks down, there is usually someone with the skills to fix it. But in an age where things

Lucy Prebble

Inua Ellams

Tanika Gupta

Vinay Patel

Philip Ridley

Simon Stephens

Tim Crouch

Alistair McDowall

Zoe Cooper

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Chris Thorpe

Hannah Khalil

Edward Bond

James Graham

Sudha Bhuchar

Christopher Shinn

Mojisola Adebayo

Anne Washburn

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world's most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: “how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?” The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre's most prolific dramatists.

20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times

Theatre in Times of Crisis

‘If one of the problems facing new playwrights is the expectation that each of their plays should be similar in style, Wade...proved that you could radically change both form and content... Not every writer delivers on their early promise. As this collection clearly shows, Wade certainly has.’ Aleks Sierz, from his Introduction Colder Than Here: ‘Laura Wade’s play is a 90-minute masterpiece, a jewel, dark bu ttranslucent. It is a play of love, death and grief: the grief that is hardest to bear, because it begins before the loved one dies.’ Sunday Times Breathing Corpses: ‘The tension, the emotions and the sense of absurdity and fear are brilliantly handled... A terrifying tour de force.’ Sunday Times Other Hands: ‘This is an extraordinary feat – a vicious satire with a heart of gold –wrought with peculiar subtlety and intelligence.’ The Spectator

Laura Wade: Plays One

Michael Wade (children's book author.)

"The trio from Mrs. Hoagsbrith's class are at it again. This time they: make bear tracks ; play football with a turkey ; trap a burglar... adn much more. Follow their exploits in these 12 wacky adventures." -- cover, p.4.

Laura Wade

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