“Chris writes dialogue that's the easiest I've ever spoken, even though it's the deepest feelings I've expressed as a character” – Luke Macfarlane in New York TimesChristopher Shinnis one of America's most fearless and incisive playwrights, known for his nuanced explorations of power, identity, and human connection in an uncertain world. This third collection of his contemporary plays brings together four of his most provo...

You can't live your life thinking everything you text will become public knowledge.Censoring yourself is no way to live.Everyone needs Jim.His mother.His best friend.His brother.A hopeful future President.But can Jim really help anyone, when he isn't sure who he is any more, or what he actually believes? An expert in electoral strategy, he's forged a successful career by advising politicians how to communicate wi...

This anthology marks the emergence of one of the finest and most innovative new artists writing for the theater today. “The secret of Shinn’s success is in the way he exploits the dramatic gap between what is said and that which is left unsaid . . . writing like this is rare,” said the London Independent. Where Do We Live, the title play, was written shortly after 9/11 and though never referenced, it still haunts this chronicle of the struggles of several aspiring and gif...

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 aboutThis anthology brings together a collection of 20 sce...

“Its brilliance lies in the way Shinn marries ideological debate to psychological complexity, shedding light, laser-bright and precise, on the way in which political discourse informs and shapes individual experience.” The TimesElection night in the U.S. and things are looking rosy for the Democratic Party as the likely President-elect, his wife, advisors, and twenty-year-old son John Jnr prepare for victory. When controversial photos of John Jnr begin gat...

You lie there in the dark and the thoughts won't stop – you think of everything you could have done better…A meticulous and respected stationmaster struggles to overcome his guilt when he finds himself suddenly culpable for a violent train crash that results in eighteen deaths. As the community come together to grieve, they succumb to a mob mentality that threatens to ostracize anyone who challenges the collective definition of morality and truth.An intriguing hybr...

Go where there's violence.Silicon Valley. The future. A rocket launches.Luke is an aerospace billionaire who can talk to anyone. But God is talking to him. He sets out to change the world. Only violence stands in his way.Christopher Shinn's gripping play received its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre on 12 August 2017 in a production directed by Ian Rickson and featuring Ben Whishaw as Luke.

"Mr. Shinn is among the most provocative and probing of American playwrights today."-The New York Times"Chris Shinn explores politics and ethics without moralizing and finds justice and beauty in intimate life, keenly observed and rendered scrupulously, unapologetically, fearlessly . . . I admire his work enormously."-Tony KushnerWhen a campus tragedy makes national headlines, Gabe, a senior who runs the Queer Students Group, discovers that events surrounding the t...

Ten years after the publication of Shinn Plays: One comes this second volume of his plays, bringing together some of the playwright's most acclaimed work to date.The volume includes:Now Or Later (Royal Court, London, 2008) examines religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility, focused around a US presidential election.Four (Royal Court, London 1998)is set on the 4th July public holiday and is about four isolated young people...

“The finest new American play I’ve seen in a long while . . . Dying City is a political play and also a psychodrama about what Arthur Miller called the politics of the soul. It’s about public conscience and private grief, and real and symbolic catastrophes.”—The New York Observer“Anyone who doubts that Mr. Shinn is among the most provocative and probing of American playwrights today need only experience the . . . sophisticated welding of form and content that is

On June 28, 1980, Kelly Michelle Lund shoots and kills Oscar-nominated director John McFadden at a party in his home. For years, speculation swirls over the enigmatic seventeen-year-olds motives. Convicted of the murder, she loses her youth and her freedom-but keeps her secrets to herself.Thirty years later-and five years after her release from prison-the past has come back to haunt Kelly. Her father-in-law, movie legend Sterling Marshall, is found in a pool of blood in his home i...

Twenty-seven years after the deaths of Detective Abby Hart's parents, she's desperate to find the proof that will put the mastermind—the governor's wife—behind bars. When she joins a newly formed task force and teams up with PI Luke Murphy, Abby is sent to San Luis Obispo to work the cold case of a murdered college student. Realizing their investigation will bring them near the town where Alyssa Rollins grew up, Abby decides to do a little digging of her own into the Triple Seven fire....