Includes the monologues The Bull, The One Within, Somedays, The Last word and The RoykeaneiadA father denied access to his children, a footballer deserting his team, a terrorist lost in the politics of peacetime. Five monologues in the voices of contemporary men, inspired by the heroes and heroines of classical myths.

The Seven Pomegranate Seeds are seven contemporary monologues for female speakers, thematically linked and with powerful mythical origins. Loosely based on seven of Euripides’ female characters - Medea, Phedra, Demeter, Persephone, Hypsipyle, Creusa and Alcestis - these monologues explore classical mother and child stories in the context of modern Britain. With the tale of an abducted child echoing throughout and reflecting cases such as the Moors Murders, Madeline McCann and Loui...

One evening, Mr Ido arrives home from work to find his house surrounded by police and TV cameras. Inside, his wife and child are being held hostage by an escaped murderer. An otherwise normal day in an otherwise comfortable life is not ending how it should. But rather than play the victim and accept this terrible fate, Ido decides to take control and embarks upon an extraordinary mission of revenge. Set in Tokyo in 1974, this dark and unconventional satire asks what happens when the victim...

Ten contemporary reimaginings of Ovid’s iconic tales, with star-studded casts including Toby Jones, Shaun Dooley and Robert Glenister**The Roman love poet Ovid has influenced writers past and present, with his witty, sexy tales inspiring authors from Shakespeare to Ezra Pound. Included here are ten scintillating retellings that take a fresh look at his classic works, viewing these ancient stories from a modern perspective.New Metamorphoses...

Based on 20 previously untranslated fragments, this is a reconstruction of Euripides lost tragic comedy, Alcmaeon in Corinth, the third part of his final trilogy, with Bacchai and Iphigeneia in Aulis.Alcmaeon, having killed his mother, is pursued by the furies, his madness taking the form of satyriasis. When he unwittingly finds himself in bed with his daughter, he must face his children's fury.Alcmaeon in Corinth was commissioned by The Academy at Live Theatre, Newcastle, an...

Seven contemporary stories grounded in prominent, mythical origins.Persephone, Hypsipyle, Medea, Alcestis, Phaedra, Creusa and Demeter: the women of Euripides' plays are reimagined as people of today in an unexpected fusion of celebrity, inappropriate desires, historical police investigations and missing children.A severed maternal bond threads each story together, charting a journey through rage and redemption, towards a compelling conclusion.This revised edition o...

Faustus’s restless quest for knowledge and his insatiable desire for notoriety drive him to make a pact with the devil in return for the power to perform the black arts. The life-changing decision propels him into a heady, celebrity-obsessed world, as magician and illusionist to the rich and famous. Quenching sexual desires as his power grows, he must question whether the price was worth paying.This new adaptation combines Marlowe’s original acts with a re-imagining by Colin Teevan...

Master of transformation Kathryn Hunter brings to life an extraordinary fable of corruption, avarice and the collapse of absolute power.A world premiere based on the astonishing book by legendary journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski about the decline and fall of Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia, from the team that brought you Kafka’s Monkey. Hunter creates a mesmerising cast of characters, all servants to a despotic ruler on the brink of downfall. In a kingdom obsessed with t...

This selection of poems by Leonard Cohen, one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters in the world, is accompanied by twenty-four of his striking and provocative drawings.Cohen first made his name as a poet more than half a century ago and since then his achievements in poetry and music have made him an internationally revered figure. These fifteen poems, including “Death of a Lady’s Man,” “On Hearing a Name Long Unspoken,” and “The Embrace,” are drawn from across his remarkable c...

When Jane Sutcliffe sets out to write a book about William Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre, in her own words, she runs into a problem: Will's words keep popping up all over the place! What's an author to do? After all, Will is responsible for such familiar phrases as "what's done is done" and "too much of a good thing." He even helped turn "household words" into household words.But, Jane embraces her dilemma, writing about Shakespeare, his plays, and his famous phrases with glee....

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most elegant and important metaphors in Western philosophy. It is a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, narrated by the latter, in which Plato elucidates his Theory of Forms.This new digital edition of The Allegory of the Cave includes an image gallery.

Bloodshot Monochrome is a glorious poetic take on all things black, white and read.Reinventing the sonnet, Patience Agbabi shines her euphoric, musical lines on everything from growing up to growing old, from Northern Soul to contract killers, from the retro to the brand new. Whether resurrecting the dead in 'Problem Pages', playing out noir dramas in 'Vicious Circle', or capturing moments of her own life in perfect snapshot, Agbabi's verse is sublimely lyrical and spiked ...