Plays & Drama Books

Henrik Ibsen's revolutionary play about a woman's awakening to her need for a life of her own. A Doll's House was premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 1879. This English version of A Doll's House is …

Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series, with Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and The Merchant of Venice as its inau…

With a foreword by Becky Albertalli, author of Imogen, Obviously and Love, Simon‘The course of true love never did run smooth’Hermia loves Lysander. But she must marry Demetrius or be condemned to life in a convent. Together, Herm…

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the tale of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. This Penguin …

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies: a spectacular, widely-ranging drama of love and w…

This Wordsworth Edition includes an exclusive Introduction and Notes by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. As You Like It is one of Shakespeare's finest romantic comedies, variously lyr…

Banished from her ambitious uncle’s court, the lovesick Rosalind flees to the forest with her cousin, Celia. Disguised as the handsome shepherd Ganymede and simple shepherdess Aliena, the two soon meet the dashing Orlando – forced…

The story of Big Maggie Polpin and her attempts to keep her family together after the death of her husband is an enduring theatre favourite. The dialogue crackles with hilarious, caustic putdowns as the indomitable Maggie deals wi…

A Liverpudlian West Side Story: twin brothers are separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them both. She gives one of them away to wealthy Mrs Lyons and they grow up as friends in ignorance of their fraternit…

Hurled words. Thrown objects. Dodged burgers.A burger was thrown at Travis Alabanza on Waterloo Bridge in 2016. From this experience they have created a poetic, passionate performance piece based around the 'burger': the texture, …

A profound, luminous masterpiece by one of Ireland's greatest playwrights. This edition was published in 2023 with a beautifully redesigned text and cover, to coincide with the National Theatre' revival. It is 1936 and harvest tim…

Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoe…

In the summer of 1967 Greta Garbo comes to Donegal. Ireland is on the verge of violent change. Two couples are on the verge of parting.A woman tries to save her family, while a girl tries to save her future. Seemingly above it all…

Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The T…

With a foreword by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, author of Ace of Spades. ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. The King of Denmark is dead. When Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, meets the King’s ghost and discovers he was murdered, h…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. In Henry IV, Part 1, the King is in a doubly ironic position. His rebellion against Richard II was successful, but now he himse…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Julius Caesar is among the best of Shakespeare's historical and political plays. Dealing with events surrounding t…

A modern classic about one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past. Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life... Between 1939 until the …

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The t…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of the greatest tragic dramas the world has known. Macbeth himself, a brave warrior, …

With a foreword by Kat Delacorte, author of With Fire in Their Blood‘It will have blood, they say: blood will have blood’On a bleak, stormy night in Scotland, three witches prophesy: Macbeth will be a lord twice-over and Macbeth w…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. In the hope of saving her brother's life, should a woman submit to rape? Should the law be respected when its admi…

One of the greatest classics of modern theater - the fateful drama of a willful young aristocrat's seduction of her father's valet during a Midsummer's Eve celebration. Inspired by the new ideas of naturalism and psychology that s…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The t…

With a foreword by Holly Bourne, author of Am I Normal Yet?‘I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest’Love, deception and discord are flourishing in the court of Messina. Sweet, innocent Hero and the famed s…

You can paint your placards ‘til the cows come home, but until you have marched through this town in five inch heels and fishnets, you will never know what it is to truly be a faggot on the front line. Told against the backdrop o…

Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series, with Henry V and The Merchant of Venice as its inaugral volumes, pres…

Fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg, with his uncommunicative father and the humiliating job in his father's grocery shop, with his frustrated love for Kathy Doogan who married a richer, more successful young man and …

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Richard II is one of Shakespeare's finest works: lucid, eloquent, and boldly structured. It can be seen as a trage…

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. Richard III is one of the finest of Shakespeare's historical dramas. Although it has a huge cast, Richard himself,…