A bold and urgent collection of contemporary plays by writers from England, exploring the various identities of a nation that is at once traditional, nationalistic and multicultural.
James Graham is a multi award-winning playwright and screenwriter.
His play This House gained critical acclaim, enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre's Olivier in 2013 and its 2017 West End revival was Olivier-nominated. It was chosen by popular vote as the best play of the 2010's by Methuen Drama.
James created theatre history when his two plays Ink, about the early days of Rupert Murdoch, and Labour of Love, a romantic political comedy, played in theatres next to each other in the West End in 2017. James won an Olivier award in 2018 for Labour of Love and Ink transferred to Broadway in 2019, receiving six Tony award nominations.
James' play The Vote (Donmar Warehouse) aired in real time on TV in the final 90 minutes of the 2015 polling day and was BAFTA-nominated. His most recent television film, Brexit: An Uncivil War (Channel 4/HBO) is nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award.
DC Moore's plays include Alaska (Royal Court), The Empire (Royal Court and Drum Theatre, Plymouth), Honest (Royal & Derngate, Northampton, Edinburgh Festival & Soho Theatre), Town (Royal & Derngate), The Swan (as part of Double Feature - National Theatre, Paintframe) and Straight (Sheffield Theatres and Bush Theatre).
Anders Lustgarten is Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre, where his first two plays,
The Insurgents (2007) and
Enduring Freedom (2008), were produced. Other work includes
The Punishment Stories, (shortlisted for the 2007 Verity Bargate Award), an adaptation of Slawomir Mrozek's
The Police (BAC 2007),
The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (2010) for the National Theatre Studio and
If You Don't Let Us Dream Then We Won't Let You Sleep (Royal Court, 2013). Anders is a political activist, has taught on Death Row, been arrested by the Turkish secret police, and holds a PhD in Chinese politics from the University of California. He also won the inaugural Harold Pinter Playwrights Award with a commission from the Royal Court in 2011.
Alia Bano studied English at Queen Mary, University of London, and taught A Level and GCSE English in Haringey. She joined the Royal Court's Young Writers' Programme in 2004. Her early work was read at Theatre Royal, Stratford East during the BritAsia Festival in 2005. She was subsequently invited to join Soho Theatre's Core Writing Group, and took part in the Royal Court's Unheard Voices programme in 2008. Her verbatim play
Behind the Image, developed with Nina Raine, was presented during the Royal Court Rough Cuts season in 2008. Her work for the stage includes
Gap, Hens, Rough Cuts, and
Shades.
Rachel De-Lahay is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Her debut play, The Westbridge, produced at the Royal Court Theatre, went on to win a Writers' Guild award for Best Theatre Play, as well as coming joint first for the Alfred Fagon Award. Her second play, Routes, opened Vicky Featherstone's first season, also at the Royal Court Theatre, and garnered her an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright. She was given the Pearson Award to write for Birmingham Rep, where her play Circles won the Catherine Johnson Award from Channel 4. As a screenwriter, her credits include the BAFTA-nominated Kiri (Channel 4); the BAFTA-nominated The Last Hours of Laura K, a multi-platform, 24-hour murder mystery for the BBC; Amazon's The Feed, based on Nick Clark Windo's novel; an episode of the American drama The Eddy for Netflix, to be directed by Damien Chazelle; and the final episode of Noughts & Crosses, based on Malorie Blackman's young adult novel.
