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That Summer
By David French. 2000
It's Memorial Day, 1990, and Margaret Ryan has returned from Vermont to the Ontario cottage country where, thirty-two years before,…
she had vacationed with her disintegrating family at a lakeside resort. For herself and her sister Daisy, it was a time of awakening, a time of discovery. Both of the girls fall in love with two of the local boys. Daisy, on the lookout for action, cruising the dances at the resort, can't deal with what she initiates, and falls victim to her own confusion and naiveté. Not even the neighbour, the eccentric, bourbon-drinking, cigar-smoking Mrs. Crump, who knows all the fairy-tale spells to capture the heart of a lover, can save Daisy from drowning in her own misadventure. At the same time, Margaret, bookish and withdrawn, inhabiting a universe defined by poets and novelists, is seduced in spite of herself. As Margaret, the narrator, watches Maggie, her younger self, relive the innocence and beauty of that summer, the play moves inexorably back to the heartbreak of a headlong surrender to experience, both won and lost in a single day. Cinematic in its feel and pacing, recalling the 1950s genre of Dirty Dancing and My American Cousin, That Summer is a meditation on what endures of fleeting moments over time. Cast of 5 women and 2 men.Bordertown Café
By Kelly Rebar. 2003
Seventeen-year-old Jimmy faces the archetypal Canadian dilemma: stay home in Canada, with all its obvious flaws, or go south (young…
man) to the Land of Opportunity. Should he stay with his mother at the Bordertown Café or haul off with his trucker father? Family history is the border's story writ large. Cast of 2 women and 2 men.Twelve Angry Men: A Screen Adaptation, Directed By Sidney Lumet (Student Editions Ser.)
By Reginald Rose. 1997
The Penguin Classics debut that inspired a classic film and a current Broadway revival Reginald Rose's landmark American drama was…
a critically acclaimed teleplay, and went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U. S. legal system. The story's focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal biases. Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture of America, at its best and worst, to form. .Rodney's Wife
By Richard Nelson. 2006
"A full emotional geography of a family . . . Seemingly light conversation scrapes the skins of the characters in…
this sharply etched study of dislocation, loneliness and sexual betrayal."--Ben Brantley, The New York Times"Nelson is a master of the quiet detail, of the oblique rhythm that transforms emotional diffidence into fascinating character."--Linda Winer, Newsday"The early scenes proceed with the closely observed simplicity of Chekhov, whereas the later more wrenching moments evoke the eloquent bitterness of Albee."--David Cote, TimeOut New YorkA new work by leading American playwright Richard Nelson, who for more than 25 years has written prolifically, and with fine detail, on the perplexities of everyday living. In Rodney's Wife, a fading American actor in Rome for the filming of a 1960s spaghetti Western gathers with family and friends at a rented villa. Over the course of one booze-soaked summer night, jealousies and secrets are revealed that crumble the foundations of their relationships. Inspired by Euripides, the play is a tragedy of exiles who continue to need each other, even as they push away.Richard Nelson won Britain's Olivier Award for Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere, and the Tony Award for Best Book for his musical James Joyce's The Dead. His plays have been widely produced in the U.S. and Great Britain. He is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama.Junk: A Play
By Ayad Akhtar. 2017
*Now on Broadway at Lincoln Center starring Steven Pasquale* From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Disgraced, a fast-paced economic thriller…
that exposes the financial deal making behind the mergers and acquisitions boom of the 1980s.Set in 1985, Junk tells the story of Robert Merkin, resident genius of the upstart investment firm Sacker Lowell. Hailed as "America's Alchemist," his proclamation that "debt is an asset" has propelled him to a dizzying level of success. By orchestrating the takeover of a massive steel manufacturer, Merkin intends to do the "deal of the decade," the one that will rewrite all the rules. Working on his broadest canvas to date, Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar chronicles the lives of men and women engaged in financial civil war: insatiable investors, threatened workers, killer lawyers, skeptical journalists, and ambitious federal prosecutors. Although it's set 40 years in the past, this is a play about the world we live in right now; a world in which money became the only thing of real value.Fuenteovejuna
By Lope De Vega. 2010
Lope de Vega "single-handedly created the Spanish national theatre," writes Roberto González Echevarría in the introduction to this new translation…
of Fuenteovejuna. Often compared to Shakespeare, Molière, and Racine, Lope is widely considered the greatest of all Spanish playwrights, and Fuenteovejuna (The Sheep Well) is among the most important Spanish Golden Age plays. Written in 1614, Fuenteovejuna centers on the decision of an entire village to admit to the premeditated murder of a tyrannical ruler. Lope masterfully employs the tragicomic conventions of the Spanishcomediaas he leavens the central dilemma of the peasant lovers, Laurencia and Frondoso, with the shenanigans of Mengo, thegraciosoor clown. Based on an actual historical incident,Fuenteovejuna offers a paean to collective responsibility and affirmation of the timeless values of justice and kindness. Translator G.J. Racz preserves the nuanced voice and structure of Lope de Vega's text in this first English translation in analogical meter and rhyme. Roberto González Echevarría surveys the history ofFuenteovejuna, as well as Lope's enormous literary output and indelible cultural imprint. Racz's compelling translation and González Echevarría's rich framework bring this timeless Golden Age drama alive for a new generation of readers and performers.The Country House
By Donald Margulies. 2015
"Margulies is literate and intellectually stimulating. His ideas and language hold our attention and earn our respect."--New York"Donald Margulies has…
an unerring sense of language and the ability to penetrate deeply into the darkness of tangled human emotions."--VarietyGathering in their Berkshire home, a family of actors wrestles with fame, art, and (as always) each other. Brought back together for a melancholy purpose, the solemnity is quickly undercut by restless egos and inflamed temperaments. When the events of the weekend go off-script, secrets are spilled and bonds are broken. Inspired by--and often directly referencing -Chekhov's pastoral comedies, this witty and compelling new comedy unfolds in a fragile old home brimming with memories, new love, and discarded dreams.A funny and poignant comedy about a family of actors, from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies.Donald Margulies has won a Lucille Lortel Award, an American Theatre Critics Award, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two Obie Awards, two Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, one Tony Award nomination, six Drama Desk Award nominations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations, and one Pulitzer Prize. His works have been performed on and off Broadway, and at major theaters across the United States, as well as a host of international cities.Death of a Salesman
By Arthur Miller, Gerald Weales. 1977
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream 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 shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --TimeComplete Works of William Shakespeare: The Cambridge Text From The Latest Edition Of William Aldis Wright... (Leather-bound Classics)
By William Shakespeare, Michael A. Cramer. 2014
Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth-the works of William Shakespeare still resonate in our…
imaginations four centuries after they were written. The timeless characters and themes of the Bard's plays fascinate us with their joys, struggles, and triumphs, and now they are available in a special volume for Shakespeare fans everywhere.This Canterbury Classics edition of William Shakespeare's works includes all of his poems and plays in an elegant, keepsake edition. Whether for a Shakespeare devotee or someone just discovering him, this is the perfect place to experience the drama of Shakespeare's words. A scholarly introduction provides additional context and insight into the poems and plays.Lexile score: NPThe Last Days of Mankind
By Karl Kraus, Edward Timms, Fred Bridgham. 2015
One hundred years after Austrian satirist Karl Kraus began writing his dramatic masterpiece, "The Last Days of Mankind "remains as…
powerfully relevant as the day it was first published. Kraus's play enacts the tragic trajectory of the First World War, when mankind raced toward self-destruction by methods of modern warfare while extolling the glory and ignoring the horror of an allegedly "defensive" war. This volume is the first to present a complete English translation of Kraus's towering work, filling a major gap in the availability of Viennese literature from the era of the War to End All Wars. Bertolt Brecht hailed "The Last Days" as the masterpiece of Viennese modernism. In the apocalyptic drama Kraus constructs a textual collage, blending actual quotations from the Austrian army's call to arms, people's responses, political speeches, newspaper editorials, and a range of other sources. Seasoning the drama with comic invention and satirical verse, Kraus reveals how bungled diplomacy, greedy profiteers, Big Business complicity, gullible newsreaders, and, above all, the sloganizing of the press brought down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the dramatization of sensationalized news reports, inurement to atrocities, and openness to war as remedy, today's readers will hear the echo of the fateful voices Kraus recorded as his homeland descended into self-destruction.August: Osage County
By Tracy Letts. 2008
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama"A tremendous achievement in American playwriting: a tragicomic populist portrait of a tough…
land and a tougher people."--Time Out New York"Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is what O'Neill would be writing in 2007. Letts has recaptured the nobility of American drama's mid-century heyday while still creating something entirely original."--New York magazineOne of the most bracing and critically acclaimed plays in recent Broadway history, August: Osage County is a portrait of the dysfunctional American family at its finest--and absolute worst. When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead, where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uproariously revealed. The three-act, three-and-a-half-hour mammoth of a play combines epic tragedy with black comedy, dramatizing three generations of unfulfilled dreams and leaving not one of its thirteen characters unscathed. After its sold-out Chicago premiere, the play has electrified audiences in New York since its opening in November 2007.Tracy Letts is the author of Killer Joe, Bug, and Man from Nebraska, which was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His plays have been performed throughout the country and internationally. A performer as well as a playwright, Letts is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where August: Osage County premiered.Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations In Two Acts And A Requiem (Penguin Plays)
By Arthur Miller. 1949
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream 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 shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --TimeDeath of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem (Penguin Twentieth-century Classics Ser.)
By Arthur Miller, Christopher W. Bigsby. 1949
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream 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 shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Timeof the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times "So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Time For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Flowers in the Attic: A Stage Play (Dollanganger)
By V. C. Andrews. 2014
The only official stage play of V.C. Andrews's enduring classic of forbidden love--adapted by Andrew Neiderman (The Devil's Advocate). Experience…
in this new format the original story that captured the world's imagination and earned V.C. Andrews a fiercely devoted readership.At the top of the stairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent, and struggling to stay alive . . . They were a perfect family, golden and carefree--until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. Kept on the top floor of their grandmotherds vast mansion, their loving mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie, realize their survival is at the mercy of their cruel and superstitious grandmother . . . and this cramped and helpless world may be the only one they ever know.Book One of the Dollanganger series, the sequels include Petals in the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. Then experience the attic from Christopher's point of view in Christopher's Diary: Secrets of Foxworth and Christopher's Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger.Enduring Liturature Illuminated by Practical Scholarship Four of the most popular and profound works from the playwright known as the…
"father of modern theater." This Enriched Classic Edition includes: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential. Series edited by Cynthia Brantley JohnsonThe Performance: A Novel
By Claire Thomas. 2021
'Quietly transformational'The Times 'A tour de force... I can't recommend this too highly'Patrick Gale'Innovative... an original, at-a-sitting read'Daily Mail'A potent…
meditation on the intensity of women's lives'Charlotte Wood, author of The Weekend'A miracle... Engaging and evocative'Washington Post'I loved and admired The Performance... Unmissable'Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters'Lively and intimate... The way Thomas plays with the reader is a sort of genius'Guardian'Thomas writes these women with such wisdom and compassion, that by the end we are all transformed'Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground The false cold of the theatre makes it hard to imagine the heavy wind outside in the real world, the ash air pressing onto the city from the nearby hills where bushfires are taking hold.The house lights lower.The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness.As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play.Margot is a successful professor, preoccupied by her fraught relationship with her ailing husband. Ivy is a philanthropist with a troubled past, distracted by the snoring man beside her. Summer is a young theatre usher, anxious about the safety of her girlfriend in the fire zone.As the performance unfolds, so does each woman's story. By the time the curtain falls, they will all have a new understanding of the world beyond the stage.Shooting Martha
By David Thewlis. 2021
'A riotously good novel, witty and earnest, brimming with sharply drawn characters and creeping suspense. David Thewlis is a fabulous…
writer' Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall BonesCelebrated director Jack Drake can't get through his latest film (his most personal yet) without his wife Martha's support. The only problem is, she's dead...When Jack sees Betty Dean - actress, mother, trainwreck - playing the part of a crazed nun on stage in an indie production of The Devils, he is struck dumb by her resemblance to Martha. Desperate to find a way to complete his masterpiece, he hires her to go and stay in his house in France and resuscitate Martha in the role of 'loving spouse'.But as Betty spends her days roaming the large, sunlit rooms of Jack's mansion - filled to the brim with odd treasures and the occasional crucifix - and her evenings playing the part of Martha over scripted video calls with Jack, she finds her method acting taking her to increasingly dark places. And as Martha comes back to life, she carries with her the truth about her suicide - and the secret she guarded until the end.A darkly funny novel set between a London film set and a villa in the south of France.A mix of Vertigo and Jonathan Coe, written by a master storyteller.PRAISE FOR DAVID THEWLIS'S FICTION 'David Thewlis has written an extraordinarily good novel, which is not only brilliant in its own right, but stands proudly beside his work as an actor, no mean boast' Billy Connolly'Hilarious and horror-filled' Francesca Segal, Observer'A fine study in character disintegration... Very funny' David Baddiel, The Times'Exquisitely written with a warm heart and a wry wit... Stunning' Elle'Queasily entertaining' Financial Times'A sharp ear for dialogue and a scabrously satiric prose style' Daily Mail'Laugh-out-loud, darkly intelligent' Publishers Weekly'This is far more than an actor's vanity project: Thewlis has talent' KirkusThe Moon Is Down
By John Steinbeck.
In this masterful story set in Norway during World War II, Steinbeck explores the effects of invasion on both the…
conquered and the conquerors. As he delves into the emotions of the German commander and the Norwegian traitor, and depicts the spirited patriotism of the Norwegian underground, Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war—and about human nature. The Moon is Down had an extraordinary impact as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe, and despite efforts to suppress it, the book was secretly translated into French, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, and Russian, and hundreds of thousands of copies circulated Europe, making it by far one of the most popular pieces of propaganda during the war. Few literary works of our time have demonstrated so triumphantly the power of ideas in the face of cold steel and brute force. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.Freight Dogs
By Giles Foden. 2017
1996: in a Ugandan dive bar, the 'freight dogs' gather. An anarchic group of mercenary pilots from Texas, Russia, Kenya…
and Belgium who transport weapons between warring African nations, without allegiance. And tonight they have a new recruit - Manu, a 19-year-old cowherd fleeing Congo's bloody war.Taken in by this band of unlikely brothers, he's soon seeing his vast country from above and falling in love with flying. But no matter how fast he flies, trouble follows closely behind. And when the past erupts back into this new life, Manu is forced to leave behind African skies for the chilly embrace of northern Europe. Will Manu be able to reinvent himself yet again? And is Belgian volcanologist Anke Desseaux the answer to his problems - or simply another one of them?From the writer of The Last King of Scotland comes an unforgettable story of survival - about how to live and love after trauma, set against a backdrop of world-shaking conflict.Las palabras que confiamos al viento
By Laura Imai Messina. 2020
Una novela sobre el duelo y la alegría de vivir que se ha convertido en un fenómeno internacional. Cuando Yui,…
una joven de treinta años, pierde a su madre y a su hija de tres años en un tsunami, empieza a medir el paso del tiempo a partir de entonces: todo gira alrededor del 11 de marzo de 2011, cuando la ola gigantesca devastó Japón y el dolor se apoderó de ella. Un día oye hablar de un hombre que tiene una cabina de teléfono abandonada en su jardín, adonde las personas acuden desde todos los rincones de Japón para hablar con quienes ya no están y hallar la paz en el duelo. Pronto, Yui emprende su propio peregrinaje hasta allí, pero al levantar el auricular no encuentra las fuerzas para pronunciar una sola palabra. Entonces conoce a Takeshi, un médico cuya hija de cuatro años ha dejado de hablar tras la muerte de su madre, y su vida da un vuelco. La crítica ha dicho:«Un impactante haiku sobre el corazón humano.»The Times «Esta novela posee una fuerza muy sutil. [...] Leerla es como un bálsamo para el alma. [...] Uno de los libros del año.»Waterstones «Un libro bellísimo y muy oportuno, que nos cuenta las consecuencias que quedan de un desastre humanitario mucho después del desastre.»Bookbag «Una lectura imprescindible, un texto precioso.»Kirkus Reviews «Con su estilo sobrio y poético, este precioso libro es una íntima historia de amor y, al tiempo, una expansiva meditación sobre la pérdida y el duelo.»Heat «Un libro para leer hoy.»Cosmopolitan (UK) «Esta historia, contada con sumo cuidado, resulta particularmente oportuna en nuestros días.»Stylist «Absolutamente impactante; te deja sin aliento.»Christy Lefteri «Laura es experta en hurgar en los bolsillos secretos de Japón. Esta vez ha encontrado un teléfono y algo de viento, y con ello ha creado una obra maestra. Es, sin duda, mi nueva escritora preferida.»Orsola Branzi (La Pina) «El espacio que separa el mundo de los vivos del de los muertos, es, a menudo, muy sutil. Y Laura Imai Messina parece conocerlo a la perfección.»Romana Petri