The Glove Thief (NHB Modern Plays)

Beth Flintoff

Summary

The year is 1569, and in a cold, stone room in a Staffordshire castle, a group of women sew elaborate tapestries. Rich or poor, at home or held against their will, four women's lives intersect on the point of a needle.
Embroidery is their escape, their sanity, and their expression: of love, loss, artistry and power. For these women's stitches have the power to change not just their own lives, but the course of English history.
Inspired by the tapestries created when Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, The Glove Thief by Beth Flintoff is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at addressing gender imbalance in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

Available since: 01/12/2017.

Print length: 96 pages.

Poetry & Theatre

Other books that might interest you

Fucking Feminists (NHB Modern...

Rose Lewenstein

Fucking Feminists by Rose Lewenstein is a fiercely funny investigation of what feminism means, and what it has become.
The play is taken from Women Centre Stage; a collection of eight short plays, commissioned and developed as part of the Women Centre Stage Festival, that together demonstrate the range, depth and richness of women's writing for the stage.
Selected by Sue Parrish, Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre, these plays offer a wide variety of rewarding roles for women, and are perfect for schools, youth groups and theatre companies to perform. Other writers included in the collection include Winsome Pinnock, Timberlake Wertenbaker and April De Angelis.

Show book

The Children (NHB Modern Plays)

Lucy Kirkwood

'Retired people are like nuclear power stations. They like to live by the sea.'
Two ageing nuclear scientists in an isolated cottage on the coast, as the world around them crumbles. Then an old friend arrives with a frightening request.
Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children premiered at the Royal Court, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs on 17 November 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

Show book

A Christmas Carol – A Ghost...

Charles Dickens

It's Christmas Eve. As the cold, bleak night draws in, the penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the spirit of his former business partner, Jacob Marley.
Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn't too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate. But first he'll have to face three more eerie encounters...
Mark Gatiss' spine-tingling adaptation is faithful to the heart and spirit of Charles Dickens' much-loved festive ghost story – with an emphasis on the ghostly.
Commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, the adaptation premiered there in 2021, starring Nicholas Farrell alongside Gatiss, and directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Adam Penford.
A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story subsequently transferred to Alexandra Palace Theatre, London, produced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Eilene Davidson Productions.

Show book

Traveling Salesman's Son

William Bernhardt

In his latest collection, William Bernhardt again demonstrates that he is a true poet, one whose work accomplishes the difficult task of being both accessible and profound. He communicates with grace and illumination, avoiding the obscurity and obfuscation that sometimes causes readers to avoid modern poetry. He writes about the subjects that matter most: personal relationships, family, children, and the challenges of everyday life. Bernhardt is a poet who appeals even to those who think they don't like poetry and is cherished by those who do.
While addressing subjects of everlasting import, Bernhardt's poems are engaging, relevant, and sometimes playful, reminiscent of beloved predecessors such as Billy Collins and Robert Frost. Readers will be struck by the versatility of the poems and the wide range of form. Smart, lyrical, observant, and textured, these poems explain why Rilla Askew (Kind of Kin) called Bernhardt "a compelling new voice in American poetry" and R.C. Davis-Undiamo (World Literature Today) named him one of "the nation's literary treasures."
"William Bernhardt writes with warmth, wit, and a clear desire to commune with his reader. Whether he is working in free verse or in meter and rhyme, Bernhardt makes of poetry a way of connecting person to person. Like Montaigne, Bernhardt is a man consubstantial with his book, and the full range of human feeling is on display in these poems with great honesty and ardent empathy." —Benjamin Meyers, OK Poet Laureate, Crouch-Mathis Professor of Literature, OBU

Show book

The Hypochondriac - Full Text...

Jean Baptiste Poquelin (Molière)

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding.

Molière's classic farce,
Le Malade Imaginaire, in a fresh and performable translation.

The 'imaginary invalid' Argan is so obsessed with his health that he fails to notice what is happening around him in his own family. His scheming wife and loving daughter are finally revealed to him in their true light by Argan's brother, who poses as a quack doctor and suggests he feigns death to test their loyalty.

Translated and introduced by Martin Sorrell.

Show book

Bordertown

Culture Clash

Culture Clash brashly explores the San Diego-Tijuana region through satire and humor. Bordertown is based upon interviews the trio conducted with more than 100 people from both sides of the border and from every walk of life. Interviewees include right wing talk show host and former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, Sheriff Bill Kollender, Filipino and Ugandan immigrants, Navy personnel, a high school counselor, a border guard, punk rockers, homeless children, transvestites, and factory workers.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Culture Clash:  Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza.

Show book