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  I Done Clicked My Heels Three...

  Taylor Byas

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  Inspired by The Wiz, this debut, full-length poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman's quest for self-discovery—one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her powerI Done Clicked My Heels Three Times takes its inspiration and concept from the cult classic film The Wiz to explore a Black woman's journey out of the South Side of Chicago and into adulthood. The narrative arc of The Wiz—a tumultuous departure from home, trials designed to reveal new things about the self, and the eventual return home—serves as a loose trajectory for this collection, pulling listeners through an abandoned barn, a Wendy's drive-thru, a Beyoncé video, Grandma's house, Sunday service, and the corner store. At every stop, the speaker is made to confront her womanhood, her sexuality, the visibility of her body, alcoholism in her family, and various ways in which narratives are imposed on her.Subverting monolithic ideas about the South Side of Chicago, and re-casting the city as a living, breathing entity, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times spans sestinas, sonnets, free-verse, and erasures, all to reimagine the concept of home. Chicago isn't just a city, but a teacher, a lingering shadow, a way of seeing the world.

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  Bach & Sons (NHB Modern Plays)

  Nina Raine

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  Johann Sebastian Bach, irascible and turbulent, writes music of sensuous delight and deep religious fervour. He's touchy, he's fabulously rude, he has impossibly high standards (he stabs a bassoonist for playing badly), and he's constantly in trouble with his patrons.
  Music is the family business – but the burden of their father's genius weighs heavily on his sons. Wilhelm is brilliant but self-destructive. Tense, industrious Carl is more successful than his father, but knows he is less talented. As the years pass, their rivalry provokes furious arguments about love, God and above all music. What is it for – to give pleasure, like a cup of coffee in the sun, or to reveal the divine order that gives life its meaning?
  Beautiful, profound and funny, Nina Raine's play Bach & Sons is a gripping family drama and an anthem to the art that draws us together and sings of our common humanity. It premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in June 2021, directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Simon Russell Beale playing J. S. Bach.

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  Pressure (NHB Modern Plays)

  David Haig

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  An intense real-life thriller centred around the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare.
  June 1944. One man's decision is about to change the course of history.
  Everything is in place for the biggest invasion ever known in Europe - D-Day. One last crucial question remains: will the weather be right on the day?
  Problematically there are two opposing forecasts. American celebrity weatherman Colonel Krick predicts sunshine, while Scot Dr James Stagg, Chief Meteorological Officer for the Allied Forces, forecasts a storm. As the world watches and waits, General Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander, must decide which of these bitter antagonists to trust. The decision will not only seal the fates of thousands of men, but could win or lose the entire war.
  An extraordinary and little-known true story, David Haig's play thrillingly explores the responsibilities of leadership, the challenges of prophecy and the personal toll of taking a stand.
  Pressure premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in May 2014 before transferring to Chichester Festival Theatre, in a production directed by John Dove, with the author playing James Stagg.
  'gripping... the pressure just keeps on rising' Financial Times
  'tempestuous and highly charged... a thunderous piece of theatre' The Stage

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  Beowulf

  Francis Barton Gummere

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  The great drinking hall, Heorot, provides merriment for warriors and wenches alike. But it provokes only avenging rage from swamp creature Grendel. Now, in sixth-century Denmark’s darkest hour, a light of hope comes in the warrior Beowulf of the Geats. With his quest to defeat Grendel and his vengeful demon mother, Beowulf embarks on a journey from the murky lagoon to the throne of the Geats. 
  Beowulf, the Old English epic poem published anonymously centuries ago, remains one of the most influential pieces of English literature, inspiring generations of writers from J. R. R. Tolkien to George R. R. Martin.

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  The Merchant of Venice

  William Shakespeare

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  William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play.

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  Great Poets The: WB Yeats

  William Butler Yeats

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  Naxos AudioBooks continues its new series of Great Poets – represented by a collection of their most popular poems  – with W. B. Yeats, one of the most loved poets of the twentieth century. 
  He left a large legacy of outstanding poems, and the finest are collected here: Down by the Salley Gardens, The Lake Isle of Inisfree, The Secret Rose and He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. 
  They are read by a strong cast led by Olivier award winner Jim Norton.
  ©2007 Naxos Rights International; (P)2007 Naxos Rights International

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