Recommended by Alice Josephs

A charmingly updated Rudolph & Santa seasonal tale for the gig economy. This two hander needs only simple staging but should set adults thinking while enchanting but gently imbuing negotiating skills in the younger generation. Cleverly integrating known problems for warehouse operatives with Santa’s multinational delivery family business, this could also make a short film making its points as sharply as any pine needles while keeping a genial & sympathetic tone.

Disenchanted with a long-term relationship? A charming piece which will raise a rueful smile from many grown accustomed to their 21st century fix. Cleverly using the talk show format with its competing parties, refereed by a charismatic host, this is a wry, characterful ensemble play. With delicious roles for actors, a director can also make the most of a clash of distinctive personalities to milk those jokes in this consuming tale.

Well, I didn’t see that coming! A truly ingenious twist on dating gone wrong. A great short for male and female adult actors of any age with lots of pleasurable traps for anyone trying to guess the ending. But the biggest trap is for one character. It could work on screen but I would prefer to see it live for the audience reaction. Simple to stage, a director and an acting duo can ratchet up the tension and then leave the audience both bemused and amused by their own gullibility.

Who would ever begrudge a sailor returning from war a spontaneous jubilant victory kiss with a stranger during celebrations? Sounds familiar? The 1945 image, sailor and nurse, winged its way around the world, a prized part of the copyrighted collection of a professional photographer. But what of the physical experience of the woman seized by the seafaring warrior? Inspired by the famous photo, this is in itself an inspired, challenging, visceral piece for a trio of actors as characters, each with clashing end-of-war concerns, in a tender but also violent moment for ever frozen in time.

History come to life in real time in this charming but hard edged play, with three female and one male role, which delivers political vested interests in an entertaining bundle. Cleverly constructed our sympathies veer from character to character like a swing voter but alight on the humblest but most charismatic by the end. Full of facts but laced with warmth, this little known episode of American history with a fictional but apt entry by a real life representative of Hollywood will sweep audiences along. A crowd pleasing introduction to how elections can be won - or lost!

A historic true crime story seen through the prism of four current-day law students forensically studying the punishment meted out to Ruth Ellis, the last woman to receive the death penalty in England. With four very different characters, and their supervisor, delving into the minutiae of the case from today’s perspective, this is a gift for actors, director and audience which invites both immediate reaction and a mulling over of alternative endings. An enthralling dramatic dissection.

A warm-hearted short piece where the generation gap and good neighbour meet. A satisfying, characterful little duologue with layered senior rock chick role for an older female actor and a self-centred 20-something brought out of himself when the two form surprising bond.

A sharply comic 21st century variation on what seems to be a Faustian pact. This works as a standalone piece, but would be even more gripping if developed into a full length play or screenplay. Easy-to-stage with strong roles in the woman offering an added-value mobile phone and the disillusioned man ambushed by her. Definitely not a ‘phoned in’ play, this contemporary piece chimes across the generations and has potential if developed into a longer piece for stage or screen.

Think of Noises Off crossed with Our Town crossed with The Twilight Zone and you have an inkling of playwright Richard Thompson’s love letter to community theatre. An almost-monologue which would probably be equally tense and funny in the mouth of a male or female veteran actor. Using the audience’s imagination, this cleverly crafted piece manages to be broad comedy but, by the end, also heartwarming and poignant. And like the play-within-a-play, a total success!

A versatile, poetic short monologue inspired by our 21st century coffee-drinking habit, yet with a much older romantic sensibility in its trust in literature and community. The barista, a set character and type in our mind before the play begins, conjures up an outdoors natural world to we newcomers in town and how we too can become part of the mountain. A beautiful brew and a gift to both actor and audience.