Recommended by Alice Josephs

This seven-character play soars and succeeds in its ambition to bring to the fore the sister of Gypsy Rose Lee, both immortalised, for better or worse, in the musical Gypsy. Picking out real life facts, DeVita uses a dance marathon and vaudeville stage framework for this bitter sweet interrogation of the choices and compulsions when your lasting memorial is as a ‘character’ in somebody else’s show. Dynamic and insightful, drawing attention to its own theatricality, it manages to feel like a truthful portrayal and a rueful interrogation of show business and the nature and dangers of fiction.

A slick yet heartfelt three-hander set in 1930s studio-run Hollywood and its script factory. Lockhart conjures up a story of strange bedfellows as part of a well paid precariat, easily lauded or spat out in a cutthroat business. Yet also somewhere where, even if only momentarily, the art and the craft can satisfy the soul. A skilfully constructed joyous and tragic odd couple drama with quick fire repartee, laughs, tears and a serious discussion of writing encapsulated in well-rounded characters we care for.

A two-hander to expand the mind and take the audience on an out-of-world experience, springboarding from - a supermarket aisle … A very modern tale of the search for the meaning of life and exploring the impact on the psyche of algorithmic tyranny. Oh, and did I remember to say also very (poignantly) funny? With two female roles and call by the writer for inventive use of lighting, this is a family friendly and truly spectacular short.

The search for a missing tourist has all the elements of a Nordic Noir. Indeed maybe some locals have watched too much of the genre with their speculation over events. Even Carbajal’s title cleverly combines the literal with a possible political or racial incident as a potential murder mystery reveals itself to be more about the psychology of those searching as it dawns on the audience what is happening. A gentle and quirkily funny real time mystery based on a true story which the audience (deliberately) is made to solve before the investigators.

With only a few playwriterly brush strokes in dialogue and action Martin expertly reveals the dynamic between two sisters. She doesn’t intend to cruelly bulldoze. She doesn’t have the courage to gainsay her possibly far more successful (and slimmer?) sister. Both audience and actors will find plenty to read - and feel - between the lines in a piece which plays with our expectations and where there are no goodies or baddies, only those who find themselves blundering despite themselves.

Radical - from the roots or its common perception as extreme idealism. This one-act play is centred on three people at the Allende’s Chilean government’s end: Simon, from society’s poorest strata, terribly wounded; Martha, an American Christian missionary and a stranger part political gamester, part with a vestige of idealism as a journalist. Díaz-Marcano manages the trio’s dialogue and action skilfully, juggling between local events and light-touch Cold War metaphors sucking the audience into the larger backdrop and the individuals’ peril, suspicions, expediency, choices and, movingly, eventually their faith in each other in impossible circumstances.

A nineteenth century farmer patriarch with a medical diagnosis weighs up his legacy; an embittered, dissolute Civil War veteran son is out for a fast buck; the impecunious married daughter, frustrated by lack of property rights, sees potential in New York unpaved land. But cleverly and still relevantly, this has a double real estate perspective with what Bloomingdale Road was to become while immediate concerns keep it as a characterful family drama with scope for actors. Either simply staged or with leeway for designer, director and technical crew to experiment, this is both an entertainment and resonant piece.

An updated folk tale - a widow meets a clockmaker. Well, more like a watch repairer when most now use their mobiles. In the midst of a city Jim practises his craft knowing time is running out for his shop. Diane’s life has stopped like her late husband’s watch as she beats herself up over an otherwise mundane irritation. A simple but touching romcom short, succinctly including the genre’s staple in 10 brief pages: the instant dislike turning to a warm bond in several stages. Nuanced roles for older actors in a gladsome little piece.

A great surburban party two-hander with its push-me-pull-you dialogue and maybe even a grumbling, rumbling bodily third character. Funny and truthful, this is a tale of middle age spread and flirtation. Age and what the body can tolerate may loom large but a wife is still determined to enjoy innocent pleasures. A quirky character piece where both husband and wife have their failings and sillinesses and hotel-like pinching of goodies may be taken to extremes, but we grow to care for them as much as they care for each other.

A female stand up wakes up after a whiskey-sodden one night stand - except this has been a night like no other and the hangover may last a lifetime. After an unpromising beginning, she remembers an interrupted journey both literally and metaphorically as she needs to reconcile her past and current events. A morning-after duologue with two fantastic contrasting characters - ladette Julia and gentlemanly Peter and fluent dialogue where stereotype turns into something vastly more affecting. A sudden flashlight into the life of a performer in a funny, feisty and ultimately moving piece.