Recommended by Alice Josephs

Taking elements of recent news stories, Middleton Williams creates a never predictable story and layers his own spin on the now familiar themes. In a tale of an almost-love-triangle in a privileged, competitive academic environment, he unravels compelling characters skilfully and manages the considerable feat of suggesting and then dodging stereotype and cliche.

This slickly written but heartening piece already raises a smile with its title. There’s wit, warmth and humour from an obviously seasoned writer. The characters, full time single mom and part time Neverland fairy with attitude Bijou and uptight number cruncher Hilton, turn engagingly from criticism to points of connection, advancing the plot while revealing their lives.

Never predictable, the landscape of three lives span this short play with its naturally evolving twists and turns. Schatz eases us into caring for each of the men in turn in this characterful and effortlessly thought provoking piece with not a word wasted.

Skilfully interwoven in structure and beautifully paced, the parallel stories of a young girl and boy and an older couple eventually blend satisfyingly together. This play deftly mixes memory and paths not taken, while giving its characters and setting a bright clarity, veering away from cliché and ending in a reconciliation with the past.

A sweetly constructed piece as two former lovers’ paths cross in a marathon. Delicately interlaced dialogue reveals two distinct personalities as they once again merge running the circuit, gently misunderstanding, understanding and caring for one another before their paths diverge. A delight.

In a trope as old as Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives Of Windsor and Wycherley’s The Country Wife, a high strung, paranoid husband determines to catch his wife ‘at it’ by taking an early flight home. Deceptively simple, this nimble farce has an almost interactive feel, especially if a performance plays on its filmic qualities, rolling back the action to present both alternative endings.

Recently deceased, Beth has a brief encounter with three famous historical figures. But her blagging during her lifetime is not the only chicken coming home to roost when the afterlife throws her one final curveball in this trim, smartly written little play.

An excoriating piece, underpinned by real life possible ‘legal’ education visa abuse. Dahl ruthlessly but with absolute economy and control of her material works through how easily democracy and ethics can die. This is more than deceptively simple work with well defined characters but has the grisly wit of a Weimar cabaret. A comedy? You may smile grimly at how easily the skittles of civilisation are felled by the deadly bowling balls thrown at it in this acerbic play where nobody escapes. Only proviso, while understanding the logic, this fable would work without the writer’s strictures over casting ethnicity.

A coming-of-age-period drama touched by comedy and tragedy, all pivoting around pre-teen Genevieve. She and her vivid imagination struggle between obedience to God the father, her own flesh and blood father and her faith in her abilities compared to the boys around her. Walsh shows assurance and maturity as a writer in handling three plots with total lucidity and in her fresh take on a Catholic childhood.

The unstable nature of post World War 2 Soviet Russia finds an apt metaphor in bootleg ‘bone records’, discarded x-rays of fragile bones used instead of vinyl for fuzzy renditions of Western music. Beasley tackles a complicated subject with a firm hand, swapping between two timelines with clarity in a detective tale format, drawing together the lives of three clearly differentiated younger citizens, caught between political idealism, artistic yearning and reality. Complexities insinuated through real life metaphors convey the period atmosphere with a skilled, light touch in a piece which would work equally well as a stage or screen piece.