Recommended by Alice Josephs

An ice hockey ‘goon’ bulldozer situation. That. The guy, with misdemeanours in the company too big to fail, leaving with glowing reference to a new job and promotion. The contaminating firm penalised with - a fine. This monologue - church sermon it ain’t. Bugsy, gangster of the ice with a psyche where sport, crime, politics meet in a violent hockey game, and now, with a family, he’s angry you don’t know about it. A hard hitting layered piece for a wise guy actor who’ll rupture your gut but for the right money become your colleague. Magnificent.

Hey, funeral time, let’s RIP! Leah’s favourite uncle, beloved also by her husband and son, will be laid to rest. Jack, who as he aged, broke away from a legacy of conformist anxiety permeating a family with immigrant ancestry. Now Leah faces a choice. Stick to relatives’ orders to form a dull united front, against Jack’s wishes, or respect his joyous spirit, bucking the trend - and the tribe. A fun short with contrasting roles in the diverging middle-aged parents, laid back son - and the characterful clothing as love rather than peer pressure wins the day!

1960s’ colour-palette USA. Folks need to get money somehow: Some from betting: Others dream jobs - if they get security clearance: Unions from members’ dues, apparently: FBI agents of colour from salaries, infiltrating from the inside. And an Americanised, sometime political idealist, immigrant shopkeeper paints and decorates. A tender but steely play on the life of a salesman intertwined with gambling, politics, social change and paint - gold paint but, unlike some others, never Russian gold paint. A play for diverse cast, with stage, audio, screen potential, familiar 20th century tropes, yet with a highly individualised voice and story.

So your playwright is having a fling with your director and has demanded - well, it’s in the title. A funny (and logical) one-thing-leads-to-another riff on life putting on a show. A tightly-structured short with a simple-to-stage script, it manages to pack in a lot of laughs while seamlessly using the audience’s imagination. With seven characters, it is a slick ensemble piece and a sure-fire surreal crowd pleaser.

A play of chain reactions with the two leads partaking in a breathless round of cross-purpose repartee and physical slapstick. An off-duty black cab driver’s snooze on a seaside bench before his wife’s return
turns into a wild rollercoaster ride when he’s accosted by a woman tourist on a mission. Requiring slick timing and precise direction, director, actors and audience alike will delight in this circular, fast-moving word and action fest.

An intriguing glimpse of parallel, doppelgänger lives when two men meet in a gas station at the end of the world after Earth has experienced an apocalyptic event. A thoughtful short exploring possible twists and turns of mirrored yet divergent lives set in a symbol of earth’s excess. Quietly tense science fiction, this easy-to-stage male two-hander ratchets up the tension until the final cliffhanger with plenty of scope for imaginative casting and staging.

A skilful monologue which spans the 20th century with the character taking the cue from the iconic song sung by chanteuse Edith Piaf ‘Non, je ne regrets rien’, a song which echoed in the minds of many across continents at the time. Leaving a trail of specific and non specific references, it is wistful, touching, a rhythmic rumination until the final crescendo and the heartfelt twist in the tail. A tour de force for a male, female or non binary actor with potential for stage, audio or short film.

Riffing on on the book of Genesis, the playwright updates the story of Rachel, Leah and Jacob to a tale of petty parental school politics. When a new family lands in small-town USA, a Queenpin mom takes out her resentments on the new mother and two sons as the latter unwittingly dislodge her children from top spots at High School. With four strong roles for women and one male role for Rachel’s husband, this blended family piece gives director and actors a layered scenario and modern dilemmas with echos of the biblical story in its plot and wise resolution.

An ingenious ‘turning the tables’ tale where hard-hat sexism gets its comeuppance from silver-haired Ivy. Audience and law enforcer are faced with a bemusing scene - a burly construction worker foreman and his crew wilting under the female gaze of doughty senior campaigner. The playwright adroitly uses the national day calendar for a funny yet serious piece with a recognisable trio of characters and perennial situation. A tough but laugh-out-loud play - oh, with chocolate chip cookies too!

That production linchpin, the stage manager, narrates this farce, designated by the playwright a ‘mockumentary’ in this ‘Our Town’ of the theatrical world. Skewering the hierarchical and sexual politics (and chaotic twists and turns), the playwright skilfully paces an intrically structured piece of unrequited passion and vaulting ambition in a cat’s cradle of cast, crew, director and writer, swirling egos and insecurities. Curtain up on an ensemble piece of technical precision escalating the excruciating misunderstandings and the laughs!