Recommended by Alice Josephs

A tale of small town America with a Beckettian twist, post credit crunch, post George Floyd, post Donald Trump, post Capitol riot. Ageing Mar Kelly and her erstwhile friend Cecilia are broad stroke stereotypes yet their dialogue lifts us away into a global view of chaos and distrust as they wait for public transport, a bus, that never comes. Roles for two older female actors of colour and a slow burn but deeply resonant piece, easy to stage in any venue. A finely judged short giving us the long view.

American Ellida is determined never to give up in the midst of freezing conditions in - a Norwegian fjord! This charming monologue gets under the skin of a young woman who has undertaken a sailing course, partly to rival her sister. As an avid reader, an imagined world with herself as heroine collides with her crush on, and first sexual passion for, the Nordic course leader. A monologue full of girlhood angst, comedy and lyricism as Ellida seeks to stay afloat, both literally and for her self esteem, keeping her notions of romance alive.

A searing and intricate monologue for an older black actress, eschewing the cliches, viscerally building tension in an all-too-relatable piece. A law abiding mother’s participation in a peaceful protest seems to herald a spiral of family disintegration, civil unrest and unfocused authoritarian clampdown as outside forces invade and destabilise all she has ever known. Powerful and heart-stopping structure and writing turn it from the justifiably angry and topical into a universal experience of a woman in a fractured society.

Two brothers await the burial of their teen soldier brother while planning their next move in this taut, Tarantinoesque duologue. The young men have assimilated a legacy of soft porn, disturbing attitudes towards women and the inevitability of a voracious military machine, yet there is a glimpse of another way in the reaction of one of the siblings. Easy to stage with the potential for skilful work from director, sound and set designer, this has two multi-layered roles for young actors in a visceral and unsettling piece.

A crafty follow up to the Charles Dickens’s Christmas classic, A Christmas Carol. Slyly managing to bridge Victorian charity and the modern world of social insurance and non profit organisations, Lockhart extends the pageant of memorable characters, a Christmas gift for director, actor and designer all year round! With underlying, subversive, knotty reversals yet keeping the well-loved story set pieces, this is both rueful rumination and a warm-hearted family entertainment, as double edged as the real life character of Dickens himself.

Twins in small-town Ohio. Sugar Ridge Rag is a graceful but robust family saga about brothers living in the syncopated decade of the 1970s. Structured around the music of ragtime, this is a gift for director, actors, scene and sound designer with non linearity episodes, all the more effective for being understated. Covered with a light touch but deep resonance are huge personal, national and international issues: war and defence, masculinity, the two countries of North America, the military industrial complex, a split family coming to terms with a new era but, above all, loving ties that bind.

A tough yet tender short with a feisty elderly retired newshound woman character and Afghanistan vet male character. There is a familiar stuck-in-the-lift scenario but playwright Baron takes us to surprising places with unexpected twists and turns to the very last line. A strong piece which work equally well on stage, screen or audio.

A poetic and powerful monologue exploring the mind of the abused. Labelled as mad by its master, Renfield then grapples with learning the outside world views his tormentor as mad. A tour de force for an actor, both for Halloween and beyond.

Shrewd and witty take on the ‘group therapy’ trope with fairy tale characters, like former child actors or alcoholics, facing up to their demons. Now earning 21st century legit and illegit livings, literary pasts are cleverly translated into modern day traumas and coping with daily life where, for example, tanning operative Snow White is hired but then fired for being too pale - obvious discrimination but with no employment rights in her kingdom home. Colourful characters, a funny, sometimes violent, but always thoughtful script and, luckily for all, the gunshot-free equivalent of a happy ending!

Quick, Change lives up to its name as it develops character and plot and the audience finds itself on the quicksand of theatre (theater) and TV politics. Terrific range of roles for actors from star ‘name’ Gabriel, through young intern dresser Annie to bartender Tony. Catching the zeitgeist, this is both definitely its own play, and an update of Ronald Harwood’s male-dominated classic ‘The Dresser’, where women now hold their own and join in the fight to climb the actors’ greasy pole to stardom on equal terms — for better or for worse.