In The Wasp's Nest, Hercule Poirot's come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. In Yellow Iris, a distressed phone call from a mystery woman brings Hercule Poirot to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the four-year anniversary of his wife's sudden death - a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed. Gathered is everyone present on that fateful night and now Poirot must and a killer in the midst, before they strike again.

"Come to A Raisin in the Sun as you would to any classic. It speaks to us today as it did almost half a century ago." Bonnie Greer In south side Chicago, Walter Lee, a Black chauffeur, dreams of a better life, and hopes to use his father's life insurance money to open a liquor store. His mother, who rejects the liquor business, uses some of the money to secure a proper house for the family. Mr Lindner, a representative of the all-white neighbourhood, tries to buy them out. Walter sinks the rest of the money into his business scheme, only to have it stolen by one of his partners. In despair Walter contacts Lindner, and almost begs to buy them out, but with the help of his wife, Walter finally finds a way to assert his dignity. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Hansberry was the youngest and the first Black writer to receive this award. Deeply committed to the Black struggle for equality and human rights, Lorraine Hansberry's brilliant career as a writer was cut short by her death when she was only 34. This new, updated edition in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series includes the full, definitive text and a brand new introduction by Soyica Diggs Colbert.

BigmoutH He who picks his words well can turn the weakest argument into the strongest. Valentijn Dhaenens pays tribute to 2,500 years of oration. Ingeniously weaving together fragments of seminal sermons, declarations of war, farewells, final arguments, victory speeches and eulogies from the Grand Inquisitor and Socrates to Mohammed Ali and Osama Bin Laden, BigmoutH shows that the tricks of rhetoric have hardly changed. SmallWaR When clean souls boil up in the backwash, they will consolidate after the final war, into a peace that shall endure... but not till then. By examining the things cast up in the backwash, we can gauge the progress of humanity. Ellen Newbold-La-Motte, nurse in a field hospital, behind the front lines in 1914. A nurse maintains watchful vigil over patients as fragments of past wars lurk within the shadows. SmallWaR tells the story in the words of those who were there and led the way, and - crucially - those who followed.

Aeschylus' Oresteia opens with Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to the gods; an act which sets in motion a bloody cycle of revenge and counter-revenge. When he in turn is killed at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, their son Orestes takes up the mantle of avenging his father, continuing the bloodshed until peace is ultimately found in the rule of law. Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies.

Trying to get their hands on more than a little inheritance, a group of young people hide the body of a dead tycoon. But what starts as a lark quickly becomes all too serious when they discover that the body is in fact a murder victim. A comedy about business and finance, with a strong undercurrent of criminal activity, the play combines humour, intricate plotting and a confounding murder. "A different Agatha Christie. The play has deserted the familiar path of the whodunnit type thriller into the realms of black comedy. The action is played for laughs rather than chills, but once the storyline has been established, there is plenty of humour and sparkle to carry it along to the usual surprise climax." THE STAGE

The love between a mother and daughter turns to jealousy and bitterness in this intense and personal drama. Ann Prentice falls in love with Richard Caulfield and hopes for a new life and happiness. Only her daughter, Sarah, takes an instant, jealous dislike to him. Resentment slowly corrodes their relationship as each seeks comfort in the formidable and knowing Dame Laura Whitstable who remarks, "The trouble with sacrifice is that once it's made it's not over and done with." "Christie is beady-eyed and brutally honest on the psychology of the motherdaughter relationship." THE GUARDIAN "The play is a revelation and its emotional intensity is at variance with most of her crime plays. This is Christie writing with her heart rather than her head. She is not concerned with clues and suspects and alibis but with human dilemmas and life choices." THE GUARDIAN

Sir Luke Enderby, eminent prosecution barrister and seasoned womaniser, bites off more than he can chew, when the case of a serial killer comes back to haunt him. A tense one act thriller that's contains one of Christie's most gruesome murders.