Drawing together the work of 12 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology celebrates highlights from 21 years of the Connections festival with a retrospective selection of plays. Featuring work by some of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, and together in one volume, the anthology offers young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of plays to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department over the years, with the young performer in mind. In 2016, these plays were then performed by approximately 500 schools and youth theatre companies across the UK and Ireland, in partnership with multiple professional partner regional theatres at which the works were showcased. The anthology contains all 12 of the play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups. This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Snoo Wilson, Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt; Simon Armitage; Jackie Kay; Patrick Marber; Mark Ravenhill; Bryony Lavery & Frantic Assembly; Davey Anderson; James Graham; Katori Hall; Carl Grose; Stacey Gregg; and Lucinda Coxon.

Love and sex are like politics: it's not what you say that matters, still less what you mean, but what you do. Patrick Marber understands this perfectly, and in Closer he has written one of the best plays of sexual politics in the language: it is right up there with Williams' Streetcar, Mamet's Oleanna, Albee's Virginia Woolf, Pinter's Old Times and Hare's Skylight.' (The Sunday Times) "Patrick Marber's searing follow-up to Dealer's Choice establishes him as the leading playwright of his generation." (Independent on Sunday)

This unsettling black comedy about private passion and public shame is based on Zoe Heller's acclaimed novel, adapted for the screen by celebrated dramatist Patrick Marber (Closer). When art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) arrives at a London comprehensive she catches the keen eye of her older colleague Barbara Covett (Judi Dench). Barbara is not the only one drawn to Sheba, who then begins an illicit affair. Barbara is the keeper of Sheba's secret, but can she be trusted?

'Love and sex are like politics: it's not what you say that matters, still less what you mean, but what you do. Patrick Marber understands this perfectly, and in Closer he has written one of the best plays of sexual politics in the language: it is right up there with Williams' Streetcar, Mamet's Oleanna, Albee's Virginia Woolf, Pinter's Old Times and Hare's Skylight.' The Sunday Times "Patrick Marber's searing follow-up to Dealer's Choice establishes him as the leading playwright of his generation." Independent on Sunday This Student Edition comes complete with a full introduction, plot synopsis, commentary, discussion of the film version, bibliography and questions for study. It is the perfect edition for anyone studying the play at school or college.

'A beautiful play about the beautiful game.' Independent 'At its heart a dark, tender and beautifully wrought study in male desperation.' Time Out 'Patrick Marber is to modern British drama what Michael Owen was to our footie.' Daily Mail 'Marber, in this riveting new piece, uses the world of non-league, semi-pro football to explore issues of trust and loyalty and the larger division between individual ambition and the collective ethic. If big issues emerge naturally from the action, it is because Marber is writing about a world he knows intimately. Everything feels right.' Guardian 'A triumph. It's Marber's night. At 50, he has found his voice again, and it roars.' Daily Telegraph 'After nine years out of the game, Marber is back in the Champions League.' Mail on Sunday

Inspired by Moliere's farcical, tragic, anarchic Don Juan (1665), Patrick Marber's Don Juan in Soho transports the action to contemporary London and follows the debauched protagonist's final adventures. Don Juan in Soho premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in December 2006. This edition of the text incorporates revisions made for the play's revival at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in 2017, directed by the author.

Drawing together the work of 10 leading playwrights, this National Theatre Connections anthology features work by some of the most exciting and established contemporary playwrights. Gathered together in one volume, the plays collected offer young performers between the ages of 13 and 19 an engaging selection of material to perform, read or study. Each play has been specifically commissioned by the National Theatre's literary department with the young performer in mind. The anthology contains 10 play scripts; notes from the writer and director of each play, addressing the themes and ideas behind the play; and production notes and exercises for the drama groups. This year's anniversary anthology includes plays by Suhayla El-Bushra, Anders Lustgarten, Robin French, Tim Etchells, Patrick Marber, Kellie Smith, Lizzie Nunnery, Harriet Braun and Alistair McDowall.

"Marber Plays: 1 "brings together three of this award-winning playwright's first plays produced at the National Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse, London.
"Dealer's Choice" premiered at the Royal National Theatre, London, in 1995 and subsequently transferred to the West End. It won the 1995 "Evening Standard "Award for Best Comedy and, the Writers' Guild for Best West End Play.
'An exceptionally accomplished first play . . . though I know nothing about poker, I testify to the compulsive grip this play exerts and to the accumulation of meanings it ignites in your head.' "Financial Times"""
"After Miss Julie "relocates August Strindberg's "Miss Julie "(1888) to an English country house in July 1945. In this radical re-imagining of theatre's first 'naturalistic tragedy' the events of Strindberg's original are transposed to the night of the British Labour Party's 'landslide' election victory.
"Closer" 'Love and sex are like politics: it's not what you say that matters, still less what you mean, but what you do. Patrick Marber understands this perfectly, and in "Closer "he has written one of the best plays of sexual politics in the language: it is right up there with Williams' "Streetcar," Mamet's "Oleanna," Albee's "Virginia Woolf," Pinter's "Old Times "and Hare's "Skylight."' "The Sunday Times"

"Dealer's Choice "premiered at the Royal National Theatre, London, in 1995 and subsequently transferred to the West End. It won the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and, the Writers' Guild for Best West End Play.
"An exceptionally accomplished first play . . . though I know nothing about poker, I testify to the compulsive grip this play exerts and to the accumulation of meanings it ignites in your head."--"Financial Times"
"Patrick Marber's enthralling close-up of the demons which drive compulsive gamblers is among the finest new plays in many a year."--"Daily Mail
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A new version of a world classic by one of Britain's best-known contemporary playwrights After Miss Julie relocates August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888) to an English country house in July 1945. In this radical re-imagining of theatre's first "naturalistic tragedy" the events of Strindberg's original are transposed to the night of the British Labour Party's "landslide" election victory. After Miss Julie, written and directed by Patrick Marber, was screened by BBC2 in November 1995 as part of the Performance season.

Join Alan Partridge on his incredible journey of discovery in Every Ruddy Word: All The Scripts. Alan Partridge is our most remarkable broadcaster. From the giddy heights of his short-lived TV chat show to the crashing lows of six months in a travel tavern, he's done it all. Whether shooting dead one of his guests on air; being crushed under a dead cow; having incomplete sex with a woman he was supposed to be sacking or encountering 'mentalist' fans, Alan remains a formidable presence on Radio Norwich. And despite suffering a breakdown, Toblerone addiction and skewering his foot on a spike he always bounces back. From Alan Partridge's first radio chat show to the pulping of his autobiography, Every Ruddy Word is the complete story of one of Britain's most-enduring comic heroes. 'Charts every line of Mr Blazer's plummeting career from radio to TV to corporate video presenter. A treat' THE TIMES 'The man is a monster' GUARDIAN Alan Partridge presents 'Up With the Partridge' on Radio Norwich and a military-based game show on cable TV. He's appeared in such series as On the Hour, The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You and I'm Alan Partridge. He'll soon be living in a house built to his own specifications in the outskirts of Norwich. He has written a bestselling autobiography, I, Partridge, revamped his career in 2010 with the 12 part Foster's Funny series 'Mid Morning Matters', and 2013 sees the release of his long-awaited film Alpha Papa. He drives a Lexus. (Scripts and extra material by Steve Coogan, Armando Ianucci, Peter Baynham and Patrick Marber)

When I was fourteen I happened to meet the celebrated drama critic, Jack Kroll. We were in his New York office at Newsweek when he asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I told him I'd like to write plays, if I could.

"Would you now?" He handed me a Grove Press edition of Pinter: Plays One and said, "You'd better have this then".

In 1995 my first play was put on at the National Theatre

One night, I was knocking around the lighting box just before curtain up, "Anyone in?"

The Deputy Stage Manager, said, "Harold Pinter".

"Yeah, yeah".

"No, really".

A few days later I received a little note from him, congratulating me on the play. I kept the note in my breast pocket for a month.

In May of 1999 we had lunch. Harold wore a black shirt and drank white wine. In fact, we drank a fair amount of white wine together. I'd put it about, via our mutual agent, Judy Daish, that I'd be pretty keen to direct The Caretaker and word came back that Harold would not be averse. So we discussed the play in an adult fashion, director to play-wright. I wondered when someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and wake me from this fantasy.

A month or two later I called Harold to discuss some bit of production business. He came to the phone, full of beans.

"Hallo, Harold. You sound well".

He told me that he was "well" and that he was writing a new play. He spoke like a man who had never written a play before, thrilled and delighted that the words were flowing. I was stabbing around in the dark with a new one. Harold asked after it delicately; he treated me like a fellow writer, as if all writers are equals, all prone to the same problems.

When I directed my second play, Closer, onBroadway, Jack Kroll came to interview me for Newsweek magazine. We chatted away in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel where I was staying. I told him he'd given me a book some twenty years ago and that it had been more than useful. He was delighted. He spoke at some length and with great admiration for and about Harold's work.

Jack Kroll died this summer.

It was an honour to have met him.

The book he had given me was upstairs in my hotel room.

Why would I ever part with it?

It's here on my desk, as I write.

A handsome new tutor brings reckless, romantic desire to an eccentric household. Over three days one summer the young and the old will learn lessons in love: first love and forbidden love, maternal love and platonic love, ridiculous love and last love. The love left unsaid and the love which must out. Ivan Turgenev's passionate, moving comedy, A Month in the Country, has been a source of inspiration for films, a ballet and the plays of Chekhov.

Passion. Loyalty. Salvation. Small time semi-pro football, the non-league. A world away from the wealth and the television cameras. A young player touched with brilliance arrives from nowhere. An ambitious manager determines to make him his own. And the old soul of the club still has dreams of glory. A haunting and humorous new play about the dying romance of the great English game - and the tender, savage love that powers it.

Ibsen's classic in a version by Patrick Marber. Hedda returns from her honeymoon with new husband George Tesman. Struggling with her marriage and life devoid of excitement, Hedda strives to find a way to fulfill her desires by manipulating those around her. This version opened at the National Theatre, London, in December 2016.

Just married. Bored already. Hedda longs to be free. This vital new version by Patrick Marber (Closer, Three Days in the Country) opened at the National Theatre, London, in December 2016.

Patrick Marber's "After Miss Julie" is not a translation of Strindberg's classic, "Miss Julie" but a version of it, moving the action from the original nineteenth-century Sweden to the England of 1945 - specifically to the 26th July, the day of the British Labour Party's "landslide" election victory. Miss Julie is the daughter of an aristocrat who, drunk after a party, flirts with her father's chauffeur John and sets in train a series of events that lead to tragedy. Class suspicions and resentments, the erotic collusion of antagonists, the struggle against repressive social mores - all feature in this sharp, tense drama which combines Strindberg's original vision with Patrick Marber's own consummate skill in drawing believable and psychologically astute characters whose every word has point and deadly meaning. It was set in the period of 1945.

The orchestra of Ridley Road, a state school, is to give a concert in Moscow at the European Festival of Youth, playing Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony before an audience of cultural bigwigs. But their instruments have been impounded by Customs due to the foolishness of Second Flute. Luckily, Alex, the Russian boy who cleans the hall, is a devout Pinball Wizard fan who comes up with a plan that saves everyone. Written as a result of the National Theatre's new writing programme for teenagers, it was performed in the Cottesloe Theatre in 2004.