What happens when two sets of parent's meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children? A calm and rational debate between grown-ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name-calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse - much worse. God of Carnage won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Tony award for Best Play.

He can't help himself and he plunges into the forest. until the moment it dawns on him: night has fallen and he is completely lost. Pierre finds himself at a turning point, tormented by the conflicting demands of family, career and sexual desire. His struggle to resolve this crisis, without fracturing his marriage or compromising his comfortable way of life, is explored in original and unsettling ways. Florian Zeller's raw and mysterious play, translated by Christopher Hampton, premieres at Hampstead Theatre, London, in February 2022. I'm telling you a story, if that's all right by you. Apparently you've no objection to telling stories yourself. Am I right?

Nicolas, just two years ago a smiling boy, is going through a difficult phase after his parents' divorce. He's listless, skipping classes, lying. He believes moving in with his father and his new family may help. And a different school, a fresh start. When he doesn't feel comfortable there, when he senses he isn't wanted, he decides that going back to his mother's may be the answer. But at some point, options are going to dry up. And then what? I'm telling you. I don't understand what's happening to me. Florian Zeller's The Son forms the final part in a trilogy with The Mother and The Father, all of which are translated by Christopher Hampton. The Son premiered at the Kiln Theatre, London, in February 2019.

Andre and Madeleine have been in love for over fifty years. This weekend, as their daughters visit, something feels unusual. A bunch of flowers arrive, but who sent them? A woman from the past turns up, but who is she? And why does Andre feel like he isn't there at all? Christopher Hampton's translation of Florian Zeller's The Height of the Storm was first performed at Richmond Theatre, London, and opened in the West End at Wyndham's Theatre in October 2018.

The Father, in this English translation by Christopher Hampton, was commissioned by the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal, Bath and premiered in October 2014. The production transferred to the Tricycle Theatre, London and subsequently to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End. Florian Zeller's The Father was awarded the Moliere Award for Best Play and the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor.

Play produced by the Royal Shakespeare Co. in 1985 based on the Laclos novel.

Nicolas is going through a difficult phase after his parents' divorce. He's listless, skipping classes, lying. He believes moving in with his father and his new family may help. A different school, a fresh start. When he senses he isn't wanted there, he decides to go back to his mother's. But what happens when the options dry up? I'm telling you. I don't understand what's happening to me. Florian Zeller's The Son completes a trilogy with The Mother and The Father, all of which are translated by Christopher Hampton. The Son premiered at the Kiln Theatre, London, in February 2019, and transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in August.

Here is the greatest account ever written of the destructiveness of missionary zeal. Gregers Werle enters the house of photographer Ekdal preaching 'the demands of idealism'(a nicely ambiguous phrase in Hampton's translation) and systematically destroys a family's happiness.

Henrik Ibsen

Translated by Christopher Hampton

Full Length, Drama

Characters: 3 male, 2 female

Interior Set

This riveting family drama is a classic of the modern theatre. Oswald Alving returns for the dedication of the orphanage to his father's memory and has a flirtation with the family maid who, it turns out, is his father's illegitimate daughter. As the long-supressed truths collide, the orphanage is destroyed by fire, the maid deserts the family in disgust when she learns her true parentage, and Mrs. Alving is left alone to care for her hopelessly insane son who has fallen prey to the social disease that killed his father. The role of Mrs. Alving, considered one of the greatest in the modern repertoire, has been played by Liv Ullman, Geraldine Page, Eva Le Galliene, Mrs. Fiske, Alla Nazimova and Eleonora Duse.

Christopher Hampton

Drama

Characters: 10 male, 5 female, plus extras

Various Sets

Revised version. Total Eclipse is an intelligent look at the relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine and shows considerable insight into the bourgeois and artistic societies of the period as well as a moving understanding of homosexuality.

"The first six scenes develop the contrast between the two men...and their mutual need for each other as they move through and away from the literary life of the time and from Verlaine's wife and her family. A remarkable cafe dialogue with the two poets drunk and drugged subtly suggests the private, timeless world they built together and ends on a note of violence to show how fragile it was...A compelling evening in the theatre." - New Statesman

Drama

Characters: 3male, 2female

Interior Set

Jimmy and Ian share a flat. Jimmy is "straight"; and Ian is "not." Neither are very "gay." One night Jimmy brings a girl home. He tries to get Ian and his friend to go out so he can have some privacy but Ian refuses. In fact, he gets very angry, leading to a fight. Jimmy's mother comes to visit Ian, and there ensues a mutual sexual attraction, which is consummated. The mother tries to get Ian to go to bed with her again; but Ian tells her he only did it because she reminded him of Jimmy. Ian hints Jimmy has a homosexual side which Jimmy is not aware of. This upsets the mother so much she has a fight with Jimmy which upsets her so much more she has a fatal automobile accident. In the end, Jimmy and Ian come to a deeper knowledge of themselves.

Stephen Ward charts the rise and fall from grace of the man at the centre of the Profumo Scandal. Friend to film stars, spies, models, government ministers and aristocrats, his rise and ultimate disgrace coincided with the increasingly permissive lifestyle of London's elite in the early 1960s. Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, with book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black, centres on Ward's involvement with the young and beautiful Christine Keeler, which led to one of the biggest political scandals and most famous trials of the twentieth century. Stephen Ward premiered at the Aldwych Theatre, London, in December 2013.

Three Sisters, set in a rural backwater of Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, is a play about dreams, hope, work and love. The sisters of the title dream of returning to Moscow, where their lives, they are certain, will be happier; in the meantime, the eldest and youngest, Olga and Irina, seek solace in work and the middle sister, Masha, married to the local schoolmaster, embarks on a hopeless but passionate affair with Vershinin, commander of the local army battery. Years pass, and their brother Andrei's wife, Natasha, slowly but inexorably ousts Olga and Irina from their family home as well as draining all life and hope from Andrei himself. At the end, rootless and loveless, the sisters face a bleak future with only one certainty: we cannot understand life, we must just endure it. Christopher Hampton's version of Chekhov's classic tragicomedy captures both the light, comic naturalism of its dialogue and the poetic melancholy of its atmosphere, a firm sense of the play's period balancing perfectly with a very modern clarity and economy of expression. It premi red at the Playhouse Theatre in 2003 with Kristin Scott-Thomas, Robert Bathurst, James Fleet and Eric Sykes among a distinguished cast.

4th March, 1865: On the night of his second inauguration, a few weeks before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln meets the veteran black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in the White House to discuss the prospect of extending the vote to black men who have served in the soon to be victorious Union armies. 4th March, 1965: In the White House, Lyndon Johnson, anxious to introduce a new Voting Rights Act, is briefed by his sinister and "unfirable" FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, on the imminent Selma to Montgomery march, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. It is a demonstration prompted by a state trooper's murder of the young activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, in Marion, Alabama, following a rally in support of voter registration in Perry County. In his ambitious new play, commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis as the centrepiece of a retrospective of his plays and films, Christopher Hampton traces a line which runs from the last days of a brutal Civil War to the high-water mark of the Civil Rights movement and on, all the way to the present day; and considers the agonisingly slow healing of a wound, universal, but especially deep and painful in America: racism. Appomattox premiered at the McGuire Proscenium Stage in the Guthrie Theater on 5 October, 2012.

Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya in a new version by Christopher Hampton. This version will be first staged at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 25 October 2012 and run until 16 February 2013. 'It's often said that the best of the Chekhov plays is the one you've seen most recently. Uncle Vanya doesn't have a suicide, like The Seagull, or an adulterous couple and a duel more or less indistinguishable from murder, like Three Sisters; nor does it seem to announce the end of an era, like The Cherry Orchard: all it has is a series of ludicrously bungled attempts at murder and suicide and adultery. Perhaps these failures are what makes it feel the saddest and most truthful of these great tragi-comedies, in which, possibly unique to all drama, not a single word seems redundant or out of place.' - From the author's introduction.

The Ibsen classic, in a version by Christopher Hampton, was seen at the Royal National Theatre in 1989 starring Juliet Stevenson as Hedda.4 women, 3 men

Anne loved the time in her life when she prepared breakfast each morning for her two young children. Years later, spending hours alone, Anne convinces herself that her husband is having an affair. If only her son were to break-up with his girlfriend. He would return home and come down for breakfast. She would put on her new red dress and they would go out. The Mother premiered at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal, Bath and transferred to the Tricycle Theatre, London. It was awarded the Moliere Award 2011 for Best Play and Best Actress.

Christopher Hampton's wry, poignant drama depicts the consequences of old literary Europe's attempt to integrate into fast-paced commercial Hollywood in the early years of World War II. With Austro-Hungarian playwright Odon Von Horvath resurrected as our guide, "Tales from Hollywood" leads us through a bizarre landscape where Schoenberg and the Marx Brothers play tennis, Brecht tries to write film treatments the studios will clamor over, and Heinrich Mann endeavors to maintain a dignified despair, overshadowed by his younger brother Thomas, who thrives on his celebrity status. As the war ends and McCarthyism sets in, the younger emigres assimilate but the older ones, unable to bear what they term the "tragic innocence" and relentless "cuteness" of America, go into a slow decline. Meanwhile, Horvath's conversations and observations raise questions of personal accountability for the unchecked rise of Nazism in Europe in the thirties and the futility of being homesick for countries that have forced one into exile.
In its contrast of the two continents, "Tales from Hollywood" paints a wistful, humorous portrait of a time when Europe and North America were in the throes of artistic, ideological, and political changes that would forever alter their own identities as well as their relations to each other.

In the enclosed, insulated world of a London flat the only intrusion into which is a brief outburst of demonstrators' voices against the Home Secretary who lives nearby are worked out the permutations and combinations of Ann and her two lovers. Dave, her previous companion, a journalist, has been away and on returning finds that he has been replaced by Patrick, a conventional man of the office, amiable but dull. Though Ann rules the roost, she herself is weak enough to be unable to do without one of them; and in the end Dave is reinstalled and Patrick dismissed. But how long this will last is anybody's guess.1 woman, 2 men

Philip gives a small party for his fiancee Celia and a few friends. Afterwards Celia leaves with the others, while another young lady offers to help wash up, later revealing more intimate intentions. Celia discovers what happened and breaks things off, revealing that she spent the night of the party with another man. Philip then joins another couple for dinner, apparently deciding to re-enact the end of his deceased friend John's original play, which had been responsible for John's suicide.3 women, 4 men

Set in the socially and economically oppressed Vienna of the early thirties, this play is the story of a young girl's struggle to survive in the city, a victim of forces she does not comprehend. As the play opens, she is trying to sell her body to an anatomical institute.

ATONEMENT THE SHOOTING SCRIPT (R) Screenplay by Christopher Hampton Based on the novel by Ian McEwan Introduction by Christopher Hampton A Newmarket Shooting Script (R) Series Book 30 Colour photos in a colour insert The official screenplay book tie-in to the adaptation by screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Academy Award (R) winner for Dangerous Liaisons) of Ian McEwan's best-selling 2002 novel, starring James McAvoy (BAFTA Award nominee for The Last King of Scotland) opposite Academy Award-nominated Keira Knightley, directed by Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice), coming from Focus Features in December. Filmed on location in the U.K., the story of Atonement spans several decades. In 1935, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion. On the warmest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony's vivid imagination. Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family's housekeeper, carries a torch for Briony's headstrong older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley). Cecilia, he hopes, has comparable feelings; all it will take is one spark for this relationship to combust. When it does, Briony-who has a crush on Robbie- is compelled to interfere, going so far as accusing Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, but he is arrested-and with Briony bearing false witness, the course of three lives is changed forever. Briony continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. Through a terrible and courageous act of imagination, she finds the path to her uncertain atonement, and to an understanding of the power of enduring love. Praise for the film Atonement: "Impressively directed, beautifully photographed and superbly adapted drama with terrific performances from its cast."-The View (London)

The Mother Anne loved the time in her life when she prepared breakfast each morning for her two young children. Years later, spending hours alone, Anne convinces herself that her husband is having an affair. If only her son were to break-up with his girlfriend. He would return home and come down for breakfast. She would put on her new red dress and they would go out. The Mother, in this English translation by Christopher Hampton, was commissioned by the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal, Bath, and premiered in May 2015. Florian Zeller's The Mother was awarded the Moliere Award for Best Play 2011. The Father 'A wonderfully peculiar, quietly stunning depiction of dementia... A controlled, unforgettable portrait of losing your memory.' Times 'A vivid, lucent translation by Christopher Hampton.' Observer 'One of the most acute, absorbing and distressing portraits of dementia I've ever seen.' Daily Telegraph 'A play that constantly confounds expectations and works almost like a thriller, with a sinister Pinteresque edge.' Guardian The Father, in this English translation by Christopher Hampton, was commissioned by the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal, Bath and premiered in October 2014. The production transferred to the Tricycle Theatre, London, in May 2015. Florian Zeller's The Father was awarded the Moliere Award for Best Play 2014.

Characters: 9 male, 4 female

Scenery: Interior

This translation of Moliere's classic depiction of hypocrisy in action was done for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

"The assumption behind this ferociously brilliant production is that Tartuffe is much too serious and alarming a work to be insulated behind any English equivalent of French classical style. The greatest compliment I can bestow on Hampton's translation is that...you hardly notice it. Plain, perfectly phrased blank verse does the job."-London Times

I know now, Kostya, I understand that in our work - doesn't matter whether it's acting or writing - what's important isn't fame or glamour, none of the things I used to dream about, it's the ability to endure. The Seagull is one of the great plays about writing. It superbly captures the struggle for new forms, the frustrations and fulfilments of putting words on a page. Chekhov, in his first major play, staged a vital argument about the theatre which still resonates today. Christopher Hampton's new version of this classic, directed by Ian Rickson in his last production as Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre, London, premiered in January 2007.