A play based around youthful hopes and dreams squashed by the necessary grind of life. Chekhov offers a closely observed study of a family falling apart. Everything is taken from the three sisters - Olga, Masha and Irina - the security of their comfortable home life, their ambitious plans for a bright future, love and lovers. A complex process of stripping away from them everything they hold dear is played out over four increasingly tense acts, bringing reward to some and despair to others.5 women, 9 men

Oswald returns home from Paris to honour his dead father. As his mother begins to feel the presence of ghosts from the past around her, Oswald discovers that there is more to his mystery illness than he first thought. Only by uncovering the truth can they both be set free.

For Madame Ranevskaya, her cherry orchard is more than just land; it is her childhood, her memories and her life. Returning for the first time since her young son drowned there, she must come to terms with the fact that in order to free her family of debt the cherry orchard must be sold, the trees must be cleared and she and her family must prepare for life beyond the orchard. This touching and often hillarious play exercises the perfect balance of comedy and tragedy, through the characters, relationships and observations of society.

Konstantin writes an avant-garde play for his beloved Nina to perform. His mother, Arkadina, a successful actress of the traditional school, and her novelist lover Trigorin, attend the first performance - and the meeting of Trigorin and Nina sets in train a series of tragi-comic events which leave no-one unaffected. Mike Poulton's adaptation of the Chekhov classic is fast-moving and funny; his ear for the rhythms, non sequiturs and tangential nature of real speech make it accessible, actable and indisputably modern.-6 women, 7 men

Mike Poulton's revised translation of Uncle Vanya was presented at The Print Room, London, in March 2012. In his introduction to the text he writes, "It's a measure of the greatness of this play that while translations lose their power, the original never does. It grows more moving, more gripping, and funnier on each reading. The more one works closely with it, the more secrets it reveals."4 women, 6 men

Cicero, the greatest orator of his age, devotes all his energy and cunning to preserve the rule of law, and defend Rome’s Republic against the predatory attacks of political rivals, discontented aristocrats, and would-be military dictators. Imperium is a backstage view of Ancient Rome at its most bloody and brutal, told through the eyes of Tiro, Cicero’s loyal secretary. Adapted by Mike Poulton from Robert Harris’s bestselling The Cicero Trilogy, it was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2017 in an epic event comprising six plays presented in two performances. Mike Poulton is an award-winning dramatist whose many adaptations include Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, The Canterbury Tales and Morte d’Arthur (all for the Royal Shakespeare Company), A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Luise Miller (Donmar Warehouse), Don Carlos (Sheffield Crucible/West End) and Wallenstein (Chichester Festival Theatre).

Oxford Reading Tree Jackdaws Anthologies offer a challenge for competent and mature readers. Each of the titles is made up of different text types with a shared thematic topic. Each combines fiction and non-fiction in the form of a fast-moving adventure tale, information text in a fact file, and a traditional tale or myth drawn from a variety of cultures. Jackdaws Anthologies Pack 1 is available as a mixed pack of six books or a class pack of 36 books. Packs 2 and 3 of Oxford Reading Tree: Jackdaws and Cross-curricular Jackdaws are also available. All Jackdaws are book-banded for ease of use.

"The Syndicate," or "Il Sindaco Del Rione Sanita," is a witty dark comedy set in 1960s Naples. This new translation by Mike Poulton portrays De Filippo's classic combination of pathos with farce in a newly accessible and contemporary version.
Honest young Antonio Barracano stabs a brutal night-watchman to death. With the help of a 'Godfather' he is smuggled out of Naples to hide in New York. Convicted of the murder in his absence but safe overseas, he quickly acquires wealth and a reputation for ruthlessness.
Returning to Naples, he uses his new status to quash his conviction and is soon feared but respected throughout the city, making it his life's work to provide a form of rough justice for the criminals of Naples who have no other access to law.
He rules the Naples underbelly with a rod of iron but when a respectable but poor young man decides to murder his father and comes to Don Antonio for advice, the Neapolitan 'Godfather' emerges from the shadows to make the young man's father an offer he can't refuse
The comedy grows blacker as 'respectable' Naples collides with its criminal underworld.

A masterpiece of power and politics that explores the battle between honour and corruption, between truth and betrayal. Born into ancient nobility and son of the most powerful statesman in the land, Ferdinand is willing to forsake his fortune for the love of Luise, daughter of a humble musician. But in a world governed by deception and greed, where power is everything, their future happiness and liberty are beyond their control. Adapted from Friedrich Schiller's 1784 play Kabale und Liebe, Mike Poulton's Luise Miller was first staged at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2011.

The RSC's alternative Christmas show this year: a new two-part dramatisation of one of the greatest books in the English language Befell that in that season on that day/ In Southwark at The Tabard - as I lay/ Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage/ To Canterb'ry with full devout courage -/ At night was come into that hostelry/ Well nine-and-twenty in a company/ Of sundry folk, by aventure yfall/ In fellowship...And pilgrims were they all/ That toward Canterb'ry would ride... So says Chaucer as he strides on stage to set the scene for Mike Poulton's spring-heeled dramatisation of The Canterbury Tales. The much-lauded RSC director, Gregory Doran, will stage this two-part adaptation of all 23 of the tales in the beautiful and atmospheric Swan Theatre, Stratford. All the famous characters are here - as well as many less well-known but equally full of life.

A new god has risen...When a new god - the god of the life force, the god of sensuality, wine and the dance, the god that other religions fear - arrives in a buttoned-down world, he finds a leader who no longer believes in a power higher than himself, who will do whatever it takes to preserve the status quo. But this society is a ticking time bomb, revolution is in the air and the people are desperate for change. A band of sisters are ready to explode and destroy everyone and everything that gets in their way in Mike Poulton's all-new version of this dark and liberating play, co-conceived with choreographer Mark Bruce and director Braham Murray.

'Scotland may be a savage nation, Lady, but the English wash their hands in blood.' Mary Stuart tells the story of the personal struggle between two extraordinary women - one French, one English - both captive to the demands of sovereignty and both caught in a tumult of political and religious intrigue. Which of them is the rightful Queen of England - Mary Stuart or Elizabeth Tudor? Mary Stuart, written in 1800 by Friedrich Schiller, is presented in this new version by Mike Poulton following his Don Carlos for Sheffield/West End. The play was produced at Clwyd Theatr Cymru 7-30 May 2009. 'Magnificent ...Mike Poulton's fleet and vivid translation ...all the deftly plotted twists and turns of a thriller. You lean forward in your seat, desperate to discover what happens next ...a masterpiece' Daily Telegraph on Mike Poulton's version of Schiller's Don Carlos.

August Strindberg's gripping psychological drama about the battle of the sexes, in a version by Mike Poulton. Strindberg's play The Father is about a marriage wrecked by the parents' need to claim exclusive rights to their daughter's love, and to determine her future. By turns comic and deeply tragic, it shows an affable, scholarly father fall victim to a once loving wife who will stop at nothing to do what she thinks is right for her child. The only possible outcome is a grim, yet thrilling fight to the death in circumstances of almost unbearable tension. Written in 1887, The Father was first staged in Berlin in 1890. This English version by Mike Poulton was first staged at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2006.