'We are here to make sense of it all.' From the everyday to the astonishing, and the ordinary to the miraculous, the Roman poet Ovid's stories of epic impossibilities explore the power of transformation, the resilience of humans, and the wonder of life. The myths of Metamorphoses have inspired generations of writers, including Shakespeare. Over two thousand years later, they are reimagined for our world by three leading British playwrights, and feature anarchy, shape-shifting and a burning chariot of fire. This entertaining and provocative new play, by Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas and Sabrina Mahfouz, was written for the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, London. It was first performed by four actors in 2021, and directed by Globe Associate Artistic Director, Sean Holmes and Associate Artistic Director of Headlong, Holly Race Roughan.

'Your hobbies are limited to Arab Idol and cooking lentils and having sex in fields late at night.' The year is 2043, and Reem and her husband Sayeed are going to share a 'Serious Play about Palestine'. Things are tense. People are on the edge. The Fifth Intifada is right around the corner. But on a contested piece of land near their village of Beit al-Qadir, Reem and Sayeed are about to go dogging. Don't worry, you're allowed to laugh. Sami Ibrahim's play two Palestinians go dogging uses the lens of humour to explore how the everyday becomes political and the political becomes everyday in a conflict zone. The play won the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award in 2019 and was premiered in May 2022 at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, London, directed by Omar Elerian.

'We all live under the same sky. It's just that, beneath that sky, there's some arsehole saying, "Don't stand here, stand over there and shut your mouth."' Elif shears sheep for a rich landowner. Every other waking hour she spends queuing outside the palace, hoping that the King will let her live within the city walls. She comes from a faraway land. She is searching for sanctuary. And this is what we call a 'hostile environment'. Sami Ibrahim's play A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain is a poetic fable about an impenetrable immigration system that mirrors our own. It premiered in Paines Plough's Roundabout in 2022, including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as a co-production between Paines Plough and Rose Theatre, Kingston, in association with the Gate Theatre, London.

This anthology comprises five of the best plays from VAULT 2018, London's biggest and most exciting arts festival. Young men are dying and everyone assumes they're just casualties of London's chemsex scene. Everyone, that is, but Anthony, who is determined to investigate. Tumulus by Christopher Adams is a chilling, queer play-noir set amongst the shadowy hills of Hampstead Heath. Critically acclaimed during its run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Lucy Burke's Glitter Punch - set in Greater Manchester - charts a troubling new relationship between mysterious John and sixteen-year-old Molly, a love that will change their lives forever. `Powerful' (The Stage). Set in a Wigan taxi, Burkas and Bacon Butties by Shamia Chalabi and Sarah Henley is a heart-warming comedy abouttaxi-driver Ashraf and his twenty-something daughter, Shaz, as they negotiate the ups and downs of living in a mixed-culture family. When bereaved mother Mary finds a disembodied arm, a conspiracy builds: maybe her child isn't quite so dead after all. Shortlisted for Soho Theatre's Tony Craze Award, Sami Ibrahim's Wind Bit Bitter, Bit Bit Bit Her is an enthralling monologue about love and loss. The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob is a story of domestic servitude and abuse of power, as authoritarian Kat, her ageing mother, Ma, and their teenaged slave, Maudie, jostle for power - and affection - in their dilapidated London home.