METHUEN STUDENT EDITION

'Serious Money' is a satirical study of the effects of the 'Big Bang'. Though written in response to specific events, Churchill opens the play with an extract from a 17th century comedy about stock jobbers - little has changed, she suggests, and little will. Since its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1987 it has prompted city financiers worldwide both to applaud and decry its presentation of their lives. This edition contains an introduction and a chronology of the playwright's life and work.

First produced at the Royal Court Theatre in 1971, 'Lear' is an epic and violent rewrite of Shakespeare's 'King Lear'. In Bond's play, Lear is a paranoid autocrat, building a wall to keep out imagined 'enemies'. His daughters Bodice and Fontanelle rebel against him, causing a bloody war. Lear becomes their prisoner and goes on a journey of self-revelation. He is blinded and haunted by the ghost of a gravedigger's boy, whose kindness towards the old King led to his murder. Eventually Lear makes a gesture toward dismantling the wall he began. This gesture leads to his death, which offers hope as an example of practical activism.

'Strife' charts the progress of an industrial strike at the Trenartha Tin Plate Works, dealing with the fanatical antagonism between industrial workers and those who are determined to remain their masters. The play's structure is intended to present an impartial balance between the forces of revolt and conservatism, describing the fierce stalemate from both the workers' and the directors' points of view. The vehement ideologies of each side are eventually defeated by the negative, reductive force of compromise, but the power of Galsworthy's characters is designed to resonate beyond their circumstances as portraits of absolute extremism. The play was first produced in 1909 at the Duke of York's Theatre, London.

A two act play for seven women.