Five Great Plays… by contemporary American playwrights

NB: These plays are suitable for sixth-form groups only

John

by Annie Baker

Cast: 3f, 1m

Synopsis: A young couple, struggling to stay together, book into a bedand-breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of a road trip around historic American sites. Their innkeeper seems cheerful enough, but something about the place seems… off. Maybe it's the thousands of inanimate objects, watching.

Why it's great for study: The hypnotic effect of Annie Baker's signature, hyper-naturalistic style, and how this is fused with supernatural elements more usually found in ghost stories, is fascinating to unpick. It can be studied both as a detailed study of a relationship, but also as a masterclass in how to establish and develop mood and tone.

Speech & Debate

by Stephen Karam

Cast: 2f, 3m

Synopsis: Three misfit teenagers are brought together by a scandal in school, with nobody taking them seriously until they speak out – with hilarious consequences. Living in a social media minefield, where peers are judgmental and adults are dictatorial and condescending, Howie, Solomon and Diwata grapple with homophobia, online privacy and how to get the lead in the school play.

Why it's great for study: Speech & Debate has lots that students will recognise and enjoy – including its humour, American high-school setting, and depiction of contemporary teenage life – but it also off ers opportunities for discussion about important social themes.

Wit

by Margaret Edson

Cast: 3f, 2m plus extras

Synopsis: A striking and sharply funny reflection on the frailty of existence and the complex relationship between knowledge and love. Vivian Bearing, PhD, a renowned specialist in the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness – and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy programme – she comes to reassess her life and her work with profundity and an unbearably moving wry humour.

‘You will feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted’ New York Times

Why it's great for study: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Wit is a perfect example of how theatre can approach a difficult subject like terminal illness in a life-affirming way, and how humour can be used to enhance emotion. A filmed version, starring Emma Thompson, is also available.

The Christians

by Lucas Hnath

Cast: 2f, 3m

Synopsis: A remarkable exploration of faith and community in the modern world, asking profound questions about what we believe and why. For the last 20 years, Pastor Paul has been building his church. Starting in a modest storefront, he now presides over a flock of thousands. Idolised by his followers, today should be a day for joy and celebration. But the sermon that Paul is about to preach will shake the very foundations of his followers’ beliefs. As fractures spread throughout his congregation, Paul must fight to prevent his church from tearing itself apart.

‘A sincere, complex, nuanced play by one of the most interesting, focused, counterintuitive and intellectually compelling playwrights of our moment’ Chicago Tribune

Why it's great for study: This play takes a serious but balanced look at faith in America today. The playwright's stylistic choices, with actors often speaking via microphones, also provide good material for discussion.

Intimate Apparel

by Lynn Nottage

Cast: 4f, 2m

Synopsis: A Black seamstress in New York City in 1905, Esther sews exquisite lingerie for clients ranging from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. She has saved enough to allow her to dream of one day opening a beauty salon for Black women, and at 35 years old, longs for a husband and a future. When she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man who is working on the Panama Canal, it looks like life may be about to take a different course.

Why it's great for study: This award-winning play, by the only woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, off ers a portrait of one of the lives of countless forgotten African-American women at the start of the twentieth century.

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