A suspicious death at the workplace and loner security guard Nick Prentice is hauled in Kafka style for interrogation. Detective Crichton believes he’s got Prentice bang to rights. Nick’s handwritten seedy wee ‘stories’ seem to nail him to the crime. Is Prentice complicit in the death of two-bit shoplifter Gary Glover? Will Hollywood’s uber-babe Scarlett Johansson rescue our unlikely antihero? David Lynch meets Rebus in this uproarious, underworld whodunnit, reworking the hardboiled crime thriller for our times.

In this intoxicating and vivid one-man show Ronan O’Donnell evokes both the stifling claustrophobia of the interview room and Prentice’s skewed sense of logic with an inimitable and visceral writing style. Brilliantly surreal and blackly funny, Angels marks O’Donnell out as one of Scotland’s most exciting theatrical voices. 

By Ronan O'Donnell, available through Currency Press:

• The Doll Tower

Meet Chloe, 21 from Leytonstone. She likes the simple things in life: cherry sambuca, hairbrush-in-the-mirror karaoke with Rihanna and winding her Dad up.  Oh, and she’s a boxer.

London, 2012. Women will step into the Olympic boxing ring for the very first time. And it’s in Stratford. Down the road. As Chloe trains for the fight of her life, she is left winded by two life-changing events. In a man’s world, can she prove she’s still worth the title?

Fighting fit from sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of the Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season, you are invited ringside, for an adrenaline-fuelled, no-holes-barred one-woman show unafraid to document the blood, the sweat…and all the tears.

Am I a virgin? I think I am. I mean it went in her but it was floppy and it wasn’t very nice so I think I am a virgin. I’m going to say I am. Will look better on me uni applications.

Liverpool, 1989. Greg is thirteen. He has just started secondary school. He earns pocket money sweeping up hair in a barbers. Girls are aliens. Liverpool FC are everything.

Edinburgh, 2012. Greg has an extraordinary story to tell you. B ottleneck is a vibrant coming - of - age story about becoming a man through adventures both big and small. It is about a notorious city, Liverpool; how the outside worlds views it, and how it views the outside world. 

Also by Luke Barnes, available through Currency Press:

• Eisteddfod

Tracey Gordon, the 67 bus, friendship, sex, UK garage, school, music, teachers, friendship, periods, emergency contraceptive, arse and tits, friendship, raves, tampons, white boys, God, money. Friendship.

Aaron, Candice, sex and Connor Jones. Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood. 

The story of Desdemona from Shakespeare's Othello is re-imagined by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer and songwriter Rokia Traoré, and acclaimed stage director Peter Sellars.

Morrison's response to Sellars’ 2009 production of Othello is an intimate dialogue of words and music between Desdemona and her African nurse Barbary. Morrison gives voice and depth to the female characters, letting them speak and sing in the fullness of their hearts.

Desdemona is an extraordinary narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war—and the transformative power of love. Toni Morrison transports one of the most iconic, central, and disturbing treatments of race in Western culture into the new realities and potential outcomes facing a rising generation of the 21st century.

1981. Hollywood. Sue Mengers is a woman whose time is passing. The glory days are fading. The phone's not ringing so much. How does a powerful woman face a treacherously shifting landscape? John Logan's new one-person play explores this moment in Sue Menger's life.

Sue Mengers was an American original. She was the first female ‘superagent’ at a time when women talent agents of any kind were almost unheard of. She came from near poverty, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, and worked her way up through pluck, charm, and a legendary wit. In that uniquely American way, she invented herself; and when the career she wanted didn’t exist, she invented that as well: ‘Superagent.’ It was a term Hollywood all but coined for her. By the 1970s, she represented almost every major star in Hollywood and went on to become the town’s most renowned hostess.

I, Cinna (The Poet) has one short scene in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar where he is mistaken for someone else and killed by the mob. Now, in a new play by Tim Crouch, this unlucky man is given a chance to tell his story. Written for ages 11+, I, Cinna (The Poet) is a fusion of theatre, multimedia and creative writing tasks.

Cinna asks his young audience to consider the relationship between words and actions, art and politics, self and society. During the performance he asks us to write alongside him: a small poem on a big theme.

Originally commissioned for the World Shakespeare Festival which is produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for London 2012 Festival.

Losing My Marbles is a series of hilarious true stories from Trader Faulkner's varied life describing his extraordinary encounters with Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Vivien Leigh, his involvements with the tearaway, womanising Peter Finch, his poignant meeting with Picasso and his unforgettable appearance on stage with the great flamenco dancer, Antonio.

'These are events in my life wherein the heartache, error and folly of my youth are transformed into comedy and tragedy, if you can call the heartbreak of youthful idealism tragedy! The result has become an evening in the theatre where people can forget their troubles and laugh at mine.' - Trader Faulkner

Three astute, savvy early plays from Owen McCafferty.

It is published with two monologues. 

The moving account of the life and early death of a young female activist ­— adapted from her own letters, diaries and emails.

Rachel Corrie was born in 1979 in Washington State, USA. In 2003 she went to the Gaza strip to protest about Israeli settlements. She was crushed to death while standing in the path of a bulldozer destroying Palestinian homes.

Why did a 23-year old woman leave her comfortable American life to stand between and Israeli army bulldozer and a Palestinian home in the Gaza strip?

Private Peaceful relives the life of Private Tommo Peaceful, a young First World War soldier awaiting the firing squad at dawn. During the night he looks back at his short but joyful past growing up in rural Devon: his exciting first days at school; the accident in the forest that killed his father; his adventures with Molly, the love of his life; and the battles and injustices of war that brought him to the front line. Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year, Private Peaceful is by the third Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, award - winning author of War Horse. His inspiration came from a visit to Ypres where he was shocked to discover how many young soldiers were court - martialled and shot for cowardice during the First World War.

This edition also includes introductory essays by Michael Morpurgo, Associate Director of Private Peaceful production Mark Leipacher, as well as an essay from Simon Reade, adaptor & director of this stage adaptation of Private Peaceful.

A highly acclaimed one-man show based on the life and writings of Quentin Crisp.

Don’t be afraid..I’m stinking enough myself without having to associate myself with all this shit. Paulo Pasolini / It’s time for some commercials, stay tuned. Maria De Filippi (Italian TV Superstar)

A tragedy in three movements: The Thighs, The Dick, The Fame and a counter-movement: Italy. An actress creates a physical and vocal mask challenging a provocative, scandalous and beastly text. Words might be sung, howled and shrieked but a chant never emerges. In her naked physicality she tells a personal story in an unbroken flow of thoughts/words rendered as sounds and movement. The deafening screams being choked. Appeased. Imploded. This female onstage offers herself up in a feast, ready to be torn apart by anyone. A poetic piece born of the flesh that returns to the flesh, captured in a tightly-sealed asthetic. Applause required.

Review

A piece so literally and metaphorically naked, raw and angry that you leave the theatre feeling as if you’ve had all your skin scraped off. – The Guardian