Mercer Plays: 1 : Where the Difference Begins ; A Suitable Case for Treatment ; the Governor's Lady ; On the Eve of Publication ; The Cellar and the Almond Tree ; Emma's Time ; After Haggerty

Chronology -- Introduction : the Memphis plays -- Hoodoo love -- Saturday night/Sunday morning -- The mountaintop -- Hurt village -- Hoodoo love : musical score and lyrics. The first volume of stage and TV plays by one of the best British TV writers Where the Difference Begins, a naturalist play for television, is about the "difference" between thirties deprivation and fifties affluence, between material prosperity and its accompanying spiritual and political apathy, as embodied by sixty-year-old railwayman Wilf and his sons; A Suitable Case for Treatment, a play for television, portrays a man who, on account of his communist beliefs, is unable to conform to the world around him and associates more with the gorilla he sees in the zoo than with his own wife; The Governor's Lady is set in colonial Africa focussing on a reactionary central figure; broadcast on BBC TV during the lates 60s and early 70s The Kelvin trilogy (On the Eve of Publication, The Cellar and the Almond Tree and Emma's Time) moves between Britain and Eastern Europe, the the past and the present. After Haggerty, Mercer's first major stage success is, in the playwright's own words "an intervention and a commentary on the supposed revolutionary theatre of 1968 and after." Mercer "demands in my mind the saem love and esteem I feel for Gorky. They share a generosity of spirit, a desire for change, and a savage compassion for those who must be changed." David Jones (director) An important new voice for African-American theatre, Katori Hall explores the lives of black and often invisible Americans with vivid language, dynamic narratives and richly textured characterisation. Hoodoo Love is Hall's debut play, a tale of love, magic, jealousy and secrets in 1930s Memphis, written in vivid language which captures the spirit of the Blues. Saturday Night/Sunday Morning is set in a Memphis beauty shop/boarding house during the final days of WWII. Rich with humor and history, it is a story about friendship and finding love in unexpected places. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2009, The Mountaintop is a historical-fantastical two hander, portraying the penultimate day in the life of Martin Luther King. Hurt Village won the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Set in a real-life Memphis housing project, it explores in vivid and at times brutal detail a long-lasting legacy of drug abuse, child abuse, crime, and self-hatred within a poor, working-class, multi-generational Black family. This first collection of Katori Hall's dramatic works demonstrate her unique voice for the theatre, which is visceral, passionate and energetic. Hall portrays disenfranchised portions of society with fearless humanity and startling accomplishment. Breezeblock Park is set on a northern council estate and takes a look at the suffocating effect of possessions and possessiveness: "Trenchantly observed...hilarious, upsetting and somewhat seditious." (Variety); Our Day Out is about a school coach trip, an exuberant celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up - "a Dickensian fairytale...I have rarely seen a show that combined such warmth and such bleakness."(The Times); Stags and Hens "takes place in the gents and Ladies loos of a tacky Liverpool club, where Dave and Linda have decided, unbeknownst to each other to hold their stag and hen parties...a bleakly funny and perceptive study of working-class misogyny, puritanism and waste" (Guardian); Educating Rita: "one way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education...another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmalion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious: a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending." (Sunday Times) A collection of four plays by Willy Russell. The plays are ""Educating Rita"", ""Breezeblock Park"", ""Our Day Out"" and ""Stags and Hens"". All the plays are concerned with working class people striving to enjoy life or improve themselve This first volume in the world dramatists series explores the start of the career of television and stage dramatist, David Mercer, who was one of the first writers to recognize the fundamental difference of writing for television.