Bloomsbury (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List 3

A simple but powerful question

At the start of 2021, an English teacher at a webinar asked a simple question: Could we recommend a play by a writer of colour that they could teach with their students? That question stayed with us and became the beginnings of our partnership on Lit in Colour.

Together with Play Lists 1 and 2, we’re now sharing 176 plays to read, explore, teach, study, and discuss in classrooms. Each one is an invitation to broaden perspectives and open up new conversations with students.

Why this matters

Lit in Colour was founded in 2020 by Penguin Books as a long-term social impact programme to support schools make the teaching and learning of English Literature more inclusive of authors of colour, and connect more young people with texts by authors of colour for reading for pleasure.

As the largest performing arts publisher, we’ve seen first-hand the impact drama can have on young people. Drama doesn’t just tell stories, it invites students to step inside them. Our established play portfolio, under our Methuen Drama imprint, complements and expands the Lit in Colour programme, widening the study of plays at KS3, GCSE, AS and A Level English Literature and Drama, contributing to the discussion of representation by increasing knowledge of playwrights from diverse backgrounds.

What’s been most rewarding is seeing how these Play Lists are being used. At a conference, one student picked up a copy of Bola Agbaje’s Gone Too Far! and lit up when she realised it was a story rooted in Nigerian culture that reflected her own heritage. A teacher on our Advisory Board recently began teaching Tanika Gupta’s The Empress and found it encouraged deeper conversations about British history. Moments like these remind us why this work matters.

We’re proud that the Play Lists were shortlisted as Outstanding Drama Education Resource in the Music and Drama Education Awards 2026.

Looking ahead

This third instalment of the (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List forms part of Bloomsbury’s wider Lit in Colour Partnership with Penguin Books and The Runnymede Trust, and complements the annually released Penguin Books (incomplete) Lit in Colour book lists. The combined number of texts that have now been recommended to teachers and educators through these lists is over 1170!

From the Bloomsbury Lit in Colour Team

“It is brilliant to be supporting Bloomsbury’s third edition of the (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List, which continues to be a significant, high quality resource that spotlights works by writers of colour for a more inclusive education. For students to experience plays by a broader base of playwrights can only be a good thing. As the world becomes increasingly polarised, we’re proud to work with Bloomsbury to continue to create spaces where themes around empathy and belonging are shared and celebrated.”

Dr. Shabna Begum, CEO Runnymede Trust

“This third edition of Bloomsbury’s (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List is coming at a really exciting time as we await the government’s new curriculum for education in England. The Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report published in 2025 states that “the national curriculum, and the resources that support it, should reflect our modern society and diverse communities”. This List supports that important aim by giving teachers even more choice and information about brilliant drama texts by writers of colour to introduce to their students.”

Dr. Zaahida Nabagereka, Senior Social Impact Manager, Penguin Books

Welcome to the (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List 3

Our initial longlist of plays, curated by our first cohort of Lit in Colour advisors - Hannah Khalil, Pooja Ghai and mezze eade – was so extensive that we decided to release it in several instalments. Of course, the list continues to grow as more new plays are published!

In 2024, we published Part 2 of the (Incomplete) List – a selection of plays that were in part curated by our advisors for that year – Zahara Chowdhury, Zhui Ning Chang and Inua Ellams.

Here, we are delighted to present the third part of the (Incomplete) List, which consists of 59 plays by Black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers, all suitable for study with secondary school-age students. The choice of plays in the List has been informed by the expertise of our previous advisors, as well as our current advisors – Bennie Kara, Ameera Conrad and Oladipo Agboluaje – alongside the publishers of all the plays.

With thanks to

As with the first and second Play Lists we’d like to extend our thanks to Nick Hern Books, Faber and Concord Theatricals for their continued collaboration and input into this List. We hope that by providing a publisheragnostic list of plays, it gives schools a useful and accessible guide to plays available to perform and study.

“The response to the (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play Lists has been energising – and confirmed the urgent need for plays by a far wider and more diverse range of writers to be visible and accessible. This new List is both a celebration and a call to arms: an invitation to read more widely, teach more adventurously, programme and publish more boldly, and continue the work of discovery. We hope it offers another springboard for conversation, challenge and transformation.” Matt Applewhite, Publisher & CEO, Nick Hern Books

“The (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play Lists are a vital resource and it is a privilege to contribute to them. Studying plays in school is a brilliant way to encounter new voices, cultures and characters; to engage with the world beyond the classroom. Through these wonderful plays by playwrights of colour – plays that are beautifully diverse in a multitude of ways –we hope that teachers and their students will find stories that inspire, challenge and enrich them.”

Dinah Wood, Editorial Director, Drama, Faber

“Through our world-renowned imprints Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service, Concord Theatricals are proud to champion writers who tell bold, engaging stories that reflect the great diversity of our society and celebrate human connections. We’re thrilled that so many of our plays are represented on this year’s (Incomplete) Lit in Colour Play List, which serve as a vital resource for schools to explore and expand the body of work they perform and study.” Oli Gordon, Director, Acquisitions (Europe), Concord Theatricals

How to use this guide and a note from our 2026 Lit in Colour advisors

This year we scoured the world for some of the most potent pieces of theatre to share with you. This third instalment of the Lit in Colour Play List has 59 brilliant plays selected specifically by our team for their impact and relevance to young people today.

The List has been curated by age group, recommending plays for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 and, at the end of the guide, there is an index where we have grouped them by theme, which will help you with finding something to add to your curriculum. Each play is accompanied by a short description as well as content warnings, and the List signposts teaching resources that are available for the play texts.

The plays span across a diverse and exciting range of themes, topics, styles, forms and locations to engage students and ignite them to the power of theatre and drama. We truly hope that you will enjoy reading and studying them as much as we have enjoyed putting the collection together.

Ameera Conrad, Lit in Colour Advisor, 2026

KS3/11 - 14+

KS4/GCSE/14-16+ p10

KS5/AS & A Level/16-18+ p31

Index by Themes p39

“This third list of plays for Lit in Colour adds to the previous two compilations to create a resource for teachers, students and lovers of theatre and performance. These plays broaden the scope of theatre taught in schools, offering perspectives on lives and communities in Britain and the Global Majority, making them part of our national and global conversations. They are personal, political and cultural dramatic narratives that I am glad you will get to read.”

Oladipo Agboluaje, Playwright and Academic

“It is heartening to see the third instalment of the Incomplete Play List as it embodies Drama texts that explore the experience of Global Majority groups. The list serves as both window and mirror for students who engage in the reading and performance of the texts. It is enriching, but also essential in developing understanding of the human condition.”

Bennie Kara, Consultant, Coach and Writer

DRAMA

O N LI N E

Would you like to read Three Sisters and watch a filmed production of the play in the same online space? How about Home with Michaela Coel?

EXPLORE:

• Over 5,000 plays • Over 800 hours of video

• 450 audio plays • Over 1,000 scholarly books

Learn more at: jcsonlineresources.org/resources/drama-online/ Register for a free 14-day trial at: jcsonlineresources.org/form/drama-online-library-free-trial Or contact JCS at: info@jcsonlineresources.org

Also by Sudha Bhuchar: Child of the Divide, The Ninja Sister and Evening Conversations

Life of Pi

A Picture of Health

Sudha Bhuchar

Set in Mysore, Southern India, in 1805. The story begins when princess Devajammani arrives at the royal court of Mysore to marry Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. They were both twelve-years-old and he was the newly anointed ruler of the Southern Indian kingdom.

But Devajammani soon found herself recruited for a more momentous cause –to publicise and promote the smallpox vaccine. What followed was a concerted mix of politics, power and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world’s first-ever vaccine to India, their biggest colonial enterprise.

A Picture of Health, by award-winning playwright Sudha Bhuchar, is inspired by Irish painter Thomas Hickey’s portrait ‘The Three Queens of Mysore’, which itself has been called ‘one of the most important scientific paintings in the history of medicine in India’.

This edition was published to coincide with Theatre of Debate’s schools tour in 2024.

ISBN: 9781350539105 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Class, Colonialism, Politics, Race Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.bloomsbury.com/picture-of-health-9781350539105

Additional teaching resources: Explore Theatre of Debates accompanying resources and recorded film production

Based on the novel by Yann Martel Adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti

After a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, there are five survivors stranded on a lifeboat – a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a Royal Bengal tiger and a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi. Time is against them, nature is harsh, who will survive?

Based on the Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Life of Pi is a universally acclaimed, smash hit adaptation of an epic journey of endurance and hope, which premiered in 2019 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and won the 2022 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

ISBN: 9781350295681 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Religion, Faith, Survival, Mortality, Storytelling, Nature/Natural World, Science Most suited to KS3+ www.bloomsbury.com/life-of-pi-9781350295681

Additional teaching resources: Educational classroom resources and student guides can be downloaded at www.lifeofpionstage.com/education

Also by Lolita Chakrabarti: Red Velvet, Hymn and stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet

Noor

Azma Dar

Based on a true story, this biopic play tells of the incredible bravery of Indian woman Noor Inayat Khan, who worked as a British spy in France during World War II. The enigmatic, indefinable Noor Inayat Khan was an unlikely recruit to the SOE as an undercover wireless operator.

Noor’s moving and inspirational story takes us across borders and time into a shadowy world of espionage, as British officer Vera Atkins and Gestapo Major Hans Kieffer trade secrets to uncover the woman behind the code names.

From her Sufi mysticism to her astonishing creativity, Noor’s individuality was ultimately her greatest strength.

Azma Dar’s play premiered at Southwark Playhouse in 2022.

ISBN: 9781912430727 Publisher: Aurora Metro

Themes: History, National Identity, Politics, Race, War, Women Content Warnings: Portrays the harsh realities of World War II

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.aurorametro.com/product/noor-play

The Little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Adapted by Inua Ellams

Broken down in the Sahara Desert, desperate to repair her fighter jet, a pilot meets an extraordinary Little Prince travelling across time and space to bring peace to his warring planet.

Adapted by Nigerian-born poet and playwright Inua Ellams, winner of the 2024 Alfred Fagon Award for Once Upon A Time in Sokoto, this magical retelling of the much-loved story by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry turns the Little Prince into a descendant of an African race in a parallel galaxy. His journey as a galactic emigrant addresses climate change and morality, takes us through solar systems of odd planets with strange beings, and shows how even a little thing can make a big difference.

Co-commissioned by Fuel, Stratford Circus Arts Centre, ASU Gammage, Z-arts, The Albany, Warwick Arts Centre, and Future Arts Centres, The Little Prince toured the UK with the English Touring Theatre in 2020. The production was directed by Femi Elufowoju, jr.

ISBN: 9781786828705 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Climate Change, Afrofuturism, Morality, Love, War, Emigration, Friendship

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.bloomsbury.com/little-prince-9781786828705

Also by Inua Ellams: Three Sisters, Cape, Antigone, Barber Shop Chronicles

Dreams of Anne Frank

Bernard Kops

In 1942 Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, was forced into hiding with seven others in a secret annexe in Amsterdam. Dreams of Anne Frank vividly brings her story to life in a poignant and highly charged drama. Using actors, movement and song, Bernard Kops re-imagines and explores Anne Frank’s hidden world, a world in which she lived, fell in love and dreamed of freedom.

Winner of the 1993 Time Out award for best children’s production, Kops’s ‘dramatic masterpiece’ (Time Out) has been performed around the world. It was first produced at the Polka Theatre, London, in 1992 after being commissioned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Anne Frank going into hiding.

Bernard Kops was an award-winning playwright, born in the East End of London of Dutch-Jewish working-class parents in 1926. He won the Writers’ Guild award in 1995 for his play Sailing With Homer

ISBN: 9780413712509 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Racism, Nationalism, World War II, Genocide, Human Rights, Freedom, Growing Up

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.bloomsbury.com/dreams-of-anne-frank-9780413712509

The Sweetness of a Sting

Chinonyerem Odimba

Badger’s parents decide they want to return to their home country, so Badger is confronted with the possibility of leaving everything he knows and becoming a visitor in a strange world.

Attempting to run away and escape his parents’ plans, Badger finds himself in a world full of insects, stories and Thunder – a land beneath our feet that he cannot escape from.

This fantastical story looks at what it means to be young – disconnected from nature and from your identity.

First performed as part of the National Theatre’s Connections 2018, The Sweetness of the Sting was inspired by the fables of West African storytelling, using nature to tell human stories. The play is published as part of the 2018 National Theatre Connections anthology.

ISBN: 9781350066243 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Childhood, Folklore, Identity, Immigration, Nature

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.bloomsbury.com/national-theatre-connections-2018-9781350066243

Additional teaching resources: Watch interview with Chinonyerem Odimba as part of AQA’s Meet the Author series

Also by Chinonyerem Odimba: Princess & The Hustler (Set Text on AQA’s English Literature GCSE specification)

Pig Heart Boy

Based on the novel by Malorie Blackman

Adapted by Winsome Pinnock

Cameron is thirteen, and all he wants is to be normal – have friends, go to school, and dive to the bottom of his local swimming pool. But he desperately needs a heart transplant and time is running out.

When he’s finally offered a new heart, Cameron must choose between a pig’s heart that works… or a human heart that doesn’t. How far will he go to get his life back?

This hilarious and thought-provoking stage adaptation of the celebrated novel was first performed in 2025 at the Unicorn Theatre, London, in a co-production between Unicorn Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and Children’s Theatre Partnership. It won Best Show for Children and Young People at the 2025 UK Theatre Awards.

ISBN: 9781839044472 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Emotional Distress, Ethical Dilemma

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/pig-heart-boy

Also by Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses, Boy’s Don’t Cry and Endgame Also by Winsome Pinnock: Leave Taking (Set text on AQA, Eduqas and Cambridge OCR exam board GCSE exam lists)

Set text: WJEC GCSE Drama

Face: The Play

Benjamin Zephaniah

Adapted by Benjamin Zephaniah and Richard Conlon

Everything is going Martin’s way. The holidays have started, he’s got a gorgeous girlfriend and everyone agrees he’s the coolest dancer around.

But when his world is turned upside down by a crash in a stolen car, he has to come to terms with more than just his facial injuries.

A powerful, exciting and accessible adaptation of the novel by Benjamin Zephaniah.

ISBN: 9780435233440 Publisher: Heinemann

Themes: Identity, Self-Image, Discrimination, Prejudice, Drugs

Most suited to KS3+ / 11-14+ www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/secondary/subjects/englishliterature/new-windmills-fiction-the-first-choice-for-literature-in-englishclassrooms/face-the-play-1

Additional Teaching Resources: Teaching notes and guidance available from WJEC

by

Crown of Blood

Oladipo Agboluaje

Set during the civil wars of 19th-century Yorubaland, Crown of Blood is a powerful retelling of the Shakespeare classic Macbeth, adapted by Oladipo Agboluaje.

Fresh from saving the kingdom from invaders, General Aderemi is promoted to Field Marshall, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the oracle. When the oracle says he will become king, Aderemi and his wife, Oyebisi, embark on a bloody mission to ensure he sits on the throne.

The play premiered at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in February 2026.

ISBN: 9781350626874 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Ambition, Power, Justice, Spirituality Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/crown-of-blood-9781350626874

The Amen Corner

James Baldwin

In his first work for the theatre, James Baldwin brought all the fervour and majestic rhetoric of the storefront churches of his childhood along with an unwavering awareness of the price those churches exacted from their worshipers.

For years, Sister Margaret Alexander has moved her Harlem congregation with a mixture of personal charisma and ferocious piety. But when Margaret’s estranged husband, a scapegrace jazz musician, comes home to die, she is in danger of losing both her standing in the church and the son she has tried to keep on the godly path.

The play was premiered by the Original Cambridge Players at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City in April 1965.

ISBN: 9780375701887

Publisher: Vintage Themes: Religion, Family, Conflict, Church, Community, Faith Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7751/the-amen-corner-by-james-baldwin

Liberation Squares

Sonali Bhattacharyya

Teenage best friends Sabi and Ruqaya spend their time choreographing dance routines, beat-boxing and hiding from bullies.

But when charismatic social media activist Xara challenges them to speak up about injustice, they find themselves under state surveillance, targeted by the anti-terrorist ‘Prevent’ programme. What you say, and even what you think, can be viewed very differently, depending on who you are...

This riotous comedy about sisterhood, freedom of speech, and dissent in the face of institutionalised Islamophobia, was commissioned and developed by Fifth Word, and first produced in 2024 by Fifth Word and Nottingham Playhouse in association with Brixton House.

ISBN: 9781839043352 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Community, Islamophobia, Protest, Friendship Content Warnings: Swearing, Racism

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/liberation-squares

Also by Sonali Bhattacharyya: Two Billion Beats, Chasing Hares, King Troll (The

Also by Anupama Chandrasekhar: The Father and the Assassin, When the Crows Visit, Disconnect

Dizzy

Mohamed-Zain Dada

Free Outgoing

Anupama Chandrasekhar

When a well-behaved Indian girl is filmed with a boy in her classroom, the video clip spreads like a virus. Transmitted from person to person it infects firstly the local community and then seemingly the whole of India with a burning moral outrage.

This powerful play, which sets the rampant technology of the modern world against the conservatism of a traditional society, was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2007.

ISBN: 9781854595706 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Indian Society, Stigma, Misogyny Content Warnings: Swearing, Sexual References Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/free-outgoing

Additional teaching resources: Explore more of Anupama Chandrasekhar on Royal Court’s Living Archive hub livingarchive.royalcourttheatre.com/people/anupama-chandrasekhar

Qamar is a fifteen-year-old maths genius who looks for patterns in everything. Desperate for answers following her brother’s death, she meets Stax, an infamous graffiti artist and her brother’s former mentor.

Under Stax’s guidance, Qamar dives into the underground world of street art, and discovers the dream-like space known as the Axis. As she navigates her memories, she uncovers hidden layers of her brother’s life and her own.

Based on conversations with young people across the UK, this fantastical adventure about finding meaning amidst the chaos was first produced by Theatre Centre in 2024, in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres.

ISBN: 9781839043956 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Grief, Urban Life, Youth, Friendship Content Warnings: Swearing, Mild Violence, Death Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/dizzy

Also by Mohamed-Zain Dada: Blue Mist and Speed

The Convert

Danai Gurira

1896 in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Jekesai, a young Shona girl, escapes a forced arranged marriage by converting to Christianity and becoming a protégé to an African Evangelical.

As anti-colonial sentiments spread throughout the native population, Jekesai is forced to choose between her family’s traditions and her newfound faith.

The Convert, written by Black Panther star and Tony-nominee Danai Gurira, debuted in the Goodman Theatre, Chicago and the McCarter Theatre, New Jersey. It then went on to run at the Young Vic in London.

Also by Danai Gurira: Eclipsed Set text: AQA Drama AS and A Level

ISBN: 9781350366275 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: British Colonialism, Enslavement, Religions & Catholicism, Faith, Women’s Rights, War, Race Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/convert-9781350366275

Additional teaching resources: Young Vic In Conversation with Danai Gurira & Kwame Kwei-Armah

A Good House

Amy Jephta

In the quaint suburban community of Stillwater, a mysterious shack springs up from the dust with the inhabitants nowhere to be seen. As speculation abounds, new residents Sihle and Bonolo are recruited by their neighbourhood to be the face of a campaign to demolish the shack. Funny, thrilling and provocative, A Good House is an explosive exploration of race, resentment and community politics, about a couple who discover the limits of good neighbourliness and what is required to fit in.

It was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2025, in a co production with Bristol Old Vic in association with The Market Theatre, Johannesburg.

Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2026

ISBN: 9781839044212 Publisher: Nick Hern Books Themes: Community, Social Division Content Warnings: Swearing, Racism Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/a-good-house

How I Learned To Swim

Somebody Jones

Jamie can’t swim. Fuelled by guilt and a need to mend her broken family, at 30 years-old, she’s taking on her biggest fear – the ocean. With the help of a chipper swim instructor, a shady spiritual guide and one cathartic crab sandwich, she questions, ‘How many lengths does it take to wash away regret?’

Brilliantly witty and deeply heartfelt, this play explores what lies beneath the surface of the Black diasporic relationship to water.

HOW I LEARNED TO SWIM by Somebody Jones – extract performed by Adelaide Banks at Bloomsbury’s Lit in Colour 2025 event.

Photograph © Jérôme Favre

How I Learned to Swim first premiered at the Roundabout Theatre (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) in August 2024. Somebody Jones is an award-winning playwright, having received the Paines Plough Playwright Fellowship in 2023, the Tony Craze Award in 2023 and having been shortlisted for the George Devine Award in 2023.

ISBN: 9781350524514

Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Guilt, Family, Relationships, Trauma, Identity, Race, Grief Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/uk/how-i-learned-to-swim-9781350524491/

Additional teaching resources: Watch Brixton House’s In Conversation with Somebody Jones

Shiver

Daniel Kanaber

In Judaism you have seven days to mourn a loved one, unless interrupted by a high holy day. Sadie died yesterday, Yom Kippur is tomorrow, so Mordecai only has tonight to say goodbye to his wife. Exploring themes of identity, love and faith, Shiver is a play about grief and Judaism.

David Kanaber’s first full-length play skilfully combines moments of farce with a touch of the surreal. As a writer, his short film Strays (2011), starring Richard Madden, was longlisted for a BAFTA.

Shiver received its world premiere at Watford Palace Theatre on 3 February 2014, starring David Horovitch.

ISBN: 9781472579218 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Identity, Love, Faith, Judaism, Grief Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/shiver-9781472579218

Choir

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti

Morgan runs a community choir who meet weekly in a room above the local pub to sing great pop songs, chat and drink.

The choir are busy rehearsing a concert to raise money for young Freddie to go to music college. And when a TV producer invites them to perform on national television, Morgan seizes her opportunity to hit the big time.

But are her eccentric group up to it? And what is Morgan prepared to sacrifice to get the acclaim she desires? Home truths are revealed and secrets laid bare in this feelgood comedy with music, which explores loneliness and connection while celebrating the joy and power of community art.

Choir had its world premiere at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in August 2025.

ISBN: 9781350588684 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Connection, Belonging, Identity, Music, Loneliness

Content Warnings: Swearing (including frequent use of the ‘f’ word) Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/choir-9781350588684

My English Persian Kitchen

Hannah Khalil From the Story by Atoosa

Sepehr

What would you take if you were forced to leave home with no hope of returning? How would you make a fresh start somewhere completely new? This is the true story of one woman who loses everything. Remembering the tastes and aromas of her mother’s kitchen with live cooking on stage, she recreates the dishes of her childhood and homeland, building a new life and community around food.

Written by award-winning Hannah Khalil from the story by Atoosa Sepehr, the life-affirming My English Persian Kitchen chronicles the journey of one woman’s quest to start again. It premiered as a Soho Theatre and Traverse Theatre co-production in 2024 and was shortlisted for the Popcorn Writing Award 2024.

ISBN: 9781350525870 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Interculturalism, Loss, Memory, The Past, Emotional Trauma, National Identity, Race, Women, Cooking, Food Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/my-english-persiankitchen-9781350525870

Also by Hannah Khalil:

Additional teaching resources: Watch BBC Bitesize’s Inside the Writer’s Mind video with Hannah Khalil

East is East

Ayub Khan-Din

The six Khan children, entangled in arranged marriages and bell-bottoms, are trying to find their way growing up in 1970s Salford. They are all caught between their Pakistani father’s insistence on Asian traditions, their English mother’s laissez-faire attitude, and their own wish to become citizens of the modern world.

This semi-autobiographical drama was first performed at Birmingham Repertory Studio Theatre in October 1996 in a co-production by Tamasha Theatre Company, the Royal Court Theatre Company and Birmingham Repertory Company, before transferring to the Royal Court, London.

It won the John Whiting Award in 1996 and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 1998. It was later adapted into a hugely successful, award-winning feature film, for which Khan-Din also wrote the screenplay.

ISBN: 9781854593139 Publisher: Nick Hern Books Themes: Family, Community, Faith & Religion, Identity Content Warnings: Swearing, Violent and Abusive Behaviour, Racism Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/east-is-east

Beneatha’s Place

Kwame Kwei-Armah

1959. The first wave of independence is sweeping across Africa and Beneatha has left the prejudice of 1950s America for a brighter future with her Nigerian husband in Lagos. But from the day they move into their new house in the white suburbs, it doesn’t take long for cracks to appear, changing the course of the rest of their lives.

The second act of the play takes place in the present day. Now a renowned Dean whose colleagues are questioning the role of African American studies for future generations, Beneatha returns to the same house in search of answers.

Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha’s Place challenges today’s culture wars about colonial history and reckoning with the past. Kwame Kwei-Armah’s razor-sharp satire about the power of knowing your history premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in June 2023.

ISBN: 9781350437999 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: History, Colonialism, Race, Power, Politics, Identity Content Warnings: Features Explicit Language. Explores Colourism, Misogyny and Descriptions of Sexual Assault

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/beneathas-place-9781350497726

Millennium Girls

Sophia Leonie

Spanning three decades, we join Jessica, Chanel and Latisha as they navigate first kisses, free yards, bullies and breakdowns. And some things you don’t talk about. Ever.

Sophia Leonie’s debut play, set against a musical backdrop of UK Garage and 90s classics, is a joyful and achingly honest coming-of-age story exploring identity, girlhood and consent.

It was first produced by Zoe Gibbons Productions, at Brixton House in May 2025.

ISBN: 9781350580060 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Growing Up, Mixed-Race Identity, Girlhood, Consent, Friendship, Music

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/millennium-girls-9781350580060

Krum

Hanoch

Levin

Translated by Jessica Cohen and Evan Fallenberg

Krum returns to his dreary Tel Aviv neighbourhood the same person as when he left it. He hasn’t changed, hasn’t learnt anything, hasn’t gained anything.

This ‘play of two funerals and two weddings’, in Hanoch Levin’s words, is a comedy about the dreams, wishes and complete failures of a couple of people that live their feeling of worthlessness as a fate.

A black comedy, Krum premiered at Haifa Municipal Theatre in 1975, directed by the writer. Levin, one of Israel’s leading dramatists, was awarded the Bialik Prize in 1994.

ISBN: 9781786829139 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Homecoming, Relationships, Friendship, Death, Illness, Humanity

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+

www.bloomsbury.com/hanoch-levin-selected-plays-one-9781786829139

Lava

Benedict Lombe

When a woman receives an unexpected letter from the British Passport Office, she is forced to confront an old mystery: why does her South African passport not carry her first name?

Armed with the wisdom of favourite ‘90s TV shows, she sets out on a journey that will take her back to the turmoil of Mobutu’s Congo, growing up in post-Apartheid South Africa, moving to Ireland, and finding love in a hostile England. As her journey becomes inextricably linked with the tides of global history, how far will she go to unravel the truth?

This funny, urgent play was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2022, and was named Best Performance Piece at the 2022 Offies (Off West End Awards). Lombe also won the Book and Lyrics Recognition Award at the 2021 Black British Theatre Awards.

ISBN: 9781839040092 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: History, Identity, Colonialism

Content Warnings: Swearing, References to Violence and Racism

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/lava-lombe

Duck

maatin

It’s the summer of 2005. England prepares to win the Ashes and Ismail is about to become the youngestever player in his elite public school’s First XI cricket team. He sets his sights on immortality to break the school batting record and get his name into Wisden. But things are about to heat up.

Duck explores the challenges of adolescence, the pressures of sporting competition and what it means to establish your own identity.

It first premiered in the UK at Arcola Theatre in 2023.

ISBN: 9781350525764 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Sports, Identity, Racism, Bullying, Class

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/duck-9781350525757

Noughts & Crosses

Malorie Blackman

Adapted by Sabrina Mahfouz

Sephy and Callum sit together on a beach. They are in love. It is forbidden.

Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife-edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger.

A captivating drama of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world, this gripping adaptation of the modern classic first toured the UK in 2019 and won the Excellence in Touring category at the UK Theatre Awards. It was commissioned and presented by Pilot Theatre in co-production with Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre Colchester and York Theatre Royal.

ISBN: 9781848429239 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Romance, Politics, Social Division, Racism

Content Warnings: Swearing, Racism, Violence, Suicide, Alcohol Consumption, Capital Punishment

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/noughts-crosses-pilot-theatre

Teach alongside: Dominic Cooke’s adaptation of Noughts & Crosses, by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is widely studied for GCSE

The Coup

Mustapha Matura

The late Mustapha Matura’s farcical, fictional coup, set in an independent Trinidad and Tobago, swings with the fluid language and magical lyricism of the Caribbean and explores the chimerical quality of nationhood where foreign money overpowers dreams.

The Coup premiered in 1991 at the National’s Dorfman Theatre (then the Cottesloe Theatre).

ISBN: 9780413652607 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Colonialism, Politics, National Identity, Revolution Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/coup-9780413652607

Additional teaching resources: Production posters and resources on the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk/productions/the-coup

Ragamuffin

Amani Naphtali

Set in the Supreme Court of African Justice, this play presents the trial of Ragamuffin, an allegorical character drawn from the Black urban experience.

Indicted for his role in criminalising the Black community, Ragamuffin is defended as a disaffected Black revolutionary, following in the footsteps of Haiti’s national hero, Toussant L’Ouverture.

The play first premiered in 1989 with the Double Edge Theatre Company at Ovalhouse (now Brixton Theatre).

ISBN: 9781840022186 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: History, Injustice, Revolution Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/ragamuffin-9781840022186

The Maladies

Carmen Nasr

1508. France. A woman dances compulsively – and soon hundreds join her. 1962. Tanzania. A schoolgirl’s laughing fit spreads from village to village.

2011. USA. Cheerleaders are overcome by uncontrollable twitching.

2023. London. A group of women suddenly lose the ability to speak – and no one can figure out why. The team at an all-female podcast decide to investigate and end up on a journey of discovery, uncovering more than they bargained for.

This powerful, provocative play was devised with the Almeida Young Company, and first performed at The Yard Theatre, London, in April 2022.

ISBN: 9781848429949 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: History, Society, Feminism, Mental Health

Content Warnings: Swearing, Sexual References

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/maladies

Trouble in Butetown

Diana Nneka Atuona

In her illegal boarding house in Butetown, Cardiff, Gwyneth Mbanefo toils tirelessly to keep afloat. It’s a port town during the war, home to souls from every corner of the globe. When Nate, an African American GI, escapes his barracks and discovers this new world without segregation, can he find safe harbour? And with danger on every corner, who can he trust?

Trouble in Butetown premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London. Diana Nneka Atuona has won the Alfred Fagon and George Devine awards for her work.

ISBN: 9781350386235 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Community, Segregation, World War II

Content Warnings: Occasional use of strong racial slurs Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/trouble-in-butetown-9781350386235

Additional teaching resources:

Diana Nneka Atuona introduces Trouble in Butetown at the Donmar Warehouse

Additional teaching resources:

Meet the production cast and creatives at the Royal Exchange www.royalexchange.co.uk/event/liberation

Liberation

Ntombizodwa Nyoni

15th October 1945, Manchester. Africa’s freedom and future are in the hands of her descendants at the Fifth Pan-African Congress at Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall. Emerging African and Caribbean activists and scholars offer new radical ideas of liberation. However, the organiser, Trinidadian activist George Padmore, is unsure who to pass the baton to.

Kwame Nkrumah is fuelled by an idealistic desire to become the first Black president of the Gold Coast. Resourceful Jamaican social worker Alma La Badie is grappling with who must be sacrificed for the cause. And what of the revered Amy Ashwood-Garvey – how does she ensure the voices of Black women are heard?

With generational shifts and gender politics added to a swirling mix of power dynamics, Liberation asks timeless questions about revolution, freedom and what it means to be an activist.

The play received its world premiere in a production by the Royal Exchange Theatre and Factory International Manchester in June 2025.

ISBN: 9781350586468 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Ambition, Class, Power, Race, Revolution, Society, Women, PostColonial Struggles

Content Warnings: One racial slur

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/liberation-9781350586468

Mad About the Boy

Gbolahan Obisesan

A teenage boy fights to save his reputation – torn between the influence of his family, his friends and his school.

Questioning where responsibility lies, this razor-sharp drama explores the divide between the generations who gave, those who earned, and those who demand respect. It was first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011, then toured the UK in 2012.

ISBN: 9781848422681 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Community, Education, Urban Life, Crime, Youth Content Warnings: Swearing, Sexual References, Misogyny, References to Violence and Sexual Assault

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/mad-about-the-boy

Also by Gbolahan Obisesan: The Fishermen

My Father’s Fable

Faith Omole

Peace didn’t know what she needed when her father died. Then she found Bolu, her half-brother from Nigeria, whom she didn’t know existed. Filled with grief and a thousand questions, Peace ignores her mother’s concerns, and invites Bolu to England. His arrival feels like something clicking into place.

But questions about this stranger’s intentions and his mysterious past hang heavy in the air. Desperate to keep her fractured family – and herself – together, Peace must face the fact that the answers she desperately seeks might just lead to everything falling apart.

This gripping story of grief, belonging, and a family on the edge was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2024.

ISBN: 9781839043727 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Grief

Content Warnings: Mild Swearing, Alcohol Consumption, Mental Illness, Abusive Behaviour

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/my-fathers-fable

Also by Faith Omole: Kaleidoscope

Kafka’s Ape

Franz Kafka

Adapted by Phala Ookeditse Phala with contributions by Tony Bonani Miyambo

This internationally renowned adaptation of Czech author Franz Kafka’s short story ‘A Report to an Academy’ is set in South Africa. Originally performed by Tony Bonani Miyambo, this adaptation highlights the complexities of identity in the twenty-first century and invites us to explore, through an animal’s gaze, the relationship between self and other.

Since its inception over a decade ago, Kafka’s Ape has travelled to countries across the globe and has been performed alongside a plethora of critical moments in recent history. The realities of xenophobia, racism, animal cruelty, genocide and more are explored within the play through its years of touring.

Kafka’s Ape has been awarded the 2015 Silver Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival; 2017 NHISS Best Public Performance Award; 2019 Outstanding Performance Award at The Prague Fringe Festival; 2019 Best Satire Award at the United Solo Festival in New York; 2020 Best Theatre Award for week 3 at the Fringe Word festival; 2020 Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

ISBN: 9781350526891 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Selfhood, Identity, Racism, Animal Cruelty, Genocide, Xenophobia

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/kafkas-ape-9781350526891

Also by Caryl Phillips: Rough Crossings

Strange Fruit

Caryl Phillips

Alvin and Errol can’t picture much of a future for themselves. They’re young, Black and living in England in the 1980s, with an entire country and political system set against them. Instead they focus firmly on their past – the sunny Caribbean and heroic father they left behind when their mother brought them to England twenty years ago.

But when Alvin returns home from his grandfather’s funeral, a new version of their past emerges, and the two brothers are caught in a desperate struggle to unearth the truth about their existence.

Strange Fruit tells the story of a family caught between two cultures and the uncrossable no man’s land that can come between parents and their children.

It first premiered in 1980 at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield. Caryl Phillips has received various awards including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a British Council Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

ISBN: 9781786827876 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Family, Racism, Activism, Identity, Generational Conflict

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/strange-fruit-9781786827845

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs

Iman Qureshi

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, the only lesbian choir in the country, are trying to win their place on the Pride mainstage. In a run-down church hall with an OWL (Older, Wiser Lesbian) at the helm, the ragtag choir navigate love, loss and trying to agree on song choices. But despite their best intentions, they find that harmony comes at a price.

This uplifting and exuberant play – packed with laugh-out-loud moments and lots of lesbian drama – was first performed at Soho Theatre, London, in 2022. It was later revived at Kiln Theatre, London, in 2025.

ISBN: 9781839044724 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Gender, Sexuality, Identity, Homophobia, Community Content Warnings: Swearing, Homophobia, Threatening and Abusive Behaviour, Sexual References

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/ministry-of-lesbian-affairs

Also by Iman Qureshi: The Funeral Director

Art

Yasmina Reza

Translated by Christopher Hampton

Serge has bought a modern work of art for a large sum of money. Marc hates the painting and cannot believe that a friend of his could feel differently. Yvan attempts to placate both sides, with hilarious consequences. The question is: Are you who you think you are, or are you who your friends think you are?

Art premiered in this translation by Christopher Hampton at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in 1996. It won the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy, and the Tony Award for Best Play on its Broadway transfer.

ISBN: 9780571190140 Publisher: Faber

Themes: Art, Friendship, Truth, Money and Value, Happiness, Beauty Content Warnings: Frequent Swearing

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571190140-art

Out of Sorts

Danusia Samal

Zara has spent her adult life being two different people. The good Muslim daughter, all set to marry the man her family approves of – and a freespirited British millennial, who parties as hard as she works. Over one dramatic weekend, the lies she’s been telling to keep these two worlds apart begin to unravel and she is forced to confront her real identity.

Out of Sorts was the winner of Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award 2018. It premiered at Theatre503, London, in October 2019.

ISBN: 9781848428997 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Religion, Culture, Identity, Friendship, Romance Content Warnings: Swearing, Alcohol Consumption, Mild Violence, Sexual References

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/out-of-sorts

Also by Danusia Samal: Bangers

COAT

Yomi S . ode

Nigeria. A grandmother passes.

London: a son cooks a pot of stew for his mother, hoping to uncover hidden stories and unanswered questions.

A humorous and moving response to the elders who leave the next generation uncertain of what is expected of them, COAT tackles immigration, identity and displacement.

The play has toured across the UK to sold-out audiences, including at Africa Writes Festival, Brighton Festival, Roundhouse Camden and the Battersea Arts Centre.

Yomi S . ode is also a recipient of the 2019 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship.

ISBN: 9781786825728 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Immigration, Race, Identity, Displacement, Generational Conflict

Content Warnings: Contains some strong language

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/coat-9781786825711

Scenes from a Repatriation

Joel Tan

A thousand-year-old statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin lives in the British Museum. When it emerges that the statue was stolen from its original home, the museum attempts to deflect both the public response and controversial repatriation claims from the Chinese government. As statesmen scheme and grease their palms, beneath the statue, witches dance, a cleaner prays, and spirits weep.

This daring, shape-shifting play unfolds the statue’s journey from China to Britain and back again, stirring up age-old ghosts and asking who can claim cultural artefacts – and why?

It was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2025.

ISBN: 9781839044243 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: History, Culture, Identity, Politics

Content Warnings: Swearing, Racism, Homophobia, Violence, Violent Death, Police Brutality, Suicide

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/scenes-from-a-repatriation

Also by Joel Tan: No Particular Order

Death and the King’s Horseman

Wole Soyinka

Based on real events that took place in Oyo, the ancient Yoruba city in Nigeria, in 1946, Death and the King’s Horseman tells how Simon Pilkins, a District Officer, intervened to prevent the ritual suicide of the Yoruba chief, Elesin – a sacrificial suicide demanded by the death of the king.

Through exploring the drastic repercussions of the event in both indigenous and colonial communities, Soyinka’s play evokes the mystery and ritual of Yoruba life, and a world of the living, the dead and the unborn.

Wole Soyinka is a playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1934. He won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature with his debut novel, The Interpreters, becoming the first-ever African laureate and has since won many other prizes such as the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award in 2009 and the Anisfield-Wolf book Award, Lifetime Achievement in 2012.

Death and the King’s Horseman had its world premiere at the University of Ife, December 1976. The production was directed by Soyinka himself. The first British professional production opened at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, November 1990.

ISBN: 9780413695505 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Community, Ritual, Cultural Heritage, Colonialism, Tradition, Yoruba Culture, Morality Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.bloomsbury.com/death-and-the-kingshorseman-9780413695505

random

debbie tucker green

An urgent play about the senseless killing of a Black schoolboy. random was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in March 2008. A 2011 TV adaptation for Channel 4, directed by the author, won the BAFTA for Best Single Drama.

ISBN: 9781848421059

Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Family, Community, Urban Life, Violence, Crime, Death, Grief

Content Warnings: Swearing, Graphic Description of Injury

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/random

Also by debbie tucker green: truth and reconciliation, ear for eye, hang, nut, stoning mary, a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (–noun)

Recognition

Amanda Wilkin

At a prestigious music college, where most of her classmates are white, wealthy and obliviously privileged, Song struggles to relate to the traditional syllabus. When she discovers the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, she learns of the legacy of Black classical music in Britain. His captivating scores inspire her, but the negative voices in her mind still threaten to drown them out.

As Samuel’s story unfolds alongside Song’s own, Recognition asks how we can acknowledge and celebrate those who came before.

Recognition was co-created with Rachael Nanyonjo and produced by Talawa Theatre Company. It premiered at Talawa Studios in Fairfield Halls, London, in 2023, as part of This is Croydon, London Borough of Culture.

ISBN: 9780571386475 Publisher: Faber

Themes: Music, History, Black Britishness, Cultural Memory, Ancestry, Past and Present

Content Warnings: Use of outdated racial terminology in a nineteenth-century context, Two instances of swearing

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571386475-recognition

Fences August Wilson

From legendary playwright August Wilson comes this powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize in that same year.

Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and Black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul.

But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less.

Fences is a modern classic that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

ISBN: 9781559363020 Publisher: Penguin

Themes: Family, Identity, Race, Racism, Generational Trauma, Society

Most suited to KS4+ / GCSE+ / 14-16+ www.penguin.co.uk/books/36798/fences-and-ma-raineysblack-bottom-by-wilson-august/9780241987834

Burgerz

Travis Alabanza

A burger was thrown at Travis Alabanza on Waterloo Bridge in 2016. From this experience they have created a poetic, passionate performance piece based around the ‘burger’: the texture and taste of being trans.

Their experiences include verbal abuse, ostracization and being thrown out of a Top Shop changing room. The piece also explores the Black trans experience.

It was premiered in 2018 at Hackney Showroom, then in 2019 went on to play at the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Burgerz was the winner of the Total Theatre Award.

ISBN: 9781350258662 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Gender Identity, Performance, Prejudice, Race, Transphobic Violence

Content Warnings: Use of a transphobic slur, Themes of abuse

Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/burgerz-9781350258662

Victoria’s Knickers

Josh Azouz

On the eve of her coronation, Victoria is having a bath. Out of her chimney falls Edward ‘The Boy’ Jones. Again.

Adored by the tabloids and hated by the establishment, his repeated break-ins to the palace remain a mystery to all. Except Victoria. Will the teenage lovers survive a power-crazed Lord Conroy, the Chartists and Prince Albert?

Set against the backdrop of an uncertain England, this epic, anarchic romcom tells the story of an unlikely romance between the Queen and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. It premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in 2018, performed by the National Youth Theatre.

ISBN: 9781848428164 Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Themes: Royalty, Romance, History, Social Class Content Warnings: Swearing, Sexual References, Violence Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/victorias-knickers

Also by Josh Azouz: Buggy Baby, Gigi & Dar, The Mikvah Project, Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

Dipo Baruwa-Etti

Femi is visited by her brother’s ghost. He takes her into the past, revealing the final moments before his murder. But with a lack of evidence, and eyewitnesses considered unreliable, Femi is determined to set things right herself.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars premiered at Stratford East, London, in 2021.

ISBN: 9780571369225 Publisher: Faber

Themes: Revenge, Grief, Justice, Death, Racism, Siblings

Content Warnings: Description of the murder of a young Black man, Reference to a suicide attempt

Most suited to KS4 / KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571369225-the-sun-the-moon-and-the-stars

Also by Dipo Baruwa-Etti: Half-Empty Glasses

Additional teaching resources: In Conversation: Dipo Baruwa-Etti and Inua Ellams from Theatre Royal Stratford Eas t

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding

Jocelyn Bioh

Jaja’s bustling braiding salon in Harlem is where neighbourhood women come to have their greatest hairstyle dreams come true, all in the hands of a lively group of West African immigrant braiders.

Across one hot summer’s day, these women experience everything in the pressure cooker of the sweltering shop from demanding customers to secrets and lies, laughter and betrayal. But each of these women has big dreams as well – dreams which increasingly pit them against the city they call home.

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding was first performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, as part of its 2023-2024 season and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play that year. It received its UK premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, in March 2026.

ISBN: 9781350645813

Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Immigrant Experience, Belonging, Community, Dreams, Female Empowerment

Most suited to Most suited to KS5+ / A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/jajas-african-hair-braiding-9781350645813

Also by Jocelyn Bioh: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play

Approaching Empty

Ishy Din

Set in the north of England in the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher’s death, this compelling drama by award-winning playwright Ishy Din lays bare the everyday struggles of a post-industrial generation of British men. In a scruffy minicab office, Mansha decides it’s time to create his own destiny and offers to buy the business from his lifelong friend Raf. As the realities of the state of the company slowly come to light, these two best friends must confront the difficulties of going into business with those closest to them.

Approaching Empty received its premiere at Oldham Coliseum in 2019. Ishy Din received an MBE for services to the Arts and Young People in the North East in 2025.

ISBN: 9781350105454 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Class, Friendship, Identity, Thatcherism Content Warnings: Swearing (including frequent use of the ‘f’ word), One racial slur Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/approaching-empty-9781350105454

Additional teaching resources: Find interviews and media links from Tamasha: tamasha.org.uk/projects/approaching-empty

Expendable

Emteaz Hussain

Between the 1990s and 2010s, hundreds of young girls were sexually exploited in northern towns in the UK by gangs of predatory men. Two sisters grapple with the impact on their community as a result of this sexual abuse scandal.

Winner for Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards 2025, Expendable spotlights the often-overlooked voices of Pakistani women, delving into the shortcomings of law enforcement, politicians and the media.

The play received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in November 2024.

ISBN: 9781350553613 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Community, Crime, Family, Identity, Race, Women Content Warnings: Strong Language (including the ‘f’ word) Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/expendable-9781350553613

Also by Emteaz Hussain: Blood

Additional teaching resources: Black Plays Archive Education Pack

seven methods of kyliekillingjenner by Jasmine Lee-Jones. Digital Resource Pack

A Place for We

Archie Maddocks

This play is recommended by our Lit in Colour Play List competition winner – Matthew Ingram from Durham Johnston Comprehensive School

seven methods of killing kylie jenner

Jasmine Lee-Jones

In this innovative play blending real life and online culture, a young Black woman takes to the social media platform Twitter to voice her frustration with white women profiting off Black culture and stereotypes. When The Discourse turns on her, the line between internet personas and IRL relationships blurs, and the heightened scrutiny she comes under puts her real-life friendship under strain.

Winner of the Alfred Fagon award for Best New Play in 2019, seven methods of killing kylie jenner combines theatre with gifs, memes and emojis to explore stereotypes of Black womanhood, white capitalist exploitation and the politics of social media activism.

ISBN: 9781350277489 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Pop Culture, Race, Racism, Social Media, Society, Women, Colourism, Cultural Appropriation and Online Abuse

Content Warnings: Strong language (including the ‘f’ word), Racial slurs and hate speech references Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/seven-methods-of-killing-kylie-jenner-9781350277489

Trinidadian funeral director Clarence and fifth-generation pub owner George don’t want things to change. But everything around them is changing. Do they adapt to survive? Or stay true to their roots and risk it all… family, tradition, business?

In the wake of the Windrush scandal, Archie Maddocks’s bittersweet comedy holds a mirror up to the ever-changing face of London’s communities in search of their common beating heart.

A Place for We was shortlisted in 2017 for both the Bruntwood Prize and Alfred Fagon Award. It was first performed as a staged reading at Talawa Firsts 2018 and the world premiere was directed by Talawa’s Artistic Director Michael Buffong at the Park Theatre, London, on 7 October 2021. The production was nominated for the 2022 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement.

ISBN: 9780573132742 Publisher: Concord

Themes: Race, Grief, Loss, Cultural Conflict and Challenges of Belonging Content Warnings: Strong Racial Language, Homophobic Slurs, Sexual Intimacy

Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/p/92299/a-place-for-we

A Place for We

By Archie Maddocks

Before the Millennium

Karim Khan

As the final days of 1999 draw near, Pakistani migrants Zoya and Iqra work side by side in Woolworth’s Oxford Cowley branch – anxious and excited for what’s to come in the new millennium.

At their Christmas staff party, the pair encounter a mysterious new girl, Faiza, who threatens to alter everything they thought they knew about their friendship and their future.

Magical, tender and quietly radical, Before the Millennium is a lyrical play from award-winning playwright Karim Khan – charting the joys of a lifechanging friendship, the icy bitterness of homesickness and the sacrifice of migration.

Before the Millennium received its world premiere at the Old Fire Station, Oxford, in December 2025.

ISBN: 9781350614055 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Immigration, Friendship, Identity, Belonging, Nostalgia Content Warnings: Swearing (including frequent use of the ‘f’ word) Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/before-the-millennium-9781350614055

GTife Kusoro

A god, a ghost or a trick of the light.

Urban legend has it that Baitface the Gullyman steals the identities of Black boys. All it takes is walking underneath a pair of trainers suspended from a telephone wire without covering your face.

Khaleem, Joy and Kai are just trying to get through school. But on the night of an alleged crime, when Baitface rears its head, their lives begin to disintegrate.

Tife Kusoro’s bold, visceral play won the George Devine Award in 2023. It opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024.

ISBN: 9780571392513 Publisher: Faber

Themes: Coming-of-Age, Identity, Friendship, Myth, Surveillance and Being Seen, Racism, Black Boyhood

Content Warnings: Frequent swearing, Some drug use (smoking cannabis) Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571392513-g

One Night in Miami...

Kemp Powers

25 February 1964.

Twenty-two-year-old Cassius Clay, soon to be Muhammad Ali, has just won the world heavyweight boxing title. Instead of hitting the town, he chooses to celebrate in a Miami hotel room with three close friends – activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football star Jim Brown.

Kemp Powers’s award-winning debut play, One Night in Miami..., deftly combines the personal and the political at a pivotal moment in history, imagining what might have happened in that tiny hotel room.

The play received the Ted Schmitt Award 2013 for its world premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre, Los Angeles, and went on to be adapted into a film directed by Regina King in 2020.

ISBN: 9781350234734 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Politics, Civil Rights Movement, History, Race, Sport Content Warnings: Strong Racial Slurs, Strong Swearing Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/one-night-in-miami-9781350234734

Additional teaching resources: 2020 Film Directed by Regina King

Biting Point

Sid Sagar

Supermarket driver John and property manager Anita spend their working days in Hull’s endless traffic, trying to keep ahead of targets and ticking clocks.

Driven to distraction by substitute groceries and dodgy plumbing, tensions flare when they collide on a busy roundabout.

Biting Point is about the communities we belong to, the pressures we’re under and how modern life can turn us into people we don’t want to be.

The play was produced by Middle Child and first performed at Fruit Market Multi-Storey Car Park, Hull, in 2025.

ISBN: 9780571398829 Publisher: Faber

Themes: Race, Class, Work and Capitalism, Family, Immigration and Assimilation, Contemporary Britain

Content Warnings: Frequent Swearing (the play centres around a single use of the ‘p-word’)

Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571398829-biting-point

True Brits

Vinay Patel

When a violent encounter leads to a whirlwind romance, young Rahul is more than willing to be caught up. But in the aftermath of 7/7, his world changes in ways he cannot control, drawing him into ever-darker places as he struggles to remain part of a British society that now distrusts him on sight.

Sweeping between the paranoid London of 2005 and the euphoric city of the 2012 Olympics, Vinay Patel’s debut play is an honest, humorous, hopeful piece about wanting to love and be loved. By your crush. By your friends. By your country.

True Brits had its world premiere on 31 July 2014 at the Assembly Hall, Baillie Room, Edinburgh before transferring to the Bush Theatre and Vault Festival.

Additional teaching resources:

Read interview with Vinay Patel on Tamasha’s Artists Spotlight tamasha.org.uk/blog/tamasha-artists/artistspotlight-writer-vinay-patel

ISBN: 9781472594815 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: British Society, Community, Inclusion, Nationalism, Identity Content Warnings: Swearing, Racism

Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/true-brits-9781472594815

Pipeline

Dominique Morisseau

Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students, but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they’ll never have. When a controversial incident at her son’s upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away?

With profound compassion and lyricism, Pipeline brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. Morisseau pens a deeply moving story of a mother’s fight to give her son a future — without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.

Opening off-Broadway in 2017, the premiere production went on to be nominated for five Lucille Lortel Awards.

ISBN: 9780573706813 Publisher: Concord

Themes: Race, Class, Education and the American School-to-Prison Pipeline Content Warnings: Explores Systemic Racism and Socioeconomic Disparity Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/p/62834/pipeline

Additional teaching resources: Find interviews and videos on Concord’s website

Miss Julie

August Strindberg

Adapted by Amy Ng

A fresh take on Strindberg’s thrilling psychological drama, newly politically charged in Amy Ng’s adaptation.

It’s Chinese New Year in 1940s Hong Kong. Julie is the daughter of the island’s British Governor. With her father away for the weekend, Julie comes downstairs to join the servants as they party, initiating a sexually charged power game with her father’s butler.

What starts as a game descends into a fight for survival as sex, power, money and race collide on a hot night in the Pearl River Delta.

This adaptation received its world premiere at Storyhouse, Chester, in February 2020.

ISBN: 9781350175976 Publisher: Methuen Drama

Themes: Class, Colonialism, Politics, Race, Relationships Content Warnings: Single use of the ‘f’ word Most suited to KS5+ / AS & A Level+ / 16-18+ www.bloomsbury.com/miss-julie-9781350175976

Additional teaching resources: Watch Amy Ng Interview

www.bloomsbury.com/LitinColour