Books published by publisher NICK HERN BOOKS

A group of friends and relations gather at a country estate to see the first performance of an experimental play, written and staged by the young man of the house, Konstantin. Among the audience are Konstantin's mother, the actress Arkadina, and her lover, the famous novelist Trigorin. Their glamorous presence not only disrupts the performance but soon takes on a more profound significance for the lives of all those present.The Seagull has always been a favourite among Chekhov's plays. It was in fact his first success - and the first success for Stanislavski, who directed and acted in it - though the first ever production of the play had been a disaster.

Through both comedy and tragedy, Seagull explores lives that are precariously balanced between love and indifference, success and failure, hope and despair. The first of what are considered to be Chekhov’s four great plays, it sets the scene for the playwright’s unmistakable mix of melancholia and laughter combined with a unique understanding of the daily torment of an unfulfilled.

Based - very loosely - on the plays of Plautus, A Funny Thing...ran for three years on Broadway with Zero Mostel as the cowardly slave, Pseudolus. The first British production, with Frankie Howerd, ran almost as long and spawned the TV series Up Pompeii! A Funny Thing...was only Sondheim's third musical and the first for which he wrote the score as well as the lyrics. On the first two, West Side Story and Gypsy, he had written lyrics only. It opened on Broadway in May 1962 and ran for 964 performances.