Five of the country's classic plays are now in print and available for theatre lovers to read. Published by Playmarket, Three Plays Gary Henderson and Two Plays Toa Fraser are the first releases from a new series that will get NZ theatre onto bookshelves. "These are beautiful pieces of writing to be read, as well as to be seen and heard," says Playmarket Director Mark Amery. "You will not read more vital examples of contemporary NZ storytelling than Skin Tight or No.2.""Play publishing has been fragmented in New Zealand in recent years, and as a consequence, consideration of many works as outstanding pieces of writing in their own right has been lost," says Amery.

Three Plays Gary Henderson begins with one of NZ's most beloved plays: Skin Tight, a sensual love story drawn from the classic Denis Glover poem "The Magpies". A 1998 Edinburgh Fringe First winner, it continues to play to international acclaim. The winner of a 1996 Chapman Tripp Award for Best New Short Play, Mo & Jess Kill Susie is a taut and tense hostage thriller touching on racial tensions in NZ society that has strong resonance with current concerns about terrorism in Te Urewera. The popular An Unseasonable Fall of Snow is a riveting whodunit with an unforeseeable twist.

Two Plays Toa Fraser includes Bare and No.2 - two sparkling contemporary classics that have toured the world to acclaim. Now a major motion picture, No. 2 was described by The Scotsman as "tantamount to a Fijian soap opera in one instalment", while Time called it "a play which thinks local and acts global".

Bare "cuts to the heart of the personal and the political, revealing an appealing community of opposites" according to The Times, and was described by Metro as "an instant classic that is as much a homage to Auckland as Woody Allen's Manhattan [is to New York]".

Three Plays Gary Henderson and Two Plays Toa Fraser are now available online from Playmarket's new one-stop play bookshop or from any good bookstore.

27/11/07