Lavery Plays:1: Origin of the Species; Two Marias; Her Aching Heart; Nothing Compares to You

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For the first time, Bryony Lavery's plays back in print in one volume Includes the plays Her Aching Heart, Nothing Compares to You, The Two Marias and Origin of the Species. Her Aching Heart is "a deliciously irreverent parody of the historical romance, better known as the bonk-buster...Georgette Heyer never wrote anything quite like it, however and Barbara Cartland would be more than confused by this lesbian romance...hilarious" (Guardian); Nothing Compares to You is an evocation of a woman experiencing the loss of a loved one in the aftermath of a car accident "The characters may be touched by death but laughter is never far away...A haunting show of hidden depth" (Birmingham Post); "In Bryony Lavery's quirky Origin of the Species, an ardent archaeologist digging for prehistoric man finds instead a four-million-year old woman...a telling allegory of the loss of innocence...Lavery's wit and imagination are unquestionably present." (Obersver) Introduced by the author, Bryony Lavery's last play Goliath (adapted from Bea Campbell's book) was a hit at the Bush Theatre in 1997. Bryony Lavery is one of Britain's foremost female playwrights.

A rounded theatre practitioner, Bryony Lavery's skills extend to performer (most notably as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan at the Drill Hall), artistic director (Gay Sweatshop and Female Trouble), writer of children's theatre (including The Dragon Wakes, Madagaskar, and Down Among the Mini Beast) and of many cabarets (including Floorshow with Caryl Churchill for Monstrous Regiment in 1977). From 1989 to 1992 she was Tutor-Lecturer on the M.A. Playwriting Course at Birmingham University. She is an honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montfort University. 'Lavery is one of the best but most consistently underrated playwrights in the country: her talent is lavish. She is a wonderful technician and always surprising: it is never possible to second-guess her.' - Kate Kellaway, Observer