{"title":"Playtexts","description":"\u003cp\u003eShop our digital playwall today! Featuring plays from stages across the world, you'll be sure to discover new works as well as adaptations of popular classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLooking for a particular play? We may have this title in our shop! Please contact us if there's a play you cannot find online.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"leopoldstadt-playtext","title":"Leopoldstadt Playtext","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy Tom Stoppard\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and - for Austrian Jews - the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn’t ended yet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt was first performed at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in January 2020.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31701096005704,"sku":"9780571359059","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/9780571359059.jpg?v=1721304488"},{"product_id":"as-you-like-it","title":"As You Like It","description":"\u003cp\u003eby William Shakespeare\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith its explorations of sexual ambivalence, As You Like It speaks directly to the twenty-first century. 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Bawcutt with an introduction by Peter Swaab. 'Once, he kissed me. I loved my lips the better ten days after'. When Theseus, Duke of Athens, learns that the ruler of Thebes has killed three noble kings he swears to take revenge. But after Athens triumphs over the rival city, Theseus is struck by the bravery of two Theban cousins and orders his surgeons to attend to them. 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'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother' Young King Henry wages war on France. But, tainted by his father's crimes, and with enemies among his own men, he must confront the difficult responsibilities of kingship. In rousing speeches, first at the siege of Harfleur where he urges his men 'Once more into the breach', and again on St Crispin's Day before the Battle of Agincourt, Henry rallies the English troops to spectacular victories which change the course of history. But even with the battles won, the war is not yet over - for to make safe his success, Henry must secure a marriage with the French princess, Catherine of Valois. 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Honigmann with an introduction by Michael Taylor in Penguin Shakespeare. 'Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRichard of York, the bitter, deformed brother of King Edward IV, is secretly plotting to seize the throne of England. Charming and duplicitous, powerfully eloquent and viciously cruel, he is prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his goal. 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Foakes, and an introduction by Janet Dillon. 'Some, Cupid kills with arrows, some, with traps'. Proud, vivacious Beatrice and a high-spirited rake Benedick both claim that they are determined never to marry. 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Hibbard, with an introduction by Margaret Jane Kidnie in Penguin Shakespeare. The beautiful but sharp-tongued 'shrew' Katherina has sworn never to accept the demands of any would-be husband. Her younger sister Bianca, meanwhile, is forbidden to be married until Katherina finds a suitable match - much to the dismay of Bianca's suitors, Hortensio and Gremio. But when Katherina is pursued by the wily Petruchio, it seems that she has finally met her match. 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