Michael Frayn

The new collection from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel Headlong and the internationally acclaimed play Copenhagen Here: "about time, space and life... A touching, brilliant construction. It's both deeply thought and deeply felt' (Sunday Times); Now You Know: "Frayn's light but serious, marvellous new play, about official and unofficial secrets, about idle curiosity and investigative purpose" (Observer); La Belle Vivette: "Frayn's elegant libretto... Michael Frayn has made an Offenbach opera a farce to be reckoned with...a razor-sharp reworking" (Mail on Sunday) Michael Frayn was born in 1933 in the suburbs of London and began his career as a reporter on the Guardian, before becoming a columnist. His novels include The Tin Men, The Russian Interpreter, Towards the End of Morning and The Trick of It. He has written a number of plays for television and the stage, including translations of Chekhov and smash hits such as his screenplay Clockwise and his plays Donkeys' Years, Noises Off, Alarms and Excursions and Copenhagen. Deborah Levy "does not deal with realism, she does not deal with magic realism, rather she draws out a new territory, and if we follow we will find ourselves suspended over views we have not seen before" Jeanette Winterson, Observer

An unlikely con man wagers wife, wealth, and sanity in pursuit of an elusive Old Master. Invited to dinner by the boorish local landowner, Martin Clay, an easily distracted philosopher, and his art-historian wife are asked to assess three dusty paintings blocking the draught from the chimney. But hiding beneath the soot is nothing less-Martin believes-than a lost work by Bruegel. So begins a hilarious trail of lies and concealments, desperate schemes and soaring hopes as Martin, betting all that he owns and much that he doesn't, embarks on a quest to prove his hunch, win his wife over, and separate the painting from its owner. In Headlong, Michael Frayn, "the master of what is seriously funny" (Anthony Burgess), offers a procession of superbly realized characters, from the country squire gone to seed to his giddy, oversexed young wife. All are burdened by human muddle and human cravings; all are searching for a moral compass as they grapple with greed, folly, and desire. And at the heart of the clamor is Breugel's vision, its dark tones warning of the real risks of temptation and obsession. With this new novel, Michael Frayn has given us entertainment of the highest order. Supremely wise and wickedly funny, Headlong elevates Frayn into the front rank of contemporary novelists.

TONY AWARD WINNER - An explosive re-imagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb. "Endlessly fascinating.... The most invigorating and ingenious play of ideas in many a year.... An electrifying work of art." --Ben Brantley, The New York Times In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since. In Michael Frayn's ambitious, fiercely intelligent, and daring new play Heisenberg and Bohr meet once again to discuss the intricacies of physics and to ponder the metaphysical--the very essence of human motivation.

Eight short playlets, to be performed together in a single evening, examine with hilarity difficulties modern technology has added to life. In Alarms, two couples embark on a dinner party that is doomed to failure as, one by one, labor saving devices and even furniture become hostile. Doubles sees two couples having similar problems in adjacent hotel rooms. In Leavings, the dinner party is revisited to great amusement. In Look Away Now, passengers ignore the airline's safety lecture. Heart to Heart deals with the impossibility of communication at a noisy cocktail party. Glasnost presents a political speech that is sabotaged by a harassed autocue operator. Toasters shows the problems of trying to eat and work standing up at a social function. The last play, Immobiles, is acted out entirely over the phone as a couple try to decide where they should meet their German guests: Gatwick or Heathrow?

"Michael Frayn has the rare ability to construct farcical comedy around philosophical principles and the laughs and the ideas effortlessly intermesh" (Guardian) Four old friends sit down for a quiet evening together. But they are harassed by various bells, sirens, buzzers, warblers, beepers and cheepers, all trying to warn them of something. What are these electronic voices trying to tell them? Can they understand the mysterious disasters before disaster strikes? It's a race against time - because there are seven more plays and twenty more characters still to come before the evening is through, plus a lot more strange noises - and increasingly desperate calls from eleven separate pay phones...

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionised atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment, and ended in disaster. Why the German physicist Heisenberg went to Copenhagen in 1942 and what he wanted to say to the Danish physicist Bohr are questions which have exercised historians of nuclear physics ever since. In Michael Frayn's new play Heisenberg meets Bohr and his wife Margrethe once again to look for the answers, and to work out, just as they had once worked out the internal functioning of the atom, how we can ever know why we do what we do. 'Michael Frayn's tremendous new play is a piece of history, an intellectual thriller, a psychological investigation and a moral tribunal in full session.' Sunday Times

Loveable - ex-petty-criminal - Terry runs a small charity organisation called OPEN, which campaigns for the freedom of information. his partner both at work and at weekends is Home Counties divorcee Jaqui who funds the charity from her own pocket and generally organoises the close-knit staff. When Hilary - a Civil Servant - arrives, with a highly-confidential Home Office file detailing the cover-up of a death in police custody, Terry is given a not obe missed opportunity. His increasingly close involvement with Hillary presents him with a personal and professional dilema, and exposes the fact that everyone in the office has something to hide. Originally presented at the Hamstead Thetra, starring Adam Faith, "Now You Know" was adapted from Frayn's own commic novel.

"One of theatre's subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) Now You Know: "Frayn's light but serious, marvellous play, about official and unofficial secrets, about idle curiosity and investigative purpose" (Observer)

"One of theatre's subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) Benefactors conjures the world of the suburbs observed through the lens of post-imperialism; "dazzling. This prismatic work circumscribes the disillusionment of an era" (New York Times); Balmoral dares to imagine what Britain would be like if it had gone through the Russian revolution in 1917; "a sophisticated drollery, an educated amusement" (New Statesman); Wild Honey is a reworking of Checkov's first play (also known as Platonov) and is shot through with farce, feminism and eroticism.

"One of theatre's subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) One spring morning a quiet, shy man in his sixties sets out from Land's End to walk the length of his native land. He has never walked more than a dozen miles in his life before, his health is uncertain, his boots are new, and he is too diffident to talk to anyone he meets along the way. His slow, solitary progress up the spine of Britain is watched by an unseen audience - his family and friends at home. How far will he get before he is forced to give up? Is he being heroic or merely selfish? As the days of his absence go by the old alliances and quarrels inside the family shift and alter. What emerges is a story about the arbitrariness of human endeavour and about the tenacious complexity of human relationships; about one man's glimpse of the country he lives in; about courage and about love. First and Last was directed by Alan Dossor in a production for BBC television, with Joss Ackland as the walker.

This long-running hit starred Sam Waterston on Broadway as an urban architect whose attempts to improve humanity by the environments he creates, only leads to chaos when the high-rise boom goes bust and two close friends are caught in the cross-hairs.2 women, 2 men

"One of theatre's subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) Alphabetical Order: "A comic essay about two types of woman...a very intelligent comedy because of its classic simplicity, and unusual in the way that the two types of women do not become stereotypes" (Daily Telegraph); Donkeys' Years, a satire on the establishment and British Institutions "Gorgeous farce, all the funnier for emerging from credible aspirations and natural anxieties...the play is richer and cannier than we expect farces to be." (New Statesman); Clouds, is a satire on government sponsored trips and a portrait of sexual jealousy,"it is poignantly and unerringly funny" (Guardian); Make and Break is a satirical commentary on British corporate interests abroad "Full of pain, ruthless observation, and a sense of humour which is sardonic, lunatic and warm" (Sunday Times); Noises Off - the West End hit play about a company of actors stepping from a sex farce into their own nightmarish lives backstage "A very intelligent joke about the fragility of all forms of drama...a pulverisingly funny play." (Guardian)"All of these plays are attempts to show something of the world, not to change it or to promote any particular idea of it. That's not to say there are no ideas in them. In fact what they are all about in one way or another is the way in which we impose our ideas upon the world around us...it might be objected that one single theme is a somewhat sparse provision to sustain five separate and dissimilar plays. I can only say that it is a theme which has occupied philosophers for over two thousand years and one which is likely to occupy them for at least two thousand more..."(Michael Frayn)

Called the funniest farce ever written, Noises Off presents a manic menagerie as a cast of itinerant actors rehearsing a flop called Nothing's On. Doors slamming, on and offstage intrigue, and an errant herring all figure in the plot of this hilarious and classically comic play. "The play opens with a touring company dress-rehearsing Nothing On, a conventional farce. Mixing mockery and homage, Frayn heaps into this play-within-a-play a hilarious melee of stock characters and situations.

John Garrard is a successful manufacturer who is driven by a compulsion to use and consume the world and the people around him. He is briefly intensely curious about everything he comes across, particularly other people's worlds: their religious beliefs, their sexual and artistic yearnings and their feelings about him. During one climactic night amid the hectic activities of a trade fair in Germany, it looks as if he will be forced to turn his sharp eyes upon himself and come face to face at last with silence and darkness.2 women, 11 men

This zany, hilarious farce was a London hit and won the West End Theatre Best Comedy Award of the year. At a reunion dinner at a "lesser college" of an "older university" are a number of graduates now in their early forties and mostly in responsible, influential positions. All starts smoothly with conventional greetings and old boy reminiscences. As the evening goes on, the facade falls away...-1 woman, 8 men

Owen Shorter, professional journalist, and Mara Hill, well known lady novelist, discover at the beginning of the play that they have been sent to Cuba to write for rival color supplements. We follow their progress, together with Ed, an author from Illinois, and their guide, Angel, on their fact finding mission, as they do the obligatory rounds of official visits to sugar cane processing plants, new towns and other industrial show pieces.-2 women, 3 men

Alphabetical Order takes place in the library office of a provincial newspaper a scene of permanent and utter confusion. The cluttered chaos of the room is matched by the life of its manager Lucy and her associates. It is a scene of warmth and easy if somewhat juvenile and irresponsible light heartedness until Leslie, a new young assistant with a passion for organization, enters. In a short time, she has transformed both the lives of its inhabitants and visitors into something orderly, neat, arid and colorless. An announcement that the paper is to close leads in Leslie's absence to a revitalizing and glorious orgy of destruction and return to chaos.3 women, 4 men