Kirjahaku

The first collected edition of darkly humorous plays.

The first collected edition of the enduring plays by the popular author of The Long Good Friday Gimme Shelter (Gem, Gotcha, Getaway): 'This brilliantly and cleverly interlinked trio of plays are about fighting and acceptance...Humanism and individuality are the lodestars sought for ...grim but beautifully humorous' GuardianBARBARIANS (KILLING TIME, ABIDE WITH ME, IN THE CITY): "Captures unerringly and with unhistrionic force a sense of life down in Lewisham where unemployment is running rife and demoralisingly among the bored young ...it is not a grim play though the final implications are chilling. There is a raw and crude humour in the situation and language of these unemployed boys ...magnificently a play of today" Guardian

Barrie Keeffe's acclaimed screenplay for the classic film Harold Shand has made it from Whitechapel to running his own 'corporation' and owning his own yacht and classy mistress. He has the police and the local authorities in his pocket, is planning a major London property development and forging links with the international Mafia. Everything indeed is coming up roses for Harold until the Easter weekend when enemies unknown embark on a series of lethal outrages against his organisation. As the story accelerates to a crazy vortex of violence, Harold discovers he has unwittingly crossed enemies whose connections, expertise and dedication to violence outclass his own."The first British thriller to even approach the cracking vitality of the classic Hollywood gangster movies ...dazzlingly slick" (Daily Mail); "The best British gangster flick of all time" (Empire)

"You see, what this country needs is a strong government to sort out the laws, bring order" Election night 1979: the sus laws made it legal for police to stop and search anyone - purely on suspicion. Two detectives on the graveyard shift in an East London police station place bets on which party will win. A black man is picked up, accused of his wife's murder. He is incensed, believing that he'll be fodder for an incoming government keen to flex its law-and-order muscles. A powerful, politicised cry against the still-current threat of institutional racism, Keeffe uncompromisingly depicts a corrupt world which looks all too familiar today. Set on the eve of the Thatcher victory, this new edition of Keeffe's classic, harrowing play coincides with the general election of 2010, and asks what's changed. Sus is a shocking and disturbing drama which protests against the rise of the right-wing, the infringement of civil liberties and the casual humiliation which the police inflict on their prisoners. Exploring the abuse of power and racism, Sus is a resonant, socially charged and powerful play, as relevant today as it was in 1979.

–I want things to get better, not worse.–There's hundreds of thousands worse off than us.Ideals are worthless if you can't pay the bills.Anita and Sam live in East London. Burdened by debt and on the eve of giving birth to their second child, Anita begins to wonder whether it was a good idea for Sam to become a social worker. Can they survive in David Cameron's London on Sam's wage with two children? Anywhere else it would be fine, but where he's needed most, can Sam make ends meet? Will their marriage take the strain as the needs of family are pitted against the greater good?Bitingly funny, challenging, angry and deeply humane, My Girl 2 is Barrie Keeffe’s reworking of his iconic 1989 play. This edition published to coincide with the premiere of the updated version at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London, in 2014.

It’s 1977. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high and the pound is at an all-time low. Paul, Jan and Louis are bored, broke and demoralized by the hand that they’ve been dealt. How will these young lads fair with the odds stacked against them? How will they cope?Cut off from society with no-where to turn, the play resonates with a modern audience who will no doubt recognize the disaffected youth of 1970s Britain. Barrie Keeffe’s tragically dark play crackles with tension throughout, building to a twisted and dramatic end.This programme text edition was published to coincide with the revival of the play by Tooting Arts Club on 3rd October 2015, staged at the former Central St Martins School of Art on the Charing Cross Road, London.