Kirjahaku

Two psychological dramas by a talented young playwright and actor; In Purple Heart, Carla, a Vietnam War widow deep in drink and depression, is living with a troubled son and her controlling mother. One day a stranger arrives at the door, a soldier with one hand who is seemingly connected to her late husband and comes to offer condolences to the grieving family. The soldier's mysterious visit is solved in graphic and bloody detail at the end of the play. Norris uses these quirky and flawed characters to provide a humorous yet very dark view of war and the human condition. Loosely based on a true story, The Infidel tells of a charismatic and well-respected state Supreme Court justice who is faced with disciplinary action after his out-of-control affair with a young Latina junior staffer. He confers with his friend and attorney as he examines the consequences of his behavior and tries to judge the most difficult case of his life - his own. With dark irony and sharp, cutting dialogue, Bruce Norris explores sexual obsession and the legislation of human behavior.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the Tony Award for Best Play Clybourne Park spans two generations fifty years apart. In 1959, Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bedroom at a bargain price, unknowingly bringing the first black family into the neighborhood (borrowing a plot line from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun) and creating ripples of discontent among the cozy white residents of Clybourne Park. In 2009, the same property is being bought by a young white couple, whose plan to raze the house and start again is met with equal disapproval by the black residents of the soon-to-be-gentrified area. Are the issues festering beneath the floorboards actually the same, fifty years on? Bruce Norris's excruciatingly funny and squirm-inducing satire explores the fault line between race and property.

A deeply moving meditation on love, loss and grief. October 1972. In a city somewhere in the American Midwest, Carla is trying to rebuild her life. Her husband is gone – killed in Vietnam. Now, under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law, she must raise her young son whilst struggling to avoid the sympathy of her local community. But everything changes with the unexpected arrival of a soldier on her doorstep. Bruce Norris's play Purple Heart was first performed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, in July 2002. It received its UK premiere at the Gate Theatre, London, in March 2013.

A young entrepreneur sets out on a quest for wealth with priceless ambition and a purse of gold. Bruce Norris's play The Low Road is a startling fable of free-market economics and cut-throat capitalism. It was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in March 2013.

In downstate Illinois, four men convicted of sex crimes against minors share a group home where they live out their lives in the shadow of the offences they committed. A man shows up to confront his childhood abuser – but does he want closure or retribution? Bruce Norris's provocative play Downstate zeroes in on the limits of our compassion and what happens when society deems anyone beyond forgiveness. Downstate received its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in March 2019, in the same production which had its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, in September 2018.

A hilarious social satire about liberal hypocrisy from an American writer whose work has been staged by the world famous Steppenwolf Theatre. A cosy family Thanksgiving dinner for six. But someone - or something - is leaving bite marks in the avocados. Clay and Kelly's daughter Kayla has an itch and Carol can't remember who played Gandhi. Bruce Norris's play The Pain and the Itch holds up a mirror to those who want it all: moral superiority and a widescreen TV. It was first staged by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in June 2005. The play received its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in September 2006, and was first performed in the UK at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2007.