Sarah Daniels Knihy

The narrative intertwines the lives of Elliot, an eco-warrior in a coma, and Lucy, a suffragette from 1913, as Elliot's fall allows him to connect with the past. Alana, a modern-day girl excluded from school, discovers her lineage to Lucy and becomes invested in Elliot's recovery through the news coverage. As Alana navigates her personal struggles, she finds solace by engaging with her family's history, creating a powerful link between past and present. The story explores themes of activism, identity, and the impact of history on personal growth.

“Neaptide races from domestic trauma to staff-room banter ... it bursts with provocative ideas and disturbing questions about human relationships. Most important, it shows that the facade of liberalism and emancipation is merely a translucent gloss.” Jewish Chronicle Claire is a history teacher at a local school where two teenage girls have come out. Their principal, Bea Grimble, is none too impressed, and aims to have them expelled. Claire, who had been hiding the fact that she is homosexual, speaks up on behalf of the girls: this in spite of the fact that she is fighting her ex-husband Lawrence for custody of their daughter, the precocious and happy Poppy. All around Claire hardened attitudes are challenged – and confirmed – as she must decide whether to try to maintain a position of honesty, and battle hypocrisy, from within the bounds of the law, or without. A modern story of custody battles, sexual identity and gender politics, framed around the ancient myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Neaptide was the winner of the 1982 George Devine Award and became the first play by a living female writer to be performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1986. This Modern Classics edition feature a new introduction by Dr Carina Bartleet.

You are not at liberty to avenge the pornography industry in this country. We have the censorship laws for that. Masterpieces opens on three couples having dinner in a restaurant, exchanging sexist jokes. The response is varied: some of them laugh uproariously, some of them uncomfortably, and one is deeply unhappy. Their domestic discussion about the morality of pornography is suddenly amplified a thousand-fold in the next scene in which Rowena is on trial for murder. She had just been to see a 'snuff' film in which a porn actress is actually mutilated and killed on screen, and on her way home is approached threateningly by a man who she ends up pushing under a train because he was harassing her. The play is the story of Rowena's journey, through seeing a porn magazine for the first time to a thwarted attempt to help an unhappy prostitute, from uncomfortable laughter to radical and disgusted protest at female subjugation. Masterpieces is an angry and defiant play, first staged in 1983, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London. It earned Daniels a London Theatre Critics Award for Most Promising Playwright. This edition introduces Sarah Daniels into the Modern Classics series and features an introduction by Elaine Aston, Professor of Contemporary Performance at Lancaster University.

Premiéred at London's Albany Empire in 1988 and set in Deptford at the turn of the century this play traces the lives of the girls who work in the gutting sheds of the Cattle Market and how their lives are changed when the sheds are closed down. Although the girls are unwilling participants in a club founded by Lady Helena to find alternative employment the results are not without tragic consequences.11 women, 6 men

Esther Crossland is a wanted criminal. Four months ago, she destroyed the cruise ship Arcadia in a desperate bid for freedom. Now its inhabitants are in exile on the edge of what used to be the United States - living in sprawling make-shift shelters. Esther is trapped, and fellow rebel Nik Lall is miles away, in hiding. Neither want to admit to their true feelings about each other. When the camp faces annihilation from the ruthless Admiral Janek, the pair suddenly find themselves in a deadly game of power. It's time for a final showdown.

The Hunger Games meets Station Eleven in a gripping near-future dystopian: love triangles, betrayals and fights for freedom in a world turned upside-down... Welcome to the Arcadia. Once a luxurious cruise ship, it became a refugee camp after being driven from Europe by an apocalyptic war. Now it floats near the coastline of the Federated States--a leftover piece of a fractured USA. For forty years, residents of the Arcadia have been prohibited from making landfall. It is a world of extreme haves and have nots, gangs and make-shift shelters. Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out to have the rare chance to live a normal life as a medic on dry land. Nik is a rebel, planning something big to liberate the Arcadia once and for all. When events throw them both together, their lives, and the lives of everyone on the ship, will change forever...