Oberon Books is a London-based independent publisher of drama texts and books on theatre. The company publishes around 100 titles per year, many of them plays by new writers. In addition, the list contains a range of titles on theatre studies, acting, writing and dance.

History

Oberon Books was founded by James Hogan in 1985. Two of its titles are poet Adrian Mitchell's 1998 stage adaptation of

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

's '' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'' for the Royal Shakespeare Company and ''

One Man, Two Guvnors ''One Man, Two Guvnors'' is a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of ''Servant of Two Masters'' ( it, Il servitore di due padroni), a 1743 Commedia dell'arte style comedy play by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni. The play replaces ...

'' (

Richard Bean Richard Anthony Bean (born 11 June 1956) is an English playwright. Early years Born in East Hull, Bean was educated at Hull Grammar School, and then studied social psychology at Loughborough University, graduating with a 2:1 BSc Hons. He then ...

's modern version of

Carlo Goldoni Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: * Carlo (name) * Monte Carlo * Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince ...

's '' Servant of Two Masters''), a West End and Broadway hit for Britain's National Theatre in 2011 starring James Corden. The NT Live recording of the latter was scheduled to be shown on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

in late 2020. the company has 1600 titles in print, most available as both print and e-books. As well as new plays, Oberon also publishes classic works by playwrights such as

J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...

, Sir Arnold Wesker and Henrik Ibsen. Oberon's mission expanded to include publishing a "culturally and politically diverse" range of plays. Recent examples include ''Barber Shop Chronicles'' by

Inua Ellams Inua M. M. Ellams (born 23 October 1984) is a UK-based poet, playwright and performer. Work Ellams has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre and the BBC. In June 2018, Ellams was elected as a Fellow of the ...

, ''The HIV Monologues'' by Patrick Cash and ''Chewing Gum Dreams'' by Michaela Coel. In December 2019, Oberon Books was acquired by Bloomsbury Publishing to join its longstanding play and performance imprints

Methuen Drama A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing ''Who's Who'' since 1849. It also published popular travel guides and novels. History The firm was founded in 180 ...

and

Arden Shakespeare The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been t ...

Notable contemporary authors

Abi Morgan Abigail Louise Morgan (born 1968) is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as ''Sex Traffic'' and '' The Hour'', and the films '' Brick Lane'', '' The Iron Lady'', ''Shame'' and '' Suffragette''. Early l ...

* Oladipo Agboluaje *

Howard Barker Howard Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright, screenwriter and writer of radio drama, painter, poet, and essayist writing predominantly on playwriting and the theatre. The author of an extensive body of dramatic works since the 197 ...

* Neil Bartlett *

Torben Betts Torben Betts (born 10 February 1968, in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. Betts attended the University of Liverpool, where he read English Literature and English Language, and originally trained to bec ...

Ranjit Bolt Ranjit Bolt OBE (born 1959) is a British playwright and translator. He was born in Manchester of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt.Programme notes for ''The Grouch'', West Yorkshire Playhouse Feb ...

Tim Crouch Tim Crouch (born 18 March 1964) is a British experimental theatre maker, actor, writer and director. His plays include ''My Arm'', ''An Oak Tree'', ''ENGLAND'', and ''The Author''. These take various forms, but all reject theatrical conventions ...

* Will Eno * Lara Foot * Jon Fosse * John Fraser *

Christopher Fry Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biograph ...

Pam Gems Pam Gems (1 August 1925 – 13 May 2011) was an English playwright. The author of numerous original plays, as well as of adaptations of works by European playwrights of the past, Gems is best known for the 1978 musical play '' Piaf''. Persona ...

* A. C. Grayling *

Stephen Adly Guirgis Stephen Adly Guirgis is a Pulitzer Prize Winning American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company.Blake, Leslie (Hoban)"Comin' Uptown" ''Theater ...

* Tanika Gupta * Sir Peter Hall *

Dennis Kelly Dennis Kelly is a British scriptwriter for theatre, television and film. His play ''DNA'', first performed in 2007, became a core set-text for GCSE in 2010 and has been studied by approximately 400,000 students each year. He wrote the book ...

Nicolas Kent Nicolas Kent (born 26 January 1945) is a British theatre director. His father arrived in Britain in 1936, a Jewish German refugee, and changed his name from Kahn to Kent. Early life and education Kent, who was brought up in Hampstead Garden Su ...

Arthur Kopit Arthur Lee Kopit (' Koenig; May 10, 1937 – April 2, 2021) was an American playwright. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for '' Indians'' and '' Wings''. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Play for ''Indians'' (1970) a ...

Bernard Kops Bernard Kops (born 28 November 1926) is a British dramatist, memoirist, poet and novelist. Early life Born in the East End of London, the son of Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Kops was evacuated from London in 1939, and recounted that experience in e ...

Bryony Lavery Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play '' Frozen''. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography ...

* Nell Leyshon * John Logan *

Robert David MacDonald Robert David MacDonald (27 August 1929 – 19 May 2004), known as David, was a Scottish playwright, translator and theatre director. Early life Robert David MacDonald was born in Elgin, in Morayshire, Scotland on 27 August 1929, the son of a ...

* Mustapha Matura * Glyn Maxwell *

Sheridan Morley Sheridan Morley (5 December 1941 − 16 February 2007) was an English author, biographer, critic and broadcaster. He was the official biographer of Sir John Gielgud and wrote biographies of many other theatrical figures he had known, includin ...

Dominique Morisseau Dominique Morisseau (born March 13, 1978) is an American playwright and actress from Detroit, Michigan. She has authored over nine plays, three of which are part of a cycle titled ''The Detroit Project.'' She was a recipient of the MacArthur Fel ...

Virginia McKenna Dame Virginia Anne McKenna, (born 7 June 1931) is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner. She is best known for the films ''A Town Like Alice'' (1956), '' Carve Her Name with Pride'' (1958), ''Born Free'' (1966), and ...

* Dorota Masłowska *

Douglas Maxwell Douglas Maxwell (born 1974 in Girvan) is a Scottish playwright, whose work has been performed throughout Scotland, the UK and abroad. Life & work He was born to two teachers in Girvan on the Ayrshire south-west coast of Scotland. He has one sis ...

* John Mortimer *

Richard Norton-Taylor Richard Norton-Taylor (born 6 June 1944) is a British editor, journalist, and playwright. He wrote for ''The Guardian'' on defence and security matters from 1975 to 2016, and was the newspaper's security editor. He now works for the investigat ...

* Meredith Oakes * Tamsin Oglesby * John Osborne * Gary Owen *

Julia Pascal Julia Pascal is a British playwright and theatre director. Biography A Jewish atheist, Pascal's stage plays include three grouped together as ''The Holocaust Trilogy''. The first of these is ''Theresa'', based on historical accounts of a Jewish w ...

Michael Pennington Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (born 7 June 1943) is a British actor, director and writer. Together with director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and was its Joint Artistic Director until 1992. He has writ ...

Barry Reckord Barrington John Reckord (19 November 1926 – 20 December 2011), known as Barry Reckord, was a Jamaican playwright, one of the earliest Caribbean writers to make a contribution to theatre in Britain. His brother was the actor and director Lloyd ...

* Anya Reiss * Roland Schimmelpfennig * Roy Smiles *

Ade Solanke Adeola Solanke FRSA, commonly known as Ade Solanke, is a British-Nigerian playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for her debut stage play, ''Pandora's Box'', which was produced at the Arcola Theatre in 2012, and was nominated as Best N ...

Aurin Squire Aurin Squire is an African-American playwright, screenwriter, and reporter. He has written numerous plays, while his reporting has appeared in The New Republic, Talking Points Memo, ''Chicago Tribune'', ''Miami Herald'', and ''ESPN'', among other ...

Laura Wade Laura Wade is an English playwright. Early life Wade was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire. She grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where her father worked for a computer company. After completing her secondary education at Lady Manners School i ...

* Anne Washburn * Sir Arnold Wesker * Anna Zeigler

Theatre group partners

Oberon also publishes plays from the following theatre companies: *

Kneehigh Theatre Kneehigh Theatre was an international touring theatre company founded in 1980 by Mike Shepherd and based in Cornwall, England. The company was based in barns on the southern Cornish coast, at Gorran Haven, but the administration was in Truro. ...

* Complicite * OperaUpClose *

Out of Joint Out of Joint is a British and international touring theatre company based in London. It specialises in the commissioning and production of new writing, interspersed with occasional revivals and classic productions. It was founded in 1993 by direct ...

* The Red Room Theatre Company

Critical acclaim and awards

John Logan's ''

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

'' was the winner of six Tony Awards in 2010, including Best Play and Best Direction (

Michael Grandage Michael Grandage CBE (born 2 May 1962) is a British theatre director and producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in London and from 2000 ...

). ''

'' was also the winner of the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. The following Oberon plays were also nominated for

Olivier Awards The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

in 2010: * ''Ìyà Ilé (The First Wife)'' by Oladipo Agboluaje nominated for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre * ''Afghanistan: The Great Game'' by various authors, nominated for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre * '' England People Very Nice'' by

, nominated for Best New Comedy * ''Our Class'' by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, nominated for Best Director for Bijan Sheibani A number of Oberon playwrights have been nominated for the 2010

Evening Standard Award The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standar ...

s: *

's ''The Big Fellah'' for Best New Play. *

's ''

Posh Posh is an informal adjective for "upper class". It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Posh'' (album), a 1980 album by Patrice Rushen *" Posh!", a 1968 song from the musical ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' * ''Posh'' (2006 TV series), a 2006 Philip ...

'' for Best New Play. *'' Anya Reiss and Atiha Sen Gupta, both nominated for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright Nominees for the 2010 TMA Theatre Awards include: *''Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian'' by Gary Owen for Best New Play. *''

Spur of the Moment A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back ...

'' by Anya Reiss for Best New Play. *''"

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

" by

for Best Touring Production. Oberon's previous award winners include: * '' A Disappearing Number'' by

Simon McBurney Simon Montagu McBurney (born 25 August 1957) is an English actor, playwright, and theatrical director. He is the founder and artistic director of the Théâtre de Complicité, London. He has had roles in the films '' The Manchurian Candidate'' ...

and Complicite, winner of both the

and the

Olivier Award for Best New Play The Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, ...

in 2008 * '' Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry'' by

, winner of the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre in 2006 * Nell Leyshon, winner of the

for Most Promising Playwright for ''Comfort Me With Apples'' in 2005 *

, winner of the Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best New Play with ''The Unconquered'', 2007.

John Osborne discovery

In September 2008 two early playscripts by John Osborne, previously thought to be lost, were discovered in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

's archives. Both plays predated ''

Look Back in Anger ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) is a realist play written by John Osborne. It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man of working-class origin, Jimmy Porter, and his equally competent yet i ...

'' and were published together for the first time by Oberon Books, as ''Before Anger''.Sheffield University News Releases 2009
(retrieved 2 August 2010).

References

{{Authority control Publishing companies of the United Kingdom