Damage: a Collection of Plays by John Romeril : Jonah; the Floating World; Top End; the Lost Weekend

Romeril's writing conveys the immediacy of the times that stems from his beginnings as an agitprop writer, but he focuses on everyday lives. The plays in Damage explore twentieth-century stresses and strains, the damage we do and the damage done to us. This collection, introduced by John McCallum, includes three previously unpublished works.

Jonah is a Brechtian musical reinvention of Louis Stone's novel of the same name.

Top End is a political drama set in Darwin during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Lost Weekend takes a class-based look at 'Australianess'.

The Floating World is the story of a returned serviceman's descent into madness on a cruise ship bound for Japan.

JOHN ROMERIL has been a prolific writer whose early plays include the major works I Don't Know Who To Feel Sorry For, Chicago, Chicago and The Floating World. Other plays are Mrs Thally F, Carboni, The Kelly Dance, Lost Weekend, Black Cargo, Bring Down the House, Doing the Block and Red Sun Red Earth. He has studied under Australia Council grants in Europe, Canada and the United States. In 1993â "96 he was recipient of an Australian Artists' Creative Fellowship. More recent works published by Currency are Love Suicides and Miss Tanaka. He has acted as Playwright-in-Residence for many theatre companies and tertiary institutions and served as Chair of the Australian National Playwrights' Centre. In 2003 he received the inaugural ANPC Award which honours Australian playwrights who have made a significant contribution to national theatre and culture.