Kroetz Plays: 1: The Farmyard; Request Programme; The Nest; Tom Fool; Through the Leaves; Desire (Contemporary Dramatists)

This is the first collection of plays available in the UK by Germany's most famous living playwright. Spanning his work from 1972-94, the volume contains six of his most representative plays, some of which have been produced to great acclaim in this country.

Request Concert (1972) is an extraordinary silent play which shows the last moments in a woman's life before her suicide; The Nest (1975) shows the fatal action that an employee takes in order to fulfil the wishes of an employer; Tom Fool (1977) the story of an insecure Munich assembly-line worker, was a huge success, having its world premiere in four simultaneous productions in 1978; Through the Leaves (1978): 'This is an astonishing event, a reminder of the potency of realism. At a time when style tends to dominate content, it proves that nothing is more gripping in theatre than social, psychological and economic truth' (Guardian, 2003); Desire (1994) deals with the last of all taboos, a serial sex offender's release after many years.

Praise for Through the Leaves, produced in London's West End in 2003 starring Simon Callow: 'A gripping and convincing study of emotional need' Sunday Telegraph; 'A contemporary German classic' Evening Standard