Fiction Drama

This collection of masterful reinterpretations brilliantly demystifies and breathes new life into Shakespeare's work, demonstrating the continued resonance of a playwright whose popularity remains more than 400 years after his death. Now, the passion, heartbreak, deception, reconciliation, and mortality of Shakespeare’s originals can be understood by all, without the need to cross-reference to an enjoyment-sapping study guide.

Dr. Kimberly Donovan's life is in shambles. After her medical ethics are questioned, first her family, then her closeted lover, the Chief of the ER, betray her. Determined to make a fresh start, she flees to California and LA Metropolitan Hospital. Dr. Jess McKenna, LA Metro's Chief of the ER, gives new meaning to the phrase emotionally guarded, but she has her reasons. When Kim and Jess meet, the attraction is immediate. Emotions Jess has tried to repress for years surface. But her interest in Kim also stirs dark memories.

Connie lost her words at the age of five, the day she witnessed her mother and father's untimely death. Since then she has been all but mute, only being able to choke out a few select words. Now, years on, Connie's husband is on his deathbed, and all she can do is quietly sit by his side. But there are so many dreadful secrets locked up in Connie's silent prison. And time is running out to set them free....

This widely studied play is one of the "best sellers" of the Shakespeare canon. This production is the sixth Shakespeare play in the series undertaken by Naxos AudioBooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press.

Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest.

Criminologist Dr. Gretchen White thought Detective Lauren Marconi could never cross certain lines. Then Lauren, with fresh blood on her hands, is arrested for an execution-style slaying. Even as the evidence mounts, Gretchen is convinced she’s innocent. Because Lauren would have known how to get away with murder.

These four works show Samuel Beckett at his most penetrating. Both Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Not I (1972) are among the most striking pieces written for the theatre in the 20th century. An old man sits at a table, playing back old tapes made when he was younger, mixed glimpses of past feelings. In Not I, we have just a mouth expressing memories and torment in a torrent of words.

Arthur Beauchamp takes a break from the courtroom to write a memoir so he can set the record straight about a headline murder case he fought as a young lawyer in 1966. The trial would either mark him as a pathetic loser or thrust him into the top ranks of criminal counsel. The background: in 1966, a young housemaid was raped by her employer, a callous and vindictive millionaire. She shot him point blank, so it seemed an open-and-shut case of first-degree murder. Enter Arthur Beauchamp, a young lawyer haunted by having bungled his only previous murder case.

When the crew of the Oceanus rescued a man close to death, its captain could barely have guessed at the incredible story that man would come to share. This is the story of Victor Frankenstein: a man obsessed with discovering the secret of life and cheating death; a man who brings to life to a body built from corpses; and a man who rejects this would-be child.... Soon Victor and his creature are entangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse across Europe. But who is truly the monster?

The Hairy Ape (1922) is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill. The protagonist, Yank, yearns for a sense of belonging in a world he perceives as being controlled by the rich. Initially, Yank enjoys his job stoking the engines of an ocean liner. Then the wealthy daughter of a steel magnate refers to him as a "filthy beast", and Yank starts experiencing an identity crisis. He leaves the ship, and while walking around Manhattan, comes to the conclusion that he does not belong anywhere; not with the rich on Fifth Avenue nor with the labor unions on the waterfront.

Dr. Ashlee Logan's world changed forever on a snowy December night in Boston. She has spent the last two years on the road, trying to escape the memory of that fateful night. With only her Great Dane, Drake, as her companion, she has worked her way across country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, working as an ER physician along the way. While serving her country, former Navy doctor Dale Parker had her life shattered in a single moment on a hot, windswept desert roadside. Now, three years later, although her physical wounds have healed, Dale is forever changed by the experience.

London, 1765. Lady Isabella Gerard, a respectable member of Georgian society, orders her maid to take her new golden gown and destroy it, its shimmering beauty tainted by the actions of her brutal husband the night before. Three months later, Lord Gerard stands at the shoreline of the lake, looking down at a woman wearing the golden gown. As the body slowly rolls over to reveal her face, it’s clear this was not his intended victim…

Politics, power and the tragedy of war are played out in these sweeping histories that continue to surprise and entertain. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Prunella Scales, William Squire and Timothy West can be heard in these recordings.

Lysistrata is an ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, which was originally performed in Athens in 411 BC. It is a comic account of a woman's extraordinary quest to terminate the Peloponnesian War between Greek city states, by advocating that the women deny all the men of the land any sex. At a meeting, Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their men. She has also persuaded the older women of Athens to seize the Acropolis.

Written as the letters of the five members of Squire Bramble's household sent as they journey around Britain, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is a grouchy, very funny examination of how one story varies depending on who's doing the telling. The tale is centered around the arrival of Mr. Clinker into the otherwise uneventful household, who never speaks and does not even enter the novel until a third of the way through.

England, 1903. Giles, the new Earl of Stainton, is struggling to bring his family's estate back to order after the death of his father, and he has little time to spare for his young pregnant wife, Kitty. She lives in fear of her mother-in-law, who won't give up the reins of the household. Will she ever truly be mistress of Ashmore Castle? Perhaps if her coming child is a boy, that will change the balance of power...

When three men announce that they are suing the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm for reverse sex discrimination—claiming that they were not hired because they were men—Mary DiNunzio and Bennie Rosato are outraged. To make matters worse, their one male employee, John Foxman, intends to resign, claiming that there is some truth to this case. The plaintiffs’ lawyer is Nick Machiavelli, who has already lost to Mary once and is now back with a vengeance —determined not to not only win, but destroy the firm. It soon becomes clear that Machiavelli will do anything in his power to achieve his end…even after the case turns deadly. The stakes have never been higher for Mary and her associates as they try to keep Machiavelli at bay, solve a murder, and save the law firm they love…or they could lose everything they’ve worked for.

Dogeaters follows a diverse set of characters through Manila, each exemplifying the country’s sharp distinctions between social classes. Celebrated novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn effortlessly shifts from the capital’s elite to the poorest of the poor. From the country’s president and first lady to an idealist reformer, from actors and radio DJs to prostitutes, seemingly unrelated lives become intertwined.

Leslie Flores has the perfect life - a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret - and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body.

In the summer of 1850, a topsail schooner delivered a man to a forested California coast. The man swung his pack to his broad, powerful back and strode resolutely into the timber. The man was John Cardigan, the first pioneer in that lonely land. This is the story of Cardigan and his son Bryce. John is to experience love, great accomplishment, and ruin. But when his sire falls, Bryce takes up the fight to save his heritage, not for the sake of wealth but for an ideal. Here is a tale of battle, victory, defeat, joy and sorrow.