Gay plays - Michael Wilcox

Volume 5 in Methuen Drama's highly successful series of Gay Plays provides another outstanding selection by playwright Michael Wilcox. Included here is the George Devine winner, Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing: 'deliciously upbeat . . . seldom has there been a play which so exquisitely and joyously depicts what it's like to be sixteen, in the first flush of love and optimism. Truly a most unusual and beautiful thing.' (Guardian)

Playing by the Rulesby Rod Dungate: 'There's such humour in it, such affection and such energy . . . the action is swift, sharp and ebullient.' (Plays and Players)

Snow Orchidby Joe Pimtauro: 'Primal confrontations, spilled guts and emotional wound-openings show the seismic upheavals that occur within an Italian-American family when Rocco, the father, returns home after two years in a lunatic asylum.' (Independent)