It's 2011: Bradley Manning is the 24-year-old US soldier accused of releasing 250,000 secret embassy cables and military logs from the Iraq and Afghan wars. After nearly two years in prison without charge, Manning now faces a court martial, accused of crimes that could mean life in prison. But just a few years ago, Manning was a teenager in west Wales. How did this happen? And who is responsible for this radicalisation? Tim Price's extraordinary play tackles one of the most controversial political stories of our age, placing it in the context of other great Welsh radicals, from the Chartists to Aneurin Bevan. The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning was performed by National Theatre Wales across Wales in April 2012. In 2013, the play won the James Tait Black Prize for Drama.

This international collection of essays forms a vibrant picture of the scope and diversity of contemporary queer performance. Ranging across cabaret, performance art, the performativity of film, drag and script-based theatre it unravels the dynamic relationship performance has with queerness as it is presented in local and transnational contexts.

Introduced by the author, this is the first collection of Tim Price's plays. The winner of the 2013 James Tait Black Prize for Drama, Tim Price's work includes For Once; Salt, Root and Roe; The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning; I'm With the Band; Protest Song and Under the Sofa (published here for the first time). For Once: Through a series of interweaving accounts, For Once cuts to the heart of a family and a community turned upside down by unimaginable tragedy. Salt, Root and Roe: A wry, heart-breaking drama of love, grief and acceptance set against the mythical backdrop of North Pembrokeshire. The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning: This award-winning play tackles one of the most controversial political stories of our age, placing it in the context of other great Welsh radicals, from the Chartists to Aneurin Bevan. I'm With the Band: A witty response to the Scottish Independence debate in which an Englishman, a Northern Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman struggle to maintain the previous harmony of their rock band. Protest Song: Price's funny and savage monologue which explores the reality of the Occupy movement through Danny who sleeps rough on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Under the Sofa: Previously unpublished, Under the Sofa is a mother's monologue about the experience of her son being in prison for a violent crime.

Recent years have seen an explosion of new Welsh writing for the stage. With the advent of Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru in 2003 and the launch of National Theatre Wales in 2009, there has been a tectonic shift in Welsh theatre and its perception. Wales has famously celebrated its poets and novelists, but in the twenty-first century, it is the playwright asking the crucial questions. Never before have there been so many playwrights of all ages, from across Wales, finding the stage to be the home for their stories. This collection is the first to officially recognise this new wave of Welsh playwrights. It showcases a wide range of forms, themes and political concerns, as well as representing the most exciting voices at the forefront of Welsh drama, taking the temperature on what be considered to be the first golden age of Welsh playwriting. Tonypandemonium by Rachel Trezise The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning by Tim Price Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated by Brad Birch Llwyth by Dafydd James (published in Welsh) Parallel Lines by Katherine Chandler Bruised by Matthew Trevannion Featured in the volume are the following plays, along with a foreword by Professor David Ian Rabey of Aberystwyth University, and an introduction by the editors, Tim Price and Kate Wasserberg.

Bradley Manning was arrested, imprisoned in solitary confinement for nine months, and court-martialed for leaking nearly half a million classified government documents, including the infamous “Collateral Murder” gunsight video. He was an intelligence analyst in the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division, is twenty-four, and comes from Crescent, Oklahoma. But who is Private First Class Bradley Manning? Why did he commit the largest security breach in American history—and why was it so easy? In this book, the astonishing leaks attributed to Bradley Manning are viewed from many angles, from Tunisia to Guantánamo Bay, from Foggy Bottom to Baghdad to small-town Oklahoma. Around the world, the eloquent act of one young man obliges citizens to ask themselves if they have the right to know what their government is doing.