Merit (NHB Modern Plays)

By Alexandra Wood

Against all odds, recent graduate Sofia gets a job as PA to one of the wealthiest bankers in the country. But her mother questions whether she gave more than a good interview to get it.

While the unapologetic bankers get rich, others are losing everything they've worked for. Just what will they be driven to? Suicide? Murder? In a subtle game of cat and mouse, split loyalties and conflicting morals, Alexandra Wood's thrilling and darkly funny new play looks at the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship, the growing gap between rich and poor, and a young woman stuck in between.

Alexandra Wood's previous plays include an adaptation of Jung Chang's Wild Swans (Young Vic/American Repertory Theater); The Initiate (Paines Plough); The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre) and The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jan 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781780015569

Alexandra Wood

Alexandra Wood is a UK playwright whose plays include: an adaptation of Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (Watermill Theatre, 2023); The Tyler Sisters (Hampstead Theatre, 2019); The Human Ear (Paines Plough, 2015); Ages (Old Vic New Voices); an English version of Manfred Karge's Man to Man (Wales Millennium Centre); Merit (Theatre Royal Plymouth, 2015); The Initiate (Paines Plough, 2014; winner of Scotsman Fringe First); an adaptation of Jung Chang's Wild Swans (ART/Young Vic); The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre, 2013); The Centre (Islington Community Theatre); Decade (co-writer, Headlong); Unbroken (Gate Theatre, London, 2009); The Lion's Mouth (Royal Court Rough Cuts); The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court Theatre, London, 2007) and the radio play Twelve Years (BBC Radio 4). She is a winner of the George Devine Award (for The Eleventh Capital) and was the Big Room Playwright-in-residence at Paines Plough in 2013.