Tom Basden

Double Feature brings together – in two volumes of paired short plays – four of the most exciting new voices in UK theatre, in their first commissions for the National Theatre. This volume, Double Feature: Two, contains: Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah A British Sri Lankan cricketer prepares for the innings of her life for England against Sri Lanka at Lord's. Facing a relentless bowling machine she challenges our preconceptions of politics, sport and national pride as harshly as she challenges her own. There is a War by Tom Basden A miniature epic that explores the mad savagery of war with biting black comedy, and takes us into the dark heart of a strange and surreal conflict. As soldiers, priests and scavengers roam a battle-scorched landscape, a young medical officer finds herself abandoned and useless, unable to locate the hospital or even the war she was promised. The plays premiered in a specially converted space at the National Theatre in July 2011. They were performed alongside Edgar & Annabel by Sam Holcroft and The Swan by DC Moore, published in the companion volume Double Feature: One.

‘I’m not angry with you, Zack, I’m angry in general. I’m an artist, that’s my job.’ Ivan is a struggling actor who hasn’t yet achieved the recognition he feels he deserves. But all that is about to change when, one afternoon at the zoo with his friend Zack, he is swallowed whole by a crocodile. Based on Dostoyevsky’s short story, Tom Basden's The Crocodile is a ferociously funny, eye-poppingly theatrical play about art, animals and what happens when you try to take on the system from within… a crocodile. It premiered as part of the 2015 Manchester International Festival, in a co-production with The Invisible Dot.

An absurd, hilarious and fast-paced comedy by the writer of some of Britain's most acclaimed TV comedies. Flight BA043 has crashed on an island. Stranded, four survivors wait. Surely somebody will find them. Planes don't just disappear, do they? And, if no one's coming... what do they do now? Tom Basden's razor-sharp comedy Holes opened at the Arcola Tent, London, in July 2014, following a run at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

M4 F2. A garden shed. Fee code F. In a humble garden shed in deepest Suburbia, four young idealists have decided to form a new political party to save the world from itself. The new fifth member, Duncan, sets about saving the world from them. "Party" is a comic play about small minds tackling big issues - China, sex trafficking, cycle lanes, unfair trade coffee, whether to call the party 'The Friendly Party' or 'Gladios'. And when, exactly, they should break to eat a cake. Tom Basden's hilarious, critically-acclaimed comedy was seen at the Edinburgh Festival in 2009 and the Arts Theatre, London, in 2010. Tom Basden's astonishingly well written and incredibly funny debut play about four idealists deciding to form a new political party comes to the West End ..."It's by turns hilarious and incisive, poignant and tragic. Don't miss this ..." ("Time Out").

A darkly comic stage adaptation of The Trial, relocating Kafka's classic novel to twenty-first-century London. On his thirtieth birthday, Joseph K has his sushi home-delivery intercepted by two unidentified men who inform him he is under arrest. He has no idea what he's done wrong but he's determined to clear his name. As he tries to make sense of his situation and to confront those who threaten his freedom, Joseph is thrown headlong into a fight against an invisible and illogical law. Tom Basden's play Joseph K was first staged at the Gate Theatre, London, in 2010.