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 contains:

Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah There is a War by Tom Basden

In Nightwatchman 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 politi, sport and national pride as harshly as she challenges her own.

There is a War is 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.

'sharp, funny and fizzing with invention' – The Times

'marvellously incisive' – Independent

'a sharp satire with an irresistibly silly strain' – Financial Times

Prasanna Puwanarajah

Books