Tinderbox (NHB Modern Plays)

Fast, wild and farcically funny, Lucy Kirkwood's first full-length play is a disturbing vision of a dystopian future.

Sometime in the 21st Century, England is dissolving into the sea. Amidst the chaos, one man clings to his traditional British values and his love of meat.

For Londoner Saul Everard, his butchers shop is an empire that he will do anything to preserve, including moving it to Bradford. An outlaw Scottish artist swims Hadrian's Channel from Scotland to England and seeks refuge in Saul's shop. There's rioting on the streets and the police are onto him but Saul's meaty little realm may be the last place to seek sanctuary.

Tinderbox premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2008.

'lovely, bawdy, deliciously off-colour...like a madcap mixture of Joe Orton, Ben Jonson, Martin McDonagh and Stephen Sondheim' WhatsOnStage

'grisly... rings with nasty, maniacal laughter... off-kilter imaginative flair' The Times