How Many Miles to Basra?

by Colin Teevan

Overview

Southern Iraq, April 2003. Four soldiers, a jourbanalist and their Iraqi translator set off on an unauthorised jourbaney deep into the Iraqi countryside in a disastrous attempt to make amends for the deaths of some local men at a vehicle checkpoint.
Developed from Teevan'shighly acclaimed BBC Radio 3 play, How Many Miles to Basra? is a superb examination of how definitions of truth and responsibility become blurred in times of war - not just in the armed forces and political arena, but in the media too.
How Many Miles to Basra? was performed at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (Leeds) in September 2006.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781840026900
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Series:	Oberon Modern Plays
Pages:	94
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Colin Teevan is a celebrated playwright, translator and writer for screen. His work has been produced by many leading theatres including the National, the Young Vic, the Soho Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland. Colin's 2009 play, The Lion of Kabul, was produced as part of the Tricycle Theatre's Great Game festival on Afghanistan and was hailed as 'an inspirational highlight of the year' by The Independent. In the same year, he adapted Franz Kafka's Report to An Academy for the Young Vic, where it appeared as the critically-acclaimed play, Kafka's Monkey, as well as reviving the National Theatre of Scotland's production of his new version of Peer Gynt at The Barbican and, subsequently, on tour. In 2010 Kafka's Monkey was revived by The Young Vic at the Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris and The Great Game was revived by the Tricycle for an American tour. In 2011 Colin wrote an episode of the ITV drama Vera starring Brenda Blethyn and a two-part episode of ITV/RTE crime drama Single Handed. Colin was commissioned to write an original play There Was A Man, There Was No Man for the Tricycle as part of their 2012 season of plays entitled 'The Bomb'.

Editorial Reviews

As stark, shocking and terrifying as anything I've heard” —The Observer

“Colin Teevan's play has an epic sweep” —The Stage

“The dilemma at the heart of Teevan's drama is the definition of truth and morality in war. The issues of responsibility and morality in the army, in politics and in the media are turbaned over, kicked around, but ultimately and rightly left unresolved in this gripping battle for hearts and minds a few miles from Basra.” —Indepndent

From the Publisher