And Then Come The Nightjars

This poignant and uncompromising play is one of the two winners of Theatre503’s inaugural international Playwriting Award and was selected from over 1600 submissions.

And Then Come The Nightjars charts a farm’s struggle to survive the march of history. Fierce with rage yet achingly tender, this is a story of enduring friendship and a requiem for rural England. Reflecting on the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, Nightjars sees how, ten years on, scars are still evident on the landscape and also on the relationships of those the disease affected.

This heart-wrenching play explores the devastating effects of the pandemic which saw the slaughter of four million animals, the virtual closure of the countryside and the postponement of a general election. Against this backdrop Bea Roberts depicts an intimate friendship between two world-weary men.