1914 - 2014 Double Bill at Tristan Bates Theatre

To mark the centenary of World War I, Time Zone Theatre presents a double bill of plays under the title '1914 - 2014' at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden. The two plays are Shoot, I Didn't Mean That by Catriona Kerridge and The Last Days of Mankind: The Last Night by Karl Kraus. Previews begin on 23 Sep 2014, before an official opening on 25 Sep and a limited engagement through to 18 Oct 2014.

Time Zone Theatre and Austrian director Pamela Schermann held a competition, asking emerging British playwrights to respond to the Austrian playwright Karl Kraus' 'Last Days of Mankind'. From over 100 entries, Catriona Kerridge's play was chosen to run alongside Kraus' piece for this Great War-themed double bill.

Synopsis: 'Shoot, I Didn't Mean That - With a 'Sieg Heil' here and a bang bang there, life is like a bunch of poppy fields. This dark comedy follows four women's surreal downfall as they become intoxicated by the great wars. This isn't just a game of battleships. Juliet waltzes into a difficult situation at Vienna's famous flea market; two schoolgirls struggle not to giggle during Remembrance Day; an interpreter breaks her voice. Brits abroad, conflict tourism and a lot of disaster. A play about a shared fear for the future, inspired by Karl Kraus.

The Last Days of Mankind: The Last Night - Karl Kraus's epic response to the outbreak of WW1, its impact on the lives of the people, and the role of the media, is made up of over 200 scenes across five Acts, one for each year of the war, following fictional characters, archetypes and historical figures. While the main play was naturalistic, using material from newspapers and actual conversations, the epilogue takes on an expressionist, apocalyptic vision of a world destroyed by a war.'