3 Winters: NHB Modern Plays

Winner, 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

A portrait of an eclectic family, held together by the courage to survive. In an ivy-clad house in Zagreb, Croatia, the Kos family argue and fall in and out of love as world after world is erected and then torn down around them.

From the remnants of monarchy, through Communism, then democracy, war, and eventual acceptance into a wider Europe, four generations of Kos women – each one more independent than the last – have to adapt to survive. The one constant is the house: built by aristocrats, partitioned, nationalised, it stands witness to the passing generations.

But when the family assemble for Lucija’s wedding, Alisa learns that her nouveau-riche brother-in-law has bought the family home for himself and the other tenants have to move out. For the bride this is progress, for her sister it’s a shady act of greed. For their principled parents, finally, it’s one battle too many.

3 Winters premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2014. It was awarded the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2015, given annually to the best new English-language play by a female playwright.