Chamber Piece: Oberon Modern Plays

In this pitch-black comedy, fatal chemicals combine with ruthless ambition, biscuits, bureaucracy and moral ambiguity. Set in the near future, Britain has reinstated the death penalty. Relatives are weeping in the witness gallery, the journalist clicks her pen and the prison governor gives the thumbs up. Rapist murderer Richard Sanger is strapped to the gurney. Chamber Piece depicts a modern, British execution. How would it look? How would we feel? And what could possibly go wrong?

"An assured, funny and twisty script by the young poet and playwright Caroline Bird... It leaves you reeling." - The Times

"An extended Orton-esque style joke on the theme of crime and punishment... There is fun and plenty of provocation before this show gives the subject the philosophical and emotional underpinning it demands." - Guardian

"Bird writes with a fearless wit." – Independent

"Compelling, grimly gripping." - Sunday Express

Caroline Bird has been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize twice and has also won an Eric Gregory Award (2002), the Foyle Young Poet of the Year award two years running (1999, 2000), was a winner of the Poetry London Competition in 2007, and the Peterloo Poetry Competition in 2004, 2003 and 2002. Caroline was on the shortlist for Shell Woman Of The Future Awards 2011. Caroline’s poems have been published in several anthologies, including Oxford Poetry 2008, and are published regularly in PN Review, Poetry Review and The North. A member of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, Caroline is also a playwright. In 2011, Caroline’s contribution was included in Bush Theatre's project Sixty-Six Books.