''13'' is a 2011 play by Mike Bartlett. It premiered at the

National Theatre, London The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. ...

, in October 2011 and centres around John, a christ-like figure, who returns from absence to preach an anti-war movement.

Production history

The play premiered at the National Theatre, London, on October 18, 2011, directed by Thea Sharrock, with Trystan Gravelle as John and

Shane Zaza Shane Zaza is a British actor. Biography He went to Headlands School in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire where he first started acting. He lived a short walk to his school and was a very active child. Shane appeared as the lead actor at ...

as Zia. In 2014, the play premiered at the

Chapter Arts Centre Chapter Arts Centre (often just referred to as Chapter) is an arts centre in Canton, Cardiff, Wales, opened in 1971. Description Chapter hosts films, plays, performance art and live music, and includes a free art gallery, café and bars. There ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

Reception

Michael Billington of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' awarded the play four stars and stating that Bartlett had written a "powerful, disturbing play", and described the set design of the production as "excellently served" by Thea Sharrock and Tom Scutt. Charles Spencer of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' gave the play three stars, stating his main problem with it was the Jesus-like hero, John, believing that he'd never gain such a following and describing him as a "sanctimonious Welsh windbag". Spencer also found the set design of the National Theatre production failing to capture the atmosphere of modern London. He compared the play to Bartlett's previous one, '' Earthquakes in London'', which made him feel spellbound, whilst '13' made him feeling fidgety.

Print

The play was published by Bloomsbury Methuen, an imprint of

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

, on October 16, 2013.

References

{{reflist 2011 plays Plays by Mike Bartlett