London, present day. The body of an unidentified young man is found face down in a suburban street. Who is he and where did he come from? He has no ID and nobody witnessed anything. It’s as if he has just fallen from the sky…
Pathologists and police working on the case must uncover the truth and piece the story – and body – of this ‘John Doe’ back together. A breakthrough sends DC John Kavura into overdrive and as his investigation unravels, he uncovers a haunting story of our time.
Inspired by real events, Fiona Doyle’s play The Strange Death of John Doe is a powerful and poignant drama that premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in 2018, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
‘Part police procedural, part on-the-run thriller, The Strange Death of John Doe is intelligently structured… Doyle weaves a remarkable, continent-hopping story of heroism, love and desperation’
— The Stage
‘Doyle offers a kind of poetry on who we are and what we ultimately become’
— WhatsOnStage
‘A sensitive retelling of a very modern tragedy’
— Telegraph
‘An epic account of restless humanity, tender affection and its tragic consequences… an ambitious, theatrically exciting and fast-moving panorama which conveys something of the breath-taking scope of contemporary migration, as well as details of its horrors. At its heart this is a play about humanity in all its truthful feelings, with flashes of perception about racism, injustice, violence, masculinity, memory and the irrepressible desire to follow one’s dreams’
— The Arts Desk
