After the End

By Dennis Kelly

They were all in the pub when the explosion happened. Louise wakes up to find herself trapped with Mark, who has saved her life. Mark is always prepared for the worst and has everything he thinks they will need to survive; tinned chilli, Dungeons and Dragons and a knife - now all they need to do is to wait until it's safe to go outside. Can they survive the attack? Can they survive each other? After The End received its world premiere at The Traverse Theatre in August 2005.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oberon Modern Plays
• Release date: Jun 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781849431743

Dennis Kelly

Dennis Kelly’s plays include Debris, Osama the Hero, After the End, Love and Money, Taking Care of Baby, DNA, Orphans, The Gods Weep and The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas. His plays have been performed all over the world and have been translated into nearly thirty languages. For Television he co-wrote and created Pulling and has written and created Utopia for Channel Four. He also wrote the book for Matilda the Musical.

Reviews for After the End

[Glennda Campbell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A good read! I would definitely recommend it. It's written with genuine voices which make these characters pop out of the pages and come and sit next to you. There is a whole world carved out and it's apparent from the very beginning.

*Some spoilers*
The play does not shy away from some very gritty topics. Topics of rape, the "friend-zoned" male, toying with our national fears of suicide bombing, death, violence, the possibility of forgiveness and forgetting. There is an interesting juxtaposition of the world outside of the shelter and the world born inside of the shelter. And the play does not offer a happy ever afters, nor a moment of catharsis. It takes away that ability for an audience to find comfort in anything giving us glimpses of what must be chasms within the characters. It's a bit hard to explain without giving it all away. Still a very interesting read and something I'd like to see staged.