And Then Come The Nightjars

A Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds In-House Production. Written by Bea Roberts. Directed by Owen Calvert-Lyons.

A tender, frank and funny play about an unlikely friendship between a Devon farmer and the vet who is assigned to cull his precious herd.

“savagely funny” – The Guardian

Michael is a cantankerous farmer whose only love are his prize-winning cows, Jeff is an alcoholic vet whose wife is about to leave him for the local estate agent. As this pair find themselves in the epicentre of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic they forge a friendship through humour in the face of adversity. With the army at the gates, Michael is desperate to save his beloved herd. Can Jeff save Michael’s farm? And can Michael save Jeff from himself? And can obscure trivia about 1980’s Dutch footballers help them to do it?

Bea Roberts play is a poignant, riotously funny and deeply moving exploration of unexpected friendships, and the losses that can draw us together.

And Then Come The Nightjars was joint winner of the inaugural Theatre503 Playwriting Award.

“A tender, finely observed portrait of male friendship, and a stirring requiem for the vanishing dignity of rural England” – Evening Standard

“A right little cracker, a small but beautifully observed two-hander about a dying way of life and male friendship that spans 12 years… a savagely funny and sad play” – The Guardian

Access Performances:

• BSL Interpreted: 7:30pm, Thurs 12 March
• Audio Described: 7:30pm, Sat 14 March
• Captioned: 2pm and 7:30pm, Thurs 19 March

Treatt 2-4-1 Offer

TREATT are continuing their generous 2-4-1 ticket offer on Theatre Royal productions, including this one!  The Treatt 2-4-1 offer is available on band D seats (pink).

Simply put two band D seats in your basket and enter the promo code TREAT241, and the offer will apply automatically at checkout.

Limited 2-4-1 tickets available.

Theatre Royal Productions

Each year we make four distinctive, beautifully-staged in-house productions of our own.

The income from these productions is retained by Theatre Royal (in comparison to visiting, touring shows where we retain only between 20% and 30% of the ticket income) and is used to support our programme of work in the community, to enable us to create high quality and diverse theatre and to maintain and run our beautiful 206 year old theatre – to keep it thriving for future generations.

So, if you purchase a ticket for And Then Come The Nightjars, we want to say a huge THANK YOU! Your support means so much.