Tim Crouch is a critically acclaimed and award-winning playwright, director and performer. His plays include My Arm (Traverse Theatre 2003 and UK and international tours, Prix Italia 2004), An Oak Tree (Herald Angel 2005, OBIE 2007), England – A Play for Galleries (Edinburgh Fringe 2007 and UK and international tours, Fringe First, Total Theatre Award and Herald Angel 2007), The Author (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs 2009 and UK and international tours, Total Theatre Award and John Whiting Award 2010), what happens to the hope at the end of the evening (with Andy Smith – Almeida Festival) and Adler and Gibb (Royal Court). Oberon Books publishes all of Tim's plays. I, Shakespeare (a collection of Tim's hugely successful I, Caliban, I, Peaseblossom, I, Banquo, I, Cinna (the poet) and I, Malvolio) and Tim Crouch: Plays One. He has also written a body of work for younger people including Kaspar The Wild and Shopping for Shoes (Brian Way Award 2007).

The four Tim Crouch plays contained in this volume make up one of the most important bodies of English-language playwriting to have emerged so far in the twenty-first century. Of course, we're less than a dozen years into it, so the statement is still a little on the cautious side, but I can think of no other contemporary playwright who has asked such a compelling set of questions about theatrical form, narrative content, and spectatorial engagement.