Iambic Arts Theatre (venue website) Theatre 22-23, 28-29 May, 3:00pm-4:40pm; 24-27 May, 8:00pm-9:40pm
Parental Guidance. Under-17's must be accompanied by an adult.  Warning: Contains strong language.  World Premiere.

A desperate war, a future king, and the medical man who befriends him.  Does that sound somehow familiar?  But forget Colin Firth in 1930's London; this is the summer of 1403, and it’s the Hundred Years’ War that’s raging.  Holed up in a castle in Warwickshire, pioneering surgeon John Bradmore fights his own battle… striving, against all odds, to save the life of the king’s first-born son.

If you like your Shakespeare, of course, you’ll know that he succeeds.  In later life as Henry V, the injured prince becomes the Bard’s great hero, famously exhorting his impassioned countrymen unto the breach in France.  With this new script, playwright Steven Young hopes to reset that propagandist balance – revealing a king who, though unquestionably great, was far more complex than Shakespeare portrayed.

When an arrow pierced the young man’s face, what did it do to his brain?  And by saving the prince’s life, what did Bradmore do to the course of history?  Of course, we’ll never quite know the answers.  But this thoughtful two-hander, well-matched to the intimate Iambic Arts Theatre, seems ideally placed to explore these royally intriguing questions.