The Overgrown Path (NHB Modern Plays)

'History is not the study of facts. It is the study of ourselves. Of our stories. The stories we tell each other.' Nicholas Marks, an aspiring academic from Yorkshire, arrives on the Greek island of Tinos to interview reclusive scientist Daniel Howarth about his work on the atomic bomb. But as he tries to tease apart fact and fantasy, science and mythology, chance and destiny, Nicholas discovers a far more surprising truth about himself. Robert Holman's play The Overgrown Path is about history, and the stories we tell each other to make sense of ourselves. It was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 1985.

Robert Holman is a renowned and celebrated playwright in British Theatre. His plays include: Mud (Royal Court Theatre, 1974); German Skerries (Bush Theatre, 1977, and revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, 2016); Rooting (Traverse Theatre, 1979); Other Worlds (Royal Court Theatre, 1980); Today (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1984); The Overgrown Path (Royal Court Theatre, 1985); Making Noise Quietly (Bush Theatre, 1987, and revived at the Donmar Warehouse, 2012); Across Oka (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1988); Rafts and Dreams (Royal Court Theatre, 1990); Bad Weather (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1998); Holes in the Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre, 2003); Jonah and Otto (Royal Exchange Theatre, 2008, and revived at the Park Theatre, 2014); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, co-written with David Eldridge and Simon Stephens (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 2010); and A Breakfast of Eels (Print Room at the Coronet, 2015). He has also written a novel, The Amish Landscape.