Two seemingly disparate plays converge on the topics of freedom and identity, with Arnott’s signature dark, pointed humour expertly woven throughout.

Shall Roger Casement Hang?

Based on real events happening on two days in Ireland and London a hundred years ago, Shall Roger Casement Hang? is the story of an interrogation. It is a confrontation between two men that asks fundamental questions about history, the British State, and personal and national identity. For both of them, the stakes get higher and more personal as violent events elsewhere and the revelation of Casement’s sexuality change the rules of their struggle. When this conversation is over, one of them will be condemned to death, while the Empire that both men served will never be the same again. 

Face

In one and the same moment, two sisters with one face, identical twins Isobel and Morag each have a story to tell about family, money, sex, truth and happiness – and about each other. It should be the same story about the same people, but the sisters are as divided from each other as two people can be. The play explores the ways in which they inhabit the world. By giving two very different but connected sides of the same coin, through humour and vitriol, the sisters show us how we think of ourselves and the world around us, and the shapes we get ourselves into in order to survive that world, asking fundamental questions about what matters to us and why.

Reviews for Face

"There’s so much wickedly pointed humour in Peter Arnott’s writing that we’re constantly lured into politically incorrect laughter — a story steeped in love, loyalty, money and family dysfunction. Can’t wait! Back-to-back these monologues would be a grand double bill — fingers crossed!" — Mary Brennan, The Herald

"…two faces, two attitudes to life … profound and moving … plumbs the depths of a complex relationship which is occasionally fond and affectionate, but for the most part lived as jealousy, rivalry, resentment, bitterness and even outright aversion. …These are mighty plays, raising huge, disquieting questions, humorous in part but never whimsical, inducing in an audience that sombre, meditative silence which is a sign of respect." — Joseph Farrell, Scottish Review of Books

Reviews for Shall Roger Casement Hang?

"[T]his new 85-minute play by Peter Arnott stands out, for its combination of near-perfect craftsmanship, high political intelligence, and sheer dramatic force. ... And as the tissue of truth, lies and dreams that has been Casement’s life reaches its inevitable end, Arnott leaves us with the strangest feeling that in order to create change, we may sometimes have to reject reality altogether and live — like Casement — as if the new times we yearn for were already in reach." — Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

"So it goes for Roger Casement in Peter Arnott's gripping two-hander, in which Casement's rebellious adventurer, human rights activist and republican gun runner caught out in the run up to the 1916 Easter Rising sounds like some pulp fiction super-hero. ... Over eighty-minutes of cut and thrust punctuated by flashbacks that sees each scene captioned as a misplaced file might be, Arnott gets to the core of both men with forensic insight in this most intimate of psychological thrillers." — Neil Cooper, The Sunday Herald