The Prisoner’s Dilemma

In the final piece of Edgar’s Iron Curtain Trilogy he returns directly to the themes of the first; the conflicts arising after new-found independence of an Eastern European state. Here we have the most focussed exploration of the three plays, as burning battle-grounds are juxtaposed with fraught bargaining around the negotiating table.
Written in 2001, this play benefits from hindsight on its historical inspiration; the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Soviet Union. Edgar himself used to be both an investigative journalist and academic, and his work constantly teeters between immediate, topical drama and philosophical enquiry. Therefore, unsurprisingly, the title of this show is the name of a famous landmark in game theory, in which two prisoners choose whether or not to betray each other.
We expect this moral questioning to pervade the text, and to be played out skilfully by this adventurous American company; The Prisoner’s Dilemma will be both thrilling and thought-provoking. The Cockpit theatre are offering tickets to all three shows for just £40; if you’re an Edgar fan or a Cold War nut, it’ll be an immensely rewarding experience to watch the plays come full circle, ending here with echoes of the first.