The Crocodile

'I'm not angry with you, Zack, I'm angry in general. I'm an artist, that's my job.'

Ivan is a struggling actor who hasn't yet achieved the recognition he feels he deserves. But all that is about to change when, one afternoon at the zoo with his friend Zack, he is swallowed whole by a crocodile.

Based on Dostoyevsky's short story, Tom Basden's The Crocodile is a ferociously funny, eye-poppingly theatrical play about art, animals and what happens when you try to take on the system from within… a crocodile.

It premiered as part of the 2015 Manchester International Festival, in a co-production with The Invisible Dot.



Tom Basden's plays include The Crocodile, an adaptation of a short story by Dostoyevksy (Manchester International Festival, 2015); Holes (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Arcola Theatre, London); There is a War (as part of the Double Feature season in the Paintframe at the National Theatre); Joseph K, an adaptation of Kafka's The Trial (Gate Theatre, London) and Party (Fringe First Winner; Edinburgh Festival Fringe/Sydney International Festival/Arts Theatre, London).

He has written for some of Britain's best TV comedies, including Peep Show, Fresh Meat, The Wrong Mans and Plebs, which won Best New Comedy at the British Comedy Awards 2013 and Best Scripted Comedy at the RTS Awards 2014. He is also a member of sketch group Cowards, who wrote and performed their own TV series on BBC4.

For Radio 4 he has made two series of Cowards and three series of his sitcom Party, based on his 2009 play.

He has been nominated for a BAFTA three times, and has won a Fringe First and an Edinburgh Comedy Award.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was an 18th century Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher. His best-known works include Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.



'Basden's witty updating treats Dostoyevsky's original with a nicely assured mixture of respect and irreverence… this savagely silly satire is entirely infectious'



'Tom Basden turns Dostoevsky's allegory of capitalist inhumanity into a sharp satire on political celebrity in the Twitter age… by turns absurd, charming and subtly sinister'



'A snappy little satire'