The Initiate

A thrilling tale of altruism, greed, and the search for a way to belong.

When a British couple are seized by Somali pirates, an East London taxi driver decides to rescue them. Meeting disbelief with determination, he dismisses the fears of his wife and flies out to negotiate their release.

Speeding from the banks of the Thames to the now unfamiliar world of his homeland, he confronts the family he left behind and the bravado of the defiant men he once called brothers.

Alexandra Wood's play The Initiate premiered at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a production by Paines Plough, where it won a Fringe First Award, before touring.



Alexandra Wood's plays include an adaptation of Jung Chang's Wild Swans (ART/Young Vic); The Empty Quarter (Hampstead Theatre); The Centre (Islington Community Theatre); Decade (co-writer, Headlong); Unbroken (Gate); The Lion's Mouth (Royal Court Rough Cuts); The Eleventh Capital (Royal Court) and the radio play Twelve Years (BBC Radio 4). She is a winner of the George Devine Award and was the Big Room Playwright-in-residence at Paines Plough in 2013.



'A carefully wrought work which cleverly explores its themes… an unsettling, forthright piece of writing that will leave you thinking'



'Wonderfully slippery and always intelligent… offers much to enjoy in its thriller-like structure'