Brad Birch's theatre work includes Black Mountain for Paines Plough, Theatr Clwyd and the Orange Tree; This Must be the Place for Poleroid at the VAULT Festival; The Brink at the Orange Tree; The Endless Ocean at the RWCMD; Tender Bolus at the Royal Exchange and Schauspielhaus, Hamburg; Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated for Undeb at the Edinburgh Festival; Soap Opera, Where the Shot Rabbits Lay and Permafrost at the Royal Court; Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall at Soho Theatre; Light Arrested Between the Curtain and the Glass at Sherman Cymru. He won the Pick of the Year Award at the VAULT festival in 2017, the Harold Pinter Commission in 2016 and the Fringe First Award in 2013. He is currently under commission at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court. Black Mountain is on tour in 2017/18.

It's what life does to you. We don't have time to waste. Worrying over the small stuff while the big stuff takes its toll. You're living and then . . . boom.
At 27, History teacher Nick is on the edge.
A hidden secret lies under the Brink. Nick can't get it out of his mind. A series of visions force Nick to investigate what lies beneath. Nick's girlfriend doesn't understand. Neither do his fellow teachers. Frustrated, he confides in a Year 10 student but can she be expected to have all the answers?


The Brink is an arch but affecting parable for the times we live in. This edition was published to coincide with the play's world premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in April 2016.