Winner of English as a Second Language prize for A Broken Heart in a Warzone

Aziz H (a pseudonym) is a Yemeni writer whose play A Broken Heart in a Warzone is set in an unspecified Middle Eastern warzone, plagued by air raids. Two thieves use the raids to their advantage, until they stumble on a dramatic domestic drama that raises the stakes. In this play, humour is a crucial part of an otherwise grisly situation.

Cast in studio recording A Broken Heart in a Warzone

Aziz says he always wanted to write a dark comedy: “A year ago I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. That novel taught me how to see the world from another angle; to see the funny part of all this misery.” He’s an avid consumer of Western television, especially comedy, and credits a lot of his tone to these programmes: “The first TV show I fell in love with was an American show called Scrubs. I loved that TV show. And there were other shows like Fargo, 6 Feet Under, Dexter. Maybe the darker stuff came from these TV shows.” The ending, he says, is “realistic”. “In fiction some people prefer happy endings, but I don’t think I can write this way.”